Control Strategies for VSC-based HVDC Transmission System

Ana-Irina Stan, Daniel-Ioan Stroe and Rodrigo da Silva

AbstractThroughout this paper the modeling and control of the VSC-based HVDC systems are investigated and described. Two different control methods capable of controlling such systems are proposed. Both developed control strategies are implemented in the dq synchronous reference frame. In order to analyze the behavior of the developed VSC-based HVDC transmission system two study cases are carried out using MATLAB/Simulink. The results obtained from simulations show acceptable performances, of the proposed strategies, when changes in the reference parameters are considered. The active power ow between the converters is succesfully achieved while, the independent control of active and reactive power is also veried.

I. I NTRODUCTION The High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission system is a high power electronics technology used in electric power systems mainly due to its capability of transmitting large amount of power over long distances [1], [2]. The HVDC transmission technology can be realized by using current source converters (CSCs) commutated thyristor switches, known as traditional HVDC or classic HVDC, or by using voltage source converters (VSC-based HVDC). Due to the rapid development of power electronic devices with turn-off capability and of DSPs, which are generating the appropriate ring patterns, the VSCs are getting more and more attractive for HVDC transmission [1], [2]. A detailed comparison between CSCs and VSCs may be found in [1]. Usually, the VSCs are using insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) valves and pulse width modulation (PWM) for creating the desired voltage wave form. By analyzing the operation of both classic HVDC technology and VSC-based HVDC technology, the main difference between these two technologies can be highlighted: the controllability, which in the case of VSC-based HVDC technology is higher compared with the one of the earlier developed technology. Thereby, if VSCs are used instead of line-commutated CSCs several advantages can be stated, some of them being presented below: VSC converter technology provides rapid and independent control of active and reactive power without needing extra compensating equipment [1], [2], [3], [4]; the commutation failures due to disturbances in the AC network can be reduced or even avoided [1], [4]; the VSC-HVDC system can be connected to a weak AC network or to a network where no generation source is available, so the short circuit level is low [1], [2], [3];

self (forced) commutation with VSCs permits black start, which means that the VSC is used to synthesize a balanced set of three phase voltages as a virtual synchronous generator [3]; in comparison with the classic HVDC transmission, the VSCs do not have any reactive power demand and moreover, they can control their reactive power to regulate the AC system voltage like a generator [2], [3]. Because of its advantages, the VSC-based HVDC transmission suits very well in certain application such as: power supply to insular loads, offshore applications, underground/underwater cables transmission, urban infeed and asynchronous interconnection [1], [3], [4]. In this paper different control loops are introduced. Based on them, two control strategies suitable for controlling VSCbased HVDC systems are implemented.

II. S YSTEM AND M ODEL D ESCRIPTION The typical conguration of VSC-based HVDC transmission system is presented in Fig. 1.
VSC1 Transformer AC System AC Filters Phase reactor 2CDC Phase reactor VSC2 Transformer AC System

2CDC DC cable

AC Filters

Fig. 1.

Typical VSC-HVDC system [5]

Such a transmission system consists of: two voltage source converters, transformers, phase reactors, AC lters, DC-link capacitors and DC cables. In the upcoming paragraphs these components will be briey presented and their mathematical models are going to be introduced. A. Voltage Source Converter The two VSCs may be seen as the core of this transmission system topology. One of the VSCs works as rectier, while the other one works as an inverter, and both of them are based on IGBT power semiconductors. The two VSC stations are connected through a DC transmission line or an overhead line. In this work, two identical three-phase, two level converters were considered. The main circuit of a three-phase AC-DC VSC is shown in Fig. 2.

iDC r d1 L e1 L e2 L e3 R i3 d1' d 2' d3' R i2 C R i1 vDC r d2 r d3

the resistance rf of the capacitor is neglected, the lter can be modeled in the dq synchronous reference frame by (4) - (7): ded = Cf eq + icd dt deq = Cf ed + icq Cf dt icd = iP CCd id Cf icq = iP CCq iq (4) (5) (6) (7)

Fig. 2.

Circuit diagram of a three-phase VSC

Where Cf is the capacitance of the lter and icd , icq , iP CCd , iP CCq are the dq components of the capacitor currents and of the PCC currents respectively. C. Transformer As it can be observed in Fig. 1, the transformers are used to interconnect the VSC with the AC network. The main function of the transformers is to adapt the voltage level of the AC network to a voltage level suitable to the converter [7]. For the sake of simplicity, a 1:1 transformer was considered in the simulations, which was modeled by its leakage inductance. D. DC-link Capacitor As presented in Fig. 1, on the DC side, there are two capacitor stacks of the same power rating. The main goal of the DC-link capacitor is to provide a low-inductance path for the turned-off current [9]. Moreover, the DC capacitor serves as an energy store and it reduces the harmonics ripple on the DC voltage. E. AC Grid Usually a grid model can be developed by using the Thevenin equivalent circuit. However, for simplicity, the grid was modeled as an ideal symmetrical three-phase voltage source. III. VSC- BASED HVDC C ONTROL S YSTEM In the case of VSC-based HVDC transmission systems the transfer of power is controlled in the same way as in the case of a classical HVDC transmission. The inverter side controls the active power, while the rectier side controls the DC voltage [2]. If the power transmission is considered between two AC grids, the power ow can be bidirectional. But, if the VSC-based HVDC system is used to deliver power from an offshore wind power plant (WPP), the active power ow is unidirectional. As previously presented, one of the advantages of VSCHVDC using PWM technology is that it makes possible to independently control the active power and the reactive power. Thus, the reactive power may be controlled separately in each converter. The active power ow can be controlled by means of the DC voltage on the DC side or by variation of frequency on the AC side [2]. Moreover, the active power ow can be set manually. In conclusion, when using VSC-based HVDC technology the active and reactive power, as well as the AC and DC voltage and the frequency can be controlled.

The three-phase mathematical model for a VSC similar to the one presented above was presented in [6]. If a balanced three-phase system with neutral connection is assumed and neglecting the resistance r of the switches [6], the voltage source converter can be modeled by using (1) - (3): C 3 dvDC = (iq dq + id dd ) dt 2 (1)

diq + Lid + Riq = eq vDC dq L (2) dt did Liq + Rid = ed vDC dd L (3) dt Where R + jL is the impedance of the phase reactor, dd and dq are the duty cycles, ed , eq , id , iq are the dq components of the grid voltages and the currents through the phase reactors respectively, vDC represents the DC-link voltage and is the grid frequency. B. AC Filter The main goal of the AC lters is to eliminate the harmonic content - which was created by using the PWM technique - of the output AC voltage. Otherwise, if these harmonic components are not eliminated or reduced, malfunctioning in the AC grid will appear [7]. Depending on the desired lter performances or requirements, the lter conguration is varying from application to application. The electrical circuit of a three-phase lter which was used is shown in Fig. 3.
Ltrafo Ltrafo Ltrafo iPCC1 iPCC2 iPCC3 iC1 iC2 iC3 i1 i2 i3 Lf Lf Lf

rf

rf
Cf

rf
Cf Cf

Fig. 3.

Circuit diagram of a C lter

The three-phase mathematical model for a C lter similar to the one presented in Fig. 3 is discussed in detail in [8]. If

The overall control structure of the VSC-HVDC transmission system considered in this paper is shown in Fig. 4.
VSC 1 HVDC Transmission VSC 2

B. Outer Controllers 1) DC Voltage Controller: The goal of the DC voltage controller is to regulate the DC-link voltage to its reference value. The DC voltage controller is used only on the VSC2 side of the HVDC transmission and it provides at its output the reference value of the reactive current. One of the requirements which must be fullled when tuning the outer controllers is that in order to ensure stability, the outer controller (in this case, the DC voltage controller) must be slower than the inner controller [2]. A detailed procedure of tuning the DC Voltage Controller is presented in [7]. 2) Active Power Controller: For simplicity, the active power controller can be modeled as a simple P (proportional) controller. The reference of the active current is obtained using the equations of the instantaneous active power and reactive power [7], given by: P = ed id + eq iq Q = eq id ed iq (8) (9)

P*
VAC
*

Active Power Controller AC Voltage Controller Reactive Power Controller

Inner Current Controller

PWM

PWM

Inner Current Controller AC Voltage Controller

VAC

Q*

VDC

DC Voltage Controller

Reactive Power Controller

Q*

Outer Controllers

Outer Controllers

Fig. 4.

Overall control structure of the VSC-HVDC transmission system

The control system is realized by using a fast inner current control loop and several outer control loops [2]. The AC current references are provided by the outer controllers. The slower outer controllers include the DC voltage controller, the AC voltage controller, the active power controller, the reactive power controller and the frequency controller. The reference of the active current can be obtained from the DC voltage controller, from the active power controller or from the frequency controller. On the other hand, the reference of the reactive current can be derived from the reactive power controller or from the AC voltage controller [2]. As it obviously is, not all the controllers can be used at the same time [2]. The choice of the different kinds of outer controllers is made depending on the application. A. Inner Current Controller The inner current controller was implemented in the dq synchronous reference frame [2], [10], [11]. Usually, the dqcontrol structures are associated with PI controllers due to their good behavior when regulating DC variables [11]. However, according to [10], the PI current controllers have no satisfactory tracking performances when they have to regulate coupled systems like the one described by (2) and (3). Therefore, in order to improve the performances of the PI current controllers in such systems, decoupling terms and voltage feed forward is usually used [10], [11].The structure of the inner current controller implemented in the synchronous reference frame is presented in Fig 5.
ed
* id

Starting from these equations and decoupling the active and reactive currents, the reference of the active current is obtained: i = d P ed Q eq e2 + e2 q d (10)

Where P is the reference value of the active power and Q is the reference value of the reactive power. 3) Reactive Power Controller: The implemented reactive power controller is similar to the active power controller which was previously presented. In this case, the reference value of the reactive current is also obtained starting from (8) and (9), yielding: i = q P eq + Q ed e2 + e2 q d (11)

+ -

+ -

* vd

id iabc abc dq iq

ZL
ZL
+ + eq

T
* iq

* vq

Fig. 5. The structure of the inner current controller implemented in synchronous reference frame

4) AC Voltage Controller: In VSC-based HVDC transmission systems, another variable which can be subject to control is the AC voltage. In the literature to main strategies to control the AC voltage are described. In the rst strategy, the AC voltage control is realized by controlling the voltage drop over the phase reactor of the VSC, as described in [2]. The second strategy which can be used in order to control the AC voltage is described in detail in [8]. In this strategy, the AC voltage control is realized by controlling the voltage droop over the lters capacitor Cf . In this paper, the control of the AC voltage was implemented using the second presented strategy. Like in the case of the inner current control loop, the AC voltage control is developed in the dq synchronous reference frame. The control scheme presented in Fig. 6 is implemented in order to regulate ed and eq . Fig. 6 illustrates that the coupling between ed and eq (see (4) and (5)) is eliminated by means of a decoupling feed-forward compensation.

iod
* ed

iod
* id
* ed
* id

ed + + * vd

+ -

+ -

PI
-

PI

dq
VD
SVM

VDC

ed eabc abc dq eq

ZC f ZC f
+
* iq

ZC f
eabc ed abc dq eq iabc id abc dq iq

ZL

T
* eq

ZC f
e
* q

PLL
i
* q

ZL

VE

+ ioq

DE
+

OFFSHORE VSC

PI

PI

+ + eq

* q

Fig. 6. The structure of the AC voltage controller implemented in synchronous reference frame

ioq AC VOLTAGE CONTROL INNER CURRENT CONTROL

IV. S IMULATION OF THE VSC- BASED HVDC S YSTEM In order to test the behavior of the designed control system, the VSC-based HVDC system presented in Fig. 1 is simulated using the PLECS blockset, while the control system is implemented using MATLAB/Simulink. As discussed in the previous section, the implementation of the outer controllers will depend on the application and requirements, respectively. Here, two different control strategies are implemented in order to analyze their behavior and performances. In Strategy 1, VSC1 controls the active power and the reactive power, while, VSC2 controls the DC voltage and the reactive power. In Strategy 2, VSC1 controls the AC voltage, while, the control of VSC2 is identical with the one for Strategy 1. The control structures for VSC 1 when Strategy 1 or Strategy 2 is implemented are illustrated in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 respectively. The control structure of VSC2 which is similar for both strategies is illustrated in Fig. 9.
ACTIVE POWER CONTROL ed
* id

Fig. 8.
VDC

Control structure of VSC1 - Strategy 2 [7]

VDC

PI
DC VOLTAGE CONTROL

+ -

PI

+ -

* vd

dq
VD
SVM

VDC

ZL
eabc edq dq iabc id abc dq iq

abc

ZL

VE

PLL

VDC

Q*

P*eq  Q*ed ed  eq
2 2

* q

DE
+

ONSHORE VSC

I DC

P*

PI

+ + eq

* vq

REACTIVE POWER CONTROL

INNER CURRENT CONTROL

Fig. 9.

Control structure of VSC2 [7]

At t = 2 s, a 0.05 p.u. step is applied to the reference DC voltage (decrease from 1 p.u. to 0.95 p.u.) at VSC2 terminal.

P ed  Q eq
* *

+ -

PI

+ -

* vd

ed  eq
2

dq
VD
SVM

VDC

ZL
eabc edq dq iabc id abc dq iq

P* Q*

abc

ZL

VE

PLL
P*eq  Q*ed ed  eq
2 2
* iq

DE
+

OFFSHORE VSC

PI

+ + eq

* vq

REACTIVE POWER CONTROL

INNER CURRENT CONTROL

Fig. 7.

Control structure of VSC1 - Strategy 1 [7]

A. Strategy 1 In order to analyze the behavior of the developed system, changes in the active and reactive power ow are produced at the VSC1 terminal and a change of the reference value of the DC voltage is also considered: At t = 1 s, a 0.3 p.u. step is applied to the reference active power (increase from 0.2 p.u. to 0.5 p.u.) at VSC1 terminal; At t = 1.5 s, a 0.3 p.u. step is applied to the reference reactive power (increase from 0 to 0.3 p.u.) at VSC1 terminal;

The active power reference which is imposed at the VSC1 terminal as well as the measured active power on both VSC1 and VSC2 terminals is shown in Fig. 10. As it can be observed, the measured active power follows its reference, stabilizing fast after the transient, while the overshoot is less than 1%. At the instant t = 1.5 s, when a change in the reactive power takes place, no change in the measured active power can be observed, since the active and reactive power are controlled independently. Furthermore as it may be observed from Fig. 10, the waveforms of the measured active power at both terminals are nearly identical; the amount of power which is delivered by VSC1 is the same with the amount of active power which is received by VSC2. The reference reactive powers and the measured reactive powers at both terminals are presented in Fig. 10. At the VSC1 side, a negative step in the reactive power is considered at t = 1.5 s, while at the VSC2 side the reference reactive power is kept constant at zero. As it can be observed, the measured reactive power at VSC1 terminal tracks with accuracy its reference, stabilizing fast after the transient and having an acceptable overshoot value. At the same instant of t = 1.5 s, the VSC2 reactive power remains unchanged due to the fact that no reactive power exchanged is realized in case of HVDC transmission. From these presented facts it can be concluded that VSC1 and VSC 2 are controlling their reactive

Reference and Measured Active Power 0,5 Active Power [p.u.] Preference 0 PVSC1 PVSC2 0,5 0.5 1 1.5 Time [s] Reference and Measured Reactive Power Reactive Power [p.u.] 0 Qref VSC1 Qmeas VSC1 Qref VSC2 Qmeas VSC2 0.3 0.5 1 1.5 Time [s] 2 2.5 2 2.5

The three-phase currents measured at VSC1 terminal and at VSC2 terminal are presented in Fig. 13.

Fig. 10.

Reference and measured active and reactive powers

power independently. Due to the fact that the power control is connected to the inner current control, the effect of the considered decoupling terms (see Fig. 5) between the active current and reactive current can be easily observed from Fig. 10. One of the purposes of VSC2 is to keep the DC voltage constant whatever changes in the active power occur. Fig. 11 shows the reference and measured DC voltages at the VSC2 terminal. As it can be observed from this plot, the measured DC voltage tracks accurately its reference. At t = 2 s, the value of the DC voltage reference is decreased from 1 p.u. to 0.95 p.u. and the measured DC voltage tracks fast the new imposed value.
Reference and Measured DC Voltage Voltage [p.u.] 1

Fig. 13.

Measured three phase current

B. Strategy 2 The second control strategy, which was developed, can be used for offshore wind power plants applications, where VSC1 must behave like an articial AC grid for the wind turbines. At VSC1 terminal, the AC voltage control is achieved by applying the desired reference voltage along the d-axis, while setting the q-axis voltage at 0 [7], [12]. At VSC2 terminal, the DC voltage should be kept constant at its reference value independently from the changes in the active power ow. Moreover, VSC2 ensures reactive power assistance by consuming or injecting reactive power from or to the AC grid respectively. In order to validate this control strategy, the next scenario was considered: a step in the active power ow (from 1 p.u. to 0.7 p.u.) between VSC1 and VSC2 is simulated, while the reference AC voltage at VSC1 is set to 1 p.u. In Fig. 14, the measured active power at both terminals are plotted. As it can be observed, the value of the measured active power at VSC2 terminal is equal with the value of the measured active power at VSC1 terminal, since in the simulated VSC-HVDC system no losses have been considered.
Reference and Measured Active Power 1 0.5 Preference 0 PVSC1 PVSC2 0.5

VDC reference VDC measured 0.8 0.5 1 1.5 Time [s] 2 2.5

Fig. 11.

Reference and measured DC voltage at VSC2

Reference and Measured dqaxis Currents VSC1 0,1 0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0.5 0.6 0.5

Current [p.u.]

Active Power [p.u.]

The d and q components of the measured currents at VSC1 and VSC2 terminals are plotted in Fig. 12. From these plots it can be noticed that the measured signals are tracking well the reference signals; the overshoot caused by the transients has an acceptable value, while the measured signals are settling fast after the transient ends.

1
id reference id measured iq reference iq measured 1 1.5 Time [s] Reference and Measured dqaxis Currents VSC2 id reference id measured iq reference iq measured 2 2.5

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5 Time [s]

0.55

0.6

0.65

Fig. 14.

Measured active power at both converters

Current [p.u.]

1 0.5 0 0.5

1.5 Time [s]

2.5

Fig. 12.

Reference and measured dq-axis currents

As it is illustrated in Fig. 15 the DC voltage controller behaves well, tracking the reference with accuracy, whatever changes in the active power ow are considered. The reference and measured dq-axis voltages at VSC1 terminal, which are subject to control, are shown in Fig. 16. At the time instant t = 1 s, when a negative step change in the

Reference and Measured DC Voltage Voltage [p.u.] 1 VDC reference VDC measured 0.8 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 Time [s] 0.55 0.6 0.65

Phase Voltages VSC1 Voltage [p.u.] 1 0 1 0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5 0.55 Time [s] Phase Voltages VSC2

0.6

0.65

Fig. 15.

Reference and measured DC voltage at VSC2

Voltage [p.u.]

1 0 1 0.3

active power ow is considered, a transient in the measured ed and eq are be observed. However, these signals are stabilizing fast once the transient in the active power is nished.
Reference and Measured daxis Voltages 1,15 1,1 Voltage [p.u.] 1,05 1 0.95 0.9 0,85 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 Time [s] 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 ed reference ed measured

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5 Time [s]

0.55

0.6

0.65

Fig. 18.

Measured three-phase voltages

Reference and Measured qaxis Voltages 0.15 0.1 Voltage [p.u.] 0,05 0 0,05 0,1 0,15 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 Time [s] 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 eq reference eq measured

the reference units have been applied. The active power ow between VSC1 terminal and VSC2 terminal was successfully achieved. Moreover, the independent control of active and reactive power at each terminal was veried. The DC voltage controller had shown a good behavior, regulating the DC-link voltage to its reference value, whatever changes in the active power ow were considered. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors are especially greatful to Remus Teodorescu and Pedro Rodriguez which, with their patience and generosity devoted valuable time, provided great help to the development of this work. R EFERENCES
[1] V. Sood, HVDC and Facts Controllers - Applications of Static Converters in Power Systems. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004. ISBN 1-4020-7891-9. [2] C. Du, The control of VSC-HVDC and its use for large industrial power systems. PhD thesis, Departament of Electric Power Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Goteborg, Sweden, 2003. [3] M. P. Bahrman, Hvdc transmission overview, IEEE, pp. 17, 2008. [4] N. Flourentzou, V. G. Agelidis, and G. D. Demetriades, Vsc-based hvdc power transmission systems: An overview, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 24, pp. 592602, March 2009. [5] C. Du, M. H. J. Bollen, E. Agneholm, and A. Sannino, A new control strategy of a vsc-hvdc system for high-quality supply of industrial plants, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 22, pp. 23862394, October 2007. [6] V. Blasko and V. Kaura, A new mathematical model and control of a three-phase ac-dc voltage source converter, IEEE Transaction on Power Electronics, vol. 12, pp. 116123, January 1997. [7] A. I. Stan and D. I. Stroe, Control of vsc-based hvdc transmission system for offshore wind power plants, Masters thesis, Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark, June 2010. [8] A.Yazdani and R.Iravani, Voltage Source Converters in Power Systems. John Wiley & Sons, March 2010. ISBN: 978-0-470-52156-4. [9] ABB, Its time to connect - Technical description of HVDC Light technology. [10] M. Kazmierkowski, R. Krishnan, and F.Blaabjerg, Control in Power Electronics - Selected Problems. Academic Pres, 2002. [11] F. Blaabjerg, R. Teodorescu, M. Liserre, and A. Timbus, Overview of control and grid synchronization for distributed power generation systems, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 53, pp. 1398 1409, 2006. [12] S. Chaudhary, R. Teodorescu, P. Rodriguez, P. Kjaer, and P. Christensen, Modelling and simulation of vsc-based hvdc connection for offshore wind power plants, Ph.D. Seminar on detailed Modelling and Validation of Electrical Components and Systems, pp. 5357, 2010.

Fig. 16.

Reference and measured dq-axis voltages at VSC1

The response of the three-phase currents and voltages measured at both terminals are shown in Fig. 17 and Fig. 18. As expected, the currents measured at both terminals are proportional with the active power ow. The voltages measured at VSC2 are not affected by the step in the active power ow, while the voltages measured at VSC1 show a transient when the step change is considered.

Fig. 17.

Measured three phase current

V. C ONCLUSION The control of VSC-based HVDC transmission systems has been discussed in this paper. Different outer controllers: active power, reactive power, DC voltage and AC voltage have been presented. The VSC-based HVDC system has been simulated in PLECS and two different control strategies have been implemented in MATLAB/Simulink. Both developed control strategies shown good performances when changes in