Control Strategies for VSC-based HVDC

Transmission System
Ana-Irina Stan, Daniel-Ioan Stroe and Rodrigo da Silva
Departament of Energy Technology
Aalborg University, Denmark
Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—Throughout this paper the modeling and control of • self (forced) commutation with VSCs permits black start,
the VSC-based HVDC systems are investigated and described. which means that the VSC is used to synthesize a bal-
Two different control methods capable of controlling such systems anced set of three phase voltages as a virtual synchronous
are proposed. Both developed control strategies are implemented
in the dq synchronous reference frame. In order to analyze the generator [3];
behavior of the developed VSC-based HVDC transmission system • in comparison with the classic HVDC transmission, the
two study cases are carried out using MATLAB/Simulink. The VSCs do not have any reactive power demand and more-
results obtained from simulations show acceptable performances, over, they can control their reactive power to regulate the
of the proposed strategies, when changes in the reference parame- AC system voltage like a generator [2], [3].
ters are considered. The active power flow between the converters
is succesfully achieved while, the independent control of active Because of its advantages, the VSC-based HVDC trans-
and reactive power is also verified. mission suits very well in certain application such as:
power supply to insular loads, offshore applications, un-
I. I NTRODUCTION
derground/underwater cables transmission, urban infeed and
The High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission asynchronous interconnection [1], [3], [4].
system is a high power electronics technology used in electric In this paper different control loops are introduced. Based
power systems mainly due to its capability of transmitting on them, two control strategies suitable for controlling VSC-
large amount of power over long distances [1], [2]. based HVDC systems are implemented.
The HVDC transmission technology can be realized by
using current source converters (CSCs) commutated thyristor II. S YSTEM AND M ODEL D ESCRIPTION
switches, known as traditional HVDC or classic HVDC, or The typical configuration of VSC-based HVDC transmis-
by using voltage source converters (VSC-based HVDC). Due sion system is presented in Fig. 1.
to the rapid development of power electronic devices with
turn-off capability and of DSPs, which are generating the
VSC1 VSC2
appropriate firing patterns, the VSCs are getting more and Transformer 2CDC Transformer
more attractive for HVDC transmission [1], [2]. A detailed AC
System
Phase reactor Phase reactor
AC
System
comparison between CSCs and VSCs may be found in [1]. AC
2CDC
AC

Usually, the VSCs are using insulated gate bipolar transistor Filters
DC cable
Filters

(IGBT) valves and pulse width modulation (PWM) for creating

the desired voltage wave form. Fig. 1. Typical VSC-HVDC system [5]
By analyzing the operation of both classic HVDC tech-
nology and VSC-based HVDC technology, the main differ- Such a transmission system consists of: two voltage source
ence between these two technologies can be highlighted: converters, transformers, phase reactors, AC filters, DC-link
the controllability, which in the case of VSC-based HVDC capacitors and DC cables. In the upcoming paragraphs these
technology is higher compared with the one of the earlier components will be briefly presented and their mathematical
developed technology. Thereby, if VSCs are used instead of models are going to be introduced.
line-commutated CSCs several advantages can be stated, some
of them being presented below: A. Voltage Source Converter
• VSC converter technology provides rapid and indepen- The two VSCs may be seen as the core of this transmission
dent control of active and reactive power without needing system topology. One of the VSCs works as rectifier, while the
extra compensating equipment [1], [2], [3], [4]; other one works as an inverter, and both of them are based
• the commutation failures due to disturbances in the AC on IGBT power semiconductors. The two VSC stations are
network can be reduced or even avoided [1], [4]; connected through a DC transmission line or an overhead line.
• the VSC-HVDC system can be connected to a ”weak” In this work, two identical three-phase, two level converters
AC network or to a network where no generation source were considered. The main circuit of a three-phase AC-DC
is available, so the short circuit level is low [1], [2], [3]; VSC is shown in Fig. 2.

978-1-4244-9312-8/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 1387

 iDC
the resistance rf of the capacitor is neglected, the filter can be
r r r
modeled in the dq synchronous reference frame by (4) - (7):
d1 d2 d3
L R
ded
e1 i1 Cf = ωCf eq + icd (4)
dt
L R
C vDC deq
e2 i2
Cf = −ωCf ed + icq (5)
L R
dt
e3 i3 d1' d 2' d3' icd = iP CCd − id (6)

r r r icq = iP CCq − iq (7)

Where Cf is the capacitance of the filter and icd , icq , iP CCd ,
Fig. 2. Circuit diagram of a three-phase VSC iP CCq are the dq components of the capacitor currents and of
the PCC currents respectively.
C. Transformer
The three-phase mathematical model for a VSC similar to
the one presented above was presented in [6]. If a balanced As it can be observed in Fig. 1, the transformers are used to
three-phase system with neutral connection is assumed and interconnect the VSC with the AC network. The main function
neglecting the resistance r of the switches [6], the voltage of the transformers is to adapt the voltage level of the AC
source converter can be modeled by using (1) - (3): network to a voltage level suitable to the converter [7]. For
the sake of simplicity, a 1:1 transformer was considered in the
dvDC 3 simulations, which was modeled by its leakage inductance.
C = (iq dq + id dd ) (1)
dt 2
D. DC-link Capacitor
diq
L + ωLid + Riq = eq − vDC dq (2) As presented in Fig. 1, on the DC side, there are two
dt
capacitor stacks of the same power rating. The main goal of
did
L − ωLiq + Rid = ed − vDC dd (3) the DC-link capacitor is to provide a low-inductance path for
dt the turned-off current [9]. Moreover, the DC capacitor serves
Where R + jωL is the impedance of the phase reactor, dd and as an energy store and it reduces the harmonics ripple on the
dq are the duty cycles, ed , eq , id , iq are the dq components of DC voltage.
the grid voltages and the currents through the phase reactors
respectively, vDC represents the DC-link voltage and ω is the E. AC Grid
grid frequency. Usually a grid model can be developed by using the
Thevenin equivalent circuit. However, for simplicity, the grid
B. AC Filter
was modeled as an ideal symmetrical three-phase voltage
The main goal of the AC filters is to eliminate the harmonic source.
content - which was created by using the PWM technique
- of the output AC voltage. Otherwise, if these harmonic III. VSC- BASED HVDC C ONTROL S YSTEM
components are not eliminated or reduced, malfunctioning In the case of VSC-based HVDC transmission systems the
in the AC grid will appear [7]. Depending on the desired transfer of power is controlled in the same way as in the case
filter performances or requirements, the filter configuration is of a classical HVDC transmission. The inverter side controls
varying from application to application. The electrical circuit the active power, while the rectifier side controls the DC
of a three-phase filter which was used is shown in Fig. 3. voltage [2]. If the power transmission is considered between
two AC grids, the power flow can be bidirectional. But, if the
Ltrafo iPCC1 i1
Lf VSC-based HVDC system is used to deliver power from an
Ltrafo iPCC2 i2
Lf offshore wind power plant (WPP), the active power flow is
Ltrafo Lf
unidirectional.
iPCC3 i3
As previously presented, one of the advantages of VSC-
iC1 iC2 iC3 HVDC using PWM technology is that it makes possible to
rf rf rf independently control the active power and the reactive power.
Thus, the reactive power may be controlled separately in each
Cf Cf Cf
converter. The active power flow 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 flow can be
Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of a C filter set manually.
In conclusion, when using VSC-based HVDC technology
The three-phase mathematical model for a C filter similar the active and reactive power, as well as the AC and DC
to the one presented in Fig. 3 is discussed in detail in [8]. If voltage and the frequency can be controlled.

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 The overall control structure of the VSC-HVDC transmis- B. Outer Controllers
sion system considered in this paper is shown in Fig. 4. 1) DC Voltage Controller: The goal of the DC voltage
VSC 1 HVDC VSC 2
controller is to regulate the DC-link voltage to its reference
Transmission 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 fulfilled when tuning the outer controllers is
P* Active
Power
Controller
Inner
Current
PWM PWM
Inner
Current
that in order to ensure stability, the outer controller (in this
Controller Controller

* *
case, the DC voltage controller) must be slower than the inner
VAC AC AC VAC
Voltage
Controller
Voltage
Controller controller [2]. A detailed procedure of tuning the DC Voltage
Q* Reactive
Power
*
VDC DC Reactive Q* Controller is presented in [7].
Voltage Power
Controller

Outer
Controller Controller
2) Active Power Controller: For simplicity, the active
Outer Controllers
Controllers
power controller can be modeled as a simple P (proportional)
controller. The reference of the active current is obtained using
Fig. 4. Overall control structure of the VSC-HVDC transmission system the equations of the instantaneous active power and reactive
power [7], given by:
The control system is realized by using a fast inner current
control loop and several outer control loops [2]. The AC P = ed id + eq iq (8)
current references are provided by the outer controllers. The
slower outer controllers include the DC voltage controller, Q = eq id − ed iq (9)
the AC voltage controller, the active power controller, the
reactive power controller and the frequency controller. The Starting from these equations and decoupling the active
reference of the active current can be obtained from the DC and reactive currents, the reference of the active current is
voltage controller, from the active power controller or from obtained:
the frequency controller. On the other hand, the reference of P ∗ ed − Q∗ eq
the reactive current can be derived from the reactive power i∗d = (10)
e2d + e2q
controller or from the AC voltage controller [2].
As it obviously is, not all the controllers can be used at Where P ∗ is the reference value of the active power and Q∗
the same time [2]. The choice of the different kinds of outer is the reference value of the reactive power.
controllers is made depending on the application. 3) Reactive Power Controller: The implemented reactive
power controller is similar to the active power controller which
A. Inner Current Controller
was previously presented. In this case, the reference value of
The inner current controller was implemented in the dq the reactive current is also obtained starting from (8) and (9),
synchronous reference frame [2], [10], [11]. Usually, the dq- yielding:
control structures are associated with PI controllers due to their
good behavior when regulating DC variables [11]. However, P ∗ eq + Q∗ ed
i∗q = (11)
according to [10], the PI current controllers have no satisfac- e2d + e2q
tory tracking performances when they have to regulate coupled
4) AC Voltage Controller: In VSC-based HVDC transmis-
systems like the one described by (2) and (3). Therefore, in
sion systems, another variable which can be subject to control
order to improve the performances of the PI current controllers
is the AC voltage. In the literature to main strategies to control
in such systems, decoupling terms and voltage feed forward
the AC voltage are described.
is usually used [10], [11].The structure of the inner current
In the first strategy, the AC voltage control is realized by
controller implemented in the synchronous reference frame is
controlling the voltage drop over the phase reactor of the VSC,
presented in Fig 5.
as described in [2].
ed The second strategy which can be used in order to control
+
i d* + v d* the AC voltage is described in detail in [8]. In this strategy,
- -
the AC voltage control is realized by controlling the voltage
id ZL droop over the filter’s capacitor Cf . In this paper, the control of
iabc abc
dq
iq
the AC voltage was implemented using the second presented
ZL
T
strategy. Like in the case of the inner current control loop,
- +
v q*
the AC voltage control is developed in the dq synchronous
i q*
+
+
eq
reference frame. The control scheme presented in Fig. 6 is
implemented in order to regulate ed and eq .
Fig. 5. The structure of the inner current controller implemented in Fig. 6 illustrates that the coupling between ed and eq (see (4)
synchronous reference frame and (5)) is eliminated by means of a decoupling feed-forward
compensation.

1389
 iod
iod ed

+ +
e d* i d* e d* i d* + + v d*
- - PI PI
- - -
dq VDC
ed ZC f
ZC f ZL
eabc abc
dq ed id
VD
eq ZC f eabc
abc
iabc
abc SVM
dq dq
eq iq
T T VE
ZL
+
- ZC f PLL OFFSHORE
e q* i q* VSC
+
+ DE
ioq e *
q
- i *
q v *
- + q
PI PI
+ +

Fig. 6. The structure of the AC voltage controller implemented in syn- AC VOLTAGE

ioq
INNER CURRENT
eq

chronous reference frame CONTROL CONTROL

Fig. 8. Control structure of VSC1 - Strategy 2 [7]

IV. S IMULATION OF THE VSC- BASED HVDC S YSTEM
In order to test the behavior of the designed control system, VDC ed

the VSC-based HVDC system presented in Fig. 1 is simu- VDC

*
-
PI
i d* +
PI
+ v d*

+ - -
lated using the PLECS blockset, while the control system is DC VOLTAGE dq VDC
CONTROL
implemented using MATLAB/Simulink. ZL

As discussed in the previous section, the implementation eabc edq iabc

id
VD
abc abc SVM
of the outer controllers will depend on the application and dq dq
T
iq
VE
ZL
requirements, respectively. Here, two different control strate- PLL
ONSHORE
VSC
gies are implemented in order to analyze their behavior and *
DE
VDC Q* P*eq  Q*ed i q
- + v q*
performances. In Strategy 1, VSC1 controls the active power P* ed  eq
2 2
+
PI
+
I DC
and the reactive power, while, VSC2 controls the DC voltage REACTIVE POWER INNER CURRENT
eq

and the reactive power. In Strategy 2, VSC1 controls the AC CONTROL CONTROL

voltage, while, the control of VSC2 is identical with the one

Fig. 9. Control structure of VSC2 [7]
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 • At t = 2 s, a 0.05 p.u. step is applied to the reference
for both strategies is illustrated in Fig. 9. DC voltage (decrease from 1 p.u. to 0.95 p.u.) at VSC2
terminal.
ACTIVE POWER
CONTROL
ed The active power reference which is imposed at the VSC1
v d*
P ed  Q eq
* *
i d* +
PI
-
+
terminal as well as the measured active power on both VSC1
-
ed  eq
2 2
dq VDC and VSC2 terminals is shown in Fig. 10.
ZL As it can be observed, the measured active power follows
VD
P* Q*
eabc
abc
edq iabc
abc
id
SVM
its reference, stabilizing fast after the transient, while the
dq dq
T
iq

ZL
VE overshoot is less than 1%. At the instant t = 1.5 s, when a
PLL
OFFSHORE
VSC
change in the reactive power takes place, no change in the
DE
P*eq  Q*ed i q*
- + v q*
measured active power can be observed, since the active and
PI
ed  eq
2 2
+ + reactive power are controlled independently. Furthermore as it
REACTIVE POWER INNER CURRENT
eq
may be observed from Fig. 10, the waveforms of the measured
CONTROL CONTROL
active power at both terminals are nearly identical; the amount
Fig. 7. Control structure of VSC1 - Strategy 1 [7]
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
A. Strategy 1 powers at both terminals are presented in Fig. 10. At the VSC1
In order to analyze the behavior of the developed system, side, a negative step in the reactive power is considered at t =
changes in the active and reactive power flow are produced at 1.5 s, while at the VSC2 side the reference reactive power is
the VSC1 terminal and a change of the reference value of the kept constant at zero. As it can be observed, the measured
DC voltage is also considered: reactive power at VSC1 terminal tracks with accuracy its
• At t = 1 s, a 0.3 p.u. step is applied to the reference reference, stabilizing fast after the transient and having an
active power (increase from −0.2 p.u. to −0.5 p.u.) at acceptable overshoot value. At the same instant of t = 1.5
VSC1 terminal; s, the VSC2 reactive power remains unchanged due to the
• At t = 1.5 s, a 0.3 p.u. step is applied to the reference fact that no reactive power exchanged is realized in case of
reactive power (increase from 0 to −0.3 p.u.) at VSC1 HVDC transmission. From these presented facts it can be
terminal; concluded that VSC1 and VSC 2 are controlling their reactive

1390
 Reference and Measured Active Power

0,5 The three-phase currents measured at VSC1 terminal and at

Active Power [p.u.]

Preference VSC2 terminal are presented in Fig. 13.

0 PVSC1
PVSC2

−0,5
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Time [s]
Reference and Measured Reactive Power

0
Reactive Power [p.u.]

Qref VSC1
Qmeas VSC1
Qref VSC2
Qmeas VSC2
−0.3

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Time [s]

Fig. 10. Reference and measured active and reactive powers

power independently. Due to the fact that the power control Fig. 13. Measured three phase current
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. B. Strategy 2
10. The second control strategy, which was developed, can be
One of the purposes of VSC2 is to keep the DC voltage used for offshore wind power plants applications, where VSC1
constant whatever changes in the active power occur. Fig. 11 must behave like an artificial AC grid for the wind turbines. At
shows the reference and measured DC voltages at the VSC2 VSC1 terminal, the AC voltage control is achieved by applying
terminal. As it can be observed from this plot, the measured the desired reference voltage along the d-axis, while setting the
DC voltage tracks accurately its reference. At t = 2 s, the value q-axis voltage at 0 [7], [12]. At VSC2 terminal, the DC voltage
of the DC voltage reference is decreased from 1 p.u. to 0.95 should be kept constant at its reference value independently
p.u. and the measured DC voltage tracks fast the new imposed from the changes in the active power flow. Moreover, VSC2
value. ensures reactive power assistance by consuming or injecting
reactive power from or to the AC grid respectively.
Reference and Measured DC Voltage In order to validate this control strategy, the next scenario
1
was considered: a step in the active power flow (from 1 p.u.
Voltage [p.u.]

to 0.7 p.u.) between VSC1 and VSC2 is simulated, while the

VDC reference
VDC measured
reference AC voltage at VSC1 is set to 1 p.u.
0.8
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
In Fig. 14, the measured active power at both terminals
Time [s] are plotted. As it can be observed, the value of the measured
active power at VSC2 terminal is equal with the value of
Fig. 11. Reference and measured DC voltage at VSC2
the measured active power at VSC1 terminal, since in the
simulated VSC-HVDC system no losses have been considered.
The d and q components of the measured currents at VSC1
Reference and Measured Active Power
and VSC2 terminals are plotted in Fig. 12. From these plots it
1
can be noticed that the measured signals are tracking well the
reference signals; the overshoot caused by the transients has 0.5
Active Power [p.u.]

an acceptable value, while the measured signals are settling Preference

PVSC1
fast after the transient ends. 0
PVSC2

Reference and Measured dq−axis Currents − VSC1

−0.5
0,1
0
−0,1
Current [p.u.]

−1
−0,2
0,3 id reference 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
−0,4 id measured Time [s]
−0.5 iq reference
−0.6 iq measured

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Time [s] Fig. 14. Measured active power at both converters
Reference and Measured dq−axis Currents − VSC2

id reference
1
id measured
As it is illustrated in Fig. 15 the DC voltage controller
Current [p.u.]

iq reference
0.5 iq measured
behaves well, tracking the reference with accuracy, whatever
0
changes in the active power flow are considered.
0.5 1 1.5
Time [s]
2 2.5
The reference and measured dq-axis voltages at VSC1
terminal, which are subject to control, are shown in Fig. 16.
Fig. 12. Reference and measured dq-axis currents At the time instant t = 1 s, when a negative step change in the

1391
 Reference and Measured DC Voltage Phase Voltages − VSC1
1

Voltage [p.u.]
1
Voltage [p.u.]

VDC reference 0
VDC measured
−1
0.8 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
Time [s] Time [s]
Phase Voltages − VSC2
1

Voltage [p.u.]
Fig. 15. Reference and measured DC voltage at VSC2
0

−1
active power flow is considered, a transient in the measured ed 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
Time [s]
0.55 0.6 0.65

and eq are be observed. However, these signals are stabilizing

fast once the transient in the active power is finished. Fig. 18. Measured three-phase voltages

Reference and Measured d−axis Voltages

1,15
ed reference
1,1
ed measured the reference units have been applied. The active power flow
Voltage [p.u.]

1,05

1
0.95
between VSC1 terminal and VSC2 terminal was successfully
0.9
0,85
achieved. Moreover, the independent control of active and
0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
Time [s]
0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7
reactive power at each terminal was verified. The DC voltage
Reference and Measured q−axis Voltages
0.15
eq reference
controller had shown a good behavior, regulating the DC-link
0.1
eq measured
voltage to its reference value, whatever changes in the active
Voltage [p.u.]

0,05

0
−0,05
power flow were considered.
−0,1

−0,15
0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
Time [s]
0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are especially greatful to Remus Teodorescu
Fig. 16. Reference and measured dq-axis voltages at VSC1 and Pedro Rodriguez which, with their patience and generosity
devoted valuable time, provided great help to the development
The response of the three-phase currents and voltages of this work.
measured at both terminals are shown in Fig. 17 and Fig.
18. As expected, the currents measured at both terminals R EFERENCES
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