Stability Assessment of a System Comprising a Single Machine and a Virtual Oscillator Controlled Inverter with Scalable Ratings

Abstract

We present a small-signal stability study of a coupled synchronous generator and inverter system, where the inverter is controlled by virtual oscillator control (VOC). VOC is a recently proposed grid-forming inverter control strategy, which acts on faster time scales compared to droop control. In our study, we leverage a scalable VOC controller (that is by design agnostic of power levels) to test the system's small-signal stability at different inverter penetration levels. The impact of rotational inertia, reactive power support, and filter parameters on stability is then investigated. Results highlight possible issues that might arise in these mixed machine-inverter systems further motivating the need to develop next generation stabilizing grid-forming controllers.