A New Communication-Free Grid Frequency and AC Voltage Control of Hybrid LCC-VSC-HVDC Systems for Offshore Wind Farm Integration

Abstract

We propose frequency and voltage control method for a hybrid high-voltage direct current (HVDC) system for integrating an offshore wind farm into transmission networks. Conventionally, DC voltage level is maintained as constant regardless of the wind velocity and the grid frequency, so AC voltage fluctuates with active power variation in a hybrid HVDC system due to the innate reactive power absorption of inverter side line-commutated converter (LCC). However, in the proposed method, the DC voltage changes according to the wind velocity. Furthermore, DC voltage is simultaneously regulated to participate in frequency control in a communication-free manner. These two characteristics can be achieved by using five droop control methods proposed here. Additionally, by determining droop constants using the proposed determination methods, AC voltage can be maintained as constant during active power fluctuations. Therefore, using the proposed method, an offshore wind farm can be stably connected to mainland transmission networks and successfully used as frequency supporting resources, because voltage characteristics of the AC network are not destabilized. A small-signal state-space (SS) model of the target system was also developed to investigate stability of the proposed control. The utility of the proposed method is demonstrated by case studies using PSCAD and SS models.