J.N.T.

U COLLEGE OF ENJINEERING ANANTAPUR

ABSTRACT ON

Hybrid HVDC Converters and Their Impact on Power System Dynamic Performance

AUTHORS:H.KAVYA B-TECH 2nd year(2-2) E.E.E J.N.T.U ANANTAPUR E-MAIL: hkavya19@gmail.com U.VIJITHA B-TECH 2nd YEAR(2-2) E.E.E J.N.T.U ANANTAPUR E-MAIL: udarapuvijitha@gmail.com

Hybrid HVDC Converters and Their Impact on Power System Dynamic Performance

Abstract:
Hybrid converter HVDC transmission is a new hybrid transmission system for connecting two ac systems. Because it uses different converters, this new configuration offers several advantages over conventional HVDC systems. This paper demonstrates the superior performance of hybrid converter based HVDC transmission systems with respect to increased stability and terminal ac voltage control. A control system is developed for the hybrid system and its dynamic performance is investigated. The hybrid system performance with emphasis on commutation failure during severe disturbances and its results is also compared with a conventional HVDC scheme.

I. NOMENCLATURE Voltage Sourced Converter: (VSC); Line Commutated Converter:(LCC); Forced Commutated Converter: (FCC); Series Hybrid Converter: (SHC); Commutation Failure: (CF); Pulse Width Modulation: (PWM). II. INTRODUCTION THE conventional HVDC transmission systems that utilize Line Commutated Converters (LCC) have advantages over HVAC systems such as their ability to connect ac networks nonsynchronously and their ability to carry power economically over large distances. Unfortunately, these schemes do have certain disadvantages such as a need for reactive power, commutation failures, higher over-voltages and poorer recovery especially when

they are connected intoweak terminating ac networks. Unlike the LCC which relies on the ac voltage for successful valve commutation, the Voltage Sourced Converter (VSC) uses special devices that can be turned off with appropriate control signals. While maintaining most of the advantages, VSC based HVDC schemes also overcome a number of disadvantages inherent to conventional systems. Rather than consume reactive power, their ability to generate lagging or leading reactive power permits them to operate and provide voltage support to very weak ac networks. Thus they are an ideal option for providing reliable power to remote locations such as offshore plants. Their disadvantages include higher costs, sensitivity to dc-side faults, higher power losses due to the high frequency of switching, and smaller ratings in comparison to conventional converters. Appropriately sized VSC and LCC converters can be incorporated into a single composite hybrid converter which combines the lower costs and robustness of the conventional LCC converter, at the same time introducing the additional benefits of the VSC converter. Several different topologies suitable to such combination have been proposed in literature.

This paper introduces a hybrid topology which includes a series dc--side connection of an LCC and VSC as shown in Fig. 1. The paper studies dynamic control performance, fault recovery transient performance and commutation failure susceptibility of the proposed scheme and shows it to be superior to a purely conventional LCC based scheme.

III.PROPOSED CONVERTER

HYBRID

The hybrid topology may employ the LCC and VSC converters connected either in parallel or series on the dc side. More complex schemes may not be justified easily due to control complexities, expenses, need for larger space, etc. In a parallel hybrid configuration the converter voltage rating is limited to the highest voltage level permissible for the VSC converter, which is much lower than that of a comparable LCC and consequently limits the power rating of the topology. The proposed hybrid converter is labeled a Series Hybrid Converter (SHC), as it includes one LCC and one VSC in series. In contrast to some earlier approaches in which the VSC has only been used for reactive support

or for active filtering the proposed topology uses both converters for real power transfer. IV. BAISCS OF THE PROPOSED SHC SYSTEM MODEL The schematic for the proposed SHC has been depicted in Fig. 1. The sending end (rectifier side) has been assumed to be a LCC converter station and the receiving end (inverter side) is a LCC-VSC series connection, along with its harmonic filters.

that of the CIGRE benchmark systems. This paper describes the principles of the proposed SHC system along with its main control strategies including the terminal voltage control, real power control at the receiving end and inverter dc capacitor voltage control. A. Optimizing the SHCs Power and Voltage Rating Based on the nominal power (Pnom) of the HVDC system the power / voltage rating for the hybrid-side converters may be calculated. To find the appropriate voltage level on the converters an optimization concept is employed to establish a connection between inverter-side voltage ratings, and major system components prices. Assume that the price for each converter is proportional to its MVA rating. Based on this assumption minimizing the total MVA of the inverter side converters (SLCC + SVSC) which also equals to sum of their corresponding transformers ratings has the same meaning of minimizing the total converter expenses. Using an engineering-based estimation for filter reactive power (Qfilt) hybrid converters complex power may be written as:

The First CIGRE HVDC Benchmark System [4] has been used as the test bed for the performance of the proposed SHC system to be compared to. In the proposed SHC system the rectifier side is structurally identical to that of the CIGRE benchmark. At the inverter side, the VSC used is a modified version of [6] which considering its optimal rating, the LCC has been re-sized so as to keep the overall ratings identical to

In (1), the (Pnom PLCC ) term is equal to PVSC. Also under normal working conditions the term (0.6 * PLCC ) approximates the QLCC ; the last expression simply equals the reactive power that has to be generated by VSC (QVSC). Differentiating (1) with respect to PLCC and setting that equal to zero, the PVSC will be determined. Based on this value the appropriate voltage rating for hybrid-side converters, and as the last step the LCC and VSCs transformer ratings, will be determined. The optimized magnitudes are given in Appendix. It has to be reminded that even at the design level there are other expenses that could be considered but as the converters and transformers are the most expensive parts of each converter, only these two major devices have been included in optimization. Other design philosophies may bring equally valid results for the purpose of converter rating design.

B. SHCs Filter and dc capacitor considerations The LCC generates voltage harmonics. In its 12-pulse configuration, the harmonics at 11, 13, 23 and 25 times the fundamental frequency (60 Hz) are present. As the VSC switches at rather high frequencies it will only add high frequency harmonics to

the system. Selecting a switching frequency of 27th of the fundamental frequency generates harmonics at 25th and 29th order harmonics. To cancel out the detrimental effects of these harmonics and help to meet the systems harmonic requirements the 11th, 13th, 23rd, 25th and 29th order harmonic filters were installed, with total static reactive power support of around 80 MVAR. These filters will provide voltage-dependent reactive power supply to the inverter side and help to meet the standards for system harmonic levels. During the steady state conditions the VSC has to provide the un-supplied reactive power needed for the conventional converter part of inverter side. During the transient conditions it has also to supply the extra reactive power to provide voltage support at inverter terminal. The ability of VSC to supply voltage support depends on its electrical rating and the coordination between LCC and VSC controls. The dynamic response is also a function of the dc capacitor(s) size. A suitable dc capacitor size has been selected to give an acceptable dynamic response; however, in this paper, no attempt has been made to optimize this

perfectly.

V. CONTROL OF THE SHC SYSTEM The system design philosophy has been based on two control objectives: 1) Terminal voltage of the hybrid converter must be maintained at 1 P.U. 2) Power delivered to terminal during normal working conditions must be 1 P.U. The SHC control block diagram has been shown in Fig. 2. In this figure the upper and middle parts depict the rectifier and inverter angle controls, respectively. The bottom part illustrates the VSC controls. The basis for SHC controllers is a coordinated version of LCC-HVDC [4] and VSCHVDC system [5] controls. In the SHC presented here, the rectifiers LCC works in current control mode while the inverters LCC works in extinction angle () control mode, using the current control as its backup [2]. The current order signal that would end up to LCCs inverter angle order (inv) is outputted from terminal power error signal.

The VSC inverter control system shown in Fig. 3 has two degrees of freedom. The first is used by the VSCs dc voltage capacitor controller which generates the reference real current (Idref) signal. The second is used to control the terminal voltage via the reference reactive current (Iqref) signal. The d and q current errors are used to generate the corresponding voltage orders (Vd and Vq) through a decoupled controller block. These are converted into a modulation index magnitude (m) and phase () signal. A phase locked loop (PLL) is used to synchronize with the ac network voltage and generates the synchronizing angle signal () which is used to generate the firing pulses for the IGBT devices of the VSC.

VI. OPERATION ISSUES IN HVDC SYSTEMS A. Commutation Failure Phenomena Commutation failure (CF) is one of the most onerous transient events experienced by HVDC systems. Its causes include sudden transient reductions and/or phase shifts in the ac voltage and sudden transient reductions in the direct current. The sensitivity of a HVDC inverter to CF depends on the main circuit design and its control system. In conventional converters, commutation failure likelihood is significant when there is a 10% or larger voltage reduction caused by an ac system disturbance. The main reason for CF is that the excessive reduction in the extinction angle during its initiating system disturbance. This decrease could be caused by an increase in the converters overlap angle due to ac voltage reduction or due to a change in the commutation margin resulting from a sudden change in the ac

voltage phase. Having larger commutation margin in normal operation improves the systems CF susceptibility, but this also results in a poorer power factor and potential over-voltage problems on load rejection. In a conventional HVDC converter, the fault induced CF leads to power disruptions. In some cases there are repeated CF occurrences from which recovery is not possible without a full restart. Additionally, CF also causes over-current in the valves. The VSC in the hybrid HVDC converter cannot suffer CF. Thus HVDC transmission systems with hybrid converters are less susceptible to CF related power disruptions. Also, the same fault which would have resulted in serious system failure in the conventional converter has a much smaller impact on the hybrid converter. The disruption of the normal switching sequence following a CF will lead to

considerable waveform distortion of the commutating voltage waveform making the problem unsuitable for analytical formulation. Therefore numerical simulation on an electromagnetic transients solver is required to assess the behavior of the system. Here the PSCAD / EMTDC software has been selected for simulating the system and studying its behavior. B. Dynamic Response and Fault Performance A well designed HVDC system should show react rapidly to set-point changes and also show rapid recovery from system faults. In order to assess these issues, the dynamic behavior of CIGRE benchmark and the proposed series hybrid converter HVDC systems will be compared. The hybrids robustness under small and large dynamic disturbances will be demonstrated. Next, the two HVDC systems will be compared by simulating their performance following single and 3-phase to ground faults of varying severity. VII. CASE STUDIES The following section contains simulated results for the dynamic and fault performance of the conventional and hybrid HVDC alternatives. The parameters for the controllers were selected for overall performance

and were not optimized for any particular disturbance event. A. System step response To investigate both systems responses to set point changes, the conventional (CIGRE benchmark) converter option was subjected to a 10% change in power order. Also as the hybrid system operates directly in power control, its controller was subjected to a 10% change in power order. The results are shown in Fig. 4. In the system with the conventional converter only, the steady state terminal voltage settles to a different magnitude after the change is applied, due to the resulting mismatch in reactive power. As the VSC in the hybrid control option is capable of reactive power generation and is tasked with maintaining the ac voltage at rated magnitude, the ac voltage eventually returns to its post-fault magnitude. As can be seen from Fig. 4., both options show a quick and well damped response to the setpoint changes. However, the VSC option shows a smaller settling time with a slightly oscillatory response.

B. System fault response To investigate both systems responses to large dynamic disturbances a symmetrical three phase short circuit to ground at the inverter terminal was applied for 0.1 second (6 cycles) to each systems terminals. Various fault impedances were used, but the case reported below only shows the response to the most severe fault which is a solid short circuit that reduces the terminal voltage to essentially zero. One difference between the two systems is that in the hybrid case the arrester connected across VSCs dc capacitor limits the over voltages of dc capacitor to 25%

Fig. 5 shows the pre and post fault terminal voltage and power curves obtained based on applying such a fault. In comparison to the conventional option, the hybrid option shows significantly faster power recovery with 90% power restored within 200 ms after fault clearance. The corresponding conventional option requires approximately 400 ms. However, the conventional option shows a more gradual voltage recovery without any over voltage stress on the equipment. The hybrid option, on account of its voltage control function, causes the voltage to be rapidly regulated, and in doing so experiences a modest 10% over voltage

during recovery. C. Commutation Failure performance Several other tests were conducted with various different fault impedance values (inductive) to investigate the impact of fault severity on the performance. The VSC showed generally superior fault recovery times in all cases. Also for certain less severe (high impedance) faults, the conventional converter based system experienced total power loss whereas the hybrid system managed to continue operation during the faulted period. Fig. 6 shows the lowest ac voltage and power magnitudes reached during the fault for varying fault inductance values. Both three phase-to-ground as well as single phase-to-ground faults were applied. As can be seen the hybrid converter was able to maintain current and power to above 90% even with fault impedances of 1 H or higher for both types of fault, whereas the conventional converter starts experiencing similar reductions at a much less severe fault inductance of 2.5 H. Examining the power variation vs. extinction angle curves for the two options subjected to three phase and single phase faults under varying inductances (not shown here) suggests less overall hybrid systems sensitivity to

commutation failure comparing to a only-conventional converter based HVDC system, which means that the hybrid system is immune to more sever faults comparing to a conventional HVDC system. Noticeably in case of commutation failure in a hybrid converter system it is probable that it only experiences a commutation failure (CF) in its conventional converter part which does not lead to total terminal power disruption while even less-sever faults would cause CF and power disruption in a conventional system. The ranges for single phase faults show similar trends with fault and converter types, but the fault severity required to cause failure is marginally smaller for each case. The above tests were conducted with the short circuit ratio of the ac system set to 2.5, which is considered fairly low and hence expected to cause challenges

for the transmission options. However, because of the VSCs fast dynamic response to reactive power demands the proposed hybrid converter also has the unique capability of working under even lower short circuit ratios (SCR) where the conventional converter would not be able to operate at all VIII. CONCLUSIONS Using a coordinated controller for a SHC (Series Hybrid Converter) HVDC transmission system results in superior inverter terminal performance in response to small and large dynamic changes in comparison to a conventional converter case (First CIGRE benchmark model). As such, the proposed configuration may be counted as a promising configuration for delivering real power to systems that feed more sensitive loads. Using digital time domain simulation with PSCAD / EMTDC program and employing conventional closed-loop structures it has been shown that stable operation of the proposed configuration can be insured in a broad range of operating conditions without resorting to complicated control strategies with the added benefit of superior system performance (less power / voltage drop, less chance of commutation failure and shorter

recovery time using equal fault inductances). IX. APPENDIX : MODEL DATA HVDC system rating: 1000 MW; 500KV DC Rectifier specifications: As per First CIGRE benchmark model [4]. Inverter specifications: Terminal voltage: 230 KV, L SCR: 2.5 LCC converter voltage (DC side): 390 KV VSC DC voltage: 110 KV Line parameters: As per First CIGRE benchmark model [4].

X. REFERENCES
[1] B. R. Andersen, L. Xu, Hybrid HVDC system for power transmission to island networks, IEEE Trans. on Power. [2] A. M. Gole, R. Verdolin, E. Kuffel, Firing angle modulation for eliminating transformer DC currents in coupled AC-DC systems, IEEE [3] H. Jiang, A. Ekstrom, Harmonic cancellation of a hybrid converter, .