DRPT2008 6-9 April 2008 Nanjing China

An Electromagnetic Transient Model and

Control Strategy for the Voltage Source
Converter Based HVDC Transmission
Cheng Huang-fu, Guang-fu Tang, Jiang-jun Ruan, and Yan Wang

commutation failure; it uses SPWM modulation strategy

Abstract--This paper proposes an electromagnetic transient which can limited low order harmonics, resulting in a limited
model and control strategy for the voltage source converter (VSC) capacity of harmonic filters.
based HVDC transmission. The electromagnetic transient model The ability of VSC-HVDC operate properly much depends
of the VSC AC-side in the synchronous d-q reference frame has
on the adopted converter control strategy; adequately designed
been built; the DC-side dynamics are formulated based on the
principle of instantaneous power balance, the instantaneous controller can significantly affect system stability. In recent
power absorbed by three-phase series inductors is also years, many experts focus on the VSC-HVDC modeling
considered. For the purpose of control active power and reactive technology: In [5], the model is only for steady state and the
power separately and faster, a decoupled controller based on controller design is too complicated; in [6], the elementary
feed forward compensation method has been designed. The and model of the VSC-HVDC was described, but the
simulation tests realized by PSCAD/EMTDC that VSC-HVDC
controller’s response speed is not good enough.
supplying passive network and connect active network have been
adopted. The simulation results verify the validity of the This paper proposes a detailed electromagnetic transient
mathematical model and the feasibility of the control strategies. model of a VSC based AC-DC-AC conversion system.
Assuming there is no zero-sequence components exist and the
Index Terms--active network; active power; decouple control; AC network is balance, so there are no negative-sequence
electromagnetic transient model; feed forward compensation; components and the voltage and current variables are all
passive network; reactive power; VSC-HVDC positive-sequence components expressed in the positive-
sequence frame. In this paper, direct current control strategy
I. INTRODUCTION and dual closed loop structure are proposed. Decoupled

T HIS paper proposes an electromagnetic transient model control structure consisting of current feed back and voltage
and control strategy for the VSC (voltage source feed forward is adopted in the inner current control loop
converter) based HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) which can track the reference current quickly. The outer loop
transmission system. VSC based HVDC is quite different with is power regulators, which combines the inverse steady state
the conventional thyristor based converter HVDC model with PI regulator, and can control the active and
transmission because of it uses IGBT valves based converter, reactive power separately.
friendly environment, the DC current is reversed instead of the
polarity of the DC Voltage when reversing the DC power flow, II. ELECTROMAGNETIC TRANSIENT MODEL
and so on. Fig.1 illustrates the basic structure of a VSC substation and
VSC-HVDC is more and more widely used in power the location of the major power components. Each AC-side
systems and lots of VSC-HVDC transmission projects have terminal of the VSC is series connected to a resister and an
been bringing into service in recent years because of the inductor. Resistor R represents the total on-state loss of the
following advantages [1-4]: it can not only independent control VSC switches and the internal resistance of inductor L.
of active and reactive power, but also feed with a very weak Inductor L provides a reactance between AC system and VSC
AC system even one passive load with no danger of unit and it adapt a standard AC system voltage to a value
matching the VSC AC output voltage and allow optimal
This work was supported by the State Grid Corporation of China. Project utilization of VSC valve ratings. Shunt AC filters is required
contract number: SGKJ [2007]249. to prevent VSC generated harmonics from penetrating into the
Cheng huangfu is with China Electric Power Research Institute, Haidian AC system. Harmonics filters include high pass, single,
District, Beijing 100085, China (mail: huangfuc@epri.ac.cn).
Guangfu Tang is with China Electric Power Research Institute, Haidian double or triple tuned filters may be used. The VSC DC
District, Beijing 100085, China. capacitor which is connected directly in the parallel to the DC
Jiangjun Ruan is with School of Electrical Engineering, Wuhan University, terminals of the VSC phase units provides the DC voltage
Wuhan 430072, Hubei Province, China.
Yan Wang is with Xi’an Power Supply Bureau, Xi’an 710032, Shanxi
necessary to operate the VSC. A grounding branch provides a
Province, China. connection from a specific point in the DC circuit to ground in

978-7-900714-13-8/08/ ©2008DRPT 2032

 DRPT2008 6-9 April 2008 Nanjing China

order to define the potential of the DC circuit in respect to P = Pac + PL (5)

ground.
Where P is the instantaneous power outgoing from VSC
valves, Pac is the instantaneous power delivered to the AC
system, and PL is the instantaneous power absorbed by the
three phase series inductors.

Fig.1. Schematic diagram of a two-level VSC based power conversion system

A. Transient Mathematical Model of AC Side

Fig.2. Equivalent circuit of the VSC transmission system one side
According to the schematic diagram of a VSC based
system, the conventional electrical equations on the AC side In the d-q synchronization reference frames, Qac and Pac
are: can be expressed as:
⎡ia ⎤ ⎡uca ⎤
d ⎢ ⎥ 1⎢ ⎥ R⎢ ⎥ 1⎢ ⎥
⎡ia ⎤ ⎡u sa ⎤ 3
Pac =
2
(usqiq + usd id ) (6)
ib = ucb − ib − u sb (1)
dt ⎢ ⎥ L ⎢ ⎥ L ⎢ ⎥ L ⎢ ⎥ 3
⎢⎣ic ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ucc ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ic ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣u sc ⎥⎦ Qac = (usq id − usd iq ) (7)
where ia, ib and ic are the current of the system ; uca, ucb and ucc 2
are the voltages on the converter side of the reactor; usa, usb PL is given by:
3L ⎛⎜ did2 diq ⎞⎟
2
and usc are the voltages on the system side of the reactor.
For a balanced three-phase system, assuming no zero PL = + (8)
sequence components, the positive sequence components of
4 ⎜⎝ dt dt ⎟⎠
the three-phase voltage and current can be existence, while Therefore, using the power balance equation the DC side
there are no negative sequence components. In the d-q dynamic can be expressed as:
reference frames, (1) can be expressed as: ⎛1 ⎞
⎡R ⎤ d ⎜ cudc2 ⎟
udcidc = ⎝
− ω ⎥ ⎡i ⎤ 2 ⎠+P +P
d d⎡i ⎤ ⎡u
1 cd ⎤ ⎡u
1 sd ⎤ ⎢L d ac L (9)
⎢i ⎥ = ⎢u ⎥ − ⎢u ⎥ − ⎢ R ⎥ ⎢⎣iq ⎥⎦
(2) dt
dt ⎣ q ⎦ L ⎣ cq ⎦ L ⎣ sq ⎦ ⎢ ω ⎥ Then, substituting for Pac and PL from (6) and (8) in (9), we
⎣ L ⎦ obtain the following equations:
where ω is the angular frequency of the system, ucd and ucq are
the dq-components of the voltages on the converter side of the
1
2
( )
d cudc2
3 3L ⎛⎜ did2 diq ⎞⎟
2

reactor, usd and usq are the dq-components the voltages on the udcidc = + usd id + ⎜ + (10)
system side of the reactor. dt 2 4 ⎝ dt dt ⎟⎠
The relationship between ucdq and udc can be expressed as: Equation (10) describes the DC side transient mathematical
u model of VSC-HVDC system.
ucd = M cos δ dc (3)
2 C. Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) [7]
u In the system of Fig.1, the d-q frame is synchronized to the
ucq = M sin δ dc (4)
2 AC network voltage. This is achieved by a phase-locked loop
Equation (2) describes the transient mathematical model of (PLL) of Fig.3 as a block diagram of three phase PLL system.
VSC AC side.
B. Transient Mathematical Model of DC Side
According to the schematic diagram of VSC based power
conversion system shown in Fig.1, the equivalent circuit of
one side of the VSC transmission system can be shown as
Fig.2.
The DC side transient model is formulated based on the
principle of power balance, we can deduce:

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Fig.3. Block diagram of three phase PLL system Fig.5. Block diagram of decoupled inner current controller

III. CONTROL STRATEGY The decoupled controller is defined by [8]

t
The control strategy of VSC-HVDC can adopt both direct ucd = u sd − ωl ⋅ iq + K p ⋅ ∆id + K i ⋅ ∫ ∆id ⋅ dt (11)
current control strategy and indirect current control strategy. 0
The static performance of indirect current control is well, the t
ucq = u sq − ωl ⋅ id + K p ⋅ ∆iq + K i ⋅ ∫ ∆iq ⋅ dt (12)
structure is simple and it does not need feedback control. 0
While the dynamic performance and the system transition where ∆id= idref - id, ∆iq= iqref - iq.
characteristic are unfavorable. In this paper, direct current
B. Outer loop power controller
control strategy and dual closed loop structure are proposed.
Decoupled control structure consisting of current feed back Outer loop power control is adopted to control id and iq,
and voltage feed forward is adopted in the inner current including active power controller and reactive power
control loop which can track the reference current quickly. So controller, as shown in Fig.6. The main function is control the
the direct current control as shown in Fig.4 is used in this active power and the reactive power which input and output
paper. the AC system.
AC +
network 2C
I R L Uc
N Udc
Us
2C _
Usref AC
Voltage
Control
PWM Udcref
Q Fig.6. Block diagram of outer power controller

Reactive Inner DC C. Outer loop voltage controller

Qref Power Current Voltage
Control Control As shown in Fig.7, outer loop voltage control, which
Control
including AC voltage control and DC voltage control, is
Active Pref adopted to control id and iq. As VSC-HVDC control system, in
P Power order to stabilize the DC voltage there are must be use DC
Control
voltage control in one of the converter stations [9]; while,
Fig.4. control system of VSC-HVDC
when VSC-HVDC system supplying passive network, the
A. Inner decoupled current controller receiving end of the system must adopt AC voltage control to
The VSC-HVDC system mathematical model represented stabilize the AC voltage [10].
by (2) is nonlinear because of the existence of multiplication
terms between the inputs (ucd, ucq) and the output (id, iq).The
VSC is controlled based on equation (2). The inner controllers,
which control id and iq, are used for regulation of the active
power and reactive power of the system. Fig.5 illustrates the
structure of the inner decoupled control.

Fig.7. Block diagram of outer voltage controller

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IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

For the purpose of verify the validity of the mathematical
model and the feasibility of the proposed control strategies,
simulation tests realized by PSCAD/EMTDC that VSC-
HVDC supplying passive network and connect active network
have been adopted.
A. Connect active AC network
Using VSC-HVDC system connecting two active AC
network is simulated realized by PSCAD/EMTDC. The two
converters were implemented with sending end converter
(a) Receiving end d-q current response
controlling the active power and AC voltage, another
controlling the reactive power and DC voltage. Both
converters were blocked for the period 0 to 0.2s during the
start-up.
The network three phase line voltage is 51kV, line
frequency is 50Hz, PWM carrier frequency is 1950Hz,
R=0.5Ω, L=0.005H, C=1000µF.
Fig.8 shows the simulation results of active power step
changes for the sending end converter.

(b) Receiving end reactive power response

Fig.9. Simulation results of the receiving end converter

Fig.9 shows the simulation results of reactive power step

(a) Sending end d-q current response
(b) Sending end active power response
Fig.8. Simulation results of the sending end converter
Sending end active power controller step change from
10MW to 15MW and from 15MW to -15MW at t = 0.1 and
0.4s, respectively. Fig.8 (a) shows the corresponding change
of id and iq, and Fig.8 (b) shows the corresponding change of
active power. The simulation results improve that the tracking
performance of the sending end controller is very well.
changes for the receiving end converter. Receiving end
reactive power controller step change from -10MVAR to -
15MVAR and from -15MVAR to 15MVAR at t = 0.2 and
0.45s, respectively. Fig.9 (a) shows the corresponding change
of id and iq, and Fig.9 (b) shows the corresponding change of
reactive power. The simulation results improve that the
tracking performance of the receiving end controller is very
well.
B. Connect passive network
Then, using VSC-HVDC system supplying passive
network is simulated realized by PSCAD/EMTDC. The two
converters were implemented with sending end converter
controlling the reactive power and DC voltage active power
and AC voltage, passive network side converter controlling
the active power and AC voltage. Both converters were
blocked for the period 0 to 0.2s during the start-up.
The AC network three phase line voltage is 51kV, the
passive network three phase line voltage is 51kV,line
frequency is 50Hz, PWM carrier frequency is 1950Hz,
R=0.5Ω, L=0.005H, C=1000µF.

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 DRPT2008 6-9 April 2008 Nanjing China
(a) Passive network side voltage
(b) Passive network side current
(c) Passive network side active and reactive power
Fig.10 Simulation results of the passive network
Fig.10 shows the simulation results of the passive network
side, it validates the proposed modeling approach and
appropriateness of supplying the passive network.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents the transient model for the VSC-
HVDC system in d-q synchronous reference frame. The
designed inner current controller, which control id and iq, can
be used for regulation of the active power and reactive power
of the system. The simulation results, which connect two AC
network and supplying the passive network, validate the
proposed electromagnetic transient mathematical model and
control strategy of the VSC-HVDC can be applied in real
system with its simple, steadily and high performance.
VI. REFERENCES
[1] Behzad Qahraman, Ebrahim Rahimi, Aniruddha M.Gole. "An
electromagnetic transient simulation model for voltage source converter
based HVDC transmission [J] ". CCECE 2004-CCGEI 2004, Niagara
Falls, May 2004:1063-1066.
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[2] JL Thomas，S Poullain，A.Benchaib．"Analysis of a robust DC-BUS
voltage control system for a VSC transmission scheme [J] "．AC-DC
Power Transmission，28-30 November 2001 Conference Publication
No.485．
[3] Pascal Rioual，Herve Pouliquen，Jean-Paul Louis．"Regulation of a
PWM rectifier in the unbalance network state using a generalized model
[J] "．IEEE Trans.，1996，11(3)：495-502．
[4] LI Gengying, LU Pengfei, LI Guangkai, et al．"The new development
and review for HVDC light [J] " ． Automation of Electric Power
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[5] Zhang Guibin and Xu Zheng, "Steady-state model for VSC based
HVDC and its controller design, " Proceedings of the CSEE, vol.22,
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[6] CHEN Qian，TANG Guoqing，Hu Ming．"Steady-state model and
controller design of a VSC-HVDC," Automation of Electric Power
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[7] Amirnaser Yazdani, Reza Iravani, "A unified dynamic model and control
for the voltage-soure converter under unbalanced grid conditions", IEEE
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[9] L. Xu, B.R.Andersen and P.Cartwright, "Multilevel-converter-based
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VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Cheng Huangfu was born in Jiangxi, China, Apr.13,
1981. He received his B.S in Electronic Information
Engineering from Wuhan University in 2003. He is
currently the Ph.D. of school of Electrical Engineering
in Wuhan University. His research interests include
HVDC and EMC.
Guangfu Tang was born Chuzhou, Anhui Province,
China, on August 9,1966. He received the bachelor's
degree in electrical engineering from Xi'an Jiaotong
University in 1990. He received the M.Sc and Ph.D. in
electric machine engineering from Institute of Plasma
Physics, Chinese Academia of Sciences in 1993 and
1996, respectively. He is currently Professor of China
Electric Power Research Institute. His research
interests include FACTS and HVDC.
Jiangjun Ruan was born in Zhejiang, China, June.25,
1968. He received his B.S. in Electric Machine
Engineering from Huazhong University of Science &
Technology(HUST) in 1990, Received his Ph.D. in
1995, and finished his postdoctoral research in 1998
from Wuhan University of Hydraulic & Electric
Engineering. He is currently the professor of school of
Electrical Engineering in Wuhan University.
Yan Wang was born in Shanxi, China, Apr.14, 1981.
She received her B.S in Electronic Information
Engineering from Wuhan University in 2003. She is
currently the Ph.D. of school of Electrical Engineering
in Wuhan University. Her research interests include
HVDC and EMC.