Area Controller for Steady State Voltage

Management in Large Scale Wind Farm

Dr Tony Morton
Thiago Costa Amin Mahdizadeh
Power and Renewables
Power and Renewables Power Systems and Control
Lloyd’s Register
Lloyd’s Register Goldwind Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne, Australia Melbourne, Australia
aminmahdizadeh@goldwindaustralia.com
tony.morton@lr.org
thiago.costa@lr.org
2019 29th Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC) 978-1-7281-5043-7/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 10.1109/AUPEC48547.2019.211808

Abstract— The voltage control strategy in any generator is
arguably the most important feature for grid integration.
Grids with high penetration of variable renewable energy in
non-traditional locations are susceptible to larger voltage
variations that could lead to detrimental effects on the overall
voltage profile of the network. In the Australian context, the
voltage control strategy is bound by the National Electricity
Rules, which apply to any generator seeking connection to the
grid. The rules determine a set of parameters which can be
negotiated during the connection process. For very large scale
wind farms effectively composed of multiple smaller wind
farms, an additional challenge is faced as the performance
characteristics of the system are assessed at its connection
point and interface with the Network Service Provider. The
area controller described in this paper presents a novel method
of managing the steady state conditions of a large scale wind
farm (currently under construction in Australia) by adjusting
the voltage setpoint of multiple local wind farm controllers
performing fast voltage control.
Keywords — large scale wind farm, voltage control, AEMO.
Controllers (AVC) according to a droop characteristic
determined by AEMO.
The algorithm and dynamic models are developed by LR
and will utilize Power System Simulator for Engineering
(PSS/E) software to validate the logic implemented.
II. SHWF BALANCE OF PLANT
SHWF is a complex generator. The Balance of Plant
(BoP) is composed of one main 500/132 kV substation
(Haunted Gully Terminal Station – HGTS), two 50 MVAr
switched capacitors are included in HGTS. From the
terminal station, two major 132 kV Overhead Lines (OHL)
are connecting three local 132/33 kV substations (West,
South and East), these are branches 6010 to 6400 and 6010
to 6014. From 6014, two branches are connecting east and
south substations, 6014 to 6200 and 6014 to 6300
respectively. West substation is composed of two parts and is
subdivided in West A and West B. Fig. 1 shows a simplified
BoP single line diagram of the generator system.

I. INTRODUCTION
As part of the grid connection process in Australia, every
generator must propose a set of Generator Performance
Standards (GPS). The GPS requirements are included in the
National Electricity Rules (NER) and are separated in
multiple clauses which requires the proposed generator to
study and simulate the system in multiple conditions, both in
steady state and dynamic operation. These studies cover (but
are not limited to) voltage and frequency response, reactive
power capability, power quality, reactive power, active
power and voltage control. The results of these studies will
form a proposed GPS, which is then assessed by the Network
Service Provider (NSP) responsible for the connection and
Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). Once
accepted, the GPS will form part of the connection contracts
and will determine the minimum performance of the system
for the entirety of its life cycle [1].
Lloyd’s Register (LR) is engaged by Goldwind Australia
(GW) as grid connection consultant for Stockyard Hill Wind
Farm (SHWF). SHWF has an approximate export capacity of
531 MW and will comprise of 149 Goldwind 3S
GW140/3570 (3.57 MW) wind turbine generators and
multiple reactive plant. As part of the voltage control
strategy definition and grid studies for GPS registration
purposes, an Area Controller has been proposed to operate in
the connection point of SHWF.
The Area Controller will be physically implemented by
the Goldwind Voltage Management Platform (VMP) located
at the Haunted Gully Terminal Station (HGTS). The main
objective of this master controller is to send voltage
reference setpoints to each local Automatic Voltage Fig. 1. SHWF simplified single line diagram.

XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE

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 The Wind Turbine Generators (WTG) are divided and
modelled in five aggregates: South, East, West A, West B
and North, being the latter connected at West B substation,
an additional 33 kV OHL, branch 6411 to 6130, connects
West B to north WTGs. Each substation has fixed 25 MVAr
capacitor harmonic filters connected for each aggregate
(meaning West B has 50 MVAr of filter connected). The
capacitors are used not only for harmonic filtering, but also
due to the voltage drop on the reticulation. Finally, each
substation has 16 MVAr STATCOMs which aid the plant in
steady state and transient phenomena. The total number of
WTGs per substation is shown on Tab. 1.
TABLE I. NUMBER OF WTGS PER SUBSTATION.
Number of Nameplate Capacity
Substation
WTGs (MW)
South 37 132.09
East 43 153.51
West A 34 121.38
West B 20 71.40
North 15 53.55
Total 149 531
SHWF is connected to the grid through a 600 MVA
500/132 kV main transformer. Substations South, West A
and West B transformers ratings are 160 MVA 132/33 kV
and substation East transformer rating is 170 MVA 132/33
kV. All substation transformers are controlled by Automatic
Voltage Regulation relays controlling an On Load Tap
Changer (OLTC) device. Given the substantial size of the
reticulation, Load Drop Compensation (LDC) is utilized to
account for voltage drop along the reticulation. Given the
fixed capacitors bank present on each 33 kV bus, the voltage
schedule is slightly offset.
III. VOLTAGE CONTROL REQUIREMENTS
LR has been advised by AEMO that SHWF is to
implement a voltage droop control at the 500 kV point of
connection being fully controllable in the voltage range of
0.95 p.u. and 1.1 p.u. at the Point of Connection (PoC). The
proposed droop % should be kept between 3% and 5%. Fig.
2 shows the possible droop curve variations for the project.
The droop QBASE is given by SHWF GPS which is calculated
to 202 MVAr.
Fig. 2. Droop control curves, 3% and 5% on QBASE.
AEMO advised that the normal voltage at the connection
point is 1.03 p.u., therefore the voltage reference is also set to
1.03 p.u. at the 500 kV level.
The proposed Area Controller needs to react as a voltage
droop controller at the 500 kV HGTS, but also respond fast
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enough to meet its GPS obligations in the negotiated voltage
control clause. This involves, amongst other requirements,
having a settling time of less than 7.5 seconds and a rising
time of 2 seconds for a 5% voltage disturbance (or reference
change) at the PoC.
There are multiple voltage control devices in the plant.
To avoid hunting, none of the devices will operate in
opposition to each other. As shown in Tab. 2, the OLTC
devices will control the voltages on the low voltage (LV)
side of each of the transformers. The VMP and AVCs will
control the high voltage (HV) side on the 500 kV and 132 kV
networks in accordance to their pre-determined droop. The
STATCOMs and WTGs while not in grid support mode
(fault ride through) will operate in Reactive Power Control
mode, receiving setpoints from the local AVCs. HGTS VMP
also will implement a logic for switching the two 50 MVAr
capacitor banks connected to the 132 kV bus, which
primarily is designed to account for the high losses on the
reticulation during full production.
TABLE II. VOLTAGE CONTROL DEVICES.
Device Type Control Strategy
Slow control. Set voltage references to each individual
VMP - Area
AVC. Controls 500 kV voltage. Controls the switching
Controller
logic of the capacitor banks on HGTS.
OLTC -
Main Controls the 132 kV bus. Relies on LDCa to keep 132 kV
bus on substations closer to 1 p.u.
Transformer
Fast voltage control based on 132 kV bus upstream of
AVC - Slave
each substation. Set reactive power references to WTG
Controllers
and STATCOM
OLTC -
Local Controls the 33 kV bus. Relies on LDCa to keep the 33
Substations kV bus WTG terminals closer to 1 p.u.
Transformers
a.
Load Drop Compensation.
During grid faults or deep voltage sags, the system is
controlled by the WTGs responding to pre-determined
current injection curves based on their terminal voltages. The
VMP and AVCs implement techniques to avoid wind-up and
activation of the grid support mode is coordinated to safely
resume operation once the transient phenomena is finished.
IV. AREA CONTROLLER SPECIFICATIONS
The VMP (located at HGTS) is designed so it can set the
steady state conditions of the generator and provide voltage
references for each substation in order to achieve the desired
output. To react fast enough to voltage disturbances each
local AVC will have its own voltage droop logic
implemented. It is considered that a voltage disturbance at
the PoC will have similar profile at each individual 132 kV
substation bus.
The Area Controller logic utilizes several functions and
the overall steps of each pooling cycle can be described by
the pseudo-instructions below:
- Read: PPOC, QPOC and VPOC at PoC;
- Read: Voltage reference (VREF_POC) at PoC;
- Calculate: QFLOW desired at PoC based on droop
characteristics at the PoC;
 - Read: PK, QK and VK from each AVC (where K VQ Static Implementation
denotes each substation);
- Calculate: QLOSS in accordance with PK and VK d% = 5%
from each AVC and HGTS capacitors and QBASE = PBASE * 0.395
transformer flows;
- Summate: QFLOW desired with QLOSS; VPOC

QDROOP
- Calculate: Calculate setpoint QSET_K for each AVC
based on their Q capability; VREF

- Calculate: Desired voltage reference setpoint

VREF_K based on droop characteristics at each AVC;
- Write: Voltage reference setpoint for each AVC;
Where P, Q and V are active power, reactive power and Fig. 4. VQ Static function diagram.
voltage respectively.
The droop curve is defined by the droop percentage and
The diagram presented on Fig. 3 shows the flux of the respective voltage reference received by the NSP. As the
signals and functions performed by the VMP area controller. normal voltage at the PoC in SHWF case is considered 1.03
The system will work on a closed loop adjusting the Voltage p.u., that is chosen as the voltage reference.
reference setpoint for each AVC on a certain refresh rate to
be determined by dynamic simulations. Communications B. Load Drop Compensation (LDC)
delays will be accounted on the strategy. Once the voltage
reference is set by the Area Controller to each AVC, the This function calculates the reactive power loss of each
local control is performed as any normal droop voltage branch based on Active Power and Voltage measured at each
controller. As an outer control loop, the expected refresh rate AVC. Since this calculation is performed by the VMP, the
of the VMP logic is going to be slower than the dynamic measured signals are propagated to HGTS.
behavior of the AVCs. Fig. 5 shows an example for LDC calculation on the
There are two compensation blocks to account for the branch from bus 6010 to 6400. The equivalent reactance on
reactive power produced by the capacitor banks in HGTS this branch is 0.097 p.u. on 100 MVA base and nominal
and the main transformer. As the measurement of the voltage (132 kV). The same function is applied to all
reactive power flow is taken at the 132 kV side of each local branches between the controlled buses.
substation, there is no need to compensate for the reactive
LDC 6010 – 6400 (example)
power loss of each substation transformer.
VMP
(Area Controller) XBRANCH = 0.097
VPOC QPOC PPOC

C1 C2 Pwest_A

VREF VQ Static
LDC LDC LDC LDC Q Q + PBRANCH Q(P)
6010 - 6400 6010 - 6014 6014 - 6200 6014 - 6300 Cap Comp Trafo Comp
Pwest_B QLOSS_1

+
+

Q MUX V REF CALC

VREF_S VREF_E VREF_WB VREF_W

A

Fig. 5. LDC function diagram.

VSouth QSouth PSouth VEast QEast PEast Vwest_B Qwest_B Pwest_B Vwest_A Qwest_A Pwest_A

At each calculation interval QLOSS_N is calculated based

AVC South AVC East AVC West B AVC West A on the active power and voltage measurement at the
controlled bus.
Fig. 3. Area controler diagram.
C. Reactive Power Multiplexer
V. AREA CONTROLLER FUNCTIONS This function distributes the reactive power required of
each substation based on each aggregate individual reactive
A. VQ Static Function power capability (QBASE_K). The reactive power base is
This function implements the droop characteristic on calculated in the same fashion as the VMP reactive power
HGTS 500 kV PoC. As shown in Fig. 4, the droop base is base. This function receives as inputs not only the LDC
calculated as 0.395 times the PBASE. QDROOP represents the results but also the reactive power contribution from the
desired flow at the PoC. transformer and capacitors at HGTS as shown on Fig. 3 and
Fig. 6.

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 Q Multiplexer
A. Steady State Load Flow Calculation Validation
Using the functions described previously it is possible to
N = collector, BoP dispatch the system to a steady state condition close to the
QDROOP K = substation desired droop characteristic. A small steady state error is
expected due to model imperfections and simplifications on
QCOMP
CAP/TRAFO
+ QDES
the reactive power losses calculations.

QSET_K
QLOSS_N
Q(QBASE1,QBASE2,…,QBASEN)
Fig. 6. Q multiplexer function diagram.
D. Voltage Reference Calculator
The voltage reference calculation is set based on a droop
characteristic. The droop percentage is set to 5% as this will
respond with the desired behavior to voltage disturbances at
the point of connection. Since the STATCOMs are dispatch
during steady state operation, the QBASE is adjusted to
account for their contribution as shown in Fig. 7.
Voltage Reference Calculator
To validate the methodology, the system can be
dispatched to any given operational point, for instance
maximum active power export and reactive power equals to
zero (PMAXQ0) and the calculations can be compared with the
solved state of the load flow case in PSS/E. The goal is to
have a low steady state error in order to allow the system to
settle in a short period of time.
On the example given, the desired reactive power flow on
the PoC branch is zero and adopting the convention that the
normal voltage is 1.03 p.u. at the PoC, the Area Controller
must calculate the desired reactive power of each branch
based on their respective bases, which in this case will
compensate the losses in the BoP.
At full export, the biggest losses component is given by
the reticulation and the main transformer. Tab. 3 shows a
comparison between the estimated values and measured
values from the load flow solution on PSS/E.

TABLE III. LDC LOSSES MEASURED VS ESTIMATED COMPARISON.

d% = 5%
X P V
QBASE_L = WTGBASE + STATCOMBASE To From Q Est. Q Meas.
(p.u) (p.u.) (p.u.)
VMEAS
6010 6400 0.10 2.5 1.04 54.48 50.10
Branch

V(Q,V) 6010 6014 0.07 2.8 1.03 54.69 52.50

QSET_K VREF_K
6014 6200 0.03 1.5 1.05 7.12 6.20
6014 6300 0.00 1.3 1.00 0.47 0.40

The reactive power consumed by the transformer is

estimated by Eq. 1 and ignores the magnetizing flux.
Fig. 7. VREF calculator function diagram.

The voltage reference VREF_K will be issued to each AVC QT = z × (PL/SBASE)2 × SBASE ()
and from there, normal voltage droop control will take place
at each substation. Where QT is the reactive power consumed by the
transformer in MVAr, z is the impedance in p.u., PL is active
power flow in MW and SBASE is the apparent power base in
VI. PSS/E SIMULATIONS AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS MVA. In the example mentioned, the difference in the
To validate the proposed control strategy the system has estimation is lower than 0.02 MVAr, but the equation does
been modeled and simulated using PSS/E software. A SMIB not correct the values based on the measured transformer
model has been developed and the simulation is carried using voltage, which means that for different PoC voltages the
detailed dynamic models obtained from the Original estimation will deteriorate. Tab. 4 shows the total reactive
Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). The network beyond the power loss of the BoP and the required QDES considering
connection point is modelled as an infinite bus with a slack QDROOP = 0 (voltage refence equals to voltage at the PoC).
generator with a suitable series impedance to achieve desired
fault level at the connection point. The internal network is TABLE IV. BOP REACTIVE POWER LOSSES MEASURED VS ESTIMATED
modelled as per SHWF detail design including all COMPARISON TOTALS.
reticulation and transformers impedances. Where applicable
an OLTC model based on the PSS/E standard library is used Device QLOSS Est. QLOSS Meas.
to simulate the tap changer. SHWF is connected on the 500 Transformer -65.03 -65.50
kV line between Moorabool and Tarrone substations [2]. The
Capacitors 49.50 49.30
expected minimum Short Circuit Ratio (SCR) at the PoC is
approximate 10. The specific details on how to configure the LDC -116.76 -109.20
models is confidential information and outside of the scope QDES -132.29 -125.40
of this paper.

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 The QDES values is then processed by the reactive power resultant QCMD (reactive power command) is sent to the
multiplexer which divides QSET_K to each substation based on algorithm.
their respective QBASE. Tab. 5 shows the respective QSET and
VREF calculation for each substation in accordance with the
estimated values from Tab. 4.

TABLE V. REACTIVE POWER DISTRIBUTION FOR EACH SUBSTATION

AVC. Fig. 8. Closed loop control diagram.
Reactive Power Multiplexer
The controller and its subsequent test is still under
Substation Substation Substation Substation
implementation and therefore dynamic simulations are not
South East West A West B
yet available.
QBASE 51.35 QBASE 59.25 QBASE 48.19 QBASE 48.98
QSET 33.63 QSET 38.80 QSET 31.56 QSET 32.08
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
VSOUTH 1.04 VEAST 1.06 VWESTA 1.05 VWESTB 1.05
This research was supported by Goldwind Australia. We
VREF 1.07 VREF 1.09 VREF 1.09 VREF 1.09 would like to thank the Australian team for their continuous
collaboration on the project and the useful insights provided
during the Area Controller logic implementation. We also
A system being dispatched by this algorithm will have an would like to thank our colleagues in Lloyd’s Register who
error at initialization which needs to be corrected by greatly contributed to this work.
adjusting the desired flow of the local AVCs. The calculation
presented above is representative of this initial step and in
REFERENCES
practice either manual tuning or the dynamic model
adjustments would bring the error down to an acceptable
tolerance. [1] Australian Energy Market Commission, “National Electricity Rules”,
V123, updated 1 July 2019.
[2] Australian Energy Market Operator, “Australian Energy Market
B. Dynamic Simulations Operator High Voltage Network, Main System Diagram, Victoria b
To obtain zero error in steady state at the PoC, the and Victoria c”, updated 10 June 2019.
voltage control should have a closed loop strategy. The Area
Controller will implement a Proportional and Integral control
loop as depicted in Fig. 8. QPOC measurement is subtracted
from the desired QDROOP and fed to the controller, the

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