This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been
fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2866523, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics
Damping Low-Frequency Oscillations Through
VSC-HVDC Stations Operated as Virtual
Synchronous Machines
Linbin Huang, Student Member, IEEE, Huanhai Xin, Member, IEEE, and Zhen Wang, Member, IEEE
Abstract—With proper control methods, grid-connected power
converters can mimic the dynamics of conventional synchronous
generators (SGs), i.e., acting as virtual synchronous machines
(VSMs), for improving the grid frequency stability and ensuring a
smooth transition towards converter-dominated power systems.
However, the integration of VSMs will inevitably influence the
low-frequency oscillations (LFOs) in power grids which are usu-
ally caused by the interactions among SGs. This influence should
be of concern especially when the VSM’s capacity is similar to
that of SG, e.g., operating VSC-HVDC stations as VSMs. This
paper investigates how the VSM affects LFOs in power systems by
analyzing its equivalent damping torque. We show that with
proper control design, VSMs can provide considerable positive
damping torque to effectively damp LFOs in power grids. Partic-
ularly, using the damping torque analysis, the influences of virtual
impedance and grid frequency detector (i.e., phase-locked loop)
are elaborately studied so as to provide design guidelines for
better damping LFOs. Finally, case studies of a two-area test
system with integration of a VSM-based VSC-HVDC station
verify the validity of the analysis.
Index Terms—Control design, low-frequency oscillations,
power converters, power system stability, virtual synchronous
machines, VSC-HVDC stations.
I. INTRODUCTION
One remarkable feature of modern power systems is the
large-scale application of power-electronic devices, which
results from the development of renewable energy sources,
energy storage systems and high-voltage dc (HVDC) trans-
mission systems [1]-[4]. The ever-increasing penetration of
power-electronic devices is changing the characteristics of
power systems which used to be dominated by synchronous
generators (SGs). Moreover, it has posed great challenges to the
analysis and operation of modern power-converter-integrated
power systems since the dynamics of power converters are
usually different from conventional SGs.
To deal with these challenges, it has been proposed to oper-
ate power converters as virtual synchronous machines (VSMs)
to make them share similar dynamic behaviors to SGs, which is
This work is jointly supported by the National Key R&D Programme of
China (No. 2017YFB0902000), the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No. U1766206 and No. 51677165) and the Science and Technology
Project of State Grid (No. SGXJ0000KXJS1700841). (Corresponding author:
Huanhai Xin.)
Linbin Huang, Huanhai Xin and Zhen Wang are with the College of
Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. (Emails:
huanglb@zju.edu.cn, xinhh@zju.edu.cn, eezwang@ieee.org)
0885-8993 (c) 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
a promising way to ensure a smooth transition towards future
power grids which will be dominated by power converters
[5]-[7]. Although there are alternative implementation ways for
VSMs, their common feature is to emulate the rotor dynamics
(i.e., swing equation of SG) to realize grid synchronization [8],
which allows virtual inertia to be added to the power grids.
When it is chosen to emulate the SG’s rotor dynamics in
power converters, some “bad properties” of SGs can also be
inherited. One major concern is the low-frequency oscillation
(LFO) problem, which long exists in power systems and will
occur if adequate damping torque cannot be provided [9]. Note
that the LFO belongs to small-disturbance angle stability issue,
which results from the interactions among the SGs’ rotors, and
it is featured by power oscillations in the low-frequency range
[10]. Commonly, power converters with conventional con-
stant-PQ control have little influence on LFOs, because the
power converters have fast dynamics with the constant-PQ
control and will hardly respond to disturbances in the
low-frequency range [11]. However, when acting as VSMs, the
power converters will have similar rotor dynamics to SGs.
Hence, the VSMs will interact with other SGs in the
low-frequency range and significantly affect the LFOs in power
systems, especially when the application scenario is voltage
source converter (VSC) based HVDC station which has similar
capacity level to SGs, but it hasn’t been investigated yet how a
VSM (applied in VSC station) affects the LFOs thus far.
Recently, the stability issue of VSMs has gained great at-
tention from industrial and academic communities, as it sig-
nificantly affects the secure operation of power systems. In [12],
the small-signal stability analysis showed how parameters of
the emulated swing equation affect the converter’s stability,
and it was compared with droop-controlled converters. Ref. [13]
analyzed the VSM’s stability with the cascaded voltage and
current control loops considered, and the control tuning for the
VSM system is discussed. It was shown in [14] that in the case
of high grid resistance, the nonlinearity of power equations
cannot be ignored and power oscillations may occur when
conventional damping control is applied, which can be resolved
by using a new damping control proposed in [14]. Energy
function analysis can also be used for stability assessment and
giving information on the control design [15]. Under large
disturbances, transient instability may be caused to VSMs, but
fortunately, the control flexibility of power converters allows
designing corresponding control methods to deal with this
problem [16]-[17].
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Transactions on Power Electronics

These existing works are useful to understand the dynamic VSC-HVDC Station LCL Filter
behaviors and stability of VSMs, and the small-signal stability *
Uabc
I abc
Vabc
I gabc Line
Uabc
was commonly analyzed using eigenvalue locus in these works. LF Rg
CF Lg AC Grid
However, eigenvalue locus of a single VSM system cannot
Power Part
reveal how the VSM interacts with SGs and affects LFOs, nor
can it provide physical insights into the control design of VSMs PE
to deal with LFOs. Up to now, it still remains unknown whether   P0
 Base  1J -
-
+
VSMs have positive damping effects on LFOs, and if so, to PWM

what degree a VSM can help damp LFOs in power grids. Vabc I abc I gabc +
- D
abc
A common method to deal with LFOs in conventional power g
dq Swing Equation
systems is to add power system stabilizer (PSS) in SGs, which abc
dq Vabc
is an additional control loop in the excitation system to elimi- PLL

nate the negative damping effect of the fast exciter. However,
commonly the excitation system is not emulated in VSMs
because it is not necessary for the VSM’s operation [5]-[6].
Hence, the conventional PSS control is not suitable to be di-
rectly applied in a VSM, especially considering that the
parameter design of PSS is related to the excitation system.
Actually, unlike SGs, the VSM has high controllability and
flexibility as a power-electronic device, and its parameters can
be chosen freely without considering any physical constraint of
a real SG [5]. Thus, the VSM has the potential to effectively
damp LFOs without adding additional control loops (e.g., PSS).
Nevertheless, it hasn’t been investigated yet how the control
design of VSM affects its ability to damp LFOs, and it remains
unknown if there exists certain control loop in a VSM that will
produce negative damping effect on LFOs, just like the fast
exciter in SGs. In practice, it is of great significance to make
sure that the VSM will not deteriorate the LFOs in power
systems before applying it to large-capacity power electronic
devices such as VSC-HVDC stations, otherwise, instability
phenomena may occur and the secure operation of power grids
will be endangered.
To this end, this paper investigates how VSM-based VSC
stations affect the LFOs in power grids. To begin with, the
equivalent damping torque is derived through formulating the
small-signal model of the VSM system. Then, how control
parameters (e.g., damping coefficient, virtual impedance and
bandwidth of the grid frequency detector) affect the VSM’s
damping torque is elaborately studied, which gives guidelines
on the control design for better damping LFOs. Importantly, we
demonstrate that the grid frequency detector, which is usually a
phase-locked loop (PLL), will provide negative damping
torque on the LFO. Based on the damping torque analysis,
phase compensation method is used to eliminate the negative
damping effect of the PLL. Finally, case studies of a two-area
system (with integration of a VSM-based VSC station) are used
to validate the analysis.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section II
derives the damping torque of the VSM. Section III analyzes
the influences of control parameters and investigates how phase
compensation method can be used to eliminate the negative
damping effect of specific control loops. Section IV provides
root locus analysis to verify the theoretical analysis. Simulation
results of a two-area system are given in Section V. The con-
clusions are drawn in Section VI.
Vd Vq Id Iq I gd Igq PE Power Vabc
QE Calculation I abc
Id Iq Vd Vq I gd Igq
Ud* Idref Vdref Q-V Droop QE
Current Voltage Control Control
U *
Control I ref
& Virtual Impedance
q q
Vqref = 0
Control Part
Fig. 1. One-line diagram of a VSC-HVDC station operated as VSM.
II. DERIVATION OF DAMPING TORQUE OF VSMS
A. VSM System Descriptions
One key feature of VSMs is that the rotor swing equation is
used for grid synchronization and inertia emulation, so the
converter can share similar dynamics to SGs in low-frequency
range. In addition to this, the current and voltage control can be
implemented in different ways. For instance, synchronverters
in [5] realize current and voltage control by emulating the SG’s
electrical part. In this way, the power converter mimics a SG
with all the dynamics covered. In [13], cascaded voltage and
current control loops are added so that protection techniques
such as current limitation can be conveniently embedded for
VSMs.
Since the application scenario is VSC-HVDC station in this
paper, it is assumed that this cascaded structure is used for the
VSM, which can conveniently realize current and voltage
limitation to prevent the converter from overcurrent or
over-modulation. It is worth mentioning that the control
objective of this cascaded structure is to make the voltage
magnitude of LCL capacitor track the reference generated by
the Q-V droop control. Commonly, the tracking speed is much
faster than the dynamic behavior of LFOs. Therefore, in the
low-frequency range (0.1Hz ~ 2Hz), this voltage tracking
process can be ignored, and it can be approximately regarded
that the capacitor’s voltage magnitude is directly determined by
the Q-V droop control, similar to the implementation method in
[12], [14] and [15]. Besides, virtual impedance is applied to
improve stability and control flexibility [18]-[19].
Fig. 1 shows a three-phase VSC-HVDC station which is
connected to an ac grid via an LCL filter and operated as a VSM.
Note that the LCL’s grid-side inductor is included in the grid
inductor L g for simplifying the modeling. By using space
vectors and complex transfer functions [20], the dynamic
equations of the converter-side inductor, the LCL capacitor and

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2866523, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics

the grid impedance can be formulated in the controller’s where I g = I gd + jI gq , Vvref = Vvdref + jVvqref and V = Vd + jVq .
dq-frame as The control strategy of the virtual impedance is [23]
U * − V = ( sLF + j LF )  I = Z LF (s)  I (1) Vvdref = Vdref − ( Rv + sLv ) I gd −  Lv I gq 
  
 ref (8)
I − I g = ( sCF + jCF ) V = ZCF (s) V = − ( v
 + v ) gq +  
(2)  vq
V V q
ref
R sL I L I
v gd 

V − Ue − j
= ( Rg + sLg + j Lg )  I g = ZG (s)  I g (3) where Rv is the virtual resistance and Lv is the virtual
where LF (p.u.) is the converter-side inductance, CF (p.u.) is inductance, Vdref and Vqref are the voltage references which can
the LCL capacitance, Lg (p.u.) is the grid-side inductance, be regarded as the internal voltage behind the virtual
Rg (p.u.) is the grid-side resistance, U is the grid voltage impedance.
amplitude,  is the angular frequency of the controller’s Eqn. (8) can be further expressed as
rotating dq-frame which can be approximated by the nominal Vvref = V ref − ( Rv + sLv + j Lv ) I g = V ref − Zv (s)  I g (9)
angular frequency,  =  −  g is the angle between the phase of
controller’s rotating d-axis (  ) and the grid voltage phase (  g ), where V ref = Vdref + jVqref is oriented at the controller’s d-axis
V = Vd + jVq is the capacitor voltage vector, U * = Ud* + jUq* is by giving Vqref = 0 , and the amplitude Vdref is determined by
the voltage vector of the VSC station determined by the the Q-V droop control to support the grid voltage, which is
modulation, I = Id + jIq is the converter-side current vector, Vdref − V0 = KQ ( Q0 − QE ) (10)
I g = I gd + jI gq is the grid-side current vector. The above where V0 is the voltage setting value, K Q is the Q-V droop
current and voltage vectors are all variables in the controller’s coefficient, Q0 is the reactive power setting value and QE is
dq-frame. The current, voltage and power variables in this the converter’s reactive power output.
paper are all per-unit values. It is worth mentioning that the above equations are expressed
Commonly, the dynamic equation of the current control loop using space vectors and complex transfer functions in order to
in the controller’s dq-frame can be formulated by [13], [21] simplify the derivation of damping torque in the following. As
U d*    I dref   I d    0 − LF   I d  shown in Fig. 1, the angular frequency of the controller’s
 * = CCL ( )     −  +   
0   I q 
PI s dq-frame is determined by the emulated rotor swing equation,
 I 
  I q   q    LF
ref
U q  which is
(4)
Vd 
+ KVFF ( s)     Js = P0 − PE − D ( − g )

 (11)
Vq  s =   Base

where the cross-coupling terms and voltage feedforward terms where J is the inertia emulation coefficient, D is the damping
are included [22]. PI CCL ( s) = KCCP + K CCI s is the transfer coefficient, P0 is the active power setting value, PE is the
function of the PI regulator, I dref and I qref are the current converter’s active power output,  is the angular frequency of
references that come from the voltage control loop, and the controller’s dq-frame (p.u.),  g is the detected grid
KVFF ( s) = kVFF ( tVFF s + 1) is a first-order filter in the voltage frequency obtained by a PLL, Base is the nominal angular
feedforward control to suppress the high-frequency compo- frequency, and  is the phase of the controller’s dq-frame.
nents of the voltage signals. A synchronous reference frame (SRF) PLL [19] is used to
By using space vectors, Eqn. (4) can be further expressed as detect the grid frequency, and the dynamic equation can be
( )
U * = PICCL (s)  I ref − I + j LF I + KVFF (s) V (5) formulated in the controller’s dq-frame (whose phase is
determined by (11)) as
where U * = Ud* + jUq* , I ref = Idref + jIqref , I = Id + jIq and  g = PI PLL ( s )  Vq − PLL
V = Vd + jVq . 
Vq − PLL = Im (Vd + jVq ) e
j ( − PLL )
 (12)
The dynamic equation of the voltage control loop in the 
controller’s dq-frame is 
 s PLL = g  Base
 I dref   I gd   Vvdref  Vd  
 ref  = k F   + PI VCL ( s )   − 
 Vvqref  Vq  
where PI PLL ( s) = K PLLP + K PLLI s is transfer function of the PI
 I q   I gq     regulator,  PLL is phase of the PLL’s dq-frame and Vq − PLL is
(6)
−CF  Vd  the q-axis component of the LCL capacitor voltage in this frame,
 0
+   Im ( a ) and Re ( a ) represents the imaginary and real parts of
CF 0  Vq  a in this paper.
where the cross-coupling terms and current feedforward terms B. Discussions on PLL Acting as Grid Frequency Detector
are included. PIVCL ( s ) = KVCP + KVCI s is the transfer function It can be seen from Fig. 1 that the SG’s swing equation is
of the PI regulator in the voltage control loop, kF is the current emulated in the controller to generate the internal frequency
feed-forward coefficient [17], Vvdref and Vvqref are the voltage and realize grid synchronization for the VSM. In this case, a
references from the virtual impedance control. PLL is not necessarily needed in the controller for the VSM’s
Similarly, Eqn. (6) can be reformulated as operation, i.e., setting g as the nominal value 1.0 (p.u.).
(
I ref = kF I g + PIVCL (s)  Vvref − V + jCFV ) (7) However, the damping coefficient D is equivalent to the

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Transactions on Power Electronics

D = 20p.u. D = 50p.u. deviations under grid frequency dips. Note that this PLL is not
D = 100p.u. D = 150p.u. used for grid synchronization (different from [21] or [25]), and
1.2
its performance will not influence the emulation of virtual
1.0 inertia because the converter’s internal frequency is generated
PE (p.u.)

0.8 by the swing equation, shown in Fig. 1. The parameters of this

0.6 additional PLL can be optimized to ensure the desired tracking
0.4 performance, discussed as follows. Considering g is a
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
time (s) per-unit value, the transfer function of a SRF-PLL (not
(a) including the other parts of the system) can be approximated by
0.7 (see [26]-[27])
0.6 g K PLLPBase s + K PLLI Base
 GPLL ( s) = 2
PE (p.u.)

(13)
0.5
 Grid s + K PLLPBase s + K PLLI Base
0.4
where Grid is the grid frequency (p.u.). GPLL ( s) is a
0.3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 second-order filter to track the grid frequency, whose damping
time (s) ratio can be calculated by  = KPLLPBase (2 KPLLI Base ) . By
(b)
choosing  = 1 2 , which is the optimal value for
Fig. 2. Time-domain responses under grid frequency dips (a)  g is set as a second-order systems, there is
constant value (1.0p.u.) (b)  g is obtained through a PLL to detect the grid
frequency. KPLLPBase = 2KPLLI Base (14)
Then, for a desired PLL bandwidth BW , the value of K PLLI
frequency droop gain in frequency droop control [24], so if g can be calculated by (15) that meets 20lg GPLL ( jBW ) = −3dB
is set as constant ( g = 1.0p.u. ), the steady-state active power [28].
will deviate from its reference value when the VSM is
K PLLI = BW
2
(2 + 5) Base (15)
subjected to grid frequency dips. We give an example to
illustrate this issue in the following. By using (14) and (15), optimal tracking performance of the
Assuming that the frequency of the ac grid (an “infinite bus”) PLL can be achieved.
in Fig. 1 drops from 50Hz to 49.8Hz at t = 1s, Fig. 2 (a) shows
the VSC station’s responses when setting g = 1.0(p.u.) . It can C. Derivation of VSM’s Damping Torque
be seen that the VSC station can operate stably without the PLL, Combining (1)-(3), (5), (7) and (9) yields
however, there are steady-state deviations of the active power
I g = Y (s)  GU (s) V ref − Y (s) Ue− j (16)
flow due to the droop characteristic, which are related to the
damping coefficient D and the level of frequency dips [24]. where Y ( s) , GI ( s ) and GU ( s ) are shown at the bottom of the
This droop characteristic is undesired in practice because the page.
great change of the VSC station’s active power flow (e.g., PE Linearizing (2), (3) and (16) obtains
changes from 0.5p.u. to 1.1p.u. with D = 150p.u.) may  I      G11 ( s) G12 ( s)    
  = G( s)  ref  =    ref  (17)
endanger the secure operation of the power grid.
 V   Vd  G21 ( s) G22 ( s)   Vd 
To deal with these steady-state deviations under grid
where
frequency dips, a PLL can be incorporated to detect the
steady-state grid frequency and obtain g , depicted in Fig. 1.  
G11 ( s ) =  Z CF ( s )  Z G ( s ) + 1  Y ( s ) + Z CF ( s )  jUe
− j ( 0 )

In this way, both  and g in (11) will equal the grid

G12 ( s ) =  Z CF ( s )  Z G ( s ) + 1  Y ( s )  GU ( s )
frequency, so there is PE = P0 in steady state and thus the
− j ( 0 )
steady-state deviations are eliminated. The time-domain G21 ( s ) =  Z G ( s )  Y ( s ) + 1  jUe
responses (with a PLL incorporated to generate g ) are plotted
in Fig. 2 (b) for comparison with Fig. 2 (a). It is shown that with G22 ( s ) = Z G ( s )  Y ( s )  GU ( s )
the additional PLL, the steady-state deviations are eliminated The converter’s real power and reactive power can be
even when different values of D are used. calculated by
In summary, when the VSM is applied in VSC-HVDC  PE = Vd I d + Vq I q

systems, an additional PLL is needed to detect the steady-state  (18)
grid frequency and to eliminate the steady-state power flow QE = Vq I d − Vd I q


−1
Y ( s ) = GI ( s ) + Z G ( s ) + GU ( s )  Z v ( s ) 
Z LF ( s ) + PI CCL ( s ) − PI CCL ( s )  k F − j LF
GI ( s ) =
 Z LF ( s ) + PI CCL ( s ) − j LF   Z CF ( s ) + PI CCL ( s )  PIVCL ( s ) + 1 − PI CCL ( s )  jCF − KVFF ( s )
PI CCL ( s )  PIVCL ( s )
GU ( s ) =
 Z LF ( s ) + PI CCL ( s ) − j LF   Z CF ( s ) + PI CCL ( s )  PIVCL ( s ) + 1 − PI CCL ( s )  jCF − KVFF ( s )

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Transactions on Power Electronics

Linearizing (18) yields Active Power Feedback Loop

f E (s)
TE
 PE  Vd ( 0) I d ( 0)   I d   Vq ( 0) I q ( 0)   I q 
 Q  = V  +   (19) 
Base  1 -
 E   q( 0) − I q ( 0)   Vd   −Vd ( 0) I d (0)   Vq  s Js -
-

TD
where the subscript ( 0 ) denotes the steady-state value. f D (s)
Damping Feedback Loop
Substituting (17) into (19) obtains
TPLL
 PE      S11 ( s ) S12 ( s)     f PLL ( s )
 Q  = S( s)  V ref  =  S ( s) S ( s)   V ref  (20) Frequency Detector Feedback Loop
 E  d   21  d 


22
Power
where Grid
d-axis
Vd ( 0) I d ( 0)   Vq( 0) I q( 0)  f E (s)
S( s ) =   Re G( s)  +   Im G( s)  
Vq( 0) − I q( 0)   −Vd ( 0) I d ( 0)  TE
TD 
Linearizing (10) yields (21), considering that V0 and Q0 are
TPLL
constants.
Vdref = − KQ QE (21) f PLL ( s )
f D (s)
Combining (20) with (21), the relationship between PE
Fig. 3. Closed-loop transfer block diagram and equivalent torques of VSM.
and  can be obtained to describe how a perturbation of 
influences the VSM’s active power, which is
 K Q S 21 ( s ) S12 ( s )  It is worth mentioning that unlike impedance-based methods
PE =  S11 ( s ) −    (e.g., [21]) where the system model is built in the stationary
 1 + K Q S 22 ( s )  (22)
αβ-frame or the synchronous dq-frame whose angular fre-
TE = f E ( s )   quency is constant (i.e., Base ), the above VSM model is for-
The influences of PLL acting as a frequency detector can be mulated in the controller’s dq-frame whose angular frequency
taken into account by linearizing (12) and then combining it is determined by the swing equation (i.e.,    Base ), and the
with (17), (19) and (21), which yields grid voltage vector is transformed from the stationary αβ-frame
 M (s) M 2 ( s ) K Q S 21 ( s )  to the controller’s dq-frame, similar to that in [7] and [23].
 g =  1 −    There are three feedback loops as depicted in Fig. 3, i.e.,
 M 3 ( s ) M 3 ( s ) 1 + K Q S 22 ( s )   (23)
damping feedback loop, active power feedback loop and
= f  ( s )   frequency detector feedback loop. The transfer functions of
where these three feedback loops are f D ( s ) , f E ( s ) and f PLL ( s) ,

( )
M 1 ( s ) = sin ( 0) −  PLL ( 0) Re G21 ( s) 
respectively. The outputs of the three feedback loops can be
regarded as three equivalent torques (i.e., TD , TE and
( )
+ cos ( 0) −  PLL ( 0) Im G21 ( s)  + m TPLL ) that interact with the virtual rotor, depicted in Fig. 3.
Torque TE is the equivalent electromagnetic torque. Torque
( )
M 2 ( s ) = sin ( 0) −  PLL ( 0) Re G22 ( s)  TD is determined by the damping coefficient in the emulated
swing equation, and torque TPLL is related to the dynamics of
( )
+ cos ( 0) −  PLL ( 0) Im G22 ( s)  the frequency detector. The dynamic behaviors of the virtual
M 3 ( s ) = 1 PI PLL ( s ) + m  Base s rotor are determined by the composite torque (i.e.,
T = TE + TD + TPLL ), which can be used to evaluate the
( ) (
m = Vd ( 0) cos ( 0) −  PLL ( 0) − Vq ( 0) sin ( 0) −  PLL ( 0) ) stability of the system, as discussed in the following.
Because  =  −  g , s =   Base and s g = Grid  Base , Note that these torques are all frequency-varying, because
there is s = s( −  g ) = ( − Grid )Base . Further, the amplitude and phase of f D ( s ) , f E ( s ) and f PLL ( s) vary
since the grid frequency is constant (i.e., Grid = 0 ), there with frequency. Fig. 4 (a)-(c) show the bode diagrams of the
holds s =   Base . Then, with the transfer functions in three feedback loop’s transfer functions in the low-frequency
(11), (22) and (23), the VSM system can be represented by the range (0.1Hz ~ 2.0Hz) that is the focus of this paper to study
closed-loop block diagram in Fig. 3, which reflects the dynamic LFO. According to Fig. 4 (a)-(c), the amplitude and phase of
behaviors of the VSM, formulated by these transfer functions at specific frequency can be obtained,
 s = Base  
then the vector diagrams of the torques can be derived. For
 example, the vector diagrams at 0.5Hz and 1.0Hz are given in
 Js = −TE − TD − TPLL Fig. 5, where TD is in phase with  , TPLL is basically in
 Ds antiphase with  and TE is in phase with  .
TD = D   =   = f D ( s )    (24)
 Base According to classical power system theory, a torque can be
T = f ( s )   decomposed into two components, i.e., damping torque and
 E E
synchronizing torque [9]. The positive direction of the
TPLL = − D  f ( s )   = f PLL ( s )   damping torque is in phase with the angular frequency i.e.,  ,

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2866523, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics

Damping feedback loop: Active power feedback loop: Frequency detector feedback loop:
Bode Diagram of f D ( s) Bode Diagram of f E ( s) Bode Diagram of f PLL ( s) (  ) Damping Torque Components
40 8 40
2
20 20 TD − D
6

Magnitude (dB)
1
TE − D

Magnitude
0 0
4 0
-20 -20 TPLL − D
-1
2
-40 -40
Low-frequency Low-frequency Low-frequency
range range range -2
-60 0 -60 (  )
91 10
2
90.5 5 -90 T− D
Phase (deg)

Magnitude
90 0 0
-135
-1
89.5 -5
Low-frequency range
-2
89 -10 -180
10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-1 100
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
(a) (b) (c) (d)

Fig. 4. Bode diagrams and damping torque components of the three feedback loops (a) Bode diagram of f D (s) (b) Bode diagram of f E ( s) (c) Bode diagram of
f PLL ( s) (d) damping torque components of TD , TE , TPLL and T .

  
TE
TPLL
TE
TPLL TD T
TD T T− D T
  
T− S

s = j  2  (0.5Hz) s = j  2  (1.0Hz) Decomposition of T

Fig. 5. Vector diagrams of VSM.

and the positive direction of the synchronizing torque is in T− D = TD − D + TE − D + TPLL − D
phase with the angle i.e.,  . Moreover, the system is stable if (25)
= TD sin  D + TE sin  E + TPLL sin  PLL
and only if the composite torque T can be decomposed into
a positive damping torque and a positive synchronizing torque where TD − D , TE − D and TPLL − D denote the damping torque
at any frequency. On one hand, if positive damping torque components of TD , TE and TPLL , respectively. TD ,
cannot be provided, oscillations of active power and rotor speed TE and TPLL denote the amplitudes of the torques.  D ,
will occur. On the other hand, if positive synchronizing torque  E and  PLL are the angles between the torques and  .
cannot be provided, the system will lose phase synchronization These amplitudes and angles can be conveniently obtained
with the power grid, featured by the rotor angle’s keeping from the bode diagrams in Fig. 4 (a)-(c).
increasing or decreasing against the grid voltage angle rather Note that the composite damping torque T− D in
than oscillations [9]. low-frequency range is the particular focus of this paper as it
The damping torque analysis method has been very popular dominates the capability of the VSM in damping LFOs (a larger
to evaluate the small-signal stability in power systems, and it T− D indicates that the VSM can help damp LFOs more) [9],
has the advantage that the damping torque component can while the synchronizing torque component is not studied in this
quantify the synchronous generator’s (or VSM in this paper) paper because it can be regarded to be irrelevant to the damping
ability to damp LFOs. Moreover, clear physical insights can be of LFOs.
provided to explain why weakly-damped modes occur in the Fig. 4 (d) plots the magnitudes of the damping torque
power system, thereby guiding the control design to mitigate components of TD , TE , TPLL and T (i.e., TD − D ,
LFOs. Also, other frequency-domain methods such as TE − D and TPLL − D and T− D ) in the low-frequency range,
impedance-based method [21], passivity-based method [29] which meet (25). It can be seen that TD provides positive
and net-damping method [30]-[31] can be potentially used to damping torque and plays a significant role in stabilizing the
study LFOs, which demand further investigation and can be system, because D = 90 , E  0 and PLL  −90 in
compared with the damping torque analysis method in future low-frequency range. However, the PLL provides negative
research works. damping torque to the system and thus has negative effect on
Fig. 5 shows how the composite torque T can be decom- the LFO. Although this negative damping effect can be
posed into a damping torque component T− D and a syn- eliminated by replacing the PLL with a constant frequency
chronizing torque component T− S . The composite damping setting value, the VSC station may present undesired frequency
torque can be calculated by droop characteristic to the power grid which is related to the

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2866523, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics

Damping feedback loop: D = 20p.u. D = 50p.u. D = 100p.u. D = 150p.u.

Active power feedback loop: D = 20p.u. D = 50p.u. D = 100p.u. D = 150p.u.
Frequency detector feedback loop: D = 20p.u. D = 50p.u. D = 100p.u. D = 150p.u.
T− D : D = 20p.u. D = 50p.u. D = 100p.u. D = 150p.u.
Bode Diagram of f D ( s) Bode Diagram of f E ( s) Bode Diagram of f PLL ( s) (  ) Damping Torque Components
40 8 40
4

20 20 TD − D
6
Magnitude (dB)

Magnitude
0 0
4 0
-20 -20

2 -2 TPLL − D
-40 -40
Low-frequency
range
Low-frequency Low-frequency
range
TE − D
range -4
-60 0 -60 (  )
91 10
4
T− D
90.5 5 -90 2
Phase (deg)

Magnitude
90 0 0
-135
89.5 -5 -2
Low-frequency range
-4
89 -10 -180
10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-1 100
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig. 6. Bode diagrams and damping torque components of the three feedback loops with different D (a) Bode diagram of f D (s) (b) Bode diagram of f E ( s) (c)
Bode diagram of f PLL ( s) (d) damping torque components of TD , TE , TPLL and T .

Damping feedback loop: Lg = 0.1p.u. Lg = 0.2p.u. Lg = 0.4p.u. Lg = 0.6p.u.

Active power feedback loop: Lg = 0.1p.u. Lg = 0.2p.u. Lg = 0.4p.u. Lg = 0.6p.u.
Frequency detector feedback loop: Lg = 0.1p.u. Lg = 0.2p.u. Lg = 0.4p.u. Lg = 0.6p.u.
T− D : Lg = 0.1p.u. Lg = 0.2p.u. Lg = 0.4p.u. Lg = 0.6p.u.
Bode Diagram of f D ( s) Bode Diagram of f E ( s) Bode Diagram of f PLL ( s) (  ) Damping Torque Components
40 15 40
4

20 20 TD − D
10
TE − D
Magnitude (dB)

Magnitude
0 0
5 0
-20 -20
-2
-40
0
-40 TPLL − D
Low-frequency Low-frequency Low-frequency
range range range -4
-60 -5 -60 (  )
91 10
4
T− D
90.5 5 -90 2
Phase (deg)

Magnitude

90 0 0
-135
89.5 -5 -2
Low-frequency range
-4
89 -10 -180
10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-1 100
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig. 7. Bode diagrams and damping torque components of the three feedback loops with different grid inductance (a) Bode diagram of f D (s) (b) Bode diagram of
f E ( s) (c) Bode diagram of f PLL ( s) (d) damping torque components of TD , TE , TPLL and T .

damping coefficient D , as discussed in Section II-B. f E ( s ) and f PLL ( s) with different damping coefficient D. With
In the next section, the influences of the VSM’s control the increase of D, the amplitudes of f D (s) and f PLL ( s) both
parameters on these damping torque components will be increase, while the phases remain the same. Therefore,
investigated to show how they affect the LFO-damping increasing D is not an effective way to improve the VSM’s
capability of the VSM and to give guidelines on how to ability to damp LFOs, because the negative damping effect of
eliminate the negative damping effect of the frequency the PLL is also magnified with the increase of D and T− D
detector. will hardly be increased. It is further shown in Fig. 6 (d) that the
magnitude of TD − D increases with a larger D, however,
III. DAMPING TORQUE ANALYSIS AND CONTROL DESIGN TPLL − D increases inversely. Hence, the VSM’s ability of
damping LFOs will not be effectively improved. For example,
A. Influences of System Parameters on LFOs Fig. 6 (d) shows that although TD − D increases from 0.4
The previous section demonstrated that the composite ( ) to 3 ( ) at 1.0Hz, T− D only increases from 0.1
damping torque in (25) reflects the VSM’s ability to damp ( ) to 0.8 ( ) due to the negative effects of TPLL − D .
LFOs. Thus, the influences of parameters on LFOs can be To investigate how the grid condition affects the equivalent
studied by showing how the three equivalent torques (i.e., TE , torques, the bode diagrams of f D ( s ) , f E ( s ) and f PLL ( s) with
TD and TPLL ) change with the variations of parameters. Fig. different grid inductance Lg are given in Fig. 7 (a)-(c). It can
6 (a)-(c) plot the Bode diagrams of the transfer functions f D ( s ) , be seen that with the increase of Lg (i.e., the grid condition

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2866523, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics

Damping feedback loop: Lv = 0 Lv = 0.2p.u. Lv = 0.4p.u. Lv = 0.6p.u.

Active power feedback loop: Lv = 0 Lv = 0.2p.u. Lv = 0.4p.u. Lv = 0.6p.u.
Frequency detector feedback loop: Lv = 0 Lv = 0.2p.u. Lv = 0.4p.u. Lv = 0.6p.u.
T− D : Lv = 0 Lv = 0.2p.u. Lv = 0.4p.u. Lv = 0.6p.u.
Bode Diagram of f D ( s) Bode Diagram of f E ( s) Bode Diagram of f PLL ( s) (  ) Damping Torque Components
20 10 20
4
TD − D
0 0
TE − D
Magnitude (dB)

2
5

Magnitude
-20 -20 0

0
-2
-40
Low-frequency
-40
Low-frequency TPLL − D
range Low-frequency range
range -4
-60 -5 -60 (  )
91 10
4
T− D
90.5 5 -90 2
Phase (deg)

Magnitude
90 0 0
-135
89.5 -5 -2
Low-frequency range
-4
89 -10 -180
10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-1 100
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig. 8. Bode diagrams and damping torque components of the three feedback loops with different virtual inductance (a) Bode diagram of f D (s) (b) Bode diagram
of f E ( s) (c) Bode diagram of f PLL ( s) (d) damping torque components of TD , TE , TPLL and T .

Damping feedback loop: BW = 2rad/s BW = 50rad/s BW = 100rad/s BW = 200rad/s
Active power feedback loop: BW = 2rad/s BW = 50rad/s BW = 100rad/s BW = 200rad/s
Frequency detector feedback loop: BW = 2rad/s BW = 50rad/s BW = 100rad/s BW = 200rad/s
T− D : BW = 2rad/s BW = 50rad/s BW = 100rad/s BW = 200rad/s
Bode Diagram of f D ( s) Bode Diagram of f E ( s) Bode Diagram of f PLL ( s) (  ) Damping Torque Components
20 10 20
4

TD − D
0 0 TE − D
Magnitude (dB)

2
5

Magnitude
-20 -20 0

0
TPLL − D
-40 -40 -2
Low-frequency Low-frequency
range range Low-frequency
range -4
-60 -5 -60 (  )
91 10
4
T− D
90.5 5 -90 2
Phase (deg)

Magnitude

90 0 0
-135
89.5 -5 -2
Low-frequency range
-4
89 -10 -180
10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-1 100
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
(a) (b) (c) (d)

BW = 200rad/s BW = 100rad/s, BW = 50rad/s BW = 2rad/s

   
TE TE TE TE
TPLL TPLL TPLL TPLL

TD T TD T TD T TD T

   

s = j  2  (1.0Hz) s = j  2  (1.0Hz) s = j  2  (1.0Hz) s = j  2  (1.0Hz)

(e)
Fig. 9. Bode diagrams and damping torque components of the three feedback loops with different PLL bandwidth (a) Bode diagram of f D (s) (b) Bode diagram of
f E ( s) (c) Bode diagram of f PLL ( s) (d) damping torque components of TD , TE , TPLL and T (e) vector diagrams.

turns weak), the amplitude of f PLL ( s) is increased which negative damping effect will be magnified with the increase of
indicates that the PLL’s negative damping effect is magnified. L g , thereby decreasing T− D .
On the other hand, the amplitude of f E ( s ) is decreased while it The influences of virtual inductance Lv on these transfer
has negligible impact on the LFO considering that TE acts as functions are demonstrated in Fig. 8 (a)-(c). It is shown that
synchronizing torque (see Fig. 5) and T− S  0 in these cases. with the increase of Lv , the amplitude of f PLL ( s) is decreased,
The corresponding damping torque components are plotted in which indicates that the PLL’s negative damping effect is
Fig. 7 (d), which verifies the above analysis that the PLL’s reduced. Torque TE also changes with the variation of Lv ,

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Transactions on Power Electronics

but it is basically in phase with  and thus will not affect H ( s) = 1

5
Bode Diagram of H ( s)
0.2s + 1
LFOs (with T− S  0 in these cases), which can be verified by H ( s) = 0
0.4s + 1

Magnitude (dB)
the damping torque components plotted in Fig. 8 (d). Note that 0.1s + 1
-5

although the increase of virtual impedance can help mitigate the H (s) =
0.8s + 1 -10

negative damping effect caused by the PLL, the power transfer -15
Low-frequency
range
capability of the VSC station will be reduced accordingly PE
-20
 Lag −max = 20
[18]-[19], especially when the VSC station is connected to a 
 1J -
+
P0 0
-

Phase (deg)
weak ac grid that has low short-circuit ratio. Hence, when
+ D
choosing the virtual inductance, there exists a tradeoff between - -30

g  Lag −max = 50
maintaining desired power transfer capability and mitigating Swing Equation
f Lag −max
T s +1
the PLL’s negative damping effect, which will be further H ( s ) = Lead
TLag s + 1
PLL Vabc
-60
10-2 10-1 100
Frequency (Hz)
101

discussed in Section III-C. (a) (b)

To further show how the PLL’s parameters influence the Fig. 10. A lead-lag compensator cascaded with the PLL (a) control
damping torque, Fig. 9 (a)-(c) plot the bode diagrams of the implementation (b) Bode diagrams.
transfer functions with different PLL bandwidth BW . It can be
seen that a low bandwidth PLL (i.e., 2 rad/s) can greatly change subsection will show that in addition to these two methods,
the characteristic of f PLL ( s) in the low-frequency range. Im- phase compensation method can also be used to eliminate the
portantly, since the phase of f PLL ( s) is changed from −90 to PLL’s negative damping effect, which aims at changing the
about −170 at 1.0Hz, the negative damping effect of PLL is phase of TPLL in the low-frequency range.
well eliminated accordingly. To better illustrate this issue, Fig. Without loss of generality, it is assumed that a lead-lag
9 (d) plots the damping torque components, which shows that compensator H ( s ) is cascaded with the PLL to shape the
there is TPLL − D  0 when setting BW = 2rad/s , indicating frequency characteristic of TPLL , depicted in Fig. 10 (a). With
that the negative damping effect is eliminated. this lead-lag compensator, the transfer function of the
Fig. 9 (e) shows the corresponding vector diagrams at 1.0Hz. frequency detector feedback loop (see Fig. 3) becomes
By setting BW = 2rad/s , the amplitude and phase of TPLL are  f PLL ( s) = − D  f ( s)  H ( s)
obviously different from the other cases, and the damping 
torque component of T becomes larger in this case, which  H ( s) = TLead s + 1 (26)
 TLag s + 1
means the VSM’s ability of damping LFOs is improved. On the 
other hand, although setting a low bandwidth can help elimi- The largest phase lag provided by this form of H ( s ) can be
nate the PLL’s negative damping effect in the low-frequency calculated by
range, it will reduce the grid frequency tracking speed simul- T −T
taneously, which will be further discussed in the following  Lag − max = arctan Lag Lead (27)
2 TLead TLag
subsection.
This additional PLL is a common way to track the grid fre- and f Lag − max is the frequency at which this phase lag occurs,
quency and eliminate the steady-state deviations [7], [13], which can be obtained by
while there are also other methods to deal with this issue. For Lag − max 1
f Lag − max = = (28)
example, the sinusoid tracking algorithm can be used to track 2 2 TLead TLag
the grid frequency [32]. In [33], the self-synchronized syn-
The magnitude of H ( s ) at f Lag − max is
chronverter adds an additional PI regulator as a feedback loop
(T − TLead )
2
to the frequency droop block, which can eliminate the 1
H ( jLag − max ) = 4+
Lag
steady-state deviations as well. These methods will also affect (29)
1 + TLag TLead TLead TLag
the composite damping torque because additional loop is
introduced into the swing equation, and their influences can be If Lag −max remains constant, a larger phase lag Lag − max
studied in future works. leads to a smaller H ( jLag − max ) . That is, although a larger
It should be noted that unlike references [34]-[36] which phase lag can help eliminate the negative damping effect of
demonstrated that the PLL has a negative effect on the con- f PLL ( s) more, the frequency tracking speed (of g ) will be
verter’s stability when acting as the grid synchronization unit, meanwhile reduced. Hence, the design principle for H ( s ) is to
the above analysis results reveal that the PLL, which acts as the mitigate the negative damping effect of f PLL ( s) at the fre-
frequency detector inside a VSM, will provide a negative quency where LFO occurs (by providing a phase lag for TPLL ),
damping torque in the low-frequency range (0.1Hz ~ 2Hz). and simultaneously keep fast speed for the grid frequency
tracking. Accordingly, the design process of H ( s ) can be
B. Phase Compensation Method summarized as follows: a) choose f Lag − max approximately
The above analysis demonstrates that only by tuning control equal to the LFO frequency in the power grid; b) choose a
parameters, there are mainly two ways to eliminate the negative desired phase lag, i.e., Lag − max considering the tradeoff be-
damping effect of the PLL. One is to increase the virtual tween grid frequency tracking speed and the ability to mitigate
inductance, and the other is to reduce the PLL bandwidth. This the negative damping effect of TPLL ; c) calculate TLead and

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Damping feedback loop:

Active power feedback loop:
0.2s + 1 0.1s + 1
Frequency detector feedback loop: H ( s) = 1 H ( s) = H (s) =
0.4s + 1 0.8s + 1
0.2s + 1 0.1s + 1
T− D : H ( s) = 1 H ( s) = H (s) =
0.4s + 1 0.8s + 1
Bode Diagram of f D ( s) Bode Diagram of f E ( s) Bode Diagram of f PLL ( s) (  ) Damping Torque Components
20 10 20
4
TD − D
0 0
Magnitude (dB)

2
5 TE − D

Magnitude
-20 -20 0

0
-40
Low-frequency Low-frequency -40 -2
TPLL − D
range range Low-frequency
range -4
-60 -5 -60 (  )
91 10
4
T− D
90.5 5 -90 2
Phase (deg)

Magnitude
90 0 0
-135
89.5 -5 -2
Low-frequency range
-4
89 -10 -180
10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-2 10-1 100 101 10-1 100
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
(a) (b) (c) (d)

0.2s + 1 0.1s + 1
Case 1: H ( s) = 1 Case 2: H ( s ) = Case 3: H ( s ) =
0.4s + 1 0.8s + 1
  
TE TE TE
TPLL TPLL TPLL

TD T TD TD

T
T
  

s = j  2  f Lag − max s = j  2  f Lag − max s = j  2  f Lag − max

(e)
Fig. 11. Bode diagrams and damping torque components of the three feedback loops with different choices of H (s) (a) Bode diagram of f D (s) (b) Bode diagram
of f E ( s) (c) Bode diagram of f PLL ( s) (d) damping torque components of TD , TE , TPLL and T (e) vector diagrams.

TLag by solving (27) and (28) with the chosen Lag − max and 10 (b)).
f Lag − max . Besides, the choosing of H ( s ) will also affect the speed of
Three choices of H ( s ) are shown in Fig. 10 (b), where Case g to track the real grid frequency, discussed as follows. When
1 (with H ( s ) = 1 ) is a base case for comparison. In Case 2 and H ( s ) is cascaded with the PLL, the approximated transfer
3, it is chosen that f Lag − max = 0.6Hz (which is close to the function for g to track the real grid frequency Grid changes
oscillation frequency of the studied two-area system in the from (13) to
following sections). Then, in Case 2, it is chosen that g Grid  GHPLL (s) = GPLL (s)  H (s) (30)
 Lag − max = 20 , which yields TLead  0.2 and TLag  0.4 by
solving (27) and (28). In Case 3, it is chosen that  Lag − max = 50 , It can be seen from Fig. 10 (b) that with the increase of
which yields TLead  0.1 and TLag  0.8 by solving (27) and Lag − max , the magnitude of H ( s ) is decreased (related to the
(28). frequency range), which is equivalent to reducing the
Fig. 11 (a)-(c) plot the corresponding Bode diagrams with bandwidth of GHPLL ( s ) , deduced from (30). In this way, the
different choices of H ( s ) , which shows that only f PLL ( s) is speed of g to track the real grid frequency is reduced. To
changed with the variation of H ( s ) . The damping torque better illustrate how the choosing of H ( s ) influences the grid
components in Fig. 11 (d) demonstrate that the phase frequency tracking, Fig. 12 (a) shows the responses of the
compensation method can effectively decrease the negative detected grid frequency ( f g (Hz) = g  f Base ) when the real
damping torque that caused by the PLL, and thus improve the grid frequency drops from 50Hz to 49.8Hz at t = 1s in the
VSM’s ability to damp LFO. The vector diagrams in Fig. 11 (e) one-bus system of Fig. 1.
indicate that the phase compensation method can change the By comparing Case 2 and Case 3 to Case 1 (in which the PI
direction of TPLL , and thereby increase the composite coefficients of the PLL remain the same), it can be deduced that
damping torque, fully consistent with the results in Fig. 11 (c) a larger phase lag of H ( s ) will reduce the frequency tracking
and (d). Compared with Case 1, the negative damping effect of speed more, consistent with the above analysis. On the other
TPLL is reduced in Case 2, and it is further reduced in Case 3 hand, in Case 4 where BW is set as 2rad/s and H ( s ) = 1 , the
because H ( s ) provides a larger phase lag in this case (see Fig. grid frequency tracking becomes slow and has an overshoot

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Case 1: H ( s ) = 1 & BW = 50rad/s However, the power transfer capability will be reduced
0.2s + 1 simultaneously. For example, the maximum power transfer
Case 2: H ( s ) = & BW = 50rad/s
0.4s + 1
0.1s + 1
capacity can be approximated by (31) when the grid resistance
Case 3: H ( s ) = & BW = 50rad/s is ignored (L contains the grid inductance L g and the virtual
0.8s + 1
Case 4: H ( s) = 1 & BW = 2rad/s inductance Lv ) [9], [37]. Then, by choosing a minimum value
of Pmax within the acceptable range, Lv can be maximized (by
50.0
solving (31)) to improve the VSM’s ability to damp LFOs.
f g (Hz)

Pmax = V  U X = V  U (Grid L )
49.8 (31)
= V  U (Grid L g + Grid L v )
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
time (s) ii) Choose the PLL bandwidth to meet certain performance
(a) metric (e.g., rise time) for grid frequency tracking, and then the
0.8 PI gains can be obtained by (14) and (15).
0.6 iii) Calculate the time constants of the lead-lag compensator
PE (p.u.)

0.4
by solving (27) and (28) after choosing a desired phase lag at
Undesired dynamics caused by low PLL the LFO frequency of the system.
0.2 bandwidth
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
iv) Choose the damping coefficient D to improve the LFO
time (s) damping capability and meanwhile ensure the desired perfor-
(b) mance for frequency support. After eliminating the PLL’s
Fig. 12. Time-domain responses of the VSC station with different control negative damping effect through the phase compensation
settings (a) detected grid frequency f g (Hz) =  g  f Base (b) active power.
method in Step iii, increasing D can be an effective way to
increase the composite damping torque. While on the other
hand, it should also be taken into account that increasing D is
D = 50p.u. D = 100p.u.
equivalent to improving the VSM’s power support capability,
D = 150p.u. D = 200p.u.
and accordingly more additional active power will be provided
1.0
under grid frequency dips, which needs to be limited within the
0.8 admissible range.
PE (p.u.)

0.6
0.4
0 1 2 3 4 5
time (s)
Fig. 13. Time-domain responses of the VSM under grid frequency dip with
different values of D.
lasting several seconds. Additionally, an active power dip,
which also lasts for several seconds, is caused by this slow
dynamic of PLL, depicted in Fig. 12 (b). This long-lasting
power dip is undesired in practice because the VSC station is
supposed to provide active power support under frequency dips.
By comparison, the frequency response in Case 3 has no
overshoot and presents better tracking accuracy (the active
power dip will not occur in this case). Hence, compared with
reducing the PLL bandwidth, the phase compensation method
offers a better solution to compromise the grid frequency
tracking accuracy and the VSM’s ability to damp LFOs.
C. Discussions on Synthesis Design to Damp LFOs
This subsection will demonstrate how the above damping
torque analysis can help guide the control design of the
VSM-based VSC station to improve the ability to damp LFOs
in practice. Based on the former analysis, a possible synthesis
design process is discussed as follows.
i) Determine the virtual inductance considering the tradeoff
between the LFO-damping capability and the power transfer
capacity. It has been shown in Fig. 8 that increasing the virtual
inductance can improve the VSM’s ability to damp LFOs.
To better illustrate this issue, Fig. 13 shows the active power
responses of the VSM when the grid frequency drops from
6 7 8 50Hz to 49.8Hz at t = 1s (assuming that it is chosen
Lv = 0.4p.u., BW = 50rad/s, TLead = 0.1s and TLag = 0.8s in the
previous steps). It can be seen that with the increase of D, the
VSM provides more additional active power when subjected to
the frequency dip (e.g., PE increases from 0.5p.u. to 0.86p.u.
with D = 200 p.u.). Whereas, this additional active power can
affect the operation of the dc grid (e.g., causing dc voltage dips),
and thus it should be limited within an admissible range de-
termined by the characteristic of the dc grid as well as the
capacity of the VSC station. Hence, when choosing D to
improve the VSM’s ability to damp LFOs, it should also be
considered that the provided additional active power under
frequency dips will not exceed the admissible range.
In summary, the choosing of these parameters should
consider the tradeoffs between the VSM’s ability to damp
LFOs and the system performance in practice (e.g., power
transfer capability, grid frequency tracking speed and active
power support capability).
IV. EIGENVALUE ANALYSIS
In the previous section, it is shown that the damping torque
analysis provides physical insights into the influences of
system parameters on the VSM’s ability to damp LFOs, and
also give guidelines on the control design (i.e., phase
compensation method) to increase the VSM’s damping torque.
In this section, eigenvalue analysis of a two-area test system is

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D :10p.u. → 150p.u. (BW = 50rad/s) BW : 2rad/s → 200rad/s

10 8 8
Mode 2 0.04 0.02 0.01 0.2 Mode 2 0.04 0.02
Line 6-10 0.1 Mode 3 0.1 Mode 3
6 6

VSC 0.2 Mode 1

6 7 8 4 4
Station 0.4
Mode 1
1 5 9 3

Imaginary axis
Imaginary axis
2 2
SG 1 SG 3
Line 1-5 Line 6-7-1 Line 7-8-1 Line 9-3 0 D = 100p.u. D = 50p.u. D = 10p.u. 0 BW = 2rad/s BW = 5rad/s
Line 5-6 Line 8-9
SG 2 SG 4 -2 -2
2 Line 2-5 Line 6-7-2 Line 7-8-2 Line 9-4 4
Mode 1
0.4
Area 1 Load 1 C1 C2 Load 2 Area 2 -4
Mode 1
-4
0.2
-6 0.1 -6 0.1
Mode 3 Mode 3
0.2 Mode 2 0.04 0.02
Fig. 14. Two-area test system. -8
Mode 2 0.04 0.02 0.01
-8
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0
Real axis Real axis
6000
0.2 0.1 0.05
8
Mode 2 0.04 0.02 0.01
(a) (b)
0.1
6
Mode 3 L v : 0 → 0.75p.u. (BW = 50rad/s) (BW = 50rad/s)
4000 8 8
Mode 1 Mode 2 0.04 0.02 0.2 Mode 2 0.04
0.4
4 0.2 Mode 3 0.1 Mode 3
6 0.1 6
2000 Mode 1
0.2
Imaginary axis

Imaginary axis

2
0.8 4 4
Mode 1 0.4
0 0

Imaginary axis
Imaginary axis
2 2
0.8
-2 0.1s + 1 0.2s + 1
-2000 0 0 H ( s) = H ( s) = H ( s) = 1
0.8s + 1 0.4s + 1
-4 0.2
0.4 Mode 1 -2 -2
-4000
-6
Mode 3 Mode 1 0.4
0.1 -4 -4
0.2 0.1 0.05 Mode 2 0.04 0.02 0.01 0.2
-6000 -8 Mode 1
-1500 -1000 -500 0 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 80 -6 0.1 -6 0.1
Mode 3 Mode 3
Real axis Real axis Mode 2 0.04 0.02 0.2 Mode 2 0.04
-8 -8
(a) (b) -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0
Real axis Real axis
Fig. 15. Eigenvalues of the two-area system when the VSC station is
(c) (d)
disconnected.
Fig. 16. Loci of the three pairs of dominant poles (a) the damping coefficient D
changes from 10p.u. to 150p.u. (b) the PLL bandwidth BW changes from 2
provided to verify the effectiveness of the VSM’s damping rad/s to 200 rad/s (c) the virtual inductance L v changes from 0 to 0.75p.u. (d)
three different choices of H (s) are applied.
torque analysis developed in this paper.
A. Two-Area System Descriptions
Fig. 14 shows a four-SG two-area system with integration of because the imaginary parts reflect the oscillations’ angular
a VSC station. Parameters of the test system can be found in frequencies of the modes.
Appendix. The Pi-model is used for the transmission lines, The eigenvalue loci with the damping coefficient D varying
similar to that in [38]. The SGs are represented by the six-order from 10p.u. to 150p.u. are given in Fig. 16 (a). It can be seen
model and equipped with fast exciters and steam governors [9]. that the Mode 1 poles has the lowest damping ratio and thus
To provide a base case, Fig. 15 (a) plots the eigenvalues of they dominate the LFO. With the increase of D from 10p.u. to
the two-area system when the VSC station is not included, 100p.u., the poles of Mode 1 shift towards the left and their
which can be obtained by linearizing the system. This two-area damping ratio is increased from 0 to about 0.05, which means
system has three dominant LFO modes, i.e., Mode 1-3, and it is the LFO is better damped. However, if D further increases from
shown in Fig. 15 (b) that the Mode 1 poles have damping ratios 100p.u. to 150p.u., the Mode 1 poles remain nearly the same
less than 0.01, which means the system is weakly damped. In and their damping ratio can hardly be increased more. This is
the following, how the integration of a VSM-based VSC station because the negative damping torque of PLL also becomes
influences these pair of poles will be particularly studied. larger with the increase of D, in accordance with the analysis in
Section III-A.
B. Influences of VSC Station Operated as VSM Fig. 16 (b) plots the eigenvalue loci with variation of the PLL
When the VSC station is connected to Area 1 and operated as bandwidth, from which it can be seen that setting a low
a VSM by applying the control scheme in Fig. 1, it will bandwidth (e.g., 2rad/s) can effectively increase the damping
influence the LFOs of the two-area system. The three pairs of ratio of the Mode 1 poles, consistent with the damping torque
dominant poles of the two-area system with integration of a analysis in Section III-A. Note that the PLL bandwidth is set as
VSC station are shown in Fig. 16. Note that the other poles are BW = 50rad/s in the cases of Fig. 16 (a), (c) and (d). In Fig.
not plotted in Fig. 16 since they are much less relevant to these 16 (c), the eigenvalue loci with the virtual inductance Lv
weakly-damped modes and have high damping ratios. It can be changing from 0 to 0.75p.u. are plotted, which shows that the
seen by comparing Fig. 16 with Fig. 15 that the control setting poles of Mode 1 shift towards the left with the increase of Lv .
of VSM has great influences on the LFO modes. That is, the virtual impedance plays a positive role in damping
Note that the real parts of the poles in Fig. 15 and Fig. 16 the LFO, as also discussed in Section III-A that it helps
reflect the attenuation rates of the corresponding modes in eliminate the PLL’s negative damping effect. To demonstrate
time-domain responses, which are per-unit values (since the the effectiveness of the phase compensation method, the system
current, voltage and power variables are all per-unit values in eigenvalues with different H ( s ) are plotted in Fig. 16 (d). It
this paper). While the unit for imaginary parts should be rad/s can be seen that the damping ratio of the Mode 1 poles is

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D = 10p.u. D = 50p.u. BW = 2rad/s BW = 5rad/s

D = 100p.u. D = 150p.u. BW = 50rad/s BW = 200rad/s
With constant real power control 0.60
0.60

PTie− Line (p.u.)

0.55
PTie− Line (p.u.)

0.55
0.50
0.50
0.45
0.45 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 time (s)
time (s) 0.52
0.52 0.51

PE −VSC (p.u.)
0.51
PE −VSC (p.u.)

0.50
0.50 0.49
0.49 0.48
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0.48
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
time (s)
time (s) Fig. 19. Time-domain responses of the system with different PLL bandwidth.
Fig. 17. Time-domain responses of the test system with different D.
Case 1: H ( s ) = 1
0.2s + 1
Lv = 0.25p.u. Lv = 0.5p.u. Case 2: H ( s ) =
0.4s + 1
Lv = 0.75p.u. 0.1s + 1
Case 3: H ( s ) =
0.60 0.8s + 1
0.60
PTie− Line (p.u.)

0.55

PTie− Line (p.u.)

0.55
0.50
0.50
0.45
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0.45
time (s) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0.52 time (s)
0.52
0.51
PE −VSC (p.u.)

0.51
PE −VSC (p.u.)

0.50
0.49
0.48
0 1 2 3 4 5
time (s)
Fig. 18. Responses of the system with different virtual inductance.
increased greatly by the proper design of H ( s ) , which is
consistent with the analysis in Section III-B that the PLL’s
negative damping effect can be eliminated by changing the
phase of TPLL . In summary, the above eigenvalue analysis
results verify the conclusions drawn by the damping torque
analysis in Section III.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS OF THE TWO-AREA SYSTEM
In this section, simulation results based on MATLAB/
Simulink are provided to verify the damping torque analysis, in
which the two-area system with integration of a VSC station
(see Fig. 14) is considered. The VSC station applies the control
scheme in Fig. 1 and is operated as a VSM. Main parameters of
the studied system are given in Appendix. Assuming that an
outage of Line 6-7-1 occurs at t = 1s and the fault is cleared at t
= 1.1s, the time-domain responses of the two-area system with
different control settings in the VSC station are given in the
following to show their effects on the LFO.
Fig. 17 shows the time-domain responses of the inter tie-line
active power PTie − Line (transferred from Area 1 to Area 2) and
the active power output of the VSC station PE −VSC when
0.50
0.49
6 7 8 0.48
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
time (s)
Fig. 20. Time-domain responses of the system with phase compensation
method.
different values of D are used. It can be seen that there is an
inter-area LFO mode (i.e., Mode 1 in Fig. 15 and Fig. 16) that
dominates the oscillating behavior of the test system. Note that
this LFO is caused by the interactions among SGs and their fast
exciters [9].
With the increase of D from 10p.u. to 100p.u., the damping
of this oscillation behavior is improved. However, if D is
further increased to 150p.u., the damping of this mode basically
remains the same. The mechanism behind this phenomenon is
that the negative damping effect of the PLL is magnified with
the increase of D, discussed in Section III-A. For comparison,
Fig. 17 also plots the responses when the VSC station applies
conventional constant real power control [39]-[40]. It can be
seen that in this case, the VSC’s real power has no response to
the LFO as it acts as a constant power source, and as a
consequence, the inter tie-line active power keeps oscillating
after the disturbance, which presents undesired dynamics
compared with the other cases that apply VSM. Thus, it can be
deduced that with proper control settings, operating VSC
station as VSM can play a positive role in damping LFOs in

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power systems, which is better than using conventional control APPENDIX

to make the VSC station act as a constant power source. Base Values for Per-unit Calculation
Fig. 18 shows the time-domain responses of the two-area Base value of frequency f Base 50(Hz)
system when different values of virtual inductance Lv are Base value of angular frequency  Base 2 f Base
applied in the VSM. With the increase of Lv , the damping of
Base value of ac voltage (line to line) VBase 220(kV)
LFO is improved, corresponded with the analysis in Section
Base value of power S Base 350(MVA)
III-A that the negative damping effect of PLL is reduced with a
Parameters of VSM System (p.u.)
larger Lv . In Fig. 19, responses of the test system with different
CF Lg 0.2 Rg 0.01
PLL bandwidth ( BW ) are presented. It can be seen that the LF 0.05 0.05

responses with BW = 50rad/s and BW = 200rad/s are nearly P0 0.5 J 8 D 50 Q0 0
the same, because the fast dynamics will not influence the LFO KCCP 0.3 K CCI 10 KVCP 4 KVCI 30
in the low-frequency range. By comparison, the oscillations are Lv 0.2 Rv 0.02 KQ 0.1 V0 1
well damped when setting a low PLL bandwidth such as 1
U K PLLP 0.1094 K PLLI 1.8786 kVFF 1
BW = 2rad/s or BW = 5rad/s , consistent with the analysis
results in Section III and Section IV. tVFF 0.01

On the other hand, a low PLL bandwidth indicates that the Main Parameters of the SGs in Two-Area System (p.u.)
Xd 2.065 Xq 1.974 X d 0.4879 X q 1.19
grid frequency cannot be detected with fast responses and
accuracy. To deal with this problem, the phase compensation X d 0.35 X q 0.35 Td 0 6.56 Tq0 1.5
method can be used to eliminate the PLL’s negative damping T
d0 0.05 Tq0 0.035 J SG 8.658 Ra 0.0025
effect and meanwhile maintain fast responses and tracking Fast Exciter (IEEET1 Model)
accuracy for the PLL, as discussed in Section III-B. The Ka 50 Ta 0.05 Kf 0.0057 Tf 0.5
time-domain responses of the system with different H ( s ) are
Tr 0.1
given in Fig. 20 ( BW = 50rad/s ). Compared with Case 1, the
Steam Turbine and Governor (IEEEG1 Model)
damping of this LFO mode is improved with the choice of
T1 0.5 T2 1 T3 0.6 T4 0.6
H ( s ) in Case 2, and it is further improved in Case 3.
T5 0.5 T6 0.8 T7 1 K 5
In summary, the above simulation results are fully consistent
with the damping torque analysis and the eigenvalue analysis in K1 0.3 K2 0 K3 0.25 K4 0
the previous sections, which verify the validity and K5 0.3 K6 0 K7 0.15 K8 0
effectiveness of the VSM’s damping torque analysis in this Parameters of Lines and Loads in Two-Area System (p.u.)
paper. Z Line1−5 0.005+j0.05 Z Line 2−5 0.02+j0.2
Z Line 5-6 0.002+j0.02 Z Line 6-10 0.004+j0.2
C1 0.25 C2 0.25
VI. CONCLUSIONS
Z Line 6-7-1 0.01+j0.5 Z Line 6-7-2 0.01+j0.5
This paper investigates the influences of VSM on power
Z Line 7-8-1 0.014+j0.7 Z Line 7-8-2 0.014+j0.7
system LFOs by means of damping torque analysis. It is shown
Z Line8-9 0.004+j0.08 Z Line 9-3 0.05+j0.2
that with proper control settings, the VSM can play a significant
Z Line 9-4 0.05+j0.15 PLoad 2 1.5
role in damping LFOs of power grids. Particularly, the effects
PLoad 1 (with VSC station connected) 0.9663
of damping coefficient, virtual inductance, and PLL on the
damping torque are studied, and it is demonstrated that the PLL, PLoad 1 (with VSC station unconnected) 0.4663
which is used for grid frequency detection, has a negative
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Linbin Huang (S’16) received the B. Eng. degree in
College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, China, in 2015, where he is currently working
toward the Ph.D. degree. His research interests include
stability analysis and control of grid-connected power
converters.
Huanhai Xin (M’14) received the Ph.D. degree in College
of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou,
China, in June 2007. He was a post-doctor in the Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science Department of the
University of Central Florida, Orlando, from June 2009 to
July 2010. He is currently a Professor in the Department of
Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University. His research
interests include distributed control in active distribution
grid and micro-gird, AC/DC power system transient stability analysis and
control, and grid-integration of large-scale renewable energy to weak grid.
Zhen Wang (M’11) received the B.Eng., M.Eng. and Ph.D.
degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University,
and Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1998, 2001, and
2009, respectively. Currently he is a full-time Professor in
the Department of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang
University. He was the recipient of 2014 Endeavour
Research Fellowship sponsored by Australia Government
and visiting scholar of the University of Western Australia from Feb. 2014 to
Aug. 2014. His research interests include power system stability and control,
renewable energy integration and VSC-HVDC transmission.