Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

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International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijepes

Load frequency control and tie-line damping via virtual

synchronous generator
Gabriel S. da Silva , Edimar J. de Oliveira , Leonardo W. de Oliveira , Arthur N. de Paula *,
Jhonatan S. Ferreira , Leonardo M. Honório
Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Juiz de Fora, Brazil

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This paper proposes the participation of the virtual inertia of wind generation in the control of load frequency
Wind farm power plant and damping of oscillations in interconnection lines. The proposed approach considers high penetration of Wind
Load frequency control Farm Power Plant (WFPP) connected to hydro generation area. Virtual wind inertia has been widely investigated
Damping power system oscillation
to control frequency in an interconnected system. As the WFPP is usually connected to the grid through static
Virtual synchronous generator
Tie-line power damping
converters, they can act quickly to provide the Load Frequency Control (LFC) with fast dynamics. Therefore, the
main idea is to include an additional fast control action with the objective of aiding the frequency stabilization to
damp oscillations in interchange power line. It seeks to reduce the inverse response of hydro power plant and
maintain a scheduled wind power. A hydro-wind power system is used to show the effectiveness of the proposed
approach.

NomenclatureThe main notation is presented hereinafter and 1

Rh Droop characteristic of hydro area;
additional symbols are introduced throughout the text. close
ẊGV Valve closing speed limit (maximum valve speed);
open
ẊGV Valve opening speed limit (minimum valve speed);
Hydro Power Parameters Xclose
GV Valve closing limit (maximum valve position);
Hh Inertia constant of hydro turbine; Xopen Valve opening limit (minimum valve position).
GV
Dh Damping coefficient;
T Gh Speed governor time constant; VSG Parameters
TW Water starting time; Jv Virtual moment of inertia;
PL,h Active power load (demanded power); ωv Virtual rotor angular speed;
ΔPL,h Active power load variation (load perturbation); Δωv Virtual angular speed deviation;
ΔPG,h Active power generation deviation; θv Virtual phase angle;
ΔGV Valve speed of the hydro power plant governor; Pm,v Virtual mechanical power;
Kps,h Power system gain; Pe,v Electrical power delivered to the grid by the VSG;
Tps,h Power system time constant; Hv Virtual inertia constant;
ΔFRh Frequency variation in hydro area; Dv Virtual damping coefficient;
Ki,h Integral gain; Kdc,v Integral gain of the wind power dispatch control;
Kp,h Proportional gain; Tdc,v Time constant of the wind power dispatch control;
Kd,h Derivative gain; ΔFRv Frequency variation in VSG area.
Td,h PID controller time constant;
Rp,h Permanent governor speed regulation parameter; Conventional Wind Power Parameters
Rt,h Temporary droop parameter; ΔPWT
inertia Inertial Power released by wind turbine deviation;
TR Reset time; PMPPT Maximum Power that can be delivered by the wind turbine;

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: arthur.paula@engenharia.ufjf.br (A.N. de Paula).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2021.107108
Received 25 November 2020; Received in revised form 24 February 2021; Accepted 12 April 2021
Available online 14 May 2021
0142-0615/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
G.S. da Silva et al. International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

ΔPMPPT Deviation of PMPPT ; interconnected hydro power plants (HPP) presents many challenges
TLPF Time constant of the low pass filter; associated with oscillations in frequency and interchange power, mak­
Kinertial Proportional gain of the inertial response; ing the damping effort more difficult [19,20]. Thus, WFPP that uses VSG
ΔPref Active power reference deviation of wind turbine converter can enhance the damping in interchange with hydro power area, reduce
ΔPGW Active power generation deviation of wind turbine inverse response and improve the frequency control.
Under the previous background, the present work proposes an
Interconnection Parameters innovative Wind Power Dispatch Control (WPDC) of VSG. Although the
Xi,j Tie-line reactance; VSG approach has been widely used to improve the system inertia due to
Ki,j Tie-line parameter; its fast time response, this paper investigates an additional VSG ability
ΔTi,j Tie-line power deviation. related to reducing oscillations in interconnected hydro systems. As an
interconnection transmission line is subject to persistent oscillations
mainly in hydraulic system, the VSG can be used to damp these oscil­
1. Introduction
lations based on the converter fast response, in addition to providing
frequency control. Moreover, the proposed control reduces the inverse
The increase of environmental concerns and the intense search for
response and returns the WFPP to the specified de-loaded schedule when
sustainable development and greenhouse gas emission reduction led to a
the steady state is reached. The performance for a hydro-wind power
growing penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) into electric
system is compared with that for a conventional EPS having only hydro
power systems (EPS) around the world. According to [1], wind power
power plants to assess the proposed approach.
(WP) has been presented an exponential growing along the time. In
The main contributions of this work can be summarized as follows:
Brazil, the participation of RES in the electrical matrix reached 83% in
2019 according to the Energy Research Company (EPE), being 64.9% of
• Proposal of an innovative control to enhance the role of WP in EPS;
hydraulic power (HP), 8.6% of WP, 1.0% of photovoltaic (PV) and 8.4%
• Proposal of an optimization method to tune all the system controllers
of biomass. In terms of capacity, hydraulic generation has 109.058 GW,
under the respective saturation limits;
wind power 15.378 GW and photovoltaic 2.473 GW [2]. The energy
• Support for frequency control and damping in tie-line through an
from WP was 663 GWh and 55, 986 GWh in 2007 and 2019,
adjustable control;
respectively.
• Maintenance of WFPP at its scheduled dispatch after a perturbation;
The previous amounts show the growing penetration of WP into EPS,
• Reduction of the hydro turbine inverse response for a suitable
which brings out issues related to power stability and reliability. Wind
stabilization;
energy consists of a natural intermittent resource due to the fluctuating
• Discussion on the possibility of WFPP providing ancillary service.
wind speed behavior that can cause power curtailment, affecting the
reliability and security of EPS with high WP penetration [3,4]. There­
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the
fore, an analysis of the role of WP in system frequency and power
standard modeling of hydro power plants; Section 3 develops the
oscillation becomes vital.
mathematical modeling of VSG; Section 4 presents the optimization
In general, the connection of a wind turbine generator (WTG) to the
method to tune the control parameters; Section 5 describes the inter­
grid uses a static converter that decouples the rotor speed from the grid
connected hydro-wind power system model; Section 6 gives the results
frequency, i.e., the rotary mass of a WTG is decoupled from the grid.
and comparisons and, finally, Section 7 presents the conclusions of this
Therefore, WTG has no inertial contribution for an EPS, which reduces
work.
the equivalent inertia of the system, causing deterioration in the inertial
response of LFC [5,6]. As a consequence, it should be necessary to in­
2. Standard modeling of hydro power plants
crease the spinning reserve from hydro or thermal plants that have high
cost. Alternatively, Virtual Synchronous Generator (VSG) has been
The standard modeling of an isolated hydro power plant considering
investigated for this purpose [7–11].
small deviation of frequency can be represented by the linearized block
In order to make WTGs participate in the primary and secondary
diagram showed in Fig. 1 [20]. In this model, PID controller associated
frequency control, PFC and SFC respectively, a spinning reserve is
with transient droop compensator (TDC) and speed governor control
required to deal with load variations and the intermittent wind vari­
have been widely used to introduce suitable control in the hydro turbine
ability [12,13]. This power reserve can be obtained by operating WTGs
characteristic.
in the de-loaded mode [13–15], instead of the commonly used maximum
It is well known that a hydro turbine presents transient inverse
power point tracking (MPPT) control mode [16–18].
output response, represented by the water time constant (TW ), that
Considering the inverse response of hydro turbines (HT), the LFC of

Fig. 1. Block Diagram of Hydro Power Plant.

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G.S. da Silva et al. International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

3. Mathematical modeling of VSG

The well-known swing equation of a VSG is given hereinafter. The

corresponding block diagram of Fig. 3 represents the VSG model.
dωv
Jv ⋅ωv ⋅ = Pm,v − Pe,v − Dv ⋅Δωv (1a)
dt

dθv
= ωv (1b)
dt
In the operation of a WTG based on VSG technique, the output from
VSG, ωv and θv in Fig. 3, are reference signals. Thus, the VSG defines the
voltage angle for the inverter connected to the grid [13].
Considering a small variation of ωv around the equilibrium point, the
swing equation of VSG can be rewritten by using the virtual inertia
constant (Hv ), instead of Jv , as follows:
dωv
(2⋅Hv )⋅ = Pm,v − Pe,v − Dv ⋅Δωv (2)
dt

where Hv (sec.) is defined in Eq. (3).

Fig. 2. Power Generation Characteristic of Hydro Plant.
Stored Kinetic Energy
Hv = (3)
Rated Apparent Power
In LFC, a linearized system around an equilibrium point can be used,
and thus the model must represent the system behavior after a distur­
bance. Therefore, the VSG swing equation should be rewritten to
represent the linearization procedure. For that purpose, the parameters
ωv , Pm,v and Pe,v are formulated as:
ωv = ω0 + Δωv (4)

Pm,v = P0m,v + ΔPm,v (5)

Pe,v = P0e,v + ΔPe,v (6)

Fig. 3. Block Diagram of VSG.
causes a delay time so that the flow reaches a new steady value and the
turbine recovers the normal operation point [19,21]. Therefore, hydro
turbines present a relatively slow response when compared, for
example, with steam turbines [22]. In order to overcome this drawback,
TDC is used for hydro turbines control to reduce the inverse response
characteristic [20,23]. TDC is necessary to provide a stable speed control
to the plant, limiting the overshoot of the turbine gate servomotor
during a transient condition. Usually, TDC is formed by a transient droop
parameter (Rt,h ) and a large resetting time (TR ) [19,24,25].
The PID controller has been used as a supplementary control action
to maintain the frequency at the nominal value in steady state. The
parameters of the PID controller are the proportional, integral and de­
rivative gains, Kp,h , Ki,h and Kd,h respectively, and the derivative filter
time constant Td,h to minimize noise effect.
The load-generation unbalance results in frequency deviation ac­
cording to the system’s swing equation, represented in Fig. 1 by the
power system block.
It should be emphasized that this model has six variables: Kp,h , Ki,h ,
Kd,h and Td,h from the PID controller; and TR and Rt,h of the transient
droop compensator. With the purpose of reaching suitable behavior
under some perturbation, the previous parameters should be optimized
at the same time, as shown in Section 4.
Fig. 2 shows the typical power generation curve of a hydro turbine
considering a power load variation (ΔPL,h ) equal to 5 MW, as well as the
PID controller and TDC actions. It is possible to note the inverse response
of 2 MW of the hydro turbine during the initial seconds.
where ω0 , P0m,v and P0e,v represent the equilibrium point or the steady
state operation condition for the angular speed, virtual mechanical
power and output power of the inverter, respectively, and Δx0 repre­
sents the deviation from the steady state condition for variable x. Thus,
Eq. (2) can be rewritten as follows:
d(ω0 + Δωv )
2⋅Hv ⋅ = P0m,v + ΔPm,v − (P0e,v + ΔPe,v ) − Dv ⋅Δωv (7)
dt
As ω0 is constant, the derivative term d(ω0 +Δ dt
ωv )
becomes d(Δdtωv ). In
addition, the mechanical and electrical powers are in equilibrium in
steady state and thus P0m,v = P0e,v . From Eq. (2) along with the previous
statements, Eq. (8) is obtained.
2⋅Hv ⋅
dΔωv
= ΔPm,v − ΔPe,v − Dv ⋅Δωv (8)
dt
Notice that the swing Eq. (8) is formulated in terms of deviations
(Δωv , ΔPm,v and ΔPe,v ), which is more usual in LFC analysis [19,20]. By
applying Laplace transform to Eq. (8) and rearranging terms, Eq. (9) can
be achieved.
ΔPm,v − ΔPe,v − Dv ⋅Δωv 1
Δωv = ⋅ (9)
2⋅Hv s
In order to provide frequency regulation in de-loaded wind power
condition and allow primary frequency control, the droop statism (Rv )
function is added to the VSG model. Furthermore, a PI controller is
added to perform SFC. Notice that the operation in the de-loaded mode
reduces the profits of the plant owner. However, the resulting energy
reserve enables the plant to provide ancillary services to the grid, as
frequency regulation and tie-line damping. Therefore, the reduction in
profits due to the de-loaded mode can be compensated by incomes from
ancillary services.

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G.S. da Silva et al.
Fig. 4. VSG Control System With PFC, SFC and WPDC.
Fig. 5. Typical time domain response of VSG for three conditions of vir­
tual inertia.
In the present paper, the wind power dispatch control is proposed to
ensure that the VSG operates at the specified de-loaded percent of
maximum wind power. In other words, the proposed control makes the
WP dispatch to return to its previously programmed value after aiding
the system by providing virtual inertia. This control enhances the EPS
operation with the connected WFPP.
The proposed WPDC is formed by two blocks: (i) a low-pass filter
with high time constant (Tdc,v ) to delay the control action in a suitable
manner; and (ii) the integrator gain (Kdc,v ) to eliminate dispatch error
after the disturbance in system.
The block diagram of Fig. 4 represents the complete system with PFC,
SFC and WPDC. This system comprises a virtual mechanical actuator,
with time constant Tv , to emulate the behavior of mechanical actuators
of a real synchronous generator. In addition, limits for the VSG variation
are added to the model through a power deviation limiter, as shown
Fig. 4.
The PI controller parameters of the proposed VSG are obtained
through optimization approach that is presented in Section 4. In this
case, the optimization variables are the proportional and integral gains
of the PI controller, Kp,v and Ki,v respectively, and the WPDC integral
gain Kdc,v .
Fig. 5 shows the typical response of VSG with the PFC and SFC ac­
tions for a load increment of 5 MW, considering three values for the
virtual inertia constant: Hv = 1, Hv = 5 and Hv = 10. From this figure, it
can be highlighted that the stability and damping increase when Hv is
high and curves gradually become close to each other. Thus, the average
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International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108
Fig. 6. Behavior of poles and zeros with the increase of Hv .
value Hv = 5.6 was chosen and worked well in the LFC problem.
Similar analysis can be performed by using small signal stability
according to the classical control theory [26]. Fig. 6 shows the charac­
teristic root trajectory for inertia increasing from Hv = 1 to Hv = 10.
When the virtual inertia constant is equal to 10, it can be observed that
the dominant eigenvalues are close to the imaginary axis and the poles’
imaginary components are close to the real axis. This condition leads to a
low time response with reduced oscillation. On the other hand, for Hv =
1, the opposite occurs.
It can be observed in Fig. 5 a relatively fast VSG action, which can be
explained by the reduced of physical limitations or mechanical time
constants, since the VSG parameters are virtual and implemented in a
power electronic instrument (in this case, the grid-side inverter of the
WTG). Thus, the VSG action can be considered as fast in comparison to
real synchronous generator, and this feature can be used to damp os­
cillations from hydro power system, as proposed in this work.
4. Tuning optimization method
The optimization approach proposed to tune both hydro and VSG
controllers is based on the time-response domain. The advantage is that
all the optimization variables can be tuned at the same time to improve
both the time response and dynamic damping. Related to hydro power
plant, the PID and transient droop compensator should be tuned
together with the PI controller and the WPDC.
The integral of time square error (ITSE) is the objective function
adopted in this paper and it has already been used in LFC studies [27].
G.S. da Silva et al. International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

Fig. 7. Block diagram of the interconnected hydro-wind EPS.

The proposed optimization problem is modeled hereinafter. The objective function (OF) given by Eq. (10) consists of the square
tend tend tend
deviation from the steady state point and the constraints in (11) limit the
∑ ∑ ∑
Min Δf (t)2 + ρu .(Δz(t) − zusat )2 +
2
ρd .(Δz(t) − zdsat ) (10) optimization variables. In other words, X should minimize the oscilla­
t=1 t=1 t=1 tion Δf(t) and ensure that the limits of Δz(t) are not violated.
The optimization problem (10), (11) is solved by using the MatLab
Subject to:
optimization package based on interior point method called fmincon
X min
i < Xi < X max
i (i = 1, …, Nval ) (11) [28]. The initial point (X0i ) for the optimization variables is given by the
average value between Xmin i and Xmax
i for every i.
where:
During the Newton–Raphson based iterative process of the interior
point method, the optimization variables X are evaluated under the
• t is the time instant;
respective Δf(t) and Δz(t) values, which are obtained by using the
• Δf (t) is the time-dependent output frequency deviation;
simulink package of MatLab [29]. Therefore, X is optimized to reduce the
• Δz(t) is the time-dependent output deviation considering the limiter
oscillation Δf (t) while maintaining Δz(t) within the respective limits.
effect, comprising the limit deviation of power generation, valve
speed and position;
5. Interconnected hydro-wind power system
• zusat and zdsat represent the up and down saturation values of variable
Δz(t), respectively; The variation in virtual phase angle of the interconnection bus from
• ρu and ρd are the penalization parameters to maintain all points Δz(t) the WP system, Δθv , is given by the VSG control loop and is used to
within the saturation limits. Parameters ρu and ρd are equal to zero if calculate the tie-line power flow when the VSG is operating in a inter­
Δz(t) stay within the saturation limits yusat and ydsat , respectively, for connected multi-area EPS. The variation in tie-line power flow (ΔPh,v ) is
all z. On the other hand, ρu or ρd are equal to 1000 if Δz(t) is out of proportional to the difference between the phase angles of the inter­
the saturation limits for any t. A high penalization value is used to connection buses from the WP and hydro-based systems, as shown in Eq.
ensure suitable time response without limits violation; (12).
• X is the vector of variables that should be optimized; 1
• tend represent the final time of simulation; ΔPh,v = ⋅(Δθh − Δθv ) (12)
Xhv
• Nval is the number of optimization variables.
where Δθh is the variation in phase angle of the interconnection bus

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G.S. da Silva et al. International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

Fig. 8. The two-area system topology.

Table 1
PID and TDC optimized parameters for HPP.
Kp,h Ki,h Kd,h Td,h TR,h Rt,h

− 1.6397 0.3217 5.5161 0.1586 10.3488 58.5426

Table 2
PI and WPDC optimized parameters for VSG.
Fig. 10. Power deviation in the HPP and VSG areas.
Kp,v Ki,v Kdc,v
6. Simulation and discussion
23.7366 14.8321 0.9750

6.1. Case 1: hydro-wind VSG

Fig. 9. Frequency deviation in the HPP and VSG areas.
from the hydro-based system and Xhv is the reactance of the transmission
tie-line that connects the WP-side bus v to the hydro-side bus h.
Due to the intermittent behavior of the wind, the tie-line power flow
varies according to the WP fluctuation. As a consequence, the trans­
mission line must be projected to support a large range of power flow
values and tie-line control is not enough in a WP-based interconnected
system.
The control diagram of the two-area interconnected hydro-wind EPS
is shown in Fig. 7, where Kh,v is a parameter related to the tie-line. It
should be emphasized that this configuration has been widely used to
represent LFC problem. It should be highlighted that both hydro and
wind farm power plants are considered operating in the interconnected
mode and that the parameters proposed to be optimized are:
The first case considers two areas that form a hydro-wind inter­
connected EPS as described in Section 5 and showed in Fig. 7. In addi­
tion, Fig. 8 shows the system topology. The hydro and wind farm power
plants have capacities of 900 MW and 400 MW, respectively. The power
base is 100 MW and the tie-line parameter (Kh,v ) is equal to 0.0225.
Appendix A shows the data for HPP where the adopted load variation
is equal to 5 MW. For the hydro area, the gate rate constrains (GRC),
which consist of speed and position limits for the hydro turbine valve,
are represented by the saturation limits. Table A shows the lower and
upper limits of the optimization variables.
Appendix B shows the data for WFPP where the load increases 20
MW as a perturbation. For the wind area, the saturation limits consist of
constraints for the VSG power, related to the energy reserve from WTG.
Table B shows the lower and upper limits of the optimization variables.
The WPDC time constant, Tdc,v , is set at 10 s and must be greater than the
other time constants to provide a time delay in recovering the scheduled
wind dispatch. In other words, the WP scheduled dispatch is the last
variable to reach the steady state so that the frequency can be recovered
first.
The proposed approach from Section 4 is applied to obtain the
optimal control parameters for the interconnected hydro-wind EPS,

• from the hydro power plant: the PID controller and the TDC;
• from the WFPP: the PI controller and WPDC of the VSG.

Notice that as the VSG can be considered as having a fast control, as

previously described, it can be suitable to reduce the interconnection
oscillation observed in the transmission tie-line, which is shown in
Section 6. Fig. 11. Tie-line power deviation in the hydro-wind system.

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G.S. da Silva et al. International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

Fig. 12. Generic power control scheme for a conventional wind power plant.

Fig. 13. HPP and CWPP interconnected systems.

Fig. 7, in particular the PID and TDC setting for HPP, in addition to the PI
and WPDC parameters for WFPP. As previously described, the objective
is to minimize frequency deviations in both hydro and wind areas,
subject to constraints for the HT valve and VSG power variation. The
obtained optimal tuning is shown in Tables 1 and 2.
Fig. 9 shows the frequency deviation in both hydro and VSG areas
after the considered load perturbation. It can be seen that, after the
perturbation, a frequency nadir around 0.1 Hz occurs in the hydro area
and it takes approximately 30 s for the frequency deviation becomes
relatively close to zero, where the steady state is reached. As VSG is
implemented in the wind unit converters, it has fast action due to the Fig. 14. Frequency deviation in the HPP and CWPP areas.
greater flexibility in power electronic equipment. As a consequence, the
deviation in the VSG frequency is very small when compared to con­
ventional generating units, such as those in a hydro power plant.
Fig. 10 shows the deviation in powers from the HT and VSG. It can be
emphasized that VSG provides the highest response to the load variation
at the first moments after the perturbation. But over time, the load is
slowly transferred to the hydro turbine due the WPDC action, which
makes the VSG power deviation equal to zero in steady state. In this case,
WTG aids the system during 10 min, time enough so that the HT can
react to the load variation. Moreover, it can be observed that the HT
reverse response is small, around 2.37 MW, and the power from HPP
increases softly until the steady state. In addition, the steady-state power
deviation in hydro area is 25 MW, which corresponds to the total load
perturbation in both hydro and wind areas, showing that HT assumes the
load variation in steady state, and thus the steady-state VSG deviation is
equal to zero. It means that WP returns to its scheduled de-loaded
dispatch in steady state.
Fig. 11 shows the power deviation in the tie-line of the inter­
connected hydro-wind EPS. It can be noted that the power from the
hydro to the wind area increases over time until reaching 20 MW in
steady state, showing that HT feeds the total load variation through the Fig. 15. Power deviation in the HPP and CWPP areas.
interconnection transmission line. It can also be observed a small
oscillation in power flow due the damping provided by VSG during the constant value for the maximum power reference (PMPPT ).
power transfer through the transmission line. The wind turbine-generator set contains kinetic energy that can be
provided to assist the system frequency control after disturbances. In
this way, the inertia controller is used to modify the power reference,
6.2. Case 2: conventional hydro-wind controller enhance the frequency response and contribute actively to the frequency
control [30]. The WT converter control system acts to give the wind
Another simulation is carried out considering the interconnected power (ΔPGw ) needed to meet the power balance equation. The
system between HPP and conventional wind power plant (CWPP). The connection with the hydro power system is represented by the tie-line
generic power controller scheme for the Wind Turbine (WT) used for the power deviation (ΔTw,h ), and the load variation in a wind area is rep­
LFC analysis is depicted in Fig. 12. This control is based on the WT resented by (ΔPL,w ).
maximum power point tracking (MPPT) strategy and considers a The interconnected conventional hydro-wind power plant (HPP-

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G.S. da Silva et al. International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

Fig. 16. Tie-line power deviation in HPP-CWPP. Fig. 17. Frequency deviation in areas 1 and 2.

Table 3
PID and TDC optimized parameters for HPP-1.
Kp,h1 Ki,h1 Kd,h1 Td,h1 TR,h1 RT,h1

− 0.8794 0.0379 1.4333 0.8338 7.8750 33.6797

Table 4
PID and TDC optimized parameters for HPP-2.
Kp,h2 Ki,h2 Kd,h2 Td,h2 TR,h2 RT,h2

− 0.8099 0.0248 2.5675 0.0410 1.9060 41.5029

CWPP) can exchange power flow through the tie-line to help both HPP
and CWPP systems, being the frequency deviation defined by the hydro
plant as shown in Fig. 13. The system data is the same previously used,
except for the wind power controller, for which the Kinertial gain is equal
to 0.6 and the low-pass filter time constant TLPF is equal to 0.1 s.
From the previous conditions, the Matlab/Simulink model is used to
Fig. 18. Power generation deviation in areas 1 and 2.
obtain the dynamic behavior of the interconnected system. Fig. 14
shows the frequency deviation in the entire system. As expected, the
frequency nadir is too high (0.6 Hz) when compared to the corre­
sponding VSG approach as shown in Fig. 9 (frequency nadir equal to 0.1
Hz approximately).
Fig. 15 shows the deviation in powers from both HPP and CWPP. It
can be observed that ΔPWT inertia provides small response to the frequency
variation at the first moments after the perturbation, leading to a higher
inverse response from HPP when compared to the VSG action given in
Fig. 10. As the inertial control actions in the wind generation are carried
out through static converters that have a very small time constant, at the
first moments the wind generation can cover a share of the load varia­
tion. However, as time goes on the wind units reduce their power
delivered to the system causing a high nadir. This problem can be
overcome by operating the wind units in the de-loaded mode.
As the steady state is reached, the load variation in the wind area (20
MW) is supplied by HPP through the tie-line as shown in Fig. 16. Thus,
the kinetic energy returns to the MPPT set point.
Comparing the results between the VSG and the conventional wind
control, it can be pointed out the higher effectiveness of the first one
because it has more kinetic energy stored in the VSG operating set.
Fig. 19. Power deviation in the tie-line.

6.3. Case 3: hydro-hydro

For comparison purpose, another simulation was carried out

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G.S. da Silva et al.
Fig. 20. Single-line diagram of the three-area system.
considering a traditional system having two hydro areas. In this case, the
wind area of the previous simulation was replaced by a hydro area (area
2) having the same capacity (400 MW), while the hydro area of
Fig. 21. Control block diagram of the three-area hydro-wind-hydro power system.
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International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108
Simulation Case-1 is maintained (area 1). The additional data for this
hydro area is shown in Appendix C. The PID and TDC parameters related
to HPP are optimized by applying the optimization approach proposed
in Section 4. The obtained optimal values for the 900-MW (HPP-1) and
400-MW (HPP-2) areas are given in Tables 3 and 4, respectively.
In order to compare the responses of HPP-2 (Simulation Case-2) and
WFPP (Simulation Case-1), a tertiary control is added to HPP-2 to
maintain its scheduled power dispatch. This control is implemented by
using the optimized value Kdc,h = 0.0225. As considered for WFPP in
Simulation-1, the time constant for the HPP-2 dispatch control, Tdc,h , is
equal to 10 s and means a time delay so that HPP-2 reaches its scheduled
dispatch. The results are shown in Figs. 17–19.
Fig. 17 shows the frequency deviation in the two hydro areas. It can
be seen that the oscillation of area 1 is much higher than that observed in
the hydro area of Simulation-1, Fig. 9. In Fig. 17, the frequency nadir is
around 0.62 Hz, six times greater than that obtained in Simulation-1
from the VSG action.
Fig. 18 shows the hydro power in the two areas. It is apparent from
analyzing the reverse response of HT in Fig. 18 that it has been increased
in relation to the HT reverse response in Fig. 10. Finally, Fig. 19 shows
the power oscillation in the tie-line until the steady state is reached. It
G.S. da Silva et al. International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

Table 5
PID controller and TDC optimized parameters.
Kp,h2 Ki,h2 Kd,h2 Td,h2 TR,h2 RT,h2

− 1.2661 0.5985 2.8898 0.0105 5.4140 62.2186

Table 6
Interconnection parameters of the hydro power plants.
Bh1 Bh2 Gh1 Gh2

1.0676 1.0674 0.01 0.0487

Fig. 24. Tie-line power deviation of the three-area power system.

Fig. 22. Frequency deviation of the three-area power system.

Fig. 25. Dominant eigenvalues of the interconnected power systems.

Fig. 23. Power generation deviation of the three-area power system.
should be emphasized that the oscillation in the hydro-based EPS is
greater than that for the hydro-wind EPS displayed in Fig. 11, because
hydro plants have inverse response and high time delay for acting.
Notice that as the WFPP operating in a de-loaded condition is suit­
able to provide frequency regulation, reduction in inverse response and
damping for tie-line, it can be remunerated for such auxiliary service to
cover the de-loaded dispatch. This issue should be further discussed.
6.4. Case 4: three interconnected areas
This simulation case is comprised by three generation/load areas
having hydro (HPP1), wind (VSG) and hydro (HPP2) power plants, as
depicted in Fig. 20. This system was obtained by adding the HPP2 area
to the HPP1-VSG system. It can be observed the tie-line variations
ΔTh1,h2 , ΔTh1,v and ΔTh2,v , between the hydro areas, the hydro area h1
and the wind area, and the hydro area h2 and the wind area,
respectively.
The HPP and VSG data are the same of the previous simulations. The
block diagram of the power system control is shown in Fig. 21. As it can
be observed, the hydro power plants have tie-line control by applying
Automatic Control Error (ACE), which is equal to the sum of the fre­
quency bias (Bh ) and tie-line feedback gain (Gh ). In this case, the load
variation is: 10 MW in area h1, 15 MW in area v and 5 MW in area h2.
By applying the tuning optimization method described in Section 4,
the controllers of the added HPP2 and the interconnected gains are
calculated. Table 5 shows the controllers for HPP2 and the inter­
connected gains can be found in Table 6.
After the tuning of all controllers, the simulation is carried out and
the results are obtained. Fig. 22 shows the frequency deviations of the
three areas where the VSG area presents the smallest deviation due to
the fast response of VSG. Fig. 23 shows the power generation dispatch
during the dynamic period. It can be observed that the VSG helps the
system during the lack of generation from hydro plants. At the steady
state, the VSG remains at the programmed dispatch without deviation of

10
G.S. da Silva et al.
the set point. On the other hand, Fig. 24 shows the system tie-line de­
viation where it can be emphasized the VSG contribution during the
dynamic time simulation. At the steady-state, the load of the VSG area is
fully supplied by the interconnected system because the VSG returns its
generation to its set point.
6.5. Case 5: small signal stability analysis
Another analysis is carried out to assess the improvements that can
achieved by using the VSG technology. The small signal model of the
proposed VSG controller can be analyzed by using information from the
eigenvalue method that is widely applied to evaluate the system stability
[26,31,32].
Fig. 25 shows the dominant eigenvalues of the hydro-wind and
hydro-hydro systems from Sections 6.1 and 6.3, respectively. According
to the classical control theory, the eigenvalues should be located at the
left side of the pole-zero map to improve the system stability. In this
sense, it can be pointed out the better location of the eigenvalues of the
hydro-wind power system due to the VSG controller action. The hydro-
hydro analysis presents two zeros on the right side of the map, which
makes the steady-state point more difficult to be reached.
7. Conclusions
This paper presented an approach to investigate and model the role
of wind power in the LFC problem aiming at enhancing oscillation
damping between interconnected areas of an EPS. For that purpose, a
system with three areas interconnected by a transmission line was
considered, where one area has wind farm power plants and the others
have hydraulic plants. The virtual synchronous generator and the de-
loaded operation of wind turbine were considered to model the contri­
bution of WFPP to the LFC issue. From the results, the following aspects
can be emphasized:
• The VSG action for LFC reduced reverse response and avoided large
power variation of hydro turbine;
• The frequency deviation was reduced due to the fast action of VSG;
• The power in tie-line presents less sudden variations in system with
VSG in comparison to conventional system with only hydraulic
power;
Appendix A
This appendix shows the data of the hydro power plant used in this work. The values are given in nominal power capacity (PN ). The system base
values are:
PB = 100 MW fB = 60 Hz ωB = 2 πfB .
where PB , fB and ωB are the base power, frequency and angular speed, respectively.
The data for the hydro power are:
PN,h = 900 MW TG = 0.5 TW = 3 Hh = 5
/
Dh = 1.5(% Hz) Rp,h = 5% PL,h = 0.75⋅PN,h
ΔPL,h = 5 MW X open close
GV = 0.1 X GV = 0.1
open close
Ẋ GV = 0.16 Ẋ GV = 0.16.
The previous parameters referred to the base power are:
11
International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108
• The conventional wind power control operating in MPPT model
presents small capacity to avoid frequency sag.
Although the wind turbine operating in a de-loaded condition re­
duces its profit, its support for the LFC task as ancillary service can result
in incomes that cover the power delivery reduction. Finally, notice that
the proposed approach provided a background for hardware-in-the-loop
(HIL) studies to assess the behavior of the interconnected system in a
realistic manner and to allow decisions within acceptable times. In
particular, the PI and PID controllers, as well as the virtual mechanical
actuator and VSG action can be modeled in a digital signal processing
and control platform, as the dSPACE, whereas the hydro turbine and
power system can be represented in a real-time digital simulator, as the
RTDS. Thus, the HIL can be done between the dSPACE and RTDS in­
teractions, where the control signals generated in the dSPACE are sent to
the RTDS, which emulates the system behavior and returns the fre­
quency variation to the dSPACE so that the decision controls can be
made when required. This development is potential for future studies
and researches.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Gabriel S. da Silva: Software, Methodology, Visualization, Writing -
original draft. Edimar J. de Oliveira: Conceptualization, Software,
Methodology, Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Leonardo W. de
Oliveira: Writing - review & editing. Arthur N. de Paula: Writing -
review & editing. Jhonatan S. Ferreira: Writing - review & editing.
Leonardo M. Honório: Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge CAPES, CNPq, FAPEMIG and INERGE for
their support.
G.S. da Silva et al. International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

Table A
PID controller and TDC limits for HPP.
Parameter Min Max

Kp,h 1 0
−
Rh
Ki,h 0.001 0.1
Kd,h 0.01 6
TD,h 0.05 1.1
TR,h 0.11 19
Rt,h (%) 5 120

/
1.5 PL,h 0.75⋅900
Dh = ⋅ = 0.015⋅ = 0.10125 p.u.MW Hz
100 PB 100

PN,h 900
Hh = 5⋅ = 5⋅ = 45 p.u.
PB 100
/
1 1
Kps,h = = = 9.87654 Hz p.u.MW
Dh 0.10125

2⋅H 2⋅45
Tps,h = = = 14.81481 s
Dh ⋅fn 0.10125⋅60
/
Rp, h f ⋅PB 5 60⋅100
Rh = ⋅ = ⋅ = 0.3333 Hz p.u.MW
100 PN 100 900

5 5
ΔPL,h = = = 0.05 p.u.
PB 100

PN,h2 900
X open
GV = 0.1⋅ = 0.1⋅ = 0.9
PB 100

PN,h2 900
X close
GV = 0.1⋅ = 0.1⋅ = 0.9
PB 100

open PN,h2 900

Ẋ GV = 0.16⋅ = 0.16⋅ = 1.44
PB 100

close PN,h2 900

Ẋ GV = 0.16⋅ = 0.16⋅ = 1.44
PB 100
Table A shows the lower and upper limits for the PID controller and TDC.

Appendix B

The data for the wind power plant are given with the subscript v, as follows:
PN,v = 400 MW Rp,v = 5% PL,v = 0.3⋅PN .

ΔPL,v = 20 MW

Considering that wind turbine presents PMPPT = 170MW and operates with a de-loaded factor equal to 30%, i.e. the WTG delivers 70% of the MPPT
set point to the grid, the following limits are defined for the VSG power deviation:
ΔPmax
m,v = 50 MW ΔPmin
m,v = − 10 MW.

The VSG data are:

Hv = 5.6 p.u. Dv = 6 p.u.MW/p.u.(rad/s).

Tv = 0.6 s
The previous parameters referred to base power result in:
/ /
PL,v 0.3⋅400
Dv = 6⋅ = 6⋅ = 7.2 p.u.MW p.u.(rad s)
PB 100
Rewriting Dv as p.u.MW/(rad/s):
/
7.2
Dv = = 0.0191 p.u.MWs rad
2⋅π⋅fB

PN,v 400
Hv = 5.6⋅ = 5.6⋅ = 22.4 p.u.
PB 100

12
G.S. da Silva et al. International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

Table B
Limits for the VSG control parameters.
Parameter Min Max

Kp,v 12 30
Ki,v 0.01 15
Kdc,v 0.001 1.5

/
Rp,v f ⋅PB 5 60⋅100
Rv = ⋅ = ⋅ = 0.75 Hz p.u.MW
100 PN,v 100 400

20 20
ΔPL,v = = = 0.2 p.u.
PB 100

50 40
ΔPmax
m,v = = = 0.5 p.u.
PB 100

− 10 − 10
ΔPmin
m,v = == = − 0.1 p.u.
PB 100
Table B shows the lower and upper limits for the VSG control parameters.

Appendix C

This appendix shows the data for the hydro power plant of 400 MW (HPP-2) used in Simulation Case-3, which has the same capacity of the WFPP
described in Appendix-B and the parameters hereinafter, where PN,h2 is the hydro nominal power.
PN,h2 = 400 MW TG2 = 0.5 TW2 = 2
/
Hh2 = 5.6 Dh2 = 1.5(% Hz) Rp,h2 = 5%

PL,h2 = 120 MW ΔPL,h2 = 20 MW X open

GV2 = 0.1.

open close
X close
GV2 = 0.1 Ẋ GV2 = 0.16 Ẋ GV2 = 0.16.

The previous parameters referred to base power results in:

/
1.5 PL,h2 120
Dh2 = ⋅ = 0.015⋅ = 0.018 p.u.MW Hz
100 PB 100
PN,h2 400
Hh2 = 5.6⋅ = 5.6⋅ = 22.4 p.u.
PB 100
/
1 1
Kps,h2 = = = 55.5556 Hz p.u.MW
Dh 2 0.018

2⋅H 2⋅22.4
Tps,h2 = = = 41.4815 s
Dh ⋅fn 0.018⋅60
/
Rp, h2 f ⋅PB 5 60⋅100
Rh2 = ⋅ = ⋅ = 0.75 Hz p.u.MW
100 PN,h2 100 400

20 20
ΔPL,h2 = = = 0.2 p.u.
PB 100

PN,h2 400
X open
GV2 = 0.1⋅ = 0.1⋅ = 0.4
PB 100

PN,h2 400
X close
GV2 = 0.1⋅ = 0.1⋅ = 0.4
PB 100

open PN,h2 400

Ẋ GV2 = 0.16⋅ = 0.16⋅ = 0.64
PB 100

13
G.S. da Silva et al. International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems 132 (2021) 107108

Table C
PID controller and TDC limits for HPP-2.
Parameter Min Max

Kp,h2 1 0
−
Rh2
Ki,h2 0.001 0.1
Kd,h2 0.01 6
TD,h2 0.05 1.1
TR,h2 0.11 19
Rt,h2 (%) 5 120

close PN,h2 400

Ẋ GV2 = 0.16⋅ = 0.16⋅ = 0.64
PB 100
Table C shows the lower and upper limits for the PID controller and TDC.

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