Voltage Stability And Control Modes In HVDC Systems

Xu Zheng
Electrical Engineering Department ,Zhejiang University ,Hangzhou, China, 3 10027

Abstract: In this paper, according to the classical definition of

the voltage stability of a load connected to a generator through
a transmission line, a criterion called Voltage Stability Index
(VSI) which can be used to determine the voltage stability of Vlb
the converter AC bus is proposed. A numeric algorithm to
calculate the VSI is also developed, which is based on the
linearization of the AC/DC system equations. Using the
algorithm, the voltage stability of a typical HVDC inverter AC
bus under several common used control modes is investigated.

Keywords: HVDC Voltage stability Control Modes

Short circuit ratio
Fig. 1. A simplified model of a HVDC converter connected to
I. INTRODUCTION an AC network

When the receiving end AC system is weak, the voltage
stability of the converter AC bus becomes an important
problem for the operation of the HVDC system. To solve this
problem, strengthening the AC system such as installing
synchronous condensers and static var compensators is only
one way, choosing appropriate control strategy for the HVDC
system is also a good approach. So, it is necessary to study the
relationship between the voltage stability of the converter AC
v d , Id: DC voltage and Current
Pd, Qd: Active and reactive power injected into the converter-transformer
XT: The leakage reactance of the converter transformer
IZ 1 L 9: The equivalent impedance of the AC system
E L 0: The equivalent electromagneticforce of the AC system
V L 8: The voltage of the converter AC bus
P, QW: The active and reactive power injected into the AC system
8,: The equivalent admittance of the AC filters and the shunt capacitors
T: The tap of the converter transformer

bus, the control strategy of the HVDC system and the strength
of the AC system. at some HVDC transmission power Pd, that is

11. MODEL SYSTEM AND VOLTAGE STABILITY dQac dQd dQc

CRITERION VSI = [- + -- -Ip,=P,, (1)
dV dV dV
For the analysis of the converter AC bus voltage Obviously, when VSBO, the voltage of the converter AC bus
stability, it is convenient to adopt the system model as Fig. 1. is stable in steady state, and when VSICO, the voltage of the
In Fig. 1, the HVDC system can be regarded as a variable load converter AC bus is unstable. In actual numeric calculation,
connected to the converter AC bus. Thus, the analysis of the the derivatives in VSI can be replaced by the difference
voltage stability of the converter AC bus is equivalent to the quotients, that is
analysis of the voltage stability of a load bus which is supplied
by a generator through a transmission line. And the latter has a
classic result already[l], that is the dQ/dV criterion. In the
dQ/dV criterion, Q represents the difference between the
reactive power supplied by the generator and the reactive
power consumed by the load when the active power supplied It should be pointed out that Hammad and Kuhn have
by the generator and the active power consumed by the load proposed the concept of the voltage stability factor (VSF)[2].
are balanced and the magnitude of the equivalent To the model system in Fig. 1, it is the reciprocal of VSI.
electromagnetic force E of the generator remains constant, and
V represents the voltage magnitude of the load bus. The 111. AN ALGORITHM FOR VSI
criterion means if dQ/dV is less than zero, then the voltage of
the load bus is stable in steady state, otherwise the voltage of In Fig. 1, if we take the rated voltage of the converter AC
the load bus is unstable. bus VN as the base voltage in AC side, the rated voltage of the
When the dQ/dV criterion is applied to the model system DC side V ~ as N the base voltage in DC side , and the rated DC
in Fig. 1, Q = -Qac - Qd +ec.
So when power Pm as the base capacity, then the Variables of the
model system can be described by the following 7 equations:
dQoc
-+--- dQd dQc > 0 ,the voltage of the converter AC
dV dV dV
bus is stable in steady state. We define
1
de,,+---
dQd dQc as the voltage stability indicator (VSI) Qac=-[V2 sinB-EVsin(6+8)] (4)
dV dV dV lzl
0-780347544/98/$10.00 0 1998 IEEE -1485-
 AQd
4Q,, a, 1
AQc a21 0
0 ‘31

0 ... ... ... ... ...

0 0
where y is the extinction angle, p is the overlap angle, C and 0
K are two constants associated with the parameters of the X
0
converter transformer and the base of the DC side. The
expression of C is 0
0

So we can get

where Sr and uk% are the capacity and short circuit ratio
of the converter transformer respectively.
When the converter AC bus voltage V has an increment
AV, we can get 7 increment equations of the above variables.
As in steady state, IzI , 0 and E are constant. And no matter
how V changes, Pd and P, are balanced, that is hp, = Mac.
So we can get 8 increment equations. In addition, if taking the
DC control system into account, we can get 2 additional and VSI = a,, +a,, -ajl
increment equations. These 10 increment equations can be
written in matrix form as :
IV. CHARACTERISTICS OF VSI UNDER
AQd DIFFERENT CONTROL MODES
AQUC
AQC A. Control Mode 1: Rectifier Operating in Constant Power
And Inverter Operating in Constant Extinction Angle
0
0 There is a relationship between the DC power P, in the
= [j rectifier side and the DC power Pd in the inverter side,
0
0 P, = pd + I ; R ~ (17)
0
0 where Rd is the resistance of the DC line, so
0
hp, =Ud
+21dRdAId. (18)

Where J is a Jacobian Matrix. Its dimension is 10x8. It is Because the rectifier operates in constant power mode,
calculated at the operating point Pd=PdO. hp, = 0 . That is
A!&
From (1 l), it is easy to calculate - AQaC
- and
A V ’ AV hp, +2IdR,Md = 0 (19)
a
AV ’
Because in the left side of (1 1) there are 7 zeros, The inverter operates in constant extinction angle mode, so
we can eliminate 7 columns in J. The eliminating process is
column by column, from column 8 to column 2 , and from
down to up. For example, to eliminate column 8, we select the
dominant element from row 4 to row 10 in column 8, then Assume the converter transformer has typical parameters
change the row in which the dominant element locates with the S, =1.15Pa, U,%=18%, 7=1, that is, C=1.53.
tenth row, and then eliminate from down to up. After the And in rated operation , the reactive power consumed by the
elimination, the form of (1 1) changes as following: converter is equal to the reactive power supplier by the AC

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filters and shunt capacitors, that is QcN = QdN. The
equivalent impedance of the AC system is supposed to be 1/3,
and the inverter operates in an extinction angle of y = 18 .
0 slow as Pd increases. It is obvious that this control mode is
Under the conditions above, we can get the relationships of
VSI and Pd versus Id as Fig.2. In Fig.2 there are two points
should be noted: (a) The component of VSI
a l l= A Q d / A V which is related to the reactive
characteristics of the converter is always negative in this
control mode, and becomes less and less as Pd increases. So in
this control mode, the characteristics of the converter is
adverse to the voltage stability. (b) VSI crosses the zero point
when Pd reaches its maximum. And VSI has the same sign
with dP,/dI, . So we can conclude that in this control
mode the HVDC system should operate in the rise section of
the Pd/Id curve, otherwise the operation will be unstable. Fig. 3
compares the difference of VSIs between back to back HVDC
system and long distance HVDC system. It is clear that the
voltage stability of a long distance HVDC system is better
than a back to back HVDC system. Fig .4illustrates the effect
of the impedance angle of the equivalent AC system on the
VSI. It is obvious that the less the impedance angle, the better
the voltage stability.
B. Control Mode 2:. Rectifier Operating in Constant Current
And Inverter Operating in Constant Extinction Angle
The two control equations associated with this control
mode are
AId = O
Ay=O
Under the same conditions as in control mode I, we can get the
relations of VSI and Pd versus Id as Fig.5 and Fig.6. From
Fig.5, We can see that the component of VSI
a,, = A Q d / A V is always positive, and VSI remains
dpd
positive after -< 0 in Pd/Id curve. So this control mode is
d'd
better than control mode 1. Fig. 6 compares the effect of the
impedance angle on the VSI. From Fig.6 it is clear that in this
control mode the less the impedance angle, the worse the
voltage stability.
C. Control Mode 3: Rectifier Operating in Constant Current
or Power And Inverter Operating in Constant Voltage
Because the inverter is operating in constant voltage mode,
no matter the rectifier is operating in constant current or
constant power mode, the two control equations associated are
AId = o
AV, = O
Adopting the same calculation conditions as in control
mode 1, but in rated operation state the extinction angle y N is
25", we can get the relations of VSI and Pd with Id as Fig.7 and
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Fig.8. From Fig.7, we can see that the component of VSI
a,, = AQd / A V is always positive, and VSI changes very
better.than control mode 1. From Fig.8, it is clear that the less
the impedance angle of the equivalent AC system, the better
the voltage stability.
V. RELATION BETWEEN VSI AND SCR
If the parameters of the converter is the same as that of last
section, the extinction angle of the inverter yN is 18" when in
constant extinction angle control mode and 25" when in
constant voltage control mode, to the different SCRs of the
terminal AC systems, the VSIs under rated operating condition
are shown in Fig.9. In Fig.9 curve 1, curve 2 and curve 3 are
according to the three control modes in last section. Fig9
shows that in three common used control modes, the control
modes of the rectifier operating in constant current or power
and the inverter operating in constant voltage has the best
voltage stability characteristics, the control modes of the
rectifier operating in constant current and the inverter
operating in constant extinction angle is better than the control
mode of the rectifier operating in constant power and the
inverter operating in constant extinction angle. The figure also
shows that when adopting control modes of the rectifier
operating in constant current or power and the inverter
operating in constant voltage or the rectifier operating in
constant current and the inverter operating in constant
extinction angle, the HVDC system can still operate even
though the short circuit ratio of the receiving end AC system is
less than the critical short circuit ratio, but if the control mode
is the rectifier operating in constant power and the inverter
operating in constant extinction angle, then the short circuit
ratio of the receiving end AC system must be greater than the
critical short circuit ratio, otherwise the voltage of the
converter AC bus would be unstable.
VI. REFERENCE
[ I ] tGeiWXBAtw%%. EQfi,P,%'it$$.7.?liEQh%%?k,
1978 % 7
[2] Hammad A E, Kuhn W. A computation Algorithm for
Assessing Voltage Stability at AC/DC Interconnections.
IEEE Trans. On Power Systems, 1986; PWRS-1 (1):209-
216.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Project 59707005 supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China
Xu Zheng was born in Zhejiang, China , on September 17,
'
1962. He got his Bachelor , Master and Ph.D. at Zhejiang
University in 1983, 1986 and 1993 respectively , all in
Electrical Engineering. He is now an associate professor in
Electrical Engineering Department of Zhejiang University.
 -'O 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4
pu dc current I, ' pu dc current Id

Fig.2 Relationship Between VSI, Pd and Id Under Control Mode 1 Fig.6 The Effect of The AC System Equivalent Impedance Angle on VS1
under Control Mode 2

-IO 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.01.2 1.4

pu dc current Id

Fig.3 The Effect ofThe E€ Line Resistance on VSI under Control Mode I Fig7 Relationship Between VSI, Pd and Id Under Control Mode 3

4.51 i I

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 0' 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
pu dc currenr I, pu dc current I ,
Fig.4 The Effect of The AC System Equivalent Impedance Angle on VSI Fig.8 The Erect of The AC Systeni Equivalent Impedance Anglc on VSI
under Control Mode I under Control Mode 3

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5

pu dc current I, . SCR
Fig5 Relationship Between VSI, Pd and Id Under Control Mode 2 Fig9 The Relationship Between VSI and SCR

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