The Journal of Engineering

The 14th IET International Conference on AC and DC Power

Transmission (ACDC 2018)

Examination on the parameter stability region eISSN 2051-3305

Received on 23rd August 2018
Accepted on 19th September 2018
of the VSC control system in VSC-HVDC doi: 10.1049/joe.2018.8517
www.ietdl.org
transmission systems
Long Xu1, Guoyun Su1, Wenjuan Du1 , Chen Chen1, Bixing Ren1, Haifeng Wang1
1StateKey Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Beijing,
People's Republic of China
E-mail: ddwenjuan@gmail.com

Abstract: Nowadays, the voltage source converter (VSC)-based high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission technology is
widely adopted for the integration of renewable power generations. However, the grid-connected VSC systems may also cause
power system instability issues. This study focuses on the parameter stability region of VSC control system in VSC-HVDC
transmission systems. The small-signal linearised model of the whole power system is firstly established and on the basis of
which the modal analysis method is applied to obtain the parameter stability region of VSC control system. The results show
that the region is mainly affected by both the selection of the initial operating point of VSC and the dynamic interaction between
the AC system and the VSC. From these two perspectives, the parameter stability regions of the VSC control system under
different operating conditions are investigated. Meanwhile, it is found in the study that when modal coupling occurs between the
oscillation modes corresponding to AC system and VSC, the parameter stability regions of the VSC control system obtained in
the previous analysis will be deteriorated. Consequently, in terms of stability region, an evaluated method for VSC control
system is proposed and validated through case study.

1 Introduction stability deterioration caused by weak systems, several papers

The VSC-HVDC transmission technology has many advantages
compared to line commutated converter based high voltage direct
current (LCC-HVDC), such as independent controllability of the
active and reactive power, lower demand for reactive power
compensation devices etc. Therefore, it has been widely used in the
areas of renewable power generations integration, hybrid AC/DC
power grids. Moreover, the number of the traditional AC power
transmission corridors is limited in China, so that the development
of hybrid AC/DC transmission system is the future trend. At the
same time, it is of great importance to study the impact of hybrid
AC/DC transmission system integrated with VSC-HVDC on power
system stability.
For the stability issues of hybrid AC/DC power systems, the
current researches can be divided into the following two categories:
(i) the stability issues of the DC side system as affected by the
influence of AC side system; (ii) the stability problems of the AC
side system under the influence of the DC side system. As the
VSCs are the most critical devices in the DC side system, many
papers focus on their impacts. A recent research concluded that the
selection of initial operating point of the VSC has tremendous
impact on the system stability. In addition, the dynamic interaction
between the AC system and the VSC will have a significant impact
on the system stability, particularly under the condition of weak
connection between the VSC and the power system. The
connection strength between the VSC and the power system is
usually defined by the short circuit ratio (SCR). The smaller the
SCR, the weaker the connection strength will be. In order to
analyse the above-mentioned stability issues, the commonly used
analytical methods are modal analysis method and frequency
domain analysis method.
In [1], the small-signal stability of multiple VSC converter
stations was obtained by modal analysis method, and the influence
of VSC control system parameters on system stability was also
discussed. A detailed and in-depth study on the interaction among
multiple VSCs in VSC–MTDC system was carried out [2, 3]. It has
been widely reported that the grid-connected VSC systems can
induce instable power oscillation issues, especially when they are
connected with weak AC systems as the capability of power
transmission is limited [4–8]. In order to deal with the issues of
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proposed improved techniques. In [9], an improved vector control
strategy was proposed by adding a feedforward path in the outer
loop of the control system which increased the transient response
speed of reactive power and improved the system stability under
weak AC system condition. Moreover, based on a decoupled and
gain-scheduling controller, Egea-Alvarez et al. [10] proposed an
enhanced outer loop which can improve the performance of
classical vector control.
The previous research efforts mainly concentrate upon the
stability deterioration issues of the interconnected VSC–AC system
under weak AC system condition. In those studies, the impacts of
the initial operating point selection of VSC and the dynamic
interaction between the AC system and the VSC have not been
systematically examined. Furthermore, in terms of the assessment
stability of control system, no specific quantitative indicators have
been derived.
In order to fill this gap, this paper systematically examines the
impacts of both the initial operating point selection of VSC and the
dynamic interaction between the AC system and the VSC. Also, a
performance evaluation of the control system is presented by
investigating the proportional-integral (PI) parameters stability
region. The simulation analysis and verification are carried out
through examination of the PI parameters stability region of the
VSC control system in a hybrid AC/DC power system.
This paper is organized as follows. Firstly, the small-signal
linearised model of the hybrid AC/DC power system is established
and on the basis of which the modal analysis method is applied to
obtain the parameter stability region of the VSC control system.
Secondly, this paper presents an examination of the impacts of
initial operating point selection of VSC and the dynamic
interaction between the AC system and the VSC. Moreover, a
discussion on the PI parameters stability region of the VSC control
system under different initial operating points is given. On the
aspect of dynamic interaction between the weak AC system and the
VSC, when the modal coupling occurs between the oscillation
modes corresponding to AC system and VSC control system, both
the damping condition of one oscillation mode and the PI
parameters stability region of VSC control system which represents
the stability of the grid-connected VSC may be degraded
1
significantly. Finally, simulation results are presented to validate
the analytical conclusions.

2 Theoretical analysis
2.1 Hybrid AC/DC system model integrated with VSC-HVDC
Fig. 1  Hybrid AC/DC system integrated with a VSC-HVDC line
Fig. 1 is a typical research model of a hybrid AC/DC system
integrated with VSC-HVDC, which is modified from the IEEE first
benchmark model for sub-synchronous resonance study. The main
modifications are to remove the series compensation line and use a
VSC-HVDC transmission line in parallel with an AC line. The
detailed parameters of the VSC-HVDC in [11] are adopted. The
traditional fourth-order and six-mass shaft models and parameters
of synchronous machine (SG) are given in [12, 13], respectively.
Without loss of generality, VSC-1 employs DC voltage control and
VSC-2 adopts active power control.
By taking the voltage of VSC-1 common connection point A as
the d-axis reference direction, the following mathematical
representation of the VSC converter station can be obtained under
the d–q coordinate system

d ωB
ΔI = V − V d1 + ωBΔIa1
dt d1 X f 1 cd1 Fig. 2  Vector control structure of VSC-1
(1)
d ωB differential equations of the VSC, DC line and AC system above
ΔI = V − V q1 + ωBΔId1
dt q1 X f 1 cq1 and sorting out in the form of the state-space form, the small-signal
linearised model of the whole system can be obtained as follows:
where Δ denotes small increment of a variable; Id1 and Iq1
represent the d-axis and q-axis components of the injection current d
ΔX = AΔX (5)
at the VSC-1 side, respectively; wB is the angular speed at steady dt
state of the system; Vcd1 and Vcq1 are the d-axis and q-axis
components of the voltage at point A; Vd1 and Vq1 are the d-axis where X denotes a vector consisting of all the state variables of the
and q-axis components of the VSC output voltage; Xf1 is the whole system.
connection reactance between point A and the VSC.
Vector control is a classic control strategy of VSC converter 2.2 Introduction of PI parameters stability region of the VSC
station with excellent control performance and well dynamic control system
adjustment function. Fig. 2 shows the vector control structure As it has been mentioned in Section 1, when the VSC is connected
diagram of the VSC-1. The following relationships can be obtained to a power system, the dynamic interaction between the VSC and
from Fig. 2: the nearby AC systems may affect the control performance of the
VSC. This effect can be reflected by the change of the parameter
d re f
Δx = Ki_vdc ΔV dc1 − V dc1 stability region of the VSC control system. There are two main
dt vdc impact factors which are the initial operating point selection of the
d re f (2) VSC and the dynamic interaction between the AC system and the
Δx = Ki_id Id1 − ΔId1
dt id VSC. These two factors affect the parameter stability region of the
re f VSC control system comprehensively.
V cd1 = K p_id Id1 − Id1 + xid + V d1 − X f 1Iq1 For the influence of the initial operating point selection of the
VSC, according to the small-signal model deduced in the previous
d re f section and modal analysis method, the closed-loop eigenvalues of
Δx = Ki_q Qvsc1 − Qvsc
dt Q 1
the system under different initial operating points of the VSC can
d be obtained. If all the real parts of the closed-loop eigenvalues are
Δx = Ki_iq Iqre1 f − ΔIq1 (3)
dt iq negative, then the system is stable in this case. By increasing the
integral gain value (Ki) of the PI controller sequentially, the
V cq1 = K p_iq Iqre1 f − Iq1 + xiq + V q1 + X f 1Id1 corresponding proportional gain value (Kp) related to stable
condition can be derived. Then the critical curve of PI parameters
In the above equations, xvdc, xid, xQ and xiq are the four state stability region can be obtained consequently. The parameter
variables of VSC-1 control system, respectively. The small-signal stability region refers to a region where the PI controller of VSC
model of a single-ended VSC can be formed by (1)–(3). Similarly, can perform well for any point. On the contrary, when the
the state equations of VSC-2 can be also obtained. parameter value of the PI controller is outside of the stable region,
For the DC line, the differential equations can be derived by the the closed-loop system will be instable. In other words, it means
power balance and are shown as follows. that at the selected initial operation point of the VSC, if the
parameter stability region exists, the VSC can achieve better
d 1 V d1ΔId1 + V q1ΔIq1 control performance when the parameters are in this region.
ΔV dc1 = − ΔIdc
dt C1 ΔV dc1 Conversely, if the PI parameters stability region does not exist, it
V d2ΔId2 + V q2ΔIq2 indicates that the system is unstable under this initial operating
d 1
ΔV dc2 = ΔIdc − − ΔIdc (4) point and parameters tuning is necessary.
dt C2 ΔV dc2
For the impact of dynamic interaction between the AC system
d 1 and the VSC, according to the small-signal model of the whole
ΔI = ΔV dc1 − ΔV dc2 − RdcΔIdc
dt dc Ldc system described above and the modal analysis method, the PI
parameters stability region of the VSC control system under
For the AC system, the state equation of SG is often mentioned in different SCR conditions can be obtained in a similar manner. At a
the earlier paper, which is not the focus of research work in this given set of control parameters, if the PI parameters stability region
paper and will not be described in detail. By combining the of the control system exists, it demonstrates that the gird-connected

2 J. Eng.
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Fig. 3  PI parameters stability region under different Udc
Fig. 4  PI parameters stability region under different DC transmission
powers
Fig. 5  PI parameters stability region under different transmission line
lengths
VSC system can achieve the corresponding control performance
and the dynamic interaction problem between the AC system and
the VSC can be eliminated by tuning the controller parameters
reasonably. On the contrary, if the PI parameters stability region of
control system does not exist, it reveals that there is a strong
interaction effect between the AC system and the VSC which
cannot be eliminated by tuning the controller parameters.
The robustness of VSC control performance can be represented
by the range of PI parameters stability region of the VSC control
system to some extent. For example, at a given operating point of
the VSC, if the PI parameters stability region is wide, it indicates
that the VSC has better control performance and greater range for
parameters tuning in this case. Therefore, at this given operating
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point of the VSC, a wider range of the PI parameters region means
better robustness to the change of parameters value and vice versa.
In addition, at two different given initial operation points of the
VSC, the one corresponds to a wider PI parameters stability region
has a greater possibility to obtain better control performance.
3 Case study
In order to investigate the above theoretical analysis, the relevant
simulation verification is carried out in the hybrid AC/DC system
integrated with VSC-HVDC in Fig. 1. Since the control loops of
the VSC converter station all adopt PI controllers, the PI
parameters stability region of DC voltage outer loop of VSC is
taken as an example in the following section for the demonstration.
By increasing the PI parameters values of the DC voltage outer
loop gradually until all the eigenvalues of the linearised system
cross the imaginary axis to the left-half plane. These PI parameters
values are denoted as the critical stability points. By combining all
these points in a two-dimensional plane, the critical curve of the
stability region can be obtained where the left side of the curve is
the unstable area and the right side of the curve is the stable area.
The following subsection will analyse the impacts of the initial
operating point selection of the VSC and the interaction between
the AC system and the VSC.
3.1 Effect of the initial operating point selection of the VSC
Figs. 3–5 shown below depict the PI parameters stability region of
DC voltage outer loop under different initial DC voltage per unit
values, different transmission line lengths and different DC
transmission powers, respectively. In all cases, the SG of AC
system adopts the traditional fourth-order model and the dynamic
interaction between the AC system and the VSC has not been taken
into consideration.
As it can be seen from Fig. 3, Udc represents the operating
voltage per unit value of the DC line and the curves are the stability
boundaries. Specifically, the left side of the curve is the unstable
area while the right side of the curve is the stable area. The range
of the PI parameters stability region decreases as the initial
operating point of DC voltage increases. Due to the increase of the
DC voltage level, the requirement of the system stability also
increases and the selection of the PI parameters values of VSC
control system will be stricter. Therefore, it demonstrates that the
range of the PI parameters stability region of the VSC control
system decreases as a consequence.
In Fig. 4, Pvsc represents the transmission power of the VSC, it
can be concluded that the smaller the DC transmission power, the
greater the PI parameters stability region of the VSC control
system will be. In the studied hybrid AC/DC system integrated
with the VSC-HVDC, the sending end power of AC system is
fixed. As the proportion of the power flow through the DC line
increases, the transmission power of the AC line will decrease
accordingly. The parameter instability risk caused by the frequent
switching action of the VSC in DC transmission line will also
increase. This will result in the reduction of PI parameters stability
region range. Therefore, the lower the power flowing on the DC
transmission line, the larger range of the PI controller parameter
stability region will be.
In Fig. 5, X represents the reactance of the AC line. It can be
seen from Fig. 5 that the longer the transmission line, the smaller
the corresponding PI parameters stability region will be. This is
because the longer the transmission line, the larger the line loss is.
Also, the unbalanced power fluctuation between systems will
increase which diminishes the range of the PI control parameters
stability region.
3.2 Impact of interaction between the AC system and the
VSC
3.2.1 Impact of interaction resulting from weak AC
system: Fig. 6 shows the PI controller parameters stability region
under different SCRs. Under this condition, the SG in AC system
still adopts the traditional fourth-order model. It can be observed
3
Fig. 6  PI parameters stability region under different SCRs
Fig. 7  PI parameters stability region when the modal coupling occurs
Fig. 8  Participation factors of the SG mode at point A
that the smaller the SCR, the smaller the PI parameters stability
region will be. This is owing to the strong dynamic interaction
among systems brought by weak AC system, which results in the
reduction of the PI controller parameters stability region range.
3.2.2 Impact of interaction resulting from modal coupling: In
this section, the six-mass shaft model is adopted for the SG in the
AC system. The SG mode and the VSC mode is used to represent
the low-pressure cylinder (LPA) shafting mode of the SG and the
mode corresponding to VSC control system, respectively. Fig. 7
shows the PI controller parameters stability region with
considering the dynamic interaction between the SG mode and the
VSC mode. It is demonstrated that when the modal coupling
happens between these two modes which is indicated by point B at
the unstable region in Fig. 7, a small range of bulge in the
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Fig. 9  Participation factors of the SG mode at point B
Fig. 10  Time-domain simulation results
parameters stability region will occur. This means that the range of
the parameter stability region is reduced when modal coupling
occurs. This phenomenon is due to the strong dynamic interaction
between the SG mode and the VSC mode and when modal
coupling phenomenon occurs, the damping of one mode and the
system stability are degraded. The following participation factors
figures and time-domain simulation results are presented to verify
the conclusions.
As it is depicted in Fig. 8, the VSC-HVDC hardly participates
in the LPA segment mode of the SG at the point A. At this time, no
modal coupling phenomenon occurs. However, at the point B in
Fig. 9, strong participation of the VSC-HVDC in the SG mode is
observed which indicates the presence of strong dynamic
interaction between the SG mode and the VSC mode. In other
words, modal couplings phenomenon occurs in this case.
Results of non-linear simulation are presented in Figs. 10 and
11. In the simulation, a three-phase to ground fault is adopted at
point B in Fig. 1. The fault starts at t = 0.1 s and is cleared after 10 
ms. When the parameters values of the PI controller is at the point
A of the stable region in Fig. 7, the active power output curve of
VSC rectifier shown in Fig. 10 converges quickly. However, at the
point B, as the parameters values of the PI controller are in the
unstable region, the strong dynamic interaction between the SG
mode and the VSC mode maintains the power oscillation for a long
time. Meanwhile, the time domain simulation results of the torque
between LPA shaft mass and GEN shaft mass in the SG also show
that the point A is a stable point, while the point B is an unstable
point, combined with the above participation factor patterns, it is
demonstrated that modal coupling occurs at point B which
degrades the damping of the shaft mode related to LPA section. As
a consequence, the power system lose its stability.
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Fig. 11  Time-domain simulation results
4 Conclusions
On the basis of the hybrid AC/DC system integrated with VSC-
HVDC, this paper examines both the impact of the initial operating
point selection of the VSC and the influence of dynamic interaction
between the AC system and the VSC on the PI parameters stability
region of the VSC control system, the main contributions are
summarized as follows:
(i) The index of PI parameters stability region is adopted to
quantify and analyse the performance of the VSC control system.
Based on the hybrid AC/DC system integrated with VSC-HVDC,
the detailed dynamic model of the VSC is used to investigate and
verify the PI parameters stability region of the VSC control system.
(ii) Based on the simulation results, the influence of the initial
operating point of the VSC on the PI parameters stability region of
VSC control system is examined in detail.
(iii) The simulation results demonstrate that the dynamic
interaction between AC system and VSC, particularly when modal
coupling occurs, can have a great adverse effect on the power
system stability. This conclusion is beneficial to guide the design of
the VSC control system.
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5 Acknowledgments
This paper is supported by the Key Project of Smart Grid
Technology and Equipment of National Key Research and
Development Plan of China (2016YFB0900602) and the
Technology Projects of State Grid Corporation of China
(52094017000W).
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