Fault Ride-through Demand of Large-scale Islanded

Renewable Energy Connected to VSC-HVDC

System and Its Key Technologies
Yan Li
China Electric Power Research Institute
China State Key Laboratory of Operation and
Control of Renewable Energy & Storage
Systems
Beijing, China
liyan@epri.sgcc.com.cn
Hongzhi Liu *
China Electric Power Research Institute
China State Key Laboratory of Operation and
Control of Renewable Energy & Storage
Systems
Beijing, China
*liuhongzhi@epri.sgcc.com.cn
Yongning Chi
China Electric Power Research Institute
China State Key Laboratory of Operation and
Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems
Beijing, China
chiyn@epri.sgcc.com.cn

Yiwen Fan Xiangyu Li * Fan Cheng

China Electric Power Research Institute School of Electrical and Electronic China Electric Power Research Institute
China State Key Laboratory of Engineering China State Key Laboratory of Operation
Operation and Control of Renewable North China Electric Power University and Control of Renewable Energy &
Energy & Storage Systems Beijing, China Storage Systems
Beijing, China *cumtlixiangyu@163.com Beijing, China
18810263095@163.com chengfan5566@163.com

Zhibing Wang Chunxia Wei Lijun Xie

China Electric Power Research Institute
China State Key Laboratory of
Operation and Control of Renewable
Energy & Storage Systems
Beijing, China
wangzhibing@epri.sgcc.com.cn
China Electric Power Research Institute China Electric Power Research Institute
China State Key Laboratory of China State Key Laboratory of Operation
Operation and Control of Renewable and Control of Renewable Energy &
Energy & Storage Systems Storage Systems
Beijing, China Beijing, China
weichunxia@epri.sgcc.com.cn liju-xie@163.com

Abstract—The adaptability of renewable energy connected

to the VSC-HVDC grid will become an important issue
affecting grid operation. In particular, the complex interaction
between renewable power generation and the power grid
brings new challenges to the renewable power generation and
VSC-HVDC grid to achieve fault ride-through. Therefore, it is
necessary to study the fault ride-through strategies of the VSC-
HVDC grid-renewable power generation combined system.
According to the operating characteristics and adaptability of
renewable energy clusters connected to the VSC-HVDC grid
under different faults, this paper proposes technical
requirements for high- / low-voltage fault ride-through of
renewable power plants that are connected to the grid in island
operation, and analyzes key technologies for renewable power
generation dealing with AC faults at the sending end of the
grid in island integration mode. It is expected to realize joint
fault ride-through of renewable energy and VSC-HVDC,
thereby increasing the availability of the system, contributing
to the safe and stable operation of renewable energy and VSC-
HVDC grid, providing technical support for the planning of
large-scale renewable energy delivery methods, and effectively
guiding the planning and design of renewable energy and VSC-
HVDC grid
Keywords- fault ride-through; islanded large-scale
renewable energy; VSC-HVDC
I. INTRODUCTION
When large-scale islanded renewable energy is connected
to the VSC-HVDC grid and the VSC-HVDC technology is
used for long-distance transmission, the operation
characteristics of renewable energy and the VSC-HVDC grid
will affect each other. The adaptability of renewable energy
connected to the VSC-HVDC grid will become an important
issue affecting grid operation. In particular, the complex
interaction between renewable energy power generation and
the power grid brings new challenges to the renewable power
generation and VSC-HVDC power grid. Therefore, it is
necessary to study the fault ride-through scheme of the VSC-
HVDC grid-renewable energy generation combined system.
According to the operating characteristics and adaptability of
renewable energy clusters connected to the VSC-HVDC
power grid under different faults, this paper proposes
technical requirements for high- / low-voltage fault ride-
through of renewable power plants that are connected to the
grid in island operation, and analyzes key technologies for
renewable power generation dealing with AC faults at the
sending end of the grid in island integration mode. It is
expected to realize joint fault ride-through of renewable
energy and VSC-HVDC, thereby increasing the availability

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of the system, contributing to the safe and stable operation of
renewable energy and VSC-HVDC power grids, providing
technical support for the planning of large-scale renewable
energy delivery methods, and effectively guiding the
planning and design of renewable energy and VSC-HVDC
grids.
II. CURRENT STUDY OF FAULT RIDE-THROUGH FOR
LARGE-SCALE ISLANDED RENEWABLE ENERGY CONNECTED
TO VSC-HVDC SYSTEM
The use of VSC-HVDC to connect islanded renewable
energy to the grid will form a weakly supported, fast-
dynamic islanded exchange system dominated by power
electronics. The complex electromagnetic transient processes
of wind farms and power grids make the system's fault
response extremely complicated. At the same time, it also
brings new challenges to the AC fault ride-through of the
remote islanded AC system of renewable energy.
A. Interaction between wind farm and grid-connected
system under AC fault
A series of researches has been done by domestic and
overseas scholars on the interactive effects of wind farm grid
connection under various AC disturbances. Literature [1]
analyzed and simulated the short-circuit fault characteristics
of the system before and after the wind power was connected
to the grid. It was found that the short-term oscillation of the
system voltage and current caused by the short-circuit failure
of the system after the wind power was connected was
greater; the harmonic distortion was higher; and the voltage
occurrence of flicker was also more pronounced. The
literature [2] analyzed the basic principles and response
situation of the short-circuit fault of the power grid, the DC
side fault, the common fault of the generator, the wind
turbine variable distance fault, and the inverter fault. The
literature [3] deeply studied the fault handling and protection
technology of VSC-HVDC transmission lines. However, the
above literatures aimed at the system impact of VSC-HVDC
converter stations caused by certain specific faults, but not
the impact of wind farms on grid-connected systems when
AC faults occurred. At the same time, there is also a lack of
related research on the impact of grid-connected systems on
wind farm fault ride-through under AC faults.
B. AC fault ride-through technology for large-scale
renewable energy integration via VSC-HVDC
Some scholars have also conducted research on fault
ride-through technologies for wind farm grid-connection via
VSC-HVDC. Literature [4] proposed a new method to
improve the fault ride-through capability of a VSC-HVDC
based wind farm grid-connection system, that is, for the
current disturbance process. A current limiter that
dynamically changed the limit was designed to limit the
overcurrent and maximize the output power. Literature [5]
proposed a coordinated control strategy for fault ride-through
of a VSC-HVDC based grid-connection system of a hybrid
wind farm composed of doubly-fed induction wind turbines
and asynchronous wind turbines. According to the actual
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operating characteristics of the wind turbine and the grid
code requirements, the control up / down voltage limit was
designed to obtain a more ideal fault ride-through effect,
while further reducing the system cost. Literature [6]
proposed a nine-switch converter topology for VSC-HVDC
transmission, thereby enhancing the system's fault ride-
through characteristics. Literature [7] proposed a new low-
voltage ride-through control strategy based on power line
communication for the dual-star chopper unit MMC
converter, which had better fault ride-through performance.
However, the above-mentioned literatures only studied the
basic AC fault ride-through strategies of the VSC-HVDC
system, and the specific research strategies for the special
working condition of the renewable energy islanded system
at the sending end converter station were not presented.
Relatively many studies by foreign scholars have been
done on low-voltage ride-through technology for large-scale
renewable power plants connected to the grid via VSC-
HVDC with the flexible control characteristics of the
converter in which the inverter is able to reduce its active
power output and increases its reactive output during grid
faults. The following control strategies can be combined to
obtain the ideal fault ride-through effect:
x Install energy dissipation or unloading resistors,
energy storage devices, etc., on the DC line to absorb
unbalanced power so as to maintain the DC bus
voltage stability [8].
x Install energy dissipation or unloading resistors,
energy storage devices, etc., on the power station
side to absorb unbalanced power [9].
x Improve the power control strategy of wind turbines
to reduce the wind turbine active power output and
increase the reactive power output during the low-
voltage ride-through period [10-13].
At present, the research on low-voltage ride-through
technology for renewable power plants connected to the grid
via VSC-HVDC is mostly based on the electromagnetic
transient modeling and analysis of single machines
connected to infinite systems via VSC-HVDC and multi-
terminal VSC-HVDC systems. In the application scenario of
centralized development of large-scale renewable energy,
which is collected through the VSC-HVDC grid and sent
over a long distance, it is obvious that the measures of
installing energy dissipation or unloading resistance on the
VSC-HVDC side and installing super capacitors on a single
VSC-HVDC line are not applicable. The existing GB /
T19963 "Technical Regulations for Wind Farm Connect to
Power System" and GB / T19964 "Technical Regulations for
Connect to Power System for Photovoltaic Power Stations"
based on AC grid faults may need to be modified when
applied to the VSC-HVDC grid.
So far, domestic and foreign scholars have done
relatively little researches on the dynamic analysis and
interactive effects of AC faults at the sending terminal of the
VSC-HVDC grid connected with renewable energy. The
research of fault ride-through technology is mostly based on
the electromagnetic transient modeling and analysis of a
single machine connected to an infinite system via VSC-
HVDC. There is little discussion on the transmission-side
AC fault ride-through technology for a large-scale islanded
renewable energy connected to VSC-HVDC grid.
Because the VSC-HVDC converter station of the DC grid
connected to the islanded system adopts a constant AC
voltage control method, overvoltage and overcurrent are
likely to occur during the AC voltage drop or recovery in the
islanded system that causes the trip of the converter.
Renewable power plants will trip off while losing AC
voltage to support. Based on the analysis of the
characteristics of the interaction between the renewable
energy clusters and the VSC-HVDC grid, the adaptability of
the fault ride-through capability of the renewable power
plants in the island operation mode under various AC faults
at the sending terminal is studied. At the same time, in the
case of large-scale islanded renewable energy integration,
under the premise that the island station is not isolated, in
order to prevent the wind farm from being disconnected from
the grid when the AC fault at the sending terminal is
occurred, the VSC-HVDC grid should take countermeasures.
III. KEY TECHNOLOGIES OF FAULT RIDE-THROUGH FOR
LARGE-SCALE ISLAND RENEWABLE ENERGY CONNECTED TO
VSC-HVDC SYSTEM
A. Energy dissipation devices
The VSC-HVDC grid adopts a bipolar symmetrical
topology, and the basic operation mode of the sending-
terminal converter station is the islanded renewable energy
integration. Therefore, there will be a power surplus when
the receiving-terminal converter fails or the sending-terminal
converter has a single pole failure. The time taken by the
security system to detect the above faults and the system to
cut off the wind farms is more than 100ms, which is too slow.
If no measures are taken, the DC voltage of the DC grid and
the AC line voltage of the converter station connecting
islanded renewable energy will increase, which will cause
grid crash and shut down. The system protection may even
damage the power electronic equipment at the converter
station in severe cases.
The most reasonable solution to the problem of power
surplus is to install energy dissipation devices in the DC grid
system. When the receiving terminal converter station fails
or the sending terminal converter station has a single pole
failure (including valve-side AC fault), the surplus power
can be consumed by putting the energy dissipation devices
in service, thereby maintaining system stability. When the
system is shut down, the energy dissipation device is out of
service after the system is stabilized, and the system resumes
normal operation.
Energy dissipation devices are divided into DC energy
dissipation devices (DC chopper) and AC energy dissipation
devices (AC chopper). Considering various faults in the DC
power grid when a single pole fault occurs at the transmitting
station of the system, all the power corresponding to the
faulty pole of the converter station will be automatically
transferred to the normal pole of the converter station, which
may cause power surplus problem in the normal pole. Under
this working condition, only using DC chopper cannot solve
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the power surplus of this faulty working condition, and the
AC chopper device can simultaneously solve the two types
of faulting working conditions: receiving terminal converter
station failure and sending terminal converter station single
pole failure. Therefore, the AC chopper is recommended in
the project to solve the power surplus problem.

AC
Choppe r
ℷᵕ
MMC
Ѹ⌕㒓䏃
䋳ᵕ
MMC
AC
Chopper
Figure 1. Configuration diagram of energy dissipation device
B. Fault ride-through during AC faults in renewable
energy systems
The above has briefly explained the configuration of AC
chopper in VSC-HVDC power grids. The fault ride-through
during the occurrence of AC faults in renewable energy
systems specifically is related to the safety devices, control
and protection devices in the DC power grid system when
the transmission terminal system fails. When a valve-side
AC fault in a single pole occurs at the sending terminal
islanded renewable energy system, the fault is mostly a
permanent serious fault. The control and protection device
will detect a serious overcurrent fault in the faulty pole
converter and immediately block the faulty pole converter.
At the same time, the AC and DC circuit breakers
corresponding to the fault pole converter will be opened. The
control and protection devices also need to detect the total
power transmitted by the converters of the two poles before
the fault (that is, the power generated by the renewable
power generation clusters), and a certain number of AC
chopper devices need to be equipped according to a certain
switching strategy to ensure the transmission power of
normal pole converter not to be overloaded, thereby ensuring
that there is no surplus problem in the DC grid system.
The control and protection device shall immediately
upload the dispatching system and security system after
detecting a single pole valve-side AC failure in the sending
terminal renewable energy island system. The security
device needs to be processed according to the system
operating status and fault information of the VSC-HVDC
grid. The total number of cuts for the renewable power
plants and specific cut operation instructions need to be
obtained, such as cutting off several times, and cutting off
the renewable power plant transmission line total power.
The cut-off action will be completed within 150ms, and the
power surplus caused by AC failure at the send terminal's
single pole valve side will be completely resolved. At this
time, the control device can detect the instantaneous decrease
in the total power of both poles (that is, the power generated
by the renewable power generation clusters) transmitted by
the converter station, and perform the chopper quit operation
accordingly.
IV. KEY ISSUES OF FAULT RIDE-THROUGH FOR LARGE-
SCALE ISLANDED RENEWABLE ENERGY CONNECTED TO
VSC-HVDC SYSTEM
In order to realize the research on the fault ride-though
technology for the large-scale islanded renewable energy
connected to the VSC-HVDC power grid, the specific
implementation plan is as follows:
A. Research on the interaction between renewable energy
clusters and VSC-HVDC grid under different faults
x First, classify the fault conditions at the sending
terminal of VSC-HVDC grid with connection of
large-scale islanded renewable energy, analyze the
causes of various types of faults, qualitatively give
the development mechanism and trend of different
types of AC sending terminal faults, and extract
typical fault types for subsequent simulation analysis.
x Then, based on the electromagnetic transient
simulation model of the existing VSC-HVDC based
islanded renewable energy connection system, fully
consider the centralized reactive power
compensation characteristics of the renewable power
generation system at the sending terminal, and
increase the external characteristics of reactive
power compensation, thereby optimizing and
improving the current performance. There are
simulation models to establish equivalent
electromagnetic transient models of renewable
power generation clusters.
x Finally, based on the equivalent electromagnetic
transient model of the renewable power generation
cluster, the interaction between the renewable power
generation system and the VSC-HVDC power grid
under typical AC faults is simulated and scanned.
B. Adaptability analysis of renewable power generation
fault ride-through capability in island operation mode
under different faults
x First, based on the extraction of fault feature
quantities and the V-F drooping island operation
control strategy adopted at the transmission end of
the VSC-HVDC grid, the voltage boundary
constraint conditions of the high- and low-voltage
fault ride-though curves of the renewable power
generation system are analyzed to determine the
boundaries of typical influencing factors of fault
ride-though curve.
x Secondly, it further analyzes whether the current
renewable power generation system connected to the
VSC-HVDC converter station in V-F island
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operation mode. Its fault ride-though curve and
strategy meet the fault ride-though requirements and
qualitative analysis of its adaptive ability to fault
ride-though.
x Finally, considering the typical fault forms,
combined with the voltage boundary constraints of
the fault ride-though curve and the adaptability in the
island operation mode, the technical requirements
for high and low voltage fault ride-through of island
renewable energy clusters connected to VSC-HVDC
grid are proposed.
C. Research on high/low-voltage joint crossing technology
of islanded renewable energy DC integration system
based on source-grid coordination
x Firstly, based on typical fault types, the research on
the transient voltage control strategy of the islanded
converter station in the VSC-HVDC grid is carried
out simultaneously. With the voltage constraints of
the high-low voltage crossing curve, the transient
control strategy is optimized to improve the response
of the island converter station to AC fault ride-
though.
x Then, based on the existing security configuration
and AC bleeder of the VSC-HVDC grid, it will
further refine its output power regulation of the
renewable power generation system and the
switching strategy of the AC bleeder during high and
low voltage crossings to provide protection for fault
ride-through.
x Finally, based on the above-mentioned VSC-HVDC
grid islanded converter station, renewable power
generation system and AC bleeder, the research on
high/low voltage combined ride-though technology
for the island renewable energy DC integration
system sending-terminal converter coordinated with
the renewable energy station is carried out. In the
energy island integration mode, the transmission
terminal AC fault response strategy of the VSC-
HVDC grid is simulated and verified.
V. CONCLUSION
The transmission terminal of the VSC-HVDC grid adopts
island operation control method. From the grid connection
point of large-scale renewable power generation systems, it
assumes that the important role of providing AC voltage and
frequency support is renewable power generation systems.
However, due to the current capacity limitation of the
converter station, its short-circuit capacity is small. In the
case of AC failures, not only must the safety of its own
converter be guaranteed, but also the voltage of the AC
islanded system needs to be restored immediately after the
transient fault ends. If the control strategy is not developed
properly in this process, it will easily lead to the uncontrolled
AC system, which will lead to the large-scale disconnection
of the renewable power generation system. It is urgent to
study the transient voltage control strategy in its island
operation mode, which is one of the key points of future
research.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the Science and Technology
Foundation of SGCC 4000-201955201A-0-0-00 (Research
on Power Transmission of Large-scale Renewable Energy
Base by VSC-LCC hybrid HVDC).
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