Operation and Control of Multiterminal HVDC Grids for AC Fault Ride Through Compatibility

Abstract

A fully operational Multi-Terminal DC (MTDC) grid will play a strategic role for mainland AC systems interconnection and to integrate offshore wind farms. The importance of such infrastructure requires its compliance with Fault Ride Through (FRT) capability in case of mainland AC faults. In order to provide FRT capability in MTDC grids, communication-free advanced control functionalities exploiting a set of local control rules at the converter stations and wind turbines are identified. The proposed control functionalities are responsible for mitigating the DC voltage rise effect resulting from the reduction of active power injection into onshore AC systems during grid faults. The proposed strategies envision a fast control of the wind turbine active power output as a function of the DC grid voltage rise and constitute alternative options in order to avoid the use of classical solutions based on the installation of chopper resistors in the MTDC grid. The feasibility and robustness of the proposed strategies are demonstrated and discussed in the paper while considering different circumstances.