International Conference on Computing and Control Engineering (ICCCE 2012), 12 & 13 April, 2012

A Modern Self-Defined Extinction Angle Controller for CCC based Hybrid HVDC Systems
M.Rajasekaran# andM.VenkataKirthiga#
#

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli

1

rajasekarancareer@gmail.com 2 mvkirthiga@nitt.edu

ABSTRACT This paper recommendsamodern self-defined extinction advance angle controller for Hybrid HVDC systems and also investigates its suitability under different operating conditions. The proposed self-defined controller suggests a new method for measuring extinction advance angle which deals with the device level measurement. The proposed controller is dedicated for the receiving end converter operated in inverter mode and the sending end converter operated in rectifier mode is supplemented with a standard controller. A Hybrid HVDC system with Voltage Source Converter(VSC) at the rectifier and Capacitor Commutated Converter (CCC)is considered in this paper for analysis. The performance of the proposed controller has been investigated under different operating conditions including post fault recovery. Also a fault mitigation technique has been attempted for a DC link to ground fault and the robustness of the controller has been confirmed in conjunction with the fault mitigation technique. PSCAD/EMTDC simulation software has been used for validating the proposed controller and the standard CIGRE benchmark system has been used for evaluating the proposed controller in this paper. Keywords- Hybrid HVDC systems, Capacitor Commutated Converter, Fault mitigation technique 1. INTRODUCTION

HVDC technology has proven to be an ecient and exible method to achieve bulk power transmission over long distances [1]. Conventional HVDC transmission systems use thyristors based Line-Commutated Converters (LCC) for power conversion and the modern HVDC systems use IGBT based Voltage Source Converters(VSC) which enhance reactive power support in case of weak ac grids. LCC based systems are well suited for very high power transmissions and hence are widely used. LCC converters also posses less switching losses and also the device being unidirectional such systems do not encounter reverse power contributions during mid link to ground fault. However when the AC system to which the LCC based converter is connected is weak, there are frequent chances for commutation failureto occur at the devices. As an alternative, VSC based systems are mushrooming owing
ISBN 978-1-4675-2248-9 2012 Published by Coimbatore Institute of Information Technology

International Conference on Computing and Control Engineering (ICCCE 2012), 12 & 13 April, 2012

to their special features such as: (i) independently controlled active and reactive power exchange (ii) minimal chances for commutation failure (iii) independent control at the terminal converter stationsand (iv) less reactive power requirement. However, VSCs have a major constraint in using at both the terminals of a HVDC transmission as the presence of backward diode paves way for the fault current when a DC link to ground fault occurs at the midpoint, the fault contribution increases. In this context, Hybrid HVDC systems are gaining attraction as an alternative solution[4] and one such system is shown in Fig.1., which is a combination of VSC on rectifier side and LCC on the inverter side. This scheme of Hybrid system is aimed at combining the advantages of both LCC and VSC based HVDC technologies and also compensating their drawbacks. Hence such hybrid systems render the advantages such as : (i)LCC converter handles high power levels; (ii)VSC converter overcomes the problem of reactive power support at the weak AC system; (iii)LCC converter enhances the DC link to ground fault behaviour of the system (iv) Co-ordination without fast communication is achieved. In spite of the above mentioned advantages, Hybrid HVDC cannot reverse the power flow as LCC requires a change in polarity of the DC voltage while VSC requires a change in the direction of DC current.This paper suggests to replace the LCC at the inverter end of the commonly used Hybrid HVDC system with a CCC unit when the AC networkis weak [3] . A Novel SelfDefined Extinction Advance Angle controller [5,6], has been suggested in this paper and the same has been investigated for its performance on the above mentioned Hybrid HVDC system under various operating conditions which include steady state operation of the link and post fault recovery for a DC link to ground fault. The performance of the proposed controller has been compared with the standard CIGRE controller[2] under different operating conditions. A fault current mitigation technique has also been introduced in conjunction with the proposed controller in this work, and the performance analysis has been evaluated using PSCAD/EMTDC simulation software.

Fig. 1. PSCAD Simulation model of a HYBRIDHVDC system with VSC rectifier & CCC inverter

2.

CAPACITOR COMMUTATED CONVERTER A Capacitor Commutated Converter (CCC) is a modified conventional HVDC converter with additional capacitors between the transformer and conducting valves to enhance smooth commutation, as Fig. 2.Configuration of the CCC HVDC system shown in Fig. 2.

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International Conference on Computing and Control Engineering (ICCCE 2012), 12 & 13 April, 2012

This configuration gives better reactive power support compared to the conventional Line CommutatedConverter(LCC) and also improves the dynamically performance of the inverter especially when connected to weak AC systems and/or long DC cables. Capacitor in CCC configuration increases the commutation margin without any increase in the reactive power consumption of the converter station[3]. This improvement in commutation margin reduces the chances of commutation failure and hence CCC is dedicated to the inverter station, prone to commutation failure.

Fig. 3.AC bus voltage & valve voltage: (a) conventional inverter, (b) CCC inverter

As a matter of fact, it becomes inevitable to distinguish between the apparent extinction angle () and the real extinction angle () as shown in Fig. 3. In the conventional HVDC converter, the extinction angle is dened as the electrical angle spanned between the instant at which the valve turns o and the positive zero-crossing of the line-to-line voltage at the ac converter bus, as given by (1) (1) where is the inverter ring delay angle and is the overlap angle. However, in the case of CCC, this measurement does not take into account the capacitor voltage and does not measure the actual extinction angle. Therefore it is referred to as the apparent extinction angle () as given by (2) (2) where is the phase-lag angle between the AC bus voltage and valve voltage as shown in Fig. 3. The commutation margin angle in the CCC inverter is the angle between the instant of completion of commutation and the instant where the valve voltage crosses zero and grows positive there onwards. 3. COMBINED CONTROL TRANSMSISION SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS OF A HVDC

Under forward power flow from the rectifier station to the inverter station, the CC and CIA controllers need to be dedicated at the rectifier end and the CEA controller is inevitable on the inverter side of the system. The combinedcontrol characteristics of a long distance HVDC transmission system is being shown in the Fig.4.A combined control operation is required to enable both forward and reversal of power flows.
Fig. 4.Combined Control Characteristicsis

ISBN 978-1-4675-2248-9 2012 Published by Coimbatore Institute of Information Technology

International Conference on Computing and Control Engineering (ICCCE 2012), 12 & 13 April, 2012

Under emergency control states viz., sudden reversal of power flow for control requirements, inversion operation of both converters to de-energize the line completely, emergency shutdown of the line etc., it is necessary to avail the CC and CIA controllers at the inverter end and CEA controller at the rectifier end. Thus each converter needs to be provided with all the three above mentioned controllers. 4. SELF-DEFINED EXTINCTION ANGLE CONTROLLER

Overall block diagram of the proposed modern self-defined controller has been shown in the Fig. 5. This method is implemented digitally using firing pulse, zero-crossing instant of valve current and AC voltage of each valve to determine the a node and the b node of extinction angle , as shown in the Fig. 6.

Fig. 5.Schematic of the proposed controller

Fig. 6.Voltage waveform to measure

Fig. 7.Overall simulation diagram of the modern self-defined extinction angel controller

The node a shown in Fig.6indicates the instant of current commutationfrom the outgoing device to the incoming device. After the outgoing valve has completely de-ionized, when the voltage across the valve and AC voltage,pass through zero axis, the valve would stop conduction. This instant is denoted as b. The zero-crossing of valve current and ac voltage of each valve, the nodes a and b have been identified, and a unit time-pulse, the width of which is equal to the time of extinction angle is generated. This time-pulse is used as an input signal for integrator. The output of the integrator is an amplitude-pulse which is equal to extinction angle . This amplitude of the pulse is maintained until the next extinction angle is measured. Through this method, theextinction angle of single valve in each cycle
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International Conference on Computing and Control Engineering (ICCCE 2012), 12 & 13 April, 2012

and hence the same is maintained constant throughout the inverter operation of the bridge concerned. The inputs of the measurement module are voltage, current, firing pulse and ac voltage of each valve and the output is the measured extinction angle of each valve. Then the minimum of measured for all the valves is selected as the input of closed-loop control of constant extinction angle control. This control scheme has been implemented using PSCAD/EMTDC software as shown in Fig. 7. 5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The efficacy of the proposed controller has been investigated for a Hybrid HVDC systemwith power rating of 2000MW, at 1100kV mono-polar system derived from the rst CIGRE benchmark model with some modications to facilitate the study of the system (6 pulse converters), as shown in Fig.1.with a VSC rectifier and CCCinverter. The VSC rectifier is supported by an Independent P & Q controller modeled using analytical expressions.The capacitance of the CCC used in this model is determined to C = 53 F. 5.1 Normal operation of the Hybrid HVDC link with the proposed controller

The normal start up and steady state operation of the monopolar Hybrid HVDC transmission link with the proposed controller is compared with that of the standard CIGRE controller as shown in Fig. 8.

ISBN 978-1-4675-2248-9 2012 Published by Coimbatore Institute of Information Technology

International Conference on Computing and Control Engineering (ICCCE 2012), 12 & 13 April, 2012

Time(s) Time(s) (a)Self-defined extinction advance angle controller (b)CIGRE controller Fig. 8.Performance of the Hybrid system under steady state start up operation

The waveforms for the DC link voltage, current, DC voltage and current at the rectifier and inverter terminals respectively and the real and reactive power interactions with the ac grid on either side are shown in the figure 8 for Hybrid HVDC system with the proposed controller (a) and the CIGRE controller(b) respectively. It has been seen that the proposed controller, is on par with the behaviour of the CIGRE controller during start up characteristics. 5.3 Fault mitigation technique for a DC link fault The performance of the proposed controller has been analyzed for a DC link to ground fault, at 1 sec that persists for 200msecs. As the VSC has no control over the fault current, the system has not been able to resume appreciably after the fault has been cleared. HenceFig. 8. Fault mitigation technique a fault current mitigation technique has

been attempted in this paper. This technique deals with either isolating the VSC rectifier alone or isolating both the end converters (VSC & CCC) on occurrence of a dc link to ground fault and both the converters being operated in inverter modes as shown in Fig. 8.

5.4

Performance analysis of the proposed controller with fault mitigation technique

A DC link to ground fault has been created at 1 sec &cleared at 1.2 sec. The fault mitigation technique shown in Fig. 8 has been attempted. The performance of the proposed controller has been compared with that of the CIGRE controller with and without implementation of the fault mitigation technique. In both the modes of operation the proposed controller has been found to outperform the CIGRE controller. In the first case, the inverter is isolated on occurrence of fault and the controller is allowed to settle at appropriate firing delay angle to meet the required current order such that the rectifier is at the inverted mode of operation. The proposed controller is found to outperform the conventional CIGRE controller with respect to the post fault recovery time and the waveforms of DC voltage, current, DC link power, real and reactive power interactions with the grid are shown in Fig.9.

ISBN 978-1-4675-2248-9 2012 Published by Coimbatore Institute of Information Technology

International Conference on Computing and Control Engineering (ICCCE 2012), 12 & 13 April, 2012

Time(s)

Time(s) Time(s) (a)Self-defined extinction advance angle controller (b)CIGRE controller Fig. 9. Performance of the Hybrid system under fault mitigation operation-Isolating CCC inverter

As a second case, the DC circuit breaker at both the ends viz., the inverter (CCC) and rectifier (VSC) are operated on occurrence of the fault. After fault clearance, both the converters are switched ON and the post fault recovery performance of the proposed controller is found to be superior to that of the conventional CIGRE benchmark controller. Also the proposed self- defined controller helps the system to restore faster after the recovery of the fault. Justification for this discussion has been shown in Fig. 10.

ISBN 978-1-4675-2248-9 2012 Published by Coimbatore Institute of Information Technology

International Conference on Computing and Control Engineering (ICCCE 2012), 12 & 13 April, 2012

Time(s) Time(s) (a)Self-defined extinction advance angle controller (b)CIGRE controller Fig. 10. Performance of the Hybrid system under fault mitigation operation of case 2

6.

CONCLUSION

In this paper a Modern Self- Defined Extinction angle controller has been suggested for the extinction advance angle control at the inverter end of a Hybrid HVDC system with VSC at the rectifier end and CCC at the inverter end. It is seen that the proposed controller is able to work on par with the standard CIGRE controller at post fault recovery instants as the system recovers smooth and fast after the fault is removed and also the fault current is limited to one third of the magnitude attained with the CIGRE controller. Also a fault mitigation technique has been suggested in this paper and the performance of the proposed controller is found to be better than the CIGRE controller when operated in conjunction with the suggested fault mitigation technique. PSCAD/EMTDC simulation software has been used for validating the proposed controller in this work. 7. REFERENCES

[1] K.R. Padiyar, HVDC Power Transmission Systems, New Age International(P) Ltd., Publishers, 1990. [2] M. O. Faruque, Yuyan Zhang, and VenkataDinavahi, Detailed Modeling of CIGRE HVDC Benchmark System Using PSCAD/EMTDC and PSB/SIMULINKIEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol.21, No.1, January 2006. [3] K.Sadek, M.Pereira, D.P.Brandt, A.M.Gole, A.Daneshpooy, Capacitor Commutated Converter Configurations For DC Transmission, IEEE Transactions On Power Delivery, Vol.13,NO.4,pp.1257-1264,October 1998. [4] Li Gengyin, Member, IEEE, Liang Haifeng, Zhao Chengyong, Yin Ming, Research on Hybrid HVDC ,International Conference on Power System Technology - POWERCON 2004. [5] Manling Dong, junjia He, Xiaolin Le, Ying Huang, Realization of Self-Defined Control System For Constant Extinction Angle Control using PSCAD/EMTD CPower and Energy Engineering Conference-APPEC 2009,pp.1-5, 2009 [6] AsfaqThahir M. and VenkataKirthiga M, Investigations on a Modern SelfDefined Extinction Advance Angle Controller For HVDC Systems, International Conference onProcess Automation, Control and Computing (PACC), IEEE, pp. 1-6, 2011. [7] M.AshfaqThahir, M. VenkataKirthiga,Investigations on modern self-defined controller for hybrid HVDC systemsTENCON 2011 2011,IEEE Region 10 Conference, pp. 938943,2012
ISBN 978-1-4675-2248-9 2012 Published by Coimbatore Institute of Information Technology