Study of An Adaptive Fuzzy VDCOL Control

Strategy for Coordinated Recovery of Multi-feed-in

HVDC System
YANG Dachun1, LIU Tianqi1*LI Xingyuan1, ZHOU Xiaoyan2TANG Fan1
1. School of Electrical Engineering and Information

2. College of Electrical & Information Engineering

Sichuan University

Southwest University for Nationalities

Chengdu 610065, Sichuan Province, China

Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China

AbstractAn adaptive fuzzy Voltage Dependent Current Order

have great impact on the recovery of DC systems and the

Limiter (VDCOL) to enhance the performance of a multi-feed-in

stability of the grid [2].

HVDC system is proposed in this paper. The adaptive fuzzy

VDCOL exports an adaptive current order through fuzzy rules
which need one points voltage of HVDC transmission line and
its derivative to time. The study of a MIDC model shows that not
only the adaptive fuzzy VDCOL strategy can lead to the rapid
recovery after system fault, but also eliminates the process of
parameter configuration of VDCOL.

In response to these problems, a VDCOL control strategy

which is used for MIDC coordination recovery is presented in
[3]. The strategy synthetically uses different kinds of VDCOL
in every DC control systems and the VDCOL characteristic
curve has been improved. However, the VDCOL still adjust
DC current through DC voltage. There is no response to the
relationship between Voltage derivative to time and DC

Keywords-control of HVDC; VDCOL; MIDC; coordinate

current, and VDCOL parameters must be set by analysis

systematical. Aiming at the above problems, this paper

recovery; fuzzy control

proposes an adaptive fuzzy VDCOL control strategy which is

I. INTRODUCTION

suitable for coordination recovery of MIDC. This adaptive

When the DC voltage or the AC bus voltage near converter

fuzzy VDCOL exports an adaptive current order through fuzzy

station is significantly reduced, a large number of reactive

rules which need one points voltage of HVDC transmission

power needed in the HVDC system may lead to durative

line and its derivative to time. The study of MIDC mode

fluctuations in the commutation voltage or even lead to the

established in Matlab/Simulink shows that using this strategy

HVDC system working abnormal if the DC power or current is

can allow MIDC rapid recover after a fault and eliminate the

controlled at the rating. So, the DC current should be confined

process of parameter configuration of VDCOL.

by the Voltage Dependent Current Order Limiter (VDCOL) [1]

II. CHARACTERISTICS OF VDCOL

when the voltage is lower.

If the electrical distance is short between the inverter
stations, there are strong interactions between the AC system
and the DC system in a multi-feed-in HVDC system (MIDC)
[2]

. When some AC faults occur, the AC voltage of multiple

converter station buses may be greatly reduced. In severe cases

it may lead to commutation failure in several DC systems at

VDCOL is to limit the DC current when the DC voltage or

the AC voltage drops to a specified value. A typical VDCOL
model is shown in Figure 1.The impact of various VDCOL
parameters on the power recovery and voltage recovery is
analyzed in [4, 5].
When

U H increasesthe rate of slope of I MAX U DC

the same time and DC power is difficult to recover smoothly.

line decreases. It makes transmission of active power P and

In this case, whether VDCOL control is reasonable or not will

consumption of reactive power Q decrease during transient

process in the DC system. It is not conducive to active power

* Corresponding author. Email: tqliu@ieee.org

Sponsors: This work is supported by National Key Technology R&D
Program (No.2008BAA13B01), Key Technologies R&D Programme (No.
JS20080113506594), National Key Basic Research Special Fund of China
(No.2004CB217907).

978-1-4244-4813-5/10/$25.00 2010 IEEE

recovery and power angle stability, but it is conducive to the

of designing a controller varying greatly. Taken system change

resumption of AC bus voltage and voltage stability. The

into account, it is even more difficult to predict the state of

process is contrary when

When

U H decreases.

power system after system fault. The controller must have

U L increasesthe rate of slope of I MAX U DC

certain degrees of adaptive capacity

[8]

. The purpose of

line increases. It makes requirement for reactive power not too

VDCOL which is using fuzzy control technology is to

much during transient process in the DC system. It is

auto-tune DC current according to the system status and to

conducive to the resumption of bus voltage and voltage

eliminate the process of determining VDCOL parameters

stability. But it is not conducive to fast ease power imbalance

through systematic analysis.

because the transmission power reduced. The process is

contrary when

U L decreases.

The traditional VDCOL just uses the DC voltage or the AC

voltage to limit the DC current, ignoring the relationship

Therefore, we should pay attention to the power angle

between the changes in reactive power demand and the speed

[6]

of system voltage recovery. Therefore, the fuzzy VDCOL

stability and voltage stability

, and make a compromise

introduces another input which is DC voltage derivative to

between the two.

time. In this way, VDCOL can reflect the DC system reactive

I des

I ord

U dc

I MAX

U DC

I max

1
1 + sT

Id
Figure 1.

power demand and system voltage recovery rate.

I MAX

I min

U DC

U
K1
d dt

U dc

I dc

I dc

I ord

UL UH

A typical VDCOL model

I max

In Figure 1, T takes different values according to the

increasing or decreasing of the DC voltage.

K3

K2

Figure 2.

RV is composite

I min

A model of fuzzy VDCOL

resistor, which is used to locate which point it is in DC line to

determine VDCOL start voltage. The turning points in the
VDCOLs static characteristics as well as VDCOL time
constant T need to be determined through systematic analysis
[7]

. Because the interaction between the AC system and the DC

system is complex in MIDC, using systematic analysis to

determine the characteristics of VDCOL is rather complicated.

Figure 3.

If not properly managed, it may cause the voltage instability by

the rapid recovery of power in a number of DC systems at the
same time. Its important to design a VDCOL which is
adaptive to a variety of environments.
III. THE FUZZY CONTROL DESIGN OF VDCOL
A. A Fuzzy VDCOL Model
Since some of the power system components models and
parameters are difficult to be accurately obtained, may leading
to the actual state of the power system operation and the way

Membership function

Figure 2 is the model of the fuzzy VDCOL in a

standardized fuzzy design. In the standardized design,
Mamdani proposed to set the domain ranging of [-6,6]

[9]

There are two inputs in the fuzzy logic unit. One is one points
voltage of HVDC transmission line ( U dc ) and the other is its
derivative to time ( U dc ). Offset factor ( U ) and scaling

K1 K 2 ) quantify input variables to the

interval[-6,6]. Scaling factor ( K 3 ) transforms output variable
( I dc ) into the appropriate range. Fuzzy assembly has NL
factors (

(negative large), NM (negative middle), NS (negative small),

to the adjacent buses which are connected with coupling

ZO (zero), PS (positive small), PM (positive middle), PL

impedance. The rectifier uses fixed-current control; the

(positive large) seven linguistic variables. Because its in the

inverter uses fixed-gamma control or fixed-current control.

standardized fuzzy design, membership functions of input

variables ( U dc U dc ) and output variable ( I dc ) are shown
in Figure 3.
Add I dc and I dc to obtain the instant DC current order

I ord ) according to U dc and U dc . I max and I min limit the

maximum and minimum of I ord . In the fuzzy logic unit, fuzzy
(

inference

uses

the

max-min

inference

method

In MATLAB/Simulink, the MIDC system model (Fig.4) is

set up. The results are compared for two systems having either
a typical VDCOL or a fuzzy VDCOL.

U ac1

E1

defuzzification uses the centroid method [9].

Uc

yL 2

yN 2

Control rules of the fuzzy logic unit are as follows: in each

ES

y NS

yp

yac 2

U ac 2

E2

DC voltage, export different DC current increment or

Figure 4.

decrement depending on the different DC voltage derivative to

time. If the voltage is reduced faster, more reduced the DC

yL1

yN 1

and

B. Control Rules of the Fuzzy Logic Unit

yac1

A MIDC system model

A. Transient Simulation of the HVDC systems Startup

current is; if the voltage is rising faster, more raised the DC

Process

current is. In order to keep the system voltage during a fault,

In MATLAB/Simulink, two HVDC systems are put into

the maximum decrement of DC current is NL; In order to

facilitate the system voltage recovery after a fault, the
maximum increment of DC current is PM. Control rules are
shown in Table 1.

operation at 0.04s. The HVDC systems startup process is

depicted in Figure 5 a, b, c & d corresponding to DC currents
of HVDC system 1, DC currents of HVDC system 2, DC
voltages of HVDC system 1 and DC voltages of HVDC

TABLE 1 CONTROL RULES OF THE FUZZY LOGIC UNIT

system 2 at the inverter end, respectively.

1.8

U dc
NM

NS

ZO

PS

PM

PL

1.4
1.2

1
0.8
0.6
0.4

NM

NM

NM

NM

NS

NM

NL

NL

NM

NM

NS

NS

NS

NS

NL

NM

NM

NS

NS

NS

ZO

ZO

NS

NS

NS

ZO

ZO

ZO

PS

PS

ZO

ZO

ZO

PS

PS

PM

PM

0.2
0

-0.2

-0.2

0.1

0.2

0.3

PL

ZO
ZO

ZO
PS

PS

PS

PS

PS

PM
PM

PM
PM

PM
PM

0.4

0.5

0.6

(a)

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

t(s)

(b)

1.2

1.2

0.8

0.8

0.6

0.6

0.4
0.2
0

0.4
0.2
0

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

-0.4
-0.6

t(s)

-0.2

PM

0.6

Vd(p.u.)

NL

Vd(p.u.)

NL

1
0.8

0.4

0.2

NL

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

1.6

1.2

Id(p.u.)

NL

1.4

Id(p.u.)

dU dc
dt

1.8

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

1.6

0.1

(c)

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

-0.2

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

-0.4
-0.6

0.1

0.2

0.3

t(s)

(d)

Figure 5.

the DC systems startup process

0.4

0.5

0.6

t(s)

IV. SIMULATION ANALYSIS

In order to reflect the interaction between the AC and DC

As can be seen from Figure 5, if the typical VDCOL is

systems and characteristics of MIDC, a MIDC model which

used, the DC current of HVDC system 1 is up to rated value at

has two HVDC systems is adopted in Figure 4

[10]

In Figure 4, two HVDC systems are derived from the

CIGRE bench-mark model

[7, 11]

. The inverters are connected

0.35s, the DC current of HVDC system 2 is up to rated value

at 0.35s; if the fuzzy VDCOL is used, the DC current of
HVDC system 1 is up to rated value at 0.2s, the DC current of
HVDC system 2 is up to rated value at 0.25s; After the fuzzy

VDCOL is used, DC currents rise faster than those of the

HVDC system 1 is up to rated value at 1.15s, 0.04s faster than

typical VDCOL. DC voltage transient characteristics of the

the result of the typical VDCOL; the voltage RMS of A phase

two HVDC systems are basically the same at the inverter end.

of HVDC system 2 is up to rated value at 1.15s, 0.05s faster

B. Transient Simulation of a Three-phase Short-circuit Fault

In MATLAB/Simulink, a three-phase short-circuit fault
occurs at the HVDC system 1 inverter station (bus 3) in
1s-1.08s. Transient process of the model is depicted in Figure
6 a, b, c, d, e, f, g & h corresponding to DC currents of HVDC
system 1, DC currents of HVDC system 2, DC voltages of
HVDC system 1, DC voltages of HVDC system 2, voltages

than the result of the typical VDCOL; gamma of HVDC

system 1 is up to steady-state value at 1.22s, 0.035s faster than
the result of the typical VDCOL; gamma of HVDC system 2 is
up to steady-state value at 1.2s, the same with the typical
VDCOL; DC voltage transient characteristics of the two
HVDC systems are basically the same. So, the fuzzy VDCOL
significantly improves the transient characters in MIDC.
V. CONCLUSIONS

RMS of A phase of HVDC system 1, voltages RMS of A

phase of HVDC system 2, gammas of HVDC system 1 and
gammas of HVDC system 2 at the inverter end, respectively.
3

network structures, it can significantly improve the transient

0.5

(a)

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

-0.5
0.9

1.5

t(s)

1.2

(b)

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

t(s)

1
0.8

0.6

0.6

0.4
0.2

REFERENCES
[1]

0.4
0.2

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

-0.2
-0.4

(c)

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

-0.2

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

-0.4
-0.6
0.9

1.5

t(s)

0.9

(d)

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

t(s)

0.8

0.9

0.7
0.8

Va(p.u.)

Va(p.u.)

0.6
0.5
0.4

0.7

0.6

0.3
0.5
0.2

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

0.1
0
0.9

(e)

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

0.9

(f)

t(s)

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

t(s)

70

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

90

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

60

gamma(deg)

80

gamma(deg)

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

0.4

1.5

100

70
60
50
40
30

50

40

30

20

20
10
10
0
0.9

state stability of multi-feed-in HVDC system.

1.2

1
0.8

Vd(p.u.)

Vd(p.u.)

the VDCOL parameters. With high adaptability to a variety of

1.5

0.5

-0.6
0.9

from a fault. It does not need systematic analysis to determine

Id(p.u.)

Id(p.u.)

-0.5
0.9

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

2.5

1.5

coordination recovery of MIDC is proposed. The fuzzy

VDCOL can quickly and effectively make the system recover

Typical VDCOL
Fuzzy VDCOL

2.5

An adaptive fuzzy VDCOL which is suitable for

(g)

1.1

Figure 6.

1.2

t(s)

1.3

1.4

1.5

0
0.9

(h)

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

t(s)

Transient process of three-phase short-circuit fault

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1.14s, 0.06s faster than the result of the typical VDCOL; the
DC current of HVDC system 2 is up to rated value at 1.15s,
the same with the typical VDCOL, but in 1.08-1.15s higher
than the typical VDCOL; the voltage RMS of A phase of

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