Performance Quantification of Interarea Oscillation Damping Using HVDC

Abstract: With the transition towards renewable energy, and the deregulation of the electricity market, generation patterns and grid topology are changing. These changes increase the need for transfer capacity. One limiting factor, which sometimes leads to underutilization of the transmission grid, is interarea oscillations. These system-wide modes involve groups of generators oscillating relative to each other and are sometimes hard to control due to their scale and complexity. In this thesis we investigate how high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission can be used to attenuate interarea oscillations. The thesis has two main contributions.In the first contribution we show how the stability of two asynchronous grids can be improved by modulating the active power of a single interconnecting HVDC link. One concern with modulating HVDC active power is that the interaction between interarea modes of the two grids may have a negative impact on system stability. By studying the controllability Gramian, we show that it is always possible to improve the damping in both grids as long as the frequencies of their interarea modes are not too close. For simplified models, it is explicitly shown how the controllability, and therefore the achievable damping improvements, deteriorates as the frequency difference becomes small.The second contribution of the thesis is to show how coordinated control of two (or more) links can be used to avoid interaction between troublesome interarea modes. We investigate the performance of some multivariable control designs. In particular we look at input usage as well as robustness to measurement, communication, and actuator failures. Suitable controllers are thereby characterized.