Power Oscillation Damping from Offshore Wind Farms Connected to HVDC via Diode Rectifiers

Abstract

Diode rectifiers (DRs) have elicited increasing interest from both industry and academia as a feasible alternative for connecting offshore wind farms (OWFs) to HVDC networks. However, before such technology is deployed, more studies are needed to assess the actual capabilities of DR-connected OWFs to contribute to the secure operation of the networks linked to them. This study assessed the capability of such an OWF to provide support to an onshore AC network by means of (active) power oscillation damping (POD). A semi-aggregated OWF representation was considered in order to examine the dynamics of each grid-forming wind turbine (WT) within a string when providing POD, while achieving reasonable simulation times. Simulation results corroborate that such an OWF can provide POD by means of OWF active power controls similar to those developed for OWFs connected to HVDC via voltage source converters, while its grid-forming WTs share the reactive power consumption/production and keep the offshore voltage frequency and magnitude within their normal operating ranges. Open-loop test results show that such capability can, however, be restricted at operating points corresponding to the lowest and highest values of active power output.

Keywords

• diode-rectifier-based HVDC transmission
• grid-forming wind turbine control
• offshore wind energy integration
• power oscillation damping