STUDIES ON FAULT CHARACTERISTICS AND

PROTECTION STRATEGIES OF MTDC SYSTEM WITH DC

HUB
Jing Wu, Liangzhong Yao, Zhibing Wang, Yan Li

* China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China

Keywords: MTDC system, DC hub, DC/DC converter, DC transmitting bulk offshore wind power into onshore power
fault, protection strategy grid has become one of the hottest concerns in offshore wind
power generation technology. Traditional AC transmission
Abstract has been proved to be impractical for integrating and
transmitting remote offshore wind power due to huge reactive
consumption required. In contrast, DC transmission is a
Renewable energy power generation is developing fast in
promising power transmission method as a result of no
recent years, thereinto wind power generation is one of the
limitation on transmission distance, flexible power flow
most mature and feasible technologies, especially the offshore
control, reduced power losses, etc. [2-4]
wind power is the future trend of wind power development.
However, the integration of large-scale wind power will bring
various challenges and affect the safe operation of power Existing HVDC connections for offshore wind farms are
grids. Compared to AC system, multi-terminal DC (MTDC) point-to-point ones. However, many relevant studies have
system can solve these problems better and is more suitable identified the advantages of using MTDC system to integrate
for this application. Thus, the integration of wind power large offshore wind farms, thus new connection schemes are
through MTDC system is considered as one of effective being considered using MTDC technology [5-7]. MTDC
technical solutions. Accordingly, the studies on fault system connecting various wind farms and transmitting wind
characteristics and protection strategies of MTDC system are power to several onshore stations or zones could provide
becoming urgent and important. This paper presents a additional benefits compared to direct point-to-point
topology of MTDC system with DC hub which is suitable for connections, such as a smoothing effect on the overall wind
wind power collection and transmission of large offshore generation, an AC congestion reduction and an
wind farms, and the fault characteristics of this MTDC system interconnection capacity of different AC zones [8]. Also, in
against open-circuit faults are analysed in detail. Furthermore, order to reduce the transmission power losses, the DC voltage
the corresponding fault protection strategies for the MTDC of offshore DC network may need to be boosted to a higher
system are proposed, and the simulations of the MTDC level for transmitting power to onshore power system, where
system with DC hub are carried out using the high power DC hub or DC/DC converter is needed [9].
PSCAD/EMTDC simulation tool to verify the feasibility and
validity of the above protection strategies. The development of MTDC system has to address several
technical challenges including standard and compatibility,
power loss, control and coordination, fault protection, and
1 Introduction redundancy requirement, etc. Especially, the protection
With the increasing depletion of fossil energy and the scheme for MTDC system is one of the main issues to take
growing pressure on the environment improvement, the world into account for future large offshore network integration [10,
is facing the strategic adjustment of energy structure, to seek 11]. Recently, a lot of researches have been carried out, but
a feasible way of transition from traditional energy to most of them mainly concentrate on the topologies and
renewable energy. Among them, wind power, as the most control strategies of the whole system [12-15]. The control
mature renewable energy power generation technology, has and protection methods for the HVDC system under fault
been developed rapidly. According to the latest statistics, conditions are relatively rare and many of them are pertinent
there are 370GW of wind power installed capacity by the end to the faults happened in AC side [16, 17]. In fact, the faults
of 2014 around the world [1]. It should be noticed that the happened in MTDC system are ordinary as well, and they
application of wind power is mainly focused on large-scale may bring severer consequence which will threaten the safety
onshore wind farm so far. However, with the development of and stability of the whole system. Therefore, it is of great
offshore wind power generation technology, the construction significance to study and develop corresponding fault
of offshore wind farms becomes more and more popular. By protection strategies which are capable to open the faulted DC
the end of 2014, the global offshore wind power installed line in a selective manner within a few milliseconds without
capacity reached 8.7GW [1]. In the meanwhile, the issue of affecting AC system.
This paper first presents a typical topology of MTDC system fault. Besides, the voltages of AC GRID1 and GRID2 are all
with DC hub, which is suitable for power collection and set to 220kV.
transmission of offshore wind farms. Then, the fault
characteristics of this MTDC system under open-circuit faults
are analyzed and corresponding protection strategies are
proposed to mitigate the impacts of the faults on HVDC
system. Finally, the simulation model of the MTDC system is
built by PACAD/EMTDC simulation software tool, and the
simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed
protection strategies.

This paper is organized as follows. Section II outlines the

topology of the presented MTDC system. The detailed
analysis on the MTDC system characteristics under open- Fig.1 Topology of the MTDC system with DC hub
circuit faults at both sending end and receiving end is carried As can be seen from Fig.1, the bipolar VSC, DC/DC
out in Section III. Section IV studies and simulates the fault converter and DC hub are all modelled based on single VSC
protection strategies. Finally, the conclusions are drawn in during the simulation studies. Its important and necessary to
Section V. study the control principle of VSC in order to understand the
control strategies of the whole MTDC system.

2 Configuration of the MTDC system

2.2 Control strategies of the MTDC system
2.1 Topology of the proposed MTDC system The detailed topology of VSC is shown in Fig.2. L represents
the equivalent reactance of commutation transformer and
The topology of the proposed MTDC system is shown in
reactor. R represents the equivalent resistance of commutation
Fig.1. As is well known, MTDC system is suitable for
transformer and resistor. Us is the three phase voltage of the
connecting a number of offshore wind farms and transmitting
AC bus. Uc is the fundamental voltage in the AC side of the
wind power into separate onshore AC systems efficiently.
VSC. I is the fundamental AC current. Udc is the DC voltage
Therefore, this MTDC system consists of two offshore wind
of the VSC.
farms (WF1 and WF2) and two onshore AC grids (GRID1
and GRID2). Thereinto, WF1 is AC offshore wind farm with
a capacity of 500MW and a voltage level of 110kV. WF2 is a
unipolar DC offshore wind farm with a capacity of 500MW
and a DC voltage level of 250kV. To highlight the research
points of the MTDC, WF1 and WF2 are equivalent to an AC
current source and a DC current source, respectively. Then,
WF1 is connected to DC network through a 500MW bipolar
AC/DC converter which can convert AC voltage to 160kV
DC voltage. The converter (VSC3) is based on VSC
technology due to its numerous advantages such as the Fig.2 Detail topology of VSC
decoupling control of active and reactive power at WF1 side The mathematical model of VSC in the dq coordinate system
and easy realization of power reversal. On the other hand, is given in (1).
WF2 is connected to the bipolar DC network through a
500MW DC/DC converter (DC/DC) which can convert the
DC voltage from 250kV to 250kV. However these two DC did
usd Rid  L  ucd  Z Liq
voltages are still low for power transmission over long dt
distance. Therefore, a four-port DC hub (DCHUB) is (1)
u diq
introduced as a step-up converter to increase the transmission Riq  L  ucq  Z Lid
sq dt
voltage from 160kV/250kV to 320kV. The capacity of
DC hub is 1000MW, and it can also provide an extra power
Where, usd and usq are the components of Us in d-axis and q-
flow control to coordinate the power flows of these four ports
axis respectively; ucd and ucq are the components of Uc in d-
of DC hub. After the wind power is transmitted to onshore
axis and q-axis respectively, id and iq are the components of I
grid, converters are needed to make the power injected into
in d-axis and q-axis respectively, and is the angular
AC systems. Here, two bipolar VSC (VSC1 and VSC2) is
frequency of the AC system.
applied to connect the DC hub with AC GRID1 and GRID2
respectively. The rated capacity of VSC1 (VSC2) is set to
1000MW, to avoid overload if one of them is blocked due to The schematic diagram of the control strategy for VSC is
shown in Fig.3. It is consisted of double control loops,
including an outer voltage control loop and an inner current while VSCs in port 1 of DCHUB run in power control mode.
control loop. To ensure the VSCs which run in AC voltage control mode
and power control mode can operate normally, the DC
voltages of MTDC system must keep stable. Thus, VSCs in
VSC1 and VSC2 run in DC voltage control mode to keep
Udc1 at f 320kV. VSCs in port3 and port4 of DCHUB
control Udc2 at f160kV and Udc3 at 250kV, respectively.

During normal operation, the output powers of WF1 and WF2

are both 500MW. Through the MTDC system, the powers
injected into GRID1 and GRID2 are equal sharing (each
(a) Schematic diagram of outer voltage control loop 500MW).

3 Open-circuit fault characteristics

The open-circuit fault is a kind of fault with the broken of
cable joint but isnt shorted to the ground. It may be caused
by the ageing of devices, vandalism or external mechanical
force. This kind of fault is always permanent.

3.1 Open-circuit fault at sending end

Assuming a line open-circuit fault is applied at the position
FP1 as shown in Fig.1. In this situation, the AC voltage in
(b) Schematic diagram of inner current control loop DCHUB can be maintained, thus VSCs in VSC1, VSC2,
Fig.3 Schematic diagram of the control strategy for VSC port1, port2, port4 of DCHUB, and DC/DC can keep
operating normally. However, half of the wind power from
The outer voltage control loop, as shown in Fig.3 (a), can
WF1 will fail to flow into MTDC system through VSC3. The
achieve different control targets by using different methods,
capacitor of VSCn of VSC3 will be discharged, thus its
such as DC voltage control, AC voltage control and power
voltage Udcn will drop to zero if it is still in the loop.
control. Taken AC voltage control as example, the VSC use
proportional-integral (PI) controllers to control the d- and q-
The simulation results are shown in Fig.4. It can be seen that
axis voltage space vectors. The d-axis voltage reference usd* is
the simulation starts from the stable operating condition and
set at rated AC phase voltage peak value and usq* is set at 0.
the open-circuit fault happens at the time instant of 0.8s. After
The AC frequency is set to a constant value of fs.
fault, the active power through faulted cable to DCHUB
decreases to 0 quickly, which means only half of wind power
The inner current control method can be designed according
from WF1 (250MW) can be delivered to DC network.
to the formula (1), neglecting the influence of resistance R
Besides, the negative pole voltage of VSC3 begins to
(R<<L). As shown in Fig.3 (b), it uses PI controllers to track
decrease, while the DC voltage in port3 of DCHUB can still
the AC current reference, and the control equations are:
maintain at 160kV as it is in DC voltage control mode.

* k
ucd  k p  i  id*  id   Z Liq  usd
s
(2)
k
u *  k p  i  iq*  iq   Z Lid  ucq
cq s

Where, ucd* and ucq* are the d-axis voltage reference and q-
axis voltage reference of Us respectively; id* and iq* are the d-
axis current reference and q-axis current reference of I
respectively, and kp and ki are the parameters of PI controller.

During normal operation, VSCs in VSC3 and port2 of DC/DC

control AC voltage of WF1 at 110kV and DC voltage of WF2
at 250kV, respectively. VSCs in port2 of DCHUB and port1
of DC/DC run in internal AC voltage control mode to
generate the internal AC voltage in DCHUB and DC/DC,
 AC GRID2. Besides, the negative pole voltage of VSC2
increases, while the DC voltage of VSC2 can still maintain at
320kV as it is in DC voltage control mode.

Fig.4 Fault characteristics of the presented MTDC system at

FP1

3.2 Open-circuit fault at receiving end

Assuming a line open-circuit fault is happened at the position
FP2 as shown in Fig.1. In this situation, the AC voltage in
DCHUB can be maintained, thus VSCs in VSC1, VSC3,
port1, port3, port4 of DCHUB, and DC/DC can keep
operating normally. However, half of the wind power from
WF2 will flow to the fault position through DC/DC and
DCHUB. The capacitor of VSCn in port2 will be charged,
and its voltage Udcn will keep increasing if it is still in the
loop.

The simulation results are shown in Fig.5. It can be seen that

the simulation starts from the stable operating condition and
Fig.5 Fault characteristics of the presented MTDC system at
the open-circuit fault happens at the time instant of 0.8s. After
FP2
fault, the active power trough faulted cable to VSC2
decreases to 0 quickly, which means only half of wind power
from WF2 (250MW) can still flow through the DC network to 4 Open fault protection strategies
4.1 Open-circuit fault at sending end
If the open-fault can be cleared after a period, no action needs
to be done and the system can resume normal operation after
the fault is cleared. The corresponding simulation results are
shown in Fig. 6.

Fig.7 DC voltage and power characteristics with protection

strategy for open-circuit fault at FP2
In Fig. 7, the fault happens at 0.8s and it is identified at 0.85s.
As can be seen, Udcn of port2 in DCHUB will be kept at its
nominal value 320kV. The active power through the negative
pole cable will switch to the positive pole cable, which means
Fig.6 DC voltage and power characteristics with the all the wind power from WF2 can still be delivered to AC
protection strategy for open-circuit fault at FP1 GRID2. Besides, the performance of the proposed MTDC
system can be improved by optimizing the control
In Fig. 6, the fault happens at 0.8s and it is cleared at 0.85s.
parameters.
As can be seen, Udcn of VSC3 will be kept at its nominal
value 160kV after a drop, and the active power of negative
pole from VSC3 to DCHUB will recover from 0 to 250MW. The above simulation results show that the protection strategy
of switching control mode for VSCs is feasible when an open-
fault at F2 happens. It can protect the MTDC system
The above simulation results show that by choosing the
quickly, without adding extra devices. Moreover, it can keep
proper coordinated control strategies of VSCs in the MTDC
all components near to the fault position running after the
system, the system can recover from a temporary open-fault
protection, which is suitable for the situation that the open-
at F1 automatically without additional protection strategies.
fault can be cleared after a period.

4.2 Open-circuit fault at receiving end

5 Conclusions
If the open-fault can be cleared after a period, it is better that
VSCn in port2 of DCHUB can keep running after protection. A MTDC system with DC hub which is suitable for power
This goal can be achieved by switching its control mode of connection and transmission of offshore wind farms is
VSCs. When the fault is identified, the control mode of VSCn presented, and simulation studies with the focuses on the
in port2 will be changed from AC voltage control to DC investigations of the fault characteristics and control and
voltage control. However, this action will cause the internal protection strategies are carried out using the
AC voltage in DCHUB unstable. Thus, VSCn in port1 needs PSCAD/EMTDC software tool in this paper. The fault
to take over the control of internal AC voltage. The characteristics of the DC system under open-circuit fault
corresponding simulation results are shown in Fig. 7. conditions are analyzed and corresponding fault protection
strategies are discussed in detail. Simulation results validate
the feasibility and validity of the proposed strategies to
mitigate the impacts of the faults on MTDC system. Fault
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