A New Control Scheme for Fast Frequency Support From HVDC Connected Offshore Wind Farm in Low-Inertia System

Abstract

Large-scale renewable energy integration and consequent displacement of synchronous machines result in low system inertia. Low system inertia leads to high rate of change of frequency, higher frequency nadir, and potentially require higher primary frequency reserve to stabilise system frequency following a sudden generation shortfall. To address such frequency stability issue in wind energy integrated system, this paper has proposed a new and realistic control strategy for inertial and primary frequency support from HVDC connected Offshore Wind Farms (OWF). The proposed control strategy, which is based on offshore AC voltage control is not only addressing limitations of high rate of frequency change in the offshore grid, but also does not result in any frequency deviation in the offshore grid while providing frequency support to the main grid. The proposed control strategy is robust for any frequency deviation in the main grid, which utilises HVDC converters to map onshore frequency variation in to voltage variation in the offshore grid, thus enabling adequate inertial and primary frequency support from the OWF. The proposed control strategy has been tested on two test systems and the results are compared with conventional method to demonstrate the robustness, effectiveness and reliability of the proposed frequency support strategy.