An inertial control method for large-scale wind farm based on hierarchical distributed hybrid deep-reinforcement learning

Abstract

Wind farm (WF) is gradually required to provide inertial support during frequency events nowadays. Existing WF inertial control methods have exhibited limitations in parameter estimation and optimal control parameter tuning under variable operating conditions. Moreover, traditional model-based methods suffer from computational efficiency problems due to their reliance on repeated iterations or derivative computations in optimization process. Thus, this paper proposes an inertial control method for large-scale WF based on hierarchical distributed hybrid deep-reinforcement learning (HDH-DRL). Firstly, the control objectives for the inertial control are defined, and are decomposed on the basis of wind turbines (WTs) division. Next, this paper presents a HDH-DRL based inertial control framework consisting of two levels. The upper-level control is achieved by the hybrid multi-agent DRL (HMA-DRL) algorithm with hybrid action exploration mechanism and multi-agent coordination. The consensus based lower-level control aims to achieve the consensus convergence of the control through the locally distributed interaction among WTs. Finally, the inertial control processes of the model are exhibited; the influences of DRL algorithms on the control are discussed; the computational speed and solution accuracy of the proposed method are compared with the model-based methods; the multi-scenario applicability and performance in local communication failures of the model are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly improves the active power response and frequency stability, achieving rapid consensus convergence with a power deviation below 0.3%, surpassing traditional control methods by at least 0.2%; also, it demonstrates superior performance across various scenarios, including transient and steady-state conditions, with frequency enhancements up to 0.30% and exceptional stability under different wind conditions and communication disruptions.