Frequency secure control strategy for power grid with large-scale wind farms through HVDC links

Abstract

With the increasing penetration of wind energy into power grids, the frequency regulation capability of the system tends to deteriorate. Wind generators (WGs) could provide fast frequency response when the system suffers from disturbances. However, due to the randomness and intermittence of WG, its emergency support is not stable. The spinning reserves of the asynchronous power grids can be shared through the high voltage direct current (HVDC) links. Under a large disturbance, the HVDC link could provide fast frequency response support to maintain the operating frequency of the disturbed power grid within a secure range. In this paper, a frequency secure control strategy is proposed for the HVDC link connected to a power system with high penetration of wind energy. The proposed frequency secure control strategy has three control functions: (1) back-up frequency response control, (2) frequency compensation control, and (3) response distribution optimization. The objective of this control strategy is to improve the synthetic frequency response performance of the system under severe frequency disturbance while avoiding possible subsequent frequency drop caused by rotor speed recovery of wind turbines. Besides, the cost of ancillary service for obtaining frequency response support from interconnected power systems could be reduced. Simulation verifications are conducted on a reduced equivalent ERCOT system which is interconnected to equivalent Western and Eastern Interconnections by HVDC links. The simulation results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed frequency secure control strategy.