Power flow calculation of hybrid AC/DC power systems

Abstract

Multi-terminal HVDC systems have recently become an attractive option for interconnection of isolated AC systems such as offshore wind farms and oil platforms to asynchronous large AC systems. This paper deals with power flow calculation (PFC) of hybrid AC/DC power systems where several asynchronous AC systems are interconnected via a common multiterminal VSC-HVDC system. This paper proposes a unified AC-DC approach for PFC of a hybrid AC/DC power system. The proposed approach is then employed for two different analyses, namely a) the separated analysis where the entire hybrid AC/DC system is divided into two groups. The first group (named external AC system) comprises all asynchronous AC systems which are not directly connected to the slack convertor of the DC network, and the second group comprises an AC/DC system where the selected AC system is directly connected to the slack convertor. In this method, a PFC is firstly performed for the the first group, and its relevant obtained results will be used for PFC of the second group. b) the integrated analysis where the entire hybrid system is considered as a unit. Both a) and b) can be used in the practical analysis of the real-size power systems. However, due to practical issues and computational costs the separated analysis may be a more acceptable method. The simulations have been performed using MATLAB, and the obtained results have been compared with those obtained in SIMPOW.