Small-Signal Stability Assessment of Power Electronics Based Power Systems: A Discussion of Impedance- and Eigenvalue-Based Methods

Abstract

This paper investigates the small-signal stability of power electronics-based power systems in frequency domain. A comparison between the impedance-based and the eigenvalue-based stability analysis methods is presented. A relation between the characteristics equation of the eigenvalues and poles and zeros of the minor-loop gain from the impedance-based analysis have been derived analytically. It is shown that both stability analysis methods can effectively determine the stability of the system. In the case of the impedance-based method, a low phase-margin in the Nyquist plot of the minor-loop gain indicates that the system can exhibit harmonic oscillations. A weakness of the impedance method is the limited observability of certain states given its dependence on the definition of local source-load subsystems, which makes it necessary to investigate the stability at different subsystems. To address this limitation, the paper discusses critical locations where the application of the method can reveal the impact of a passive component or a controller gain on the stability. On the other hand, the eigenvalue-based method, being global, can determine the stability of the entire system; however, it cannot unambiguously predict sustained harmonic oscillations in voltage source converter (VSC) based high voltage dc (HVdc) systems caused by pulse-width modulation (PWM) switching. To generalize the observations, the two methods have been applied to dc-dc converters. To illustrate the difference and the relation between the two-methods, the two stability analysis methods are then applied to a two-terminal VSC-based HVdc system as an example of power electronics-based power systems, and the theoretical analysis has been further validated by simulation and experiments.