Design and implementation of a universal system control strategy applicable to VSC-HVDC systems

This paper proposes a universal system control strategy for voltage source converter (VSC) based high voltage direct current (HVDC) systems. The framework of the designed control strategy consists of five layer structures considering the topology and control characteristics of the VSC-HVDC system. The control commands sent from the topmost layer can be transmitted to the next layer based on the existing communication system. When the commands are sent to each substation, the following transmission of commands between the four lower layers are realized using the internal communication system while ignoring the communication delay. This hierarchical control strategy can be easily applied to any VSC-HVDC system with any topology. Furthermore, an integrated controller for each converter is designed and implemented considering all of the possible operating states. The modular-designed integrated controller makes it quite easy to extend its operating states if necessary, and it is available for any kind of VSC. A detailed model of a VSC-HVDC system containing a DC hub is built in the PSCAD/EMTDC environment. Simulation results based on three operating conditions (the start-up process, the voltage margin control method and the master-slave control method) demonstrate the flexibility and validity of the proposed control strategy.