IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 23, NO.
1, MARCH 2008
Large Offshore DFIG-Based Wind Farm With
Line-Commutated HVDC Connection to the Main
Grid: Engineering Studies
Serhiy Bozhko, Member, IEEE, Greg Asher, Fellow, IEEE, Risheng Li,
Jon Clare, Senior Member, IEEE, and Liangzhong Yao
Abstract—The paper considers a solution for integration of large
offshore doubly fed induction generator-based wind farms with a
common collection bus controlled by a STATCOM into the main
onshore grid using line-commutated high-voltage dc connection. A
design procedure is described and the controlled system is validated
using PSCAD/EMTDC simulations confirming high performance
of the proposed control strategy in both normal operation condi-
tions and faults. Engineering issues related to STATCOM capacitor
sizing and reduction of STATCOM rating are considered and their
effectiveness is confirmed.
Index Terms—Controller design, doubly fed induction generator
(DFIG), frequency, high-voltage dc (HVdc) transmission, stability,
STATCOM, voltage, wind energy.
I. INTRODUCTION
T IS PREDICTED [1] that by 2020, up to 12% of the world’s
I electricity will be supplied from wind power. The majority
of wind farms are planned to be offshore where wind conditions
are generally better while planning restrictions are reduced. For
example, several wind farms with registered capacities around
1000 MW are planned off the north-west coast of Great Britain
with distances over 100 km to the nearest grid connection point.
To transmit such bulk power over such distances creates chal-
lenges for both system operators and wind farm developers.
Currently, two alternative connection methods are available for
connection of remote wind farms to the grid: high-voltage dc
(HVdc) and high-voltage ac (HVac). It is proven [2]–[4] that the
HVdc transmission offers many technical, economic, and envi-
ronmental advantages for large wind farm with long distances
to the main grid.
The HVdc transmission can be based on two alternative tech-
nologies: voltage source converter (VSC) using IGBTs and
line-commutated converter (LCC) using thyristors. The VSC
technology has the advantage of forced commutation so that
an external voltage source is not required, but it has higher
overall losses than thyristor-based LCC HVdc. Moreover, the
present power rating for a single VSC is limited at the 330 MW
level [5], and the reliability of VSCs in service has yet to be
Manuscript received January 21, 2007; revised March 30, 2007. Paper no.
TEC-00012-2007.
S. Bozhko, G. Asher, R. Li, and J. Clare are with the Department of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering, Nottingham University, Nottingham NG7 2RD,
U.K. (e-mail: serhiy.bozhko@inottingham.ac.uk; greg.asher@nottingham.
ac.uk; eexrl@gwmail.nottingham.ac.uk; jon.clare@nottingham.ac.uk).
L. Yao is with the AREVA T&D Technology Centre, Stafford ST17 4LX,
U.K. (e-mail: liangzhong.yao@areva-td.com).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2007.914155
0885-8969/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE
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119
fully proved while LCC HVdc technology has been operated
with high reliability for more than 30 years. However, the LCC
requires a commutation voltage supplied by a synchronous com-
pensator [3]. Alternatively, a STATCOM can be used [4], [6] that
can typically provide much faster control than a synchronous
compensator and with lower losses.
For reasons of energy capture and reduced drive train stresses,
variable speed turbines are becoming the norm for new wind
farm installations. The direct-drive synchronous generator (op-
tionally with permanent magnet excitation) and doubly fed in-
duction generator (DFIG) have become the two generator alter-
natives. The former has the disadvantages of cost and a power
converter rated for the full power. Although requiring a gearbox,
the DFIG requires a converter of only 25% of the generator rating
for an operating speed range of 0.75 to 1.25 per unit (p.u.) and is
considered a lower cost, proven technology solution. The ratings
of commercial DFIG-based wind turbines now reach 5 MW [7].
The converter-controlled DFIG, STATCOM, and LCC HVdc
have all been well studied as separate components. In [4]
and [6], the overall power system concept and possible control
paradigms have been described, but these studies have not
included system analysis or a formal procedure of control
system design. A detailed mathematical study of the system
that resulted in the plant model appropriate for a formal control
design had been represented by the authors in [8]. The present
paper is a logical continuation of our previous study [8]: the
proposed control algorithm is applied to the more realistic
power system configuration, the model for simulation studies
includes lumped DFIG model under converter control [9] to
represent 1000 MW wind farm, the mechanical dynamics is
taken into account, the HVdc is modelled according to the First
Benchmark Model for HDdc studies [10], and includes detailed
switching models for both rectifier and inverter together with
their harmonic filters, and the impedances of all offshore cables
and transformers are considered as well. The performance of
the power system during normal operation and faults is studied,
and engineering issue of STATCOM rating is discussed.
II. POWER SYSTEM STUDIED
The power system studied is shown in Fig. 1. It comprises
an DFIG-based offshore wind farm, an island platform for
HVdc rectifier station and auxiliary equipment, ac filters, and a
STATCOM unit. Whereas, capacitive ac filters can compensate
for the HVdc converter reactive absorption in lumped amounts,
120
Fig. 1. Power system studied.
the STATCOM provides fine reactive power control. In addition,
the STATCOM being a voltage source can provide the commu-
tation voltage required by the HVdc link and dynamic reactive
power compensation for the network during disturbances and
fault conditions. Commutation voltage and reactive power con-
trol can also be sourced from DFIGs, but high reactive power
compensation by the DFIGs will add to losses in the wind farm
connection cables. The offshore platform is linked to the main
onshore inverter station via submarine HVdc cable.
If the offshore ac grid voltage is kept constant by STATCOM
control, then the output active and reactive power of DFIGs
can be set for particular rotor (wind) speed to effect a standard
variable speed energy capture [9], [11]. This determines the
references for the DFIG d- and q-axes current controllers. In
steady-state operation, the total active power delivered by all
DFIGs must balance the power transferred to the HVdc link,
consumed by local loads and dissipated as losses. Any imbalance
will cause the STATCOM dc-link voltage to vary, turning the
STATCOM capacitor voltage into an indicator of active power
imbalance. Therefore, as suggested in [4], [6], and [8], it can be
used for fast adjustment of HVdc dc-link current reference. In
this paper, the DFIGs are under vector control as given in [9],
and the HVdc is in accordance with the CIGRE benchmark
model [10]. The main control objective is an optimal tracking
of generated wind power and its transfer into the main onshore
grid through the HVdc link while controlling the voltage and
frequency at the offshore ac bus.
The parameters of power system studied in this paper are
given in Appendix I. The rated voltage of the offshore ac bus
is 132 kV, rated HVdc power is 1000 MW (500 kV/2 kA) and
STATCOM energy storage is 9 MJ (20000 µF/30 kV).
III. SYSTEM CONTROL
The control design procedure has been considered in detail
by the authors in [8] and is only summarized here. The aim of
the control system is to regulate the voltage and frequency of the
offshore ac bus while regulating the power flow via control of
the HVdc Link. The control elements and their interconnectivity
are shown in Fig. 2.
The wind farm supplies a current IG to the local ac bus, while
the current IC flows to the HVdc link. Passive RL elements rep-
resent the transformers and cable parameters. The STATCOM
current IS direction depends on the operational demands, and
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 23, NO. 1, MARCH 2008
Fig. 2. Simplified diagram of the system studied.
Fig. 3. Block diagram of the proposed control structure.
can be to or from the bus. The parameters Ro and Lo repre-
sent the HVdc dc-link cable connection and the cable capac-
itance being neglected for control design. The HVdc inverter
is in voltage-control mode, and under normal conditions has
little effect on the offshore grid control regimes. It is replaced
by an equivalent dc voltage source Eo . The ac harmonic fil-
ters are designed to suppress 11th, 13th, and higher harmonics
and have natural frequencies above the designed control system
bandwidths. For control purposes, the filters are represented by
their dominant low-frequency capacitor Cf . Power losses in the
STATCOM and HVdc converters are ignored.
The d-axis of a rotating dq frame is affixed to offshore ac grid
voltage vector VG so that the aim of the control is to control
the magnitude and rotational speed of VG subject to disturbance
currents IG and IC . The dq-axis STATCOM Isd and Isq currents
are tightly controlled with the PI current controllers outputting
∗
the STATCOM voltage demands Vsd and Vsq∗ . Similarly, the
HVdc Link current I0 is also controlled with a controller out-
putting the HVdc rectifier firing angle α. The control structure
is shown in Fig. 3.
In Fig. 3, the HVdc-link current demand I0∗ is derived from
the dc-link STATCOM voltage controller while the STATCOM
dq-axis current demands are derived from the grid voltage vector
controllers. The controlled plant of Fig. 3 is derived in [8] and is
shown to be a third-order system linearized about the operating
HVdc rectifier firing angle α0 , and decoupled through the use of
appropriate feedforward terms. The natural frequencies of the
converter current loops and the system control loops of Fig. 3 are
given in Appendix I and reflect the sampling rates appropriate
to the STATCOM rating. It was shown in [8] that the simulated
system transients (i.e., changes in generated wind farm power
represented through transient changes in IG ) have dynamics
corresponding to the designed controller natural frequencies.
BOZHKO et al.: LARGE OFFSHORE DFIG-BASED WIND FARM WITH LINE-COMMUTATED HVDC CONNECTION TO THE MAIN GRID
Fig. 4. Power system for simulations.
IV. SYSTEM MODELING
A. Development of PSCAD System Model
A study of the designed control system has been performed
through PSCAD/EMTDC simulations of the system shown in
Fig. 4. The designed PI controllers with the corresponding
closed-loop natural frequencies are given in the Appendix II.
The PSCAD/EMTDC model includes a wind farm simulated
as a lumped DFIG of appropriate rating [8]. The windfarm is
connected via a 10-km-long 33 kV submarine ac cable via a
transformer TG to the local offshore 132 kV ac bus where the
HVdc rectifier and ac filters are installed. The voltage at this
bus is controlled by the STATCOM according to controls de-
scribed earlier. The aggregate DFIG back–back converters and
the STATCOM are simulated using detailed nonswitching con-
verter model while both the HVdc rectifier and the inverter
are line commutated 12-pulse thyristor converters (switching
models [12]). The inverter operates under extinction angle con-
trol [3]. The HVdc dc-link cable is represented by its T-circuit
equivalent to represent a transmission distance of 100 km. The
main onshore grid connection (230 kV) is assumed to be quite
weak with short-circuit ratio SCR = 2.5.
The DFIG control is according to [9] with a dq-frame aligned
to the stator flux. The rotor-side converter current components
ir q and ir d are controlled by fast current loops with a natural
frequency of 500 Hz. The rotor current demands Ir∗q and i∗r d are
derived from DFIG P, Q controllers, respectively, with natural
frequencies of 5 Hz. The DFIG front-end converter is oriented
onto the stator voltage and its current components ig q and ig d
are controlled at the same frequency. The d-axis component i∗g d
is derived from a DFIG converter dc-link controller of natural
frequency 20 Hz, while the q-axis component i∗g q is set to zero.
In this study, it is assumed that the wind is sufficient to supply
an arbitrary active power demand Pˆ* set by the user (although
in practice, the i∗r q would be fed from a real wind signal via a
maximum power point tracker) while reactive power demand
Q∗ is set to a small nominal value to supply the reactive power
demanded by the local transformer. The magnetizing reactive
power of the DFIG is thus supplied from the rotor converter. It is
noted that in this study, the reactive power required by the HVdc
rectifier is supplied by the harmonic filters and the STATCOM
under both operational and fault conditions. It can of course be
supplied from the DFIG although losses in the ac cables would
count against this under normal operational conditions.
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121
B. Control System Performance
The control system should maintain the collector grid volt-
age and frequency under the continuously changing wind farm
power. The simulation results of Fig. 5(a) show the response to
a series of steps in wind farm real power demand (1 p.u. → 0.8
p.u. → 0.6 p.u. → 0.5 p.u. → 0.9 p.u. → 0.8 p.u. → 1 p.u.) to
represent a worst-case transients. Fig. 5(a) shows the excellent
regulation of the voltage and frequency of the offshore ac grid
and the power balancing performance via control of the STAT-
COM dc-link voltage. Since the ac filters in the model are tuned
for the rated HVdc power, the fine reactive power balancing is
clearly provided by the STATCOM under the regulatory action
of the voltage control loops.
Fig. 5(b) shows the control performance under a solid bal-
anced onshore mains fault of 160 ms duration (8 cycles at
50 Hz). Fault occurs at t = 0.1 s. The power to HVdc drops,
and the STATCOM starts to absorb the excess of active power
in the local ac bus resulting in dc-link overvoltage up to 67 kV
(91.4%). With a delay for fault detection and communication
(10 ms as assumed), the demand for wind farm output power
drops to zero resulting in the fall of output power with the
dynamics of power control loop. Both the grid voltage and fre-
quency are well controlled during a fault, and therefore, the
wind farm can stay connected. When the fault is cleared at t =
0.26 s, the HVdc dc-link voltage recovers, the power transmis-
sion resumes, and after some transient the STATCOM dc-link
voltage returns to its rated value.
Simulation results in Fig. 5 confirm high performance of the
proposed system in both normal conditions and during a severe
fault. In the mean time, the results raise engineering concerns
regarding STATCOM rating: during a fault, the STATCOM re-
active power demand in peak reaches 1.3 p.u. at the HVdc base,
and some measures should be considered to lower it. The sim-
ulation results also show that the STATCOM dc-link capacitor
is a subject of significant overvoltage during faults. Both these
points are related to the STATCOM sizing problem and are
considered in the following section.
V. ENGINEERING STUDIES IN STATCOM SIZING
The STATCOM should be capable of handling the power
system operation in both normal conditions and faults. As one
can see from simulation results Fig. 5(a), both active and reactive
power flows to/from the STATCOM in normal mode are very
low. Active power just covers the losses within the STATCOM,
and reactive power demand is within the difference between
neighbor steps of switchable ac filters. For the studied case
with nonswitchable ac filters tuned at rated HVdc power, the
maximum reactive power demand did not exceed 0.12 p.u. when
wind farm output varies from 0.5 to 1 p.u. In the mean time, in
order to handle the fault, both STATCOM active and reactive
power demands are significantly increased. In this section, we
are analyzing the engineering issues related to the STATCOM
behavior under the fault conditions and consider measures to
reduce its rating.
122 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 23, NO. 1, MARCH 2008

Fig. 5. System performance. (a) Under normal operation (left). (b) During a solid three-phase fault in the onshore grid (right).

A. Effect of Faults on STATCOM DC-Link Capacitor Sizing
The STATCOM active power flow is related to the problem
of overvoltage across its dc-link capacitor. Analysis of power
flow during fault allows one to derive criteria for the capacitor
sizing. The energy e, passed into this capacitor is

t
e(t) = e0 + (PG − PC − Pl ) dt (1)
Consider three right-hand side terms in details. The wind farm
receives fault detection signal with a communication delay τd ,
and then, the output power reduces according to the dynamics
of DFIG current (or power) loop that can be approximated as
first-order lag τG . Therefore, the first term in (9) can be derived
as follows:

t
 −
t −τ d 

t0 PG dt =PG 0 τd + PG 0 τG 1 − e τ G . (4)
0
where e0 is its prefault value, and PG , PC , and P1 are windfarm
power, HVdc power, and losses correspondingly. This energy Losses assumed are constant (P10 = const), therefore
defines the voltage across the STACOM capacitor CS :
t
Pl dt = Pl0 t. (5)
CS ES2 dc (t) 0
e(t) = . (2)
2 The HVdc power starts to drop without communication delay,
Introducing overvoltage factor kv = ES dc m ax /ES dc0 , the fol- and the transient is assumed according the first-order lag with
lowing expression can be derived using (1) and (2): time constant τC :

t
t
t
t
CS ES2 dc0  2   − t 
kV − 1 = PG dt− PC dt− Pl dt. (3) PC dt = PC 0 τC 1 − e τ C . (6)
2 t0 t0 t0 0

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BOZHKO et al.: LARGE OFFSHORE DFIG-BASED WIND FARM WITH LINE-COMMUTATED HVDC CONNECTION TO THE MAIN GRID 123

when fault is detected. The voltage-dependant current limitation

(VDCL) [3] can reduce the I0 demand during the fault. However,
the VDCL is primarily intended to improve inverter recovery
during ac-system faults [3]. Since VDCL operation is based on
rectifier output voltage that does not necessarily drops to zero
during a fault and does not drop immediately, the reduction of
reactive power demand in offshore grid is not as substantial as
desired.
During a fault, the HVdc current controller in the original
control structure (see Fig. 3) is under influence of two different
trends. Due to the drop of inverter-side dc-link voltage, the HVdc
Fig. 6. Selection of STATCOM dc-link capacitor. current increases sharply and the controller has to increase α in
order to decrease rectifier-side dc voltage and dc-link current I0 .
Simultaneously, the output of STATCOM dc-link voltage con-
Simultaneous solution of (3)–(6) with respect to capacitor
troller pushes the HVdc current demand up in order to reduce
value results in a criterion for the STATCOM capacitor sizing in
STATCOM capacitor overvoltage. Therefore, significant reduc-
order to guarantee that the capacitor overvoltage during a fault
tion of the reactive power demand can be expected if STATCOM
will not exceed some acceptable level kV ES dc0 :
dc-link voltage control is suppressed during a fault. This can be
CS m in implemented if fault detection scheme will zero the demand for
   −
t −τ d   − t   I0 when fault occurs. In this case, the rectifier ac current IC de-
2 PG 0 τd +PG 0 τG 1−e τ G −PC 0 τC 1−e τ C −Pl0 t cays quickly, and subsequently, the STATCOM reactive power
=  2  . demand would be significantly reduced. On the other hand, fast
ES dc0 kV − 1
2
reduction of I0 to zero in presence of ac filters in offshore grid
(7) (they are necessary for harmonic compensation and reactive

Using this expression, one can derive plots for particular stud- power support during normal operation) means that STATCOM
ied cases. Thus, for the power system studied with kV = 1.3 had to compensate for full reactive power generated by these ac
(i.e., 30% acceptable overvoltage), τG = 3 ms, and τC = 2 ms, filters when IC drops to zero. It works against the reduction of
and for maximum fault duration equal to 0.16 s (8 cycles at the STATCOM reactive power demand. This can be relieved if
50 Hz), the curve (7) for CS m in selection has been calculated us- dc-link current demand at faults is not zeroed, but set to some
ing MATLAB and is shown in the Fig. 6. The curve is produced value I0fin in order for rectifier to absorb the reactive power
as an upper envelop for a family of different curves, correspond- generated by ac filters. In our study, this value has been set at a
ing to different values of fault duration up to 0.16 s (shown in value 0.25 p.u.
Fig. 6 by thin lines, in number of cycles n, n = 1, . . . , 8). In the mean time, fast reduction of HVdc-link current means
Therefore, the minimal value of the STATCOM dc-link capaci- fast decay of active power transferred to the HVdc. Since the
tor should be chosen above the given curve for particular value windfarm output power is controlled via relatively slow power
of communication delay. In this case, it is guaranteed that the control loops, it means that STATCOM has to absorb the fast
overvoltage at the end of the fault with specified duration would developing excess of active power in the offshore grid. There-
not exceed the value kV ES dc0 . fore, decrease of STATCOM reactive power demand as earlier is
The derived criterion (7) put additional constrains for ca- compromising on its active power demand and additional over-
pacitor selection by STATCOM manufacturers and should be voltage to the STATCOM dc-link capacitor. It leads to the need
considered together with conventional sizing criteria, such as for extra costs for either the overvoltage-withstanding capacitor
maximum voltage ripple during single- and three-phase local or larger capacitor. To some extent, this can be relieved if after
grid faults. In any case, additional criteria should always be fault detection, the wind farm output is controlled not via power
considered in the context of the designed purpose of the STAT- control loops but via fast DFIG current control loops, putting
COM, which is to provide voltage and reactive power regulation zero demand for generator q-axis current. But due to the dis-
for the adequate operation of the HVdc-link in steady state and tant location of wind turbines from the technological platform
during faults in the onshore grid. (see Fig. 1), there is a communication delay τd before DFIGs
receive a fault detection signal. During this delay, the wind farm
still delivers full output power to the offshore grid. Therefore,
B. Reduction of the STATCOM Rating for Handling Fault the STATCOM rating in order to handle the fault scenario in-
Conditions evitably depends on the value of τd . Consider this effect in
For the case studied, the peak reactive power demand nearly details.
reaches 1.3 p.u. (at HVdc base). This is due to the fact that
the HVdc rectifier ac current become mainly reactive when the
C. STATCOM Rating and Communication Delay
rectifier’s firing angle moves toward 90◦ in attempt to reduce dc-
link current. Therefore, the first natural step to reduce reactive Under normal operation, before the fault occurs, both ac-
power demand during faults is to reduce HVdc dc-link current tive and reactive current components of HVdc rectifier in the

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124
offshore grid are given as follows [8]:
2 2
IC d = kI0 cos α; IC q = − kI0 sin α
3 3
where k depends on rectifier type and transformer turns ratio.
According to the aforementioned considered measures, imme-
diately as fault occurs (no communication delay within a tech-
nological island), the HVdc dc-link current starts to reduce from
its prefault value I0ini to its final fault value I0fin under controller
action according to ideal loop response:
I0 (t) = (I0ini − I0fin )e−t/τ C L + I0fin
where τC L is an equivalent time constant of closed HVdc dc-
link current control loop. It results in the following voltage at
rectifier dc-side terminals:
dI0 (t)
V0 (t) = R0 I0 (t) + L0
dt
= (I0ini −I0fin )(R0 −L0 /τC L ) e−t/τ C L +R0 I0fin . (10)
On the other hand, this voltage is defined by offshore grid voltage
and rectifier firing angle, namely:
V0 (t) = kVG d cos α.
Assuming offshore ac grid voltage is under tight control, i.e.,
VG d ≈ const, one can derive the firing angle as follows:
 
(I0ini −I0fin )(R0 −L0 /τC L ) e−t/τ C L +R0 I0fin
α = arccos
kr kT VG d
(12)
Substitution of (12) into (8) results in general expressions for
HVdc rectifier d- and q-axes current components. For simplified
case when I0fin = 0, these expressions are given as
2
2 I0ini (R0 − L0 /τC L ) −2t/τ C L
IC d = e
3 VG d
2
2 I0ini (R0 − L0 /τC L ) −2t/τ C L
IC q = − e The reactive current reference for this converter(s) can be set
3 VG d

kr2 kT2 VG2 d e2t/τ C L
× − 1.
I0ini (R0 − L0 /τC L )2
2
These expressions demonstrate some quite important phenom-
ena for STATCOM rating studies: the dynamics of HVdc rec-
tifier ac currents is twice as faster than the dynamics of HVdc
current loop. Indeed, the exponential terms in (13) have now an
equivalent time constant as little as τC L /2. It means that when
fault occurs, the STATCOM currents develop twice as faster
than the HVdc dc-link current decays. Therefore, the communi-
cation delay τd has a crucial role when considering STATCOM
rating. For example, provided the HVdc current loop bandwidth
is 40 Hz, by the time when DFIGs start to reduce the output
power in response on fault detection signal (τd = 10 ms), the
STATCOM will already have to absorb approximately 95% of
delivered by generators power (less losses). This can also be
illustrated using simplified phasors diagram as it is shown in
Fig. 7.
Before fault occurs, the DFIGs deliver current IG to the off-
shore grid, and the HVdc rectifier absorbs the current ICO . The
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 23, NO. 1, MARCH 2008
(8)
Fig. 7. Phasors to illustrate STATCOM current demand during fault
(9) development.
STATCOM current is negligible due to tiny difference between
these two currents (the proportions in Fig. 7 are not kept for
illustrative purposes). When fault occurs, rectifier current IC
is decaying according to (6) and possible phasor trajectory
is shown by dashed line. Due to Kirchhoff, the STATCOM
phasor should follow the same loci (1–2–3–· · ·–7 as shown in
Fig. 7), and its final position obviously coincides with the phasor
IG (but in opposite direction) unless the DFIGs start to reduce
IG . Therefore, if communication delay exceeds some value, the
(11) STATCOM apparent power demand during fault development
may reach the value of apparent power delivered by the wind
farm.
D. Further Analysis on STATCOM Rating Reduction
.
After the communication delay τd expires, the STATCOM
apparent power is still rising, but with lower rate since the wind
farm begins to reduce the output. While the development of
STATCOM power demand between t = 0 and t = τd is out of
one’s control, it is possible to make this demand having superior
maximum in the vicinity of t = τd and decreasing after this
point. This is due to the fact that after this time, one can utilize
reactive power capabilities of the DFIGs front-end converters.
during fault as a function of measured reactive current demand
of the HVdc rectifier together with the ac filters. In other words,
(13) front-end DFIGs converters support the STATCOM in reactive
power demand during fault handling. Note that this resource may
be limited by wind farm power factor operational constrains.
The STATCOM active current component, i.e., its active
power demand can be reduced after t = τd as well. This can
be achieved if STATCOM is supported in active power balanc-
ing by DFIGs through rotor q-current controls. If it was assumed
earlier that q-axis current demand is zeroed during a fault (after
communication delay), then in this case, it can be set by mea-
sured active current component at the HVdc terminals. Note that
this can result in short-time motoring mode of the DFIG, but
help to reduce windfarm output much quicker.
During our studies, we also found few other measures that
allowed reducing total STATCOM apparent power demand dur-
ing faults. For example, HVdc dc-link controller designed for
normal operation in standard benchmark model does not pro-
vide good performance during faults, and dc-link current does
not follow the reference signal. This is due to the fact that the
HVdc current loop gain became too low when α ≈ 90◦ and
BOZHKO et al.: LARGE OFFSHORE DFIG-BASED WIND FARM WITH LINE-COMMUTATED HVDC CONNECTION TO THE MAIN GRID 125

Fig. 8. Enhanced system performance during a solid three-phase fault in the onshore grid and fault recovery.

some adaptation is necessary. In our studies, a simple twofold

increase of both proportional and integral gains of PI current
controller results in much better quality of current control dur-
ing faults. Within a reasonable compromise regarding quality
of ac grid control, lowering the bandwidth of voltage/frequency
control loops reduces the STATCOM rating. In our investiga-
tions, the bandwidth of voltage controller was reduced to 50 Hz
for voltage controller and to 30 Hz for grid frequency controller
with acceptable grid control quality during fault. In addition to
all earlier considered measures, one can also impose the hard
limits on STATCOM ac current.
All the considered measures have been implemented in the
Fig. 9. Development of STATCOM apparent power for different values of
PSCAD/EMTDC model similar to one shown in Fig. 4. The communication delay.
performance of proposed enhanced control system has been
verified according to the worst-case fault scenario: three-phase
solid fault occurs in the onshore grid when the wind farm oper- while the HVdc dc-link current loop has an equivalent time
ates at maximum wind speed of 1.3 p.u., duration of fault is 8 constant of 4.5 ms. The discrepancy can be explained by far
cycles (0.16 s), and communication delay is 10 ms. Simulation nonideal performance of the HVdc current loop and noncon-
results are shown in Fig. 8. stant grid voltage during a fault as it was assumed in theoretical
As one can see, the aforementioned proposed enhancements analysis. As one can conclude from Fig. 9, the STATCOM rat-
provide significant reduction of STATCOM rating demanded to ing can be significantly reduced if communication delay is less
handle the faults (peak apparent power demand is reduced from then 4 ms. For example, if τC = 2 ms, the STATCOM apparent
2.1 p.u. in original system down to 1.0 p.u. in the enhanced one. power demand is as little as 0.37 p.u. in peak.
It means that in order to handle the worst-case fault condition The STATCOM dc-link capacitor in the enhanced system is
in the studied power system, the STATCOM should be rated at subject of significantly lower overvoltage (94% in the original
0.5 p.u. assuming standard short time (up to 2s), 200% current system and 23% in the enhanced one). The offshore grid voltage
overloads are allowed. and frequency are kept well below the limits that can lead to
Fig. 9 shows STATCOM apparent power development for the wind farm tripping out. Fault recovery is proceeding quite
different values of communication delay τC . The results con- smoothly: generated from wind and transmitted to the onshore
firm the theoretical study given earlier (13): the general curve grid power increases gradually and no commutation failure in the
behavior is exponential-like with visible effect of 11th and 13th HVdc inverter occurs. Effectiveness of the proposed engineering
harmonics, and with a time constant of approximately 2.5 ms solutions is demonstrated.

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126
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper has considered a large offshore wind farm with
an LCC HVdc connection to the main onshore network. The
proposed control system provides high-performance control of
the offshore ac grid and guarantees the transfer of generated
wind power into the main onshore grid. Engineering issues of
STATCOM sizing are considered and confirmed using simu-
lations in PSCAD/EMTDC, and recommendations for control
system enhancement are given. The control system studied in
this paper can be a satisfactory solution for integrating large
offshore DFIG-based wind farms into existing ac networks.
APPENDIX I
POWER SYSTEM PARAMETERS
STATCOM: CS = 20 000 µF; ESo = 35 kV.
STATCOM transformer: 200 MVA; 10/132 kV; 0,12 p.u.
Collector bus transformer: 1100 MVA; 33/132 kV; 0,15 p.u.
HVdc rectifier transformers:
TC 1 : 604 MVA; 33/213 kV; Y/∆; x = 0,18 p.u.
TC 2 : 604 MVA; 33/213 kV; Y/Y; x = 0,18 p.u.
HVdc Link: R0 = 5 Ω; L0 = 1.836 H; I0 = 2 kA.
AC Filters: 250 MVAr at third harmonic; 250 MVAr at 11th/13th
harmonics and 125 MVAr capacitance bank.
APPENDIX II
CONTROL DESIGN PARAMETERS
DESIGNED CLOSED LOOP NATURAL FREQUENCIES AND PI CONTROLLER
PARAMETERS
REFERENCES
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[9] R. Pena, J. C. Clare, and G. M. Asher, “Doubly fed induction generator
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[12] PSCAD v.4.1: The professional tool for power system simulation, Mani-
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Serhiy Bozhko (M’96) received the M.Sc. degree
in electrical engineering and the Ph.D. degree in
electrotechnology from the National Technical Uni-
versity of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine, in 1987 and 1994,
respectively.
Since 1995, he has been a Senior Lecturer in the
Department of Electrical Drives and Automation, Na-
tional Technical University of Ukraine, where since
1987, he was a Research Assistant and a Lecturer.
Since December 2000, he has been with the Univer-
sity of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., where he is
currently a Research Fellow at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engi-
neering. His current research interests include stability of power systems with
distributed generation, intelligent control systems, and variable speed drives.
Greg Asher (SM’02–F’07) received the B. Eng.
degree in electrical and electronic engineering from
Bath University, Bath, U.K., in 1976, and the Ph.D.
degree in bond graph structures and general dynamic
systems from Bath University, in 1979.
He was appointed a Lecturer in control in the
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Uni-
versity of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., in 1984,
where he developed an interest in motor drive sys-
tems, particularly the control of ac machines. He is
currently the Head in the School of Electrical and
Electronic Engineering, Nottingham, where in 2000, he was appointed as a Pro-
fessor of electrical drives. He is the author or coauthor of over 180 published
research papers, and has received over $5M in research contracts.
Dr. Asher was a member of the Executive Committee of European Power
Electronics (EPE) Association until 2003. He is an Associate Editor of the
IEEE INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS SOCIETY, and is currently the Chair of the
Power Electronics Technical Committee for the Industrial Electronics Society.
Risheng Li received the B.Eng. degree in measure-
ment and control in 2002 from Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, China, and the M.Sc. degree in elec-
trical engineering in 2003 from the University of
Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., where he is currently
working toward the Ph.D. degree.
His current research interests include wind farm
power systems dynamics, control of doubly fed in-
duction generators (DFIGs), and interaction between
a wind farm and a power system when connected to
the main grid through high-voltage dc (HVdc) link.
BOZHKO et al.: LARGE OFFSHORE DFIG-BASED WIND FARM WITH LINE-COMMUTATED HVDC CONNECTION TO THE MAIN GRID 127

Jon Clare (M’90–SM’04) was born in Bristol, U.K.
He received the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
engineering from the University of Bristol, Bristol,
U.K., in 1979 and 1991, respectively.
From 1984 to 1990, he was a Research Assistant
and a Lecturer at the University of Bristol, where
he was engaged in teaching and research in power
electronic systems. Since 1990, he has been with
the Power Electronics, Machines and Control Group,
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., where
he is currently a Professor of power electronics and
the Head of the Research Group. His current research interests include power
electronic converters and modulation strategies, aerospace electrical systems,
variable speed drive systems, and electromagnetic compatibility.
Prof. Clare is a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
Liangzhong Yao received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. de-
grees from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in
1989 and 1993, respectively, all in electrical power
engineering.
From 1995 to 1999, he was a Research Associate
at Manchester Centre for Electricity Energy, Univer-
sity of Manchester (formerly UMIST), Manchester,
U.K., and from 1999 to 2004, he was a Senior Power
System Analyst in the Network Consulting Group,
ABB Ltd., U.K. He is currently a Technology Con-
sultant and a Programme Manager at the AREVA
T&D Technology Centre, Stafford, U.K., where he is engaged in wind farm grid
connections, network engineering design, and consulting for transmission and
distribution systems.
Dr. Yao is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institute of Electrical
Engineers (IEE).

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