Large Scale Analysis of Massive Deployment of Converter-based Generation equipped with Grid- forming Strategies

Abstract: To mitigate the carbon footprint and the need to fulfil the energy goals in terms of sustainability, it is required to deploy a large integration of green energies. Therefore, in the previous and the coming years, there will be a high research and technological interest in the high penetration of converter-based generation. With the replacement and integration of power converters into the bulk power grid, new challenges and issues must be faced to maintain the system´s stability and reliability in terms of procedures for the transmission system operators. The main objective of this thesis project is to analyze and to implement the current- limiting techniques implemented in voltage source converters, which are equipped with grid-forming functionalities so that these electronic devices are safeguarded during a severe transient event as three-phase short-circuit and remain connected to the grid during the fault scenario. The model of the voltage source converter with grid-forming strategies is described as well as the grid-forming strategies (droop control, virtual synchronous machine (VSM) and dispatchable virtual oscillator control (dVOC)) utilized in the outer loop. The low-inertia and zero-inertia system in the IEEE 9-Bus test system were exhibited to be resilient towards 3-phase fault events, and their behavior shows neither significant oscillations during and after the incident of the fault nor noticeable difference in their performance regarding the location. In this test system model, the current-limiting techniques were validated and analyzed results display good effectiveness for the current and frequency. The Hydro-Québec network model was employed to have a more practical approach in the behavior of the current limitation strategies in the power converters in a real power system. The fault location and the percentage of participation of the voltage source converters in the energy generation were the two main scenarios, in which the proposed control strategies for restricting the current work but simultaneously, it is required an appropriate control to keep the system´s stability.