Analysis and Benchmarking of Grid-Forming Control for Power Converters

Traditional electricity grids use large-capacity synchronous generators as power generation devices, which have the characteristics of large volume and high robustness. In recent years, the rapid development of renewable energy in alignment with the national strategy of Carbon Neutrality in China by 2060 has brought new opportunities and challenges to traditional power grids. Power electronics converters are the key to renewable energy integration to gradually replace traditional synchronous generators, leading to reduced inertia and more challenges. While being more flexible, it makes the stability of the grid worse. In view of this, various advanced control strategies have been developed in the literature. The control of grid-connected converters has been broadly divided into two groups, grid-following (GFL) and grid-forming (GFM). In this paper, the characteristics of the GFM control are benchmarked through simulations, mainly the virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control and the virtual oscillator control (VOC). The benchmarking indicates that the VSG control strategies with virtual inertia have less fluctuation in response to various disturbances and the VOC performs better in terms of dynamics.