Real-Time Estimation and Damping of SSR in a VSC-HVDC Connected Series-Compensated System

Infrastructure reinforcement using high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) links and series compensation has been proposed to boost the power transmission capacity of existing ac grids. However, deployment of series capacitors may lead to subsynchronous resonance (SSR). Besides providing bulk power transfer, voltage source converter (VSC)-based HVDC links can be effectively used to damp SSR. To this end, this paper presents a method for the real-time estimation of the subsynchronous frequency component present in series-compensated transmission lines-key information required for the optimal design of damping controllers. A state-space representation has been formulated and an eigenvalue analysis has been performed to evaluate the impact of a VSC-HVDC link on the torsional modes of nearby connected thermal generation plants. Furthermore, the series-compensated system has been implemented in a real-time digital simulator and connected to a VSC-HVDC scaled-down test-rig to perform hardware-in-the-loop tests. The efficacy and operational performance of the ac/dc network while providing SSR damping is tested through a series of experiments. The proposed estimation and damping method shows a good performance both in time-domain simulations and laboratory experiments.