Future multiterminal high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) grids are considered an enabling technology to efficiently integrate large amounts of renewable energy into the existing grid. However, already in today’s existing point-to-point HVDC links, harmonic interaction issues and instabilities related to the controland protection system of the converters have been reported. The converter control software is usually black-boxed and problems are therefore solved in close cooperation with the HVDC vendor. This paper aims to provide a starting point for a discussion onan open-source HVDC control system. In particular, it covers the control design including technical and non-technical aspects. The open-source approach can be useful to solve current as wellas future control-related problems, both in point-to-point links as well as in multiterminal and multivendor HVDC grids.

During faults in multi-terminal high-voltage DC systems, the disturbance will quickly become evident throughout the entire system. If DC breakers are included in such systems, the entire fault clearing process needs to occur within a few milliseconds. Therefore, DC line protection schemes based on telecommunication have previously been discarded by some authors as their performance is constrained by the communication delay. However, telecommunication-based detection methods offer some very favourable features, one being that selectivity can be achieved without coordination of settings. In this study, several telecommunication-based protection schemes are evaluated with regards to their minimum possible detection time when considering telecommunication delay. It is shown that they perform best during faults located at the remote end of a line, i.e. fault locations that are difficult to reliably detect using single-ended methods. Therefore, it is reasonable that the most reliable protection system will consist of both single-ended and communication-based methods because they complement each other well. Furthermore, it is shown that the travelling wave differential protection offers the shortest theoretical detection time due to the wave propagation delay being included in the formulation.

Modular multilevel converters (MMCs) can be configured to perform ac/ac conversion, which makes them suitable as railway power supplies. In this paper, a hierarchical control scheme for ac/ac MMCs for railway power supplies is devised and evaluated, considering the requirements and the operating conditions specific to this application. Furthermore, admittance models of the ac/ac MMC are developed, showing how the suggested hierarchical control scheme affects the three-phase and the single-phase side admittances of the converter. These models allow for analyzing the stability of the interconnected system using the impedance-based stability criterion and the passivity-based stability assessment. Finally, the findings presented in this paper are validated experimentally, using a down-scaled MMC. 

The stability of a modular multilevel converter connected to an ac grid can be assessed by analyzing the converter ac-side admittance in relation to the grid impedance. The converter control parameters have a strong impact on the admittance and they can be adjusted for achieving system stability. This paper focuses on the admittance-shaping effect produced by different current-control schemes, either designed on a per-phase basis or in the $dq$ frame using space vectors. A linear analytical model of the converter ac-side admittance is developed, including the different current-control schemes and the phase-locked loop. Different solutions for computing the insertion indices are also analyzed, showing that for a closed-loop scheme a compact expression of the admittance is obtained. The impact of the control parameters on the admittance is discussed and verified experimentally, giving guidelines for designing the system in terms of stability. Moreover, recommendations on whether a simplified admittance expression could be used instead of the detailed model are given. The findings from the admittance-shaping analysis are used to recreate a grid-converter system whose stability is determined by the control parameters. The developed admittance model is then used in this experimental case study, showing that the stability of the interconnected system can be assessed using the Nyquist stability criterion.

Future meshed high-voltage direct current grids require modular multilevel converters with extended functionality. One of the most interesting new submodule topologies is the semi-full-bridge because it enables efficient handling of DC-side short circuits while having reduced power losses compared to an implementation with full-bridge submodules. However, the semi-full-bridge submodule requires the parallel connection of capacitors during normal operation which can cause a high redistribution current in case the voltages of the two submodule capacitors are not equal. The maximum voltage difference and resulting redistribution current have been studied analytically, by means of simulations and in a full-scale standalone submodule laboratory setup. The most critical parameter is the capacitance mismatch between the two capacitors. The experimental results from the full-scale prototype show that the redistribution current peaks at 500A if the voltage difference is 10V before paralleling and increases to 2500A if the difference is 40V. However, neglecting very unlikely cases, the maximum voltage difference predicted by simulations is not higher than 20-30V for the considered case. Among other measures, a balancing controller is proposed which reduces the voltage difference safely if a certain maximum value is surpassed. The operating principle of the controller is described in detail and verified experimentally on a down-scaled submodule within a modular multilevel converter prototype. It can be concluded that excessively high redistribution currents can be prevented. Consequently, they are no obstacle for using the semi-full-bridge submodule in future HVDC converters.

The central control of MMC becomes demanding in computation power and communication bandwidth as the number of submodules increase. Distributed control methods can overcome these bottlenecks. In this paper, a simple distributed control method together with synchronization of modulation carriers in the submodules is presented. The proposal is implemented on a lab-scale MMC with asynchronous-serial communication on a star network between the central and local controllers. It is shown that the proposed control method works satisfactorily in the steady state. The method can be applied as is to MMCs with any number of submodules per arm.

Connecting a modular multilevel converter to anac grid may cause stability issues, which can be assessed byanalyzing the converter ac-side admittance in relation to the gridimpedance. This paper presents a method for calculating theac-side admittance of modular multilevel converters, analyzingthe main frequency components of the converter variables individually.Starting from a time-averaged model of the converter,the proposed method performs a linearization in the frequencydomain, which overcomes the inherent nonlinearities of theconverter internal dynamics and the phase-locked loop usedin the control. The ac-side admittance obtained analytically isfirstly validated by simulations against a nonlinear time-averagedmodel of the modular multilevel converter. The tradeoff posedby complexity of the method and the accuracy of the result isdiscussed and the magnitude of the individual frequency componentsis shown. Finally, experiments on a down-scaled prototypeare performed to validate this study and the simplification onwhich it is based.

The modular multilevel converter is one of the most preferred converters for high-power conversion applications. Wireless control of the submodules can contribute to its evolution by lowering the material and labor costs of cabling and by increasing the availability of the converter. However, wireless control leads to many challenges for the control and modulation of the converter as well as for proper low-latency high-reliability communication. This paper investigates the tolerable asynchronism between phase-shifted carriers used in modulation from a wireless control point of view and proposes a control method along with communication protocol for wireless control. The functionality of the proposed method is validated by computer simulations in steady state.

The stacked polyphase bridges converter has gained increasing interest in recent years due to its modular design and easy adaption to different power levels. The real-time control and dynamic data transmission of a stacked polyphase bridges converter consisting of a number of submodules are challenging tasks. For the reason that the distributed control architecture can maintain the benefit of modularity, such an approach dedicated for the stacked polyphase bridges converter is presented in this paper. Suitable communication techniques and synchronization techniques for the presented architecture are discussed. In addition, based on a dynamic model of the converter, the sensitiveness of the distributed control system to communication bandwidth and delay is studied on an experimental prototype.

As modular multilevel converters gradually become the preferred topology for many high-voltage andhigh-power applications, they are widely studied among researchers, who need experimental results tovalidate their studies. This paper discusses the design of a down-scaled modular multilevel converterprototype for research purposes, equipped with 30 full-bridge submodules and 10 kW rating. The designof this prototype is aimed at safety, flexibility, orderliness, and compactness. The challenges posed by theimplementation of the converter prototype are examined, discussing the design of the prototype structure,the communication scheme, the full-bridge submodules, and the control hierarchy. The control systemis based on Xilinx Zynq system-on-chip, which integrates programmable logic and processing system,allowing for extensive computational capability as well as simple reconfiguration. Experimental resultsshowing the prototype in operation at nominal ratings are presented along with the devised graphical userinterface.