Grid-forming control strategies for black start by offshore wind power plants

• Main Authors: A. Jain, J. N. Sakamuri, N. A. Cutululis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2020-10-01
• Series: Wind Energy Science
• Online Access: https://wes.copernicus.org/articles/5/1297/2020/wes-5-1297-2020.pdf

<p>Large-scale integration of renewable energy sources with power-electronic converters is pushing the power system closer to its dynamic stability limit. This has increased the risk of wide-area blackouts. Thus, the changing generation profile in the power system necessitates the use of alternate sources of energy such as wind power plants, to provide black-start services in the future. However, this requires <i>grid-forming</i> and not the traditionally prevalent <i>grid-following</i> wind turbines. This paper introduces the general working principle of grid-forming control and examines four of such control schemes. To compare their performance, a simulation study has been carried out for the different stages of energization of onshore load by a high-voltage direct-current (HVDC)-connected wind power plant. Their transient behaviour during transformer inrush, converter pre-charging and de-blocking, and onshore block-load pickup has been compared and analysed qualitatively to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each control strategy.</p>