Damping multimodal subsynchronous resonance using a generator terminal subsynchronous damping controller

Abstract This paper presents a generator terminal subsynchronous damping controller (GTSDC) for mitigating multimodal subsynchronous resonance (SSR) that may occur in series-compensated power systems. The proposed GTSDC system is composed of a digital controller and a power electronic inverter with current tracking control. It uses the shaft speed deviation of the generator turbine as feedback to modulate the dynamic current reference of the inverter through multimodal control paths. By exactly tracking the reference value, the power electronic inverter generates current at frequencies complementary to the torsional modes. Part of the current flows into the generator and creates damping torque on the shaft system to damp SSR. The relationship between the output current of GTSDC and the resulting electromagnetic torque is derived based on the complex torque coefficient method. Furthermore, a nonlinear optimization method is implemented to obtain the optimal parameters for all modal-control paths, thereby effectively enhancing the damping of all torsional modes under different operating conditions. The case study on a real series-compensated power system through eigenvalue analysis and electromagnetic simulations validates the effectiveness of the controller.