Control and protection sequence for recovery and reconfiguration of an offshore integrated MMC multi-terminal HVDC system under DC faults

Abstract A comprehensive process of the control and protection against a DC fault in a voltage source converter (VSC) based high-voltage direct current (HVDC) system typically includes fault detection, fault isolation and system recovery. Regarding an offshore wind farm (OWF) integrated modular multilevel converter (MMC) based multi-terminal HVDC (MTDC) system with two control paradigms, i.e. master-slave control and droop control under DC faults, this paper presents the fault isolation, including the isolation of the faulted line section, with detailed control and protection sequence, which would be useful for practical engineering. The control and protection sequence at the system recovery/reconfiguration phase is comprehensively investigated, which includes: (1) when to start the recovery/reconfiguration control; (2) the sequence between deblocking the MMCs and reclosing the AC circuit breakers (AC CBs); and (3) the recovery sequence of each HVDC terminal. Based on the analysis of the system characteristics, a preferred recovery/reconfiguration scheme is proposed. Simulation results on the real-time digital simulator (RTDS) validate the proposed scheme and demonstrate the advantages through comparison with a different recovery sequence. The impact of transient and permanent DC faults on the system recovery/reconfiguration control is discussed. In addition, the recovery/reconfiguration control of the MTDC in radial and meshed topologies is compared and demonstrated. Based on the analytical and simulation studies, a general guideline on the recovery/reconfiguration control of MMC MTDC systems is proposed.