MODIFIED NEWTON-RAPHSON LOAD FLOW ANALYSIS FOR INTEGRATED AC/DC

POWER SYSTEMS

A. Panosyan, B. R. Oswald
Institute of Electric Power Systems, University of Hannover, Germany

ABSTRACT
The significant increase in planned offshore wind parks and the tendency towards large parks in considerable distances
offshore, make the well established HVDC technology a favorable solution for the connection of these large & distant
offshore wind parks to the main power grid onshore. It is therefore necessary to adequately model the HVDC transmis-
sion links and integrate them in the load flow analysis of the complete a.c.-d.c. system. In this paper, the well known
Newton-Raphson method for the load flow analysis is modified to achieve compatibility for a.c.-d.c. systems with inte-
grated d.c. links in the a.c. network. The elements of the residual vector and the Jacobian matrix for the a.c. network are
kept unchanged and are merely complemented by a new vector and a new matrix, which represent the modifications due
to the d.c. link. The modified Jacobian equation includes the d.c. real and reactive power at the a.c.-d.c. buses, and their
dependency on the a.c. system variables. The modified Newton-Raphson method is evaluated on an a.c.-d.c. test system
with a load flow computation in MATLAB and the results are presented

Keywords: Power Systems Modeling, HVDC, Load Flow, Newton-Raphson

1 INTRODUCTION
These large wind farms connected to the main grid
The significant increase in planned offshore wind parks through two-terminal HVDC links represent a chal-
and the tendency towards large parks in considerable lenge for the simulation of analysis of the overall a.c.-
distances offshore poses a new challenge to grid opera- d.c. power system. Therefore, these new network ele-
tors. Although, present pilot farms with limited capac- ments should be appropriately modeled and repre-
ity can be connected to the main grid onshore relatively sented in the different simulation programs. In this
easily and inexpensively using conventional a.c. trans- paper, the adequate modeling of a two-terminal HVDC
mission, connecting larger wind farms further offshore link and its integration into the well known Newton-
is considerably more difficult. The main disadvantage Raphson method for the load flow analysis is looked
of an a.c. connection to these remote offshore parks is into, taking into account the control strategies of the
the great amount of charging current produced by long HVDC converter stations.
a.c. submarine cables due to the high capacitance of
a.c. cables, which reduces the active current-carrying
capacity of the cable and requires reactive power com- 2 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
pensation. Thus, the greater the distance of these large
The simplest way of integrating a d.c. link into the a.c.
wind farms to the grid onshore become and the higher
load flow is representing it by constant active and reac-
the transmission voltage is, the more convenient tech-
tive power injections at the two terminal buses in the
nical and economical solution High Voltage Direct
a.c. systems. Thus the two terminal a.c.-d.c buses are
Current (HVDC) transmission becomes for connecting
represented as a PQ-bus with a constant voltage inde-
distant large offshore wind parks to the main grid.
pendent active and reactive power. However this is
clearly an inadequate representation where the links
Although the new Voltage-Sourced-Converter (VSC)
contribution to a.c. system reactive power and voltage
based HVDC technology allows higher flexibility over
conditions is significant, since the accurate operating
the conventional Current-Source-Converter (CVC)
modes of the link and its terminal equipment are ig-
based HVDC and an independent reactive power con-
nored.
trol in addition to other advantages, the VSC transmis-
sion technology is still in its early stages and is still
A more advanced and accurate method is representing
economically not feasible at power levels of 500MW
buses connected to an HVDC as a PQ-bus with a volt-
or more due to the high cost of multiple converters and
age dependant active and reactive power. However, the
cables that are required. The conventional HVDC will
voltage dependency of the active and reactive power at
therefore be the more logical choice at the present for
these a.c.-d.c. buses do not obey the general rules of
the connection of the planned offshore wind farms to
the conventional PQ-buses in a.c. systems. We have
the main grid.
thus a new type of PQ-bus, which we define as PQDC-
bus. In our approach the real and reactive power equa-
tions for the PQDC-buses, with their dependency on
both the a.c. voltages at the terminal buses and the
characteristics of the d.c. converters and their control
strategies, are derived and integrated into the a.c. load
flow algorithm.
This approach is a combination of the two main meth-
ods most a.c.-d.c. load flow algorithms are based on:
the simultaneous solution method and the sequential
solution method. Unlike the sequential method, in
which successive iterations between the a.c. load flow
and d.c. the load flow are taken, the a.c. and d.c. equa-
tions are all solved in the same iteration step. Neverthe-
less the d.c. variables are not explicitly included in the
state vector as in the simultaneous solution method. In
the Newton-Raphson method for the load flow analy-
sis, with the basic Jacobian equation
J ∆x = y (0)
this leads to modifications on the elements of the resid-
ual vector ( y ) and of the Jacobian matrix ( J ) affili-
ated to the a.c.-d.c. buses, without adding new elements
to the residual vector and the Jacobian matrix. In this
approach, the real and reactive power and the a.c. volt-
ages at the converter buses are considered the interface
between the a.c. and d.c. equations in each iteration
step.
A further point to be determined is whether the a.c.
network components which are attached to the two-
terminal HVDC links should be considered as part of
the a.c. system or included in the d.c. system equations.
These components are usually the a.c. filters and the
converter transformers. The a.c. filters can be included
in the a.c. network as fixed real and reactive power
injections at the a.c. buses connected to the HVDC
link. The tap-changing converter transformers are how-
ever included in d.c. network, since the tap-changing of
the transformers is an integral part of the d.c. control
systems. Consequently, the primary sides of the trans-
formers are chosen as the interface buses between the
a.c. and d.c. systems. Leaving the transformers out of
the a.c. network helps getting around the need to up-
date the bus admittance matrix of the a.c. network with
each tap-changing.
Id
Ur nr
Ir
Pr + jQr U dr
Figure 1 Two terminal HVDC link interconnecting buses "r" and "i"
3 MODELLING THE D.C. LINK
For the analysis of the steady state converter operation,
some basic and generally valid assumptions can be
made. Firstly, the a.c. voltages at the terminal buses are
perfectly balanced and sinusoidal. Thus, a perfect a.c.
filtering of all harmonic currents and voltages gener-
ated by the converters is assumed. Correspondingly, a
perfect filtering on the d.c. side too is assumed and the
d.c. current and voltage contain no a.c. components.
Furthermore, the losses and magnetizing admittance of
the two-winding converter transformers are ignored.
A basic schematic diagram of a two-terminal HVDC
link interconnecting buses "r" (rectifier) and "i" (In-
verter) is illustrated in Figure 1. The symbols appearing
in the diagram are defined as follows:
U = primary line-to-line a.c. voltage (r.m.s.)
U d = direct voltage
I d = direct current
n = transformer ratio
P, Q = active and reactive power
The basic converter equations, for both rectifier and
inverter operations, describing the relationship between
the a.c. and d.c. variables can be written as follows [1].
Rectifier equations
U d0r = k nrU r (2)
U dr = U d0r cos α r − Rr I dr (3)
where U d0r is the ideal no-load direct voltage,
k = 3 2 π , and α r is the ignition delay angle. Rr is
the so called equivalent commutating "resistance",
which accounts for the voltage drop due to commuta-
tion overlap and is proportional to the commutation
reactance, Rr = 3 X r π .
The active power at the rectifier is given by
Pr = U dr I dr (4)
Since losses at the converters and transformers can be
ignored ( Pr = Pac ), the reactive power at the rectifier
Rl
ni Ui
Ii
U di Pi + jQi
can be determined as
Qr = Pr tan ϕ r
where ϕ r is the phase angle between the a.c. voltage
and the fundamental a.c. current, and by neglecting the
commutation overlap can be calculated as.
nominal d.c. voltage at one of the converters (usually
the inverter), and the optimum value of the control
(5) angles, which are usually the minimum control angles
α min and γ min , since the ignition delay angle and
extinction advance angle are kept as close to their
minimum value as possible to keep the reactive power
consumption of the converters at its minimum[2].

ϕ r = arccos(U dr U d0r ) (6) With the given converter parameter and control speci-
fications and with the latest updated a.c. bus voltages at
each iteration step, the transformer ratios nr and ni
Inverter equations
The inverter operation of a converter can be corre- corresponding the optimum value of the control angles
spondingly described by the following equations are calculated [3]. However, critical operation condi-
tions may result in one or both converter transformer
U d0i = k niU i (7) ratios reaching their upper or lower limits. When one
of the transformers reaches a limiting ratio, the inverter
U di = U d0i cos γ i − Ri I di (8) d.c. voltage (and subsequently the rectifier d.c. volt-
Pi = U di I di (9) age) is freed and readjusted, keeping the direct current
Qi = Pi tan ϕi (10) fixed. And when both transformer ratios reach their
upper and lower limits respectively, α or γ is freed,
ϕ i = arccos(U di U d0i ) (11)
depending on whether the rectifier transformer ratio or
the inverter transformer ratio has reached its maximum
where γ i is the extinction advance angle. level, since α and γ can not fall below their mini-
mum value. These five operating states of the convert-
Line equation ers are summarized in Table 1. In case the ignition and
The interdependence of the two d.c. voltages can be extinction angles are to be kept fixed at their minimum
expressed by values, the direct current can be freed instead. [2]

U dr = U di + Rl I d (12) Once the operating state of the converters and the cor-
responding transformer ratios are determined, the trans-
with the d.c. line resistance Rl . former ratios need to be readjusted to match one of the
actual tap position of the transformers, since the tap
ratios can vary only in steps. This is done by rounding
Based on eqs. (3),(8) and (12), the equivalent circuit of the calculated ratio to the next highest tap position,
the two terminal HVDC link is shown in Figure 2. ensuring that the control angles, which are correspond-
ingly readjusted too, remain over their minimum val-
ues.
Rr Id Rl − Ri
The active and reactive d.c. power at each converter,
corresponding to the operating state obtained above,
U d0r cos α r can now be obtained through d.c. power equations of
U dr U di U d0i cos γ i
the rectifier and inverter. Thus, the residual vector y
in eq. 1 is modified as follows
Figure 2 HVDC equivalent circuit
y = yac + ydc (13)

where yac is the residual vector for the a.c. network

4 D.C. POWER EQUATIONS AND
MODIFICATIONS ON JACOBIAN EQUATIONS
Equations (4),(5),(9) and (10) represent the PQDC-buses
in the a.c. system. The active and reactive power at the
PQDC-buses depend on the a.c. bus voltages, the char-
acteristics of the converters and their operating modes.
To determine the dependency of P and Q on the a.c.
bus-voltages for a given pair of converters, four control
specifications are required. These are usually the direct
current or the d.c. power at one of the converters, the
without the d.c. link, and ydc is the modification vector
due to the active and reactive d.c. power at the con-
verter buses, and thus contains zero elements at all
other buses in the a.c.-d.c. network.
Finally, the Jacobian matrix elements associated with
the converter buses are to be modified. The polar coor-
dinates form of the Jacobian matrix is the more appro-
priate choice, since four of the eight elements associ-
ated to each converter are then zero. This is due to the
independence of the d.c. active and reactive power
Table 1 Converter operating states and the a.c. voltage dependency of d.c. active and reactive power
Op. State α γ nr ni Pr Pi Qr Qi
State 1 α min γ min nr,min < nr < nr,max ni,min < ni < ni,max const. const. const. const.
State 2 α min γ min nr,max/min nr,min < nr < nr,max f (U r ) f (U r ) f (U r ) f (U r )
State 3 α min γ min nr,min < nr < nr,max ni,max/min f (U i ) f (U i ) f (U i ) f (U i )
State 4 α min f (U r , U i ) nr,max ni,min f (U r ) f (U r ) f (U r ) f (U r , U i )
State 5 f (U r , U i ) γ min nr,min ni,max f (U i ) f (U i ) f (U r , U i ) f (U i )

from the phase angles of the terminal a.c. buses ( δ r

x = x0 "Flat" start
and δ i ). Hence, only the partial derivatives of P and
Q in respect to the a.c. bus voltages U r and U i are to
be calculated. In order to do this, the dependency of the
d.c. power on a.c. voltages, for the actual operating y : ∆p, ∆q Form residual vector y
state of the converters and transformer ratios, should J:H M N L and Jacobian matrix J
first be established.
NO YES
The five possible operating states and the correspond- DC Links?
ing a.c. voltage dependency of the d.c. power are dem-
onstrated in Table 1.
y = yac + ydc
Corresponding
After determining the converter operating state and J = J ac + J dc modifications to
formulating ydc , the corresponding partial derivatives y and J
of P and Q are calculated and the Jacobian matrix is
Solve
modified too
Jacobian equation
J = J ac + J dc (14)
Update
x = x + ∆x state vector
The modification matrix J dc is dependent on the oper-
ating state and is a zero matrix for state 1. Check convergence
NO
max( ∆x ) < ε
When the residual vector and the Jacobian matrix are YES
modified for the HVDC link, the Jacobian equations
Output Results
are then solved and the a.c. voltages and angles up-
dated. For the next iteration step the updated a.c. volt-
ages at the terminal buses are used to determine the Figure 3 AC/DC-Newton-Raphson load-flow algorithm
adequate operating state of the converters, and conse-
quently the modifications on y and J , and so on till
convergence is obtained (Figure 3). G2 T2 8 T3 G3
~ ~
2 7 9 3
5 APPLICATION ON A TEST SYSTEM
5 6

To test the algorithm, a load flow program with the

integrated a.c.-d.c. algorithm has been written in
MATLAB. The program is applied on an a.c. test sys-
tem with an integrated two terminal HVDC link. The
4
9-bus test system is thus modified by replacing the
transmission line from bus 4 to bus 5 with a hypotheti- T1
cal d.c. link (Figure 4). The fictitious characteristics of
1
the d.c. link are given in Table 1. The a.c. filters are not
taken into consideration here, but could be included in ~ G1
the a.c. network. The rest of the system is the same as
the 9 bus system. Figure 4 9-bus test system with integrated d.c. link
Table 2 Characteristics of the d.c. link power is supplied from generator 2 instead, and thus
Rectifier Inverter the increase in Q at bus 2.
Bus Number 4 5 To reduce the voltage drop at bus 5, VAr-compensators
Commutation reactance 5.5 Ω 6.5 Ω would be used at the bus. The voltage drop could be
Minimum control angle α = 7D γ min = 10D kept under 10% by compensating at least 30% of the
min
reactive load at the bus.
Transformer regulation range ±15% ±15%
Number of tap positions 27 21
Resistance of the DC line 0.5 Ω CONCLUSIONS
Rated d.c. power at inverter 13MW
Rated d.c. voltage at inverter 300 kV This paper presents a method for including d.c. links in
the Newton-Raphson a.c. load flow algorithm through
Convergence within a tolerance of max( ∆x) = 0.001 is simple modifications only on the elements of the resid-
ual vector and the Jacobian matrix, which are associ-
achieved in 5 iteration steps, which is one step more ated with an a.c.-d.c. bus.
than the load flow for the 9 bus system without the d.c.
link. The a.c. and d.c. load flow results are given in The advantages of this method over the sequential and
Table 2 and Table 3 respectively. the simultaneous solution methods respectively are,
omitting a separate d.c. iteration at each a.c. iteration
Table 3 a.c. load flow results step, and a simpler modification of the a.c. load flow
Bus Voltage Angle P Q algorithm without the need to reshape the Jacobian
Nr. [kV] [degree] [MW] [MVar] equation.
1 17.160 0.000 − 74.834 − 6.460
2 18.450 2.140 − 163.00 − 63.108
3 14.145 0.179 − 85.000 − 0.698 REFERENCES
4 238.566 − 2.297 12.976 1.804
5 195.928 − 15.032 112.024 52.355 1. Kundur, P., Power System Stability and Control,
6 234.483 − 5.290 90.000 30.000 McGraw-Hill, 1994
7 228.048 − 3.612 0.000 0.000 2. Arrillaga, J., Bodger, P., Integration of h.v.d.c.
8 228.264 − 5.516 100.000 35.000 links with fast-decoupled load-flow solutions,
9 235.923 − 2.535 0.000 0.000 Proc. IEE, Vol. 124, No. 5, May 1977
3. Sanghavi, H.A., Banerjee, S.K., Load flow analy-
Table 4 d.c. load flow results sis of integrated a.c.-d.c. power systems, Fourth
Rectifier Inverter IEEE Region 10 International Conference , 22-24
d.c. voltage [kV] 299.497 299.476 Nov. 1989
Control angles 7.596 10.000
Transformer tap position 0.938 1.150
Real power [MW] 12.978 12.977 AUTHORS ADDRESS
Reactive power [MVar] 1.804 2.355
d.c. current [kA] 0.0433 The first author can be contacted at

Institute of Electric Power Systems

University of Hannover
It can be clearly seen in the results that the inverter bus
Appelstr. 9A
5 sustains a considerable voltage drop due to the
30167, Hannover, Germany
HVDC link failing to transport the reactive power
email: panosyan@iee.uni-hannover.de
consumed at the node from generator 1. The reactive