Hybrid AC/DC hub for integrating onshore wind power and interconnecting onshore and offshore DC networks

Abstract

A hybrid AC/DC hub is proposed in this study, where a modular multilevel converter and a line-commutated converter are paralleled at the AC side to integrate onshore wind power, and connected in series at the DC sides to interconnect two DC networks with different voltages. The hybrid AC/DC hub facilitates wind power integration and DC network interconnection with reduced converter ratings and power losses when compared with the ‘conventional’ approach using DC–DC converters. To investigate the design requirement and performance of the hybrid AC/DC hub, power flow analysis is assessed to evaluate the converter power rating requirement. To ride through DC faults at either side of the interconnected DC networks, a coordinated DC fault protection for the hybrid AC/DC hub is proposed and studied. Simulation results in PSCAD/EMTDC verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control and protection of the hybrid AC/DC hub under power flow change, AC and DC fault conditions.