Modeling of Multi Terminal HVDC Systems

in Power Flow and Optimal Power Flow

Formulations

MOHAMADREZA BARADAR

Licentiate Thesis
Stockholm, Sweden 2013
TRITA-EE 2013:003 KTH School of Electrical Engineering
ISSN 1653-5146 SE-100 44 Stockholm
ISBN 978-91-7501-606-1 SWEDEN

Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av Kungl Tekniska högskolan

framlägges till offentlig granskning för avläggande av teknologie licentia-
texamen i elektriska energisystem onsdagen den 23 januari 2013 klockan
10.00 i H1, Teknikringen 33, Kungl Tekniska högskolan, Stockholm.

© Mohamadreza Baradar, January 2013

Tryck: Universitetsservice US AB
Abstract

Nowadays, due to lack of a strong interconnection between electric power

systems within EU, there is a concern about the restricted power exchange.
On the other hand, one of the factors which results in necessity of improving
the level of power exchange is development of renewable energy sources such
as offshore wind farms.
Multi-terminal HVDC (MTDC) systems are supposed to be one of the
cost-effective ways to aggregate a huge amount of renewable energies on one
side and on the other side connect it to the main AC system through a
common DC network.
Possibility of such connections has led to the proposition of a meshed DC
grid which connects several renewable energy sources and large AC systems.
In order to fully take advantages of such AC-DC systems in the real-
size power systems, extensive research has to be carried out to reveal their
steady state and dynamic behavior. This thesis addresses different steady
state aspects of such hybrid AC-DC systems.
In the first part of thesis, we develop a multi-option power flow approach
for hybrid AC-DC grids. The main contribution of this approach is that
only one additional state variable is added to the AC and DC variables
for each slack converter to handle the slack converter losses. Doing so, all
AC, DC and converter equations are solved simultaneously. This makes the
power flow algorithm much simpler than the sequential approaches where
one external iterative loop is assigned to compute the converter losses. Such
a high number of iterative loops in the sequential approaches makes the
algorithm not only complicated and time consuming, but also unreliable.
In the second part of thesis, given the nonconvex nature of Power Flow
Optimisation (OPF) problem, a convex OPF formulation for AC grids with
embedded DC networks based on the new Line Flow Based (LFB) variables

iii
iv

and in the form of Second Order Cone Programming (SOCP) is developed.

SOCPs are a general form of linear programming accompanied by nonlin-
ear constraints in the form of convex cones which can be efficiently solved
through Interior Point methods (IPMs).
Acknowledgment

First of all I would like to appreciate ELEKTRA for the financial support
of this project.
I would like to thank Professor Lennart Söder, head of the department
of Electric Power Systems (EPS), for providing me and my colleagues with
an excellent academic environment.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my main supervisor, Professor
Mehrdad Ghandhari, for his continual patience, encouragement and guid-
ance he has so far provided me with. I also thank him for reading and
reviewing my papers and this thesis and giving me a bunch of useful feed-
backs and comments.
I would like to thank Assistant professor Dirk Van Hertem for his useful
feedbacks and supervision.
I would like to thank Assistant professor Mohammad Reza Hesamzadeh
for the efficient meetings we have had since we started working together. He
well taught me how to formulate the problems that I have faced in order to
solve them in a more efficient way.
I wish to thank my steering group meeting’s members, Kerstin Linden,
Magnus Callavik and Inger Segerqvist from ABB, Magnus Danielsson from
Svenska Kraftnät and Jonas Persson from vattenfall for their valuable and
technical feedbacks to my project during the meetings and discussions we
have had.
I extend my personal thanks to all my colleagues at EPS and other
departments for creating an enjoyable studying atmosphere.
I am most grateful to my siblings especially my older brother who has
been always helping me how to optimize my highly non-linear constrained
life function.
Lastly, my endless gratitude to my parents, my first coaches and mentors.
All their supports and love have been the greatest gift to me over these years.

v
Contents

Contents vii

List of Figures xi

List of Tables xiii

I Background and Introductory Part 1

1 Introduction 3
1.1 Historical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Scope and aim of project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Contribution of Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 List of Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.5 Outline of Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2 Multi Terminal HVDC Transmission 9

2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 VSC and CSC Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3 Why VSC-based Multi Terminal HVDC . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 VSC-based MTDC Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.5 Earlier Research on VSC-MTDC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

II Voltage Source Converter Station Model and its As-

sociated Operating Modes 19

3 VSC-MTDC Modelling 21

vii
viii CONTENTS

3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2 VSC Station Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3 MTDC Operationg Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
AC side Operating Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
DC side Operating Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

III Power Flow Analysis 27

4 AC-DC Power Flow Analysis 29

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2 Conventional AC-DC Power Flow Methodologies . . . . . . . 29
4.3 Motivation of Unified AC-DC Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.4 Proposed AC-DC Power Flow Methodology . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.5 The Unified AC-DC Unit for PFC of AC grids with Embedded
DC Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.6 The Unified AC-DC Unit for PFC of AC-DC Grid with Asyn-
chronous AC Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Separated Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The External AC System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
The Unified AC-DC Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Integrated Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.7 Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.8 Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

IVOptimal Power Flow Analysis 51

5 AC-DC Optimal Power Flow Analysis 53

5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.2 Earlier Research on AC-DC OPF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.3 Proposed AC-DC OPF Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.4 AC-DC Line Flow Based Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
AC Line Flow Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Converters Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
DC Grid Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.5 Second Order Cone Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Second Order Cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
CONTENTS ix

Rotated Quadratic Cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

5.6 AC-DC OPF Formulation in SOCP Format . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.7 Case Study and Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

V Conclusion Part 75

6 Conclusion and Future Work 77

6.1 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.2 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Bibliography 81
List of Figures

2.1 Parallel connection of DC terminals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.2 Suppergrid offshore proposal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.1 Steady state VSC station model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

3.2 PQ bus connected to VSC converter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.3 PV bus connected to VSC converter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.4 Voltage-Power characteristic of constant voltage mode. . . . . . . 24
3.5 Voltage-Power characteristic of constant power mode. . . . . . . 24
3.6 Voltage-Power characteristic of voltage droop mode. . . . . . . . 25

4.1 AC-DC grid with Embedded MTDC system. . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4.2 Asynchronous AC systems interconnected through a common
MTDC network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.3 The structure of the system for mismatch equations at PCC buses
and DC buses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.4 The flow chart of the PFC for the unified ADU. . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.5 AC-DC grid divided into two groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.6 The flow chart of the separated method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.7 The test system in case a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.8 The test system in case b). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

5.1 Equivalent circuit of AC line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

5.2 AC-DC system modeling for OPF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.3 DC grid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.4 Equivalent circuit of DC line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.5 Test system with embedded DC system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

xi
List of Tables

2.1 Evolution of VSC-HVDC technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

4.1 Operation Modes of Converters and PCC Type . . . . . . . . . . 43

4.2 Converter Station Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.3 Case a): Some Results from MATLAB (M) and SIMPOW (S) . . 45
4.4 Case a): Vset based on SIMPOW Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.5 Case b): Some Obtained Results from MATLAB . . . . . . . . . 47
4.6 Case b): Comparison Between the Separated and Integrated
Analyses in Terms of Numbers of Iterations and Evaluated Func-
tions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.7 Case b): Comparison Between the Separated and Integrated
Analyses in Terms of Computational Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

5.1 OPF Results from MATPOWER (M) and SOCP-AC-OPF (S)

for IEEE 14 Test System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2 OPF Results from MATPOWER (M) and SOCP-AC-OPF (S)
for IEEE 14 Test System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.3 OPF Results from MATPOWER (M) and SOCP-AC-OPF (S)
for IEEE 30 Test System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.4 OPF Results from MATPOWER (M) and SOCP-AC-OPF (S)
for IEEE 30 Test System without (WO) and with (W) Two In-
stalled VSC DC Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.5 OPF Results for MTDC system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.6 The results of SOCP formulation of AC-DC-OPF for IEEE 30-
bus Test System with Installed VSC DC Grids with Converter
Rating 50MVA and 100MVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

xiii
xiv List of Tables

5.7 The results of SOCP formulation of AC-DC-OPF for MTDC

System with Installed VSC DC Grids with Converter Rating of
50MVA and 100MVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
 Part I

Background and
Introductory Part

1
Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Historical Background

The first Direct Current (DC) generator invented by Tomas Edison com-
missioned in New York City goes back to the end of the 19th century. But
this way of transferring electric power was opposed by Nikola Tesla and
George Westinghouse who were in favour of transferring power in the form
of Alternating Current (AC).
Finally because of more advanced equipment of ac transmission at that
time especially ac transformers which enabled a high voltage level of trans-
mission, ac transmission won the famous War of the Currents.
The high voltage level of power transmission led to the less transmission
losses and accordingly more economic transmission. However, after a while,
due to some shortcomings of ac transmission such as lack of control on
AC power flow in the ac lines and impossible way of interconnecting two
asynchronous ac systems, the motivation of more research and investigation
on DC transmission was again revived. Even after the invention of the
mercury arc valves enabling AC-DC current conversion, the ratings were not
still enough to bring back the DC transmission in bulk power transmission
systems [1].
Finally the creation of the next generation of mercury arc valves with
more advanced features caused the DC transmission to come back into ser-
vice again. These features were obtained through the efforts of Uno Lamm,
a Swedish electrical engineer, by developing a mercury arc valve with a high

3
4 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

enough voltage level, in the 1950s.

His efforts finally led the first fully commercial HVDC transmission sys-
tem to be put into service between Gotland and mainland in Sweden in
1954. This DC link was built to transfer 20 MW over a 98 km submarine
cable with a voltage level 100kV [2].
The research and investigation on improving the capabilities of HVDC
technology resulted in emerging tyristors, which is a solid-state semicon-
ductor device, and introducing as a replacement of mercury arc valves in
the 1970s. This revolution in DC transmission technology came from the
ability of tyristors in operating at very high voltage levels when they are
connected in series. Moreover, change in the DC voltage level of tyristors
valves through controlling the fire angle allows a rapid and efficient control
of power transmission. First commercial use of tyristors goes back to when
Gotland HVDC stations were upgraded to a voltage level 150 kV and the
transmission capacity to 30 MW through series connection of thyristor valves
with their former mercury-arc valves. Since then, tyristors based HVDC sys-
tems have been in service and mostly known as Line-Commutated Converter
(LCC) or Current Source Converter (CSC) based HVDC systems. Another
improvement in line with HVDC technology was introduction of Capacitor
Commutated Converters (CCC) which is in fact former CSC in which com-
mutation capacitors are inserted between converter transformer and tyristors
valves. The aim was to improve the commutation failures caused by con-
verters connected to weak networks and reduce the requirement for reactive
power at the station. However, as new generation of converters in which it
was possible to feed even passive networks without any local generation and
reactive power demand, appeared using CCC became needless [2]. Thanks
to recent development in the area of power electronic switches and espe-
cially introduction of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs), the
next generation of converters Voltage Source Converters (VSCs) came into
existence [3]. ABB commissioned the first commercial project of VSC based
HVDC where the southern and northern parts of Gotland are interconnected
through a 50 MW underground cable link [4]. The main difference between
CSC and VSC technologies is the ability of IGBT built in VSC in turning off
the current as well as turning it on. This apparently small but practically
huge difference makes it possible to connect HVDC stations even to passive
loads or those points which do not have a very large short circuit ratio which
was required in case of CSC HVDC systems.
So far CSC HVDC systems have been known as a more suitable option
1.2. SCOPE AND AIM OF PROJECT 5

for transferring a higher amount of power and VSC HVDC as a more flexible
one. Today, the existing CSC HVDC system has the highest ratings of a
DC voltage level 800 kV and transmission capacity level 6400 MW. Whereas,
VSCs, which had a rating of 50 MW and 80 kV DC in the first commercial
project in Gotland, has now reached to a rating power of 1200 MW at a DC
voltage of 320KV.
Nevertheless, the comparison is not that easy since VSC HVDC is a
newer technology compared to the older one, CSC HVDC, which has been
emerged since around 50 years back. Great features of VSC HVDC system
have made it highly promising to play an essential role in the future of
HVDC technology [5].

1.2 Scope and aim of project

Firstly, a VSC-based MTDC system with few terminals embedded in an

AC system is studied. The aim is to analyze the impact of the embedded
MTDC system on power flow control. To achieve this aim the following
steps will be done:

• To study the AC-DC transmission systems and the MTDC systems

technology.

• To develop an AC-DC power flow modelling incorporating VSC-MTDC

systems.

One of the key aspects of hybrid VSC AC-DC grids which has not been
fairly addressed and reported in the literature is its impact on improving the
economic efficiency of the electricity industry. It allows lower-cost genera-
tion to be substituted by the high-cost generation and it also improves the
allocative efficiency by reducing the deadweight loss. In order to quantify
these components of economic efficiency, these VSC AC-DC systems and
their associated DC grids need to be modeled in the Optimal Power Flow
(OPF) formulation. To achieve this aim the initial following steps should
be done:

• To model the MTDC systems in the formulated economic dispatch

problems
6 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

• To derive the complete AC-DC equations and associated constraints

needed for economic dispatch formulation

• To convexify the derived AC-DC economic dispatch

1.3 Contribution of Thesis

This thesis addresses different steady state aspects of hybrid AC-DC

systems. In this regard, contribution of the thesis are listed as follows:

• The first contribution of thesis consists of proposition of a multi-option

power flow approach for hybrid AC-DC grids. A unified AC-DC unit
is introduced which can be used in both AC grids with embedded
VSC-based MTDC grids and asynchronous AC grids connected via a
common VSC-based MTDC grid. In the proposed method for each
MTDC grid (regardless of the number of converters), a new state vari-
able is introduced to handle any kind of converter loss models.
This method makes the power flow algorithm much simpler than the
sequential approaches where one external iterative loop is assigned to
compute the converter losses. Such a high number of iterative loops
makes the algorithm not only complicated and time consuming, but
also unreliable.

• As the second contribution of this thesis, a convex OPF formulation

for AC grids with embedded DC networks based on the new Line Flow
Based (LFB) variables. Given the nonconvex nature of Power Flow
Optimisation (OPF) problems, this new formulation can be recast as
Second Order Cone Programming (SOCP) which is a general form of
linear programming accompanied by nonlinear constraints in the form
convex cones which can be efficiently solved through Interior Point
methods (IPMs).

1.4 List of Publications

1. Journal Papers
1.4. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 7

• Baradar, M.; Hesamzadeh, M. R. ; Ghandhari, M.; , "Second

Order Cone Programming for Optimal Power Flow in AC-DC
Grids," Submitted to IEEE Transaction on Power System, Novem-
ber 2012.
• Baradar, M.; Ghandhari, M.; , "A Multi-Option Unified Power
Flow Approach for Hybrid AC-DC Grids Incorporating Multi-
Terminal VSC-HVDC," IEEE Transaction on Power System, 2013
(Provisionally accepted).

2. Conference Papers

• Baradar, M.; Hesamzadeh, M. R.; Ghandhari, M.; , "Modelling

of Multi-Terminal HVDC Systems in Optimal Power Flow For-
mulation," presented at the IEEE Electrical Power and Energy
Conference (IEEE EPEC 2012), London, Canada, 10-12 October
2012 (to be published).
• Baradar, M.; Ghandhari, M.; Van Hertem, D.; Kargarian, A.; ,
"Power flow calculation of hybrid AC-DC power systems," Power
and Energy Society General Meeting, 2012 IEEE , vol., no., pp.1-
6, 22-26 July 2012.
• Baradar, M.; Ghandhari, M.; Van Hertem, D.; , "The modelling
multi-terminal VSC-HVDC in power flow calculation using uni-
fied methodology," presented at the Innovative Smart Grid Tech-
nologies (ISGT Europe), 2011 2nd IEEE PES International Con-
ference and Exhibition on , vol., no., pp.1-6, 5-7 December 2011.
8 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

1.5 Outline of Thesis

In chapter 2 characteristics of both CSC and VSC converters are de-

scribed. Then the reasons which make VSC to be a vastly superior option
for building an MTDC system are explained. Finally, applications of VSC
MTDC systems and earlier research focusing on VSC MTDC systems are
presented.
In chapter 3, since a VSC-based MTDC system consists of several VSC
stations, first the structure of each VSC station model and its elements
required for the steady state modelling are explained. The components
forming a VSC station and the operating modes used in the AC and DC
sides of each station are explained.
Chapter 4 deals with the steady state analysis focusing on the power
flow calculation (PFC) of the AC systems incorporating VSC-based MTDC
systems. First the conventional methods for solving the AC-DC PFC in
the literature are described. Then the proposed approach in this thesis is
explained. Two applications of the proposed method are introduced and
different analyses such as comparing the simulation time are carried out.
The proposed method is implemented on CIGRE 32 node test system, and
the obtained numerical results are compared to those of the commercial
software SIMPOW.
Finally, in chapter 5 after reviewing the earlier literature reporting AC-
DC OPF formulations, the proposed AC-DC OPF formulation which is ob-
tained based on the line flow equations is explained. After obtaining a set
of linear and non-linear equality and inequality constraints through deriving
the line flow equations, the problem is transformed to Second Order Cone
Programming (SOCP) format. The SOCP programming is classified as a
convex optimization problem which can be efficiently solved through Interior
Points methods (IPMs). Finally, to show the effectiveness of the proposed
AC-DC SOCP OPF, two different case studies IEEE 14 and 30 bus test
systems are used and impacts of optimized converters variables on the total
generation costs and losses are studied.
Chapter 2

Multi Terminal HVDC

Transmission

2.1 Introduction
In this chapter first the characteristics of both CSC and VSC converters are
described. Then the reasons which make VSC more attractive and superior
to CSC are explained. Then, based on the literature, applications of VSC
MTDC systems are presented. Lastly, earlier research on different aspects
of VSC MTDC systems are briefly described.

2.2 VSC and CSC Technologies

It is no exaggeration to say that HVDC technology was introduced as a
response to the need of having a more efficient and flexible transmission
system. This need became more important especially due to increase in
electricity demand and number of the renewable energy sources connected
to the grid such as wind power sources [6,7]. For instance, the total capacity
of wind energy installed in Europe by the end of 2009 was about 76 GW [8].
This amount is predicted to be about 180 GW including 35 GW offshore,
and 300 GW including 120 GW offshore for 2020 and 2030, respectively [9].
HVDC system has been conventionally used to interconnect two AC power
systems working either at two different frequencies or at the same frequency

9
10 CHAPTER 2. MULTI TERMINAL HVDC TRANSMISSION

but without being synchronized. It is also used as a way of delivering electric

power between two distant points through overhead transmission lines or
submarine cables.
Another feature of HVDC systems which made them to be put into
service in parallel with the AC transmission systems is capability of rapidly
control on the transferred power. This characteristic can considerably affect
the operational flexibility and controllability of the bulk power system.
As was perviously discussed currently two basic converter technologies,
conventional Line-Commutated Current Source Converters (CSCs) and self-
commutated Voltage Source Converters (VSCs), are mostly used in the
HVDC transmission systems.
Conventional HVDC transmission with their line-commutated CSCs re-
quires a comparatively strong generation source with high enough level of
short circuit ratio in order to operate. This implies that the AC system at
the connection point to the CSCs should supply an amount of reactive power
to the converter so that the conversion process is accomplished. This amount
is generally about fifty percent of the total transmitted active power through
the converter. Furthermore, based on the CSC technology principle, power
flow direction passing through the converter is only changed by reversing
the DC voltage polarity and the DC current flow is unidirectional [6, 7, 10].
This polarity reversal usually needs a complicated switching techniques in
case of using CSCs for building an MTDC system [11].
In contrast, VSCs with their Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT)
valves and through Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) control techniques can
produce a nearly sinusoidal AC voltage which can be fully controlled in both
magnitude and phase. Therefore, unlike the conventional HVDC transmis-
sion systems, VSCs not only have no reactive power demand but also can
either inject or absorb the reactive power to/from the AC grid in order to
maintain AC side voltage as a generator [12].
Through controlling the phase angle of produced voltage, VSC can rapidly
control active power exchange between AC and DC systems. At the same
time reactive power at each terminal are controlled through controlling the
magnitude of VSC voltage independent of the DC power transmission [12].
This capability gives the opportunity to install VSCs anywhere in the AC
grid regardless of its network short-circuit capacity. For example VSC can
be used for connecting offshore wind farms which are often located relatively
far from the main system. In 2005, the world’s first offshore HVDC trans-
mission was designed and installed by ABB. In this project a VSC link was
2.2. VSC AND CSC TECHNOLOGIES 11

installed to connect the Troll A gas platform in the North Sea to the main-
land [13]. References [14–16] have studied the application of VSC HVDC
for interconnection of offshore wind farms. Most importantly, VSC does not
need to reverse voltage polarity to change the direction of power flow in its
DC link. As a result of advances in cable technology suitable for VSCs the
power flow reversal is carried out by reversal of the current direction. This
great characteristic allows several VSCs to be connected in parallel oper-
ating with a common voltage polarity [17, 18]. Table 2.1 gives a summary
about the historical evolution of VSC HVDC transmission technology [19].

Table 2.1: Evolution of VSC-HVDC technology

Technology Year Converter Example

Type Project

HVDC Light 1997 Two-Level Gotland

1st Gen

HVDC Light 2000 Three-level Diode NPC Eagle Pass

2nd Gen 2002 Three-level Active NPC Murraylink

HVDC Light 2006 Two-Level with OPWM Estlink

3rd Gen

HVDC Plus 2010 MMC Trans

Bay Cable

HVDC MaxSine 2014 MMC SuperStation

HVDC Light 2015 CTL Dolwin 2c

4th Gen
12 CHAPTER 2. MULTI TERMINAL HVDC TRANSMISSION

2.3 Why VSC-based Multi Terminal HVDC

In 1987, the first MTDC system was commissioned by adding the third
terminal located in Corsica to the existing DC link between Sardinia-Italy
[20].
The first large MTDC system was completed by ABB in 1992 which
was a three terminal HVDC system. This MTDC system connects there
asynchronous terminals, namely, the Radisson terminal operating at 315 kV
AC , the Nicolet terminal operating at 230 kV AC in Hydro Quebec system
(Canada) and the Sandy Pond terminal operating at 345 kV AC in New
England system (USA). These MTDC systems were built based on CSC
converters [21].
Two types of configuration can be adopted in an MTDC systems [22].
The parallel connection as perviously discussed and shown in Figure 2.1
which allows DC terminals to operate around a common rated voltage VDC .
The second configuration is the series connection where one of the convert-

VDC VDC

VDC VDC

Figure 2.1: Parallel connection of DC terminals.

ers controls the current around a common rated current and the power is
controlled by the rest of converters. This configuration is well suited for
2.3. WHY VSC-BASED MULTI TERMINAL HVDC 13

CSC MTDC systems since CSCs in the DC side are functioning as a voltage
source which can be connected in series without need for special switching.
However this configuration has several drawbacks as compared to the other
configuration such as higher losses, more complicated insulation. Most im-
portantly, if one of the DC lines is disconnected due to fault occupance the
current in the entire DC grid will be cut off [23]. Due to aforementioned dis-
advantages, series configuration is not recommended to be used and hence
in practice only parallel configuration has been considered [11].
On the other hand, if parallel configuration is used in an MTDC system
based on CSC, because of voltage source nature of CSCs in the DC-side, a
precise voltage balancing between converters are required through a special
and complicated switching. This even gets worse when the CSCs are far
away from each other since fast communication channels are also required.
Therefore, the control technique that should be adopted in a parallel-CSC-
MTDC system will be a tough and complicated task. This is why [24] has
concluded that it is practically impossible to form a parallel-CSC-MTDC
system with more than 5 terminals.
It should be noted that the mentioned project Hydro Quebec-New Eng-
land MTDC system was initially planned to construct a five terminal MTDC
system. However due to the performance problems predicted to happen,
they stop installing the other two stations which was intended to connect
Des Cantons to Comerford [25].
Compared to CSCs, VSCs are functioning as an ideal current source in
its DC sides allowing the parallel connection of several DC terminals without
posing any technical difficulties. As perviously mentioned, in a VSC link the
direction of power can be changed through the reversal of current direction
and the voltage polarity at the DC side can remain unchanged. These
capabilities are perfectly suited for constructing an MTDC system. VSC-
MTDC systems with parallel connected converters have a great potential to
be used in the future bulk power systems [26]. Possibility of such connections
has led to the proposition of a DC ’SuperGrid’ that could connect several
renewable energy sources to a common MTDC network [27, 28]. Utilizing
VSC-based MTDC systems can give the following possibilities to the power
systems

• facilitating the control of the MTDC system,

• increasing the flexibility of power flow controllability,

14 CHAPTER 2. MULTI TERMINAL HVDC TRANSMISSION

• enhancing transmission capacity,

• improving the voltage profile in the network,

• and integrating large scale of renewable or new energy sources posi-

tioning at different locations.

Recently, there have been some plans (or discussions) to apply MTDC
systems to the Nordic power system [29] , the Middletown-Norwalk trans-
mission project (USA) [30], and the power systems of Russia, North Korea
and South Korea [24]. Therefore, research is needed to investigate the im-
pact of MTDC systems on the power systems, since this technology is a new
one.
The only world’s installed VSC-based MTDC commissioned in January
1999 is Shin-Shinano 3 terminal VSC-BTB in which three voltage source
converters are connected back to back [31]. These VSC MTDC systems
which has a rating of 10kV DC and capacity of 53 MVA interconnect three
AC systems operating at 66 kV and 275 kV.

2.4 VSC-based MTDC Applications

One of the most suitable applications of VSC-based MTDC transmission

systems is in the field of wind farms interconnection. Of course there are
many publications which investigated the possibility of utilizing CSC con-
verters for aggregation of offshore wind farms [32–34]. However, CSCs need
for reactive power support at the point of connection which consequently
leading the connected AC system to have a high enough short circuit ra-
tio [35] .
Some literature has proposed that installation of Static Compensators
(STATCOM) at the point of connection CSC terminal to offshore station
can solve this problem [33]. However, the proposed solution brings about
other issues such as a wider footprint, more losses, and more complexity in
the wind power system.
Contrarily, based on VSC HVDC link characteristics such as rapidly and
independently control of active and reactive powers and black-start capabil-
ity, these VSC links are superior to CSC links for wind farm grid intercon-
nection [34, 36]. That is why in [36–38] VSC links have been proposed as a
2.5. EARLIER RESEARCH ON VSC-MTDC 15

more rational and efficient solution to be used for interconnection of wind

farms . Therefore, due to these especial characteristics of VSC links, such
systems are mostly used for wind farms interconnections. Reference [39] pro-
posed the construction of a low voltage DC grid using VSCs to aggregate
the power of several wind turbine units. Also, in [40] VSC-based MTDC
systems have been proposed as a cost-effective way to connect offshore wind
farms to the onshore AC systems.
Furthermore, [41] has proposed interconnection of several AC systems to
load points as an alternative for AC interconnection. The interconnection
of wind farms based doubly-fed induction generators (DFIGs) have been
proposed in [42].
Reference [43] has proposed using hybrid MTDC systems based on VSCs
and CSCs for subtransmission and distribution systems in urban areas of
large cities.
Lastly, compatibility of VSC converters with parallel connection for con-
structing a reliable DC grid embedded in the conventional AC grids has
led to proposition of a DC ’SuperGrid’ [27, 28]. There is a huge number
of renewable energy sources throughout the world where are feeding a mas-
sive amount of powers to the AC networks. However, these kinds of energy
sources such as offshore wind farms have an intermittent nature depending
on where they are located and which season is. This variety and intermit-
tency can bring about some fluctuations into the whole system endangering
the stability state. However, in the longer term a need for having a smooth
level of energy is really expected. In order to respond to this need, the
creation of such DC supergrid which can be desirably constructed from the
multi terminal HVDC systems, has been proposed. This allows renewable
energy sources from all parts of the world feed their energies into a common
DC supergrid. Accordingly all consumers throughout the world have access
to a strong and steady source of electricity generation. An offshore Super-
grid based on offshore wind turbines and voltage source converter HVDC
has been also proposed for Europe in order to access a more powerful net-
work [44] (See Figure 2.2 [44]).

2.5 Earlier Research on VSC-MTDC

The huge number of applications has encouraged the researchers and engi-
neers to carry out more comprehensive research on different aspects of such
16 CHAPTER 2. MULTI TERMINAL HVDC TRANSMISSION

Figure 2.2: Suppergrid offshore proposal.

promising VSC-based MTDC systems. Reference [45] has investigated differ-

ent topologies of VSC-based MTDC transmission systems for large offshore
wind farms voltage-current characteristic and different operation modes of
these systems in case of loss of a converter and voltage sags in the AC grid
are the main focus of [46]. Reference [47] has shown the flexibility of VSC-
MTDC systems in integrating variable wind generation through proposition
of different DC voltage control and power dispatch strategies. In [48] a con-
trol strategy has been proposed for integration of wind power to AC grid via
hybrid MTDC systems. Various conditions such as variation of wind speed
and occurring faults on AC and DC sides have been also studied. In [49]
the transient stability of such DC grids is studied based on traveling wave
theory. In [50] effects of voltage variation resulted from the wind farm in-
tegration to the AC grids are investigated and possible improvements via
VSC-MTDC proposed.
References [51–53] have investigated the fault occurrence in VSC MTDC
grids and protection methodologies proposed to survive them.
2.5. EARLIER RESEARCH ON VSC-MTDC 17

Study of the dynamic and transient behavior, modeling and control

methodologies of VSC MTDC grids are the main focus of [47,54–61]. Refer-
ence [62] has proposed a method in which VSC-MTDC susyems are used as
a solution for power quality improvement. And recently, two different power
flow approaches, unified and sequential methods, for power flow calculation
of VSC MTDC grids have been proposed by [63–65].
 Part II

Voltage Source Converter

Station Model and its
Associated Operating Modes

19
Chapter 3

VSC-MTDC Modelling

3.1 Introduction

Since VSC-based MTDC systems consist of several VSC stations, it is

firstly necessary to get familiar with structure of VSC station model and
its elements required for steady state modelling. In this chapter, first the
components forming a VSC station are presented and then the operating
modes used in AC and DC sides of each satin are explained.

3.2 VSC Station Model

Figure 3.1 shows the VSC station model with its elements. The model at
the DC side is depicted as single line representation. The model consists of
AC buses, coupling transformer, series reactance, AC filter, converter block
on the AC side and on the DC side, DC Bus, DC filter and DC line.
As it can be seen each VSC station is connected to the AC grid at the
so called point of the common connection (PCC). PCC is connected to AC
side of VSC through a converter transformer, shunt filter and finally phase
reactor. on the other side i.e. DC side, DC bus, at which a shunt DC
capacitor is connected to the ground, is connected to the VSC from one side
and to DC line from other side [5].

21
22 CHAPTER 3. VSC-MTDC MODELLING

RDC
PCC T
F C D CDC

ZL CDC
ZT
jBF
RDC

Figure 3.1: Steady state VSC station model.

3.3 MTDC Operationg Modes

In this section, the operating modes which can be adopted in AC and

DC sides of each station are explained.

AC side Operating Modes

VSC on its AC side can either control the reactive power or AC voltage
at the point of the common connection (PCC) (see Figure 3.1).

PDC
PCC PCONV

Zeq
QCONV
Figure 3.2: PQ bus connected to VSC converter.

If in an N terminal VSC-MTDC, the reference power of all converters

at the PCC is known, every PCC from AC system’s point of view can be
3.3. MTDC OPERATIONG MODES 23

seen as either a PV or PQ bus depending on the control mode of converter

connected to that bus as shown in Figure 3.2 and Figure 3.3. Therefore all
N converters excluding the slack converter can be separately modeled at
each AC bus.

PDC
PCC PCONV

Zeq
Vset

Figure 3.3: PV bus connected to VSC converter.

DC side Operating Modes

A VSC-based MTDC system at its DC terminals can also operate at

three different control modes. In a VSC-MTDC system with N converter
stations usually one converter controls its DC bus voltage around a constant
value. That is why this mode is known as constant DC voltage and the
associated bus is called DC slack bus. The voltage-power characteristic of
constant voltage mode is shown in Figure 3.4.
The slack DC bus is to ensure that the total amount of active power
going into the DC grid equals the sum of the amount of power going out
plus the losses in the lines according to following equation:

PDC1 + PDC2 + ... + PDCN − PL,DC = 0 (3.1)

where PDCi is the injected DC power in each DC terminal and PL,DC is

losses in the DC lines. In fact, here in a DC grid DC voltage plays the role
of frequency in AC systems. The other N − 1 VSCs operate at constant
power control mode. The voltage-power characteristic of constant power
mode is shown in Figure 3.5.
24 CHAPTER 3. VSC-MTDC MODELLING

VDC

VDCset

Inverter Rectifier

PDCmin PDCmax PDC

Figure 3.4: Voltage-Power characteristic of constant voltage mode.

VDC

Inverter Rectifier

PDCset PDC
Figure 3.5: Voltage-Power characteristic of constant power mode.
3.3. MTDC OPERATIONG MODES 25

VDC

VDCset

Inverter Rectifier

PDCset PDC
Figure 3.6: Voltage-Power characteristic of voltage droop mode.

Another DC control mode which is actually a combination of two pervi-

ous control modes is called voltage droop control mode [58].
As it can be seen from the voltage-power characteristic of this mode in
Figure 3.6 VSC controls the DC voltage around a set value but by balancing
the DC power at the same time. The voltage droop control mode gives the
possibility of controlling MTDC system without any communication between
stations. This control mode is also useful to remove the burden from only
on slack bus in balancing power. In this mode the converter can contribute
to balance total power together with slack bus [58].
 Part III

Power Flow Analysis

27
Chapter 4

AC-DC Power Flow Analysis

4.1 Introduction

This chapter addresses the steady state analysis focusing on the power
flow calculation (PFC) of the AC systems incorporating VSC-based MTDC
systems. Firstly the conventional methods for solving the AC-DC PFC in
the literature are described. Then the proposed approach in this thesis is ex-
plained. Finally the proposed method is implemented using the solver "fsolve"
in MATLAB, and the numerical results of the proposed method are compared
to those of the commercial software SIMPOW [66].

4.2 Conventional AC-DC Power Flow

Methodologies

Traditionally, two major methodologies for power flow calculation of the

hybrid AC-DC systems have been used: sequential and unified methodolo-
gies [67, 68].
In the sequential methodology, AC and DC power flow are solved sequen-
tially [63, 69–73]. Whereas, in the unified method, the AC and DC system
of equations are solved simultaneously in the same iteration [64, 74, 75].

29
30 CHAPTER 4. AC-DC POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

In the sequential method, the routine is to estimate the DC parameters,

solve the AC system equations, and then employ the AC solution to modify
the DC parameters. These steps continues until convergence is reached.
Each time the DC parameters are readjusted, an entire AC solution must
be done.
As presented in [69, 76, 77], the sequential approach may lead to the
convergence problems in certain situations. The problems arise from the
fact that the discontinuity appears in the rectifier interface quantities be-
tween successive AC-DC iterations. Results obtained in [78] also show the
superiority in the convergence characteristic of the unified method over the
sequential one.
Above all, these methods have been mostly proposed for the PFC of those
hybrid AC-DC girds which incorporate CSCs [67,69,74,79]. Therefore, since
there are several major differences between VSCs and CSCs in both opera-
tion principle and structure, they cannot be applied to the AC-DC system
incorporating VSCs. There are only a few papers addressing PFC of AC-DC
systems with VSCs, but they employ the sequential methods, and most of
them do not have generality. For instance in [72] and [80], the converter sta-
tions, the AC filters and the transformer losses were not considered. In [80],
the prespecified values of the converters have been specified at the converter
bus rather than the AC grid connected bus. It should be noted that al-
though such simplifications may lead to an easier computational ways, but
they may not be applied to the real-world power systems. Reference [70]
has proposed a sequential method for VSC-based MTDC systems in which
the filtering equipments were neglected as well. In the mentioned paper to-
tally four iterative loops, one external and three internal, must be separately
solved to reach a final convergence which require rather a huge number of
operations. Such a high number of iterative loops makes the algorithm not
only complicated and time consuming, but also unreliable.
The converter losses are one of the main issues why the sequential method
has been normally applied. In this thesis a general unified AC-DC approach
which can be used for both synchronous and asynchronous hybrid AC-DC
grids is developed. It is shown that the proposed method can be applied to
any converter loss representation and AC-DC grid configuration to robustly
reach a feasible power flow solution.
4.3. MOTIVATION OF UNIFIED AC-DC UNIT 31

AC System

PCONV1 PCONVs+1
PDC1 PDCs+1
QCONV1 QCONVs+1

PCC1
Zeq1 Zeqs+1
VDC1 VDCs+1 PCCs+1
PCONVs DC Network QCONVN
PDCs PDCN
QCONVs PCONVN PCCN

PCCs Zeqs VDCs VDCN ZeqN

Figure 4.1: AC-DC grid with Embedded MTDC system.

4.3 Motivation of Unified AC-DC Unit

As shown in Figure 4.1, an embedded MTDC grid is connected to an AC

grid via N VSCs. As explained a PCC connected to the converter i may be
set either in a PQ or a PV control mode.
In the PQ control mode, the active and reactive powers injected from
the PCC bus into the converter are specified, and they are defined in this
thesis by PCON Vi and QCON Vi , see Figure 4.1.
In the PV control mode the active power and the voltage magnitude at
the PCC bus are specified, and the voltage is defined by Vseti . However, in a
VSC-MTDC system with N converters, a converter s should be considered
as a DC slack converter to regulate its DC voltage around a specified value
to take care of power balance in the MTDC network. This implies that
the active power at the PCC bus connected to a slack converter is not
specified, and this unspecified power is defined by PCON Vs . However, the
converter s may control either the reactive power QCON Vs or the voltage
Vsets at the PCC bus s. Therefore, the prespecified powers can be given
only for the PCCs connected to the non-slack converters. Therefore, if an
32 CHAPTER 4. AC-DC POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

AC bus is connected to a non-slack converter, the converter can be seen by

the AC system as a dummy generator or motor at the corresponding PCC
bus. However, the PCC which is directly connected to the slack converter
poses a problem since active power at this point (PCON Vs ) is not specified.
This problem arises from the fact that PCON Vs is determined based on the
converter losses and the losses in the MTDC network converters which are
unknown before PFC. Thus,

∑
N ∑
N
PCON Vs = − PCON Vi + PL,stationi + PL,DC (4.1)
i=1,i̸=s i=1
where PL,stationi is the total loss of the converter station i, and is defined
by (4.10). To solve this problem the entire AC system together with the
MTDC system are considered as a unit and all AC and DC equations in this
unit are simultaneously solved.
Furthermore, since the total loss of the slack converter station is also
unknown (because it is a function of the passing current through the con-
verter), we may solve this problem with implicit equations. However, in this
thesis we propose an additional state variable to represent this loss.
Therefore, the mismatch equations for this unit consist of three groups:
AC mismatch equations, DC mismatch equations and slack loss mismatch
equation. One of the advantages of this method is that there is no need to
rely on results obtained from other external iterative loops like sequential
methods. This method is much faster and the convergence can be reached
in a fewer number of iterations than other methods.

4.4 Proposed AC-DC Power Flow Methodology

In this section, the proposed AC-DC power flow calculation method uti-
lizing a unified AC-DC Unit (ADU) is presented. The proposed method can
be used in the following cases:

• case a): A large AC grid with an embedded MTDC grid where the
entire hybrid system is considered as a unified ADU (Figure 4.1) .
• case b): Several asynchronous AC systems interconnected via a com-
mon MTDC grid (Figure 4.2) where two different analyses are em-
ployed namely:
4.4. PROPOSED AC-DC POWER FLOW METHODOLOGY 33

PCONV1 PCONVs+1
PDC1 PDCs+1
QCONV1 QCONVs+1

Zeq1 Zeqs+1
PCC1 VDC1 VDCs+1 PCCs+1
PCONV2 PDCs+2 PCONVs+2 AC System 2
PDC2
QCONV2 QCONVs+2

AC System 1 Zeq2 DC Network Zeqs+2 PCCs+2

PCC2 VDC2 VDCs+2

PCONVs PCONVN
PDCs PDCN
QCONVs QCONVN
AC System κ
Zeqs VDCs ZeqN
PCCs VDCN PCCN

Figure 4.2: Asynchronous AC systems interconnected through a common

MTDC network.

a1) The separated analysis where the entire hybrid AC-DC system
is divided into two groups. The first group (named external AC
system) comprises all asynchronous AC systems which are not
directly connected to the slack convertor of the MTDC network
(AC systems 2 to κ), and the second group which is the unified
ADU comprises the AC system 1 directly connected to the slack
converter and the whole MTDC system. In this method, PFC is
firstly performed for the the first group, and its relevant results
so obtained will be used for PFC of the second group.
a2) The integrated analysis where similar to case a) the entire AC-
DC system is considered as a unified ADU.

Both a1) and a2) can be used in the practical analysis of the real-size power
systems. However, it is shown that due to practical issues and computational
costs the separated analysis may be a more acceptable method. Also the
practical application of separated analysis is when there is a plan to connect
a large existing AC system to several smaller AC systems such as wind farms
or other remote renewable energy sources. Through this method there is no
need to modify the existing PFC program for the large existing AC system.
34 CHAPTER 4. AC-DC POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

PCONVi PINJ, DCi

Vi PDCi
PINJ, ACi

ZT F ZL C D

jBF
QINJ, ACi ICONV, ACi ICONVi
IBi
PGDi
QCONVi
QGDi

Figure 4.3: The structure of the system for mismatch equations at PCC
buses and DC buses.

4.5 The Unified AC-DC Unit for PFC of AC

grids with Embedded DC Grid
In this section, the mathematical models for the unified ADU depicted in
Figure 4.1 are presented. In the proposed model, the AC system (which is
directly connected to the slack converter) together with the MTDC system
are considered as a unified AC-DC grid for PFC. For this unified system, a
set of mismatch equations consisting of three groups is defined as follows:

0 = F (X AC , X DC , XS ) = [F AC T , F DC T , FS ]T (4.2)
where F AC is a vector containing AC mismatch equations, F DC is a vec-
tor containing DC mismatch equations and FS is an additional mismatch
equation. Moreover, X AC , X DC and XS are defined as follows:

X AC = [V AC T , θ T ]T
[ ]T
X DC = V DC = VDC1 , · · · , VDCs−1 , VDCs+1 , · · · , VDCN (4.3)
XS = ∆PDCs

where V AC is a vector containing the voltage magnitudes of PQ buses,

and θ is a vector containing the phase angles of the non-slack AC buses in
the AC system. V DC is a vector containing the voltages of the non-slack DC
buses in the MTDC system. Finally, ∆PDCs is introduced as an additional
state variable to represent the total loss of the slack converter station. Given
the initial values X AC0 , X DC0 , XS0 and the given constants (such as the
4.5. THE UNIFIED AC-DC UNIT FOR PFC OF AC GRIDS WITH
EMBEDDED DC GRID 35
specified powers, voltages, and lines data), the power flow calculation at
each iteration is performed as follows:

1. In order to solve all equation together in the system of equations given

in (4.2), all converter and DC variables and constants should be ex-
pressed in a per unit system compatible with the AC per unit system.
For the AC system, define PGD of non-slack buses and QGD of PQ-
buses as the net generations at the corresponding buses. For an AC
system with M buses (including the N PCC buses) with the admit-
tance matrix Y AC = G + jB, the injected active and reactive AC
powers PIN J,ACi and QIN J,ACi into the ith bus (see Figure 4.3) are
obtained by

∑
M
PIN J,ACi = Vi Vm (Gim cos (θim ) + Bim sin (θim ))
m=1
(4.4)
∑M
QIN J,ACi = Vi Vm (Gim sin (θim ) − Bim cos (θim ))
m=1

where, θim = θi − θm .

2. Calculate the DC power PDCi for i = 1 · · · N (i ̸= s). For calculating

PDCi the injected current I¯CON V,ACi has to be defined. Having calcu-
lated (4.4), the injected current can be obtained by
( )∗
PCON Vi + jQCON Vi
I¯CON V,ACi = (4.5)
Vi ejθi
where PCON Vi and QCON Vi are the injected powers into the converter
i from the corresponding PCC bus. V̄i = Vi ejθi is the voltage at the
PCC bus. If the PCC bus is connected to a converter with PQ control
mode PCON Vi and QCON Vi are known. If the PCC bus is connected
to a converter with PV control mode, then QCON Vi is obtained by

QCON Vi = QGDi − QIN J,ACi (4.6)

It should be noted that once the converter hits its reactive power limit,
the type of PCC is changed from a PV bus to a PQ bus. Next the DC
power PDCi shown in Figure 4.3 is obtained by
36 CHAPTER 4. AC-DC POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

V̄Fi = − Z̄T × I¯CON V,ACi + Vi ejθi

I¯CON Vi = I¯CON V,ACi − jBF × V̄Fi (4.7)
PDCi = PCON Vi − PL,stationi

where, PL,stationi is the total loss of the converter station i which is

divided into two parts. The first part is the losses related to the
transformer and the phase reactor which is expressed by

PL,Ri = RT × |I¯CON V,ACi |2 + RL × |I¯CON Vi |2 (4.8)

where, RT = Re(Z̄T ) and RL = Re(Z̄L ).
The second part of the station losses is the converter block loss which
is only a function of I¯CON Vi defined by (4.7). Therefore, any converter
loss model which is a function of the passing current (i.e. I¯CON Vi ) can
be adopted in the algorithm. One of those models is the generalized
converter station loss model [81] which is a function of the magnitude
of I¯CON Vi , and it is given by

PL,Ci = Ra + Rb × |I¯CON Vi | + Rc × |I¯CON Vi |2 (4.9)

where Ra , indicates no-load converter losses. Rb and Rc , are the factors
representative for linear and quadratic dependency of converter losses
on the converter current, respectively. Thus, the total losses in each
station are:

PL,stationi = PL,Ri + PL,Ci (4.10)

In this thesis in order to have almost the same model as in SIMPOW
for case a), PL,stationi is defined by

PL,stationi = β × PCON Vi (4.11)

where β is a constant, and it is set to β = 0.0165 (i.e. 1.65%) of the
power ratings of the converters. For case b), PL,stationi given in (4.10)
is used.
4.5. THE UNIFIED AC-DC UNIT FOR PFC OF AC GRIDS WITH
EMBEDDED DC GRID 37
3. With Y DC = GDC which is the admittance matrix of the MTDC sys-
tem, and VDCs as the specified voltage at the DC slack bus, calculate
the injected DC power PIN J,DCi of the non-slack DC buses into the
MTDC network (see Figure 4.3) as follows:

∑
N
PIN J,DCi = VDCi VDCn GDCin (i ̸= s) (4.12)
n=1

4. Calculate the DC injected current IDCs into the DC slack bus by

∑
N
IDCs = VDCn GDCsn (4.13)
n=1

5. Calculate the PCON Vs at the PCC bus connected to the slack converter
by

PCON Vs = ∆PDCs + VDCs × IDCs (4.14)

where, ∆PDCs = XS is the additional state variable.
6. Now, solve the following mismatch equations:
• The AC system of equations:

0 = PGDi − PIN J,ACi − PCON Vi

(4.15)
0 = QGDi − QIN J,ACi − QCON Vi
where PCON Vi and QCON Vi of the non-PCC buses are set to zero.
Moreover, QCON Vi of the PCC bus whose converter is in the PV
control mode is set to zero.
• The DC system of equations for the non-slack DC buses:

0 = PIN J,DCi − PDCi (4.16)

• The total loss of the slack converter station:

0 = ∆PDCs − PL,stations (4.17)

where, PL,stations is calculated in a similar manner as shown in
equation (4.11).
38 CHAPTER 4. AC-DC POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

State variables Known variables

PGD, QGD, PCONV, QCONV,

XAC0, XDC0, XS0 VACset, YAC, YDC, UDCs, θslack,
ZL, ZT, BF

a) Calculate PINJ,AC and QINJ,AC

by (5)

Change the
Does the
type of PV bus
converter hit
connected to
the limits?
VSC to PQ YES

NO

b) Calculate DC Power PDCi

for i=1,…,s-1,s+1,…, N
by (8)

XAC0= XAC c) Calculate PINJ,DC i≠s

XDC0= XDC by (13)
XS0 =XS

d) Calculate IDCs
by (14)

Update e) Calculate PCONVs

XAC, XDC, XS by (15)

f) Solve the mismatch equations

(16), (17) and (18)

NO FAC (XAC)
FDC (XDC) ≤ ɛ
FS (XS)

YES

OUTPUT

Figure 4.4: The flow chart of the PFC for the unified ADU.

Figure 4.4 shows the flow chart of PFC for unified ADU using the solver
"fsolve" in MATLAB. Termination tolerance on F and X is set to ϵ = 1e − 6,
and the maximum number of iterations is set to 10. Moreover, after each
PFC the argument "exitflag" is checked to be sure that "fsolve" converged
to a root.
4.6. THE UNIFIED AC-DC UNIT FOR PFC OF AC-DC GRID WITH
ASYNCHRONOUS AC SYSTEMS 39
PCONV1
QCONV1 PDC1
PCONVs+1
PDCs+1

VDC1 QCONVs+1
PCC1
PCCs+1
PCONV2
AC Grid 2
QCONV2 PCONVs+2
PDCs+2
QCONVs+2
AC Grid 1 DC Grid
PCC2 PCCs+2

PCONVs
PDCs
QCONVs PCONVN
PDCN
QCONVN AC Grid κ

PCCs VDCs PCCN

Unified AC-DC unit External AC system

Figure 4.5: AC-DC grid divided into two groups.

4.6 The Unified AC-DC Unit for PFC of AC-DC

Grid with Asynchronous AC Systems
Separated Analysis
In this analysis the entire hybrid AC-DC system shown in Figure 4.2 is
divided into two separated groups (see Figure 4.5): g1) External AC system
consisting of the asynchronous AC systems 2 to κ. g2) ADU consisting
of the AC system 1 and the MTDC system. Since the active power and
reactive power (or the voltage) at each PCC bus in g1) are specified,
the power flow calculation of the external AC system can be independently
performed. Thus, the power flow calculation of the entire hybrid AC-DC
system is conducted in two steps:

s1) In this step, the conventional PFC is conducted in the external AC

system to obtain [PDCs+1 · · · PDCN ].

s2) In this step, the obtained [PDCs+1 · · · PDCN ] are used for PFC of the
unified ADU (i.e. g2)).
40 CHAPTER 4. AC-DC POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

The External AC System

The only relation between the external AC system and the MTDC network
is the injected current I¯CON V,ACi from the corresponding PCC bus into the
converter i. Having performed a successful load flow calculation for these
AC systems, the DC power PDCi can be obtained in a similar way as shown
in (4.7). The obtained DC powers (i.e. [PDCs+1 · · · PDCN ]) can then be
considered as the injected/absorbed DC powers at the corresponding DC
buses of the unified ADU.

The Unified AC-DC Unit

In this stage, first the ADU is made up of the AC system 1 and the MTDC
system. Here, the AC state variables X AC are defined only based on the
AC system 1. Then all steps of the flow chart shown in Figure 4.4, with
only one modification in the block b) in which i = 1 · · · (s − 1), (s + 1), · · · N is
replaced by i = 1 · · · (s − 1), are performed. The flow chart of the separated
analysis for case b) is shown in Figure 4.6.

Integrated Analysis
In this analysis, all asynchronous AC systems (i.e. the AC systems 1 to κ)
are included in the AC part of the unified ADU, and all mismatch equations
are simultaneously solved in a similar manner as in case a).

4.7 Case Study

Recently, there have been some plans (or discussions) to apply MTDC sys-
tems to the Nordic power system [29]. Therefore, simulations in both cases
are performed on the well meshed AC grid NORDIC 32A-CIGRE test sys-
tem. In both cases, the generator at bus 4041 (which is a synchronous
condenser) has been disconnected. As shown in Figure 4.7 for testing case
a), a three terminal MTDC with delta configuration is embedded in the
nordic system. The converter VSC1 connected to bus 4032 controls the DC
voltage at the DC bus D1 in the MTDC grid. The other two converters,
i.e. VSC2 and VSC3, are connected to the AC buses 4044 and 4061, respec-
tively. These two converters control the absorbed/injected active power at
their PCC buses (i.e. the AC buses 4044 and 4061). The operation modes
4.7. CASE STUDY 41

Known variables

State PGD, QGD, PCONV, QCONV,

XAC0
variables VACset, YAC, slack, ZL, ZT, BF

b) Calculate PDCi
Run PFC of the
for i=s+1,…, N
External AC system
by (8)

State variables Known variables

PGD, QGD, PCONV, QCONV,
XAC0, XDC0, XS0 VACset, YAC, YDC, UDCs, slack,
ZL, ZT, BF

XAC0= XAC Run PFC of the Unified ADU

XDC0= XDC (including AC system connected to
XS0 =XS the slack converter and DC system)

Update FAC (XAC)

XAC, XDC, XS
NO
FDC (XDC) !
FS (XS)

YES

OUTPUT

Figure 4.6: The flow chart of the separated method.

and the PCC type of each converter station used in both cases are given in
table 4.1. For case b), the same parameters for the converters are used
except for the converter loss model which is based on the data from [81]. In
case b) as shown in Figure 4.8, the Nordic system is asynchronously con-
nected to a small AC grid (IEEE 9 bus system) via a four terminal MTDC
grid.
The converter VSC1 and VSC2 which control the active power are con-
nected to the buses 4041 and 4044, respectively. The MTDC system is
connected to the other AC system via the converters VSC3 (P control con-
verter) and VSC4 (slack converter). According to the ABB High Voltage
Cable (HVC) product range, the DC voltage levels are 80kV , 150kV and
42 CHAPTER 4. AC-DC POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

4071 4011
1013
1011
External

4072 1014
1012

4012
North
1021 1022 4021

4022
2032 4032

2031

Zeq
4031

VSC1
4041

Central

4042

4046
VSC3
Zeq

4061 VSC2
4043
Zeq

4044

4047
South West

1044 4051
1042

1043 320 kV DC
4045 400 kV AC
4062 220 kV AC
1041 130 kV AC
1045
4063
Nordic 32A
Cigré System

Figure 4.7: The test system in case a)

4.7. CASE STUDY 43

44 50 42
VSC3 VSC1 4041
47 45 Zeq
Zeq

49 Nordic 32A
VSC4 VSC2 Cigré System
46 Zeq
Zeq

43 48 4044

Unified AC-DC unit External AC system

Figure 4.8: The test system in case b).

320kV [82]. In this thesis, the M9 module data with the voltage level of
320kV , [82], is chosen in both cases. The data for the other elements of
this module can be found in [82]. In case a), the first converter (VSC1)
controls the DC voltage at 320 kV, and for the other converters the active
powers are set to PCON V 2 = −100 MW and PCON V 3 = −88 MW based on
the power direction shown in Figure 4.3. In case b), the converter VSC4
operates in DC voltage control mode with the specified DC voltage 320 kV,
and for the other converters the active powers are set to PCON V 1 = −100
MW, PCON V 2 = −90 MW and PCON V 3 = 70 MW.

Table 4.1: Operation Modes of Converters and PCC Type

Case a) Case b)
PCC Type Conv. PCC Type Conv.

4032 PV VSC1 (Slack) 4041 PQ VSC1

4044 PV VSC2 4044 PQ VSC2

4061 PV VSC3 45 PV VSC3

- - - 46 PV VSC4 (Slack)
44 CHAPTER 4. AC-DC POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

Table 4.2: Converter Station Parameters

Parameters Case a) Case b)
XL (p.u.) 0.15 0.16211
XT (p.u.) 0.1 0.1
RT (p.u.) 0 0.0011
BF (p.u.) 0.375 0.375
Ra (MW) 0 1.68
Rb (KV) 0 1.8
Rc ( Ω ) 0 2.98
β ( p.u. ) 0.00165 0
RDC (Ω/km) 0.0121 0.0121

4.8 Simulation Results

In order to evaluate the applicability of the proposed method, the al-

gorithm has been simulated using "fsolve" function in MATLAB. To show
the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method, for case a) the sim-
ulations have also been performed in SIMPOW. To make almost the same
system as in SIMPOW, the converter loss model given in (4.11) has been
considered in case a). The VSC parameters used in both cases are shown
in table 4.2. For case a) the data is from the SIMPOW model, and for
case b) the data given in [82] has been used. Moreover, in case b) the loss
model defined in (4.10) has been used. For case a), some obtained results
are given in table 4.3 from which it may be concluded that there are only
small differences between the results from MATLAB and SIMPOW. The
small differences may arise from that the VSCs in SIMPOW (compared to
our model) have a more detailed model with some constraints. As shown in
the table 4.3, the voltage magnitudes of the PCC buses in SIMPOW have
not been kept at the prespecified values although all VSCs have been on
voltage control mode. Having used the obtained voltage magnitudes at the
PCC buses in SIMPOW as Vset in our model in MATLAB, the results shown
in table 4.4 were obtained. Obviously, the obtained results are identical.
4.8. SIMULATION RESULTS 45

Table 4.3: Case a): Some Results from MATLAB (M) and SIMPOW (S)

AC-DC V θ PIN J,AC−DC Results

Bus (p.u.) (deg.) (p.u.) from

(Vset = 1)
4032(PCC) 1.0000 -36.3874 -1.9926 M
1.0060 -36.4010 -1.9926 S
4041 1.0119 -45.1813 0 M
1.0098 -45.1412 0 S
(Vset = 1)
4044(PCC) 1.0000 -55.3374 1.1000 M
0.9958 -55.2874 1.1000 S
4046 0.9939 -55.5238 0 M
0.9927 -55.4812 0 S
(Vset = 1)
4061(PCC) 1.000 -47.1557 0.8800 M
0.9965 -47.1165 0.8800 S
2031 1.0532 -27.8309 0 M
1.0532 -27.8232 0 S
1041 0.9715 -73.0012 0 M
0.9705 -73.0455 0 S
1045 0.9988 -62.7886 0 M
0.9962 -62.7923 0 S
1011 1.1225 1.0694 0 M
1.1225 1.06948 0 S

(UDCs = 1.001)
D1(Slack) 1.0010 1.9893 M
1.0010 1.9893 S
D2 0.9984 -1.1018 M
0.9984 -1.1018 S
D3 0.9982 -0.8814 M
0.9982 -0.8814 S
46 CHAPTER 4. AC-DC POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

Table 4.4: Case a): Vset based on SIMPOW Results

AC Voltage Phase Pinjected Results

Bus (p.u.) angle(deg.) (p.u.) from

(Vset = 1.0060)
4032(PCC) 1.0060 -36.4010 -1.9926 M
1.0060 -36.4010 -1.9926 S
(Vset = 0.9958)
4044(PCC) 0.9958 -55.2875 1.1000 M
0.9958 -55.2874 1.1000 S
(Vset = 0.9965)
4061(PCC) 0.9965 -47.1165 0.8800 M
0.9965 -47.1165 0.8800 S

For case b) which has only been simulated in MATLAB, we found

identical results using the separated and integrated methods, respectively.
Some of the obtained results are given in table 4.5. Table 4.6 and 4.7 (Part I)
show a comparison between the separated and integrated methods regarding
the number of iterations and the computational time.
As shown in the table, there are relatively large differences between two
analyses. As the number of buses and system gets larger, the difference
in the computational time even gets larger. In order to show that, the
small AC system shown in Figure 4.8 has been replaced by another Nordic
test system, and the simulation results are given in table 4.6 and 4.7 (Part
II). As was expected computational time related to separated analysis is
much less than the integrated analysis. As the network becomes larger
and more complicated the difference in computational time becomes higher
accordingly.
4.8. SIMULATION RESULTS 47

Table 4.5: Case b): Some Obtained Results from MATLAB

AC-DC V θ PIN J,AC−DC PL,station

Bus (p.u.) (deg.) (p.u.) (p.u.)

4032 1.0143 -32.5035 0 -

4044(PCC) 0.9933 -51.9042 0.9000 -
4061 0.9846 -45.1939 0 -
4041(PCC) 1.0087 -41.5360 1.0000 -
4011 1.0100 0 4.3178 -
4022 1.0200 -59.1892 6.0000 -
1022 1.0700 -9.0058 2.0000 -
2031 1.0532 -24.4915 0 -
2032 1.1000 -12.4527 7.5000 -
45(PCC) 1.0000 -9.0599 -0.7000 -
46(PCC) 1.0000 -17.2151 -1.3959 -
49 1.0143 -10.0938 0 -
50 1.0284 -7.8232 0 -

D1 0.9987 -1.0478 0.0478

D2 0.9989 -0.9457 0.0457
D3 0.9999 0.6431 0.0431
D4(Slack) 1.0000 1.3536 0.0423
48 CHAPTER 4. AC-DC POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

Table 4.6: Case b): Comparison Between the Separated and Integrated
Analyses in Terms of Numbers of Iterations and Evaluated Functions.

Part I
Algorithm No. of Iterations No. of Evaluated Functions
Ex. AC ADU Total Ex. AC ADU Total

Separated 6 4 10 6 × 61 4 × 17 434
Analysis
Integrated - 6 6 - 6 × 79 474
Analysis

Part II

Separated 6 6 12 6 × 61 6 × 65 756
Analysis
Integrated - 7 7 - 7 × 125 875
Analysis
4.8. SIMULATION RESULTS 49

Table 4.7: Case b): Comparison Between the Separated and Integrated
Analyses in Terms of Computational Time.

Part I
Algorithm Elapsed Time (ms)
Ex. AC Loss Calculation ADU Total

Separated 87.5 0.1 30.9 118.5

Analysis
Integrated - - 201 201
Analysis

Part II

Separated 87.5 0.1 136.36 223.96

Analysis
Integrated - - 445.7 445.7
Analysis
 Part IV

Optimal Power Flow

Analysis

51
Chapter 5

AC-DC Optimal Power Flow

Analysis

5.1 Introduction

In this chapter first a review on the earlier research dealt with AC-DC
OPF is carried out. Then the proposed AC-DC OPF formulation which is
obtained based on line flow equations is explained. After obtaining a set
of linear and non-linear equality and inequality constraints, the problem is
transformed to Second Order Cone Programming (SOCP) format which is
a convex optimization. Finally, to show the effectiveness of the proposed
Conic AC-DC OPF (CAD-OPF), two different case studies IEEE 14 and
30 bus test systems are used.

5.2 Earlier Research on AC-DC OPF

One of the key aspects of the VSC-based AC-DC systems which has not
been fairly addressed in the literature is their impact on improving the eco-
nomic efficiency of the electricity industry. In order to quantify the economic
efficiency of such systems, they need to be properly modeled in the optimal
power flow (OPF) formulation. Most OPF formulations considering AC-DC

53
54 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

systems proposed in the literature have accounted for CSC-HVDC systems.

For example, in references [83, 84], two Sequential Quadratic Programming
(SQP) and Sequential Gradient-Restoration Algorithm (SGRA) methods
have been employed for solving the AC-DC OPF of AC systems with mul-
titerminal DC systems built from CSCs, respectively. Reference [85] has
proposed a combined heuristic and Interior Point Method (IPM) for solving
the Optimal Reactive Power Flow (ORPF) problem in the AC-DC systems
incorporating CSC converters. In [86] a model for Security-Constrained Unit
Commitment (SCUC) with CSC based AC-DC systems using Benders de-
composition has been proposed. In this reference, the problem is divided into
two master and subproblem in which Mixed Integer Programming (MIP)
and Newton Raphson (NR) methods are employed. However, since there
are several major differences between VSCs and CSCs in both operation
principle and structure, these proposed models cannot be applied to the AC-
DC system incorporating VSCs. Most papers investigating OPF modeling
considering VSC converters have focused on the VSC-based FACTS con-
trollers embedded in the AC systems [87–89]. In these studies, well known
SQP and NR methods and Predictor-Corrector Primal-Dual Interior Point
Linear Programming (PCPDIPLP) have been employed to solve the opti-
mization problems. There is also some literature that has studied the OPF
models incorporating two terminal VSC HVDC systems. Reference [90] has
modeled the back to back VSC HVDC systems in the OPF formulation in
which the nonlinear set of AC-DC load flow equations are solved through
the NR method. In this study, there is no DC grid representation and the
DC links has been only accounted for by introducing an equation expressing
that the total amount of active power injected into the DC link is equal
to DC line losses. DC line losses have been also defined based on the DC
slack bus voltage assuming that its value (i.e. VDC,salck ) is a prespecified
constant value before running the OPF. Also the operating modes (i.e. PV
or PQ modes) for each PCC bus have been considered as constraints in the
OPF formulation. Recently, reference [91] has reported a SCUC considering
DC grids with VSC links in which Benders decomposition method has been
used. The full AC-DC equations are linearized in each iteration of algorithm
to be solved through Linear Programming (LP) methods.
In summary, given the nonconvex nature of OPF problem, in all afore-
mentioned techniques it has been tried to develop a convex optimization
problem which in many cases it leads to the loss of accuracy in results or
complexity of algorithms.
5.3. PROPOSED AC-DC OPF FORMULATION 55

5.3 Proposed AC-DC OPF Formulation

This section describes the proposed Conic AC-DC OPF (CAD-OPF)

formulation obtained based on the new line flow variables. The derived
formulation is then recast as Second Order Cone Programming (SOCP)
format which is a convex optimization problem. Firstly, a set of AC-DC
constraints are developed through the line flow based (LFB) equations. In
this new formulation, independent state variables include square of bus volt-
age magnitudes, active and reactive line power flows and active and reactive
line power losses. These variables reflect more practical knowledge about
the power system than conventional power flow variables [92]. The LFB
equations have been used for different studies in the power system analy-
sis. Reference [92] has formulated the power flow equations for load flow
calculation of radial AC networks with embedded FACTS devises. In refer-
ence [93] a LFB based formulation has been proposed for finding the optimal
locations of TCSC using Mixed Integer Programming (MIP). In this study,
some of the main equality constraints are replaced by inequality constraints
in order for the problem to be solved through the Quadratic Mixed-Integer
Programming (QMIP). Moreover, reference [93] has ignored the equation
representing the transmission line losses in order to remove the nonlinearity
from the set of equations. The line power losses are the main origin of non-
linearity in power flow equations. Some literature has modeled these losses
as a quadratic function of difference phase angle of two connected buses and
then used a linearized approximation of the power losses [94, 95].
However, in this thesis, we consider all nonlinear equations associated
with active and reactive losses in all AC and DC lines as a functions of line
flow variables. Instead of using a linearized approximation of losses we trans-
form them to the conic constraints. Also, AC and DC line capacity/thermal
limitations and generator/VSC capacity limitations are all converted to the
conic constraints.
After formulating the problem through the line flow variables, the prob-
lem is recast as a SOCP which is a convex problem and can be efficiently
solved [96, 97].
In the CAD-OPF, unlike reference [90] in which the control modes are
set before running the OPF and considered in the OPF formulation as con-
straint, the control modes (i.e. being a Point of Common Connection (PCC)
as a PQ bus or PV bus and being a DC bus as DC slack bus) can be set ei-
56 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

Ploss, AC QLoss Vrejθr

Vsejθs Pr, AC

R jX Qr
jB jB

Figure 5.1: Equivalent circuit of AC line .

ther before running the OPF or after running the OPF. Therefore, based on
the OPF solution, one can decide which control mode for each VSC station
can lead to a more cost efficient setting.
In order to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed CAD-OPF the numer-
ical results which are obtained in GAMS platform using MOSEK solver [98]
are compared to results obtained in MATPOWER [99]. Two IEEE 14 and
30 bus test systems are used as the case studies.

5.4 AC-DC Line Flow Based Equations

In this section, the line flow equations [92] which are obtained based on
the graph theory are developed to fully cover all AC and DC networks and
converters.

AC Line Flow Equations

Figure 5.1 shows the equivalent circuit of an AC line. Let consider a con-
ventional direction for each line starting from sending bus and ending to
receiving bus (See Figure 5.1). Accordingly, the active and reactive power
balance equations for each AC node other than PCCs can be written as
follows (i and l are indices indicating buses and lines, respectively):

nlAC nlAC
∑ ∑
PGi − PDi = MP Q (i, l)Pr,ACl + ML (i, l)Ploss,ACl (5.1)
l=1 l=1
5.4. AC-DC LINE FLOW BASED EQUATIONS 57

nlAC nlAC
∑ ∑
QGi − QDi = MP Q (i, l)Qrl + ML (i, l)Qlossl − Bi,i Vi2 (5.2)
l=1 l=1

where nlAC is the number of AC lines and elements of MP Q and ML , inci-

dence matrices, are specified as follows:



−1 if bus i is the receiving end of line l
MP Q (i, l) = 1 if bus i is the sending end of line l (5.3)

 0 if bus i is not connected to line l

{
1 if bus i is the sending end of line l
ML (i, l) = (5.4)
0 otherwise

Ploss,ACl and Qlossl are active and reactive power losses of each AC line as
follows:

2
Pr,AC + Q2rl
l
Ploss,ACl = Rl,l (5.5)
Vr2l

2
Pr,AC + Q2rl
l
Qlossl = Xl,l (5.6)
Vr2l

According to Figure 5.1, one can obtain following expression associated

with voltage drop across each AC line:

Pr,ACl − jQrl
Vsl ejθsl = Vrl ejθrl + (Rl,l + jXl,l ) (5.7)
Vrl e−jθrl

If both sides of (5.7) are multiplied by Vr e−jθr

Vsl Vrl ejθsrl = Vr2l + (Pr,ACl − jQrl )(Rl,l + jXl,l ) (5.8)

58 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

Obtaining the magnitude of both sides in (5.8) and then dividing them by
Vr2

Vs2l − Vr2l = 2Rl,l Pr,ACl + 2Xl,l Qrl + Rl,l Ploss,ACl + Xl,l Qloss,ACl (5.9)

Therefore (5.9) can be written for each AC line.

In order not to ignore the effect of phase angle in (5.8), we obtain the
imaginary parts of both sides in (5.8) and following equation by assuming
sinθsr ≈ θsr and Vs Vr ≈ 1

θsrl = Xl,l Pr,ACl − Rl,l Qrl (5.10)

(5.10) can be applied for each AC line. On the other hand, according to
graph theory the phase angle difference around each independent loop in a
graph is zero. Therefore another set of equation can be obtained as follows

0 = CXPr,AC − CRQr,AC (5.11)

nc and nl are the number of independent loops and the number of branches
in a graph, respectively . C is a matrix with the size of nc ×nl whose element
are obtained as follows.



 1 line l is in loop c with the same direction
C(c, l) = −1 line l is in loop c with the opposite direction (5.12)

 0 line l is not in loop c

Converters Equations

As illustrated in Figure 5.2, converters can be modeled as a dummy

generator or motor which either can absorb or inject active/reactive power to
the AC network. Therefore, the active and reactive power balance equations
at each PCC can be obtained as follows
5.4. AC-DC LINE FLOW BASED EQUATIONS 59

PCC1 PCONV1 = PDC1 + Plossc1 PDC1

PCONV1
+
QCONV1 -
PCONV2 = PDC2 + Plossc2 PDC2
PCC2
PCONV2
+
AC - DC
Network QCONV2 Network

PCONVN = PDCN + PlosscN PDCN

PCCN
PCONVN
+
QCONVN -

Figure 5.2: AC-DC system modeling for OPF.

nlAC nlAC
∑ ∑
PGi − PDi + PCON Vi = MP Q (i, l)Pr,ACl + ML (i, l)Ploss,ACl (5.13)
l=1 l=1

nlAC nlAC
∑ ∑
QGi − QDi + QCON Vb = MP Q (i, l)Qrl + ML (i, l)Qlossl − Bi,i Vi2
l=1 l=1
(5.14)

where

PDCi = PCON Vi + Plossci (5.15)

If the converter losses are assumed to be proportional to passing active power

through the converter (i.e. Plossci = βPCON Vi ), injected DC power at each
DC bus can be obtained as follows

PDCi = (1 + β)PCON Vi (5.16)

60 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

PDC2
DC grid

VDC2

RDC2i
RDC12 VDCi

PDC1 RDC1i PDCi

VDCN
VDC1 PDCN
RDC1N

Figure 5.3: DC grid.

DC Grid Equations

Consider the DC grid shown in Figure 5.3 in which each DC bus is

connected to the AC grid through one converter. To derive the line flow
equations for the DC grid, consider the equivalent circuit of DC lines in
Figure 5.4. DC lines are numbered from 1 to nl,DC and specified by an
optional direction from sending bus to receiving bus (See Figure 5.4). Doing
so, active power balance equation at each DC bus nb,DC = i is obtained
based on the line flow variables shown in Figure 5.4 as follows

nlDC nlDC
∑ ∑
PDCi = − MPDC (i, l)Pr,DCl − MLDC (i, l)Ploss,DCl (5.17)
l=1 l=1

where

2
Pr,DC l
Ploss,DCl = 2 RDCl,l (5.18)
Vr,DC l
5.4. AC-DC LINE FLOW BASED EQUATIONS 61

Ploss, DC
Vs, DC Pr, DC Vr, DC

RDC

Figure 5.4: Equivalent circuit of DC line .

If the voltage drop equation for DC line nlDC = l is obtained, it will be

as follows

Pr,DCl
Vs,DCl = Vr,DCl + RDCl,l (5.19)
Vr,DCl

If both side of (5.19) are multiplied by Vr,DCl

2
Vs,DCl Vr,DCl = Vr,DC l
+ Pr,DCl RDCl,l (5.20)

Obtaining the square of (5.20)

2
Vs,DC V2
l r,DCl
4
= Vr,DC l
2
+ Pr,DC l
2
RDC l,l
2
+ 2Vr,DC P
l r,DCl
RDCl,l (5.21)

2
Dividing (5.21) by Vr,DC l

2
Pr,DC
2 2 l 2
Vs,DC l
= Vr,DC l
+ 2 RDC l,l
+ 2Pr,DCl RDCl,l (5.22)
Vr,DC l

According to (5.18), (5.22) can be rewritten as

2
Vs,DC l
− Vr,DC
2
l
= 2Pr,DCl RDCl + Ploss,DCl RDCl,l (5.23)
62 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

5.5 Second Order Cone Programming

Second Order Cone Programming (SOCP) or conic optimization problem

is a nonlinear convex problem which can be introduced as a general form of
linear programming accompanied by nonlinear constraints which are in the
form of convex cones. Many kinds of problems such as LP, Quadratically
Constrained (QP) problems can be formulated as SOCPs and be efficiently
solved through polynomial time IPMs [96, 97]. This optimization problem
has the following form:

Min FT X
Subject to AX = b
(5.24)
X≤X≤X
X∈κ
where X ∈ Rn is the optimization variable vector. If the variables are di-
vided into X = [Xset1 T , ..., Xsetp T ]T in such a way that each element of X
only belongs to one set of Xsetm , then the additional condition i.e. X ∈ κ
is fulfilled if

κ = {κ1 , ..., κp } are convex cones and

{X ∈ Rn : Xsetm ∈ κm , m = 1, ..., p} (5.25)

Assuming Xsetm = [x1 , ..., xnsetm ]T , each cone κm in (5.25) can have two
following forms:

Second Order Cone

The standard form of second order cone is as follows

 v 
 unsetm 
u ∑
κSOC = X ∈ Rnsetm : x1 ≥ t x2k (5.26)
 
k=2
5.6. AC-DC OPF FORMULATION IN SOCP FORMAT 63

Rotated Quadratic Cone

This kind of cone is obtained by rotating a κSOC with an angle of 45

degrees in x1 − x2 plane which has the following form

{ nsetm }
∑
κRQC = X ∈ R nsetm
: 2x1 x2 ≥ x2k , x1 , x 2 ≥ 0 (5.27)
k=3

Therefore if the constraints involve a set of linearly independent functions

and some nonlinear inequalities which can be transformed to one of the forms
of κSOC and κRQC , the problem can be efficiently solved using IPMs.

5.6 AC-DC OPF Formulation in SOCP Format

We assume FT to be the vector of short-run marginal cost for all exiting
generating units in the system. Let us define X vector as (5.28):
T
X = [WAC T , WDC T , Pr,AC T , Qr T , P̃loss,AC ,
T
P̃loss,DC , PG T , QG T , PCON V T , QCON V T , (5.28)
x̂G , x̃G , x̂C , x̃C ]T
where WAC is a vector of square of AC bus voltages and WDC is a vector
of square of DC bus voltages. From derived equations (5.1), (5.12), (5.5),
(5.6), (5.9), (5.10), (5.11), (5.13), (5.14), (5.15), (5.16), (5.17), (5.18) and
(5.21), the constraints in the CAD-OPF problem are as follows
Linear constraints:

0 = PG − PD + PCON V − MP Q Pr,AC − ML Ploss,AC (5.29)

0 = QG − QD + QCON V − MP Q Qr − ML Qloss − BWAC (5.30)

0 = 2RPr,AC + 2XQr + 2RPloss,AC + 2XQloss − MWAC WAC (5.31)

64 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

0 = θsr − XPr,AC + RQr (5.32)

0 = CXPr,AC − CRQr,AC (5.33)

0 = −XPloss,AC − RQloss (5.34)

0 = PDC − (1 + β)PCON V (5.35)

0 = PDC + MP DC Pr,DC + MLDC Ploss,DC (5.36)

0 = 2RDC Pr,DC + RDC Ploss,DC − MWDC WDC (5.37)

Non-Linear constraints:
for each AC line l = 1, ..., nlAC :

2
Ploss,ACl WrACl = (Pr,ACl
+ Q2rl )Rl,l (5.38)

for each DC line l = 1, ..., nlDC

2
Ploss,DCl WrDCl = Pr,DC l
RDCl,l (5.39)

where WrDCl and WrACl are square of DC and AC voltages at the receiving
end of AC and DC line lth , MWDC = MPDC T and MWAC = MPAC T . Since
WrDCl ≥ 0, Ploss,DCl ≥ 0 and WrACl ≥ 0, Ploss,ACl ≥ 0, if with a good approxi-
mation, the equality constraints (5.38) and (5.39) are replaced with inequal-
ity constraints, (WrDCl , Ploss,DCl , Pr,DCl ) and (WrACl , Ploss,ACl , Pr,ACl , Qrl )
5.6. AC-DC OPF FORMULATION IN SOCP FORMAT 65

form an appropriate set for each AC and DC line to recast as a convex

quadratic cone format and therefore introduced as rotated quadratic cones
in (5.27). For an arbitrary positive and sufficient small constant ϵ ≥ 0, one
can obtain

Rl,l
Ploss,ACl WrACl ≥ (Pr,AC
2
+ Q2rl ) (5.40)
l
(1 + ϵ)

RDCl,l
Ploss,DCl WrDCl ≥ Pr,DC
2
(5.41)
l
(1 + ϵ)

(5.40) and (5.41) can be rewritten as follows

2P̃loss,ACl WrACl ≥ Pr,AC

2
l
+ Q2rl (5.42)

2P̃loss,DCl WrDCl ≥ Pr,DC

2
l
(5.43)

2Rl,l
Ploss,ACl = P̃loss,ACl (5.44)
(1 + ϵ)

2RDCl,l
Ploss,DCl = P̃loss,DCl (5.45)
(1 + ϵ)

Therefore (5.38) and (5.39) are replaced with (5.42) and (5.43). Doing
so, the constraints involve linearly independent functions and nonlinear in-
equality with form of κRQC and then the problem can be efficiently solved
using IPMs. The other inequality constraints can be defined as follows:
Linear inequalities:
66 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

for i = 1, ..., nbAC

2
V 2ACi ≤ WACb ≤ V ACi
P Gi ≤ P Gi ≤ P Gi
QG ≤ QGi ≤ QGi
i

for l = 1, ..., nlAC

θsrl ≤ θsrl ≤ θsrl
P r,ACl ≤ Pr,ACl ≤ P r,ACl
Qr,AC ≤ Qrl ≤ Qrl (5.46)
l

for i = 1, ..., nbP CC

P CON Vi ≤ PCON Vi ≤ P CON Vi
QCON V ≤ QCON Vi ≤ QCON Vi
i

for i = 1, ..., nbDC

2
V 2DCi ≤ WDCi ≤ V DCi
for l = 1, ..., nlDC
P r,DCl ≤ Pr,DCl ≤ P r,DCl

Non-Linear inequalities:
These non-linear inequality constraints associated with capacity limit on
generators and converters can be also represented in the form of κRQC in
(5.27) as follows:

2x̂Gi x̃Gi ≥ PG2 i + Q2Gi (5.47)

2x̂Ci x̃Ci ≥ PCON

2 2
Vi + QCON Vi (5.48)

2
where x̂Gi = SM 2
ax,Gi , x̂Ci = SM ax,Ci , x̃Gi = x̃Ci = 1/2. The proposed CAD-
OPF is coded in GAMS platform and is solved through its built MOSEK
package [98]. This package is particularly efficient in solving SOCP opti-
mization problems via interior-point optimizer. The output numerical re-
sults obtained through MOSEK solver are compared to those obtained in
MATPOWER [99].
5.7. CASE STUDY AND SIMULATION RESULTS 67

29 28
27

26 25

30
24
23
VSC6
D6
18 19
15

20
VSC5
D5
14 16 17 21

12 10
22
8

13 11 9
D4
VSC4 4
3 6

1
VSC2
D2

D1 D3
VSC3
VSC1

5
2

Figure 5.5: Test system with embedded DC system.

5.7 Case Study and Simulation Results

To evaluate the proposed CAD-OPF formulation first two IEEE 14 and

30 test systems are used as the case studies.
Since DC gird and their associated converters have not been implemented
in MATPOWER, only the results of conic AC OPF (for pure AC system)
68 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

are compared to those of AC OPF obtained in MATPOWER.

Both outputs from MATPOWER and GAMS for IEEE 14 test systems
are given in 5.2. As it can be seen the results are very close and a small
difference in phase angles of AC buses is due to the assumption that we
made in (5.10). A summery of results obtained for IEEE 30 test system is
given in 5.3. As it is seen the results are again very close and it proves the
accuracy of the proposed conic OPF formulation. It should be noted that
active and reactive powers and losses of lines which are considered as state
variables in conic OPF are almost identical.
The elapsed time for solving the same system has been given for both
simulations done in MATPOWER and MOSEK-GAMS. As can be seen
the computational time for reaching the solution for proposed modeling is
considerably less than elapsed time in MATPOWER.
In order to implement the CAD-OPF formulation, IEEE 30 test system
with two installed three terminal DC systems is used as shown in Figure 5.5.
This DC girds can have two different V and Delta configurations. Converter
VSC1, VSC2, VSC3, VSC4, VSC5 and VSC6 are connected to AC buses
2, 6, 5, 1, 15 and 30, respectively. The DC voltage levels according to
the ABB High Voltage Cable (HVC) product range are 80kV , 150kV and
320kV [82]. In this simulation as the pervious section, M9 module which has
the highest voltage (320kV ) level is chosen for both cases. The converter
power ratings are chosen 100(M V A). As it was mentioned, through the
proposed CAD-OPF the PCCs can either set to be in one of the PV Or PQ
modes before running the OPF or active/reactive powers and AC voltage at
PCC are considered as state variables and their final values from CAD-OPF
are considered as economic set values. Similarly, either an arbitrary DC bus
can be set as the slack bus before running CAD-OPF or the DC slack is
selected based on the CAD-OPF results.
In the proposed method, none of the mentioned control modes are used
for converters and only the boundary conditions on the converter variables
are considered. Doing so, the converter variables are free to get any value
whithin their limits for which the objective function is minimized. The OPF
results are given in tables 5.4 and 5.5.
5.7. CASE STUDY AND SIMULATION RESULTS 69

Table 5.1: OPF Results from MATPOWER (M) and SOCP-AC-OPF (S)
for IEEE 14 Test System

AC Voltage Phase PGi Q Gi

Bus (p.u.) (deg) (M W ) (M W )

1 1.060 0 128.52 0 M
1.060 0 128.513 0 S
2 1.047 -2.124 140.00 4.02 M
1.047 -2.361 140.00 4.646 S
3 1.016 -10.169 0 27.43 M
1.015 -10.889 0 26.722 S
4 1.023 -8.060 - - M
1.023 -8.248 - - S
5 1.028 -6.760 - - M
1.027 -7.334 - - S
6 1.034 -12.518 0 23.99 M
1.034 -13.337 0 24 S
7 1.034 -11.380 - - M
1.034 -11.912 - - S
8 1.06 -11.381 0 15.35 M
1.06 -11.912 0 15.404 S
9 1.026 -13.121 - - M
1.026 -13.84 - - S
10 1.020 -13.321 - - M
1.020 -14.073 - - S
11 1.023 -13.063 - - M
1.023 -13.857 - - S
12 1.019 -13.417 - - M
1.019 -14.274 - - S
13 1.015 -13.498 - - M
1.014 -14.374 - - S
14 1.003 -14.351 - - M
1.003 -15.18 - - S
70 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

Table 5.2: OPF Results from MATPOWER (M) and SOCP-AC-OPF (S)
for IEEE 14 Test System

AC Voltage Phase PGi QGi

Bus (p.u.) (deg) (M W ) (M W )

Total Cost 5370.31 M

($) 5370.2588 S
Total P-losses 9.516 M
(M W ) 9.513 S
Total Q-losses 41.87 M
(M V AR) 41.858 S
Total P-Generation 268.52 M
(M W ) 268.513 S
Total Q-Generation 70.78 M
(M V AR) 70.772 S
Total Q-Shant 44.59 M
(M V AR) 44.586 S
Exec. Time 0.61 M
(s) 0.047 S

As can be observed from the results thanks to the optimized values of

converter variables the total AC losses are reduced which results in a lower
generated power and correspondingly lower generation cost. The reactive
power generation also has been decreased due to local reactive powers in-
jected by converters.
In another analysis, converter’s rating powers are set to a lower value
50(M V A) to see its impact on converter variables and total generation cost.
The corresponding results are given in table tables 5.6 and 5.7.
5.7. CASE STUDY AND SIMULATION RESULTS 71

Table 5.3: OPF Results from MATPOWER (M) and SOCP-AC-OPF (S)
for IEEE 30 Test System

PGi QGi
(M W ) (M V AR)

G1 156.34 0 M
156.35 0 S
G2 140.00 8.11 M
140.00 8.29 S
G5 0 34.63 M
0 33.62 S
G8 0 38.67 M
0 39.53 S
G11 0 16.01 M
0 15.96 S
G13 0 24.00 M
0 24.00 S

Total Cost 5926.87 M

($) 5927.00 S
Total P-losses 12.94 M
(M W ) 12.95 S
Total Q-losses 54.17 M
(M V AR) 54.17 S
Total P-Generation 296.34 M
(M W ) 296.35 S
Total Q-Generation 121.42 M
(M V AR) 121.41 S
Total Q-Shant 59.95 M
(M V AR) 58.94 S
Exec. Time 0.72 M
(s) 0.06 S
72 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

Table 5.4: OPF Results from MATPOWER (M) and SOCP-AC-OPF (S)
for IEEE 30 Test System without (WO) and with (W) Two Installed VSC
DC Grids

P Gi QGi
(M W ) (M V AR)

G1 156.35 0 WO
150.44 0 W
G2 140.00 8.29 WO
140.00 4.72 W
G5 0 33.62 WO
0 6.24 W
G8 0 39.53 WO
0 27.62 W
G11 0 15.96 WO
0 9.53 W
G13 0 24.00 WO
0 12.43 W

Total Cost 5927.00 WO

($) 5798.57 W
Total P-losses 12.95 WO
(M W ) 3.82 W
Total Q-losses 54.17 WO
(M V AR) 14.19 W
Total P-Generation 296.35 WO
(M W ) 289.92 W
Total Q-Generation 121.41 WO
(M V AR) 36.16 W
Total Q-Shant 58.94 WO
(M V AR) 61.19 W
Total QCONV WO
(M V AR) 43.00 W
Total P-losses-DC grid WO
(M W ) 2.10 W
5.7. CASE STUDY AND SIMULATION RESULTS 73

Table 5.5: OPF Results for MTDC system

DC Voltage PCON Vi QCON Vi

Bus (p.u.) (M W ) (M V AR)

D1 1.060 -79.962 17.310

D2 1.045 25.741 2.682

D3 1.040 52.529 26.898

D4 1.060 -59.910 -17.454

D5 1.045 40.444 10.071

D6 1.052 18.453 3.499

Table 5.6: The results of SOCP formulation of AC-DC-OPF for IEEE 30-bus
Test System with Installed VSC DC Grids with Converter Rating 50MVA
and 100MVA

Converter Rating (M V A) 50 100

Total Cost ($) 5808.94 5798.57

Total P-losses (M W ) 5.39 3.82
Total Q-losses (M V AR) 20.86 14.19
Total P-Generation (M W ) 290.45 289.92
Total Q-Generation (M V AR) 60.56 36.16
Total Q-Shant (M V AR) 60.60 61.19
Total QCONV (M V AR) 25.89 43.00
Total P-losses-DC grid (M W ) 1.06 2.10
74 CHAPTER 5. AC-DC OPTIMAL POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

Table 5.7: The results of SOCP formulation of AC-DC-OPF for MTDC

System with Installed VSC DC Grids with Converter Rating of 50MVA and
100MVA

DC Voltage PCON Vi QCON Vi Converter Rating

Bus (p.u.) (M W ) (M V AR) (M V A)

D1 1.06 -79.96 17.31 100

1.06 -50.00 0 50
D2 1.05 25.74 2.68 100
1.05 12.33 1.73 50
D3 1.04 52.53 26.89 100
1.05 36.79 17.86 50
D4 1.06 -59.91 -17.45 100
1.06 -49.56 -6.63 50
D5 1.05 40.44 10.07 100
1.05 32.49 9.43 50
D6 1.05 18.45 3.49 100
1.05 16.29 3.49 50
 Part V

Conclusion Part

75
Chapter 6

Conclusion and Future Work

6.1 Conclusion

This thesis has studied two PFC and OPF analyses of hybrid AC-DC
grids in which DC grids are built from VSC HVDC systems. Two AC-DC
load flow and OPF formulations are proposed in this thesis.
First a PFC approach for AC-DC grids incorporating VSC-based MTDC
systems including converter losses is proposed.
In the previously published works, the sequential method has been ap-
plied to handle converter losses. The sequential method requires a high
number of iterative loops which make the algorithm not only complicated
and time consuming, but also unreliable. To overcome these problems, this
thesis has proposed a new unified method by adding only a new equation
(or state variable) to handle any kind of converter loss models, and any kind
of converter control modes regardless of the number of VSCs. This method
can also handle a synchronous (asynchronous) hybrid AC-DC system con-
nected via N independent VSC-based MTDC systems by adding N new
state variables.
The thesis has firstly introduced a general unified AC-DC unit (ADU)
which has been applied to two different cases namely: a hybrid AC-DC
grid with embedded MTDC system, and asynchronous hybrid AC-DC grids
connected via a common MTDC system.
Then the proposed model for ADU has been used in two different anal-
yses named integrated analysis and separated analysis.

77
78 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

Although both analyses can be used in the practical analysis of the real-
size power systems, the separated analysis however offers minimum modifi-
cation in the conventional AC PFC programs and a shorter computational
time.
A such analysis is also very suitable for future plan in which a very large
AC system is connected to several remote asynchronous AC systems such
as offshore wind farms and other remote renewable energy sources through
a common MTDC grid.
The comparison between the obtained results through the proposed
method and those in the commercial software SIMPOW has shown the cor-
rectness and robustness of the proposed method.
The second part of thesis presents an AC-DC optimal power flow formu-
lation for hybrid AC-DC networks based on line flow equations.
First the line flow equations for AC and DC networks and converters
are derived. Then the set of derived equality and inequality constraints are
transformed to the Second Order Cone Programming (SOCP) format which
is a convex set and can be efficiently solved through Interior Point Methods
(IPM). SOCPs are a general form of linear programming accompanied by
nonlinear constraints in the form convex cones.
After implementation the proposed modeling on two test systems it was
found very accurate while comparing to those obtained for the same system
in MATPOWER.
Through the proposed formulation, the converter variables can be ob-
tained in such a way that the active power losses are minimized, transfer
capacity through a corridor is increased, the loadability in the system is
maximized and or the steady state voltage stability margin is guaranteed
while considering economic dispatch.
These are some applications that can be studied through proposed OPF
formulation which are under investigation.
6.2. FUTURE WORK 79

6.2 Future Work

The penetration of huge amounts of renewable energies into the power

systems has changed the operation and investment in the electric power
systems. One of these changes is the wind power impact on the voltage
stability of the system.
The wind power injection to the system might jeopardise the voltage
stability of the power system. In this situation, there should be some mech-
anisms to recover the voltage stability of the system.
Therefore, the proposed CAD-OPF can be used to investigate the pricing
mechanisms for voltage stability services in the AC-DC transmission systems
with large amounts of renewable energies such as wind power.
CAD-OPF can also be used to study following analyses:

• To obtain the converter variables in such a way that the active power
losses are minimized.

• To increase transfer capacity through a corridor.

• To increase the loadability in the system.

• To guarantee the steady state voltage stability margin while consider-

ing economic dispatch.

• To analysis the voltage-stability-constrained convexified AC-DC eco-

nomic dispatch model and test different contingency situations.

• To study the impact of wind power on the developed pricing mecha-

nism.

• To model the voltage stability constraint in the convexified AC-DC

economic dispatch.
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