Software-Defined Virtual Synchronous Condenser

Zimin Jiang, Peng Zhang*, Yifan Zhou, Lukasz Kocewiak, Divya Kurthakoti Chandrashekhara, Marie-Lou Picherit, Zefan Tang, Kenneth B. Bowes, Guangya Yang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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Abstract

Synchronous condensers (SCs) play important roles in integrating wind energy into relatively weak power grids. However, the design of SCs usually depends on specific application requirements and may not be adaptive enough to the frequently-changing grid conditions caused by the transition from conventional to renewable power generation. This paper devises a software-defined virtual synchronous condenser (SDViSC) method to address the challenges. Our contributions are fourfold: 1) design of a virtual synchronous condenser (ViSC) to enable full converter wind turbines to provide built-in SC functionalities; 2) engineering SDViSCs to transfer hardware-based ViSC controllers into software services, where a Tustin transformation-based software-defined control algorithm guarantees accurate tracking of fast dynamics under limited communication bandwidth; 3) a software-defined networking-enhanced SDViSC communication scheme to allow enhanced communication reliability and reduced communication bandwidth occupation; and 4) Prototype of SDViSC on our real-time, cyber-in-the-loop digital twin of large-wind-farm in an RTDS environment. Extensive test results validate the excellent performance of SDViSC to support reliable and resilient operations of wind farms under various physical and cyber conditions.
Original languageEnglish
JournalIEEE Transactions on Power Systems
Number of pages14
ISSN0885-8950
DOIs
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2025

Keywords

  • Wind farms
  • Virtual synchronous condenser
  • Software-defined control
  • Software-defined networking

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