Transient Stability of Offshore Energy Hubs

Abstract

Offshore energy hubs (OEHs) use grid-forming modular multilevel converters (MMCs) to enable large-scale offshore wind integration and multi-terminal HVDC operation. In HVDC-connected offshore wind farms and OEHs, the offshore grid-forming HVDC converters absorb active power from an offshore AC grid supplied by the wind farms and convert it to DC power for transmission to the onshore grid. Converter current limiting under different fault types in this setting is an understudied topic in the literature, which mostly focuses on power-injecting converters. This paper proposes a unified current-limiting strategy that combines a variable virtual impedance (VVI), based on a smooth threshold function, with a novel virtual-power (VP) mechanism derived from the power dissipated in the virtual resistance. The VVI ensures current limitation during fault-induced overcurrents while preserving voltage-source behavior, whereas the VP mechanism adds a compensating power term into the synchronization loop, enabling automatic power redistribution among converters. P-delta analysis further shows that a more resistive VVI can improve the transient stability of power-absorbing converters, while the proposed VP mechanism further enlarges the stability margin. EMT simulations validate that the combined VVI-VP strategy limits fault currents, maintains synchronism during severe faults, and achieves coordinated post-fault power sharing in fully converter-based OEHs.