Bifurcation Analysis of Sub-Synchronous Oscillations Related to Grid-Forming Converter Inner Controllers

Luke Ian Benedetti, Robin Preece, Panagiotis N. Papadopoulos

To ensure power system stability and security, it is vital to understand the complex nonlinear power system dynamics related to converter-interfaced generators. For example, grid-forming (GFM) converters are expected to be a key asset for maintaining a strong and stable power system, but might cause wide-bandwidth stability issues with underlying mechanisms heretofore unseen or understudied, including sub-synchronous oscillations (SSOs). This paper details a continuation-based bifurcation analysis of a GFM converter, revealing stability bounds with respect to operational conditions in addition to the time constant of the cascaded inner voltage and current controllers. We focus our analysis on the strong grid instability caused by an inner controller-related SSO, including continuation of the limit cycle past the Hopf bifurcation point, revealing rapid onset of unacceptably large oscillations. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of the circular current limiter, revealing spurious Hopf bifurcations in weak grids associated with the aforementioned SSO when adopting smooth approximations; this suggests the need for careful implementation of such approximations for GFMs, at least in bifurcation studies.