DC voltage control for MMC-based railway power supply integrated with renewable generation

The full controllable electronic device based railway feeder station offers better power quality and more flexible configurations than conventional transformer based stations. This study investigates a modular multilevel converter (MMC)-based static frequency converter station with renewable energy access. Wind power generation is coupled into the station via DC link of the back to back converter. The dynamic single-phase traction load and intermittent renewable generation bring double frequency oscillation and large deviation problems to the DC link voltage. Special design considerations and control schemes are proposed for the MMC to stabilise DC link voltage by controlling the total number of total inserted modules. The proposed control scheme resolves the voltage oscillation issue caused by single-phase load and reduces the DC link voltage deviation under 10 MW step change. A series of device-based simulations validate the control scheme which realises a reliable coupling interface for connecting the renewable generation to the DC bus.