Analysis on the Transmission Line Power Flow
Control Strategy of the UPFC Project in Western
Nanjing Power Grid
Xiangping Kong, Member, IEEE, Xinyue Gong, Juan Li, Peng Li, Member, IEEE
 power grid structure. However, the investment is very large and
Abstract—Among the versatile control strategies in the control
system of unified power flow controller (UPFC), the transmission
line power flow control strategy is the most important one, which
can help UPFC to realize its core function of regulating power
flow. Based on the UPFC project in western Nanjing power grid,
which is the first modular multilevel converter (MMC) based
UPFC project all over the world, the function configuration and
hierarchical structure of the UPFC control system are introduced
firstly in this paper. Besides, the details of the transmission line
power flow control strategy are presented. With the above control
strategy, the active power and reactive power of the transmission
line can be regulated quickly, independently and safely.
Eventually, the field test results are demonstrated to validate the
effect of the above control strategy.
Index Terms—unified power flow controller (UPFC), control
system, power flow control strategy, field test
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE western Nanjing power grid is well known as the main
load center of the Nanjing city, whose power supply load is
huge and requirement on the power supply reliability is high.
The power demand of the western Nanjing power grid is served
by the 500kV Longwangshan Substation from east to west and
500kV Dongshanqiao Substation from south to north. However,
the main power generator plants are concentrated around the
500kV Longwangshan Substation, making the power flows of
the main transmission lines in the western Nanjing power grid
severely unbalanced. In this context, the power transfer
capacity and safety margin of the western Nanjing power grid
are adversely impacted [1], [2]. Usually speaking, new
transmission lines can be built or the transmission capability of
the existing transmission lines can be enhanced to improve the
Manuscript received July 12, 2018. This work was supported by the
National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 51707090.
X. Kong, X. Gong, J. Li and P. Li are all with State Grid Jiangsu Electric
Power Co. Ltd., Research Institute, Nanjing 211103, Jiangsu, China. (email:
kongxphust@163.com; 489858687@qq.com; lijuandan@126.com;
roclarry@163.com).
POWERCON2018 Paper NO. 201803200000003
978-1-5386-6461-2/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
the construction is quite difficult, since the western Nanjing
power grid is located in the urban center with large population
and scarce land resource. It means that the feasibility and
economy of the above conventional power grid improvement
approaches are not satisfactory.
As the most creative flexible ac transmission system
(FACTS) device [3]-[5], the unified power flow controller
(UPFC) can regulate bus voltage, transmission line parameters
and power flow, so as to improve the power transfer capacity,
reduce the transmission loss and improve power system
stability [6], [7]. Due to the excellent performance of UPFC, it
is decided to install two UPFCs on the double-circuit
transmission lines from Tiebei Substation to Xiaozhuang
Substation. With the installation of UPFCs, the power flow
distribution of the western Nanjing power grid can be
optimized, and then the power transfer capability and operation
reliability of the western Nanjing power grid can be enhanced.
The UPFC control system is the key for the safe and stable
operation of the UPFC project, having the hierarchical control
functions which consists of system level control, converter
level control and valve level control. Among so many control
functions, the transmission line power flow control strategy is
the core one for the UPFC project in western Nanjing power
grid to regulate the transmission line power flow, control the
power flow of the specific interface and optimize power flow
distribution. The systematic structure of the UPFC project in
western Nanjing power grid, as well as the structure and
functions of the UPFC control system are introduced in this
paper. Then the transmission line power flow control strategy
which can quickly and independently regulate the reactive
power and active power of the transmission line is proposed.
Eventually, the effect of the above power flow control strategy
is validated with the field test.
II. UPFC PROJECT IN WESTERN NANJING POWER GRID
The UPFC project in western Nanjing power grid has been
put into operation in December, 2015, which is the first
modular multilevel converter (MMC) based UPFC project all
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over the world. The installation of the UPFC project in western
Nanjing power grid is demonstrated in Fig. 1. It can be seen
from Fig. 1 that the two UPFCs are installed in the 220kV
Tiebei Substation, and the series voltage source converters
(VSCs) are located in the double-circuit transmission lines
from Tiebei Substation to Xiaozhuang Substation.
Huajing #2
Huajing #1
Xiaozhuang #1 Tiebei #1
UPFC
Xiaozhuang
UPFC
Xiaozhuang #2 Tiebei #2
Xiaguan Zhongyangmen
Fig.1 Installation of UPFC project in western Nanjing power grid
For the UPFC project in western Nanjing power grid, the
main aim is to regulate the active power of the transmission
lines, and the requirements on the reactive power regulation
and reactive power compensation of the shunt VSC are not
rather high. In this context, the shunt transformer is connected
to the 35 kV busbar of the adjacent 220kV Yanziji Substation.
Moreover, the two series VSCs are both connected to one shunt
VSC back to back. The optimized topology of the UPFC project
in western Nanjing power grid is shown in Fig. 2.
Series transformer
220kV
Tiebei Substation
Shunt transformer
35kV TBS TBS
busbar
220kV
Yanziji Substation
VSC 1 VSC 2 VSC 3
Fig. 2 Topology of the UPFC project
TBS in Fig. 2 is the thyristor bypass switch. In order to
improve the reliability of the UPFC project, the shunt converter
is connected to the 35kV busbar with two spare shunt
transformers, as shown in Fig. 2. One of the shunt transformers
is usually in operation. If there is failure in the operating shunt
transformer, the spare shunt transformer should be put into
operation automatically, and then the UPFC would keep
running [8], [9].
III. THE UPFC CONTROL SYSTEM
For the UPFC project in western Nanjing power grid, the
UPFC control system is configured independent with the
protection system. Furthermore, in order to improve the
POWERCON2018 Paper NO. 201803200000003
reliability, the dual UPFC control systems are equipped. With
the operation command, the UPFC control system can provide
reference voltages for the VSCs to ensure the correct operation
of VSCs, by fast calculation of various input data.
A. Functions of the UPFC control system
1) The UPFC project in western Nanjing power grid has
various operation modes, such as static synchronous
compensator (STATCOM), single line and double-line UPFC,
Tiebei as well as single line and double-line static synchronous series
compensator (SSSC). The UPFC control system should meet
requirements of different operation modes.
2) The basic control modes should be equipped: power flow
control of single line or double-line, power flow control of
specific interface, dc-link voltage control, reactive power
control or ac bus voltage control of shunt side
3) The following control functions should be equipped:
choice of main control line for double-circuit transmission lines
operation mode, control of the active power of specific
interface, control of transmission line active power, control of
transmission line reactive power, control of dc-link voltage,
control of ac bus voltage, direct current control, control of the
tap of shunt transformer, start up and out of operation of the
UPFC system, fault ride through control and so on.
4) With the shunt transformer, the shunt VSC can exchange
active power and reactive power with the power grid, to
maintain the dc-link voltage constant and regulate the ac bus
voltage. On the other hand, with the series transformer, the
220kV
Xiaozhuang
series VSC can inject a controllable voltage into the
Substation transmission line to regulate the power flow.
B. The hierarchical structure of the UPFC control system
The UPFC control system has hierarchical control structure,
which consists of system level control, converter level control
and valve level control [2].
1) System level control
The system level control is the highest level of control and
used to coordinate the control objectives of different VSCs,
including power coordination control of the double-circuit
transmission lines, power flow control of specific interface and
so on.
2) Converter level control
The converter level control consists of various control
function of converter, such as start up and out of operation of
converter, power flow control of single line, dc-link voltage
control, reactive power control of shunt VSC, ac bus voltage
control, fault ride through control and so on.
3) Valve level control
The valve level control is the lowest level of control, and
provides trigger signals to the submodules based on the
reference voltage or number of submodules which should be
put into operation given by the converter level control. Besides,
it also monitors the states of the submodules.
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 IV. POWER FLOW CONTROL STRATEGY OF UPFC Fig. 4 and Fig. 5.
Though there are lots of control strategies in the UPFC comparator
PL _ ord Regulation
control system, the transmission line power flow control
allowable Integrator
strategy is the core one which helps the UPFC project to
regulate the transmission line power flow, control the power PL _ ram -1
Selector PLref
flows on specific transmission interfaces, and optimize the Selector 1 (sTi )
power flow distribution. The transmission line power flow 0
control strategy consists of external power flow control loop
Fig. 4 Generation of active power reference value
and inner current control loop.
A. External power flow control loop Q L _ ord comparator
Regulation
The active power controller and reactive power controller are allowable Integrator
equipped for the external power flow control loop, as depicted Q Lref
Q L _ ram -1
in Fig. 3. Selector Selector 1 (sTi )
I Ldref  I vdref 0
PLref
PL 
PLref U Ld  Q Lref U Lq P  Fig. 5 Generation of reactive power reference value
I Ldref Lref PI
Q Lref U Ld  U Lq
2 2

As shown in Fig. 4, if it is not allowed to regulate the active
PLref U Lq  Q Lref U Ld Lref 
Q
I Lqref PI power of the transmission line, the input of the integrator is
U Ldq U 2Ld  U 2Lq 
QL  chosen to be 0, keeping the reference value PLref constant. If the

I Lqref I vqref active power regulation is allowed, and PLref is larger than PL_ord,
the input of the integrator is chosen to be -PL_ram. In this context,
Fig. 3 Steady-state control diagram of external loop the reference value PLref would be reduced to be PL_ord with
speed of PL_ram. On the other hand, if the active power
As shown in Fig. 3, PLref and QLref are reference values of the regulation is allowed, and PLref is smaller than PL_ord, the input
active power and reactive power of the transmission line, ULdq of the integrator is chosen to be PL_ram. In this context, the
is the d-axis and q-axis components of the transmission line reference value PLref would be increased to be PL_ord with speed
voltage, PL, QL are the measured active power and reactive of PL_ram.
power of the transmission line, ILdref and ILqref is the reference The generation scheme of the reactive power reference value
values of the active and reactive currents of transmission line, is the same with that of the active power reference value, which
Ivdref and Ivqref are the reference values of the active and reactive is not presented repeatedly.
currents of the series VSC.
In order to improve the performance of the external power C. Inner current control loop
flow control loop, the combined open loop-closed loop control For the inner current control loop, the deadbeat control
strategy is adopted, as demonstrated in Fig. 3. The inverse strategy which has advantages of high control accuracy and
model is employed for the open loop control to directly quick dynamic response is employed, as shown in Fig. 6.
calculate the inner current reference values according to the
active power reference value and reactive power reference Ivdq
-
value, so as to improve the response speed of the external Z -1
Z -1 + PI
power flow control loop. The PI regulators of active power and
1/7s Udq_mean
reactive power are adopted for the closed loop control strategy,
to eliminate steady-state error.
Ivdqref + - ++ +
+ dq Vαβref
L/Ts
αβ Z-1
+
B. Generation of power flow reference values
+
For the external power control loop, there is reference value + jZL/2
control strategy for the active power and reactive power, which
Fig. 6 Control diagram of inner current control loop
can make the active power reference value and reactive power
reference value change to the setting values with the specific With reasonable choice of the proportional gain and integral
speed, to reduce the adverse impact on the valves caused by the gain of the PI regulator in Fig. 6, the inner current control loop
large changes of active power reference value and reactive can response quickly without steady-state errors.
power reference value. The generations of the active power Moreover, in order to control the current in IGBT within the
reference value and reactive power reference value are given in permitted range and improve the anti-disturbance capability of

POWERCON2018 Paper NO. 201803200000003 Page3/6 3083

 j
200
the UPFC project, the limitation module of the current

power/MW
reference value is added. Besides, the magnitude limit module

Active
180

of reference voltage Vαβref is added to reduce the harmonic 160

components and ensure the excellent performance of the inner
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
current control loop. 60

power/Mvar
40

Reactive
V. APPLICATION EFFECT 20
In order to validate the functions of the control and 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
protection system of the UPFC project in western Nanjing 2
power grid, as well as test the performance of the whole UPFC

active status
System
system, the field test of the UPFC project is carried out. The 1

application effect of the transmission line power flow control

0
strategy under single line UPFC operation mode is introduced 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

as follows. Time/s
Fig. 8 Recorded data of control system B for switching of active control system
A. Steady-state performance
1) Steady-state performance of active power control 2) Steady-state performance of reactive power control
The reference value of the transmission line active power is The reference values of the transmission line reactive power
set to be 280MW, and the recorded data of control system A of are respectively set to be 40MVar and 60MVar, and the
the series VSC is given in Fig. 7. recorded data of control system A of the series VSC is given in
300
Fig. 9 and Fig. 10.
power/MW
Active

200
power/MW

200
Active

100
100
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
power/Mvar

60
Reactive

-20
power/Mvar

40
Reactive

-40
20
-60
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
0
2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
active status

2
System

active status

1
System

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
0
Time/s 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

Fig. 7 Recorded data of control system A for active power reference is 280MW Time/s
Fig. 9 Recorded data for reactive power reference is 40MVar
As shown in Fig. 7, the actual active power of the
transmission line is kept to be 280MW. Besides, as the reactive
power/MW

200
Active

power reference value is set to be the measured reactive power

100
of the transmission line, the recoded reactive power changes
with the change of the operation condition of the power 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
systems. 80

The reference value of the transmission line active power is 60

power/Mvar
Reactive

40
set to be 100MW, and make the active control system change
20
from control system A to control system B, then the recorded 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
data of control system B of the series VSC is given in Fig. 8. 2
It can be seen from Fig. 8 that, the actual active power of the
active status
System

transmission line can keep to reduce with the specific speed, 1

even though the active control system is changed.

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

Time/s
Fig. 10 Recorded data for reactive power reference is 60MWA

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 As shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10, the actual active power of the
transmission line can be kept to be 40MVar and 60MVar
correspondingly.
B. Dynamic performance
In order to validate the dynamic performance of the
transmission line power flow control strategy, the step change
tests of active power reference value and reactive power
reference value are implemented. The recorded data of control
system A for 100MW step change of active power reference
value and that for 50MVar step change of reactive power
reference value is respectively demonstrated in Fig. 11 and Fig.
12. j_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
350
power/MW
VI. CONCLUSION
The structure of the UPFC project in western Nanjing power
grid, as well as the structure and functions of the UPFC control
system are introduced in this paper. Furthermore, the
transmission line power flow control strategy which is
applicable for engineering application is proposed. The
proposed control strategy can not only control the active power
and reactive power of the transmission line quickly and
independently, but also can limit the current reference values
and voltage reference values within permitted ranges, to ensure
the operation safety of the UPFC project and improve the
performance of the UPFC. Lots of field data shows that, with
the transmission line power flow control strategy, the UPFC
project in the western Nanjing power grid can control the

300
Active

250
transmission line power flow accurately and quickly, which
200
means that the performance and function of the transmission
150
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 line power flow control strategy can satisfy the design
80
60
requirements.
power/Mvar
Reactive

40
20 REFERENCES
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As depicted in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12, when the step change of
active power reference value or reactive power reference value
occurs, the actual transmission line active power or reactive
power can track the change of corresponding reference value Xiangping Kong (M’18) as born in China in 1988. He received the Ph.D.
quickly, and the overshoot and response time are within the degree from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Huazhong
prescribed limits. University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2014. He is currently
a senior Engineer in State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Co. Ltd., Research
Institute, Nanjing, China. His research interests include protective relaying and
application of power electronic technology in power systems.

POWERCON2018 Paper NO. 201803200000003 Page5/6 3085

Xinyue Gong was born in China in 1990. She received the Master degree from
the School of Automation, Nanjing University of Science and Technology,
Nanjing, China, in 2015. She is currently an Engineer in State Grid Jiangsu
Electric Power Co. Ltd., Research Institute, Nanjing, China. Her research
interests include control and protection of HVDC.

Juan Li was born in China in 1987. She received the Ph.D. degree from the
School of Electrical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, China, in 2016.
She is currently an Engineer in State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Co. Ltd.,
Research Institute, Nanjing, China. Her research interest is protective relaying.

Peng Li (M’18) was born in China in 1982. He received the Ph.D. degree from
the School of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China,
in 2011. He is currently a Senior Engineer in State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power
Co. Ltd., Research Institute, Nanjing, China. His research interests include
control and protection of HVDC.

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