A NEW APPROACH FOR MODELING COMPLEX POWER SYSTEM
COMPONENTS IN DIFFERENT SIMULATION TOOLS
Per-Erik Bjorklund Jiuping Pan
ABB Power Systems ABB Corporate Research
Ludvika, Sweden Raleigh, USA
Abstract – This paper presents a new modeling concept
underlining the development of complex models for ad-
vanced power system components using HVDC Light as an
example. Instead of writing the model for HVDC Light in
different simulation tools as user defined component, a
“common component” is developed which represents the
detailed control functionality of HVDC Light. This com-
mon component is then linked to different simulation tools
through appropriate user model interfaces. The common
component is quite general and can be interfaced with any
simulation tool that permits linking of an external applica-
tion. This tool independent modeling approach is particu-
larly useful for upgrade and maintenance of models with
utmost quality especially when the product is under con-
stant development. The performance of the HVDC Light
models implemented in this novel way was evaluated for
PSS/E and Power Factory and found to be satisfactory for
power system dynamic stability analysis.
Keywords: HVDC transmission, dynamic response,
modeling, simulation, PSS/E, Power Factory
1 INTRODUCTION
The recent development in advanced transmission
technologies, such as HVDC Light® and FACTS opens
up new possibilities for improving the reliability and
utilization of power grids. Detailed models for various
dynamic simulation tools such as PSS/E, Power Fac-
tory, PSLF, Simpow, Netomac, etc. [1-5], are needed to
enable electric utilities and regional transmission or-
ganizations evaluate the operational benefits of incorpo-
rating HVDC Light and FACTS devices as feasible
planning alternatives using the simulation tools of their
choice.
A model for power system simulation purposes can
cover different aspects from steady-state analysis to
dynamic response simulation. Also, a wide range of
simulation tools are used by different utilities. The fo-
cus of this paper is on the dynamic representation of
complex power system components in different simula-
tion tools. Dynamic response simulations are used on a
very wide range of applications, from initial planning
studies by electric utilities to detailed project studies by
manufacturers. The credibility of simulation studies is
affected by the modeling accuracy of virtually every
major power system components. However, due to the
complexities of the device characteristics and the issue
of intellectual property protection, accurate models for
advanced power system components such as HVDC
Light and FACTS are mainly developed and maintained
Chengyan Yue Kailash Srivastava
ABB Corporate Research ABB Corporate Research
Beijing, China Vasteras, Sweden
by the equipment manufacturers. This situation has
resulted in limitations in power system simulation stud-
ies for exploring more efficient transmission grid ex-
pansion alternatives. The following are the two prob-
lems for modeling complex power system components
in different dynamic simulation tools:
1) Models available in the tool-dependent model li-
braries are either designed for specific projects or
over simplified, and thus may not adequately rep-
resent the characteristics of updated power sys-
tem technologies.
2) Development of complex power system compo-
nents in different tools as user defined compo-
nent is a challenge because of significant imple-
mentation and maintenance effort and difficulties
to ensure consistent performance.
The work presented in this paper is based on the con-
cept proposed in [6] concerning complex models for
advanced power system components in electro-
mechanical transient programs. Instead of writing the
device model in different tools as user defined compo-
nent, a “common component” is developed which repre-
sents the detailed functionality of the device. This com-
mon component is then linked to different simulation
tools through appropriate user model interfaces.
The feasibility of such a tool independent modeling
approach has been investigated in this work with
HVDC Light transmission system as an example. The
common component is general and can be interfaced
with any simulation tool that permits linking of an ex-
ternal application. The performance of the HVDC Light
model implemented in this novel way was evaluated for
PSS/E and Power Factory and found to be satisfactory
for power system dynamic stability analysis. The com-
mon component based HVDC Light model has also
been implemented in Netomac.
2 TOOL INDEPENDENT MODELING FOR
HVDC LIGHT
2.1 HVDC Light Technology
HVDC Light is a technology to transmit power un-
derground and under water, also over long distances [7-
9]. It offers numerous environmental benefits, including
“invisible” power lines, neutral electromagnetic fields,
oil-free cables and compact converter stations. With
extruded DC cables, power ratings from a few tens of
megawatts up to more than thousand of megawatts are
available. The converter station design is based on volt-
age source converters (VSCs) employing Insulated-Gate
Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) that operate with high
frequency pulse width modulation (PWM). HVDC
Light has the capability to rapidly control both active
and reactive power independently of each other, to keep
the voltage and frequency stable. Reference [10] gives
detailed description of HVDC Light technology.
HVDC Light was introduced in 1997. A number of
underground transmissions up to 350 MW are in com-
mercial operation and more are being built. One recent
project is the Estlink Transmission System which oper-
ates at ±150 kV DC and is rated at 350 MW of active
power in either direction. The link interconnects the
national grids of Estonia and Finland, enabling the ex-
change of electric power between the Baltic states and
the Nordel electric system for the first time.
2.2 HVDC Light Control System
Each HVDC Light converter is provided with an
identical control, independent of rectifier or inverter
operation. The principal control scheme of one con-
verter station is shown in Figure 1. PCC is the Point of
Common Connection, i.e. the point of converter connec-
tion to the ac system, and the reference point for ac
voltage, active and reactive power orders.
Figure 1 Principal Control Scheme of HVDC Light
The control functions of HVDC Light include ac and
dc voltage control, active and reactive power control,
and inner current control. The control system also rec-
ognizes current output limitation and internal converter
voltage limitations. Figure 1 also shows the reference
inputs Pref, Qref, Uacref and Udcref as well as the
auxiliary inputs ΔPref, ΔQref and ΔUacref. For a two-
terminal HVDC Light system, one of the converters
should control dc voltage (Udcref) and the other active
power (Pref). Each of the converters can be independ-
ently set as ac voltage control mode (Uacref) or reactive
power control mode (Qref). In dynamic simulation, the
power and voltage references are normally picked from
the load flow solution as the initial condition; the user
can modify these inputs to represent power order
changes or other step changes. The auxiliary inputs
ΔPref, ΔQref and ΔUacref can be used for modulation
to achieve desired frequency control, damping control
and voltage stability enhancement.
2.3 Tool Independent Modeling Approach
The technical concepts of tool independent model
development strategy for complex power system prod-
ucts involve the following two main steps:
1) Common Component - This tool independent
code represents the full control functionality of
the power system products described by the
block diagram or the system of differential-
algebraic equations (DAE). It performs computa-
tions related to initialization, time derivatives and
numerical integration.
2) Tool Dependent Interface - This is in general a
user defined model which directly communicates
with the simulation engine and the common com-
ponent.
Figure 2 illustrates the technical approach of tool in-
dependent model development strategy for HVDC
Light.
Main Circuit and
Control System
HVDC Light
Simulation Models
Tool Dependent Implementation
Current
Injection Pac=Pdc
AC System Converter DC System
User Model
Interface (UMI)
Common Component
HVDC Light Control System
Figure 2 Tool Independent Modeling for HVDC Light
The scope of common component is limited to the
control system of HVDC Light which communicates
with the ac system and the dc system through appropri-
ate tool dependent user model interfaces (UMI). For
different tools, the ac system, the dc system and the
converters may be modeled in different ways depending
on the standard components available in the tool de-
pendent model libraries.
In the design of common component, robust internal
integration method is one of the key requirements. This
is because some of the simulation tools use numerical
solution methods with a fixed time step. To minimize
the total simulation time, users often want to use a time
step in the range 5-10 ms for system stability studies.
For HVDC models in general, including HVDC Light,
such a large time step is a challenge in combination
with the time constants in HVDC control. Thus, in order
to ensure result accuracy, time steps in the range of 0.5-
5 ms are recommended. In some other simulation tools,
variable time step algorithm is supported for numerical
integration, permitting the time step to increase auto-
matically once the transients have died out. This feature
hastens the simulation process while maintaining the
same accuracy.
The common component can be implemented in dif-
ferent languages such as FORTRAN, C/C++, and Mat-
lab/Simulink In some simulation tools, such as PSS/E
and Power Factory, the developed common component
can be linked into the simulation process as external
functions via appropriate user model interface mecha-
nisms as shown in Figure 3.
interface which communicates with the common com-
ponent (not shown in Figure 4). User has the flexibility
to select either the standard PSS/E integration method
or the internal integration method. In principle, if stan-
dard PSS/E integration method enabled, the perform-
ance of common component based HVDC Light model
can be expected to match that of the existing, tool de-
pendent PSS/E model as will be shown in the next Sec-
tion.

PSS/E
Fortran Model

PSS/E Fortran UMI C/C++ Model

Simulation
Engine
Matlab/Simulink Model

Power Factory Figure 4 Load Flow and Dynamic Models for HVDC
Fortran Model
Light in PSS/E
C++ UMI
PF C/C++ Model 3.2 Model Implementation in Power Factory
Simulation
Engine In Power Factory, the main circuit of HVDC Light
Matlab UMI
Matlab/Simulink Model station can be explicitly represented by standard com-
ponents available in its library such as DC buses, DC
Figure 3 UMI of PSS/E and Power Factory cables and PWM converters as shown in Figure 8. Since
the standard PWM converter is lossless, the converter
3 MODEL IMPLEMENTATION losses are a priori assumed/estimated and modeled by
equivalent resistance loads at DC buses. Figure 5 shows
3.1 Model Implementation in PSS/E the user-defined composite frame for the converter
The modeling approach of HVDC Light in PSS/E has control system, which consists of measurements, con-
been discussed in Reference [6, 11]. As shown in Figure troller and PWM converter [12]. Controller receives the
4, in load flow analysis, the HVDC Light transmission network input signals from measurement devices and
is modeled by two generic generators, each representing sends out the modulation index to the PWM converter.
a converter with user specified active and reactive
power levels and voltage setting points. In this version
of implementation, DC system is not explicitly repre-
sented in the PSS/E load flow model. The total dc sys-
tem losses are a priori assumed/estimated and consid-
ered by the difference in active power levels of the two
generators. The active power of sending end generator
is negative valued to represent rectifier operation. The
main circuit of HVDC Light station includes a converter
transformer and a shunt filter. The dynamic behavior of
the HVDC Light system is modeled by two user mod-
els: CHVDCL and DC_HL2.
• The converters are represented via the PSS/E ge-
neric generator model, and the user model
CHVDCL is used to calculate the current injec-
tion by each generator.
• The dynamic behavior of the dc system is repre-
sented by a simple 1/sT block, and the user
model DC_HL2 is used to calculate the dc volt-
ages at both ends.
Figure 5 User Defined Composite Frame for HVDC
With the tool independent modeling approach, the Light Control System in Power Factory
user model CHVDCL is designed as the user model
 With the tool independent modeling approach, the
controller, implemented as a DSL model and associated
C++ interface, functions as the tool dependent interface
and communicates with the common component (not
shown in Figure 5). In principle, with appropriate setup
of simulation parameters, the performance of common
component based HVDC Light model in Power Factory
can be expected to be close to that of the PSS/E model Bus_1 Bus_2

as will be shown in the next Section.

It should be mentioned that the models for HVDC
Light are continuously improved and developed as the
technology itself moves forward and more flexible user-
model interfaces are available in different simulation
tools. The focus of this paper is the principle of tool
independent modeling approach based on the concept of
common component.
4 MODEL VERIFICATION
4.1 Benchmark System
The benchmark system used to verify the imple-
mented simulation models in different tools is shown in
Figure 6. This simple test system consists of two sepa-
rate ac systems connected by the HVDC Light link. The
rated power of HVDC Light is 373MVA and the rated
dc voltage is +/-150kV. The strength of ac system is
weak on both sides represented by a short circuit capac-
ity 3 times that of the converter rating at the point of
common connection.
Figure 6 Benchmark System for Model Verification
The single line diagram of the benchmark system im-
plemented in PSS/E and Power Factory is shown in
Figure 7 and Figure 8 respectively.
Figure 8 Benchmark System Single Line Diagram in
Power Factory
4.2 Model Verification
A number of test cases have been used to verify the
performance of implemented HVDC Light models in
PSS/E and Power Factory. The defined test cases in-
clude step changes in active power reference, reactive
power reference, ac voltage reference, dc voltage refer-
ence, three-phase ground fault, etc. For each case, three
simulations were performed:
• PSS/E-BM – PSS/E with the existing, tool de-
pendent HVDC Light model as described in [6]
• PSS/E-CC – PSS/E with the common component
based HVDC Light model
• Power Factory – Power Factory with the com-
mon component based HVDC Light model
In this verification, the performance of common com-
ponent based HVDC Light models is benchmarked with
the results of the existing, tool dependent HVDC Light
model in PSS/E. As concluded in Reference [1], the
existing, tool dependent HVDC Light model in PSS/E
has demonstrated good agreement with
PSCAD/EMTDC simulation results for different time
steps from 0.5ms up to 10ms. The PSCAD/EMTDC
model is a replica of the complete HVDC Light control
system.
4.3 Step Change Examples
Figure 9 through Figure 11 give example cases in-
volving step changes in active power reference, ac volt-
age reference and dc voltage reference respectively.
450
P S S /E -B M
P S S /E -CC
P ower Fac tory
Ppcc(BUS1), MW

400

350

Figure 7 Benchmark System Single Line Diagram in 300

PSS/E 0 0.2 0.4
Tim e, s
0.6 0.8 1

Figure 9 Step Change in Active Power Reference

 1.1 500
PS S/E -B M
PS S/E -CC 400
1.05 Power Factory

Ppcc(BUS1), MW
Upcc (BUS1), pu

PSS/E-BM
300
PSS/E-CC
1 Power Factory
200

0.95
100

0.9 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Tim e, s Time, s

Figure 10 Step Change in AC Voltage Reference Figure 13 Active Power @ PCC of Rectifier

160 200
PSS/E-BM
PSS/E-CC
155 Power Factory 150

Udc (BUS2), kV
Udc (BUS2), kV

PSS/E-BM
PSS/E-CC
150 100
Power Factory

145 50

140 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time, s Time, s

Figure 11 Step Change in DC Voltage Reference Figure 14 DC Voltage @ Udc Control Converter

4.4 Three-Phase Ground Fault Example

The following conclusions have been obtained:
Figure 12 through Figure 14 give an example case
involving three-phase ground fault at the PCC bus of • The performance of HVDC Light model in PSS/E
rectifier. The fault was applied at 0.1s and the remain- implemented based on the common component
ing ac voltage is about 10%. The fault was cleared at matches that of the existing, tool dependent PSS/E
0.2s. model perfectly as expected (red lines not visible in
plots).
• The performance of HVDC Light model in Power
Factory implemented based on the common com-
1
ponent is quite close to that of the existing, tool de-
PSS/E-BM pendent PSS/E model, and thus satisfactory for sta-
Upcc (BUS1), pu

0.8
PSS/E-CC bility simulation studies.
0.6 Power Factory

0.4 5 CONCLUSIONS
Accurate models of advanced power system tech-
0.2
nologies such as HVDC Light and FACTS are needed
0
in utility and regional transmission organization plan-
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 ning studies to explore more efficient transmission grid
Time, s
expansion alternatives. A new modeling concept is
Figure 12 AC Voltage @ PCC of Rectifier introduced in this paper concerning the development of
complex models for advanced power system compo-
nents. The advantages of the proposed model develop-
ment strategy can be summarized as follows.
• Only one set of common component needs to be
developed so that the functionality and quality of
the common component can be guaranteed for
simulation studies in different tools.
• Implementation in any tool is limited to the tool
specific part of the user model interface. With a
 proven common component, the debugging will [3] PSLF (Positive Sequence Load Flow Software),
http://www.gepower.com/prod_serv/products/utility_software/en
be limited to the tool specific code.
/ge_pslf.
• With a common component, the model of prod- [4] Simpow®, http://www.stri.se.
ucts being continuously developed such as [5] Netomac, http://www.simtec.cc.
[6] Per-Erik Bjorklund, Kailash Srivastava, William Quaitance,
HVDC Light can be updated in different tools at
“HVDC Light Modeling for Dynamic Performance Analysis”,
the same time. IEEE T&D Conference, Atlanta, USA, 2006.
[7] Asplund G, Erilsson K, Svensson K. “DC transmission based on
As an example, the HVDC Light model has been suc- voltage source converter”. CIGER SC14 Colloquium in South
cessfully implemented in PSS/E and Power Factory Africa, 1997.
based on the common component concept. The devel- [8] Stefan G Johansson, Gunnar Asplund, Erik Jansson, Roberto
oped simulation models have been verified and found to Rudervall, “Power System Stability Benefits With Vsc DC-
Transmission Systems”, CIGRE conference 2004, Paris.
be satisfactory for power system dynamic stability [9] U. Axelsson, A. Holm, C. Liljegren, K. Eriksson, L. Weimers,
simulation studies. The common component based “Gotland HVDC Light Transmission – Worlds First Commercial
HVDC Light model has also been implemented in Ne- Small Scale DC Transmission”, CIRED Conference, Nice,
tomac. France, 1999.
[10] It’s time to connect – Technical description of HVDC Light®
technology, ABB Power Technologies AB, 2006.
REFERENCES (http://www.abb.com/hvdc)
[1] PSS/ETM (Power System Simulator for Engineering), [11] ABB User Guide for the PSS/E Implementation of the HVDC
http://www.pti-us.com/pti/software/psse. Light Model Version 1.1, October 2006.
[2] Power Factory/DIgSILENT, http://www.digsilent.de/Software. [12] ABB User Guide for the DIgSILENT PF Implementation of the
HVDC Light Model Version 1.1, August 2007.