An Iterative Equal Area Criterion for Transient Stability Analysis of Grid-Tied Converter Systems With Varying Damping

With the increasing penetration of renewable energy generators, the stability issues of grid-tied converter systems become much more important. However, due to the high nonlinearity and varying damping of converter systems, conventional transient stability analysis methods are not applicable, which may bring to conservativeness or misjudgment on stability assessment. In this paper, the transient stability of grid-tied converter systems with varying damping is investigated to provide stability boundary estimation. Firstly, considering the frequency mutation of the phase-locked loop (PLL) caused by various perturbations, a modified swing equation model of grid-tied converter systems is built, which greatly improves the mathematical model accuracy under transient disturbances. To evaluate the impacts of varying damping and frequency mutation, an iterative equal area criterion (ITEAC) method is proposed with the iterative calculation of the accelerating and decelerating area, which renders stability boundaries with high accuracy. Moreover, the impacts of controller and system parameters on stability boundaries are quantitatively analyzed. Eventually, simulation and hardware-in-loop experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed ITEAC.