Power tracking in a MMC-multi-terminal HVDC system with centralized and decentralized MPC using a black box modeling approach

Abstract

This paper introduces and compares a decentralized and centralized model predictive control scheme for power tracking in a multi-terminal HVDC system based on MMCs. The MPC scheme requires a prediction, which is implemented by treating the HVDC system as a black box. With this approach it is possible to use an MPC scheme without detailed knowledge about the controlled system, which eases the design of the controller and allows using this method on more complex systems. While a centralized MPC achieves a better performance, a decentralized MPC is more practical, since it does not require communication between the terminals. This paper investigates the performance loss of decentralized MPCs compared to a centralized MPC and introduces a new method to increase the performance of decentralized MPCs by iteratively minimizing undesired control interactions. The proposed method is not limited to HVDC systems.