  Low-frequency oscillations are an inherent phenomena in transmission networks
and renewable energy plants should be configured to damp them. Commonly, a
centralised controller is used in PV plants to coordinate PV generators via
communication channels. However, the communication systems of PV plants
introduce delays of a stochastic nature that degrade the performance of
centralised control algorithms. Therefore, controllers for oscillation damping
may not operate correctly unless the communication channel characteristics are
not considered and compensated. In this paper, a centralised controller is
proposed for the oscillation damping that uses a PV plant with all the
realistic effects of communication channels taken into consideration. The
communication channels are modelled based on measurements taken in a laboratory
environment. The controller is designed to damp several modes of oscillation by
using the open-loop phase shift compensation. Theoretical developments were
validated in a laboratory using four converters acting as two PV inverters, a
battery and a STATCOM. A real-time processing platform was used to implement
the centralised controller and to deploy the communication infrastructure.
Experimental results show the communication channels impose severe restrictions
on the performance of centralised POD controllers, highlighting the importance
of their accurate modelling and consideration during the controller design
stage.
