CONTROL OF HVDC

CONVERTERS AND SYSTEMS

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF CONTROL

Direct current from the rectifier to
the inverter

Power at the rectifier terminal

Power at the inverter terminal

BASIC MEANS OF CONTROL

Internal voltages, Vdo1 cos and Vdo2 cos , can used be to

control the voltages at any point on the line and the current
flow (power)
This can be accomplished by:

Controlling firing angles of the rectifier and inverter (for fast

action)
Changing taps on the transformers on the AC side (slow
response)

Power reversal is obtained by reversal of polarity of direct

voltages at both ends

BASIS FOR SELECTION OF CONTROL

Following considerations influence the selection of

control characteristics:

Prevention of large fluctuation in DC voltage/current

due to variation in AC side voltage

Maintaining direct voltage near rated value

Power factor at the receiving and sending ends

should be as high as possible

CONTROL IMPLEMENTATION

CONTROL IMPLEMENTATION

Tap changer control

Current limits:

It is used to keep the converter firing angles ( and ) within the

desired range
They are sized to allow for minimum and maximum steady state
voltage variation

Maximum short circuit current is limited to 1.2 to 1.3 times

normal full load current to avoid thermal damage to
equipment
Minimum current limit is set to avoid ripple in the current
that may cause it to be discontinuous or intermittent

Minimum firing angle limit:

In case of a DC fault, the inverter station may switch to

rectification mode. This would result in reversal of power flow
To prevent this, the a minimum value for firing angle is set

CONTROL IMPLEMENTATION

Power control
To transmit a scheduled power, the corresponding
current order is determined by:

Iord=Po/Vd

Bridge/converter unit control

Determines firing angles and

sets their limits

Pole control

It coordinates the conversion

of current order to a firing
angle order, tap changer
control and other protection
sequences

LIMITATIONS OF MANUAL CONTROL

The DC voltage at either end of transmission line may vary in a

sudden, unexpected and undesired manner because of

Short circuits or other disturbances on ac system

Faults in converters

It necessitates the rapid grid control to maintain or restore the

desired conditions on the DC side with available range of control

Fig. Shows ideal control characteristics of Rectifier and Inverter,

it is draw by viewing the transmission line from mid point : the
graph of voltage versus current and half line on each side.

Both characteristics are straight lines

Left hand (rectifier) side

Internal voltage = Vd01 Cos
Slope = - (Rc1 + Rl /2)
Right hand (Inverter) side
Internal voltage = Vd02 Cos
Slope = + (Rc1 + Rl /2)
Nominal operating point : N where
rated current and voltage is Idn & Vdn
Note: Slopes of the lines are drawn on the assumption that at rated current the
voltage drop due to commutation is 8 % and line drop is 9 % of rated voltage and
hence
slope = 8 + 9/2 = 12.5 %

Let ac voltage at inverter drops by 12.5 % of Vdn then

Intersection point with rectifier characteristics moves to point A

corresponding to 1.5 Idn
Further voltage drop of 12.5 % moves to point B and increase in current
to 2 Idn

If ac voltage at rectifier drops by 12.5 % of Vdn while the inverter is

normal

Intersection point with inverter characteristics moves to point C

corresponding to 0.5 Idn
Further voltage drop of 12.5 % moves to point D and decrease in
current to nil.

In this Example, dip in ac voltage produces % change in dc current of

4 times % change of voltage, such large fluctuations of current can
not be tolerated

The high over currents are undesirable, they lead to arcbacks in

rectifier and commutation failure in inverter

DESIRED FEATURES OF CONTROL

CONTROL CHARACTERISTICS

The control characteristics of the

convertor are the plots of the
variation of the direct voltage against
the direct current.

The Natural Voltage Characteristic

corresponds to zero delay angle, =
0. It as characteristic equation
Vd = Vd0 Cos (3Lc/) Id

Constant Ignition Angle control

(C.I.A.):
It is a similar characteristic which is
parallel to the NV characteristic with
a controllable intercept is Vd0 Cos

Constant extinction angle control :

The Inverter is usually operated at constant extinction angle.

This has the characteristic equation given by
Vd = Vd0 Cos (3Lc/) Id

Constant Current Control (CC) :

In a d.c. link it is common practice to operate the link at constant

current rather than at constant voltage. (constant current means
that current is held nearly constant and not exactly constant)

In constant current control,

the power is varied by varying
the voltage. There is an
allowed range of current settings
within which the current varies.

Actual Control Characteristics :

Combined Characteristics :

The margin setting Idm between the current setting Ids for the
inverter and for the rectifier is usually kept at about 10% to
20% of the current setting.

The setting of the convertor operating as rectifier is kept higher

than the setting of that as inverter by the margin setting Idm

The usual operating point for power transfer is the intersection

of the CC control of the rectifier and the CEA control of the
inverter.

It also be ensured by proper tap changing that the N.V.

characteristic of the convertor operating in the rectification
mode is higher than the C.E.A. characteristic of the inverter, as
Vdo of the two ends are not necessarily equal

With convertor A operating as rectifier, and convertor B

operating as inverter, the steady state current under all
circumstances will remain within the upper limit (Ids + Idm) and
the lower limit Ids.

i.e, the system direct current will not change by more than Idm
under all operating conditions.

By reversing the margin setting Idm, that is making the setting of

convertor B to exceed that of A, power flow can be
automatically reversed.

Convertor B will then operate as a rectifier and A as an inverter.

The reversal of power occurs as a result of the reversal of
polarity of the voltage.

CONVERTER CONTROL

The ideal control system for an HVDC converter should meet the following
requirements

Symmetrical firing of the valves under steady-state conditions.

Instant of firing to be decided with regard to permissible values of

commutation voltage (rectifier) and commutation margin (inverter).

Minimal reactive-power consumption in the converters, subject to the

condition that it is achieved without an unacceptable risk of commutation
failure.

Insensitivity to normal variations in voltage and frequency of the AC supply

network.

Some degree of prediction of the optimum instant of firing in the inverters,

based on actual network voltage and direct current, subject to the condition
that it is achieved without an unacceptable risk of commutation failure.

Current-control characteristics with sufficient speed and stability margin to

cope with changing reference values and disturbances.

Continuous operating range from full rectification to full inversion.

FIRING ANGLE CONTROL :

The firing instant for all the valves are determined at ground
potential and the firing signals sent to individual thyristors
by light signals through fibre optic cables.

While a signal pulse is adequate to turn on a thyristor, the

gate pulse generator must send a pulse whenever required ,
if the particular valve is to be kept in a conducting state.

There are two basic firing schemes,

Individual phase control (IPC).
Equidistant pulse control (EPC).

INDIVIDUAL PHASE CONTROL

The firing instants are determined individually for each valve.

In which constant delay (or extinction) angle is maintained for all the
valves in the steady state with respect to the earliest firing instant
(i.e. the voltage crossing).

Phase control is a process in which forward current conduction is

maintained in a valve by varying the time period of cycle for short
period.

The generation of pulses at a valve is determined or known from the

zero crossing of commutation voltage.

In rectification the constant delay angle is normally determined from

a negative-feedback control loop, involving the set current and the
actual monitored current.

To maintain safe inverter operation with minimum reactive

power requirements the individual firings require:

a continuous calculation of the available voltage integral for

commutation
a continuous calculation of the required voltage integral for safe
commutation.

Optimum firing is achieved when the results of these two

coincide.

The relationship governing the commutation process relies on

the fact that the time integral of the commutating voltage,
i.e. the voltage integral, is equal to the overall voltage
change produced by the commutating current, ic.

This can be achieved as follows:

under commutation

In the integration such a relationship can be expressed as

From above equation the integral of voltage lies between t1 =

and t2 = - and hence phase control of system can be
achieved

The pulses in individual phase control can be generated by two

methods
Constant control
Inverse cosine control

Constant control Method :

This method also called delay control method

The firing pulses are obtained individually by determining the

zero crossing of the commutation voltage.

The commutation voltages are produced or generated by using

voltage transformers

In this scheme the gate pulses are generated at same delay

time

The value of is minimum at the instant when zero crossing of

commutation voltage.

The delay angle can be controlled by controlling the voltage.

The delay angle at rectifier is generally determined with

negative-feedback control loop, involving the set current and
the actual monitored current.

In inverter the delay angel is controlled with minimum reactive

power requirements for safe operation.

The schematic diagram of Constant control is as follows:

Inverse Cosine control :

In this method the commutation voltages obtained are phase
shifted by 900

The zero crossings of sum of two voltages gives the firing

pulses for a particular valve that is considered

The delay angle depends on ac system voltage amplitude and

shape and is also proportional to inverse cosine of voltage.

The voltage across the bridge varies linearly with control

voltage Vc

The essential requirement in this scheme is the maintenance

of phase shift by 900. The schematic diagram is as follows:

EQUIDISTANT PULSE CONTROL

In this system the pulses are generated at regular intervals of time by

using phase-lock oscillator.

The main components in this system are voltage controlled oscillator

and a ring counter.

The pulses of a particular frequency proportional to control voltage

are passed to the ring counter from a voltage controlled oscillator.

The train of pulses is fed to a six-stage ring counter in which only one
stage is on at a time, the ON stage is stepped cyclically from
positions 1 to 6 by the oscillator pulses.

As each ring-counter stage turns on, it produces a short pulse at the

output (once per cycle).

Therefore the complete set of six output pulses normally occurs at

successive intervals of 60

The STOP pulses are also obtained from the ring counter but
two stages later (e.g. the START pulse for valve 1 is from stage
1 and the STOP pulse for valve 1 is from stage 3, normally
120 later).

One oscillator and one ring counter per bridge constitute the
basic control hardware.

The various control modes only differ in the type of control loop
which provides the oscillator control voltage, Vc.

There are three methods in equidistant pulse control

pulse frequency control
pulse phase control
pulse period control

Pulse Frequency Control :

In this method, the frequency is determined by the control voltage Vc

which is related to error in the quantity (current, extinction angle or
dc voltage) being regulated.

The frequency in steady state operation is equal to pfo m

where p pulse number fo is nominal frequency

PFC system has integral characteristic and hence it is used in

feedback mode for stabilization.

At firing instant tn of the pulse is determined from the following

equation:

Where V1 bias voltage V3 proportional to system period

In steady state
and
since
in steady state the gain K1 can be chosen as

It does not has frequency correction, Ainsworth proposed

frequency correction according to the following block diagram

Pulse Period Control :

This is similar to PFC, in which VC is summed with V3 instead of

V1 . The firing instant tn of the pulse is determined from the
following equation:

The frequency correction scheme is obtained by either

updating V1 in response to the system frequency variation or
including another integrator in CC or CEA controller

Pulse Phase Control :

Firing pulses generated according to the following equation

For Proportional current control, the steady state can be

reached when the error or Vc is constant.

To reduce the error to zero it is recommended that a slow alpha

control with feed back signal taken from the measured delay
angle.

This signal in addition to the signal derived from the frequency

error is used to control the voltage V1