Session 5

SESSION
5
Emerging Trends in HVDC and
Facts Technology
5th International Exhibition & Conference, 2015

April 8-10
2015
New Technologies in T & D, Renewable Energy Integration,

Smart Grid, Energy Efficiency and Communication
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Real Time Simulation of Stability Functions of HVDC Systems A Case Study of 500 kV, 2500 MW Ballia-Bhiwadi HVDC Link
using Controller Replica
Mahesh Vardikar
Vishwajeet Singh
M.S. Rao
M.M. Goswami
Powergrid Corporation of India Ltd., India
Oommen Chandy
SUMMARY
1.
Indian Power System is rapidly expanding and

becoming more complex with the installation of
sophisticated power electronic systems and
demands a higher reliability and availability. The
occurrence of transient stability issues due to
complexity of power system is becoming more
challenging. These issues can be resolved with
interaction of HVDC system with the interconnected AC systems. The stability functions are
often cited as an important advantage of HVDC
systems. In order to improve the system stability,
the stability functions of HVDC will be useful. To
achieve the promised advantages, these functions
must perform appropriately for various
disturbances and system conditions. A Real Time
Simulator allows to accurately and efficiently
simulate all the system conditions, taking the
hardware controllers / protective devices into
closed loop and presents response of controllers
under testing.
High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission

when integrated with conventional ac transmission
technology, offers many advantages and benefits to
the overall power system. Many of the benefits,
which are realized can be attributed to the fast,
flexible and effective means by which HVDC
systems can be controlled. One of the most
important considerations when designing an HVDC
installation is the application of appropriate controls
and protection strategies.
This paper presents the effectiveness of two of

the key stability functions, viz. Power Oscillation
Damping (POD) and Sub Synchronous Torsional
Interaction Damping (SSTI), of 500 kV, 2500
MW Ballia Bhiwadi Bipole HVDC link of
POWERGRID, using Real Time Simulator (RTS)
HVDC Controller replica setup operating at
POWERGRID, Gurgaon.
(a) Power Oscillation Damping (POD): Damps

power oscillations by modulating the power
flow through the HVDC line and hence stabilizes
the system. It improves transient stability
damping in AC system.
Keywords: Real Time Simulation, Hardware In Loop

(HIL), Power Oscillation Damping (POD), Sub
Synchronous Torsional Interaction (SSTI), High
Voltage DC transmission (HVDC).
1
chandan.wrldc@yahoo.com
INTRODUCTION
The oscillations of sub synchronous frequency range

manifest in power system due to various reasons like
loss of generation or transmission lines, sudden load
changes or faults etc. under different system
scenarios. Hence, auxiliary controls are required to
utilize the controllability of HVDC links for
improving the AC system stability and dynamic
performance. Purpose of such controls depend on
the characteristics of the connected AC systems.
The key auxiliary controls in DC links are:
(b) Frequency Control: Controls the small frequency

changes in the AC networks to which the HVDC
is connected. HVDC link can control frequency
of part of power system by modulating power
transferred to or from that system. Frequency
limits can be set for such function which are
threshold for power transfer till the frequency
of the area is within limit.
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(c) Power Run back / Run up functions: These

functions are used to support the system
frequency/stability in the case of contingencies
involving the loss of generation, load or major
transmission lines.
(d) Sub Synchronous Torsional Interaction
Damping Control (SSTI): This control is used
to damp out torsional oscillations in sub
synchronous frequency range caused due to
interaction between HVDC and nearby
generators.
2.
STABILITY FUNCTIONS
In this paper following the HVDC control functions

to stabilize the network are discussed and
demonstrated through real time simulations :
z
Power Oscillation Damping
Sub Synchronous Torsional Interaction Control
2.1 Power Oscillation Damping
The frequency of power oscillations is typically in

the range of 0.2 to 3 Hz. This means that for effective
power oscillations damping, fast acting devices are
required. As shown in the Figure 1, various methods
are available to damp out these oscillations. But
HVDC solution is the direct modulation of active
power and is very effective. The eigen value analysis
is valid for small signal perturbations only, but gives
an analytical insight into the behavior of a large
power system. A factor which is frequently used for
the evaluation of the damping behavior instead of
the absolute damping coefficient Sigma is the
relative damping coefficient Zeta
where and are real and imaginary parts of

oscillation mode. Normally an oscillation is damped
sufficiently when < -5%. The choice of the input
signal used for the modulation is very much
important.
z
Large interconnected power systems are prone to

inter area oscillations, where groups of generators
swing against each other across relatively weak interties. The stability of AC systems are determined by
the damping of these electromechanical oscillations
or swings. The oscillations may persist till they are
damped out by the system (Fig. 1). In real power
systems, the damping energy is obtained by the
modulation of load or generation for a period of time,
typically in the range of 5 to 10 seconds. The
damping energy must have the correct phase shift
relative to the accelerated/decelerated systems. The
wrong phase angles can even excite power
oscillations.
The frequency difference between the two

subsystems. In principle this signal is very
effective, but it is not locally available and fast
telecommunication is required.
The derivative of the angle difference between
the two subsystems. Fast telecommunication is
required.
In the case study discussed in the paper, the input to

POD controller is the frequency difference between
the two buses (f) and damping of the network
oscillation is carried out.
2.2 Typical Power Oscillation Damping

Controller
Fig. 2: Block diagram of a typical POD controller
Fig. 1: Power Oscillation Damping
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AC system frequencies at both rectifier and inverter

end are measured and compared with reference
frequency input to get the frequency deviation at
both terminals.
The filtered frequency deviations at both rectifier
and inverter end are then compared to get the
frequency deviation for change of power transferred.
The high frequency components from the frequency
deviation are filtered out of AC systems of rectifier
and inverter ends. POD acts on this frequency
deviation in the rectifier and inverter ends and tries
to minimise the deviation.
For the analysis of POD, a simulation case

demonstrating the effect of this control on damping
of system generated oscillations under a fault
scenario was carried out using the Real-Time
Simulator connected with replica control &
protection system of +/- 500 kV, 2500 MW Ballia
Bhiwadi HVDC Bipole link of POWERGRID. The
Power Oscillation Damping Control function is a part
of the Pole control.
2.4 System Representation

+/- 500 kV, 2500 MW Ballia Bhiwadi HVDC Bipole
link is used for the evacuation of power from Ballia
in Eastern UP to Bhiwadi in Rajasthan over a distance
of approximately 780 km. The power is pooled at
Ballia from Barh and Kahalgaon generating stations.
The transmitted power at Bhiwadi is distributed in
the Northern Region. The AC system on both sides
is represented as ac equivalent network with thirty
(30) buses. The HVDC system has been represented
as bipolar 12 pulse bridges with ac filters, dc filters
and HVDC line along with electrode line. The figure
below represents the HVDC buses and AC double
circuit line connected between Ballia and New
Lucknow.
z
Power flow in Ballia - Bhiwadi HVDC link was

set to 2400 MW (pre-fault power).
A 3 phase to ground fault of 100 ms duration

and subsequent tripping was initiated in one of
the double circuit lines between Ballia- New
Lucknow-I.
The power oscillations in the other line was

observed with and without the action of POD.
The deviation is then acted up on by a gain limiter

to change the response to small signals. This is then
given to the high pass filter to filter higher frequency
deviations and finally converted to resulting P
modulating power which superimposes over the Pref
given by the operator to get the resultant reference
power.
2.3 Case Study
400 kV Ballia - New Lucknow double circuit

line parallel to the Ballia-Bhiwadi HVDC system
was used for observing the action of POD.
Fig. 3: Equivalent system representation for POD evaluation.
2.5 Study Results

As result of a fault, the ac system becomes
dynamically unstable as evident from the oscillations
occurring due to deviation in active and reactive
power balance of the system.
Without POD Control: The POD function was
disabled from HMI. The pre-fault power in BalliaNew Lucknow Line-II was 685 MW which shot up
to 1903 MW dynamically after the clearance of fault
further settling to 1050 MW.
(i)
The power oscillations of magnitude P = 1372

MW was observed within 3 seconds after the
fault is cleared and oscillations of around
200 MW was observed even after 9 seconds.
(ii) These inter-area oscillations with the frequency

of 0.37 Hz were observed in the power flow of
the healthy 400 kV Ballia-New Lucknow
Line -II. These slow oscillations persist for more
than 12 seconds eventually dying out Refer
Fig. 5.
(iii) The difference in power angle between Ballia
and New Lucknow buses also oscillates and 3
seconds after fault is cleared the variation in
angle is 30 degrees. However there is no major
rotor angle instability in nearby generators. Refer
Fig. 8. The oscillations are lightly damped and
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system remains stable as per the stability

criteria.
(iv) The HVDC controls recover to pre-fault HVDC
power of 2400 MW with some slow oscillatory
behaviour. It is to be noted that to demonstrate
the sole effect of the POD during disturbance
the frequency control was disabled from the
HMI.
added to the scheduled reference power. The

variation in dc power from reference power of
2400 MW is between 2057 MW to 2540 MW.
Comparing results of the cases with and without
POD, it is observed that POD controller improves
the overall stability of the interconnected system
with oscillations getting damped out and achieves
faster system recovery.
With POD Control : The POD function was enabled

from HMI. The pre-fault power in Ballia-New
Lucknow Line-II was 685 MW which shot up to
1751 MW dynamically after the clearance of AC fault
eventually power settling to approx. 1050 MW.
(i)
The power oscillations of magnitude

P = 975 MW was observed within 3 seconds
after the fault is cleared and oscillations of
around 60 MW was observed after 9 seconds.
(ii) These inter-area oscillations with frequency of

0.37 Hz were observed from the power flow of
the healthy 400 kV Ballia-New Lucknow
Line -II. These slow oscillations die-out in less
than 9 seconds. Refer Fig. 6.
Fig. 5: Damping Effect on Power Oscillation in Ballia New Lucknow -II line with POD control
(iii) The difference in power angle between Ballia

and New Lucknow buses also oscillates initially
and 3 seconds after fault is cleared the variation
in angle is 14 degrees. Refer Fig. 9.
(iv) The HVDC controls recover to pre-fault HVDC
power of 2400 MW. Considerable dynamic
changes in DC power with HVDC Power
Oscillation damping control coming into action
can be observed from Fig. 7. Due to the
oscillations seen at rectifier buses, the POD
control picks up the change in frequency (f)
and generates modulating signal (P) which gets
Fig. 6: DC Power Modulation in Ballia - Bhiwadi HVDC with POD
Fig. 7.: Power Angle Oscillation between Ballia and

New Lucknow bus without POD
Fig. 4: Oscillation of Power in Ballia - New Lucknow-II line

without POD control
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where
UIFi is Unit Interaction Factor for the ith unit.
MWHVDC is rating of HVDC converter terminal.
MVAi is rating of ith turbine-generator unit.
SCi is short circuit level at HVDC converter bus
excluding ith unit.
SCtotal is short circuit level at HVDC converter bus
including ith unit.
Fig. 8: Damped Power Angle Oscillation between Ballia and
New Lucknow bus with POD.
3.
SUB SYNCHRONOUS TORSIONAL

INTERACTION DAMPING CONTROL
Sub synchronous torsional interaction (SSTI) refers

to energy exchange between HVDC rectifier terminal
and closely connected turbine-generators at
frequencies below 50 Hz. Generally turbinegenerators consist of several masses connected by
shaft acting as torsional spring with several natural
frequencies. HVDC rectifier operating in islanded
mode with generators are most prone to sub
synchronous oscillations. This is due to HVDC
rectifier appears as negatively damped load from
generator terminals in range of 10 - 40 Hz. This may
lead to excitation of torsional oscillations which may
cause damage to generator shaft.
Typically thermal generator shafts are more
susceptible to torsional interaction than hydro
generator shafts. This is due to the fact that thermal
generators have several torsional frequencies
(typically 4 to 5) in sub synchronous range while
hydro generators have typically one frequency and
also possess higher mechanical damping.
3.1 Method of Investigation

To assess possibility of sub synchronous oscillation
(torsional interaction) of generators with HVDC
controls, calculation of Unit Interaction Factor (UIF)
is widely accepted method. UIF for a generator unit
is defined as reference [3],
... (1)
Generating unit with UIF less than 0.1 implies level

of interaction to be small as recommended by EPRI
report. Such a unit need not be considered for further
detailed study of interaction.
UIF higher than 0.1 indicates level of interaction may
be sufficient to destabilize rotor torsional modes of
oscillation and detailed analysis of torsional damping
should be performed to accurately evaluate extent
of torsional interaction.
Fig. 9: Generators in the vicinity of Ballia rectifier station
As turbine generator system consist of several masses

connected in tandem. Torsional frequency of each
part of the shaft is either available from generator
manufacturers or can be calculated from mechanical
parameters of turbine stages, generator and exciter.
For generators near Ballia rectifier station, the
torsional modes in the sub synchronous frequency
range between 10 Hz and 35 Hz are as follows:
13.95 Hz (Barh), 19.86 Hz (Kahalgaon 588 MVA),
22.14 Hz (Kahalgaon 247 MVA), 24.21 Hz (Barh),
24.75 Hz (Tenughat), 32.25 Hz (Barh), 33.73 Hz
(Kahalgaon 247 MVA).
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3.2 Typical Sub Synchronous Torsional

Oscillation Damping Controller
(i)
Without SSTI damping control
Torsional oscillations in Barh generator shaft gets

amplified as shown in Fig 11. The 24.2 Hz torsional
mode of Barh generators is amplified and over the
time system goes unstable. Such a case in actual
generators will result in fatigue of shafts (due to
twisting forces acting on shafts).
At increased firing angle, problem of sub
synchronous torsional interaction is more
pronounced as damping offered by HVDC goes more
negative. Also if size of generator is large, possibility
of SSTI increases.
Fig. 10 : Structure of typical SSTI damping controller
The SSDC controller damps out sub synchronous

oscillations by modulation of firing angle or current
order. The modulation of current order, is preferred
over firing angle, for damping control to avoid
disturbances caused by noise. This is due to filtering
of current order in P-I controller, which will eliminate
disturbances due to noise.
The modulation of current order and firing angle has
been limited to 5% of rated current and 5 degrees
respectively.
3.3 Study Results

Sub synchronous resonance is small signal stability
related problem. If this problem exist, disturbances
such as an AC system fault near generator will initiate
the sub synchronous oscillations. Then the oscillation
will built up in shaft connected masses in turbine
generators system.
Fig 11: Torque deviations without SSTI damping control
(ii) With SSTI damping control

After enabling SSTI damping control in HVDC
stability functions, DC current order is modified to
damp out the sub synchronous oscillations. The
SSDC control modifies current order in ramp manner,
so as to bring smooth changes in the current order.
After detecting SSTI oscillations, the SSTI damping
control becomes fully operative after about 1-1.5
seconds.
The multi-mass turbine-generator system for Barh

generators was modelled in RSCAD. The SSTI
damping control is part of control and protection
cubicles, which are Hardware-In-Loop connected
with RTDS setup.
As a worst case scenario for occurrence of sub
synchronous oscillations, on Ballia side, islanded
operation of rectifier is considered with Barh
generators (3 x 660 MW). The power transmission
through HVDC is set as 1800 MW from Ballia to
Bhiwadi. Then a phase to earth fault was created to
initiate sub synchronous oscillations. The fault was
applied on Ballia - Barh transmission line to observe
action of SSTI damping control.
Fig. 12: Torque deviations with SSTI damping control
The DC current order modulation for the HVDC link

is shown in Figure 13.
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Fig 13: DC Current order modulation by SSTI damping control
4.
CONCLUSION
This paper has presented the stability functions of

HVDC system and demonstration of the
effectiveness of stability functions by closed loop
testing of HVDC controllers replica of 500 kV, 2500
MW BalliaBhiwadi Bipole HVDC link of
POWERGRID, using Real Time Simulator installed
at POWERGRID, Gurgaon.
Two number of simulation cases, Power Oscillation
Damping (POD) and Sub Synchronous Torsional
Interaction (SSTI) damping were presented along
with analysis of performance and effectiveness of
HVDC controller. The power system oscillations in
both cases were effectively damped out by the
controller and the connected AC system is stable.
The post fault frequency and voltages are stable
without any change in final value.
It is seen that the key stability functions of
+/- 500 kV, 2500 MW Ballia Bhiwadi Bipole HVDC
link have the capacity to effectively damp the
oscillations generated due to AC system disturbances
with fast controller action and optimum response.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
Resources at Power System simulator lab at

POWERGRID, Gurgaon.
2.
He, J.; Lu, C.; Wu, X.; Li, P.; Wu, J., Design and
experiment of wide area HVDC supplementary
damping controller considering time delay in

China southern power grid, Generation,
Transmission & Distribution, IET , Vol. 3, no.1,
pp. 17,25, January 2009.
3.
EPRI Report EL-2708, HVDC System Control

for Damping Sub synchronous Oscillations,
Final Report of Project RP1425-1, Prepared by
General Electric Company , October 1982.
4.
Smed, T.; Andersson, G., Utilizing HVDC to

damp power oscillations, Power Delivery, IEEE
Transactions on, Vol. 3, no. 2, pp.620,627,
Apr 1993.
5.
To, K.W.V.; David, A.K.; Hammad, A.E., A

robust co-ordinated control scheme for HVDC
transmission with parallel AC systems, Power
Delivery, IEEE Transactions on , Vol. 3, no. 3,
pp.1710,1716, Jul 1994.
6.
Piwko, R.J.; Larsen, E.V., HVDC System

Control for Damping of Subsynchronous
Oscillations, Power Apparatus and Systems,
IEEE Transactions on, Vol. PAS-101, no. 7,
pp. 2203, 2211, July 1982.
7.
Changchun Zhou; Zheng Xu, Damping analysis

of subsynchronous oscillation caused by
HVDC, Transmission and Distribution
Conference and Exposition, 2003 IEEE PES,
Vol. 1, no., pp. 30,34 Vol. 1, 7-12 Sept. 2003.
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STATCOM and Hybrid STATCOM Solutions Based on

Chan-Link Multilevel Converter Technology for
the Electrical Transmission Network
S. Hutchinson1
M. Halonen2
ABB, Sweden
SUMMARY
Todays electric power transmission grid is evergrowing, and the demand for flexible ac
transmission systems (FACTS) such as the Static
Var Compensator (SVC) and STATCOM are
increasing with it. Rising costs and increased
environmental concerns make it more difficult to
build new power generation and transmission
facilities, and the need for renewable penetration
in the electric power grid puts additional
constraints on these efforts. These challenges
among many others create a demand for
innovative solutions to increase efficiency in
power transmission and to integrate renewable
energy sources, and these solutions must be
tailored for the specific needs of each power grid.
SVC Light is ABBs brand name for its STATCOM
technology, and the newest development for SVC
Light utilizes the chain-link multilevel converter
concept to provide a unique solution to these
growing demands. SVC and STATCOM systems
can provide reliable reactive power support to
the grid during steady state conditions to increase
transmission capacity and prevent voltage
collapse as well as act quickly during transient
disturbances to help support the network and
supply additional transient stability.
This paper intends to: (1) address the working
principles of the multilevel chain-link STATCOM
technology along with some of its inherent
advantages, (2) introduce the newest member of
the FACTS family, the Hybrid STATCOM,
1
2
shane.r.hutchinson@us.abb.com
mikael.halonen@se.abb.com
(3) provide a brief comparative analysis of the

SVC, STATCOM, and Hybrid STATCOM systems,
and 4) give an overview of some of the key issues
in electrical transmission networks related to the
design of such systems.
Keywords: STATCOM, Hybrid, SVC, SVC Light,
chain-link, multilevel, FACTS, Voltage Source
Converter (VSC), Thyristor Switched Capacitor
(TSC), Thyristor Switched Reactor (TSR)
1.
SVC LIGHT INTRODUCTION
SVC Light is ABBs brand name for its STATCOM

technology. The newest development of SVC Light
builds on the legacy of clean, reliable reactive power
supply and utilizes the chain-link modular multilevel
(MMC) converter concept to provide a unique
solution to growing demands in the power system.
FACTS technologies have been installed around the
world since the early 1950s. ABB helped to pioneer
the development in ac/dc converter applications for
HVDC and STATCOMs in the late 1990s. Over the
years, these versatile concepts have been well proven
for many applications in transmission grids to help
stabilize and support the network during steady-state
and transient conditions. SVC Light was first
introduced in 1997 and has been continually
improved and developed since then to deliver robust,
reliable reactive power to the grid through voltage
source converter (VSC) technology. Further
developments in recent years have combined the
VSC technology with that of SVC classic thyristor
switched capacitor (TSC) and reactor (TSR) branches
to create a Hybrid STATCOM solution [1]. This enables
superior performance over the full dynamic range as
compared to the classical SVC.
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The first STATCOM installations made use of 2- and

3-level converter schemes [2], which will be discussed
in section 2.1. A low-order harmonic filter was
necessary in these early installations to prevent the
harmonics generated by the STATCOM from
negatively impacting power quality on the grid.
Recent advances in the technology (i.e. the use of
MMC) has helped to eliminate the need for low-order
harmonic filters in most applications.
2.
MULTILEVEL TECHNOLOGY
The main difference in the new generation of SVC

Light is the multilevel chain-link configuration of
the VSC branch. This chapter will further describe
its working principles and effectiveness.
2.1 Working Principles

2-Level and 3-Level converters
Level in this context refers to the number of dc
voltage positions available when synthesizing a
sinusoidal wave form. See the figure below.
In Figure 1(a), there are two possible positions when
operating the switches, either Ud+ or Ud-. In Figure
1(b), there are three possible positions since the dc
capacitor has been split into two parts with four
switches to select between positions. These positions
correspond to U d+, U d-, and also a zero-voltage
position.
Once the low order harmonics are filtered out, the
produced choppy waveforms will look like
fundamental frequency sinusoids and can be
synthesized based on the voltage at the Point of
Common Coupling (PCC) to be either capacitive or
inductive, that is to produce either a leading or lagging

current.
Multilevel chain-link converters
The multilevel chain-link solution is built up by
linking H-bridge modules in series with one another
to form one phase leg of the VSC branch. Figure 2(a)
shows a single H-bridge with 4 IGBTs, and
Figure 2(b) shows a configuration in which four Hbridge modules make up each of the three phase legs.
In Figure 2(a), there are three possible voltage levels
depending on the switching arrangement of the
IGBTs: +Udc, -Udc, and a zero-voltage, similar to the
3-level converter shown in Figure 1(b). For the case
with 4 modules connected serially as in Figure 2(b),
there are 9 possible voltage levels: 4 in the positive
direction, 4 in the negative direction, and a zerovoltage, depending on how the IGBTs are switched.
It is noted that the more modules included in the
design, the smoother the waveform will be. The
number of series-connected modules is primarily
determined based on the power rating of the
STATCOM. Additional modules may be necessary
depending on requirements for overvoltage ridethrough (see section 4) and harmonic distortion. The
waveform can be further synthesized by use of pulsewidth modulation (PWM) to reduce the lower level
harmonics present. Signals with PWM processing to
match a sinusoidal reference can be seen in Figure 4
in the next section.
Practically, the implementation of an MMC
converter-based SVC Light can be seen in Figure 3.
Note that this implementation shows 8 modules in
series as opposed to the 4 shown in the example
above. One of the main differences with this design
as opposed to 2- or 3-level is that the dc link is
distributed into several separate capacitors as can
be seen in the single line in Figure 2(b) and in the
photograph in Figure 3. Each IGBT is inside of a
modular housing which is made up of a number of
sub-modules of enhanced Press-Pack type
semiconductor chips which have passed rigorous
failure mode and safety tests.
2.2 Why Multilevel?

(a) 2-level
(b) 3-level
Fig. 1: 2- and 3-level converter topologies (single phase)
The shift from 2- and 3-level converter technology

to multilevel for SVC Light has been based on a
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number advantages, the most important of which

are outlined in this section.
(a) H-bridge with IGBTs

(single phase)
(b) 3-phase chain-link

of H-bridges
Fig. 2: Multilevel chain-link converter setup
Harmonics and Power Quality

First, as discussed previously in section 2.1 the
multilevel converter can deliver a smoother wave
shape (i.e. less harmonics) with a lower switching
frequency per each module. This concept is
illustrated in Figure 4.
Notice that for the 2 and 3 level converter configurations, there are significant amounts of lower order
harmonics. These harmonics drive the need for filters
in 2 and 3 level converter based STATCOM
installaions. When the multilevel chain-link concept
is applied, these harmonics decrease in magnitude
and are pushed to higher frequencies as can be seen
in the bottom two plots in Figure 4(b).
Absence of low-order filters
Fig. 3: Modular H-bridge units, 2 stacks of 4 modules each
Because of the reduced harmonics at lower orders,

it is possible for the majority of cases to exclude
low-order filters from the design of a multilevel
converter based on VSC technology. This is a great
advantage as harmonic filter design can be
cumbersome and is heavily dependent on the
impedance of the network. This typically requires
complex studies to be performed to evaluate
harmonic impedances in the network and are only
valid for the cases which are studied, which means
(a) PWM and voltage reference sinusoid
(b) Voltage harmonics in per unit by integer number
Fig. 4: Harmonics in various converter topologies
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that if there are major changes to the network the

impedance will change and thereby effect the
performance of the filters. STATCOM systems based
on MMC technology are therefore more networkindependent than 2- or 3-level STATCOMs or
classical SVCs, which all require low order filter
design [3].
Reduced footprint
In addition to the reduced complexity of design due
to the absence of low-order filters, the reduction in
required area (or footprint) for a STATCOM
installation using MMC technology is an obvious
advantage. Low-order filters require a large space
on site, and this space is not necessary for most
multilevel chain-link converter STATCOMs. In
Figure 5, a typical SVC Light layout can be seen for
a 100 MVAR VSC.
This layout would need to be expanded if using
Thyristor Switched Capacitors (TSCs) and Thyristor
Switched Reactors (TSRs) to create a Hybrid
STATCOM solution as there would be space needed
for the thyristor valves and the additional main
components and buswork. It is noted that a similar
sized SVC installation might require twice the area
of the VSC-only example in Figure 5.
Modularity
Another advantage of the lack of low-order filters is
the ability to standardize components in the
STATCOM system due to less need to rate for
harmonic currents and voltages. The valves,
buildings, and topologies can all be modularized for
specific market needs. Overall, this would reduce
cost in the long run for markets which have continued

demands for STATCOMs.
Losses
The multilevel concept can use relatively low
switching frequencies to produce a similar switching
pattern as a comparable 2- or 3-level converter due
to the fact that the series modules can stagger their
switching patterns to come up with a higher
effective switching frequency. This means that 10
modules switching in a staggered arrangement would
have an effective switching frequency which is 10
times higher than that of the individual IGBT
switching frequencies. The main impact of this is on
lowering the losses of the STATCOM, as less frequent
switching means less switching losses.
3.
STATCOM AND HYBRID STATCOM

TOPOLOGIES
The V/I curve is a useful tool to see how a device

will operate in the network, and is particularly useful
to evaluate under- and over-voltage abilities of the
various FACTS devices. This section will examine
the V/I characteristic of a typical STATCOM and
compare it to that of a classical SVC as well as a
Hybrid STATCOM.
The classical SVC V/I characteristic is plotted in
Figure 6(a). V/I diagrams for STATCOM and Hybrid
STATCOM solutions can be seen in Figure 6(b) and
(c), respectively. For undervoltages, the STATCOM
has superior reactive power compensation as
compared to an SVC for similar sizing at 1 pu voltage.
This can be seen by the fact that the current remains
constant at low voltages. For a classical SVC on the
Fig. 5: SVC Light typical layout (100 Mvar)
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(a) SVC
(b) VSC-only STATCOM
(c) Hybrid STATCOM
Fig 6: V/I diagrams for SVC, STATCOM and Hybrid STATCOM
other hand, the current decreases linearly as the

voltage decreases meaning that the reactive power
will be less as compared to the STATCOM by a factor
of V (per-unit voltage). On the other side, a classical
SVC will outperform a STATCOM during overvoltage
disturbances for similar sizing at 1 pu voltage (see
the right-hand side of the V/I diagram). For each extra
amount of voltage at the SVC point of common
coupling (PCC), it will return more current and
therefore more reactive power by a factor of V (perunit voltage) as compared to a STATCOM. More on
overvoltage ride-through in Section 4.
It is noted that while a VSC solution may be needed
for a particular transmission application, in many
cases (especially for very large MVAR operating
ranges) the power from the VSC must also be
supplemented by added thyristor-switched (TSC/
TSR) branches to achieve the desired Mvar output.
This creates what is known as a Hybrid STATCOM
solution, combining the technologies of SVC classic
and STATCOM. In some cases, there could also be
some required capacitive offset due to telephone
interference and network harmonic requirements.
This would shift the entire V/I characteristic in the

capacitive direction. For applications with less strict
dynamic requirements (i.e. reaction time and
consecutive number of switching operations),
mechanically switched capacitors and/or reactors
(MSC/MSR) may be used instead of faster thyristorswitched branches.
Figure 7 shows one line diagrams of new STATCOM
systems, the multilevel SVC Light. Combining the
best of STATCOM technology with conventional
thyristor based SVC technology will optimize the
power system performance for under-voltage
performance, over-voltage performance, TOV at
fault clearing, losses, speed of response, reliability,
etc.
STATCOM or Hybrid STATCOM systems for
transmission applications normally make use of a
power transformer between the power grid and the
medium voltage (MV) busbar. On this bus a VSC is
connected in series with a coupling reactor. In
addition, thyristor controlled reactors and capacitors
or mechanically switched capacitors and reactors can
be used. The voltage on the MV bus is typically in
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April 8-10
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the range of 15-30 kV irrespective of the voltage

level on the mains. A normal transformer turn ratio
is 400/25 kV. This large ratio results in very high
short circuit currents on the MV bus, frequently in
the range of 50-90 kA (rms symmetrical).
MSCs and MSRs in STATCOM hybrid solutions
provide reactive power support during steady-state
conditions and replace one or several TSCs/TCRs/
TSRs. It is preferable to locate the MSC or MSR on
the primary bus to reduce the size of the transformer
and minimize the stress on the breaker elements.
Mechanically switched banks have relatively low
losses and the capital cost is lower compared to a
topology based on thyristor switched elements.
Although such external devices are relatively simple
and fairly economical, they come with some
disadvantages which have to be taken into
consideration. Among these are (a) the obvious
discharge time of MSC banks of several minutes
before re-energization, (b) the overall limited number
of switching cycles of a circuit breaker reducing the
overall flexibility of the installation, (c) difficulty to
find a breaker which fulfills the requirements of a
medium voltage and high current, and (d) slower
reaction time compared to thyristor-based solutions.
Regarding point c above, it is essential that the
breaker switched elements (i.e. MSCs and MSRs) are
only to be used for steady state base load. It must
be controlled in a way so that switching is minimized.
The number of allowed circuit breaker operations is
typically in the range of 2000-3000.
4.
STATCOMS
FOR
ELECTRICAL
TRANSMISSION NETWORKS
There are many criteria that need to be considered

when designing a STATCOM; many more than can
(a) STATCOM
(b) Hybrid STATCOM-VSC/TSC/TSR
be discussed in a paper of this scope. However, it is

important to point out a few of these which are
specific to a STATCOM system that is intended for
application in an electrical transmission network (as
opposed to a lower-kV distribution network for
example). A few such criterion are: overvoltage ride
through, undervoltage ride through, and reliability/
availability.
Overvoltage ride through
For overvoltages in the network, an SVC has superior
voltage support as compared to a STATCOM. This is
due to the fact that the Mvar output of an SVC varies
with the square of the voltage (i.e. as voltage
increases, the Mvar output increases quadratically).
For a STATCOM, as voltage increases the Mvar
output increases linearly. However, as shown in
section 3, if a TSR branch is added to the VSC to
create a Hybrid STATCOM solution, the solution can
take advantage of the inherent ability of the reactor
to consume Mvar during overvoltages.
Most power utility applications for FACTS devices
include an overvoltage profile for which the device
must remain in service at full inductive conduction
without blocking/tripping. This can be seen for
example in IEEE 1031-2011[4], where the following
overload curve is given.
Although this curve is intended for use in specifying
SVCs, the same should be valid for STATCOM
applications since they are frequently specified
together as alternatives.
The important thing for a STATCOM during operation
in overvoltage conditions such as this is that the
device should not block or trip but rather provide
full inductive output in order to ensure that the grid
voltage is stabilized. This requires that the
(c) Hybrid STATCOM - VSC/MSC/MSR
Fig 7: STATCOM and Hybrid STATCOM topologies
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April 8-10
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STATCOM be sized appropriately (i.e. the number

of series-connected valve modules should be
increased) in order to accommodate an overload
requirement. This has been the design philosophy
for SVC classic installations for decades and so should
also apply for STATCOM and Hybrid STATCOM
systems.
Undervoltage ride through
During undervoltages, it is known that a STATCOM
has superior voltage support capability as compared
to an SVC of similar size. This can be clearly seen
when comparing the V/I characteristic curves for
SVCs and STATCOMs in Section 3. The Mvar output
of a STATCOM is linearly dependent on voltage,
whereas the Mvar from an SVC varies based on the
voltage squared due to the physical constraints of
the capacitors.
Reliability and availability
Dynamic shunt compensation such as SVC and
STATCOMs are installed in electric power
transmission grids as a kind-of power system
insurance to support the system during severe
contingency conditions, and so they should act when
they are needed. It is therefore essential to consider
reliability and availability of the installed device
when specifying and designing. SVCs traditionally
have a high degree of reliability with 2-3 forced stops
per year (due to component malfunction, lightning
strikes, or the like) and availability figures greater
than or equal to 99%. STATCOMs therefore should
be required to have at a minimum these requirements
for reliability and availability.
5.
Fig 8: IEEE 1031-2011 Overload profile for SVC
reliable reactive power supply and included

multilevel modular chain-link converter technology
for added benefits of reduced harmonics, smaller
footprint, and less losses. The multilevel VSC branch
may be combined with TSC and TSR branches (or
MSC/MSR branches for applications with less strict
dynamic requirements) to form a Hybrid STATCOM
solution.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
M. Ibrahim and M. Halonen, Dynamic Shunt

Compensation for Power Utility Application,
in Cigre-GCC Power, Bahrain, 2014.
2.
R. Grunbaum, T. Larsson and B. RateringSchnitzler, SVC Light: A utilitys aid to

restructuring its grid, in IEEE PES winter
meeting, 2000.
3.
A. H. Al-Mubarak, B. Thorvaldsson, M. Halonen

and M. Z. Al-Kadhem, Hybrid and Classic SVC
technology for improved efficiency and
reliability in Saudi transmission grid, in IEEE
PES Transmission and Distribution Conference
and Exposition, Chicago, 2014.
SUMMARY
In conclusion, ABBs latest version of the SVC Light

STATCOM technology has built upon the legacy of
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MVDC The New Technology for Distribution Networks

Lalit Tejwani1
RongXin Power Electronic India Pvt Ltd, India
Ashish Bangar
RongXin Power Engineering, UK
SUMMARY
This paper will provide an update on the current
state of the art with regards to the use of Medium
Voltage DC links to provide transmission network
style flexibility to constrained distribution
networks.
MVDC is starting to be considered as an option
for enhancing transfer capacity and providing
increased power quality at distribution networks.
There is a term starting to be used of soft openpoint which can provide controlled power
transfer between two 11kV or 33kV distribution
groups, without affecting shortcircuit levels,
voltage differences, loop flows or limitations due
to phase-angle differences. The 4-quadrant
converters can also provide reactive power
support and voltage control at each end of the link
and multi-terminal is also feasible. There are
future technology opportunities including
enhancement of existing corridors through the
conversion of existing AC lines to DC.
This paper will provide a technology update as
well as information on recently deployed projects
ranging from linking of oil and gas platforms,
through to an urban infeed. It will summarise the
benefits of MVDC and the applications where it
may provide a competitive or preferential
alternative solution to conventional technology.
RXPE is part of a national project in China to
develop a number of new key technologies
including MV level DC/DC transformers and a cost
effective and practical MVDC circuit breaker. For
many years we have been leading the
development of multi-level converters for utility
applications, starting with Statcoms and now for
VSC-HVDC.
1
Lalit.tejwani@rxpe.co.uk
Keywords: MVDC, Distribution, Soft open-point,

VSC
1.
INTRODUCTION
In DC circles, the story of the battle between the

currents is well known and is almost slipping into
popular folklore via recent media conversations such
as War of the Currents Tesla Vs Edison [1].
For those unaware of this past battle, in contrast to
todays power systems, the first commercial
distribution of electrical energy was realized using
direct current (DC). Edisons Pearl Street installation
was commissioned in 1882, featuring a 24-km long
two-wire cable system of copper conductors that
distributed electricity at a voltage of 110 V for
incandescent lighting in Lower Manhattan, New
York. But, due to the high losses caused by the low
distribution voltage, the dc technology at that time
was outperformed in terms of efficiency by its
alternating current (AC) counterpart, which was
developed in the middle of the 1880s by
Westinghouse (Tesla). The ac system could use
transformers (a voltage converter invented and
patented first in Europe) to step up the generator
voltage to high levels, that are suitable for longdistance transmission of electric power.
Consequently, the medium-voltage alternating
current
distribution
and
transmission
system operated with lower currents and had
considerably lower losses than low-voltage DC
systems.
Consequently, with the state-of-the-art technology
in those early days, ac systems could provide a higher
efficiency. Soon after, thanks to the invention of the
transformer, three-phase AC transmission and
distribution systems became and have been ever
since the cornerstone of efficient and reliable
electricity supplies system.
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Today, owing to considerable progress in the fields

of power semiconductor devices and cable
technology, DC is becoming a more significant
component of the modern power system, and some
are talking of a second battle in years to come of AC
versus DC.
At the Distribution Network level (<33kV), the AC
versus DC challenge is more complex compared to
Transmission Network level. In Distribution, DC is
completing against a well established, mature and
low cost infrastructure base. Therefore the advantages
of MVDC need to overcome a number of competitor
strengths as well as its own disadvantages. However,
in the current niche of applications, MVDC does offer
some significant benefits that conventional
technology struggles to offer cost effective or
practical solutions. Once MVDC technology gains a
foothold and industry familiarity, then volume
economics can start to kick-in, and it can be expected
to see an increase in the number of applications and
deployments.
The discussion on MVDC is not only limited to
Distribution Networks as Offshore Windfarm
collector arrays are another area that there is much
discussion. This paper is focused only on use for
Distribution Networks, although the principles and
technology are applicable provided the appropriate
marinisation steps are taken.
2.
SCOPE OF MVDC
Recent surveys have shown that loads being served

by todays alternating current (AC) power grids are
increasingly natively DC [2,3]. In fact, according to
some estimates, approximately 80% of loads in
commercial and residential structures are now DC.
Given the enormous political and policy support for
inverter-based native DC power sources such as PV,
it makes sense to reduce DC-AC-DC conversion
losses and integrate DC distribution networks into
the power supply infrastructure where practical.
The market for direct current (DC) distribution
networks is not a single, cohesive market. Rather, it
encompasses several disparate opportunities utility
networks, offshore networks, data centres, green
telecommunications towers, DC subsystems within
grid-tied commercial buildings, and off-grid military
networks. These all revolve around different market
assumptions, dynamics, and drivers. This paper is

focused on the application of DC to utility
distribution networks and leaves discussion on the
other applications and LVDC to another paper.
2.1 MVDC for Utility Distribution Networks

MVDC is starting to be considered as an option for
enhancing transfer capacity and providing increased
power quality at distribution networks. As a simple
MVDC system consists of fullycontrolled
converters, then it creates a number of useful
opportunities for a utility that are not available using
conventional technology.
The challenges facing Distribution Utilities in the
modern era are multi-faceted ranging from increased
pressure on investment and operational efficiency,
restricted corridors for expansion, ageing equipment,
legacy systems and rapid growth in embedded
generation. At the high-level the following are some
of the Site Characteristics where MVDC may provide
a beneficial business case for deployment:
Long overhead line circuits
Urban cable circuits
Circuits through highly constrained or sensitive

areas
Fault-level constrained but capacity increase

required
Phase-angles across transmission in-feeds
Neighbouring feeders with different load factors

or power quality that linking will release
additional capacity
MV groups with voltage and power-flow

challenges
The benefits of the use of MVDC can be summarised

as:
Better utilisation of existing network assets.
Deferred / avoided investment in network

reinforcement.
Reduced losses in other equipment.
Power electronics do not contribute fault current

so protection arrangements unchanged.
Short circuit levels, voltage differences, loop

flows or limitations due to phase-angle
differences unaffected.
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The 4-quadrant converters can also provide

reactive power support and voltage control at
each end of the link and multi terminal is also
feasible.
MVDC does have some complicating factors that

need to be considered such as:
Short lifetime equipment (~15-25yrs compared

to 30-40yrs) incurs greater replacement costs;
this needs to be factored into any business case.
Substation space still required for DC converters

even if provided as containerised solutions.
MVDC losses are higher than transformers or

circuit-breakers, so losses need to be considered
at an overall network level.
The following sections consider the use of MVDC at

an individual substation level as well as at a network
level.
2.2 Substation Reinforcement Opportunities

MVDC can be used at a substation level to provide
increased power transfer capacity in situations where
the up-rating cables and transformers is disruptive,
expensive and hard to achieve. Some of these options
include:
Prevent voltage limits impinging before thermal

limits by increasing the control options in the
network.
Dynamically rebalancing voltage and flows to

avoid limit on individual phase.
Even up loading between transformers or create

new routes power between substations or parts
of substations.
Alleviate power quality problems by splitting
These can be achieved by using MVDC in a

configuration by the so-called Soft Open Point
(SOP) application (Figure 1). This is essentially two
power converters connected in a back to back

arrangement across a conventional Open-Point, or
busbar section.
MVDC in a back-to-back configuration can provide
soft-open point capability to improve power
balancing at heavily loaded substations and improve
reliability, while maintaining short-circuit levels
within circuit-breaker ratings. These back-to-back
configurations also allow the system to overcome
potential phase-angle differences and circulating
power-flows when the MV substations are fed from
different transmission infeeds.
By using the controllable power transfer capability,
and individual voltage control capabilities of each
converter, it is possible to dynamically force active
power flows to balance feeders (and phase loadings),
and thereby better utilise the existing network
capacity.
This has further advantages where it is not otherwise
possible to close up this open-point due to loopflows, short-circuit levels, voltage limits, or poor
power quality on one of the groups.
2.3 Corridor Reinforcement Opportunities

At HV transmission level, there has previously been
discussion and feasibility studies to convert an
existing AC right of way to DC, as there can be
considerable increases in power transfer. This
becomes particularly important where the corridor
is highly constrained for non-electrical reasons such
as environmental restrictions or restricted corridor
width.
MVDC can provide capacity increases on existing
MV circuits through a combination of increased
current and voltage operation and avoidance of
voltage drop, phase-angle and power-factor
limitations. MV here is defined as from 10 kV up to
70kV - but is not a limiting term.
Fig. 1: 12 MVA / 11 kV Soft Open Point formed with back-to-back converters
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MV networks typically only have a maximum of four

terminals within a specific protection group, therefore
limiting the likely maximum number of converter
stations within a specific multi-terminal group.
Within each protection group the circuit breakers
are only at each end, therefore for a MVDC equivalent
there is no requirement for DC circuit breakers.
In the UK, 33 kV circuits are typically in the order
of 20-25MVA and 300-400A continuous winter
rating. They are generally operated with a single
earthing point at the bulk supply substation feeding
from 132kV, remote ends are delta connected without
earthing transformers. The 33 kV networks are often
operated as part of a ring or mesh system, or as radial
circuits in parallel with separate supply points and
then interconnected on the 11 kV busbar of the
secondary substations to provide security.
By converting a specific 33kV circuit or group to
MVDC, it is in theory possible to increase the specific
transfer capacity of that circuit compared to the
nominal AC rating. Clearly as this is now fully
controllable, it may have additional network capacity
increases (i.e. removal of power-flow or voltage
limitations). The MVDC capacity increase is based
on the following fundamentals:
DC able to use full peak voltage capability of

AC circuits compared to the RMS rating (1.4x)
DC does not suffer from skin effect so potential

for increased current capability without
affecting sag (1.1x)
DC will need metallic return so can only utilise

2 of 3 conductors on single circuit (0.67x)
Existing 33kV AC circuits run with single ground

point at BSP, AC insulation rated for 1.7x
nominal voltage for single-phase voltage
displacement at remote ends. DC does not have
voltage displacement if grounded at both ends,
therefore can utilise full insulation capacity
(1.7x)
Fig. 2 : MVDC corridor capacity enhancement
DC creepage and contamination issues may require

increased safety factors so reducing away from
theoretical voltage capabilities.
If a double-circuit is available, then the third wire
can be also utilised for current transfer and the
theoretical transfer capacity can be increased
significantly.
It is possible in the MVDC configuration to include
hybrid operation of the existing cable or overhead
line to provide fail-safe use for consumer security in
event of converter maintenance/failure by reverting
to AC operation. This could also provide a loss
reduction option of operating at AC at low loads and
would only require a bypass switch at each
substation terminal.
Clearly before any conversion of an existing AC
circuit, it is important to test and verify the
performance of all affected equipment such as
insulators, line isolators, cables and cable joints under
DC conditions.
3.
MVDC CASE STUDY - WENCHANG

PROJECT
By combining these factors together, the total

theoretical increase from simple conversion of single
circuit 33kV AC to MVDC can be shown up to 185%.
This is based on the following comparison for a
typical point to point application:
Recently a revolutionary MVDC system has been

provided for CNOOC as part of the Wenchang 191A to 14-3A platform submarine cable repair project.
This was provided by the specialist power electronic
equipment manufacturing RXPE on a turn-key basis.
AC: 400A at 33kV gives 21.7MW at 0.95pf
DC: 440A at 45kV gives 40MW with 0.9pf

(assumes 45MVA converter)
The Wengchang project was started in 2010 as a result

of customer negotiations and participation with the
RXPE business, product development and
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engineering departments to help address the urgent

loss of supply security problem.
connect at MV AC voltage levels to remove the

requirement for external transformers.
3.1 Problem: Failed Transmission Cable Phase
Each end of the link was installed into marinised

containers, fully tested onshore before being
transferred to the offshore platforms and installed.
Initially, the power transmission between Wengchang

off-shore drilling platforms 19 1A and 14 3A
used three 29.2 km long single phase submarine
cables. Due to the switching surge impact damaging
the insulation of one of the cables, the power
transmission between the two platforms was
interrupted, and so only Diesel Generator could be
used on the remote platform.
However, the reliance on the Diesel generator was
undesirable to the client due to the following reasons:
High cost of operation and maintenance.
Serious air and noise pollution.
Limited generator capacity.
Serious energy waste.
The alternative to MVDC for CNOOC was to install

additional submarine cables and surge mitigation
equipment. This was viewed as time-consuming and
expensive.
3.2 Solution: MVDC Converter

Extensive joint design evaluation was undertaken
before settling on their existing high power MV drive
platform to form the technology platform for the
MVDC application. This is a multiple branch
converter topology that has good efficiency,
flexibility, modular configuration, and can directly
Using the MVDC system, the remaining two phases

of AC submarine cables with good insulation serve
as the positive and negative DC cables, and the
damaged phase served as the neutral line. Power was
then transported to the 14-3A platform via the MVDC
link from 19-1A. The 14-3A platform inverter device
then transforms the DC into AC, and supplies power
for the 14-3A, 8-3A and 8-3B platforms via the
existing AC distribution network.
The MVDC was configured as a symmetrical bipole,
such that the positive and negative poles are identical
and each pole can work independently of the other
to provide security of supply to the remote
platforms. Powerflow was predominantly unidirectional from 19-1A to 14-3A.
The MVDC system main parameters are:
Rectifier Substation (19 1A)
Converters:
2 x 4MVA, AC 10.5 kV / DC 15 kV
Transformer:
10.5 KV / 1320 V x 8, 400 V x 1

(auxiliary), 4 MVA
Power module:
AC Input 1320 V, DC Output 1860

V, Rated Power 500 kVA
Valves:
8 power modules connected series

on DC side, DC output 15 kV
Fig. 3: 8 MVA / 15 kV MVDC project
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DC reactor:
0.5 mH, DC 15 kV / 400 A
Dimension:
Two containers, each 6m x 5m x 4.5m
Inverter Substation (14 3A)

Converters:
4MVA, DC 15 kV / AC 400 V, AC
35 kV
Transformer:
400 V x 14 / 400 V x 1, 35 kV x
1, 400 V x 1 (auxiliary), 4MVA
Power module:
DC Input 1100 V, AC Output 400

V, Rated Power 285 kVA
Valves:
14 power modules connected

series on DC side, AC output 400 V
DC reactor:
0.5 mH, DC 15 kV / 400 A
Dimension:
Two power module containers,

each 6m x 2.7m x 2.9m; one
transformer container, 9.6m x
2.8m x 2.3 m; one reactor
container, 9.6m x 2.8m x 2.1 m
Performance Feedback
The MVDC installation has been operating
successfully since its installation in 2013, with good
availability and reliability, and the project has
satisfied the client requirements.
CNOOC has subsequently deployed a second

MVDC system to link an additional two platforms
on another group. A technology demonstrator
project has also recently been implemented using
the same technology for an distribution utility
providing MVDC infeed to a constrained urban
substation.
4.
MVDC CASE STUDY DC

DISTRIBUTION TECHNOLOGY
DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
There is a China National Project currently underway

to develop and trial next generation DC Distribution
Network technology. This is to undertake key
technology research and application for VSC-DC
intelligent distribution grids. The project forms part
of the national high-tech research and development
plan (863 plan) Sub-topics 4. The responsible
partners are: RXPE, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen
power supply bureau, Zhejiang University, and CSG
Academy of Sciences.
The topic purpose can be summarised as follows:
Improve power supply capacity, solving

distribution corridor limiting problem
Fig. 4 : 8 MVA / 15kV MVDC project SLD
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Fig. 5 : Wengchang MVDC project installed (14-1A)
Improve power quality, solving the problem of

sensitivity of emerging industries for voltage
quality
Renewable energy through DC connected into

grid, improve reliability and utilisation.
4.2 MVDC Secondary Transformer
Key technology and application research to be

undertaken on DC Distribution grid as part of this
project includes:
1.
Two different operating principles are being

investigated as part of this project, one based on a
power electronic switch, and the other based on
artificial zero-crossing.
Research of intelligent DC distribution network

basic topology and optimisation.
2.
DC Distribution grid grounding method research
3.
LV DC Distribution network voltage level

selection
4.
DC distribution network energy storage

equipment optimal selection and capacity
configuration research.
Some of the specific tasks being undertaking are to

develop and test some of the new equipment that
will be required if DC distribution networks are to
become a reality. The specific equipment being
developed and tested as part of this project are:
4.1 MVDC Circuit Breaker

This is to undertake the theoretic research and
develop an engineering prototype of an MVDC circuit
breaker. The specified parameters are a rated voltage
of 7.5kVdc with a 5ms interrupt time and 1kA
rated current.
This is to undertake the theoretic research and

develop an engineering prototype of a secondary
substation to provide step-down from MVDC to
LVDC.
The specified parameters are rated DC voltages of
7.5kV/400V, and a rated power of 200kW. This is
only required to be uni-directional at this stage.
Two technology proposals being considered, the first
using a high frequency transformer and MV inverter
with a simple diode bridge LV stage. The second
approach is to use a multi-branch topology with
bridges in series on the MV side, and parallel on the
LV side and multiple smaller isolation transformers.
4.3 MVDC Application Standard

A final important part of the project is to develop an
initial standard of MVDC for the china power
industry. This is an important step in developing the
supply chain as well as industry acceptance in the
technology and application.
4.4 Project Timeline

Project timeline is to run from August 2013 Dec
2015. This project under-pins part of the wider drive
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towards better understanding the application,

opportunity and resolving barriers to the deployment
of DC distribution networks.
5.
CONCLUSION
This paper has hopefully shown to the reader the

technology and justifications behind MVDC and that
there is a place for MVDC within todays distribution
networks. While still arguably niche applications at
this stage, there is growing awareness and wider
industry movements suggesting that there may be a
coming rematch of the classic Battle of the
Currents.
It is also important to note that this is not just a
technology for mature networks, but also has
significant application and relevance for developing
countries facing rapid demand growth and the need
to maximise available network and generation
resources.
distribution system. At present, much of the majority

of progress in developing DC-based technologies has
occurred at either the EHV (>100kV) or low voltage
(<100V) level of electricity service. Since
distribution networks have a different set of
requirements to Transmission and Microgrids, much
work still needs to be done to bridge this voltage
innovation gap. This needs to be the focus of the
power technology companies.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents
2.
http://www.navigantresearch.com/newsroom/
direct-current-distribution-networks-willsurpass-2-3-gigawatts-in-worldwide-capacityby-2025
3.
Reviving the War of Currents: Opportunities to

Save Energy with DC Distribution in
Commercial Buildings, Suzanne Foster Porter,
Dave Denkenberger and Catherine Mercier,
Ecova Peter May-Ostendorp, Xergy Consulting
Peter Turnbull, PG&E
Electricity demand is growing every day and the

Smart Grid must be introduced in the near future.
This calls for reliability and flexibility in the
362

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RTDS Studies for the TWENTIES OLC

R.A. Rivas1
M.S. Erixon
ABB, Sweden
L. Wall
J. Martin
ABB, Spain
SUMMARY
An OLC is a new FACTS device for series
compensation of transmission lines. It consists of
a number of series connected reactor banks, each
of them in parallel with a conventional breaker.
For the power system of Red Elctrica de Espaa
(REE), within the framework of the TWENTIES
project, ABB will supply and commission a first
OLC device in 2013.
This paper presents the results of real-time power
system simulator tests performed on the actual
control system of the TWENTIES Overload Line
Controller (OLC). The OLC will operate in series
with a 220-kV transmission line of REE.
J. Hidalgo
C. Rodriguez
REE, Spain
J. Soto
them in parallel with a conventional breaker. For the

power system of REE, within the framework of the
TWENTIES project, demo #6 [1], ABB will supply
and commission a first OLC device in 2013. The OLC
will be connected with the 220-kV network of REE
at the Magalln substation, in series with a 24-km
transmission line between that substation and the
Entrerros substation.
The general objective of the OLC is to provide the
line with power flow control and an operation closer
to its natural limits, thus increasing the transmission
capability for renewable energy evacuation. The
specific objectives of the OLC are:
1.
Maintain the power flow through the line below

overloading conditions by inserting the series
compensation (inductive impedance step)
required.
2.
Maintain the power flow through the line inside

an operating band by connecting and
disconnecting the impedance steps required.
3.
Provide the line with series compensation equal

to the setpoint () chosen by the system
operator.
The tests verified the correct dynamic

performance of the OLC control system under
expected operating conditions and contingencies
in the power system network of REE.
4.
In case of emergency (hazardous overload),

provide the line with back-up overload
protection by inserting the amount of series
compensation required.
Keywords: Series Compensation, Overload

Mitigation, Power Flow Control, FACTS, RTDS.
An OLC is a new FACTS device for series

compensation of transmission lines. It consists of a
number of series connected reactor banks, each of
This paper presents the results of the OLC/Power

System Interaction tests performed for the
TWENTIES project, demo #6. The tests were carried
out with an RTDS [2] in Vasteras, Sweden, on Sep 1113, 2012, and were a second (and final) part of the
Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT) for the OLC control
system.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 gives

an overview of the OLC and its possible control
The real-time digital simulator (RTDS) model

included power equipment connected to 400-kV
and 220-kV substations of REE, as well as the
dynamic representation of hydroelectric, thermal
and wind power generation. Disturbances such as
line energization, de-energization, fault
application and automatic re-closing were
simulated and the different control modes and
blocking functions of the OLC were tested.
1.
INTRODUCTION
richard.rivas@se.abb.com
363

April 8-10
2015

modes. Section 3 presents the network under study

and describes the scenario that motivated the OLC
solution. Section 4 provides an overview of the
RSCAD [3] model and explains the RTDS setup,
depicting the interface among the RSCAD model, a
breaker simulator, and the ABB-MACH control
system [4]. Section 5 presents the results and analyses
of the case studies, specifically network verification,
line energization/de-energization, fault application
and automatic reclosing, possible control modes,
emergency control, and degraded mode operation.
Finally, Section 6 states the conclusions of the work.
2.
THE OVERLOAD LINE CONTROLLER
Figure 1 shows a simplified single-line diagram of

the OLC.
The OLC is connected with the 220-kV grid via two
circuit breakers, one labeled CB1 to connect it with
the Magalln substation and another labeled CB2 to
connect it with the Magalln-Entrerros transmission
line. It can also be completely bypassed through a
third breaker (CB3).
The OLC consists of three Mechanically Switched
Series Reactors (MSSRs) rated 12 MVAr (2.6 /
phase), 24.5 MVAr (5.2 ?/phase), and 48 MVAr (10.3
/phase). The bypass breakers (QS1, QS2 and QS3)
are conventional circuit breakers rated 3150 A.
The reactor combinations allow for 8 different
settings, which provide step-wise control of the power
flow through the line. Figure 2 depicts the possible

settings.
The OLC is controlled by a microprocessor based
control system. The control system is based on the
MACH concept, built around an industrial PC with
add-in circuit boards and I/O racks connected via
standard type field buses. Dedicated voltage and
current transformers provide the control system with
network variables employed in the OLC control.
The control system provides facilities for OLC control
either from the Operator Work Station (OWS) in the
OLC control room or remotely via a Gateway Station
(GWS) in communication with the SCADA system
of REE.
The OLC control system is structured in the following
modes:
1.
Automatic Control
2.
Manual Control
And the Automatic Control (normal mode of

operation) is divided into:
Closed Loop Control:
z
Power Limitation Mode (P-lim)
Power Regulation Mode (P-set)
Open Loop Control:

z
Impedance Mode (Z-set)
Maximum Compensation Mode (Z-max)
Fig. 1: Simplified Single-Line Diagram of the OLC
364

April 8-10
2015

In addition, there is Emergency Control to provide

the line with back-up overload protection.
line with maximum series compensation (18.1 ) if

desired by the operator.
E.
Emergency Control (P-emerg)
The objective of P-emerg is to provide the line with

backup overload protection. This function can be
activated or deactivated by the operator and
automatically inserts the series compensation
required whenever the power flow S exceeds a
threshold value. When activated, it runs in parallel
with the other operating modes.
Fig. 2: OLC Settings for Step-Wise Control
A.
The objective of the P-set mode is to keep the power

flow inside an operating band (hysteresis band) by
automatically switching in and out the required
amount of series compensation. If S becomes greater
than the setpoint (P-set) chosen by the operator, then
the required compensation is switched in. If S
becomes lower than P-set min (<0.9P-set), then the
compensation starts automatically to be switched
out to keep the power flow inside the operating band.
B.
The objective of the P-lim mode is to keep the power

flow S below a maximum permitted limit by
automatically switching in the required amount of
series compensation. If S becomes greater than the
setpoint (P-lim max) chosen by the operator, then
the required compensation is switched in. If S
becomes lower than P-lim max, then the previously
inserted compensation is kept, so no hysteresis
control is employed. However, this mode comes with
another setpoint (P-lim min). If S becomes lower than
P-lim min, then the previously inserted compensation
starts automatically to be switched out and the power
flow limitation begins to diminish.
C.
The objective of the Z-set mode is to provide the

line with series compensation equal to the setpoint
() chosen by the operator.
D.
Maximum Compensation Mode (Zmax)
The objective of the Z-max mode is to provide the
P-emerg ensures fast compensation during

contingencies, particularly when the OLC is on Zset mode (P-limit mode and P-set mode OFF), and
does not block the insertion of more impedance after
being activated. The operating time (detection time
plus actuation time) is much shorter than 3 seconds,
which is the maximum time response of the line
breaker inter-trip employed by REE.
3.
NETWORK UNDER STUDY
The power network under study is located in the

northeast part of Spain (Autonomous Community
of Aragn) and is characterized by high wind energy
penetration. Due to this, during certain moments of
high wind production, overloads may appear in the
220-kV Magalln-Entrerros line after the tripping
of an alternative path through the 400-kV grid.
Nowadays this overload is reduced, firstly by doing
topological maneuvers in the 220-kV Magalln
substation so that part of the power flow through
the 220-kV Magalln- Entrerros line can be
redirected to alternative paths. If this measure is not
sufficient, re-dispatch of conventional generation
and, as a last resort, curtailment of wind energy
production should be carried out.
The OLC will control the power flow through the
220 kV Magalln-Entrerros line, delaying, if not
avoiding, taking the measures mentioned above
4.
RSCAD MODEL AND RTDS SETUP
To test the operation of the control system an RSCAD

model was created as of a PSSE [5] network model.
The RSCAD model included lines, transformers, series
branches, loads, and shunt compensators connected
to five 400-kV substations and six 230-kV
substations of REE, as well as the dynamic
365

April 8-10
2015

representation of hydroelectric, thermal and wind

power generation. The model also contained the
explicit representation of two 400-kV lines, parallel
to the 220-kV circuit, which overload the 220-kV
Magalln-Entrerros line when getting out of service.
Figure 3 shows the RSCAD model of the MACHcontrolled OLC. Table 1 lists the RSCAD building
blocks employed to represent the power system
equipment.
Fig. 3: RSCAD model of MACHTM - controlled OLC
Table 1: RSCAD Building Blocks Employed

Component
Building Block [3]
Lines
rtds_sharc_sld_TLINE
Transformers
rtds_XRTRF3
Shunt resistors, reactors, capacitors
rtds_sharc_sld_SHUNTRLC
Series reactors
rtds_sharc_sld_SERIESRLC
Thermal and hydro generators
rtds_sharc_sld_MACV31
Hydro exciters
rtds_sharc_ctl_SCRX
Hydro governors
rtds_sharc_ctl_HYGOV
Thermal exciters
rtds_risc_ctl_ESST4B
Thermal turbine/governor
rtds_GGOV1.def
Wind farms, DFIG (small delta t)
rtds_vsc_TRF3, rtds_vsc_BRC3,
rtds_vsc_SCL_TRF1, rtds_vsc_TLTERM,
rtds_vsc_TLCONS, rtds_vsc_T3PHTW,
rtds_vsc_RES1, rtds_vsc_INDM,
rtds_vsc_VBUTTER,
rtds_vsc_LEV2BB, rtds_vsc_3LGFIR,
rtds_vsc_TRIWAV
366

April 8-10
2015

Figure 4 illustrates the RTDS setup implemented. As

shown, the actual MACH control system and
bypass breaker I/O interface cabinets to install on
site are connected with an RTDS and a bypass breaker
simulator. As a result, the actual controller is able to
receive voltage and current signals from the network
model running on the RTDS and send back the
corresponding reactor insertion/bypass orders. To
close the test loop, the RTDS is provided with the
opening/closing orders from the bypass breaker I/O
interface cabinets via the open/closed indication
signals from the bypass breaker simulator.
5.
CASE STUDIES
The following studies were carried out:

z
Verification of Network Equivalent
Line Energization and De-energization
Fault Application and Automatic Reclosing
Power Limitation Mode (P-limit)
Degraded Mode Operation
Verification of Network Equivalent
To validate the implementation of the network

equivalent in RTDS, the power flow through the
220 kV Magalln-Entrerros line and the voltages at
the 220 kV Magalln and Entrerros substations were
compared with those obtained from the original
PSSE network model. Table 2 lists the power flows
and voltages thus obtained.
Fig. 4: RTDS Setup
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April 8-10
2015

Table 2: Power Flow and Bus Voltage Verification

Quantity
PSSE
RTDS
Diff. [%]
Voltage Magalln [pu]
1.0284
1.0300
0.16
Voltage Entrerros [pu]
1.0265
1.0260
-0.05
P sent from Magalln [MW]
272.5
271.3
-0.44
Q sent from Magalln [MVAr]
-32.1
-34.1
6.32
S sent from Magalln [MVA]
274.4
273.5
-0.32
The short-circuit levels were measured by simulating

three phase faults at the 220-kV Magalln and
Entrerros substations, respectively. Table 3 tabulates
the values of short-circuit level obtained from the
RTDS.
Table 3 : Short-circuit Levels
Substation
Short-circuit level
Magalln 220 kV
15.40 kA
5868 MVA
Entrerros 220 kV
13.96 kA
5320 MVA
As before, the tests were carried out with P-set and

P-emerg enabled.
Figure 6 depicts the waveforms for the case with
single-phase fault at Magalln and three-phase
automatic reclosing. As illustrated, the control system
avoided changes of inserted impedance during the
transient. At steady state the power flow was also
below the emergency level, so changes of inserted
impedance were not carried out either.
z
As indicated in the tables, the RTDS network

equivalent has the correct values for the verification
of the dynamic performance of all of the OLC control
modes and blocking functions.
To verify that the impedance steps chosen by the

operator are carried out by the OLC control in terms
of inserted reactors, the setpoint was changed from
0 to 18.1 using the steps depicted in Figure 2.
Line Energization and De-energization
Figure 7 illustrates the waveforms obtained for the

case in which the setpoint went from 2.6 to 5.2
and later to 7.8 . As shown the OLC control is able
to achieve the insertion of the amount of
compensation requested by the operator. As can also
be noticed, it is necessary in some cases to first step
up in impedance and later step down to reach the
desired setpoint. For example, to switch from 2.6
to 5.2 the OLC has to close QS1 and open QS2.
However, to avoid a sudden increase of power flow,
it first opens QS2 (transiently inserting 7.8 into
the line) and later closes QS1 .
To verify that the OLC control blocks the automatic

switching in and out of the reactors when the
220-kV Magalln-Entrerros line is energized or deenergized, tests with different value of initially
inserted reactance, P-set setpoint and P-emerg level
were performed.
Figure 5 shows the waveforms for the case of line
energization with P-set=230 MVA, P-emerg=300
MVA, and X initially inserted=10.3 . As depicted,
there was no change of inserted impedance during
the transient. Neither was there any change of
impedance after reaching the steady state
(approximately after 1.8 s) as the power flow
remained below the setpoint (230 MVA).
z
Fault Application and Automatic Reclosing
To verify that the OLC control blocks the automatic

switching of the reactors when there is short-circuit
on the 220-kV Magalln-Entrerros line, single- and
three-phase faults were applied on both ends of it.
The purpose of this test was to check that all the

reactors are inserted when maximum compensation
is requested by the operator. Figure 8 shows the
waveforms obtained with X initially inserted=0.
z
To verify that the power setpoints (MVA) chosen by

the operator are carried out by the OLC control in
368

April 8-10
2015

terms of power regulation, the power flow through

the 220-kV line was first increase and later decrease.
To increase and decrease the power flow through
the line, the power output of the equivalent
generation located at the 220-kV Entrerros
substation was ramped down and up, respectively.
Figure 9 depicts the waveforms obtained for the
increase of power flow when the following settings
were used: P-set=130 MVA, hysteresis=10% (P-set
max=130 MVA, P-set min=117 MVA), P-emerg
activated, X initially inserted=2.6 and initial
power flow=123 MVA (inside hysteresis band). As
shown, the OLC control is able to perform the
automatic insertion and bypass of the reactors
required to keep the power flow inside the chosen
hysteresis band. Note, however, that after
approximately 52 s compensation greater than
18.1 would be needed to keep the power flow
below 130 MVA.
z
To verify that the power setpoints (MVA) chosen by

the operator are carried out by the OLC control in
terms of power limitation, the power flow through
the 220-kV line was also varied. As before, the power
flow through the line was modified by changing the
power output of the equivalent generation located
at the 220-kV Entrerros substation.
Fig. 5: Line Energization
Figs. 10 and 11 illustrate the waveforms obtained

for a case with the following settings: P-lim max=210
MVA and P-lim min=100 MVA. As shown in Figure
10, the OLC control is able to perform the automatic
insertion and bypass of the reactors required to limit
the power flow. Note also (see Figure 11) that the
inserted reactors are switched out only after
obtaining power flows below P-lim min (100 MVA),
and that at that point the power reference becomes
temporarily equal to P-lim max (210 MVA) to avoid
switching in reactors during the transient.
z
To verify that the OLC inserts the compensation

required as soon as the threshold (MVA) for
emergency control is exceeded by the power flow
through the line, the system was subjected to line
contingencies at 400-kV level. Specifically, the
overload was simulated by switching out the two
400-kV lines parallel to the 220-kV MagallnEntrerros line.
369
Fig. 6: Impedance Mode (Z-set): QSn_IX indicates high level if

QSn is closed and QSn_OX indicates high level if QSn is open

April 8-10
2015

Fig. 7: Single-Phase Fault at Magalln with Three-Phase

Automatic Reclosing
Fig. 9: Power Regulation Mode (P-set)
Fig. 8: Maximum Compensation Mode (Z-max)
Fig. 10: Power Limitation Mode (P-lim), P-lim min
370

April 8-10
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Figure 12 depicts the waveforms for the case in

which the two lines were switched out consecutively
and not reconnected. The following settings were
used: P-emerg=300 MVA, and X initially inserted=
0 . As shown, in no more than 3 s the OLC control
is able to perform the automatic insertion of the
reactors required to mitigate the overload.
z
Degraded Mode Operation
To verify that the OLC continues operating without

the impedance band(s) affected in case of faulty
bypass breakers, conditions of open failure, close
failure and lock-out were simulated.
Figure 13 illustrates the waveforms obtained for the
case in which the power flow decreases and QS2
fails to open, thus blocking the insertion of the
5.2- reactor. As shown, P-set is equal to 170 MVA
and the OLC control is able to continue operating
on power regulation mode. The impedance, however,
changes from 10.3 to 12.9 and later to 2.6
given the absence of the 7.8- and 5.2- steps.
Fig. 12: Emergency Control (P-emerg)
Fig. 11: Power Limitation Mode (P-lim), P-lim max
Fig. 13: Degraded Mode Operation, Open Failure QS2
371

April 8-10
2015
6.

CONCLUSIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The results of the OLC/Power System Interaction tests

performed for the TWENTIES project, demo #6,
have been presented. The tests verified the correct
dynamic performance of the OLC control system and
the bypass breaker I/O interfaces under different
control modes and contingencies in the power system
network of REE. The tests also confirmed that the
OLC control blocks the change of inserted
compensation when the 220-kV Magalln-Entrerros
line is subjected to disturbances such as deenergization, energization, short-circuit and
automatic reclosing. In addition, the tests confirmed
the feasibility of degraded mode operation in case
of faulty bypass breakers in the OLC.
The OLC is a simple and effective FACTS solution to
provide power flow control, power flow limitation
and overload mitigation, particularly in those cases
where the transmission lines are part of power
networks with high penetration of wind energy
sources.
1.
J. C. Snchez et al, OLC Conceptual Design and

Equipment Specification, Twenties Transmitting
wind, EC-GA no 249812, March 2011.
[Online]. Available: http://www.twentiesproject.eu
2.
RTDS Technologies, Circuit RTDS Hardware

Manual, Winnipeg, Canada: RTDS Technologies,
January 2009, rev 00.
3.
RTDS Technologies, Real Time Digital Simulator

Tutorial Manual (RSCAD VERSION), Winnipeg,
Canada: RTDS Technologies, November 2010.
4.
MACH Knowledge Based Control System for

FACTS, ABB Power Technologies AB.
[Online]. Available: http://www.abb.com/FACTS
5.
PSSE Version 32.0.5, Vol I Program

Application Guide, Schenectady, NY, USA:
Siemens PTI-Software Solutions, Revised
October 2010.
372

April 8-10
2015

Overview of the World First Five-Terminal VSC-HVDC

Transmission Project
Gao Peng
Shao Zhenxia
Xu Long
Wu Dianfeng
NR Electric Corporation (NR), China
SUMMARY
quadrants operation
Due to the advantages of VSC technology and

pulse width modulation (PWM), the VSC-HVDC
has a number of potential advantages as compared
with CSC-HVDC, such as being easy to realize
multi-terminal HVDC transmission system, rapid
and independent control of active and reactive
power, etc. On July of 2014, the world first
5-terminal VSC-HVDC project located in
Zhoushan islands was put into commercial
operation in China. For convenient reference for
the other engineers or researchers, the system
design and engineering application, such as
control & protection technology and system
analysis, have been introduced in the paper.
Finally, the system field on-site tests and some
test cases are introduced for better understanding.
Keywords: VSC-HVDC, Multi-terminal, coordinated
control, five-terminal DC system, Current Source
Converter.
1.
INTRODUCTION
A.
Advantages of VSC-HVDC
Due to the advantages of VSC (Voltage Source

Converter) technology and PWM (Pulse Width
Modulation), the VSC-HVDC has a number of
potential advantages as compared with CSC-HVDC
(Current Source Converter-HVDC). HVDC
technology based on VSC, especially for multiterminal, has been an area of growing interest recently
because of its suitable for forming a flexible power
transmission link [1-6].
The advantages of VSC-HVDC are as follows.
z
Independent control of P and Q with four
Generally, no need of filters
Self-commutation with high controllability
Small footprint compared with CSC-HVDC
Fast active power reverse
Has no influence of receiving AC ending system
Dynamic support for AC grid as STATCOM
B.
Possibility of connection to the weak and

passive grids
Possibility of fault ride-through and black start
capability.
Applications of VSC-HVDC
VSC-HVDC is developed based on fully controlled

semiconductor, so VSC-HVDC can be considered as
a generator without inertia and with reactive and
active power being controlled independently in four
quadrants. Due to outstanding flexibility and
controllability in a wide range of applications, so far
about 13 projects of VSC-HVDC systems have been
successfully designed and put into operation
worldwide since the first Hellsjon VSC-HVDC project
with the capacity of 10kV/3MW was put into
operation in Sweden in 1997. The main application
fields of VSC-HVDC can be summarized as follows.
z
Asynchronous interconnection of AC system
Long distance DC power transmission
Underground or underwater cables transmission
Integration of renewable energy
Power delivery to large urban areas
Power transmission as multi-terminal DC system
373
Power service to isolated islands or offshore

platform

April 8-10
2015

2.
BACKGROUND OF ZHOUSHAN
ISLANDS POWER GRID
A.
Overview of Zhoushan islands powe grid
renewable energy generation development for China.

But because of unavailability of efficient
transmission corridor, it was unable to undertake
such enormous amount of wind power through the
existing AC grid. So it is urgent to build new
transmission for improving the stability and
reliability of the Zhoushan power grid.
B.
Main reasons of choosing VSC-HVDC as

extension
The main reasons of choosing VSC-HVDC as the

solution for Zhoushan grid interconnection are as
follows.
z
Fig. 1 : Map of Zhoushan islands
As the world first 5-terminal VSC-HVDC project, it

is designed to transmit electric power from the
mainland to Zhoushan islands, located in the
Hangzhou bay at southeast coast of China. For good
understanding, the background of Zhoushan grid is
introduced firstly.
There is no big power source within the islands ever
before. And the total installed generation capacity
of Zhoushan is 765.3 MW till 2013. And the peak
load of Zhoushan in 2013 is 818 MW according to
grid operation data. And it is estimated that its power
demand will rise up to 2649 MW by 2020 and
4775 MW by 2030 with a steep growth due to
increase in industry and coastline development.
Zhoushan islands are a highly critical and enormously

developing area. And the grid was on a trauma of
power instability and power failure due to high load
demand, heavy port industrialization and low level
of power inter-connection system. Also due to natural
disasters like typhoons, it often brings disturbances
for the grid system, which leads to a total power
failure for the whole grid as there was no back-up
power support. According to the report of wind
power development planning in Zhoushan City, wind
power installed capacity is expected to reach 1850
MW by 2020, which is highly fascinating for
374
Zhoushan islands grid is a typical weak power

system.
For the space limitation of the islands, the VSCHVDC is more environmental friendly compared
with CSC-HVDC. Such as, the Daishan converter
station with capacity of 300 MW, shown in
Figure 2, is really small footprint comparatively.
Undersea cable can be used for interconnection.
Flexible power control is suitable for mutual
power supply among islands.
Flexibility of VSC-HVDC is very suitable for
wind power integration.
For the possibility of total collapse of the whole
islands grid, the blackout ability is required.
Independent control of P and Q in 4 quadrants
for supporting AC system and improving the
whole system stability.
Fig. 2 : The full eye view of Daishan VSC converter station

April 8-10
2015

3.
ZHOUSHAN 5-TERMINAL VSC-HVDC

PROJECT
A.
Single Line Diagram of 5-Terminal VSCHVDC Project
Zhoushan five-terminal VSC-HVDC project connects

five islands named as Dinghai, Daishan, Qushan,
Yangshan, Sijiao. Figure 3 shows the single line
diagram of the Zhoushan hybrid AC/DC system.
Fig. 4 : SLD of Dinghai VSC converter station
Fig. 3 : Single line diagram of Zhoushan power grid
Fig. 5 : SLD of Yangshan VSC converter station
The symmetrical monopole with metallic return

topology is adopted in this radial multi-terminal
HVDC system. For reference the SLD (Single Line
Diagram) of Dinghai and Yangshan converter station
is shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5. SLDs of the other
converter stations are almost similar.
B.
Operation Modes
The main purpose of the Zhoushan VSC-HVDC

project is to satisfy the needs of increasing electricity
load in each island and to supply power when the
AC lines are in-fault. The rated voltage and capacity
are shown in the above Table 1.
Generally, Dinghai converter station will work as the

sending end and the other 4 converter stations will
work as the receiving ends. When Dinghai converter
station quits operating, Daishan will work as a
sending end, the other 3 converter stations will work
as the receiving ends. In addition to the main
operation mode, to improve the operating flexibility
and to maximize the advantages of multi-terminal
VSC-HVDC, the project keeps other operation modes.
There are 27 theoretical operation modes and 26 of
them shown in table 2 are chosen in practice.
Table 1 : Rated Voltage and Capacity of the

VSC Stations
Converter
Station
DC Voltage
(KV)
AC-Side
Voltage
(kV)
Capacity
(MW)
Dinghai
200
220
400
Daishan
200
220
300
Qushan
200
110
100
Yangshan
200
110
100
Sijiao
200
110
100
Table 2: Operation Modes of 5-terminal

VSC-HVDC
Category
Operating Station
Five-terminal
Dinghai, Daishan
Qushan, Yangshan,
Siqiao
Four converters
of the Five
Threeconverters
of the Five
Two converters of
the Five except
Yangshan-Sijiao
Work individually
Four-terminal
Three-terminal
Two-terminal
STATCOM
375
No. of
the modes
1
5
10
9

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4.
A.

CONTROL AND PROTECTION SYSTEM

FOR
ZHOUSHAN
5-TERMINAL
VSC-HVDC
Three lays of supervisory control and
protection system
A set of high performance hierarchical supervisory

control and protection system of VSC-HVDC is
equipped in the five converter stations. The system
can be divided into three layers of station layer,
equipment layer and I/O layer, shown in the
Figure 6.
System Level Control
System level control gives whole system control

strategies and targets for multi-terminal VSC-HVDC
operation, which guarantee the reliable and balanced
system operation.
C.
Control Strategy
The strategy being adopted is based on DC voltage

deviation control for multi-terminal converter
stations. The basic idea is to select a converter station
to control DC voltage and balance the active power
of the system automatically. Converter stations
mainly control the power and contain DC voltage
controllers. The voltage setting and the deviation of
each voltage controllers are in proper order to ensure
that DC voltage of whole system is controllable only
by designated converter stations.
During operation in five-terminal mode, the Dinghai
converter station has largest capacity and strongest
power balancing ability. Therefore it is set to be the
main DC voltage control station. Next to that
Daishan converter station is set to the second choice.
The schematic diagram of voltage deviation control
strategy is shown in Figure 7.
D.
Fig. 6 : Three layers of the supervisory control

and protection system
B.
Three Levels of VSC-DC control and

protection system
The DC control system for 5-terminal VSC-HVDC

project can be divided into 3 levels, which are VSCvalve level control, Converter station level control
and system level control.
z
Valve Level Control
Valve level control is the base control for VSC SM

(sub-module) and realized in the VBU (Valve
Basement-Control Unit). The main functions of this
level include SM voltage balancing control, SM pulse
distribution, SM monitoring and measurement, VSCleg circulating current suppression, etc.
z
Converter Station Level Control
Converter station level control is realized in the Pole

Control and Protection (PCP) system. The main
functions include control parameter setting, outloop/inner-loop control, transformer tap changer
control, overload control and some other auxiliary
control.
The protection philosophy for VSC-HVDC

project
In addition to control strategy, protection is also one

of the most important systems. The DC protection
is ranging from valve side of connecting transformer
to DC cable. The configuration is shown in Figure 8.
5.
SYSTEM STUDY
Every VSC-HVDC project is generally designed and

built according to the requirements of the customers.
So system studies are really essential for designing
and optimizing the performance of the transmission.
The steady state analysis and dynamic analysis for
the whole AC/DC combined system are based on
international electromechanical simulation tools.
And based on the equivalent technologies, detailed
electromagnetic performances are analyzed based on
electromagnetic simulation tools, such as PSCAD/
EMTDC.
For high simulation accuracy, the actual control codes
for the project has been complied based on NR
Electric developed software into a kind of FORTRAN
type file, which can be involved in the PSCAD/
EMTDC simulation directly.
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Fig. 7 : Voltage deviation control strategy for each station
Fig. 8 : Diagram of DC protection configuration
For testing real protection and control system, the

RTDS or RT-Lab based simulation systems are used
for building real-time closed-loop simulation with
analog amplifiers and control & protection system
included.
Fig. 9 : Diagram of imbedding real VSC-HVDC software

in EMTDC simulation
Fig. 10 : Diagram of real-time close-loop simulation platform
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Fig. 11 : Simulation curves of DC bus grounding fault
Based on system studies, all operation modes and

various performance tests should be finished before
equipment delivery. The simulation results shown
in Figure 11 are the waveforms recorded when DC
bus grounding fault happened. It shows that DC
protection detected the fault successfully and block
VSC converter quickly.
6.
Table 3 : Site Test

Category
Main test items
Sub-system test
DC control and protection

AC protection
Primary equipment
Sequential control test
Station system test
Protection tripping test

VSC valve charging test
Open line test
STATCOM function test
SITE TEST FOR VSC-HVDC
As the main contractor in this project, NR Electric

provides valves, electronic CT&PT, protection and
control system, etc. In addition, NR Electric also
finishes system study, system test and site
commissioning.
A.
Site Test
As the first 5-terminal VSC-HVDC project in the

world, the complete site tests should be finished
before putting the project into operation. The sitetests can be divided into three kinds of sub-system
test, station system test and system test, which are
shown in Table 3.
378
System test
Initial operation test (multi-terminal

and control priority switchover)
Protection test
Redundancy switchover test
Stable state performance test
Dynamic state performance test
Operation configuration switchover
test
Auxiliary control test
Black-start test
Islanding test
Overload test
Disturbance test

April 8-10
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B.
Case studies of site tests
The following two cases of site tests are given for

good understanding.
z
AC fault test (phase A grounding)
The test is to verify the AC low-voltage ride-through

ability of the VSC-HVDC when AC faults happen. In
this case, the phase A grounding fault test is carried
out by shooting a copper wire to phase A of inject
line of Dinghai station. The recorded curves shown
in Figure 12 shows that when AC fault happened,
the VSC-HVDC system could ride through and work
well. This is really different from the performance
of CSC-HVDC, which has no AC ride-through ability.
Fig. 12 : Site test of single-phase grounding fault in

Dinghai station
z
Switchover function of DC voltage control
The target of test is to verify the switchover function

of master control station for DC voltage
coordination. The Figure 13 shows the curves
recorded of Daishan station when Daishan station
takeover the coordination control of DC voltage for
whole multi-terminal VSC-HVDC transmission from

Dinghai station. When the cooling system in Dinghai
station is abnormal, the operation mode will
switchover from DC voltage control to power control.
Then the Daishan station will take over the DC
voltage control as the order of "DC_Voltage_control"
will be enable. It can be found from figure 13 that
the process of switchover is stable and smooth.
7.
CONCLUSION
So far, VSC-HVDC is the most flexible transmission

technology with many cutting-edge tactics in the
world. In the paper, based on the introduction of 5terminal VSC-HVDC project, whose rated voltage is
200kV and the largest capacity of the single station
is 400MW, the system design configuration,
protection and control, system studies and tests are
given for reference. Since the 5-terminal VSC-HVDC
project has been put into operation on July 4th, 2014
after its successful commissioning, the performances
of steady and transient state are fully meeting the
technical requirements.
Until middle of October of 2014, VSC-HVDC already
provided 15.1 million units of power to Zhoushan
grid, meanwhile transmits 5.14 million units of wind
power. This plays an important role to keep sufficient
power supply to Zhoushan. The most successful fact
is, VSC-HVDC operated normally and adequately in
squally weather when typhoon "Nakri" swept away
in 30th July. Zhoushan project not only made the
islands grid more stable, reliable but also provide
flexible power transmission which was never before
possible. This VSC-HVDC project greatly increased
the availability of power supply and enhanced the
power quality in Zhoushan islands.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
N. Flourentzou, V.G. Agelidis, and G.D.

Demetriades, "VSC-based HVDC power
transmission systems: an overview," (IEEE
Transactions on power electronics, Vol. 24,
No. 3, March 2009 pages 592-602).
2.
Udana N. Gnanarathna, Aniruddha M. Gole,

Rohitha P. Jayasinghe, "Efficient modeling of
modular multilevel HVDC converters (MMC) on
electromagnetic transient simulation programs",
(IEEE Transactions on power delivery, Vol. 26,
No. 1, January 2011 pages 316-324).
Fig. 13 : Curves of switchover of DC voltage

coordination control
379

April 8-10
2015

3.
Ayman S. Abdel-Khalik, Ahmed M. Massoud,

Ahmed A. Elserougi, et al, "Optimum power
transmission-based droop control design for
multi-terminal HVDC of offshore wind Farms",
(IEEE Transactions on power systems, Vol. 28,
No. 3, August 2013 pages 3401-3409).
5.
Sheng Liu, Zheng Xu, Wen Hua,et al.

"Electromechanical Transient Modeling of
Modular Multilevel Converter Based MultiTerminal HVDC Systems", (IEEE Transactions
on power systems, Vol. 29, No. 1, January 2014
pages 72-83).
4.
Grain P. Adam, Barry W. Williams, "Half- and

full-bridge modular multilevel converter models
for simulations of full-scale HVDC links and
multiterminal DC grids", (IEEE Journal of
emerging and selected topics on power
electronics", Vol. 2, No. 4, December 2014 pages
1089-1108).
6.
Gregory J. Kish, Mike Ranjram, Peter W. Lehn,

"A Modular Multilevel DC/DC Converter With
Fault Blocking Capability for HVDC
Interconnects", (IEEE Transactions on power
electronics, Vol. 30, No. 1 January 2015 pages
148-162).
380

April 8-10
2015

Planning of a VSC HVDC System - Utilities Perspective

Ebin Cherian Mathew
Khirad Dhabhar
Vishwajeet Singh
M.S. Rao
M.M. Goswami
Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, India
SUMMARY
Voltage Source Converter (VSC) based HVDC
systems have gained importance due to the
several advantages they offer over conventional
LCC based HVDC schemes. It presents more viable
alternative under constraints of grid, Right of Way
(ROW) and nature of power to be evacuated, than
conventional LCC based HVDC schemes.This
paper focuses on the factors that are to be
considered during the planning of a VSC based
HVDC scheme. In the introduction, a brief
description is given about the advancements in
the field of VSC HVDC technology. Then the paper
compares various configurations for a VSC HVDC
scheme. Then various operating configurations for
a VSC HVDC scheme have also been discussed.
Further the choice for interconnection between
the stations i.e. landor seacable, overhead
line,combination of cable and overhead has also
been discussed.The selection of converter topology
and configuration is important as presently there
are various options available.The paper gives an
overview of different VSC converter topologies
that have been in use worldwide.Out of the
several converter topologies available presently,
Modular Multilevel Converter(MMC) seems to be
the most efficient and reliable converter topology
for the VSC HVDC schemes. Almost all the leading
manufacturers are usingMMC technology for VSC
HVDC systems. MMC is basically a combination
of several submodules(which is basically a
combination of IGBT switches and capacitors)
connected together. MMC HVDC schemes are
presently available with full bridge and half
bridge submodules. The MMC with full bridge
submodules has excellent fault tolerant capability
comparedwith that of MMC withhalf bridge
Oommen Chandy
submodules. However, the use of full bridge

submodules increases the converter stationlosses
and the cost of the converter station. This paper
compares the full bridge and half bridge MMC
technologies with respect to fault tolerant
capability. The paper also gives a brief description
about the converter side grounding issues.AMMC
based HVDC model is developed in PSCAD/
EMTDC and the performance of the converter in
dealing with DC side fault is evaluated with the
help of simulations results.
Keywords: VSC HVDC, MMC, Multilevel Converters,
Half Bridge, Full Bridge, DC line Fault.
1.
INTRODUCTION
The vast potential of renewable energy sources with

the challenges involved in transmitting this
intermittent energy to the load centres from the
remote locations has led towards VSC based HVDC
technology. Due to technical advantages, it has been
selected for a number of transmission projects aimed
at interconnecting energy markets by means of
underground transmission, integrating remote
renewable energy sources such as onshore aswell as
offshore wind farms and in applications like
integrating solar parks of desertsetc [1]-[2]. The
aforementioned applications of VSC HVDC under
various conditions of power evacuation are relevant
in Indian context also. These VSC based HVDC
systems are able to control the active and reactive
power independently and allows the transmission
of power from/to very weak grids. By the use of VSC,
the filter requirements are also reduced to a great
extent. However, a 2-level VSC based HVDC
technology which was initially used involves high
converter station losses due to thehigh frequency
operation of the semiconductor switches at high
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April 8-10
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voltages. The development of multilevel technology

has done significant advancement in the field of VSC
HVDC technology [3]-[4] . The use of multilevel
converter topologies reduces the switching losses to
a large extent, and hence, are being widely used in
the HVDC systems. But the poor DC side fault tolerant
capability of VSC HVDC system continues to be a
major challenge Theconverter side grounding in a
VSC HVDC technology is also a key factor in the
entire design of the VSC HVDC scheme[5].
2.
VSC HVDC PROJECTS

PLANNING IN INDIA
UNDER
A number of voltage source converter projects are

under planning in India. The projects have been
planned as VSC technology due to feasibility issues:
z
India-Srilanka-2x500 MW HVDC System: The

link shall transmit powerfrom/to India to/from
island of Srilanka which has a weak AC grid and
further undersea cable shall be used for
interconnection.
Pugalur-Trichur-2000MW HVDC System:

Trichur in Kerala has severe right of way issues,
therefore a combination of Hybrid AC-DC line
(existing ac line can be reconfigured to lay DC
lines) and underground cable (XLPE cable) shall
be a part of the transmission system.
As per the Desert Power India-2050report,

power from solar parks, indentified in the region
ofRann of Kutch, Thar, Laddakh and Lahul &
Spiti. The transmission system planned to
evacuate this bulk solar power shall also
comprise of approximately eighteen nos. (18)
of VSC HVDC links[5].
3.
VSC HVDC SYSTEM DESIGN
(a) Basic structure of a VSC HVDC system

Each terminal is considered as a voltage source
connected to ac mains via three phase reactor and
interconnected by the link as shown in Fig. 1. Both
amplitude and phase angle of fundamental voltage
V2 can be controlled with respect to source voltage
V1. Thus by varying the amplitude and phase angle
of voltage output of the converter (V2), thereactive
and active power flow of the HVDC system can be
controlled[6].
Fig. 1: VSC Transmission
(b) Scheme Configurations

The commonly used schemes for VSC HVDC system
are Bipolar and Symmetric Monopolar
configurations. In Bipolar scheme,either ground
return or a dedicated metallic return can be used.
The comparison of both schemes with half bridge
modular multilevel converter considering a
transmission voltage of 320 kV and power
transmission capability of 2000MW is given in
Table 1.
As discussed in the Table 1, for a 2000 MWVSC
HVDC systemusingBipolar configuration,parallel
converters need to be used. In Bipolar schemes, due
to solid grounding, the transformer will experience
DC stresses. However in symmetric monopole
scheme, the grounding is usually done by a high
resistance.Considering the above limitationsof a
Bipolar scheme,symmetricmonople scheme is
preferred over Bipolar scheme VSC HVDC system
above 2000 MW.
(c) Power Transmission by Cable/Overhead Line
In a VSC HVDC scheme if power evacuation is for
offshore renewable generation or power transfer is
between two islands, then undersea cable is used
for connection. Further if the power transmission link
is onshore but Right of Way is a limitation such as
urban areas, then underground cable can also be
selected for interconnection. In VSC HVDC scheme,
the power reversal is done by reversing the direction
of the current without changing the polarity of
voltage.Therefore XLPE cables can be used for VSC
HVDC system instead of Mass Impregnated(MI)
cables used in LCC HVDC system. As the XLPE
cablesis much cheaper than MI cables, the VSC
Technology is being preferred for the systems that
uses long distance DC cable transmission. The highest
voltage rating of the XLPE cable commonly used is
320kV. However, 500kV XLPE cable has also been
developed. There are some VSC-HVDC schemes with
combination of overhead line and underground cable
also as cable has higher cost which increases the
project cost significantly.
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Table 1
Parameters
Symmetrical Monopolarscheme
Bipolar scheme
Current
Current-1000MW/640=1.5625kA
Current-1000MW/320=3.125kA
Converter
requirement
No need of parallel converters
Converter current limitation is about 1.5kA.

For 1000 MW, parallel converters to be used
to meet higher current demand (3.125) kA.
Also due to limitation of current rating of
cables, multiple runs are needed.
Number of
transmission
lines
4 transmission lines/cables are required
2 transmission lines/cables. But due to cable

current limitation, multiple runs of cable
is needed in a transmission path. Also
additional cable is needed if Dedicated
metallic return is used.
Transformer
Normal Transformer
Converter Transformer
Grounding
High Impedance grounding such as

Star grounding reactor. The reactor is
of the order of > 1000H
Solid grounding
DC line to
ground fault
Not a major issue
Major issue.
Scheme layout
(d) Grounding Issues

The converter side grounding in VSC-HVDC system
has the major role in the convertertransformer design.
For a solidly grounded system, the transformer shall
be designed to withstand the DC stresses. However
if a high impedance grounding is used,the design of
converter transformer becomes simple. However in
both cases the harmonic stress on the transformer in
a multilevel converter based HVDC system is less
compared to that of in a LCC based system.
(i)
High impedance grounding: This is done to

create a ground reference point in symmetric
monopolar scheme. Also in case of symmetric
monopolar scheme with overhead line, the
unbalancing of pole DC voltage may occur due
to pollution effects. To balance the DC voltage,
the high impedance grounding is essential.
(ii) Solid grounding: Generally the solid grounding

is done in Bipolar HVDC scheme. Themain
limitation in using a solid grounding on
converter side of the VSC based HVDC system
is that the transformer shall be designed for DC
stress and thus the project cost increases
substantially.
(e) DC side faultsin aVSC HVDC System
The major challenge in a VSC HVDC system is dealing
with the DC side faults. LCC HVDC systems have
the inherent Fault Ride Through (FRT) capability for
DC line fault by converter action. However inthe
case of a VSC based HVDC systems, isolation of a
DC line fault is an issue[7]-[8].
Even if the pulses are withdrawn to aVSC converter,
the reverse diodes in the semiconductor switches
will conduct and thereby the AC grid will continue
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April 8-10
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to feed the current into the DC fault. This is explained

in detail in the following section. For demonstration
purpose +/-100 kV two level VSC HVDC system is
used for simulations.
(i)
Pole to Pole fault: The equivalent circuit of a

VSC HVDC system during a DC line to line fault
is given in Fig2. During the DC side fault, the
pulses to the IGBT switches are withdrawn but
the anti-parallel diodes in the IGBTs will
continue to conduct.The converter will act like
an uncontrolled rectifier feeding current from
the AC grid to the DC side faults through reverse
diodes. The simulation results for this case are
plotted in Fig. 3.
Fig. 4: Line to ground fault in a VSC-HVDC system

(at t=1.0 sec)
4.
ANALYSIS OF VSC CONVERTER

TECHNOLOGY
(a) Overview of VSC Converters
Fig. 2: VSC feeding current to a DC side fault
Fig. 3: Line to Line fault in a VSC-HVDC system (at t=1.0 sec)
(ii) Pole to ground fault: During the pole to ground

fault,the DC link voltage of the healthy pole will
rise to 2 p.u and that of faulty pole reduces to
zero. The simulation results for a line to ground
fault in a VSC HVDC system are shown in
Fig. 4. In Fig. 4(a), it is seen that the voltage of
the healthy pole rises to 2 p.u and that of the
faulty pole drops to zero.
Initially 2-level converters using Pulse Width

Modulation (PWM) scheme were used for the VSC
based HVDC projects. However these converters
involved huge losses as the switching frequency was
very high at high voltage. Some of the other major
disadvantages of operating switches in VSC at high
voltage and high frequency are the electromagnetic
interference, transformer insulation stresses, higher
switching losses and extensive filtering requirements
etc. This has led to the development of multilevel
converters. Dueto the recent advancements in the
multilevel converters, the losses have been
considerably reduced making it comparable to that
of a LCC based converter station. Several Multilevel
topologies like Diode Clamped and Flying Capacitor
based converters were proposed in the past and have
been explored in the literature. These multilevel
converters reduce the switching frequency of the
individual semiconductor switches and thereby
reduces the switching loss.But the major drawback
of these multilevel topologies was that the converter
circuits were complex with lot of electronic
components. The semiconductor switching devices
required in the converter increases drastically with
increase involtage levels of the multilevel converter
system. Also the reliability of the system was poor
asthe failure of some switching devices can hinder
the operation of the entire converter system. This
led to the development of recently proposed
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multilevel converter topologies having modular

structure. These family of multilevel converters are
composed of full bridge or half bridge sub modules
which form the basic building block of the converter
system. As the modules are identical in nature, it
offers high scalability and modularity compared to
other multilevel topologies. Moreover these
converters are able to generate an output voltage
with nearly sinusoidal shape. Due to the redundant
submodules which can be incorporated in the
converter system, failure of one sub module will not
affect the functioning of the entire converter system.
The manufacturing and commissioning of the
converter system becomes much simpler due to the
modularity in the structure of the converter. Among
the converters with modular structure, the Modular
Multilevel Converter (MMC) is being widely used
all over the world for VSC HVDC projects[9]-[10].
Here the VU and VL is the total voltage produced

by submodules in the upper and lower arm
respectively.
(b) Modular Multilevel Converter
Voltage PU1 PU2 PU3 PU4 PL1 PL2 PL3 PL4
The Fig. 5 shows the one-phase structure of a Modular

Multilevel Converter with 8 sub half bridgemodules
in each leg. It consists of two arms of converter, each
one formed by a series connection of 4 sub modules
and an inductor whose function is to limit the
circulating current. Each sub module is composed
of two controlled semiconductors devices typically
an IGBT with internal diode and a DC energy storage
capacitor[11]-[12]. The AC side is having an R-L Load
between terminals M and O. Each sub module toggles
between two states(1 and 0).The DC side is modelled
by two DC voltage sources with magnitude of
Vdc/2. In each sub modules ON state (PUi=1)
represents that the upper semiconductor switch in
that submodule is conducting and the voltage
appears across the output terminals of the
submodule. whereas OFF state (PUi=0) represents
that the lower semiconductor switch is conducting
and the submodule is bypassed. Whenthe sub
module state is OFF, the voltage within sub module
terminals is zero but when it is ON, the voltage is
Vci, that is the capacitors voltage. The upper and
lower arm is switched in such a way that the voltage
across the load due to both the arms is same.
V/2
V/4
-V/4
-V/2
VPN = VU + VL
The sum of the voltages in the upper and lower arm
will be equal to the DC link voltage. Each submodule
voltage will be equal to the DC link voltage divided
by total number of submodules in each arm.
Therefore in the figure shown below, each submodule
is rated for V/4 and at each switching instant the
total voltage produced by the combination of
submodules in both arms will be equal to the DC
link voltage V. This ensures the total voltage across
leg to be equal to DC link voltage thereby limiting
the circulating current. The switching state of each
submoduleis shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Switching Sequence of a 5-level MMC
Taking the loop equation by assuming the voltage

across inductor to be zero, we get
VMO = VPO - VU
VMO = VL+VNO
Fig. 5: Single Phase Modular Multi Level Converter
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(c) DC Line to Line Fault in Modular Multilevel

Converters
The DC line to ground faults are not serious as
compared to line to line faults for a symterical
monopolar VSC HVDC system. Also the DC voltage
rise on the healthy pole is similar to that of two level
VSC converters. Therefore for the simulation study
with MMC, only line to line fault is considered. In
the following section, the DC line to line faults in a
half bridge MMC and full bridge MMC are analysed
with the help of simulations done in PSCAD.
(i)
With Half bridge MMC Topology
The equivalent circuit of a half bridge MMC during

a DC side fault is given in Fig. 6. In MMC with half
bridge configuration, the reverse diodes in the
submodules will continue to conduct as shown in
Fig. 6. Thus similar to that in 2-level converter, the
converter will act like an uncontrolled rectifier
feeding current to the DC side fault.
Fig. 7: Equivalent circuit of Full Bridge MMC in

DC fault Blocking mode
(d) Simulation Study of MMC based HVDC

System
AMMC based HVDC simulation model with
symmetrical monopolar configurationis developed
in PSCAD to evaluate the performance of the system
during a DC side fault. The simulation parametersare
given in Table 3.
Table 3
Simulation Parameters
Value
DC Link voltage
200kV
Submodule voltage
10 kV
No. of submodules
20
Submodule capacitance
4 mF
AC system voltage
400kV
Transformer voltage (star-delta)
130/400 kV
Fig. 6: Half Bridge MMC feeding current to a DC side fault
(i)
(ii) With Full Bridge MMC Topology
In case of full bridge MMC, there is an inherent
capability in MMC to isolate DC and AC sides during
DC line fault by the converter action. When a DC
side fault is detected, acommand is given to the
converter to withdraw pulses to all the switches in
the converter. This will charge the capacitor in the
submodules which will reverse bias the anti-parallel
diodes of the IGBTs. Thus the immediate isolation
of AC and DC sides is possible during a DC side fault
with MMC using full bridge submodules. This is
illustrated in Fig. 7.
DC Line to Line fault in half bridge MMC: The

simulation result of half bridge MMC based
system with fault on DC side is shown in
Fig. 8. A line to line fault is applied on the DC
side at t=0.6 sec. As seen from the Fig. 8, the
DC link voltage reduces to zero and the fault
current will rise to a high value.
(ii) DC Line to Line fault in full bridge MMC:

Fig. 9 shows thesimulation result of full bridge
MMC with DC line to line fault applied at t=0.6
sec. Here the converter current is closely
monitored and when the current exceeds the
rated value, the pulses to the semiconductor
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devices are withdrawn and the converter enters

the DC fault blocking state. In this mode, the
capacitors in the full bridge modules get
overcharged by the fault current and thereby
reverse bias the anti-parallel diodes. The fault
current reduces to zero as seen in Fig.,isolating
the DC and AC side of the converter station.
faults are isolated by opening the AC side

circuitbreaker. In the complete DC cable
transmission, generally there will not be any restart
attempt. For complete overhead line transmission,
or for combination of cable and overhead
transmission line, one restart attempt is preferred
when the fault is in the overhead line.Generally the
half bridge MMC the restoration time is about 1.2 to
1.5 seconds.
In future, with the development of DC breaker
technology,MMC with half bridge will be able to
isolate the DC sides fault much faster.All the existing
MMC based HVDCprojects in the world till date are
using half bridge submoduletechnology.
Table 4: Comparison of Full Bridge and
Half Bridge MMC
Parameters
Fig. 8: MMC with full bridge submodules blocking current

during a DC side Line-Line Fault (at t=.6 sec)
Full Bridge
Half Bridge
No. of switches
in a module
No. of conducting
switches at any
given instant
Over-modulation
capability in MMC
(above Vdc/2)
Possible
Not possible
Fault tolerant
capability
Excellent
Poor
Losses
More
Less
Cost
More
Less
5.
Fig. 9: Line-Line fault in a half bridge submodules

MMC-HVDC system (at t=.6 sec)
(e) Selection of Submodule Structure

From the simulation results, it is noted that the full
bridge is having excellent DC fault ride through
capability compared to that of MMC with half bridge
topology.Howeverthe number of conducting
switches in full bridge structure is twice that of half
bridge submodule. Hence the full bridge MMC will
be costly and involve more losses compared to a
half bridge MMC scheme.In halfbridge,the DC side
CONCLUSION
VSCtechnology is well suited to many essential

applications, such as transmitting power from
offshore windfarms to mainland grids, evacuating
renewable power from comparatively weak grid to
load centers,improving grid reliability, providing city
in-feeds and powering islands, right of way
limitations etc. As an utility, while planning a VSCHVDC project, number of factors to be weighed while
selectingthe typeand rating of link, configurationof
the converter along with type of transmission (cable/
overhead line) between the two stations.
Consideration to these factors shall lead to cost
optimum and technically viable solution for the
project.
387

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
8.
J. Yang, J. Zheng, G. Tang, and Z. He,

"Characteristics and Recovery Performance of
VSC HVDC Transmission Line Fault," in Proc.
Asia- Pacific Power and Energy Eng. Conf., 2010,
pp. 1-4.
9.
S. Kouro, M. Malinowski, K. Gopakumar, J. Pou,

L. Franquelo, B. Wu,J. Rodriguez, M. Perez, and
J. Leon, "Recent Advances and Industrial
Applications of Multilevel Converters," IEEE
Trans. on Ind. Electron., Vol. 57, no. 8, pp. 25532580, 2010.
1.
M. Bahrman and B. Johnson, "The ABCs of

HVDC transmission technologies," IEEE Power
and Energy Magazine, Vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 32-44,
2007.
2.
N. Flourentzou, V. Agelidis, and G. Demetriades,

"VSC-Based HVDC Power Transmission
Systems: An Overview," IEEE Trans. on Power
Electron., Vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 592-602, 2009.
3.
CIGRE WG B4-37, Cigre Technical BrochureNo.

269, VSC Transmission, published 2005.
4.
CIGRE WG B4.46, Cigre Technical Brochure No.

492, Voltage Source Converter (VSC) HVDC for
Power Transmission-Economic Aspects and
Comparison with other AC and DC Technologies,
published 2012.
10. B.Gemmel, J. Dorn, D. Retzmandn, D. Soerangr:

Prospects of Multilevel VSC Technologies for
Power Transmission IEEE PES Transmission and
Distribution Conference & Exposition, April
21-24, 2008, Chicago, USA.
5.
Desert Power India-2050, Power Grid

Corporation of India Limited, Published in
Dec. 2013.
6.
CIGRE WG B4-48, Cigre Technical Brochure

No. 269, Components Testing of VSC System
for HVDC Applications, published 2011.
11. R. Marquardt, A. Lesnicar: New Concept

for High Voltage-Modular Multilevel
Converter PESC 2004 Conference, Aachen,
Germany.
7.
J. Candelaria and J.-D. Park, "VSC-HVDC system

protection: A review of current methods," in
Proc. IEEE Power Systems Conf. and Expo.,
2011, pp. 1-7.
12. Friedrich, K., "Modern HVDC PLUS application

of VSC in Modular Multilevel Converter
topology," Industrial Electronics (ISIE), 2010
IEEE International Symposium on, pp. 3807,
July 2010.
388

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Hybrid LCC and VSC Converter Schemes Aimed at

Improving Urban Infeed of Remote Generation
M. Boden1
ALSTOM, UK
SUMMARY
Line Commutated Converter (LCC) technology has
been used for over 50 years, connecting generation
to load centres. This technology has not only been
employed in so called "pointto-point" schemes but
has also been used to build both multiterminal
schemes and schemes specifically designed to
provide urban infeed of power from remote large
generation.
LCC technology is well established however, at some
power levels there is a market trend for the newer
Voltage Source Converter (VSC) technology to be
utilised in place of LCC. The VSC has a number of
advantages over LCC but, today, is limited in power
rating and fault blocking capability. However, new
converter topologies are being developed which will
facilitate the integration of both LCC and VSC into a
single common scheme, opening up the opportunity
of developing large scale embedded urban infeed of
remote power generation via HVDC.
Keywords: HVDC, Multiterminal, Urban Infeed
1.
R. Singh
ALSTOM, India
point to point interconnections using Line

Commutated Converter (LCC) technology exist [1].
However, in some instances there is a desire to share
the generated electrical power between different
points of connection within the AC system. An
example of such an application is the Kingnorth cable
HVDC scheme commissioned in 1972, Figure 1 [2].
Kingsnorth was, at the time of constructing the
HVDC link, a new large coal fired power station to
the East of London. In order to evacuate the power
from the Kingsnorth power station a HVDC bipole
converter station was built rated at 640 MW, +/266
kV. However, unusually, the receiving end of this
link was not constructed as a bipole. Instead one
pole was built at a place called "Beddington" in South
London and the second pole was built at another
location, "Willesden" in Northwest London. A
separate high voltage cable fed each converter station
and there was a metallic return conductor that
connected the neutral of the Kingsnorth converter
with the neutrals of both the Beddington and
Willesden converters. This configuration was
replicated, albeit for a different reason, for the
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF
URBAN INFEED AND MULTITERMINAL
HVDC transmission has been typically arranged in a

"pointtopoint" configuration, connecting a large,
remote, power generation facility to a major load
centre. The connection to the load centre being at
one location where the AC system strength is,
typically, relatively high compared to other parts of
the system and where there is the capacity to
evacuate the power into the AC system via the
existing AC infrastructure. Many examples of such
1
Fig. 1: Simplified single line diagram of the Kingsnorth

HVDC scheme
mike.boden@alstom.com
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April 8-10
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KontiSkan converter in Sweden. Here the first and

second poles were built as separate stages and, for
the second stage, the decision was made to locate
the pole some 25 km from the first pole. This gave
access to the 400 kV AC network as opposed to the
130 kV AC connection voltage used by the first pole.
When the Pole 1 converter was eventually replaced
this converter was also relocated in order to be near
to the Pole 2 converter at Lindome [3].
These are examples of where a conventional pole
arrangement has been modified to give multiple
infeed locations. True multi-terminal HVDC, where
three or more converters are electrically connected
in parallel, Figure 2, has been available for some time
but there have only been a few actual
implementations. The Sardinia-Italy link, built by
Alstom in 1967 was extended in 1987 to include a
third terminal in Corsica [4] and the Quebec-New
England multi-terminal scheme was commissioned
in the early 1990s. This later scheme was originally
planned as a five terminal scheme but only three
terminal operation was ever realised [5].
2.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VOLTAGE

SOURCE CONVERTER (VSC)
Early VSC applied to HVDC transmission utilised

many series connected power transistors that were
coherently switched together to achieve a single high
voltage step known as a 2-level converter, Figure 3.
Six valves are switched in sequence in order to
produce a quasisinewave. The switching was
performed using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) in
order to better approximate a sinewave. An
advantage of the VSC is that it can provide reactive
power control independent of the real power. In
addition, for a given power capacity a VSC has a
lower footprint than an LCC. However, this converter
arrangement, due to the relatively high frequency
PWM switching results in high switching losses and
both conducted and radiated harmonic generation.
Furthermore, as a consequence of the diodes which
are connected in antiparallel with the power
transistors (known as "freewheel diodes") a DC side
fault will result in a continuous fault current flowing
from the AC side of the converter to the DC side
which cannot be interrupted by switching the power
electronics. This therefore necessitates the opening
of the converter AC breaker.
In order to address the issues of harmonics (both
conducted and radiated) as well as the relatively high
losses of a 2 level converter the VSC "standard"
product is now based around the so called Modular
MultiLevel Converter (MMC) in "halfbridge"
Fig. 2: Simplified single line diagram of a multiterminal

HVDC scheme
Whilst the SardiniaCorsicaItaly link and the

QuebecNew England HVDC interconnections
consisted of parallel converters other projects have
made use of series connected converters. Typically,
seriesconnected converters have been used in a
common location, where the power distribution
between the converters is in proportion to their
voltage ratings and hence the minimum DC current
is needed to achieve the power order for each
converter. Higher power requirements at some
converters compared to their comparative voltage
rating will necessitate a higher DC current flowing
through all of the series converters and therefore
increasing the losses.
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Fig. 3 : A 2 level VSC converter

April 8-10
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configuration Such converters are today being applied

to both cable only and cable plus overhead line
schemes despite the need to trip the AC converter
breaker in the event of a DC side fault. This
arrangement is even, today, being used on projects
where the ultimate aim is to build a multi-terminal
HVDC scheme [6].
3.
VSC WITH DC SIDE FAULT BLOCKING
Ideally, the MMC VSC converter would be able to

replicate the operational performance of a LCC
converter when connected to an overhead
transmission line scheme, that is, the converter itself
should act as the primary protection with the
converter breaker acting as the backup protection.
Such functionality can be achieved using an MMC
constructed with "full-bridge" modules but with the
impact of additional equipment and additional
steadystate losses[7, 8].
Fullbridge submodules, shown in Figure 4, are able
to connect the DC charged submodule capacitor in
opposition to the AC driving voltage, forcing the
current flow to zero.
Fig. 4: A MMC VSC based on fullbridge submodules
As already noted this increased functionality comes

at a cost. However, the next generation of VSC
promises to offer the desired functionality without
the additional cost of components and increased
losses. An example of such a technology, presently
under development, is the Alternate Arm Converter
(AAC) [9] shown in Figure 5.
The AAC has a similar structure to the fullbridge MMC
shown in Figure 4, however approximately half the
fullbridge modules are replaced by simple
transistordiode "director" switches, similar to the
simple 2 level converter valve shown in Figure 3.
Fig. 5: Alternate Arm Converter (AAC)
The director switches enable each arm of the

converter to be separately switched into conduction
or for parts of the cycle, both arms may be bought
into conduction in an overlap mode giving similar
operation to the MMC. This flexibility means the
benefits of both operating modes can be exploited
enabling the converter to operate over a wide PQ
operating envelope with excellent power quality on
both the AC and DC sides. The use of fullbridge cells
in the converter arms enables the converter to inject
the same opposing voltages as the fullbridge MMC
during a DC fault and therefore gives equivalent fault
ride through capability equivalent to that of the
FullBridge MMC.
Since the power electronic module size and weight
is dominated by the large cell capacitor, the reduction
in the required number of cells means there is a
significant reduction in the power electronic
converter footprint compared to both halfbridge and
fullbridge MMC based HVDC converter stations.
Given the reduction in the number of transistors or
diodes in conduction, the AAC exhibits lower losses
than the fullbridge MMC making it an attractive
alternative to the halfbridge MMC particularly where
DC fault ridethrough is required.
4.
HYBRID LCC AND VSC
Today the LCC converter has a lower cost, lower

losses and a higher power capacity than VSC,
irrespective of the VSC topology. However, as
indicated previously by using VSC based on
"fullbridge" converters the operational characteristics
of an LCC converter could be emulated [8]. Hence,
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April 8-10
2015

by using the full bridge based MMC an LCC converter

and a VSC converter can be operated as a bipole
HVDC link, Figure 7. Such an arrangement takes
advantage of the likelihood of sufficient space being
available for an LCC converter near to a large power
generation site whilst using the more compact VSC
topology at the load centre, providing both real and
reactive support to the local network. Such an
arrangement would offer the prospect of lower losses.
However, the power rating of the scheme will be
dictated by the capability of the Load Centre side
VSC.
As with the early LCC converter schemes such as

Kingsnorth, these VSC stations do not have to be in
close proximity but could, if advantageous to the
existing, underlying, urban AC network be distributed
on both a bipole and pole basis.
There are many alternatives to how such a
multiterminal scheme could be controlled but a
simple example is shown in Figure 8 where the LCC
converter local to the power generating plant acts as
a constant DC voltage source whilst the VSC's
embedded within the urban power network operate
on a DC current/voltage profile under near nominal
conditions.
Hence, power variations at the generation centre can
be regulated through small variation in the operating
DC voltage of the link.
Fig. 6: A simplified LCC VSC hybrid bipole
5.
Fig. 8: Converter static characteristics for a three terminal

hybrid LCC+VSC
MULTIURBAN INFEED HYBRID LCC

AND VSC
An advantage of the VSC is the relative simplicity in

paralleling converters to give multi-terminal
operation [6]. Many converters can be connected in
parallel. Whilst the power rating of an individual VSC
may not be commensurate with that of an LCC the
LCC could be used to supply several VSCs, Figure 7.
6.
CONCLUSION
By combining LCC technology, which has a higher

maximum DC current capacity than is achievable
with VSC today, and multiple, parallel VSC's,
dispersed within an urban setting it is possible to
design a HVDC urban infeed scheme able to integrate
remote, large scale, generation within an urban
environment.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
Monteiro J A R, Mendiratta G, Mukhedkar R A,

"Champa Kurukshetra an 800 kV HVDC Scheme
- Design Challenges", Cigr B4 Colloquium,
October 23, 2013.
2.
Calverley T E, Gavrilovic A, Last F H, Mott C

W, "The Kingsnorth - Beddington - Willesden
DC Link", Paper 4304, Cigr Paris 1968.
Fig. 7: A simplified LCC VSC hybrid bipole
392

April 8-10
2015

3.
Sorensen P L, Franzn B, Wheeler J D, Bonchang

R E, Barker C D, Preedy R M, Baker M H,
"KontiSkan 1 HVDC Pole Replacement", Paper
B4207, Cigr Paris 2004.
4.
Mazzoldi F, Taisne J P, Martin C J B, Rowe B A,

"Adaption of the Control Equipment to Permit
3 Terminal Operation of the HVDC Link
Between Sardinia, Corsica and Mainland Italy",
IEEE Summer meeting 1988.
5.
6.
McCallum D, Moreau G, Primeau J, Bahrman M

Ekehov, "Multiterminal Integration of the
Nicolet Converter Station into the QuebecNew
England Phase II HVDC Transmission System",
Paper 14103, Cigr Paris 1994.
"MultiTerminal Operation of the SouthWest

Link HVDC Scheme in Sweden", Paper 178, Cigr
Canada 2012.
7.
C D Barker, N M kirby, "Reactive Power Loading

of Components within a Modular MultiLevel
HVDC VSC Converter", IEEE, Winnipeg, Canada,
2011.
8.
C D Barker, R S Whitehouse, A G Adamczyk, M

Boden, N M Kirby, "Building a HVDC Bipole
from one LCC Pole and one VSC Pole", Paper
221, Cigr Canada 2013.
9.
M M C Merlin, T C Green, P D Mitcheson, D R

Trainer, D R Critchley, R W Crookes, "A New
Hybrid MultiLevel VoltageSource Converter
with DC Fault Blocking Capability", IET ACDC,
London, 2010.
Barker C, Wheeler J, Mukhedkar R, Ingemansson

D, Danielsson M, Moberg U, Kirby N, Gallon F,
393

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Next Generation of UHVDC System

R. Montao
D Wu
L. Arevalo
ABB - HVDC, Sweden
B. Jacobson
SUMMARY
Energy reliability and availability is of high
demand in today's world. This in conjunction with
an electric energy market forecast average
growth rate of 9% [1] imposes an average increase
of athe installed power of 11% on the
Transmission System Operators and Power
Delivery/Generation Compannies. Unfortunately
in the majority of the cases worldwide, the energy
resources capable to cope with the future
electricity demand are not nearby the load center.
The need of interconnecting the forecast power
plants encouragement the need and development
of new generation UHVDC transmission systems.
The need for higher voltage systems capable to
cope with the high energy demand, reduce the
transmission losses and lower right of way is
inherent. The following article summarize the
challenges overcome on the development of new
generation of Ultra High Voltage DC Systems with
a maximum voltage rating of 1100 kVDC.
Fig. 1(a): World electricity generation by fuel (2007-2035)

in trillion kilowatthours
Keywords: Ultra High Voltage Direct Current

(UHVDC), Transmission systems, Bulk Energy
Transmission Corridors
1.
INTRODUCTION
Today society had a strong dependence on the electric

power network. Consumers are expecting a reliable,
high quality and clean electricity supply. In this
regards, electric energy market had a forecast average
growth rate of 9% [1]. In order to cope the forecast
power supply companies would require to had an
average increase of their installed power of 11%.
Unfortunately, the bulk energy resources are not
1
raul.montano@se.abb.com
Fig. 1(b): World marketed energy consumption (1990-2035) in

quadrillion Btu
located nearby the load center. For example, in China

large resources of untapped hydro power generation
is available, up to 500 GW. The location of generation
is in western China in Sichuan, Xizang, and Yunnan
provinces. In addition some coal fired generation in
394

April 8-10
2015

Xinjiang province is planned. The distance from all

these generation sources to the heavy industrialized
regions along the coast in eastern (Beijing, Shanghai)
and southern (Guangzhou) part of China is 10003000 km. This problem has become more complex
with strong public resistance, narrow transmission
corridor, limited availability of Right of Way,
minimum transmission line route through forest and
protection of flora and fauna for large blocks of power
and long length of the transmission corridor. Primarily
because of the difficulties to build overhead lines,
the government of China is investigating the
possibility to use a voltage rating of 1100 kV for
power transmission of 10.000-13.000 MW per
transmission in order to achieve as much power per
line as possible for distances over 1000 km. For those
transmissions system bellow 1000 km the Chinese
government had been considering increasing the
rating current of 800 kV DC systems. Despite the
maturity of HVDC technology, this new ratings,
voltage or current, represent a major technological
step that will be taken in a very short time.
Fig. 3: Cost comparison for 800 kVDC - 1200 kVDC

and 800 kVAC - 1000 kVAC
This estimate are based on the following assumption

based on today's technology:
(a) 1 HVDC lines, 10.000 MW, 800 kV
(b) 1 HVDC lines, 10.000 MW, 1100 kV
(c) 1 HVDC lines, 10.000 MW, 1200 kV
(d) 3 HVAC lines, 3167 MW, 800 kV
(e) 3 HVAC lines, 3167 MW, 1000 kV
The UHVDC system need to cope with an effective
energy cost. There is no question that when increasing
the voltage, the losses are reduced and the target
energy cost could be achieved. However, to be able
to cope with a target energy cost while increasing
the current rating for 800 kV DC systems will need a
development of different system components,
especially thyristor valves.
3.
3.1 Availability and Reliability
Fig. 2: HVDC systems evolution. Blue Line:

Voltage Rating. Red Line: Power Rating
2.
CHALLENGES
TECHNICAL ECONOMICAL SOLUTION
A cost effective transmission system capable of

handle bulk energy of 10.000 MW or more is
necessary. In the recent years, 800 kV DC
transmission systems had been in operation, capable
to transmit over 0.7 GW over 1400 km. However,
when the transmitted power is increased (> 10GW),
800 kV system become not economical feasible
because it is not possible to transmit this energy by
a single UHVDC link, instead two transmission link
will need to be built.
UHVDC systems design to transmit over 10.000 MW

needs to cope with higher requirements on availability
and reliability. One single pole trip will disconnect
energy equivalent to half of the installed capacity of
the largest hydro power plant today in the world,
e.g., Itaipu installed capacity: 12.000 MW. This will
also impose high requirement and strength on the
AC systems at both ends of the UHVDC transmission.
Thorough investigations are necessary to minimize
an escalation of a single event at regions where
multiple UHVDC systems will be feeding the
transmitted energy. That means that the reliability
of the transmission is a very important issue and has
to be a major design parameter.
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3.2 Electromechanical Design and Equipment Transport

Difficulties had been encountered in the design of
outdoor insulators. It is difficult to fulfill, both the
insulation and the mechanical requirement. This is
because that, a higher voltage together with high
pollution level requires longer insulators. To fulfill
the mechanical strength for such a long insulator,
the diameter of the insulator needs to be increased.
However, an increase in diameter will result in a
decrease in the pollution performance of this
insulator. To compensate such effect, further increase
of the insulator length may be required. Following
this loop, the risk was a "run-away"situation[2].
Furthermore, high voltage equipment subjected to
new rated voltage will also increase in size. As
example, converter transformers need to be
assembly, tested and shipped to site. Due to the new
voltage requirements this might not be possible in
the existing facilities and therefore, site
manufacturing had been assessed as an alternative
for the new rating voltages.
Electrode size, corona shielding, terminal forces, etc.
need to be properly design to guarantee a cost
effective solution with the reliability that this new
generation of UHVDC systems required.
3.3 Indoor vs Outdoor DC Yard

Today, both outdoor and indoor DC yards have been
adopted by different 800 kV UHVDC projects.
However, the operational experience at this voltage
level is still limited [2]. Other reason for selecting
indoor solution is to obtain a more compact design,
minimizing the footprint of the converter station.
For equipment within this weather protected building,
the creepage distance needed and the mechanical
strength required can be reduced. Switching impulse
voltage will be the dimensioning parameters. Smooth
electrodes with a larger diameter can therefore be
adopted to reduce the required air clearance[2].
In comparison to outdoor solution, the cost of indoor
solution is higher because the cost of the building.
Depending on the requirement for the ambient
conditions inside the hall, auxiliary equipment such
as humidity controller may need to be installed [2].
However, the building costs will partly be
compensated by the reduced cost of apparatus.
A reduced risk of failure is the major benefit of the

indoor solution. A long term outage will due to risk
associated with outdoor design will cover the cost
difference associated with the indoor solutions.
3.4 Application for the New UHVDC Systems

China economy had an average growing rate of
around 12% continuously for the last thirty years.
The improvement on peoples wellbeing and economy
growth is closely related with increase requirements
of energy. To cope with the electricity demands, China
had pioneer in implementing new high voltage
systems, at AC and DC level. These are the most
effective practices to accomplish a reasonable target
energy cost. Being the first country to commission
and have in full operation of 800 kVDC transmission
systems, more than 21.000 GW of transmission
capacity is solely installed at this rating voltage.
Economy growth is further expected in the coming
years and therefore need for new transmission
systems are expected. After year 2020, it is planned
to develop another seven hydro power projects in
Xizang totally rated 110.000 MW for transmission
to the east and south provinces of China. To enable
the bulk transmission of the require electricity
imposes the seek for next generations of UHVDC
systems, at new rated voltages, i.e., 1100 kVDC or
at existing voltage rating with higher current
capabilities. Presently there is not market interest
for the new UHVDC transmissions systems elsewhere
in the world beside China. However, when utilizing
far away located hydro and solar generation in Africa,
India, USA and South America, applications may
arise for these new generations of UHVDC
transmissions systems.
3.5 ABB Technology Development

Since 2011 ABB started R&D activities necessary for
the technology development of the key components
for next generation of UHVDC transmission systems,
i.e., those exposed to the new rating voltage (1100
kV DC). By means of advance electromagnetic
simulations, transient studies and high voltage
testing ABB had developed prototypes for converter
valve, valve hall design, converter transformer, bypass switch, radio interference capacitors, surge
arresters, transformer bushing and wall bushing.
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April 8-10
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(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
Fig. 4: 1100 kV Prototypes: (a) Wall bushing, (b) Converter transformer prototype, (c) Transformer bushing,
(d) Pole arrester, (e) By-pass switch, (f) Radio Interference Capacitor (RIC).
Also, conceptual design for stations layout and indoor DC yard had been developed.
Fig. 5: Conceptual design: (a) Valve Hall, (b) Indoor DC Yard.
4.
FINAL REMARKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Unfortunately in the majority of the cases worldwide,

the energy resources capable to cope with the future
electricity demand are not nearby the load center.
The need of interconnecting the forecast power plants
encouragement the need and development of new
generation UHVDC transmission systems. The need
for higher voltage systems capable to cope with the
high energy demand, reduce the transmission losses
and lower right of way is inherent.
1.
EIA, International Energy Statistics database (as

of March 2014). Web site: http://www.eia.gov/
forecasts/ieo/more_highlights.cfm.
2.
D. Wu, U. trm, L. Arevalo, R. Montao,

B. Jacobson, "Selection between indoor or
outdoor DC yards", Article submitted to CIGRE
2014.
397

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Modular Multilevel Current Source Converter for

Back-to-Back HVDC Transmission System
Anup Kavimandan
S. Sasitharan
ABB Global Industries & Services Limited, India
SUMMARY
Back-to-Back HVDC converter stations are
located closer to each other and can be operated
at higher DC currents and lower dc voltages due
to negligible transmission losses. But the
semiconductor devices used in both conventional
line commutated converters (LCC) and voltage
source converters (VSC) are limited by their
maximum current carrying capabilities. This
limitation can be overcome using modular
multilevel current source converters (CSC) as they
offer the advantage of paralleling of current links.
Paralleling of multiple cells will further lead to
effective sharing of current amongst devices.
Besides, the multilevel nature of the topology will
increase the number of levels in the current on
the ac side of the HVDC transmission system thus
giving lower current THD and reduced filtering
requirements. With lower voltages at the valve
side of converter transformer, benefits can also
be achieved in terms of reduced insulation
requirements.
Keywords: Back-to-Back HVDC, LCC, VSC, MMCCSC, Transmission, Multilevel converter, half bridge
cell, full bridge cell, RB-IGCT, insulation.
1.
INTRODUCTION
High Voltage direct current (HVDC) is the

technology of choice for long distance bulk-power
transmission efficiently and reliably from generators
to distant centers of consumption. The benefits of
reliable, long-distance transmission with minimum
losses, combined with features like the ability to
connect unsynchronized power grids, have opened
new opportunities for this versatile technology. But
the HVDC technology is constantly challenged to

achieve higher ratings for voltage and current,
conquer even longer distances with overhead lines,
cables or a combination of these, and to further
reduce transmission losses. In a back-to-back HVDC
application, the rectifier and inverter stations are
typically located close to each other. Therefore, long
distance transmission lines are not required between
the two stations. Thus negligible transmission loss
provides the flexibility to operate the converter
station at higher currents with low dc voltage for
the back-to-back HVDC interconnect. As such, backto-back HVDC transmission systems are suited for
higher direct current and lower dc voltages.
Conventional line commutated converters and
voltage source converters have thus far been
considered as reliable solutions and have been
adopted for the implementation of point-to-point
HVDC transmission links as well as back-to-back
HVDC interconnects. But the semiconductor devices
used in both line commutated converters (LCC) as
well as voltage source converters (VSC) are limited
by the maximum current that they can carry. For
higher current rated systems, it may not be possible
to use thyristors or IGBT beyond certain current
rating. Besides, parallelling of devices is not a very
feasible option in VSCs as it is difficult to ensure
equal current sharing between IGBTs connected in
parallel. Also thyristor based LCCs have some
limitation of reactive power compensation, black
start operation, commutation failure etc. As a result,
a compromise has to be made with respect to the
maximum dc current while deciding the converter
ratings. This increases the semiconductor cost as well
as the insulation requirement. The valve hall as well
as protective equipment like arresters and circuit
breakers have to be designed for comparatively higher
398

April 8-10
2015

voltages. This will significantly increase the overall

cost and footprint. In such a case, the only solution
that looks feasible and promising if we are going for
lower voltages and higher current based HVDC
transmission systems is current source converters
(CSC).
Fig. 1: Functional diagram of a simple current source converter
The benefits provided by the conventional LCC in

terms of lower voltage and the benefits provided by
VSC in terms of blackstart capability, faster response
and better dynamic performance can be combined
in one topology using current source converter [1].
The chosen topology suitably fits a back-to-back
HVDC application. It is possible to have parallel
current links or even parallel converter modules with
current source converters which are favourable for
higher current applications. This is the main drive
for going for current source converter based
topologies for such applications [2]. The higher the
current, the more the number of parallel links and
more will be the number of levels in the current
synthesized on the ac side of the HVDC transmission
system. This will bring down the current THD at the
ac side and reduce the filtering requirement. With
the availability of transformers that can step down
400kV ac voltage to 35 kV ac (e.g., Litpole back-toback interconnect, [3]), the motivation for having
higher current is increased even more. With such an
arrangement, the transformer would take the bulk
of the insulation and less insulation will be required
in the valve hall. This will reduce the valve hall size
and result in a saving in terms of space & footprint.
2.
PROPOSED CONVERTER TOPOLOGY

WORKING PRINCIPLE
Three phase Current source Modular multilevel

converter based topologies are proposed for backto-back HVDC application. These multilevel current
source converters are modular by paralleling.
Inductor cells are connected in parallel to form a
current source parallel link in a modular multilevel
converter. These parallel links are then connected in
series to scale up in voltage. It uses fully controllable
reverse voltage blocking devices to provide
controllable active and reactive power. The operating
principle of a simple current source based converter
is illustrated in Figure 1. Here the dc side is
represented as a stiff current source. The load current
can be positive if S1 and S4 are ON and S2 and
S3 are OFF. It is negative otherwise. The load current
is ZERO if either S2 and S3 or S2 and S4 and ON
at the same time i.e., if the dc link is shorted.
A modular multilevel current source based converter
can be realized using two basic types of current
source inductor cells as shown in Figure 2. A
unidirectional 2-quadrant half bridge cell is shown
in Figure 2(a) and a bidirectional 4-quadrant full
bridge cell is shown in Figure 2(b). The individual
switch elements are required to block bipolar
voltages and conduct unidirectional current. Such a
reverse voltage blocking device at the present stateof-the-art technology can either be an IGBT in series
with a diode or a reverse blocking IGCT (RB-IGCT)
as shown in Figure 2(c). While making an IGCT, an
anode short or a transparent emitter technology is
used to reduce the leakage currents and turn off
losses.
399
Fig. 2: Basic current source inductor cells (a) half bridge cell,
(b) full bridge cell and (c) switch realization

April 8-10
2015

As is mentioned earlier, a current source parallel link

is realized by connecting inductor cells in parallel.
The objective of having a parallel current link is to
synthesize a multilevel current waveform. The
parallel link for half bridge and full bridge based cells
is respectively shown in Figure 3.
Fig. 3: Parallel current link using (a) half bridge cells and
(b) full bridge cells
The switching strategy here is exactly the dual of a

voltage source capacitor cell. Here it is essential to
provide a path for the inductor current at every
instant. Consider the half bridge inductor cell. It has
two switches S1 and S2. Either one of the two has to
be ON at any instant of time. This can be understood
from the possible switching states for a half bridge
based inductor cell in Table 1. When S1 is ON and
S2 OFF, the cell delivers an output current equal to
the inductor current and the inductor discharges and
freewheels when S1 is OFF and S2 is ON. Table 2
lists the switching states for a full bridge cell. So the
full bridge cell can conduct bidirectional current,
depending on cell terminal voltage polarity.
Table 1 : Switching States and Cell Output
Current for Half Bridge Inductor Cell
S1
S2
Iout
VL
ON
OFF
IL
Vout
OFF
ON
Fig. 4: Half Bridge MMC Current Source Converter topology
This topology can offer the following advantages:
Table 2 : Switching States and Cell Output

Current for Fuil Bridge Indicator Cell
S1
S2
S3
S4
Iout
VL
ON
OFF
OFF
ON
IL
-Vout
OFF
ON
ON
OFF
-I L
Vout
ON
ON
OFF
OFF
OFF
OFF
ON
ON
Figure 4. It uses a 2 quadrant unidirectional half

bridge as the basic current source inductor cell. Each
switch element in the inductor cell is capable of
blocking bipolar voltage when open (bipolar voltage
as it is same as the load voltage, which is
bidirectional) and conducting unidirectional current.
These cells are connected in parallel to form a current
link for current scaling. The parallel links can then
be connected in series for voltage scaling. There is a
step down transformer on the rectifier side to reduce
the ac voltage level and a step up transformer on the
inverter side to increase the ac voltage equal to the
transmission voltage level. Capacitive filter banks
are connected on valve side of the converter
transformer to filter out the harmonics in the current
due to switching. These capacitors will invariably
be of very small size and rated for low currents.
A half bridge based Modular Multilevel based Current

Source converter (MMC-CSC) topology is shown in
Multilevel current waveform can be synthesized

at the ac side
4-Quadrant operation is possible
Bidirectional power flow is possible with voltage

reversal only
Blackstart capability and no-load operation

possible
Voltage sags ride through capability
Fault current limitation capability.
Inherent Short circuit protection capability.
With a full bridge based MMC-CSC the added

advantage will be bidirectional power flow possible
with both voltage and current reversal [4]. Figure 5
shows a modular multilevel current source based
converter topology. It is modularized based on two-
400

April 8-10
2015

level 3-phase CSC structure as shown by the dashed

lines. The realization of the switches will again be
similar to the above two topologies. For N number
of cells/two-level CSCs and a dc current I flowing in
the main HVDC line, the current in each
semiconductor device and balancing reactor is I/N.
Thus the reactors have to be designed for lower
current rating (N times lower). Because of the
multilevel nature of the AC output current
waveform, the filtering requirement here is drastically
reduced.
Fig. 5: Modular 3-phase Current Source Converter
3.
CONTROL PRINCIPLE
The inductor cell current balancing is achieved in

the same manner as the capacitor cell voltage
balancing in voltage source based multilevel
converters. The terminal voltage and current of the
parallel link will consist of a DC and a fundamental
ac component. It is required that the average power
going into the parallel link over an AC cycle is zero,
otherwise the inductor current will keep on
increasing. This constraint is met through appropriate
cell modulation scheme.
The control principle for multilevel current source
based topologies is based on current balance and
power balance principle. The outer power (active
and reactive) control loop generates the reference
arm current signals, which is adjusted to balance
energy between arms and balance voltage between
series connected parallel links. The current references
are then synthesized by the inductor cells in each
parallel link, with proper cell balancing selection
scheme.
But the major problem with current source based
converter topologies is encountered if a device fails
in open circuit mode. It will interrupt the inductor
current, resulting in a huge voltage there which can
even cause problem to the other devices connected
nearby. To prevent such device failure in open-circuit
modes, it is required to incorporate some kind of
cell open-circuit protection mechanism.
4.
CONCLUSIONS
Paralleling of devices is possible in current source

based MMC converters, so it can conduct dc currents
higher than the device current rating. Lower dc
voltages would mean that the number of series
connected cells required will be less, thus further
reducing the device count and hence a saving in
semiconductor cost can be achieved. The Current
source MMC based on RB-IGCT technology will
reduce the overall cost and loss per MVA.
Transformer will take the bulk of the insulation in
this case. So the valve hall size will be greatly reduced.
The protective equipment like arrester and breakers
will be rated for a lower potential and so need not
be mounted on a high voltage bushing. This will be
a saving in terms of space, footprint and cost. Current
source converters have inherent short circuit fault
tolerance because of the dynamic nature of the
inductors and bidirectional voltage blocking
capability of the switches. Hence, a better
performance can be ensured for DC side faults with
current source based topologies. As discussed, the
best mode of use of this idea is in applications with
higher current and lower voltage levels, typical of
back-to-back HVDC transmission systems.
REFERENCES
1.
Zhihong Bai; Zhongchao Zhang, Conformation

of Multilevel Current Source Converter
Topologies Using the Duality Principle, IEEE
Trans. Power Electronics, Vol. 23, no.5,
pp. 2260-2267, Sept. 2008.
2.
J. Liang, A. Nami, F. Dijkhuizen, P. Tenca, J.

Sastry, Current source modular multilevel
converter for HVDC and FACTS, EPE France,
Sept. 2013.
3.
http://new.abb.com/systems/hvdc/references/
litpol-link
4.
Marcelo A. Perez, Ricardo Lizana, Camilo

Azocar, Jose Rodriguez, Bin Wu, Modular
multilevel cascaded converter based on current
source H-Bridges cells, in Proc. 2012 IEEE
Industrial Electronics Society Annual Conf
(IECON), Montreal, QC, Canada, Oct. 2012.
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5th International Exhibition & Conference, 2015

New Technologies in T & D, Renewable Energy Integration,

5th International Exhibition & Conference, 2015

New Technologies in T & D, Renewable Energy Integration,

Indian Power System is rapidly expanding and

High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission

This paper presents the effectiveness of two of

(a) Power Oscillation Damping (POD): Damps

Keywords: Real Time Simulation, Hardware In Loop

The oscillations of sub synchronous frequency range

(b) Frequency Control: Controls the small frequency

5th International Exhibition & Conference, 2015

New Technologies in T & D, Renewable Energy Integration,

(c) Power Run back / Run up functions: These

In this paper following the HVDC control functions

Power Oscillation Damping

Sub Synchronous Torsional Interaction Control

2.1 Power Oscillation Damping

The frequency of power oscillations is typically in

where and are real and imaginary parts of

Large interconnected power systems are prone to

The frequency difference between the two

In the case study discussed in the paper, the input to

2.2 Typical Power Oscillation Damping

Fig. 2: Block diagram of a typical POD controller

Fig. 1: Power Oscillation Damping

5th International Exhibition & Conference, 2015

New Technologies in T & D, Renewable Energy Integration,

AC system frequencies at both rectifier and inverter

For the analysis of POD, a simulation case

2.4 System Representation

Power flow in Ballia - Bhiwadi HVDC link was

A 3 phase to ground fault of 100 ms duration

The power oscillations in the other line was

The deviation is then acted up on by a gain limiter

2.3 Case Study

400 kV Ballia - New Lucknow double circuit

Fig. 3: Equivalent system representation for POD evaluation.

2.5 Study Results

The power oscillations of magnitude P = 1372

(ii) These inter-area oscillations with the frequency

5th International Exhibition & Conference, 2015

New Technologies in T & D, Renewable Energy Integration,

system remains stable as per the stability

added to the scheduled reference power. The

With POD Control : The POD function was enabled

The power oscillations of magnitude

(ii) These inter-area oscillations with frequency of

(iii) The difference in power angle between Ballia

Fig. 6: DC Power Modulation in Ballia - Bhiwadi HVDC with POD

Fig. 7.: Power Angle Oscillation between Ballia and

Fig. 4: Oscillation of Power in Ballia - New Lucknow-II line

5th International Exhibition & Conference, 2015

New Technologies in T & D, Renewable Energy Integration,

SUB SYNCHRONOUS TORSIONAL

Sub synchronous torsional interaction (SSTI) refers

3.1 Method of Investigation

Generating unit with UIF less than 0.1 implies level

Fig. 9: Generators in the vicinity of Ballia rectifier station

As turbine generator system consist of several masses

5th International Exhibition & Conference, 2015

New Technologies in T & D, Renewable Energy Integration,