Influence of Transformer Tap-Changer Control Mode

Upon HVDC Valve Power Loss

Zhongyuan Zhao Wang Bin
NR Electric Co., LTD. NR Electric USA LCC.
Nanjing, China California, USA
Zhaozy@nrelect.com Wangbin3@nrelect.com

Abstract—The Gui-Guang HVDC transmission link in china is tap changer. According to standard IEC60183, the valve loss
taken as an example to study the operation philosophy in two is calculated here in various transmission power. The data
different control modes of converter transformer tap changer, analysis of the above operation load and valve loss is
i.e. voltage control mode and angle control one. The HVDC implemented here to get the corresponding trend between
valve power loss is derived here in these two modes. The study operation data and valve loss in different control mode of tap
results show that the voltage control mode makes the HVDC loss changer. Through trend relation analysis, the formula between
get larger than the angle control one does in the same the operation data and valve loss in different tap control mode
transmission capacity. The analysis also confirmed that the is derived here directly, and makes it convenient to do
voltage control mode of converter transformer tap changer is
engineering design and do operation safety confirmation.
with high stability in relative large bus voltage fluctuation
condition. The intuitive relation formula between HVDC
operation parameters and valve power loss is also presented
II. HVDC PROJECT PARAMETERS
here in different tap-changer control modes. This paper present The Guizhou-Guangdong ±500 kV DC Transmission
a powerful theory support for long-term stable operation of both Project adopts the bipolar 12-pulse HVDC transmission with a
HVDC valve and its cooling system with large bus voltage total rated power capacity of 3000 MW (500 kV, 3000 A),
fluctuation on primary side of HVDC converter transformer. measured on the DC side of the rectifier. The thyristor valves
and associated equipment have been designed and rated to
Index Terms--HVDC Valve, Power Loss, Tap Changer Control, meet the performance. Each valve consists of 78 thyristor
Valve Loss Formula. levels (three redundant) and 12 non-linear valve reactors
connected in series. The valve sections consist of 13 thyristor
I. INTRODUCTION levels and two valve reactors connected in series and one
In HVDC transmission system, the converter transformer grading capacitor. The nominal bipolar operation parameters
tap control mode consists of constant firing angle control are shown in table I.
method and constant voltage control method, under normal
situations. The converter transformer tap usually adopts TABLE I. NOMINAL BIPOLAR OPERATION PARAMETERS
constant firing angle control mode.
Rectifier Inverter
The voltage fluctuations upon high voltage DC bus in the
Anshun station of Gui-Guang HVDC project, causes the DC power Pdn MW 3000 2847
converter transformers tap changer to do adjustment action
frequently. In order to prevent against the frequent movement DC current Idn A 3000 3000
of the converter transformer tap changer, from April 2007, DC voltage Udn kV 500 474.5
Anshun DC pole 2 converter transformer has changed tap
changer angle control mode into the constant voltage control, Firing angle alfa deg 15 ---
while pole 1 still uses constant firing angle control mode of
tap changer. After long-term on-site operation and data Extinction angle gamma deg --- 17
analysis, it shows that the temperature of cooling water for
Overlap u deg 21.3 19.5
pole 2 valve room is higher than one for pole 1 valve room.
Transformer
This paper firstly present the constant voltage control and uk pu 0.16 0.152
impedance
fixed firing angle control for the tap changer of the HVDC Rel. inductive.
dxn pu 0.08 0.076
converter transformer. Utilizing operation parameters and voltage drop
converter transformer data, various operation data in different Rel. resistive
drn pu 0.003 0.003
voltage drop
transmission power is calculated in different control mode for

978-1-4799-6415-4/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

 Total. rel. voltage
dxtot pu 0.083 0.073 transformer. The voltage error is defined as subtracting of no-
drop load voltage on valve side to the set reference value.
No-load voltage Udion kV 283.5 268.6
According to the voltage error, converter transformer tap
Transformer controller gives an order to change the tap position. When the
Sn MVA 889.6 843.8
rating (6-pulse) voltage error is over the dead-zone upper limit, send lowering
Transformer tap command. When the voltage error is less than the dead-
Usecn kV 209.7 198.9
secondary. voltage
zone lower limit, send increasing tap command.
Transformer
Uac kV 525 525 B. Constant Firing Angle Control
primary voltage
Converter reactive The converter transformer tap changer controller will
Qdc MVAr 1537 1498
power compare the measured firing angle with the set reference value
to get the angle difference. When the angle difference is over
the dead-zone upper limit, send lowering tap command. when
the angle difference is less than the dead-zone lower limit,
then increase tap position.

III. RELATION BETWEEN TAP CHANGER CONTROL MODE

AND VALVE LOSS
Due to the complexity of the waveform of the converter
valve in operation, there is not a better method to do direct
measure loss. The commonly used method is to calculate the
loss of each component of thyristor valve, and finally to do the
sum of the losses of the converter valve. The thyristor valve
loss covers on-state losses, diffusion loss, other on-state losses
of a single valve, and resistive damping loss, turn-off loss, and
anode-reactor loss. The largest part of them is both on-state
loss and damping loss. The converter valve loss in engineering
design is calculated, according to IEC61803 definition.
Figure 1. Bipolar configuration. As for constant firing angle control mode, in given direct
current, the tap ratio is calculated in the case of setting firing
angle 15 degree. And then select the nearest tap position to
TABLE II. CONVERTER TRANSFORMER TAP PARAMETERS approach this ratio value. The operation data in constant firing
Station Anshun Zhaoqing angle control mode is listed in table III.
Unom [kV] 525 525
Umax [kV] 551.25 551.25 TABLE III. OPERATION DATA IN CONSTANT FIRING ANGLE CONTROL
MODE
Umin [kV] 498.75 485.625
Usecn [kV] 209.7 198.9 Direct Firing Overlap DC DC No-load Tap
current angle angle power voltage voltage position
Maxi. steady state (A) (deg) (deg) (MW) （KV） （KV）
215.6 206.1
voltage, valve side [kV]
3000 14.85 21.76 1500 500 282.62 2
Nominal Ratio 525/209.67 525/198.56 2400 15.84 18.14 1200 500 279.14 3
1800 14.41 15.53 900 500 272.48 5
Range: - 5% to + 20% - 7.5% to + 20% 1200 15.68 10.94 600 500 269.30 6
600 14.67 6.55 300 500 263.22 8
No of steps: - 4 steps/ +16 steps -6 steps/ +16 steps

(total 21 steps) (total 23 steps) As for the constant voltage control mode, in given bus
Step size: 1.25 % 1.25%
voltage of 537kV, the tap position is calculated to be two in
order to keep the Udi0 value constant. The operation data
calculated in constant voltage tap control mode is shown in
Converter transformer tap changer control mode usually table IV.
comprise constant voltage control and fixed angle control in
engineering application. TABLE IV. OPERATION DATA IN CONSTANT VOLTAGE CONTROL MODE

A. Constant Voltage ControlMode Direct Firing Overlap Direct DC No-load Tap

current angle angle Power voltage voltage position
According to the actual converter transformer tap position (A) (deg) (deg) (MW) （KV） （KV）
and its AC side voltage, the converter transformer tap changer 3000 14.85 21.76 1500 500 282.62 2
calculates no-load voltage on valve side of the converter 2400 18.16 16.85 1200 500 282.62 2
1800 20.97 12.37 900 500 282.62 2
 1200 23.45 8.14 600 500 282.62 2 Firing Direct Direct Valves Loss
600 25.71 4.04 300 500 282.62 2 angle voltage current /kW
(deg) (kV) (A) IEC61083 Formula
39.7 356.5 421 3263 3265
Based on loss calculation in working conditions, we can
see the pole 2 valve loss is usually more than pole1 valve in 27.9 408.4 551 2641 2629
20 432.5 694 2330 2339
the same transmit power, which also causes the pole 2 water 16.3 500 750 2403 2425
cooling water temperature relatively higher. As is illustrated in 15.3 500 900 2519 2533
figure 2. In the case of the same transmission power, 16.8 500 1050 2791 2795
especially near the minimum power, loss in the constant 15.9 500 1200 2913 2907
voltage control mode is significantly bigger than one in the 17.3 500 1350 3179 3177
given angle control mode; at near the rated power, valve loss 16.5 500 1500 3308 3296
is almost the same in this two cases. 15.6 500 1650 3437 3417
17.1 500 1800 3709 3715
16.2 500 1950 3840 3834
15.3 500 2100 3977 3963
16.9 500 2250 4256 4263
16 500 2400 4394 4390
15.1 500 2550 4538 4527
16.8 500 2700 4826 4843
15.9 500 2850 4972 4978
15 500 3000 5123 5122
14.3 499.3 3156 5294 5294
13.6 498.6 3312 5468 5471

The valve power loss is calculated in the follow formula 2

in constant voltage angle, and illustrated in the table VI.

⎧ 2362 95 1894 U2 ⎫
Figure 2. Valve loss versus direct current in different tap changer control PLOSS = U dc2 ⎨ − + ⋅10 −5 L α ⎬
mode. ⎩177 ⋅U dc 4272 995 U dc ⎭
⎧ ⎛ 982 1265 −10 2 ⎞⎫
+ U dc2 ⎨α 2 ⎜ ⋅10 −19 U L2U dc2 α 2 − ⋅10 U L ⎟⎬
IV. POWER LOSS FORMULA DERIVATION ⎩ ⎝ 837 249 ⎠⎭ (2)
Valve operation characteristic and loss calculation base on ⎛ 5 241 1751 4 ⎞
IEC61083, are analyzed here to present the direct relation + U L2 ⎜ α2 − α− α ⎟
⎝ 36946 28942 276 ⎠
formula between the valve operation data and valve loss in
different tap control mode. ⎛ 993 2693 −8 908 −9 2 ⎞
+ I dc2 ⎜⎜ + ⋅10 U L + ⋅10 U L ⎟⎟
The valve power loss is calculated in the follow formula1 ⎝ 1135 ⋅ I dc 1378 493 ⎠
in constant firing angle, and illustrated in the table V. 10482
−
41
where, PLOSS valve loss per 12 pulse, kW； U L phase-
⎧ 61 1009 9 ⎫
PlOSS = U L2 ⎨ α +α 2( ⋅ 10 − 9 U dc2 − )⎬ phase voltage RMS of converter transformer on valve side,
⎩ 7399 2524 89077 ⎭
(1) kV ； α firing angle, degree ； U dc direct voltage across
⎧ 133 U 1727 575 ⎫
+ U L2 ⎨α 2 ( − ⋅ 10 − 4 dc ) + α 4 ( ⋅ 10 −8 + ⋅ 10 −18 U dc4 ) ⎬
⎩ 856 α 1913 678 ⎭ valve, kV； I dc direct current, A。
2007 312 87706
+ U dc ( − U dc − )
106 21275 19 ⋅ U dc
563 825 1291 TABLE VI. BIPOLAR OPERATION MODE，100% DIRECT VOLTAGE, RDC
+ I dc ( + ⋅ 10 − 8 U L I dc + ⋅ 10 − 9 U L2 I dc ) = 8.5Ω, UAC=525/525KV
560 256 1217
Firing Direct Direct Valves Loss
where, PLOSS valve loss per 12 pulse, kW； U L phase- angle voltage current /kW
phase voltage RMS of converter transformer on valve side, (deg) (kV) (A) IEC61083 Formula
kV； α firing angle, degree; U dc direct voltage across valve, 26.97 500 300 2824 2829
26.44 500 450 2927 2930
kV； I dc direct current, A。 25.91 500 600 3034 3035
25.37 500 750 3144 3143
24.82 500 900 3256 3255
TABLE V. BIPOLAR OPERATION MODE，100% DC VOLTAGE, RDC =
24.25 500 1050 3372 3370
8.5Ω, UAC=525/525KV
23.67 500 1200 3490 3488
 23.08 500 1350 3611 3609 valve loss. These parameters of primary equipment usually
22.47 500 1500 3736 3734 have more than thirty ones, which make on-site operator
21.86 500 1650 3863 3862 difficult to understand and use them.
21.22 500 1800 3993 3992
20.56 500 1950 4126 4126 Using the presented formula, the user can easily get the
19.88 500 2100 4262 4262 data on operating interface in the control room to obtain the
19.18 500 2250 4400 4401 valve loss rapidly.
18.45 500 2400 4541 4543
17.70 500 2550 4685 4687 The formula is very convenient for on-site operator to do
16.91 500 2700 4831 4833 effective analysis and visual inspection on the valve operation
16.08 500 2850 4980 4981 safety in different tap control mode.
15.21 500 3000 5132 5131
14.54 499.3 3156 5303 5307 This way has been utilized in Anshun station for the
13.83 498.6 3312 5477 5486 operator to predict the valve loss .

I. CONCLUSION
Comparing the results between in table V and table VI,
their difference error between IEC61803-based valve loss and
presented-formula one is within 0.2 per cent. These results
show that the presented formula of valve loss based on
operation data, can agree well with the IEC61083-based
calculated loss. IEC 61083 Standard recommends using the
parameters of relative primary equipment to calculate the
REFERENCES
[1] IEC 61803-1999: Determination of power losses in high-voltage direct
current (HVDC) converter stations.
[2] Ambra Sannino, Giovanna Postiglione, and Math H. J.Bollen.
"Feasibility of a DC Network for Commercial Facilities", IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 39, No. 5, September/
October 2003.
[3] HVDC Converter Stations for Voltages Above ±600 kV, Cigre
Working Group 14.32, December 2002.