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Power Transmission with HVDC at Voltages about 600 kV

Conference Paper · February 2005

DOI: 10.1109/TDC.2005.1546894 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 1

Power Transmission with HVDC at Voltages

Above 600 kV
U Åström, L. Weimers, V. Lescale and G. Asplund

past, the common conclusion has been that for these big
Abstract--The use of Ultra High Voltage Direct Current amounts of power and long distances the use of 800 kV HVDC
(UHVDC), i.e. voltages above the highest in use, 600 kV, has been is the most economical solution. [1], [2].
found to be economically attractive for power blocks up to 6000 In order to meet the requirements from the market, ABB is
MW for distances above 1000 km, Furthermore the use of 800 kV
at present working with development of equipment for 800 kV
as transmission voltage will be achievable within the near future
with a limited amount of development work. None of the AC HVDC.
equipment, auxiliary equipment or control and protection will be
affected by the increase of DC voltage. Also most of the DC II. ECONOMY
equipment is easily modified for 800 kV, such as thyristor valves
The total cost for a HVDC transmission system is composed
and DC filter capacitors. However, equipment without resistive
DC grading, like bushings and converter transformers, need of the investment in converter stations and line and the
additional R&D and verification. Also station external insulation capitalized value of the losses. For a given power the cost for
and line insulation must be carefully considered. In order to meet the stations increases with the voltage, while the line has a
the demands, ABB has started an R&D program with the goal to minimum combined cost at a certain voltage.
develop and test equipment needed for 800 kV HVDC.
Investment and value of losses vs line losses
Index Terms—800 kV HVDC, Bulk power transmission,
(6400 MW, 1800 km, 1400 USD/kW)
Converter stations, HVDC, HVDC External insulation, HVDC
Equipment, HVDC Systems, HVDC transmission economy,
4000
Insulation coordination, UHVDC
3000
MUSD

I. INTRODUCTION
2000
Worldwide there is an increasing interest in the application
of HVDC at voltage levels above what is presently used. The 1000
main reason is that most of the hydro power resources that are 0
within convenient distance to the consumer centers have been 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
exploited by now, and in order to meet the increasing demand Percent line losses
for clean, renewable energy, remote hydro generation plants 800 kV AC 600 kV DC 800 kV DC
are built. This asks for efficient means for long distance, bulk
Fig 1. Cost comparison 600 kV HVDC and 800 kV HVDC
power transmission, a typical scenario is 6000 MW to be
transmitted 2000-3000 km.
A comparison of the total cost for transmitting 6400 MW
In China large hydropower resources are available in the over 1800 km at 800 kV AC, 800 kV DC and 600 kV DC has
Western part of the country and the power will be transmitted been done. 1400 USD/kW has been applied when calculating
to the industrialized regions in the Eastern and Southern areas the value of the losses. The result is that the 800 kV DC is the
of China most cost effective alternative depending on a higher line
In India transfer of the hydropower generated at the capacity and lower line losses. The total cost for the 800 kV
Bramaputra River Basin in the North- Eastern part of India alternative is 25 % lower than for 600 kV, see Fig. 1.
will have to be transmitted to the southern part of the country
where the power is needed. III. AVAILABILITY AND RELIABILITY
In Africa there is a great potential for power production at Transmission of 3000 – 6000 MW bulk power into heavy
the basin of the Congo River near the location of Inga. Parts of load-centers like Shanghai means that the reliability of the
the power is planned to be transmitted to South Africa transmission is very important and has to be a major design
In Brazil vast hydropower resources are located in the parameter.
Amazon region, while the power consumer centers are located A. Line faults
along the eastern coast.
The frequency of line faults is dependent on the length of the
In several investigations that have been carried out in the line. Bipolar faults can occur e.g. at tower failures or due to
icing at extreme weather conditions, but are rare. The majority
of the pole line faults are cleared easily within some periods by
 2

retarding and restart. During the retard time the healthy pole Each group had a by-pass breaker, should one mercury arc
compensates the power loss on the failing pole. At rare valve be out of order. The Itaipu ± 600 kV HVDC project is
occasions the line will stay tripped for longer periods, and will the only project with thyristor valves that has two groups per
recover within a couple of hours. The time needed for dead pole and the operation experience is excellent.
line maintenance will be added to the line unavailability. The arrangement on the DC-yard will be almost the same as
For some DC systems special arrangements have been done for the ± 500 kV projects but with all equipment rated for ±
to increase the power availability. In the Inga-Shaba HVDC 800 kV. The only “new” equipment is the by-pass arrangement
project, the two converters in the bipole can be paralleled and with disconnectors and high-speed breakers for each group,
the power can be transmitted on one pole line, however at see Fig. 2.
higher losses. Switching stations along the line allows for
simultaneous line faults on different segments along the line. V. INSULATION COORDINATION
For the Itaipú HVDC project, with two bipoles in parallel, the
two converters can be connected in parallel to one bipole, in A. General
order to minimize the loss of power at bipole line outage. For 800kVDC stations, the basic ideas for insulation
coordination are the same as those applied for lower voltages;
B. Converter station i.e. to have equipment with withstand characteristics above the
The structure of the present control and protection system, expected stresses. Then, as is normal in medium or high
cable routing and auxiliary systems should be revised, voltage, the expected stresses are controlled by a combination
reflecting the different requirements on reliability and of arresters and shielding. The difference for 800kVDC is that
availability and also the new configuration. It is envisaged that it is economically beneficial to control the expected stresses to
the two poles will be totally independent and that the groups in an even higher degree, and to revise the steps leading from the
each pole will have a minimum of interactions. Ideally, the expected stresses to the desirable insulation withstand; ie. the
insulation margins.
bipole should be built as two separate monoples. This should
One has to remember that both aspects aim at improving the
also be applied for the AC-yard configuration, with possibility
economy of a given system. Too loose control results in costly
to entirely disconnect the areas that are needed for each
equipment, and too tight control results in costly arrester
separate pole.
schemes and shielding. Regarding margins, a similar situation
Each twelve pulse group will have a separate valve hall with
appears: too small margins result in costly equipment failures,
six double valves and six single phase two winding
too large margins result in costly equipment. There is a human
transformers penetrating into the hall, i.e. the same
factor in the latter aspect, though: Adding margins may save
arrangement as for the recent ± 500 kV, 3000 MW projects.
some engineering costs. For 800kVDC, mainly due to the high
non-linearity in the relationship between withstand and
IV. CONVERTER CONFIGURATION
necessary clearances, the savings in engineering are far
The rating of the transmission, 6400 MW, makes it necessary outweighed by the savings in equipment by a judicious choice
to have more than one converter group per pole. This will and application of margins
minimize the disturbances at faults and increase the reliability
B. Case study
An insulation coordination study has been performed for the
dc side of an 800kV HVDC transmission system. The data for
the system has been assumed based on the best available
estimates to the authors colleagues, with regard to preliminary
design of the equipment expected for such an installation.
Further, as the study progresses, it became apparent that one
fine adjustments to the configuration would yield significant
benefits: Splitting the smoothing reactor function in two equal
inductances, one at the neutral, and one at the pole.

C. Protection scheme (controlling the stresses)

In addition to the use of modern, highly effective arresters
permitting very good ratios between steady state voltage and
protective levels, the protection scheme arrived at included
Fig. 2 Converter arrangement with two 12-pulse groups in series per pole more arresters than are usually applied at HVDC schemes of,
e.g. 500kVDC. The reason is that even relatively small gains
and availability of the transmission. Another reason for in stresses result in significant savings in equipment. The
dividing into more groups is the transport restrictions (size and arresters beyond the “usual” ones were located to directly
weight) of the converter transformers. A scheme with more protect:
than one group per pole is not new, in fact it was used in the • Valve side of converter transformers at the uppermost
mercury arc valve projects from the mid 60’s where six pulse 6-pulse bridge
groups were connected in series to achieve the desired voltage.
 3

• 800kVDC bus outside the upper smoothing reactor transiently, dynamically, and even as a function of time after
protected with several arresters at specific locations application of a dc field, and even as the years pass. This is
on the bus also different from conventional equipment. Because of the
• Smoothing reactor on pole side above, the insulation margins for the thyristor valves need not
• 800kVDC bus on valve side of smoothing reactor cope with the same uncertainties as for, eg transformers.
The cost to benefit ratio of this arrester proved to be The insulation margins advocated by the authors are:
sensitive to station design parameters, and its use will
have to be decided on a case-by-case basis Insulation margins
Insulation type Oil Air Valves1
Another important aspect comes from the mentioned splitting Lightning 20% 20% 10%
of the smoothing reactor. By balancing the inductance it is Switching 15% 15% 10%
1
possible to reduce the ripple appearing on the arresters in the Across single valve
upper 12-pulse group, making it possible to lower their
protective level.
E. Study results
The third aspect is that controlling the incoming lightning
surges is also profitable. Apart from the normal shielding at From the studied transmission the stresses resulting, or more
the station, it is important to optimize the line design for the accurately, the resulting protective levels, for the most
towers nearest the converter stations important equipment are listed below:
Still another aspect is the location of arresters close enough
to the protected equipment, so that distance effects will be Protective levels (kV)
negligible. The combination of this principle with the natural Location Switching Lightning
distances between different pieces of equipment in an Converter transf.
800kVDC station leads to more arresters, even at the same Valve side 1320 1453
bus, and for the same protective levels. Smoothing reactor.
Across NA 1800
D. Insulation margins (Deriving withstand from stress)
Smoothing reactor.
At the resulting stresses for 800kVDC equipment it is To earth 1345 1625
extremely important to have economy-dictated margins. There Thyristor valve.
is no room for additional margins based on subjective Across 406 386
appreciations. Thyristor valve.
Perhaps even more important: there is no rationale for Top to ground 1320 1500
increasing calculated withstand levels to “the next higher
standard level”, since there is no interchangeability of With the results found, as given above, and the margins
equipment between different stations as is normal for ac advocated, the following test voltage levels are proposed for
equipment. the main components:
At lower voltages, where high engineering and testing costs
cannot be justified, a simplification is often applied by forcing Test levels (kV)
a ratio between the insulation withstands to switching and
DC
lightning surges. At the levels necessary for equipment at Equipment SI LI ACrms DC Polarity
800kVDC, the voltage stresses for all kinds of phenomena and reversal
transients are carefully calculated. So are the internal stresses Transformer
for equipment designed to withstand them, and so are the tests 1518 1744 900 1250 970
Valve side
that verify them. At UHVDC, the equipment should be Transformer
designed to withstand the specified stresses. Then, depending bushing 1518 1744 900 1250 970
on the materials, and the internal configuration of parts of Valve side
different resistivities and dielectric permitivities, the ratio Multiple thy
between withstand capabilities may or may not be close to the 1040
valve, top to 1518 1800 NA NA
traditional factors Therefore such relationship factors have no (3 hs)
ground
reason to exist in 800kVDC insulation coordination. They 1000
increase the cost of equipment, yet only give a false sense of Wall bushing 1518 1800 (one 1235 1030
security. minute)
Another reasoning taken slightly out of context leads to Smoothing
insulation margin levels that are not quite justified. reactor
Specifically, for thyristor valves, by extension, the same Across NA 2160/n NA NA NA
insulation margins used for conventional equipment have been To earth 1546 1950 NA NA NA
required in some HVDC transmissions. There are a couple of
important points why the same margins need not be used in the
thyristors, and not in the grading circuits. One point is the
extremely well known voltage grading along the valve,
 4

VI. EQUIPMENT CONSIDERATIONS.

more thyristor positions, and still each thyristor position will
A. General be subject to equal stresses as in a 500 kV valve or 600 kV
The equipment affected by the increased voltage level is of valve. Thus, the DC voltage is not decisive for the valve
course limited to apparatus connected to the pole bus, such as design, this will be handled by adding sufficient number of
converter transformers, wall bushings, thyristor valves, DC- thyristor positions.
voltage divider etc. The main part of the equipment within the The ABB experiences from more than 14000 thyristor
converter station is not exposed by DC, such as AC yard positions in commercial operation using the 5” thyristor is
apparatus, control and protection and auxiliary systems. excellent, not one single thyristor failure has been reported.
The most significant difference between equipment for HVDC C. DC harmonic filter capacitors
compared with equipment for HVAC is the need for proper The DC harmonic filter capacitors are built up by several
DC grading for HVDC equipment. capacitor units connected in series in order to achieve the
When applicable, HVDC equipment is built up by modules needed voltage withstand capability, and a number of strings in
where each module is provided with a proper resistive voltage parallel to get the capacitance needed for the filter. Each of the
grading resistor as well as an AC/transient grading capacitor. units has its internal resistors to provide the DC-voltage
With a proper voltage grading, the voltage stress in the grading. The resistance shall be selected such that the current
modules will be the same, regardless the module is part of an through the grading resistors is significantly bigger than the
800 kV apparatus or a 500 kV apparatus. For oil/paper maximum expected external leakage current. Also for the
insulation systems the situation is more complicated, since it is harmonic filter capacitors, the higher DC voltage is easily
not possible to arrange the DC grading with physical resistors, handled by adding more capacitor units in series.
but the DC grading must be secured by other measures. The mechanical design for harmonic filter capacitors will
For outdoor equipment exposed to pollution and rain/fog, the thus be quite similar to the filter capacitors recently supplied to
coordination between the internal and external voltage grading the 3G 500 kV projects. The main difference will be the
is an important issue. Bad coordination can result in damage of height, 35 m for 800 kV compared to 20 m for 500 kV.
the insulators due to radial voltage tress.
D. RI filter capacitors
B. Thyristor valves
Although the RI filter capacitors are enclosed in a hollow
The thyristor valves are built up by a number of equal porcelain insulator, they are basically built up equivalent to the
thyristor positions connected in series, each of them has a harmonic filter capacitors with internal grading resistors. The
certain voltage capability, depending on the thyristor difference is that in this case, each unit is not a metal can, but
parameters. The snubber circuit as well as DC grading resistor, an insulator containing the capacitive elements and the grading
Fig 3, secure equal voltage distribution between the individual resistors. Due to the effective DC grading also RI-capacitors
positions. The voltage distribution within the thyristor valve is can easily be extrapolated to higher DC voltage by adding
only slightly disturbed by the stray capacitances to ground. more modules in series.
Thus, thyristor valves can easily be designed for higher
voltages than 600 kV by extrapolation, that is just addition of E. DC Voltage divider
For the DC voltage divider the resistive grading is inherent
TCU Derivative by the resistive divider itself. The voltage dividers used today
Feeding Capacitor are enclosed in a composite insulator. The external leakage
current on a composite insulator is in the range 10-100 µA, far
DC Grading greater than the resistive current through the voltage divider,
Resistor usually 2 mA. In order to ensure a proper voltage grading also
for transient voltages, there are built in capacitors in parallel
TCU
with the resistive elements. The capacitive and resistive
elements are assembled in modules connected in series. Thus,
Thyristor Damping also the voltage dividers can be extrapolated to higher DC
Resistors voltages by adding more modules in series.
F. DC pole arrester
Thyristor TCU
Damping The ABB HVDC arresters used for the 3G projects is built
Control Unit Capacitors up by modules, each module containing a number of ZnO-
blocks, with a Si-rubber enclosure. The arrester leakage
TCU Derivative current through the arrester blocks is about 1 mA, well above
the maximum leakage current on the insulator surface. Also,
Feeding Resistor
the nonlinear characteristics of the ZnO-blocks will ensure that
the voltage across each of the arrester modules is quite equal,
thus giving a linear voltage distribution. The capacitive
grading along the arrester is done by external rings.
Fig. 3. The components of a thyristor valve. The electrical stresses are
defined by passive components at each thyristor position
 5

DC pole arresters for higher voltages can easily be produced materials govern the field distribution, one of the important
by adding sufficient number of arrester modules in series. The challenges when increasing the size is to keep the internal and
proper energy capability of the arresters will be achieved by external field stresses balanced for a large number of
adding sufficient number of arrester columns in parallel. operational conditions. Designing for 800kVdc will thus be
based on known materials and concepts having thorough
G. DC current measurement equipment
experience from the field
Today optical current transducers, OCT, have replaced the
large diameter porcelain enclosed transducers used in the L. Converter transformers
earlier HVDC converter stations. The communication to As has been described above, for most equipment using real
ground potential is done using a very slim composite insulator resistors does the DC grading. This is not the case for the
containing the optical fibers. The only modification needed to insulation inside the converter transformers. The insulation
convert the existing 500 kV OCT:s to higher voltages is to system in the transformers is built up by a system of oil and
increase the length of the optical link. Since the diameter is paper, and thus the resistivity of these materials will determine
small, and since there are almost no practical limit for the the DC- grading, in the same way, as the dielectric permittivity
creepage distance of the optical link, OCT:s for 800 kV are will give the transient voltage distribution.
easily realized. In analogy with other equipment, the stressed volume in a
converter transformer is split up in sub volumes by cellulose
H. Pole bus disconnector
barriers, see fig 4. The electrical stress is calculated in each
Requirements on high specific creepage distance for post sub volume, and the stress in each point should be well within
insulators in combination with 800 kV DC will result in very the acceptable criteria.
long insulators. With conventional design insulator length up
to 12 m is feasible, corresponding to specific creepage
distance 42 mm/kV at 800 kV DC. In case higher creepage is
desired, or in case the seismic requirements gives restrictions
on the insulator length, alternative solutions must considered,
such as using parallel porcelains or pantograph disconnectors.
With extreme requirements an indoor DC-yard will be
considered.
I. Smoothing reactor
At present, the idea is to use air core smoothing reactors. The
higher DC voltage has no influence on reactor itself, only on
the support insulators. Thus, the development of smoothing
reactors for 800 kV DC can be reduced to designing a proper
support structure. The support structure used for the capacitor
banks in AC series compensators is well suited for this
purpose, and can easily be modified for the needed creepage
distance. This design is also suitable for seismic stresses by
Fig. 4. Transformer main insulation
using special dampers.
J. Wall bushing Since resistivity of oil and paper vary with temperature and
aging, also the voltage grading will vary. Thus the voltage
The trend for selection of through wall bushings has lately distribution must be calculated for several different conditions,
been focused on reduction of combustible material in the in order to ensure that the design will also be adequate at the
converter valve hall. A suitable design that may be selected is worst possible combination of parameters. Also, the resistivity
built with hollow composite insulators filled with insulating of the media is time dependent. The electric conduction in oil
gas. The main internal insulation relies on the properties of the is done by electrons as well as by ions. When a DC field is
gas, and to control the field grading is arranged. The design is applied across an oil gap, the ions will be drained out after
today used up to 500kV DC, and the flexibility to produce some time, and thus the resistivity will change. Thus, to be
suitable insulators enables the design to be expanded up to able to calculate the actual stresses and time constants during
800kV DC. polarity reversal for example, a calculation model including
the ion conduction must be used. Such a calculation tool has
K. Transformer valve side bushings been developed by ABB and is used for converter transformer
The proposed transformer bushings are of the same design as design [3].
in the installations of recent HVDC projects. The main
insulation on the valve hall side is obtained by gas, while the VII. EXTERNAL INSULATION
interface to the transformer is a capacitive core. The insulator
on the air side is a hollow composite design increasing the A. General
overall mechanical strength. The general design is used for The study of external insulation is considered as one key
projects up to 500kV. Since the grading of a bushing is topic for the research program related to 800 kV HVDC [4],
arranged both axially and radially, and the resistivities of the for the transmission line as well as for the converter
 6

equipment. The research project on the external insulation for known. The effects of various palliative methods, such as
800 kV was awarded to STRI in 1992 by ABB. A large hydrophobic coatings and booster sheds have not only been
numbers of experiments were performed in STRI’s laboratory reviewed in the operational experience but also verified in the
with pollution test ability up to 1200 kV DC. laboratory tests.
As a result of the combined efforts on evaluating existing
E. Other considerations
converter stations, performing laboratory tests and technical
achievements on equipment, design rules for HVDC insulators The most effective way to reduce the risk for flash overs in
has been established up to 800 kV. the converter station is of course to reduce the number of
insulators. The state of the art is to have the converter
B. Operation experience transformer bushings protruding into the valve hall, thus
ABB has performed a review on the operational experience reducing the number of wall bushing. Also the old type of
of the existing HVDC stations worldwide. Some of the direct current transducers has been replaced with optical
outcomes of these studies were published successively since current transducers in modern converter stations. When
1993 on various international conferences [5]-[11]. possible, composite silicone rubber insulators, with superior
The operational experience from existing HVDC stations, surface properties, are used. The ultimate solution of the
from 250 to 600 kV, has shown that the flashover rate of these external insulation complex is of course to build an indoor DC
stations has no direct correlations to the voltage levels of the yard, as has been done at Zhengping converter station. This
stations. It has also shown that there is no tendency and need should be considered at sites with high pollution.
to choose a higher value for the specific creepage distance
because of higher voltage level. With suitable design, a very
VIII. CONCLUSIONS
low flashover rate of 0.05 per pole per year has been achieved
in total 80 poles (47 stations) around the world supplied by 800 kV HVDC is economically attractive for bulk power
ABB. Good operational experiences with silicone rubber transmission, 6000 MW, over long distances, 2000-2500 km.
insulators, even with shorter creepage distance than that of With the present experience of HVDC as a sound base, it is
porcelain, have also been obtained. possible to realize an HVDC system for 800 kV with
reasonable efforts in R&D by using building blocks that have
C. Site conditions been used for lower voltages. With proper separation and
The most important factor for insulator selection is the proper structure of the control and protection and auxiliary
actual site conditions, as well as what is expected for the future systems, the reliability and availability will be as good as, or
since the specific creepage distance will mainly be decided by even better than, for converters at lower voltage.
the site pollution severity. Also factors such as site altitude
must be known to allow for proper atmospheric corrections. IX. REFERENCES
Long-term on-site measurements on insulators of the same
[1] HVDC Converter Stations for Voltages Above 600 kV,
type, and energised under the same voltage, provide the best
EPRI EL-3892, Project 2115-4, Final report February 1985
accuracy for this. However, for practical and economical
[2] HVDC Converter Stations for Voltages Above ±600 kV,
reasons, such a measurement has seldom been performed. It is
Cigré Working Group 14.32, December 2002
very important to map the pollution at a future HVDC site. In
[3] Uno Gäfvert, Albert Jakts, Christer Törnkvist and Lars
order to make this possible, ABB can provide a mobile test
Walfridssson, “ Electrical Field Distribution in Transformer
station that measures airborne pollution, collects weather data
Oil”, IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation, Vol27 No. 3,
like wind, rain, humidity and temperature. Also high DC
June 1992
voltage (100 kV) is generated to energize insulators to be set
[4] P.C.S. Krishnayya, P.J. Lambeth, P.S. Maruvada, N.G.
up outside the test station, to map the pollution gathered by the
Trinh, G. Desilets, S.L. Nilsson, “An evaluation of the R & D
energized insulators. Also the leakage current is continuously
requirements for developing HVDC converter stations for
measured for each individual insulator. In a joint research
voltages above ±600 kV”, CIGRÉ 1988 Session, 14-01.
activity between BDCC of SGC, EPRI and ABB, this flexible
[5] W. Lampe, D. Wu, “Dimensioning outdoor insulation for
test station has been utilized in site pollution measurements for
±800 kV transmission”, CIGRÉ SC 33 Colloquium, 2.9, New
Three Gorges-Shanghai projects. The measurements
Delhi, Sept. 1 to 2, 1993
performed on Huangdo and Guojiagang sites will be presented
[6] D. Wu, R. Hartings, U Åström, ”Investigations on the
in a future publication.
outdoor insulation of ±800 kV DC transmission systems”,
D. Laboratory tests Proceedings of the international Conference on Power System
Laboratory tests with pollution and with uneven rain have Technology, Beijing, China, Vol. 2, pp771-774, Oct. 18-21,
been performed on different type of insulators. Insulators of 1994
different shed profiles have also been compared in laboratory [7] D. Wu, R. Hartings, U. Åström, “The performance of
tests. It is also clear from laboratory studies that for a SDD station post insulators in uneven rain under DC voltage”, 9th
level equal to or higher then 0.05mg/cm2, a linear relationship ISH, paper 3237, Graz, Austria, August 28- September 1, 1995
holds between the required creepage distance and the applied [8] D. Wu, R. Hartings, U. Åström, B. Almgren, S Nord, “The
voltage for the same type of insulator. This fact simplifies the performance of station post insulators for UHVDC
dimensioning of the insulation, when the pollution level is applications” 10th ISH, August 25-29, 1997, Montreal,
Canada.
 7

[9] D. Wu, U. Åström, B. Almgren, S. Söderholm,

“Investigation into the alternative solutions for HVDC station
post insulators”, POWERCON’98, August 18-21, 1998,
Beijing, China
[10] B. Almgren, U. Åström, D. Wu, “Operational experiences
of insulators in HVDC converter stations” Proceedings of the
eleventh national power systems conference, NPSC-2000,
Bangalore, India
[11] U. Åström, B. Almgren, D. Wu, “Outdoor insulation
design for the Three Gorges-Changzhou ±500 kV HVDC
Project”,Proceedings of International Conference on Power
Systems, Set. 3-5, 2001, Wuhan, China

X. BIOGRAPHIES

Urban Åström was born in Njurunda , Sweden 1946.

He received his M.Sc degree in physical engineering
from the university of Uppsala , Sweden 1973. In 1974
he joined ABB´s HVDC department and has worked
with design, development and testing of control
equipment, thyristor valves, valve cooling and converter
transformers. From 1995 to 2000 he was manager of the
HVDC Converter Valve Development department,
when he joined the Three Gorges- Changzhou project
team as commissioning manager. Since 2004 he has
been manager for the 800 kV HVDC development project

Gunnar Asplund was born in Stockholm, Sweden

on September 23, 1945. He got his MS in Electrical
Engineering at the University of Lund in 1969.
His employment experience is with ASEA and later
ABB. He has worked in the fields of high voltage
testing, thyristor valve development, project
management, commissioning of the Itaipu HVDC
project in Brazil, system studies, engineering and since
twelve years he is manager of the development of
HVDC within ABB.

Victor Lescale Victor F. Lescale was born in Mexico 1944 and graduated as
an Electrical Engineer from the University of Mexico 1966. He has more than
30 years of engineering experience, of which 4 years in protection relays and
control,3 years in high and extra high voltage installation commissioning, 5
years in power system planning, 4 years in special projects, 2 years in HVDC
control, 8 years in HVDC system design and 6 years in international HVDC
project engineering and direction.

Lars Weimers, born 1949, graduated from Chalmers University of

Technology in Sweden 1975 with a Master Degree in Electrical Engineering.
He joined ABB's HVDC department in 1979 and has had leading positions
in design, R&D, project management and marketing and is presently manager
for HVDC marketing in China. Mr. Weimers is the author of many
articles/papers about HVDC and HVDC Light.

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