LECTURE NOTES

ON
HVDC TRANSMISSION

2020 – 2021

B.Tech IV Year I Semester (R16)

VEERESH.P, Assistant Professor

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Joginpally BR Engineering College

 UNIT –II
Converter and HVDC System Control
CONTROL OF HVDC CONVERTER:

The major advantage of a HVDC link is rapid controllability of transmitted power through the control
of firing angles of the converters. Modern converter controls are not only fast, but also very reliable
and they are used for protection against line and converter faults.

PRINCIPLE OF DC LINK CONTOL:

The control of power in a DC link can be achieved through the control of current or voltage. From
minimization of loss considerations, we need to maintain constant voltage in the link and adjust the
current to meet the required power.

Fig 1: principle of DC link

Consider the steady state equivalent circuit of a two terminal DC link. This is based on the assumption
that all the series connected bridges in both poles of a converter station are identical and have the
same delay angles. Also the number of series connected bridges (nb ) in both stations (rectifier and
inverter) are thesame.

Fig 2: equivalent circuit of DC link

The voltage sources Edrand Edi are defined by

Edr= (3√2/π) nbEvrcosαr

Edi = (3√2/π) nbEvicosγi

where Evrand Evi are the line to line voltages in the valve side windings of the rectifier and inverter
transformer respectively.
As the denominator in the final equation is small, even small changes in the voltage magnitude Er or
Eican result in large changes in the DC current, the control variables are held constant. As the
voltage changes can be sudden, it is obvious that manual control of converter angles is not feasible.
Hence, direct and fast control of current by varying αr or γr in response to a feedback signal is
essential.

While there is a need to maintain a minimum extinction angle of the inverter to avoid commutation
failure, it is economical to operate the inverter at Constant Extinction Angle (CEA) which is slightly
above the absolute minimum required for the commutation margin. This results in reduced costs of
the inverter stations, reduced converter losses and reactive power consumption. However, the main
drawback of CEA control is the negative resistance characteristics of the converter which makes it
difficult to operate stably when the AC system is weak (low short-circuit ratios). Constant DC
Voltage (CDCV) control or Constant AC Voltage (CACV) control are the alternatives that could be
used at the inverter.
Under normal conditions, the rectifier operates at Constant Current (CC) control and the inverter at
the CEA control.

The power reversal in the link can take place by the reversal of the DC voltage. This is done by
increasing the delay angle at the station initially operating as a rectifier, while reducing the delay
angle at the station initially operating as the inverter. Thus, it is necessary to provide both CEA and
CC controllers at both terminals.
The feedback control of power in a DC link is not desirable because

 At low DC voltages, the current required is excessive to maintain the required level of power.
This can be counterproductive because of the excessive requirements of the reactive power,
which depresses voltagefurther.

 The constant power characteristic contributes to negative damping and degrades dynamic
stability.
 CONVERTER CONTROL CHARACTERISTICS:

Basic characteristics:

The intersection of the two characteristics (point A) determines the mode of operation- Station I
operating as rectifier with constant current control and station II operating at constant (minimum)
extinction angle.
There can be three modes of operation of the link (for the same direction of power flow) depending
on the ceiling voltage of the rectifier which determines the point of intersection of the two
characteristics which are defined below
 CC at rectifier and CEA at inverter (operating point A) which is the normal mode of
operation.
 With slight dip in the AC voltage, the point of intersection drifts to C which implies
minimum α at rectifier and minimum γ at theinverter.
 With lower AC voltage at the rectifier, the mode of operation shifts to point B which implies
CC at the inverter with minimum α at therectifier.

Fig 3: control characteristcs

The characteristic AB has generally more negative slope than characteristic FE because the slope of
AB is due to the combined resistance of (Rd + Rcr) while is the slope of FE is due to Rci .
 Fig 4: reverse control characteristics

The above figure shows the control characteristics for negative current margin Im(or where the
current reference of station II is larger than that of station I). The operating point shifts now to D
which implies power reversal with station I (now acting as inverter) operating with minimum CEA
control while station II operating with CC control.
This shows the importance of maintaining the correct sign of the current margin to avoid inadvertent
power reversal. The maintenance of proper current margin requires adequate telecommunication
channel for rapid transmission of the current or power order.

VOLTAGE DEPENDENT CURRENT LIMIT:

The low voltage in the DC link is mainly due to the faults in the AC system on the rectifier or
inverter side. The low AC voltage due to faults on the inverter side can result in persistent
commutation failure because of the increase of the overlap angle. In such cases, it is necessary to
reduce the DC current in the link until the conditions that led to the reduced DC voltage are relieved.
Also the reduction of current relieves those valves in the inverter which are overstressed due to
continuous current flow in them.

Fig 5: Diode characteristics

If the low voltage is due to faults on the rectifier side AC system, the inverter has to operate at very
low power factor causing excessive consumption of reactive power which is also undesirable. Thus, it
becomes useful to modify the control characteristics to include voltage dependent current limits. The
figure above shown shows current error characteristics to stabilize the mode when operating with DC

current between Id1 and Id2 . The characteristic cc| and c|c|| show the limitation of current due to the
reduction in voltage.

SYSTEM CONTROL HIERARCHY:

Fig 6: control of HVDC system

The master controller for a bipole is located at one of the terminals and is provided with the power
order (Pref ) from the system controller (from energy control centre). It also has other information
such as AC voltage at the converter bus, DC voltage etc. The master controller transmits the current
order (Iref ) to the pole control units which in turn provide a firing angle order to the individual valve
groups (converters).

The valve group or converter control also oversees valve monitoring and firing logic through the
optical interface. It also includes bypass pair selection logic, commutation failure protection, tap
changer control, converter start/stop sequences, margin switching and valve protectioncircuits.
The pole control incorporated pole protection, DC line protection and optional converter paralleling
and deparalleling sequences. The master controller which oversees the complete bipole includes the
functions of frequency control, power modulation, AC voltage and reactive power control and
torsional frequency damping control.
 Fig 7: block diagram of control system of HVDC

The current or extinction angle controller generates a control signal Vc which is related to the firing
angle required. The firing angle controller generates gate pulses in response to the control signal Vc.
The selector picks the smaller of the α determined by the current and CEA controllers.

FIRING ANGLE CONTROL:

The operation of CC and CEA controllers is closely linked with the method of generation of gate
pulses for the valves in a converter. The requirements for the firing pulse generation of HVDC
valves are
 The firing instant for all the valves are determined at ground potential and the firing signals
sent to individual thyristors by light signals through fibre-optic cables. The required gate
power is made available at the potential of individual thyristor.
 While a single pulse is adequate to turn-on a thyristor, the gate pulse generated must send a
pulse whenever required, if the particular valve is to be kept in a conductingstate.
 The two basic firing schemes are

 Individual Phase Control (IPC)

 Equidistant Pulse Control (EPC)

INDIVIDUAL PHASE CONTROL:

This was used in the early HVDC projects. The main feature of this scheme is that the firing pulse
generation for each phase (or valve) is independent of each other and the firing pulses are rigidly
synchronized with commutation voltages.
There are two ways in which this can be achieved

 Constant α Control.

 Inverse Cosine Control.

CONSTANT α CONTROL:

Six timing (commutation) voltages are derived from the converter AC bus via voltage transformers
and the six gate pulses are generated at nominally identical delay times subsequent to the respective
voltage zero crossings. The instant of zero crossing of a particular commutation voltage corresponds

to α = 0o for that valve.

The delays are produced by independent delay circuits and controlled by a common control voltage V
derived from current controllers.

Fig 8: constant α control

INVERSE COSINE CONTROL:

The six timing voltages (obtained as in constant α control) are each phase shifted by 90o and added
separately to a common control voltage V.

Fig 9: inverse cosine control

The zero crossing of the sum of the two voltages initiates the firing pulse for the particular valve is
considered. The delay angle α is nominally proportional to the inverse cosine of the control voltage.
It also depends on the AC system voltage amplitude andshape. The main advantage of this scheme is
that the average DC voltage across the bridge varies linearly with the control voltage Vc.

Fig 10: voltage waveform

DRAWBACKS OF IPC SCHEME:

The major drawback of IPC scheme is the aggravation of the harmonic stability problem that was
encountered particularly in systems with low short circuit ratios (less than 4). The harmonic
instability, unlike instability in control systems, is a problem that is characterized by magnification
of non-characteristic harmonics in steady-state.
This is mainly due to the fact that any distortion in the system voltage leads to perturbations in the
zero crossings which affect the instants of firing pulses in IPC scheme. This implies that even when
the fundamental frequency voltage components are balanced, the firing pulses are not equidistant in
steady-state. This in turn leads to the generation of non-characteristic harmonics (harmonics of order
h ≠ np ± 1) in the AC current which can amplify the harmonic content of the AC voltage at the
converter bus. The problem of harmonic instability can be overcome by the following measures
 Through the provision of synchronous condensers or additional filters for filtering out non
characteristicharmonics. 
 Use of filters in control circuit to filter out non characteristic harmonics in the commutation
voltages.
 The use of firing angle control independent of the zero crossings of the AC voltages. This is
the most attractive solution and leads to the Equidistant Pulse Firingscheme. 
 EQUIDISTANT PULSE CONTROL:

The firing pulses are generated in steady-state at equal intervals of 1/pf , through a ring counter. This
control scheme uses a phase locked oscillator to generate the firing pulses. Thre are three variations
of the EPC scheme
 Pulse Frequency Control (PFC)

 Pulse Period Control

 Pulse Phase Control (PPC)

PULSE FREQUENCY CONTROL:

A Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is used, the frequency of which is determined by the control
voltage Vc which is related to the error in the quantity (current, extinction angle or DC voltage)
being regulated. The frequency in steady-state operation is equal to pfo where fo is the nominal
frequency of the AC system. PFC system has an integral characteristic and has to be used along with
a feedback control system for stabilization.

The Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) consists of an integrator, comparator and a pulse
generator.

Fig 11 : pulse frequency control

The output pulses of the generator drive the ring counter and also reset the integrator. The instant (tn
) of the firing pulse is determined by
tn

 K1 (Vc V1 )dtV3

tn 1

where V1 is a bias (constant) voltage and V3 is proportional to the system period. In steady-state, Vc
= 0, and from the above equation, we get
K1 V1 (tn – tn-1 ) = V3
 Since, tn – tn-1 = 1/pfo

in steady-state, the gain K1 of the integrator is chosen as

K1 = pfo V3 / V1

The circuit does not incorporate frequency correction (when the system frequency deviates from fo).
The frequency correction is obtained by deriving V3 as
V3 = V2 / (1+ST1), V2 = K1 V1 (tn-1 – tn-2)

Fig 12: pulse frequency control

PULSE PEIOD CONTROL:

It is similar to PFC except for the way in which the control voltage Vc is handled. The structure of
the controller is the same, however, Vc is now summed with V3 instead of V1 . Thus, the instant tn
of the pulse generation is
tn

 K1 V1dtV3Vc
tn 1

K1 V1 (tn – tn-1 ) = V3 + Vc

Fig 13: pulse period control

The frequency correction in this scheme is obtained by either updating V1 in response to the system
frequency variation or including another integrator in the CC or CEA controller.

PULSE PHASE CONTROL:

An analog circuit is configured to generate firing pulses according to the following equation

tn

 K1V1dt VcnVc(n1)V3
tn 1

where Vcnand Vc(n-1) are the control voltages at the instants tn and tn-1 respectively.

For proportional current control, the steady-state can be reached when the error of Vc is constant.
The major advantages claimed for PPC over PFC are (i) easy inclusion of α limits by limiting Vc as in
IPC and (ii) linearization of control characteristic by including an inverse cosine function block after
the current controller. Limits can also be incorporated into PFC or pulse period control system.

DRAWBACKS OF EPC SCHEME:

EPC Scheme has replaced IPC Scheme in modern HVDC projects; it has certain limitations which
are
 Under balanced voltage conditions, EPC results in less DC voltage compared to IPC.
Unbalance in the voltage results from single phase to ground fault in the AC system which
may persist for over 10 cycles due to stuck breakers. Under such conditions, it is desirable to
maximize DC power transfer in the link which calls forIPC.
 EPC Scheme also results in higher negative damping contribution to torsional oscillations
when HVDC is the major transmission link from a thermalstation.
CURRENT AND EXTICTION ANGLE CONTROL:

The current controller is invariably of feedback type which is of PI type.

Fig 14: extinction angle control

The extinction angle controller can be of predictive type or feedback type with IPC control. The
predictive controller is considered to be less prone to commutation failure and was used in early
schemes. The feedback control with PFC type of Equidistant Pulse Control overcomes the problems
associated with IPC.

The extinction angle, as opposed to current, is a discrete variable and it was felt the feedback control
of gamma is slower than the predictive type. The firing pulse generation is based on the following
equation
tn

0 =ecjd(t )2XcI d

n1

where ecjis the commutation voltage across valve j and tn is the instant of its firing.

In general, the prediction of firing angle is based on the equation

Βj = γref + µj

where µj is the overlap angle of valve j, which is to be predicted based on the current knowledge of
the commutation voltage and DC current.
Under large disturbances such as a sudden dip in the AC voltage, signals derived from the derivative
of voltage or DC current aid the advancing of delay angle for fast recovery from commutation
failures.