Ajay Bhardwaj

Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
SKIT, Jaipur
 INRTODUCTION
 HVDC stands for High Voltage Direct Current. HVDC transmission is an efficient
technology designed to deliver large amount of electricity over long distances with
negligible losses.

 The world’s first commercial HVDC link situated between the Swedish mainland and
the island Gotland was delivered by ABB in the year of 1954 with the capacity of
20MW, 100kv

 The longest HVDC link in the world is currently the Xiangjiaba–Shanghai.

 It was built on owned by State Grid Corporation of China(SGCC)

Total length - 2071km

Power ratting - 6400MW

DC voltage - 800KV
 HVDC IN INDIA
Back-to-Back
HVDC LINK CONNECTING CAPACITY
REGION (MW)
Vindyachal North – West 2 x 250
Chandrapur West – South 2 x 500
Vizag – I East – South 500
Sasaram East – North 500
Vizag – II East – South 500
 NEEDS OF HVDC
 As the load demand increases as the time progresses , there should be two
possibilities:
 Either to increase the generation
 To minimize the losses

 The losses are occurred at various levels are Generating level, transmission
level and distribution level

 So the losses at transmission level can be greatly reduced by HVDC

transmission
 WHY TO PREFER HVDC THAN
HVAC?
 Long distance transmission

 5 times more energy transmits than AC(same lines)

 Less losses (no inductance, capacitance).

 Cost of transmission is low.

 Maintenance & operation cost is low.

 Initial cost is high but overall cost is low than ac.

Cont…
 HVDC System Configurations and
Components
HVDC links can be broadly classified into:

 Monopolar links
 Bipolar links
 Homopolar links
 Multi terminal links
 Back-to-back links
 Point-to-point links
 Monopolar Links
 It uses one conductor.
 The return path is provided by ground or water.
 Use of this system is mainly due to cost considerations.
 A metallic return may be used where earth resistivity is too
high.
 This configuration type is the first step towards a bipolar link.
 Bipolar Links
 It uses two conductors, one positive and the other negative.
 Each terminal has two converters of equal rated voltage, connected in
series on the DC side.
 The junctions between the converters is grounded.
 Currents in the two poles are equal and there is no ground current.
 If one pole is isolated due to fault, the other pole can operate with
ground and carry half the rated load (or more using overload
capabilities of its converter line).
 Homopolar Links
 It has two or more conductors all having the same polarity, usually
negative.
 Since the corona effect in DC transmission lines is less for negative
polarity, homopolar link is usually operated with negative polarity.
 The return path for such a system is through ground.
 Multi terminal Links
 There are more than two sets of converters like in the bipolar case.
 Thus, converters one and three can operate as rectifiers while converter
two operates as an inverter.
 Operating in the opposite order, converter two can operate as a rectifier
and converters one and three as inverters
 Back-to-Back Links
 In this case the two converter stations are located at the same site and no transmission
line or cable is required between the converter bridges.
 The connection may be monopolar or bipolar.
 The dc-link voltage is regulated by controlling the power flow to the ac grid.
 This system having fast control of the power flow.
 Point-to-Point Links
 This configuration is called as the point to point configuration, when the
converters are located in different regions and need to be connected with
a transmission line to transmit power form one converter side to another.

 In that case one converter acts as a rectifier, which provides the power
flow and another one acts an inverter which receives that power.
 Components of HVDC Transmission
Systems
1. Converters
2. Smoothing reactors
3. Harmonic filters
4. Reactive power supplies
5. Electrodes
6. DC lines
7. AC circuit breakers
 Components of HVDC Transmission Systems
Converters
 They perform AC/DC and DC/AC conversion
 They consist of valve bridges and transformers
 Valve bridge consists of high voltage valves connected in a 6-pulse or 12-pulse
arrangement
 The transformers are ungrounded such that the DC system will be able to establish its
own reference to ground
Smoothing reactors
 They are high reactors with inductance as high as 1 H in series with each pole
 They serve the following:
 They decrease harmonics in voltages and currents in DC lines
 They prevent commutation failures in inverters
 Prevent current from being discontinuous for light loads
Harmonic filters
 Converters generate harmonics in voltages and currents. These harmonics may cause
overheating of capacitors and nearby generators and interference with
telecommunication systems
 Harmonic filters are used to mitigate these harmonics 15
Contd… .

Reactive power supplies

 Under steady state condition conditions, the reactive power consumed by the
converter is about 50% of the active power transferred
 Under transient conditions it could be much higher
 Reactive power is, therefore, provided near the converters
 For a strong AC power system, this reactive power is provided by a shunt
capacitor
Electrodes
 Electrodes are conductors that provide connection to the earth for neutral. They
have large surface to minimize current densities and surface voltage gradients
DC lines
 They may be overhead lines or cables
 DC lines are very similar to AC lines
AC circuit breakers
 They used to clear faults in the transformer and for taking the DC link out of
service
 They are not used for clearing DC faults
 DC faults are cleared by converter control more rapidly 16
 ADVANTAGES OF HVDC

 Controlled power operation is achieved

 Loss is very less as no frequency reversals taken into account

 Enhancement in line loading capacity & also increases the efficiency of

transmission
 Asynchronous operation possible between regions having different
electrical parameters
 no restriction on line length as no reactance in dc lines

 Requires less numbers of conductors for same power transfer

 Reduced in tower size (less clearance)

 Disadvantages
 Power loss in conversion, switching and control

 Expensive inverters with limited overload capacity

 High voltage DC circuit breakers are difficult to build.

 Provision of special protection to switching devices & filtering elements.

 Types of Converters

 Line commutated converters Use switching devices such as thyristor.

Classical HVDC system

 Self commutated converters Use fast switching devices such as

IGBT’s, GTO’s.

VSC based HVDC system

 Introduction
 Conventional thyristor device has only the turn-on control; its turn-
off depends on the current coming to zero as per circuit and system
conditions.

 With some other types of semiconductor device such as the

insulated-gate bipolar transistor(IGBT), both turn-on and turn-off
can be controlled, they can be used to make self-commutated
converters.

 In such converters, the polarity of DC voltage is usually fixed and

the DC voltage, being smoothed by a large capacitance, can be
considered constant. For this reason, an HVDC converter using
IGBTs is usually referred to as a voltage sourced converter.
There are two basic categories of selfcommutating converters:
1. Current-sourced converters in which direct current always has one
polarity, and the power reversal takes place through reversal of dc
voltage polarity.

2. Voltage-sourced converters in which the de voltage always has one

polarity, and the power reversal takes place through reversal of dc
current polarity.
 Why Self commutated Converters preferred
than Line commutated Converters
 A major drawback of HVDC systems using line-commutated
converters is that the converters inherently consume reactive power.
The AC current flowing into the converter from the AC system lags
behind the AC voltage so that, irrespective of the direction of active
power flow, the converter always absorbs reactive power, behaving
in the same way as a shunt reactor. The reactive power absorbed is at
least 0.5 MVAr/MW under ideal conditions.

 It suffers from occasional commutation failures in the inverter mode

of operation.
Self commutating voltage source converter
 The direct current in a voltage-sourced converter flows in either direction,
the converter valves have to be bidirectional, and also, since the dc voltage
does not reverse, the turn-off devices need not have reverse voltage
capability; such tum-off devices are known as asymmetric turn-off devices.
Thus, a voltage-sourced converter valve is made up of an asymmetric tum-
off device such as a GTO with a parallel diode connected in reverse.

 voltage-source converters maintain a constant

polarity of DC voltage and power reversal is
achieved instead by reversing the direction of
current.
Basic Voltage source converter
Contd..
Function of capacitor:
On the dc side, voltage is unipolar and is supported by a
capacitor. This capacitor is large enough to at least handle a sustained
charge/discharge current that accompanies the switching sequence of
the converter valves and shifts in phase angle of the switching valves
without significant change in the de voltage.

Function of inductor:
Reducing the fault current, this coupling reactance stabilises
the AC current, helps to reduce the harmonic current content and
enables the control of active and reactive power from the VSC.
Types of voltage source converters
1. Two level converter

2. Three level converter

3. Modular Multi level converter

 1. Two level converter

Three-phase, two-level voltage-

source converter for HVDC
 2. Three level converter

Three-phase, three-level, diode-

clamped voltage-source converter for
HVDC
 3. Modular Multi level converter

Three-phase Modular Multi-Level Converter (MMC) for HVDC.

Contd…
Why we are looking towards VSC
HVDC instead of Conventional HVDC
 Conventional HVDC uses line commutated converters, these
converters requires large amount of reactive power for rectification
and inversion.
 Commutation failures in inverter mode of operation.
 These converters require a relatively strong synchronous voltage
source in order to commutate.
Contd…
 These problems can be eliminated in self-commutated conversion by

the use of more advanced switching devices with turn-on and turn-
off capability.

 The present self-commutating HVDC technology favours the use of

IGBT-based VSC, combined with high-frequency sub-cycle

switching carried out by PWM
Classical HVDC system
 VSC Based HVDC system

 This high controllability allows for a wide range of applications. From a

system point of view VSC-HVDC acts as a synchronous machine without
mass that can control active and reactive power almost instantaneously.
 And as the generated output voltage can be virtually at any angle and
amplitude with respect to the bus voltage, it is possible to control the active
and reactive power flow independently.
Components of VSC-HVDC System
and its operation
1. Physical Structure
2. Converters
3. Transformers
4. Phase Reactors
5. AC Filters
6. DC Capacitors
7. DC Cables
8. IGBT Valves
9. AC Grid
Contd…
1. Physical Structure: The main function of the VSC-HVDC is to
transmit constant DC power from the rectifier to the inverter. As
shown in Figure.1, it consists of dc-link capacitors Cdc, two
converters, passive high-pass filters, phase reactors, transformers
and dc cable.

2. Converters: The converters are VSCs employing IGBT power

semiconductors, one operating as a rectifier and the other as an
inverter. The two converters are connected either back-to-back or
through a dc cable, depending on the application.
3. Transformers Normally, the converters are connected to the ac system
via transformers. The most important function of the transformers is to
transform the voltage of the ac system to a value suitable to the
converter. It can use simple connection (two-winding instead of three to
eight-winding transformers used for other schemes). The leakage
inductance of the transformers is usually in the range 0.1-0.2p.u

4. Phase Reactors: The phase reactors are used for controlling both the
active and the reactive power flow by regulating currents through them.
The reactors also function as ac filters to reduce the high frequency
harmonic contents of the ac currents which are caused by the switching
operation of the VSCs. The reactors are usually about 0.15p.u.
Impedance.
5. AC Filters: High-pass filter branches are installed to take care of these
high order harmonics. With VSC converters there is no need to
compensate any reactive power consumed by the converter itself and the
current harmonics on the ac side are related directly to the PWM
frequency. The amount of low-order harmonics in the current is small.
Therefore the amount of filters in this type of converters is reduced
dramatically compared with natural commutated converters.

6. DC Capacitors: On the dc side there are two capacitor stacks of the

same size. The size of these capacitors depends on the required dc
voltage. The objective for the dc capacitor is primarily to provide a low
inductive path for the turned-off current and energy storage to be able to
control the power flow. The capacitor also reduces the voltage ripple on
the dc side.
7. Dc Cables: The cable used in VSC-HVDC applications is a new
developed type, where the insulation is made of an extruded polymer
that is particularly resistant to dc voltage. Polymeric cables are the
preferred choice for HVDC, mainly because of their mechanical
strength, flexibility, and low weight.

8. IGBT Valve: The insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) valves used
in VSC converters. These devices having low forward voltage drop and
high switching frequency. A complete IGBT position consists of an
IGBT, an anti parallel diode, a gate unit, a voltage divider, and a water-
cooled heat sink. The gate-driving electronics control the gate voltage
and current at turn-on and turn-off, to achieve optimal turn-on and turn-
off processes of the IGBT.
9. AC Grid: Usually a grid model can be developed by using the
Thevenins equivalent circuit. However, for simplicity, the grid was
modeled as an ideal symmetrical three-phase voltage source.
Comparison of classical HVDC and
VSC-HVDC
 Advantages of VSC-HVDC

 Independent control of active and reactive power without extra

compensating equipment.
 Mitigation of power quality disturbances.
 Reduced risk of commutation failures.
 Communication not needed.
 Multiterminal DC grid.
 APPLICATIONS
 Long-distance bulk power transmission

 Underground and submarine cable transmission

 Interconnection of asynchronous networks