A Presentation

on

EEEEC20- HVDC

Presented By-
Dr. Suraj Gupta
Guest Faculty, Dept. of EE
NSUT
 Limitations of HVAC
• Reactive Power Loss
• Stability
• Current carrying capacity
• Skin and Ferranti effect
• Power flow control is not possible
 Advantages of HVDC
• No reactive power loss
• No stability problem
• No charging current
• No skin ad Ferranti effect
• Power control is possible
• Requires less space compared to AC for same voltage rating
and size
• Ground can be used as return conductor
• Less corona loss and radio interference
• Cheaper for long distance transmission
 Advantages of HVDC
• Asynchronous operation possible
• No switching transient
• No transmission of short circuit power
• No compensation problem
• Low short circuit current
• Fast fault clearing time
 Disadvantages of HVDC
• Cost of terminal equipment is high.
• Introduction of harmonics
• Blocking of reactive power
• Point-to-point transmission
• Limited overload capacity
• Huge reactive power requirements at the converter
terminals
 Types of HVDC Systems
• Monopolar Link- A monopolar system has only one
conductor with ground as return conductor, and it is usually
of a negative polarity. It is suitable in submarine systems
where sea water can be used as a return conductor.
• Bipolar Link- A bipolar system has two conductors, one of positive
and other of negative polarity. The mutual or ground point is
maintained at the mid-potential.
• Each terminal of a bipolar system has two converters of equal
voltage ratings connected in series. If both neutrals are grounded
then two poles operate at equal current and there is no ground
current.
• In the event of fault in one conductor, the other conductor with
ground return can be used up to half the rated load or power with
the rated current of the pole..
• Homopolar Link- Homopolar system has two or more conductors
with the same polarity, usually negative, and they always operate
with ground return.
• In the event of fault in one conductor, the whole converter can be
connected to a healthy pole and can carry more than half the power
(2-pole) by overloading but at the expense of increased line loss.
• However, this is not possible in a bipolar system due to the use of
graded insulation for negative and positive poles. When continuous
ground currents are inevitable, homopolar system is preferable.
• The additional advantage is lower corona loss and radio interference
due to negative polarity on the lines current of the polarity of the
lines.
 EQUIPMENT REQUIRED FOR HVDC SYSTEMS
(a) 6/12–pulse converters
(b) Converter transformer with suitable ratio and tap changing
(c) Filters both on the AC side and on the DC side to take care of the
harmonic generation at the converters and to reduce the harmonics
(d) A smoothing reactor in the DC side to reduce the harmonic currents in
the DC line and possible transient over currents.
(e) Shunt capacitors to complement the reactive power generated by the
converters as they operate on lagging power factor and take lagging current
(f) DC transmission line or DC cables for power transmission
 Converters
• In all HVDC schemes that evolved after 1970, only thyristor valves are being used
in converters.
• New developments like gate turn-off thyristor, ( GTO, 8 kV, 4000 A), IGBTs (6.5
kV,1000 A) and light triggered thyristors with reliable Cesium-mercury flash lamp
for high power light sources have made control schemes not only more reliable.
• Thyristors are now available in the market with blocking voltage ratings of 6 kV
which is six times the ratings of the first thyristors used in converter stations in
the early 1970s. This means only one–sixth of the valves need to be used now,
saving considerable space and cost.
• Today, HVDC valves have entered a new phase with the development of IGBT
valves. From a basic ‘chip’ with a PIV rating of 4 to 6 kV and around 1000 A, a
module is made with a few thyristors or IGBTs connected in series parallel
combination for 10 to 15 kV voltage rating and required current rating (1 kA to 3
kA) giving suitable redundancy
• A valve is built with such modules in series up to 500 kV. With IGBTs,
which are self commuted (unlike thyristors) the modules are arranged
into stak-paks, with which the IGBT stack valves are built.
• Nowadays, IGBT valves are used mainly in underwater cable and cable
schemes in the power range 100 to 500 MW with voltage rating up to 200
kV.
 Converter Transformers
• The transformers used in HVDC systems before rectification of AC are
termed as converter transformers. They differ in their design as
compared to one used in AC systems because of superimposed DC
voltages.
• The insulation system of a converter transformer has to withstand AC
voltages, short time overvoltage and also superimposed DC voltages with
polarity reversals.
• The tolerance on the impedance of converter transformers is more
stringent since any variation in impedance has more effect on the cost of
the associated DC terminal equipment.
• The content of harmonics in a converter transformer is much higher than
conventional AC transformer.
• These harmonics cause additional leakage flux resulting formation of
local hot-spots in the windings.
• Suitable magnetic shunts, directed oil flow for effective cooling along
with additional cooling arrangements would be necessary to avoid
such hot spots.
 Filters
• Harmonics are generated in HVDC transmission lines due to repetitive
firing of thyristors.
• These are transmitted to the AC network in which a DC link is embedded.
This may cause overheating of the equipment and interference with
communication systems.
• In addition to this, non characteristic harmonics are also generated due
to an unbalance in converter transformer reactance.
• AC supply voltage and errors in the firing angle of the phases. It is
necessary to regulate the harmonics through filtering techniques.
 Reactive Compensation (Shunt Capacitors)
• Reactive volt-amperes are generated in the process of conversion, due to
delay in the firing angle of the converter stations.
• As DC system does not generate or require reactive volt-amperes, this
must be suitably compensated by connecting shunt capacitors at the
both ends of the system.
• The compensation of static vars depends upon short circuit ratio (SCR) of
AC systems.
• For weak AC systems (low SCR) which are common in India, proper choice
of reactive power compensation must be seriously considered.
 DC Transmission Line or DC Cable
• It requires only two conductors as compared to three conductors in a 3-
phase AC system.
• Consequently losses are also less.
• The size of the structure of the towers is also less in DC transmission.
• There is no skin effect in the conductors because there is no variation of
current in time (zero frequency).
• For the same power handling capacity, the size of the conductors
required in DC transmission is small.
 HDVC Converters
• Schematic diagram of a 3-phase 6-pulse converter scheme is shown in
Fig.

• This circuit arrangement is known as the Graetz circuit and uses six
thyristor valves.
• Each valve consists of a number of thyristors modules put in series for
the required output voltages.
• Usually, the input voltage to the bridge is derived through a converter
transformer, either a 3-phase Y/D connected unit or 3 single-phase
transformers connected in Y/D or Y/Y.
• In case of a Y/Y connection, a 3rd winding is also used for circulating
currents of 3rd and 3n harmonics.
• The converter is triggered by gate triggering circuitry.
• If the firing or triggering angle a is less than 90°, the converter operates
as a rectifier; and if a > 90°, negative voltage is generated, which means
the converter becomes an inverter.
• Schematic diagram of a 3-phase 12-pulse converter scheme is shown in
Fig.
 6-pulse Converter Operation and Analysis
• The converter has two types of circuits.
• The main circuit comprises converter transformers, thyristors valves, bus
bars and series reactor and DC load.
• High power flows through this circuit.
• The second is a control and protection circuit which is a low power
circuit.
• It is used for fi ring the valves in the desired sequence, monitoring, etc.
• Each thyristor valve consists of several thyristors connected in series
parallel combination to meet system voltage and current requirements
 Conduction sequence in 6-pulse converter configuration

• In the upper part of the bridge, the anodes of the valves 1, 3, 5 are
connected to the phase R, Y, B respectively.
• Similarly in the lower half of the bridge, the cathodes of valves 4, 6, 2
are connected to the phases R, Y, B respectively.
• The figure indicates that at any time two valves will be conducting in
series (6, 1; 1, 2; 2, 3; 3, 4; 4, 5; 5, 6) simultaneously when the source
inductance of the transformer is neglected.
• This is not considered a drawback in high voltage applications,
particularly with solid state converter, because it is necessary to connect
many thyristor units in series to withstand the voltage levels being used.