High-voltage Dc Grids Research Articles

Active Damping of VSC-MTDC Grid Equipped With Interline Power Flow Controller

To ensure the secure operation of a multiterminal high-voltage DC (MTDC) grid, power flow controllers (PFCs) are deployed to regulate current distribution among different transmission lines. Besides power flow management, PFCs are envisioned to provide a range of functionalities such as stability enhancement, oscillation damping, and ancillary services to the host MTDC grid. This paper extends the functionality of PFC to provide active damping of MTDC grid current oscillations caused by dc side resonance. Three simple and effective active compensators integrated with the control scheme of the PFC are proposed. A comprehensive small-signal model of the MTDC grid is developed. Eigenvalue and sensitivity analyses are conducted to evaluate the damping capability of the proposed compensators and assess their dynamic coupling with PFC control loops. Based on a detailed model of a five-terminal high-voltage dc grid, simulation results are provided to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed active compensators. The results showed the effectiveness of the proposed compensation schemes to increase the damping of the MTDC grid and enhance its dynamic response.

A Signal Segmentation Approach to Identify Incident/Reflected Traveling Waves for Fault Location in Half-Bridge MMC-HVdc Grids

This article presents a new systematic technique for identifying voltage traveling waves (TWs) to determine the location of line faults in half-bridge modular multilevel converter-based high-voltage dc (HBMMC-HVdc) grids. In this technique, the buffered voltage signal frame around the fault-detection time is first scaled and then segmented via an optimization process. Finally, the incident/reflected TWs arrival times are obtained by executing a simple search algorithm on the reconstructed signal segments’ differences. This article describes how to use this technique in three forms of TW-based fault location schemes, including the single-ended scheme with known TW velocity, the double-ended scheme with known TW velocity, and the double-ended scheme with unknown TW velocity. The application results on a four-terminal HBMMC-HVdc grid simulated with exact component models show the proposed technique’s high capability and accuracy in all the three TW-based fault-location schemes. According to these results, the average fault-location errors are less than 0.5% for all the schemes. The numerical results also confirm that the proposed technique maintains its excellent performance, even in the face of close to terminal faults with distances down to 4 km, faults with high resistances up to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$450 \Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula> , and noisy signals with signal-to-noise ratios down to 55 dB. Moreover, the comparison results confirm that the proposed approach is more tolerant of measurement noise than the wavelet transform.

A Breaker Failure Detection Method Based on Nonlinear Parameter Estimation for Modular Hybrid DC Circuit Breakers

Modular hybrid dc circuit breakers (DCCBs) have been widely employed to protect multiterminal high-voltage dc (MT-HVdc) grids. However, breaker failures still pose a challenge to the protection of MT-HVdc grids, especially for a single module failure of breakers. To this end, a breaker failure detection method based on nonlinear parameter estimation is presented. This proposed method consists of three parts. The first is a signal preprocessing method that eliminates the effect of the RC circuit of the hybrid DCCB. The second is an offline optimal parameter acquisition method that has an improved numerical model of the metal–oxide varistor (MOV) and combines the Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm with the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The third is an online breaker voltage error calculation that estimates the breaker voltage based on the improved numerical MOV model to detect the partial failure of the modular hybrid DCCB. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by both power system computer aided design (PSCAD)/electro-magnetic transient design and control (EMTDC) tests and field tests. The study results prove the effectiveness of the proposed method for the partial failure of the modular hybrid DCCB considering different faulty conditions and the aging of MOVs.

HVdc application: A valuable source for education and reference [Book Review

This book provides a valuable update to the first edition of High Voltage Direct Current Transmission. Jovcic is a professor at the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, where he has been since 2004. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Jovcic is a Fellow of IEEE. His research interests include high-voltage (HV) dc, dc grids, and control systems. High Voltage Direct Current Transmission provides comprehensive coverage of HVdc transmission and in-depth knowledge in key areas for the application of HVdc: power electronics, control engineering, and ac/dc power transmission systems analysis. The application of HVdc transmission is experiencing rapid growth and leading to new technology developments. This second edition provides new material to cover these developments with emphasis on developments going into new field installations. The book is divided into three major sections. The first section covers line commutated converter (LCC) HVdc. This edition includes system topologies and control schemes and adds a discussion of dc grid master controls. This section includes a discussion of dc/ dc converters for connecting systems at different voltage levels and HVdc circuit breaker technologies. The author provides many examples throughout the book. This book is suitable for graduate-level power engineering and power electronics students. It also serves as a valuable reference for researchers in academia and engineers in the industry.

The Operation of UAV Propulsion Motors in the Presence of High External Magnetic Fields

The operation and maintenance of converter stations (also known as valve halls) in high voltage DC (HVDC) grids is a key element in long-term, reliable and stable operation, especially in inherently adverse offshore environments. However, the nature of the electromagnetic field environment inside HVDC valve halls presents a challenge for the operation of traditional off-shelf inspection robots. In this paper, the impact of the external magnetic field on the operation of an inspection UAV’s propulsion motors is assessed. An experimental method is proposed to simulate the maximum magnetic field interference to off-shelf UAV motors, which can be used to identify their suitability for use in HVDC valve halls inspection robots. The paper’s experimental results compare the performance of direct torque control and field-oriented control algorithms for propulsion motors under the influence of external magnetic flux. Under the influence of a 177 mT external magnetic field, it was found that using direct torque control, the motor rotational velocity steady-state error was up to 55%. With field-oriented control, the steady-state error was 0%, however the peak-to-peak current draw increased by up to 567%.

Fast protection strategy for DC transmission lines of MMC-based MT-HVDC grid

Multi-terminal high voltage DC (MT-HVDC) grid has broad application prospects in connecting different energy sources, asynchronous interconnection of power grids, remote load power supply, and other fields. At present, the key technologies that affect the development of MT-HVDC transmission system include swift fault identification and location in the DC line and its rapid isolation. Traditional fault monitoring relies on line communication, which cannot guarantee the rapidity and reliability of protection; moreover, it may even cause device damage. A fault identification scheme based on a single-terminal transient is presented in this paper. This scheme calculates the line inductance by using the rise rate of fault current at the initial stage of the fault, and determines the occurrence of the fault by comparing the observed line inductance with the set value, which lays a foundation for calculating the location of the fault point using distance protection. A simulation model on the PSCAD/EMTDC platform is built; the simulation example verifies that the proposed scheme can identify faults under dissimilar conditions while maintaining a low error level on the premise of no communication lines so as to meet the protection requirements of the MT-HVDC grid.

A pilot line protection for MT-HVDC grids using similarity of traveling waveforms

Protection of dc line faults is a major challenge for the operation of multi-terminal high-voltage dc (MT-HVDC) grids. To avoid blocking converter and system shutdown, ultra-fast protection is required to detect and isolate line fault with the application of hybrid dc circuit breaker. This paper proposes a pilot protection scheme based on improved Hausdorff distance to detect the overhead line fault for MT-HVDC grid. Compared with literature, this protection method owns higher withstanding ability of noise interference, start-up delay and data anomaly. Moreover, the fault segment can be correctly identified as independent of fault location, and protection sensitivity is maintained even under internal ground fault with high impedance of up to 1000 Ω. The issue of dead zone fault recognition is considered and solved in this paper with reasonable sacrifice in the sampling frequency requirement. Based on Zhangbei HVDC grid in China, a four-terminal dc grid model is developed in PSCAD/EMTDC environment for fault simulation, and the data processing is performed in MATLAB platform. The feasibility and effectiveness of this protection scheme are verified by a simulation study that considers different scenarios.

Technical Assessment on Self-Charging Mechanical HVDC Circuit Breaker

High-voltage DC (HVDC) circuit breaker is the necessary equipment for multiterminal HVDC grids, which is a prospective power transmission method in the future. Therefore, the research about HVDC interruption ushered in an explosive development in recent years. The mechanical DC circuit breaker based on the precharged capacitor for current commutation and interruption is considered to be one of the most promising HVDC interruption solution. However, the commutation capacitor requires a complicated precharging circuit, especially in high-voltage applications, which brings a great challenge to the promotion of mechanical interruption solution. In this article, a novel self-charging mechanical HVDC circuit breaker is proposed. It utilizes the induced voltage generated by part of current limiting reactor to adaptively charge the commutation capacitor under different fault current conditions without extra auxiliary charging circuit. By investigating the influence of capacitance and inductance on the charging time and current commutation process, the optimized parameters are determined. Then, the breaking performance of proposed HVDC breaker under different rising rates of fault current is evaluated in a two-terminal HVDC system. Finally, a low-power prototype is developed to verify the feasibility of the proposed topology and an improved scheme for rated current breaking is discussed.

Adjustable Wind Farm Frequency Support Through Multi-Terminal HVDC Grids

In the future power systems, a large number of offshore wind farms will be connected to the AC grids through high voltage DC (HVDC) and multi-terminal DC (MTDC) grids. As wind power penetration level increases, complex grid codes and regulations will be imposed on wind turbines for frequency support. To follow any grid code and requirement for frequency support, two important features should be included in the wind turbine frequency support: i) It should be able to adjust the maximum additional power that the wind turbine temporarily provides for frequency support; ii) It should be capable of adjusting the time interval in which the wind turbine provides additional temporary power. The first feature is mainly important for reducing rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) and improving the frequency nadir while the second one is mainly important for fast frequency recovery from its nadir and improving the second frequency drop. This paper indicates that the conventional method cannot offer both of the two aforementioned features. To address this issue, two approaches are proposed for frequency support by wind turbines. The first one uses P-ω <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">r</sub> and P-f <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">WF</sub> droops in each wind turbine controller, where P, ω <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">r</sub> , and f <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">WF</sub> represent the wind turbine power, rotor speed, and wind farm frequency. The second method employs P-· ω <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">r</sub> and P-f <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">WF</sub> droops in each wind turbine controller. Performance and effectiveness of the proposed methods are evaluated by time-domain simulation studies on an MTDC grid in the PSCAD/EMTDC software environment.

Coordinated control of DC circuit breakers in multilink HVDC grid

High voltage DC grid is developing towards more terminals and larger transmission capacity, thus the requirements for DC circuit breakers (DCCB) will rise. The conventional methods only use the faulty line DCCB to withstand the fault stress, while this paper presents a coordination method of multiple DCCBs to protect the system. As many adjacent DCCBs are tripped to interrupt the fault current, the fault energy is shared, and the requirement for the faulty line DCCB is reduced. Moreover, the adjacent DCCBs are actively controlled to help system recovery. The primary protection, backup protection, and reclosing logic of multiple DCCB are studied. Simulation confirms that the proposed control reduces the energy dissipation requirement of faulty line DCCB by around 30–42 %, the required current rating for IGBTs is reduced, and the system recovery time reduced by 20–40 ms.

A Current-Commutation DC Circuit Breaker with Adaptive Reclosing Capability

DC faults are critical events in a flexible high-voltage dc (HVDC) grid. Thus, ensuring that the power system returns to normal operation rapidly and reliably after fault isolation is very important. This requires a HVDC breaker. In overhead line systems under temporary faults, reclosing is often required. However, once the dc circuit breaker (DCCB) is reclosed directly, the large second overcurrent may occur which could damage the power electronic devices. To avoid this problem, a current-commutation DC circuit breaker with adaptive reclosing capability is proposed. Compared with the traditional auto-reclosing strategy, the second damage under permanent fault condition can be avoided by the proposed DCCB, which can identify the fault property. Compared with the hybrid DCCB, the power electronic breaking branch composed of lots of IGBTs is replaced by the current-commutation branch, which is employed to interrupt bi-directional dc fault current. Moreover, bypassing branch is configured to reduce the energy dissipation of arrester and shorten the fault isolation time effectively. Finally, simulation cases in PSCAD /EMTDC verify the effectiveness and superiorities of the proposed DCCB.

Fault Location in HVDC Grids Equipped With Quick-Action Protections and Circuit Breakers Based on Voltage Transient Response

A novel fault-location scheme is designed for transmission lines of high-voltage dc (HVdc) grids equipped with quick-action protections and circuit breakers using very few milliseconds of postfault signals, measurable before the ultrafast fault-isolation stage. A simplified equivalent circuit analysis shows that the first negative overshoot time and average derivative of voltage in the early postfault moments are directly related to the fault location. However, due to HVdc grids' characteristics and several factors involved in reality, the analytical use of these features may not be feasible or may not result in an acceptable accuracy. Hence, a soft computing strategy is adopted to overcome this problem. Based on this strategy, machine-learning-based locators are trained for both line terminals, each responsible for locating faults in the half-line of its side using the two introduced features extracted from the locally captured voltage signals. The statistical evaluations of the performance on a four-terminal grid for various fault cases not considered in the training stage confirm the designed scheme's satisfactory accuracy, generalization ability, tolerance to noisy measurements, and tolerance to changes in the line parameters.

Non-Unit Protection for HVDC Grids: An Analytical Approach for Wavelet Transform-Based Schemes

Speed and selectivity of DC fault protection are critical for High-Voltage DC (HVDC) grids and present significant technical and economic challenges. Therefore, this paper proposes a non-unit protection solution that detects and discriminates DC faults based on frequency domain analysis of the transient period of DC faults. The representation of a generic HVDC grid section and the corresponding DC-side fault signatures in the frequency domain form the basis of a generalized approach for analytically designing a protection scheme based on Wavelet Transform (WT). The proposed solution is adaptive within its design stage and offers general applicability and immunity to system changes, while the protection settings are configured for optimized performance. The scheme is validated through offline simulations in PSCAD/EMTDC and the technical feasibility of the algorithm in the real world is demonstrated through the use of real-time digital simulation (using RTDS) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing. Both offline and real-time simulations demonstrate that the scheme is able to detect and discriminate between internal and external faults at a significantly high speed, while remaining sensitive to high impedance faults and robust to external disturbances and outside noise.

Protection Testing for Multiterminal High-Voltage dc Grid: Procedures and Procedures and Assessment

eAssessment The application of multiterminal (MT), high-voltage dc (HVdc) (MTdc) grid technology requires test procedures for the operation and implementation of the protection solutions. The test procedures are usually derived from experience and from extensive measurement data, which, at present, are still not widely available. Based on a hardware-inthe- loop (HIL) method, advanced dc protection testing strategies, utilizing existing experience for ac grids and requirements for MTdc grids, may overcome this gap.

A Multiport DC Circuit Breaker for High-Voltage DC Grids

DC circuit breakers (DCBs) are expected to isolate faults in high-voltage DC grids. Multiple DCBs are required for a DC bus connected to multiple lines, and they form a DCB cluster. To reduce the construction cost, the DCB cluster can be integrated into a multiport DCB (MDCB). The integration of proactive-DCBs has been widely researched. However, in previous articles, only a few MDCBs have been proposed to integrate current-injection-DCBs (C-DCBs), and the interruption reliabilities of these MDCBs are reduced because multiple mechanical switches (MSs) should be opened during an interruption. This article proposes a novel MDCB to integrate C-DCBs. In the proposed MDCB, all ports share one main breaker and one energy absorber. The interruption operations during a port fault and bus fault are detailed, and the backup protection for an MS failure is presented. The parameter designs of the proposed MDCB are discussed. The proposed MDCB is compared with the DCB cluster to show the economic advantage and is compared with the previous MDCB to show the reliability advantage. Finally, the proposed MDCB is validated using PSCAD/EMTDC simulations.

A Novel Non-Isolated Boost-Type Alternate Arm DC Transformer With Bidirectional Fault-Blocking Capability

DC transformer is an essential equipment for formation of multi-voltage-level DC grid. This paper proposes a novel non-isolated Boost-type alternate arm DC transformer (Boost-AADCT) for medium- and high-voltage level DC grid application. The Boost-AADCT is comprised of three submodule-cascaded arms, two thyristor-cascaded director switches, and two buffer capacitors. Bidirectional power transmission is achieved by alternatively charging and discharging of the intermediate arm following the Boost principle, while the pulsating power component caused by intermittent transmission is actively smoothened by grid-side buffer subcircuits formed by the buffer capacitors and grid-side arms. The active power buffering method increases the tolerance range of voltage ripple of the buffer capacitor, and the required energy storage capacity is resultantly reduced. Circuit configuration, operation principle, and mathematical model are first introduced. Then, the control strategy is proposed, the main circuit parameters are designed, and bidirectional fault-blocking capability is analyzed. Comparison with other DC-DC converters shows that the Boost-AADCT significantly reduces the requirement of semiconductors and has relatively lower synthetic cost. At last, performance of the Boost-AADCT and the proposed control strategies are evaluated by simulation tests conducted in MATLAB/Simulink environment.

Bridge‐type fault current limiter and hybrid breaker for HVDC grids applications

The fast raising nature of DC fault currents and sensitivity of high-voltage DC (HVDC) power converters to DC faults is critical protection issues. On the other hand, DC fault current does not meet zero; which causes DC to fault current breaking process become more challenging. Specifically, to protect HVDC grids against DC fault currents, the development of very fast breakers is crucial. This study proposes a DC fault current limiter and breaker, which is able to protect the HVDC system/grid in a very fast and safe manner. The main goal of this study is to enhance the performance of already in the market hybrid DC circuit breakersincluding the magnitude of fault current and breaker operation speed. In the proposed HVDC fault current limiter and breaker, the fault current is limited in two stages by an inductive and resistive current limiter, which drastically decreases the main breaker dissipated energy. The functionality of the proposed HVDC fault current limiter and breaker is mathematically analysed, and then verified by PSCAD and Matlab/Simulink. Finally, simulation results are validated by scaled-down laboratory examinations.

A Pilot Protection Scheme for Transmission Lines of Half-Bridge MMC-HVDC Grids Using Cosine Distance Criterion

One of the major challenges in half-bridge modular multilevel converter-based high-voltage dc (MMC-HVDC) grids is the rapid detection and isolation of short-circuit faults before converter blocking and the entire grid shutdown. With the advancement of the hybrid dc circuit breakers (HDCCBs) in the ultra-fast isolation of faults, a considerable part of the problem has been solved. In this paper, relying on the performance of these circuit breakers and using the cosine distance criterion, a new pilot protection scheme is designed and presented for detecting short-circuit faults in transmission lines of half-bridge MMC-HVDC grids. While this scheme requires a comparatively low sampling frequency, its fault detection speed is quite independent of fault resistance. Moreover, this protection has the correct performance for any fault location along the line under protection and is completely stable against all external faults. The results of the evaluations on a 4-bus test grid under different fault conditions confirm the correct, ultra-fast, stable, selective, and reliable performance of the proposed line protection scheme.

High-speed directional pilot protection for MVDC distribution systems

Selective dc protection with high speed is the key technology for the dc distribution system. The single-ended protections applied in high voltage dc (HVDC) grid are not suitable for the dc distribution system, due to the absence of the boundary elements. Differently, the pilot protection shows a good application prospect in dc distribution systems, because it can protect a clear bounded zone. In this paper, the characteristic of backward traveling waves on the fault cable and healthy cable is analyzed in detail. Then a high-speed directional pilot protection is proposed for dc distribution systems, which identifies the fault direction mainly according to the high-frequency backward traveling wave. Compared with the traditional pilot protections, such as the current differential protection, directional protections based on current change value (Δi) or change rate (di/dt), the proposed protection is immune to the cable distributed capacitor current. In addition, the proposed method does not depend on the boundary of the line terminals, thus being more suitable for the medium voltage dc (MVDC) distribution system. Simulation cases based on the PSCAD/EMTDC are carried out to verify the feasibility and advantages of the proposed scheme.

The Modular Multilevel DC Converter With Inherent Minimization of Arm Current Stresses

The modular multilevel dc converter (M2dc) is a partial power processing dc-dc converter that is gaining popularity for medium-voltage and high-voltage dc (HVdc) grid applications. However, internal ac current stresses go up as the step-down dc voltage ratio increases, leading to increased cost and losses, and ultimately renders the M2dc impractical for some applications. The HVdc autotransformer (AT) (HVdc-AT) is another class of the partial power processing dc-dc converter that circumvents this issue by using a transformer for interarm ac voltage matching, although the core must tolerate a very large dc voltage stress between windings that leads to increased magnetics size and weight. Interestingly, the M2dc does not suffer from interwinding dc voltage stresses. This article presents a new class of the partial power processing dc-dc converter that uses an integrated center-tapped transformer to merge the best traits of the M2dc and HVdc-AT. Comparative analysis reveals the proposed converter can minimize ac current stresses at all operating points while also achieving a significant reduction in transformer area product relative to the HVdc-AT. A dynamic controller is proposed that regulates dc power transfer while ensuring balanced capacitor voltages. The converter operation and dynamic controls are validated by simulation and experiment.