Active injection protection scheme for flexible HVDC grids based on amplitude of input impedance

High-voltage direct current(HVDC)grids require fast and reliable protection of the DC lines.The performance of traditional protection schemes is easily impaired by the limitations of the boundary condition and nonlinearity from the control of converters.One of the key technologies for flexible HVDC grids is the half-bridge modular multilevel converter(HB-MMC).Considering the high controllability of HB-MMC,this study proposes an active injection protection scheme to improve the reliability and sensitivity of the HVDC grid protection.The HB-MMC is used to inject a sinusoidal characteristic signal,at the specified frequency,into the DC lines.Then,the voltage and current at the specified frequency are extracted using the Prony algorithm to calculate the input impedance,which is used for the identification of internal and external faults.The active injection protection scheme was simulated for various cases in the simulation software Power Systems Computer Aided Design.The simulation results indicate that the proposed protection scheme is highly reliable and can overcome transition resistance.

Research on a Multiport Parallel Type Hybrid Circuit Breaker for HVDC Grids:Modeling and Design

This paper proposes a star type multiport hybrid circuit breaker(Star-HCB)topology for protection of multiterminal DC transmission.Reliability and stability of high voltage DC(HVDC)grids are determined by their capabilities to withstand DC-side faults.In order to maintain reliability of HVDC grids,both ends of each line should be equipped with hybrid circuit breakers(HCB).This method will increase expenditure of the HVDC,especially the meshed topology.The n-port Star-HCB consists of ultra-fast mechanical disconnectors,load current switch and only one transferring branch which is formed by improved half-bridge sub-module.Compared with existing traditional hybrid circuit breakers and other multiport hybrid circuit breakers,the proposed topology can realize the same short-circuit blocking goal using fewer components.Detailed mathematical transient process calculation and timedomain simulation of the proposed Star-HCB are given to verify its superiority.

Frequency domain based DC fault analysis for bipolar HVDC grids

This paper proposes a frequency domain based methodology to analyse the influence of High Voltage Direct Current(HVDC) configurations and system parameters on the travelling wave behaviour during a DC fault. The method allows us to gain deeper understanding of these influencing parameters. In the literature, the majority of DC protection algorithms essentially use thefirst travelling waves initiated by a DC fault for fault discrimination due to the stringent time constraint in DC grid protection. However, most protection algorithms up to now have been designed based on extensive time domain simulations using one specific test system. Therefore, general applicability or adaptability to different configurations and system changes is not by default ensured, and it is difficult to gain in-depth understanding of the influencing parameters through time domain simulations. In order to analyse the first travelling wave for meshed HVDC grids, voltage and current wave transfer functions with respect to the incident voltage wave are derived adopting Laplace domain based component models. The step responses obtained from the voltage transfer functions are validated by comparison against simulations using a detailed model implemented in PSCADTM. Then, the influences of system parameters such as the number of parallel branches, HVDC grid configurations and groundings on the first travelling wave are investigated by analysing the voltage and current transfer functions.

A modular multilevel power flow controller for meshed HVDC grids

Based on the comparison of existing power flow controllers(PFC)in meshed HVDC grids,the full-bridge modular multilevel converter based PFC(MMPFC)is proposed.At first,the general branch current calculation method of meshed HVDC grids with the PFC is presented,and then,the issue of over-voltage on the thyristor based PFC is described and analyzed.Through the analysis of different operating modes of the full-bridge sub-module,the mechanism of over-voltage ride through of the MMPFC is indicated.The control strategy of the MMPFC,which is used to control branch current and keep capacitor voltage balancing,is elaborated.Finally,the performance on current regulation,bidirectional operation and over-voltage ride through is simulated and verified in a built model with PSCAD/EMTDC.

A DC Current Flow Controller for Meshed Modular Multilevel Converter Multiterminal HVDC Grids

This paper proposes the design of a novel DC current flow controller(CFC)and evaluates the control performance of balancing and regulating the DC branch currents using the DC CFC in a meshed multi-terminal HVDC(MTDC)grid.The DC CFC consists of two identical full bridge DC-DC converters with the capacitors of the two converters being connected in parallel.The scalability of the DC CFC is easily achievable due to the identical bridge converter topology;the cost of this DC CFC is also relatively low due to its simple physical structure and low voltage ratings.The control performance of the DC CFC is tested on a meshed 3-terminal(3-T)HVDC grid,which is based on modular multilevel converters(MMC).The DC branch current control in the meshed MTDC grid is achieved using the proposed control strategy of the DC CFC,and is verified through case studies on the real-time digital simulator(RTDS).

Review and Outlook of HVDC Grids as Backbone of Transmission System

HVDC technology has undergone many major developments in the past decades,resulting in higher power ratings,increased efficiency,and the availability of effective means for HVDC grid protection.These developments have made overlay HVDC grids a viable option to shift towards a carbon-free power system,by enabling optimal use of renewable resources.In particular,overlay HVDC grids greatly increase the prospect of building(trans-)continental supergrids to facilitate global economic development.However,overlay HVDC grids still encounter challenges due to the distance and amount of power involved.This paper focuses on analyzing the readiness of the current technologies and the challenges associated with overlay HVDC grids.An in-depth analysis is carried out to evaluate the applicability of current technologies for overlay HVDC grids.Based on the review of recent research and development efforts,the gaps and challenges towards the realization of a global HVDC grid are summarized.

Application of new directional logic to improve DC side fault discrimination for high resistance faults in HVDC grids

This paper proposes a simple and fast way to determine the direction of a fault in a multi-terminal high voltage direct current(HVDC) grid by comparing the rate of change of voltage(ROCOV) values at either side of the di/dt limiting inductors at the line terminals. A local measurement based secure and fast protection method is implemented by supervising a basic ROCOV relay with a directional element. This directional information is also used to develop a slower communication based DC line protection scheme for detecting high resistance faults. The proposed protection scheme is applied to a multi-level modular converter based three-terminal HVDC grid and its security and sensitivity are evaluated through electromagnetic transient simulations. A methodology to set the protection thresholds considering the constraints imposed by the breaker technology and communication delays is also presented. With properly designed di/dt limiting inductors,the ability of clearing any DC transmission system fault before fault currents exceeds a given breaker capacity is demonstrated.

Nyquist Stability Analysis and Capacitance Selection for DC Current Flow Controllers in Meshed Multi-terminal HVDC Grids

Controllability of DC current/power flow is essentialin multi-terminal HVDC (MTDC) grids, particularly for theMTDC grids in a meshed topology. In this paper, consideringmeshed MTDC (M2TDC) grids with the installation of twoline/multi-lineDC current flow controllers (CFCs), a small-signalmodel of the DC CFCs integrated M2TDC grids is derived,studying the impact of the power losses of the DC CFC andtheir influence on the analysis of energy exchanges. The systemstability analysis is analysed using the Nyquist diagram, which ismore suitable for analyzing complex nonlinear systems with morecompact and reliable indicators of stability in comparison withgain/phase margins shown in the Bode diagram. In addition, aselection method of the interconnected capacitor of the DC CFCis proposed under different operating conditions. The impact ofthe switching frequencies of the DC CFC on the control ranges ofthe DC current flows is analyzed. The effectiveness of the Nyquistanalysis and the capacitance selection method is verified bysimulation studies using PSCAD/EMTDC. The obtained control ranges of the DC CFC with different switching frequenciesand capacitances would be useful for practical engineeringapplications.

A Fault Current Limiting Hybrid DC Circuit Breaker

Due to the low impedance characteristic of the high voltage direct current(HVDC)grid,the fault current rises extremely fast after a DC-side fault occurs,and this phenomenon seriously endangers the safety of the HVDC grid.In order to suppress the rising speed of the fault current and reduce the current interruption requirements of the main breaker(MB),a fault current limiting hybrid DC circuit breaker(FCL-HCB)has been proposed in this paper,and it has the capability of bidirectional fault current limiting and fault current interruption.After the occurrence of the overcurrent in the HVDC grid,the current limiting circuit(CLC)of FCL-HCB is put into operation immediately,and whether the protected line is cut off or resumed to normal operation is decided according to the fault detection result.Compared with the traditional hybrid DC circuit breaker(HCB),the required number of semiconductor switches and the peak value of fault current after fault occurs are greatly reduced by adopting the proposed device.Extensive simulations also verify the effectiveness of the proposed FCL-HCB.

A Modular DC/DC Photovoltic Generation System for HVDC Grid Connection

A modular DC/DC conversion system with distributed MPPT and centralized step-up converter for photovoltaic energy integrated into HVDC grids is proposed in this paper.The conversion system consists of two power stages,with MPPT converter as the first stage and a step-up converter as the second stage.Both stages are modular structures.For the distributed MPPT stage,interleaved boost topology is utilized to effectively reduce the input and output ripples without adding extra components.For the centralized step-up stage,narrow-switching-frequency-variation LLC topology is employed,with the modules being configured as input-parallel-output-series structure.Full-range soft-switching property is achieved in the LLC stage to minimize switching losses.Theoretical analysis is carried out for the system voltage gain and design principles.Simulation and experimental results of a 3kW prototype system are presented to verify the theoretical analysis of the proposed system.

Pole-to-ground Fault Analysis for HVDC Grid Based on Common-and Differential-mode Transformation

Pole-to-ground(PTG) fault analysis is of vital importance for high-voltage direct current(HVDC) grid. However, many factors are not considered in the existing studies such as the asymmetrical property of PTG fault, the coupling issue between DC transmission lines and the complexity of the structure of DC grid. This paper presents a PTG fault analysis method, which is based on common-and differential-mode(CDM)transformation. Similar to the symmetrical component method in AC system, the transformation decomposes the HVDC grid into CDM networks, which is balanced and decoupled. Then, a transfer impedance is defined and calculated based on the impedance matrices of the CDM networks. With the transfer impedance, analytical expressions of fault characteristics that vary with space and time are obtained. The proposed PTG fault analysis method is applicable to arbitrary HVDC grid topologies,and provides a new perspective to understand the fault mechanism. Moreover, the analytical expressions offer theoretical guidance for PTG fault protection. The validity of the proposed PTG fault analysis method is verified in comparison with the simulation results in PSCAD/EMTDC.

Study on Clamping Type DC Circuit Breaker with Short Fault Isolation Time and Low Energy Dissipation

The development of DC grids faces challenges from DC fault protection.The conventional DC circuit breaker(DCCB)employs metal-oxide varistor(MOV)to isolate the faulted line,in which the fault isolation process is coupled with the energy dissipation process.In this study,a clamping type DCCB(CTCB)using internal capacitors to clamp the converter voltage is proposed.Thanks to the proposed configuration,fault isolation and energy dissipation are decoupled,resulting in a fast fault isolation and low energy dissipation compared to the conventional DCCB.The working principle of the proposed CTCB is presented and verified in a DC grid simulation model.A comparison is made with the traditional DCCB.The fault isolation time can be reduced by 34.5%.The dissipated energy can be reduced by 17.4%.The energy dissipation power can be reduced by 76.2%.