HVDC CONTROL
Professor N K Kishore
IIT Kharagpur
Control
• Normal Transmission
• Clearing Faults in Convertors
• Clearing Faults on Lines
• Mainly through Grid Control
• Thyristors – only Ignition can be controlled
through a delay or ALFA
• Transistors – both Ignition and Extinction can
be controlled
• Mechanical Switches/ Marx Switches
bidirectional
Conduction in Thyristor Valve
• When anode voltage positive wrt Cathode
• If control voltage at grid positive wrt cathode
• Extinction or cessation of conduction depends
on external circuit
• If it were simple conductor current would
reverse
Basic Control
• Ohm’s law governs basic current flow in
steady state on a dc line
• Beta goes with + Rc2 (Beta control of Invertor)
and gamma goes with –Rc2 (CEA control of Invertor)
• Since current is ratio of difference in Potentials
and resistance controlling two potentials controls
current hence power flow
• If two commutating resistances are equal and line
is uniform mid point is at average of two internal
voltages at two ends
• Internal voltage controlled by Grid Control (Delay
or Alfa) or ac voltage control (auto transformer
action – tap changer – gen. excitation)
• Grid control takes 1 to 10 ms while ac voltage
control takes 5-6 s/step.
• Used cooperatively – grid control for initial
rapid action and ac voltage control for ss
operation – restoration of ignition angle in
rectifier or voltage in invertor
Power Reversal
• Id and hence (Vd01 – Vd02) are positive as valves
are unidirectional
• Simple to reverse the flow is to invert
potentials at two ends maintaining sign of
difference
• Station 2 becomes rectifier and station 1
becomes invertor
• Magnitude of Rectifier Terminal voltage is
greater than the Invertor Terminal Voltage
• Some times reversing polarity of poles is not
desirable say in dc cables then reversing
switches are used between each convertor
and line
Manual control limitations
• dc voltages at either end may change or vary
due to faults on ac system due to sc or in
convertors - calls for rapid grid control in that
scenario
• Assume each convertor has manual ignition
angle control – view from mid point of line
• Look at the characteristics on line from each
convertor to one half of the line. Intersection
would be mid point at (Idn, Vdn)
• Typical drop due to commutation is 8 % and that due to
line is 9 %
• Drop over half the line is 12.5 %
• Say ac voltage at the inverter drops by 12.5 %
• Point of intersection moves to “A” 1.5 Idn
• Another 12.5 % drop at inverter moves point of
intersection to “B” 2 Idn
• Say ac voltage at the rectifier drops by 12.5 %
• Point of intersection moves to “C” 0.5 Idn
• Another 12.5 % drop at rectifier moves point of
intersection to “D” 0 Idn
Constant Current vs Constant Voltage
• Constant current(CC) as voltage varies with
power transmitted
• Constant voltage (CV) as current varies with
power transmitted
• Applicable on ac systems too
• CC systems loads along with one/more sources
are connected in series – load is taken of by
bypassing it – if source bringing emf to zero –
employed on street lights and early dc
transmission systems
• CV systems loads are connected in parallel –
load/source is taken off by opening particular
branch – common in ac transmission and dc
distribution systems
• HVDC having only two terminals can be CC or CV
– distinction not apparent
• Criteria are:
1. Limitation of variation of current due to faults
on dc line or ac system or convertors
2. Energy losses and efficiency
• SC currents are high on CV ac systems –
limited by impedance mainly reactive in
nature
• They become significant as only limited by line
resistance
• On a CC systems SC currents are limited to
load current at max 2 pu
• Accidental OC give rise to High Voltages - rare
• CV systems have I2R losses proportional to
square of Power while CC systems have it as
proportional to full load current
• When transmitting less than rated power
(usual) losses are low on CV systems
• Voltage dep losses are lower compared to
current dep losses
• Loss reduction favors CV while Current limit
favors CC
Desirable Features of Control
• Limit maximum current to avert damage of convertors
or current carrying parts
• Limit fluctuation of current due to fluctuation of ac
voltage
• Keeping power factor as high as possible
• Prevent commutation failures of inverters
• In multi anode valves keep anode voltage high enough
before ignition
• Sending end voltage constant at rated value to reduce
losses
• Control of power transmitted and freq at times
• Power factor kept high on four counts:
1. Rated power as high as possible at rated
current/voltage for valves and Transformers (Rated
Voltage of Transformer and Voltage across valves α
Vd0 while rated Power α Vd )
2. Reduce stresses on Valves
3. Minimize Required current rating/copper losses on ac
lines to convertors
4. Minimize voltage drop at ac terminals of the
convertors
• PF raised by adding shunt capacitors increases cost of
capacitors
• High PF needs very low alfa or gamma
• Make alfa zero in a rectifier – easy
• Multi anode valves α kept ~ 50 => PF 0.996
• Difficult in an Inverter
• To avoid failure of commutation complete
commutation before ϒ = 0 when commutating voltage
reverses – hence ϒ >0 to avoid this
• Can not control ϒ hence β = ϒ + u is controlled
• Computation of β may not be accurate due to changes
in Id and Vc hence taken a high value reducing PF
• Compute α to get min. ϒ (CEA)
Control Characteristics
β
• Rectifier maintains Id at Vd at sending end at
CC control => vertical chrs i.e. line AB ideal
practically high –ve slope
• Say inverter has CEA control - line CD low –ve
slope
• Operating point is intersection of AB and CD
“E”
• Both can be shifted – rectifier shifted
horizontally by current command of CC control
by changing α and inverter vertically by Tap
Changer
• Rectifier controls Id and Inverter controls Vd
• Both work as inverters to de-energize the line
• Solid lines 1 to 2 P1
• Dashed lines 2 to 1 P2
• Both stations given same current reference –
but at inverter station current margin is
subtracted
• When reversing current margin to be shifted –
shunt capacitance to be discharged first and
then charged
