Planning multi-terminal direct current grids based graphs theory

Transmission expansion planning in AC power systems is well known and employs a variety of optimization techniques and methodologies that have been used in recent years. By contrast, the planning of HVDC systems is a new matter for the interconnection of large power systems, and the interconnection of renewable sources in power systems. Although the HVDC systems has evolved, the first implementations were made considering only the needs of transmission of large quantities of power to be connected to the bulk AC power system. However, for the future development of HVDC systems, meshed or not, each AC system must be flexible to allow the expansion of these for future conditions. Hence, a first step for planning HVDC grids is the planning and development of multi-terminal direct current (MTDC) systems which will be later transformed in a meshed system. This paper presented a methodology that use graph theory for planning MTDC grids and for the selection of connection buses of the MTDC to an existing HVAC transmission system. The proposed methodology was applied to the Colombian case, where the obtained results permit to migrate the system from a single HVDC line to a MTDC grid.

Adaptability and Countermeasures of HVDC line protection under the UHVDC system with multiple receiving ends

In UHVDC transmission system, the inverter station is located in different geographical locations, and there are two sections of lines in single pole of HVDC system, which brings challenges to the traditional closed line protection. In this paper, firstly, the structural characteristics of series connection mode and the output characteristics of each converter in case of line fault are analysed, and the adaptability of conventional line protection in series multiple receiving ends system is studied. According to the characteristics of UHVDC system with multiple receiving ends in series connection mode, a hierarchical protection strategy is proposed and verified in PSCAD model.

A Novel Two-step Distance Protection for Flexible HVDC Transmission Lines

DC line fault is one of the key problems that must be solved in a flexible HVDC system. During quite a long time between the existing main protection and backup protection of the HVDC line, there is no line protection method to detect the fault, which may lead the protection at the AC side to act before the backup protection of the DC line. To solve the problem, a novel two-step distance protection for flexible HVDC lines is proposed in this manuscript. Firstly, based on the uniform distributed parameter model, the equivalent lumped parameter model of the HVDC transmission line at low frequency is analyzed. Secondly, according to the time domain differential equation and the least squares algorithm, novel distance protection based on the iterative calculation of fault distance is proposed, which can eliminate the influence of distributed capacitive current and improve the precision of calculation. To improve the rapidity and reliability of the distance protection, low pass filters with two different cut-off frequencies are used to process the electrical quantities. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed distance protection can respond to metallic poleto-ground faults and pole-to-pole faults rapidly and reliably.