INTRODUCTION

A high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current for the bulk transmission of electrical power, in contrast with the more common alternating current systems. For long-distance transmission, HVDC systems may be less expensive and suffer lower electrical losses. For underwater power cables, HVDC avoids the heavy currents required to charge and discharge the cable capacitance each cycle. For shorter distances, the higher cost of DC conversion equipment compared to an AC system may still be warranted, due to other benefits of direct current links. HVDC allows power transmission between unsynchronized AC distribution systems, and can increase system stability by preventing cascading failures due to phase instability from propagating from one part of a wider power transmission grid to another. HVDC also allows transfer of power between grid systems running at different frequencies, such as 50 Hz vs. 60 Hz. Such interconnections improve the stability of each grid, since they increase the opportunity for any grid experiencing unusual loads, to stay in service by drawing extra power from otherwise completely incompatible grids. a.c. D.C. link a.c.

Rectification

Inverter

WHY USE DC TRANSMISSION? The question is often asked, Why use d.c. transmission? One response is that losses are lower, but this is not correct. The level of losses is designed into a transmission system and is regulated by the size of conductor selected. D.c. and a.c. conductors, either as overhead transmission lines or submarine cables can have lower losses but at higher expense since the larger cross-sectional area will generally result in lower losses but cost more. When converters are used for d.c. transmission in preference to a.c. transmission, it is generally by economic choice driven by one of the following reasons: 1. An overhead d.c. transmission line with its towers can be designed to be less costly per unit of length than an equivalent a.c. line designed to transmit the same level of electric power. However the d.c. converter stations at each end are more costly than the terminating stations of an a.c. line and so there is a breakeven distance above which the total cost of d.c. transmission is less than its a.c. transmission alternative. The d.c. transmission line can have a lower visual profile than an equivalent a.c. line and so contributes to a lower environmental impact. There are other environmental advantages to a d.c. transmission line through the electric and magnetic fields being d.c. instead of ac. 2. If transmission is by submarine or underground cable, the breakeven distance is much less than overhead transmission. It is not practical to consider a.c. cable systems exceeding 50 km but d.c. cable transmission systems are in service whose length is in the hundreds of kilometers and even distances of 600 km or greater have been considered feasible. 3. Some a.c. electric power systems are not synchronized to neighboring networks even though their physical distances between them is quite small. This occurs in Japan where half the country is a 60 hz network and the other is a 50 hz system. It is physically impossible to connect the two together by direct

a.c. methods in order to exchange electric power between them. However, if a d.c. converter station is located in each system with an interconnecting d.c. link between them, it is possible to transfer the required power flow even though the a.c. systems so connected remain asynchronous.

HVAC Vs HVDC :

Advantages of HVDC transmission:

HVDC Transmission have many advantages over ac transmission. Some of technical and economical advantages are given below: i) For transmitting bulk power over long distance say above 500km these systems are economical. ii) During bad weather conditions, the corona loss and radio interference are lower for a HVDC line as compared to that in an ac line of the same voltage and same conductor size. iii) Compare to ac transmission, HVDC transmission is cheaper in cost because ac system required three conductors to carry power where as HVDC transmission lines require two conductors. iv) Right-of-way for a DC line is about 20-40 percent lesser than that for an ac line of the same power transmission capability. v) Unlike ac transmission, HVDC transmission system does not requires any intermediate substations for compensation. vi) The transmission losses in a HVDC transmission are lower than the ac transmission of the same power transmission capability. vii) The towers of HVDC lines are simpler, cheaper than ac lines. viii) No skin effect in HVDC lines, so uniform distribution of current over the section of the conductor. There is a skin effect in ac lines. ix) Voltage regulation is better in case of DC transmission. x) Power flow control is easy in HVDC link. xi) High reliability.

Disadvantages of HVDC transmission:

HVDC transmission have few limitations as i) Initial cost is high because it requires additional requirement of converters (rectifier and inverter stations), filters, reactive power compensators. ii) Overhead capacity is low as compared to ac transmission. iii) HVDC converter need cooling systems. iv) HVDC converters produce harmonics both ac and dc sides which may cause interference with the audio frequency communication lines. v) Reducing ripples from the dc output, filters requirement is more. vi) Maintenance of insulators is more. vii) HVDC circuit breakers is expensive. viii) Voltage transformation is not possible in DC side and hence it is to be provided on the ac side only. TYPES OF D.C. Links Monopolar D.C. link:In a common configuration, called monopole, one of the terminals of the rectifier is connected to earth ground. The other terminal, at a potential high above or below ground, is connected to a transmission line. The earthed terminal may be connected to the corresponding connection at the inverting station by means of a second conductor.

Monopole and earth return If no metallic conductor is installed, current flows in the earth between the earth electrodes at the two stations. Therefore it is a type of single wire earth return. The issues surrounding earth-return current include: 1. Electrochemical corrosion of long buried metal objects such as pipelines 2. Underwater earth-return electrodes in seawater may produce chlorine or otherwise affect water chemistry. 3. An unbalanced current path may result in a net magnetic field, which can affect magnetic navigational Compasses for ships passing over an underwater cable. Monopole and metallic return These effects can be eliminated with installation of a metallic return conductor between the two ends of the monopolar transmission line. Since one terminal of the converters is connected to earth, the return conductor need not be insulated for the full transmission voltage which makes it less costly than the highvoltage conductor. The decision of whether or not to use a metallic return conductor is based upon economic, technical and environmental factors. Symmetrical monopole An alternative is to use two high-voltage conductors, operating at half of the DC voltage, with only a single converter at each end. In this arrangement, known as the symmetrical monopole, the converters are only earthed via a high impedance and there is no earth current. The symmetrical monopole arrangement is uncommon with line- commutated converters (the Nor Ned interconnection being a rare example) but is very common with Voltage Sourced Converters when cables are used. BIPOLAR DC Link In bipolar transmission a pair of conductors is used, each at a high potential with respect to ground, in opposite polarity. Since these conductors must be insulated for the full voltage, transmission line cost is higher than a monopole with a return conductor. However, there are a number of advantages to bipolar transmission which can make it an attractive option. Under normal load, negligible earth-current flows, as in the case of monopolar transmission with a metallic earth-return. This reduces earth return loss and environmental effects. When a fault develops in a line, with earth return electrodes installed at each end of the line, approximately half the rated power can continue to flow using the earth as a return path, operating in monopolar mode. Since for a given total power rating each conductor of a bipolar line carries only half the current of monopolar lines, the cost of the second conductor is reduced compared to a monopolar line of the same rating.

 In very adverse terrain, the second conductor may be carried on an independent set of transmission towers, so that some power may continue to be transmitted even if one line is damaged.

A bipolar scheme can be implemented so that the polarity of one or both poles can be changed. This allows the operation as two parallel monopoles. If one conductor fails, transmission can still continue at reduced capacity. Losses may increase if ground electrodes and lines are not designed for the extra current in this mode. To reduce losses in this case, intermediate switching stations may be installed, at which line segments can be switched off or parallelized. This was done at IngaShaba HVDC. HOMOPOLAR D.C. Link : A homopolar is a plant in which both converters are in the same area, usually in the same building. The length of the direct current line is kept as short as possible. USE : 1. coupling of electricity grids of different frequencies. 2. coupling two networks of the same nominal frequency but no fixed phase relationship 3. different frequency and phase number

Converters
At the heart of an HVDC converter station, the equipment which performs the conversion between AC and DC is referred to as the converter. Almost all HVDC converters are inherently capable of converting from AC to DC (rectification) or from DC to AC (inversion), although in many HVDC systems .

Electronic converters for HVDC are divided into two main categories: 1 .Line-commutated converters (LCC) 2. Voltage-sourced converters, or voltage-source converters (VSC). 1. LINE COMMUTED CONVERTERS
Most of the HVDC systems in operation today are based on line-commutated converters. The basic LCC configuration uses a three-phase bridge rectifier or six-pulse bridge, containing six electronic switches, each connecting one of the three phases to one of the two DC rails. A complete switching element is usually referred to as a valve, irrespective of its construction. However, with a phase change only every 60, considerable harmonic distortion is produced at both the DC and AC terminals when this arrangement is used. An enhancement of this arrangement uses 12 valves in a twelve-pulse bridge. The AC is split into two separate three phase supplies before transformation. One of the sets of supplies is then configured to have a star (wye) secondary, the other a delta secondary, establishing a 30 phase difference between the two sets of three phases. With twelve valves connecting each of the two sets of three phases to the two DC rails, there is a phase change every 30, and harmonics are considerably reduced. For this reason the twelve-pulse system has become standard on most line-commutated converter HVDC systems built since the 1970s. With line commutated converters, the converter has only one degree of freedom the firing angle, which represents the time delay between the voltage across a valve becoming positive (at which point the valve would start to conduct if it were made from diodes) and the thyristors being turned on. The DC output voltage of the converter steadily becomes less positive as the firing angle is increased: firing angles of up to 90 correspond to rectification and result in positive DC voltages, while firing angles above 90 correspond to inversion and result in negative DC voltages. The practical upper limit for the firing angle is about 150160 because above this, the valve would have insufficient turn-off time. Early LCC systems used mercury-arc valves, which were rugged but required high maintenance. Because of this, many mercury-arc HVDC systems were built with bypass switchgear across each six-pulse bridge so that the HVDC scheme could be operated in six-pulse mode for short periods of maintenance. The last mercury arc system was shut down in 2012. The thyristor valve was first used in HVDC systems in 1972. The thyristor is a solid-state semiconductor device similar to the diode, but with an extra control terminal that is used to switch the device on at a particular instant during the AC cycle. Because the voltages in HVDC systems, up to 800 kV in some cases, far exceed the breakdown voltages of the thyristors used, HVDC thyristor valves are built using large numbers of thyristors in series. Additional passive components such as grading capacitors and resistors need to be connected in parallel with each thyristor in order to ensure that the voltage across the valve is evenly shared between the thyristors. The thyristor plus its grading circuits and other auxiliary equipment is known as a thyristor level. Each thyristor valve will typically contain tens or hundreds of thyristor levels, each operating at a different (high) potential with respect to earth. The command information to turn on the thyristors therefore cannot simply be sent using a wire connection it needs to be isolated. The isolation method can be magnetic but is usually optical. Two optical methods are used: indirect and direct optical triggering. In the indirect optical triggering method, the low-voltage control electronics sends light pulses along optical fibres to the high-side control electronics, which derives its power from the voltage across each thyristor. The alternative direct optical triggering method dispenses with most of the high-side electronics, instead using light pulses from the control electronics to switch light-triggered thyristors (LTTs), although a small monitoring electronics unit may still be required for protection of the valve.

In a line-commutated converter, the DC current (usually) cannot change direction; it flows through a large inductance and can be considered almost constant. On the AC side, the converter behaves approximately as a current source, injecting both grid-frequency and harmonic currents into the AC network. For this reason, a line commutated converter for HVDC is also considered as a current-source converter. SCHEMETIC OF LCC BASED HVDC:

DRAWBACKS OF LCC IN HVDC APPLICATION: Commutation failure when connected to very weak AC network or long DC transmission line. Unbalanced voltages under fault conditions on AC network. Appearance of non-characteristic harmonics and high distortion levels. Cannot withstand large DC current surge due to the discharge of capacitor when converter is connected to long DC cable.

2. Voltage-sourced converters
Because thyristors can only be turned on (not off) by control action, the control system only has one degree of freedom when to turn on the thyristor. This is an important limitation in some circumstances. With some other types of semiconductor device such as the insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), both turn-on and turn-off can be controlled, giving a second degree of freedom. As a result, they can be used to make self- commutated converters. In such converters, the polarity of DC voltage is usually fixed and the DC voltage, being smoothed by a large capacitance, can be considered constant. For this reason, an HVDC converter using IGBTs is usually referred to as a voltage sourced converter. The additional controllability gives many advantages, notably the ability to switch the IGBTs on and off many times per cycle in order to improve the harmonic performance, and the fact that (being self-commutated) the converter no longer relies on synchronous machines in the AC system for its operation. A voltage sourced converter can therefore feed power to an AC network consisting only of passive loads, something which is impossible with LCC HVDC. HVDC systems based on voltage sourced converters normally use the six-pulse connection because the converter produces much less harmonic distortion than a comparable LCC and the twelve-pulse connection is unnecessary. Most of the VSC HVDC systems built until 2012 were based on the two level converter, which can be thought of as a six pulse bridge in which the thyristors have been replaced by IGBTs with inverse-parallel diodes, and the DC smoothing reactors have been replaced by DC smoothing capacitors. Such converters derive their name from the fact that the voltage at the AC output of each phase is switched between two discrete voltage levels, corresponding

to the electrical potentials of the positive and negative DC terminals. Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is usually used to improve the harmonic distortion of the converter.

Pulse converter

12 PULSE Converter :

TRIGGERING SYSTEM :

CONVERTER FAULTS Commutation failure

When a converter bridge is operating as an inverter as represented at the receiving end of the d.c. link in Figure 8, a valve will turn off when its forward current commutates to zero and the voltage across the valve remains negative. The period for which the valve stays negatively biased is the extinction angle , the duration beyond which the valve then becomes forward biased. Without a firing pulse, the valve will ideally stay non conductive or blocked, even though it experiences a forward bias. All d.c. valves require removal of the internal stored charges produced during the forward conducting period (defined by period + at the inverter before the valve can successfully establish its ability to block a forward bias. The d.c. inverter therefore requires a minimum period of negative bias or minimum extinction angle for forward blocking to be successful. If forward blocking fails and conduction is initiated without a firing pulse, commutation failure occurs. This also results in an immediate failure to maintain current in the succeeding converter arm as the d.c. line current returns to the valve which was previously conducting and which has failed to sustain forward blocking . Commutation failure at a converter bridge operating as an inverter is caused by any of the following reasons: 1. When the d.c. current entering the inverter experiences an increase in magnitude which causes the overlap angle to increase 2. A phase angle shift in the a.c. commutating voltage can cause commutation failure. 3. The value of valve current prior to the commutation failure also effects the conditions at which a commutation failure may occur