27 October 2016

DEMO 3
UPGRADING OF
MULTI-TERMINAL
INTERCONNECTORS
Diego Cirio
RSE

UPGRADING EUROPES GRID TO NEW HIGH-CAPACITY TECHNOLOGIES

BEST PATHS DISSEMINATION WORKSHOP
BERLIN, 26 OCTOBER 2016
DEMO 3: OVERVIEW
Sardinia Corsica - mainland Italy (SACOI)
3-terminal interconnection, 300 MW, 200 kV monopolar with sea electrodes
Complete rehabilitation decided and included in the Italian national grid
development plan and in ENTSOE TYNDP 2016
Good laboratory for demonstrating new HVDC technologies!

Submarine
Submarine cables
cables
Converters NEXANS
TOSHIBA
EUROPE

System
RSE TERNA
1967: Sardinia-
TERNA Mainland
DE ANGELI
Overhead
Overhead RSE
1987: 50 MW tap station in
lines//
lines TERNA
Corsica
insulation
Insulation

Land cables
NEXANS
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DEMO 3: ACTIVITIES

HVDC CONVERTERS
Toshiba Europe

3
Converter technology Toshiba T&D Europe
Focus on DC fault on OHL section

SACOI-II
upgrade to
Bipolar
HVDC/VSC
Link

4
 Converter technology Toshiba T&D Europe
DEMO Work - Circuit-topology VSC-converter developed by Toshiba

A buffer-reactor free, half-bridge VSC converter with a special converter transformer:

Small footprint
Small leakage flux
(low induction currents in nearby metallic structures, e.g., in offshore platforms)
High reliability
(applying state-of-art IGBT device (Toshiba IEGT) )
full current, pro-rated voltage MMCs (real scale half-bridge modules and controls)
MV scaled converter transformer
equipment manufacturing, site installation and operational testing

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 Converter technology Toshiba T&D Europe
DEMO Work - Circuit-topology VSC-converter developed by Toshiba
DC power of the full DC Current
12 MW, +10 kVdc, 1200 Adc

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 Converter technology Toshiba T&D Europe
DEMO Work - Circuit-topology VSC-converter developed by Toshiba

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DEMO 3: ACTIVITIES

HVDC CABLES
Land & Submarine

Nexans

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HVDC XLPE Submarine Cable

400 kV
1600 mm2 Cu
Compact conductor
to minimize overall
dimensions

Minimized weight
to allow deep sea Test loop energized June 2016
installation with
reduced axial tension
Successfully produced a prototype length

Successfully tested water penetration

100 Bars (1000 m depth)
water penetration 2.4 m -- > Test Passed

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HVDC XLPE Land Cable Test loop energized April 2016
Successfully produced a prototype length
2500 mm2 Al Conductor (Milliken)
21 mm XLPE Insulation
Metallic screen, Al laminated
Outer protective jacket,
HDPE/HFFR + SC skin

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HVDC Extruded Repair Joint Cutaway
Design is identical to Land Field Joint
Additional features: external Steel case to withstand deep sea Laying tension
Bend stiffeners to avoid excessive bending (exactly like in phone charger)
The Mechanical Preconditioning for 500m depth
DEMO 3: ACTIVITIES

CONDUCTORS
for HVDC overhead lines

De Angeli Prodotti
RSE
TERNA
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 ACFR Conductor

Aramid fibre core

Rated Tensile Stength

Kevlar Fibres
Core
 Kevlar Rope
Structural Applications

Aberfeldys bridge,
Scotland
Built in 1992, total length 113 m
with a span of 63 m
 Carbon Multistrand

Aluminium
Alloy wires

Tape

Extruded
tube

Carbon core
multistrand
 RECAP:
Identified reliable Kevlar/carbon
suppliers with good production capacity
Realized first conductor prototype
(~300m) for both ACFR & Carbon
ACFR: Developed special fittings for the
core material
Carbon:
Finished aging test
Stranded multi-strand carbon core
NEXT STEPS:
Carbon: Stranding conductor
prototype Installation test
Characterizations test @RSE lab Installation pilot line
 ADVANTAGES

New technologies permit to obtain:

Increasing of capacity and at the same time

reduction of line losses
Reduction of the noise due to corona effect
compared to other HTLS conductors with metallic core
High flexibility of the core

Set of performances not achievable with existing HTLS

technologies
 ECONOMICAL EVALUATIONS

Comparison between ACSR and new conductors

ACSR Carbon fiber Aramid fiber

31,50mm solution solution
Cost* [/km] ~5000 ~25000 ~20000
Rel. @370A [/km] 0,0613 0,0589 0,0548
Losses @370A [kW/km] 8,392 8,063 7,502
1 year cost of losses [/km] 5477 4944 4600
Saving per year [/km] = 533 877
Pay-back time [y] - 37,5 17,1
* Budgetary cost
Cost of energy = 0,07 /kWh
DEMO 3: ACTIVITIES

INSULATION
of HVDC overhead lines

RSE
TERNA
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Insulation of overhead DC lines

Higher accumulation of pollutants

due to electrostatic fields
Lower dielectric strengths
under DC voltage

Use of Room Temperature

Vulcanizing (RTV) silicon coating
(high hydrophobicity)
Definition of test procedures to
characterize the behaviour of new and
from service RTV coated insulators
(fully and partially coated)

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Insulation of
overhead DC lines
Design and realization of the test
set-up for carrying out
long duration, multi-stress
(sun, rain, salt fog) ageing test on
6 RTV covered insulator chains
(fully and partially coated)

Design and realization of device for

daily monitoring of the level of
contamination of insulators under DC
voltage
Installation in Sardinia in July 2016
Measurements are ongoing
--- > comparison with AC Amico
device, already installed in the site
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 Ions currents & electric fields

Innovative
Multiscale approach -
small & large scale solver
small scale simulation
computes the ion emission
and electric field on the
conductor
A set of 56 chemical
species and over 600
reactions is involved
The net production of O3
is included as well
Large scale solver gives a picture
of the ions currents and the
electric field around the
conductors (relevant for corona)
and on the ground (disturbances
on humans)
DEMO 3: ACTIVITIES

SYSTEM ASPECTS

RSE
TERNA

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Context
SACOI connects 2 (or 3) electrical AC islands
Sardinia and Corsica have weak grids
Large RES penetration and stability issues in Sardinia
Another HVDC (LCC) from Sardinia to
mainland Italy

Objectives
Stable operation with the new
SACOI VSC
Restoration of Sardinia via SACOI
Aspects of SACOI as embedded
HVDC
Evaluation of the renewable
penetration increase thanks to
new SACOI
 Contingencies

Event type Complex dynamics,

reduced stability margins
Location of event Frequency,
transient,
voltage,
SARCO AC line oscillatory stability issues
initial state Controls design ongoing
Outage of Suvereto (Tuscany)
Sardinia takes over control of
Initial SACOI Vdc
configuration
Power reversal in Sardinia
50

Active import in Sardinia [MW]

40
Initial SACOI power 30
flow 20
10
0
-10
Initial HVDC SAPEI -20
state -30
-40
0.98 1.48 1.98

Time [s]
P Pref
Restoration:
SACOI VSC as
1. Black start unit

2. STATCOM

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 Techno-economic evaluations of
three-terminal HVDC systems

Set-up of a methodological framework and tools for the techno-economic

assessment of SACOI 3 and similar HVDC systems
Application to regional and European contexts
Focus on key aspects: reliability, social welfare, RES integration,
CO2 emissions, grid losses, flexibility

Ongoing activities:

Pan-European zonal modeling implementation

in 2030 scenarios (ENTSOE TYNDP 2016 visions 1 and 3)

Set-up of nodal model including Italy+Corsica for

detailed evaluations of SACOI3 impact
by a probabilistic tool

Source: ENTSO-E CBA methodology

CONTACT

Demo 3 leader: TERNA

Contact:
Antonio Iliceto
antonio.iliceto@terna.it

Presented by
Diego Cirio
diego.cirio@rse-web.it

www.bestpaths-project.eu
Follow us on Twitter: @BestPaths_eu
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