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High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC)
Transmission: Future Expectations for Pakistan
Kamran Hafeez, Shahid A. Khan
Abstract—An HVDC transmission system for bulk power
transfer over longer distance offers numerous advantages over
an alternating current (AC) transmission system, such as direct
integration of networks operating at different frequencies, com-
paratively low line losses on account of constant current and
absence of reactance. This paper presents details about HVDC
power transmission systems and power converter technologies.
Issues concerning integration of electrical power generated by
alternate sources (i.e., wind,onshore and offshore) into the na-
tional grid of Pakistan using HVDC technology are also discussed.
Research studies revealed that the energy crisis of countries like
Pakistan can be mitigated to a larger extent with the use of
HVDC transmission systems.
Index Terms—HVDC, renewable energy, transmission systems,
wind Energy.
I. I NTRODUCTION
E NERGY has been one of the most important sources
for the continuous development of human civilization.
Global energy consumption has increased tremendously af-
ter the start and growth of the industrial revolution around
two centuries ago. Nowadays, per-capita energy usage is a
major parameter for a nation’s growth and prosperity. The
United States of America accounts for the highest living
standard withonly 5 percent of the world population; how-
ever,it consumes 25 percent of the total global energy [1].
Pakistan strongly depends on fossil fuels and conventional
energy sources for the production of electricity. As per the
energy mix of Pakistan reported in [2] oil, coal and gas
shares are almost 86.6% whereas 12.71% is supplied by hydro
generation. In order to meet energy demands, huge quantities
of oil are imported each year, which places an extra burden
on the economy of Pakistan. Due to fluctuations i n oilprices
in theinternationalmarketand the poor state of the economy,
oil importsare gradually falling each year which results in a
mismatch between demand and supply of electricity generation
as evident from Fig. 1 [3]. However, this graph does not
include the renewable energy sources which will be included
in the future as per energy policy.
The following issues arealso responsible for less generation
of electrical power [4]:
Manuscript received May 23, 2017; revised December 29, 2017;
accepted January 17, 2018; date of current version January 21, 2019.
Kamran hafeez (corresponding author, email:voltagehigh@htmail.com) and
Shahid A. Khan are with the Electrical Engineering Department CIIT Islam-
abad campus, Pakistan.
DOI: 10.17775/CSEEJPES.2017.00530
2096-0042 © 2017 CSEE
1
140000
Supply (MW)
120000
Demand (MW)
100000
Power (MW)
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
2013 2015 2020 2025 2030
Year
Fig. 1. Peak electrical energy demand vs.supply projections for Pakistan.
•Aging of existing power transmission and distribution
networks and their capacity.
• Power generation is mostly centralized and is more de-
pendent on the availability of fossil fuels.
• The power system network is highly longitudinal with
respect to regional location. Hydro generation is only
available in the northern part of the country whereas
thermal generation is concentrated in the southern part,
located away from big load centers.
• Hydro generation is usually affected by the availability
of water during summer and winter seasons.
• Presence of fewer shares of renewable energies in the
overall energy mix of Pakistan.
In order to overcome the energyshortage, exploration of
alternate energy resources such as renewable energy isnec-
essary. Pakistan is blessed with all types of alternate energy
sources, including wind and solar, offering great potential for
generating electricity and bridging the gap between supply and
demand [5], [6].
Electric Power Production, using wind energy around the
world,has a total installed capacity (both offshore and onshore)
of 121 GW. It is the fastest growing renewable energy source
and many European countries are getting nearly 10% of their
total energy demand from wind energy. Pakistan has good
potential for generating electricity from wind in different
regions and along the coastline of the Sindh province. The
country’s first Renewable energy policy was announced in
2006 which set mid-term and long-term targets that include
generation of 9,700 MW of electricity from renewable energy
resources by the year 2030 [7]. However, only 10 MW of
wind energy has been installed so far at different locations
in the country. There is great wind potential at the Gharo–

Keti Bandar corridor, which is 60 km long, located along
the coast belt of the Sindh province [8]. According to the
Pakistan Metrological Department (PMD), afteranalyzing the
wind data at 20 different sites in the coast belt, the favorable
area for wind power generation is 9,700 km2 with estimated
wind power potential of 43,000 MW [9].
Electric power transfer capability is restricted by different
constraintssuch asthermal loadingof conductors, and voltage
and transient instabilities emerging in a power system [10].
Power grids around the world are continuously changing due to
the rapid interconnection of large wind farms into transmission
systems. Wind energy sources located at far off areas and the
variable nature of wind are two major challenges faced in its
integration into a national grid [11]. In order to integrate en-
ergy from renewable sources into the main centers of a power
grid,;he existing capacity of the transmission system needs to
be enhanced and modified so that the HVDC links could be
used effectively for the transfer of electric power produced by
the renewable energy source to the main centers [12].
This paper provides information about HVDC and HVAC
systems;nd updated power converter technology.It also high-
lights the potential and benefits for the use of HVDC systems
in countries such as Pakistan.
II. HVDC S YSTEMS AND P OWER C ONVERTERS
In the beginning (19th century), transmission and distribu-
tion of electricity were based on direct current (DC) tech-
nology, on account of the low voltage (110 v) generation at
that time. With the growing demand for higher voltages, AC
became popular as it could be easily converted into higher
voltages, with a fairly less chance of power loss. However,
with the invention of thyristor valves by General Electric in
the 1950’s, and the development of power electronics, HVDC
transmission proved to be technically attractive. To transmit
power over longer distances, high voltage alternating (HVAC)
lines needed reactive power compensations at regular intervals.
The frequency and the intermediate reactive components are
major concerns pertaining to stability problems in an alter-
nating current line. Whereasan HVDC system lacks stability
problems due to the absence of frequency,it is not dependent
on distance [13]. A comparison between HVAC and HVDC
overhead lines is presented in Table I below [14]:
Power converters are needed (AC/DC/AC) to embed DC
links into AC transmission systems. The power conversion
process is completed using electronic devices (switches) such
as diodes, transistors and thyristors. HVDC technology based
on current sourced converters (LCC-HVDC) was first im-
plemented 50 years ago. This technology uses thyristors
as switching devices. The voltage source converters (VSC-
HVDC) based on Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT)
was developed later and has the advent of self-commutation,
i.e. the switch turn on and off is controllable.As the switching
frequency is low in LCC-HVDC systems, the power losses
are less compared with VSC systems where the switching
frequency is high due to the pulse width modulation method
which is used to control the gate signal. To increase the
power rating of VSC technology, more series connected
2
TABLE I
HVAC AND HVDC C OMPARISON
Characteristics HVAC HVDC
Power Losses HVAC systems has High voltage DC transmission
significant losses with line has fewer losses compared
distance. with an AC circuit for the
same amount of power trans-
ferred.Converter terminals and
substations have power losses.
Investment HVAC land acquisi- HVDC land acquisition costs
cost tion costs are higher are lower as two conductors
as more conductors are used to transmit power. The
are used to transmit operating and maintenance ex-
power. penditure is less in an HVDC
system.
Asynchronous HVAC systems can- HVDC is the only option to
connection not be used to connect establish a link between two
asynchronous ties. different frequency networks.
Environment The visual impact Right of way management
and right of way (ROW) expenses for the High
management (ROW) voltage DC overhead system
of HVAC systems is is less than the AC line of a
high. system. Converter stations have
issues such as: noise level,
electromagneticcompatibility
and use of a ground / sea return
circuit of electric current in a
mono polar mode of operation.
Fault perfor- In HVAC, when a In HVDC systems, the current
mance fault occurs, a circuit value does not change, mak-
breaker is used to in- ing a DC line short-circuit diffi-
terrupt the current and cult to extinguish by itself until
extinguishes the arc, the current is lowered down to
which is formed dur- zero value and the arc is extin-
ing the breaking and guished.
opening of contacts.
Short-circuit HVA C transmission High voltage DC transmission
currents line contributes makes no contribution towards
towards the short- the short-circuiting current in
circuiting current of the interconnected AC/DC sys-
the AC/DC system tem.
interconnected.
devices(IGBT’s) are needed as stacks, which cause greater
difficulty in the control mechanism. Another approach to get
a higher power rating in a converter is to implement it as a
multilevel topology. These have inherent problems at a lesser
number of levels, which places restrictions on their voltage
levels. A modular multilevel converter (MMC) is a promising
technology based on multilevel topology.It implements two-
level converter (IGBT devices) sub modules in cascade to
obtain the desired output voltage.The switching frequency is
less, so losses are also lower. However, high voltage DC
breakers are still in the development stage, making DC line
fault clearance difficult in MMC based converters. VSC-
HVDC technology made with extruded DC cables is called
HVDC Light. This technology is more suitable for an offshore
environment and interconnection of different networks. An
HVDC system shown in Fig. 2 is comprised of three major
components [15]–[19]: Rectifier terminal to convert AC to DC,
Transmission line and Inverter terminal to convert back to AC.
A comparison between different types of power converters
are shown in Table II [20].
 3

AC/DC Converter DC/AC Converter

Grid Transformer Transformer Grid Tarbala
Ghazi Barotha
Afghanistan

Managla
Muzaffargarh
Power Grid HVDC System Power Grid India
Guddu
Fig. 2. HVDC System.
Jamshoro
TABLE II
T YPES O F P OWER C ONVERTERS
Fig. 3. Major Power Plants.
Attributes Classical HVDC VSC-HVDC MMC-HVDC
Convertor Tech- Thyristor valve, Transistor valve Sub-modules
nology grid commutation (IGBT), self (IGBT), through the bipolar 500 kV HVDC link. It consists of a
commutation 500 kV, 750 km bipolar HVDC interconnection link with
Reactive power Yes No No
demand conversion capability of 1,300 MW at Sangtuda (Tajikistan), a
Independent No Yes Yes 300 MW at Kabul (Afghanistan) and a 1,300 MW at Peshawar
control of (Pakistan) [23]. Another 600 kVHVDC line is under con-
active and Reac-
tive power struction between Matiari (Sindh) and NankanaSahib (Punjab),
Multi-terminal Complex Simple Medium which willtransmit up to 4,000 MWof powerproduced bythe
configurations Thar coal power plants. The existingACgrid located nearby
Control System Simple Medium Complex
haslimited transfer capacity. More HVDC stations will be
required to transmit power producedfrom wind energy sources
as predictedin Fig. 4 [24].
III. F UTURE D EVELOPMENT OF HVDC S YSTEMS IN The purpose of installing current HVDC links in Pakistan
PAKISTAN is to transfer electric power between two distant regions.
The power transmission system of Pakistan consists of 40 Howeverfor future development, a HVDC system has great
grid stations and the total length of high voltage AC lines is potential forintegrating wind energy sources, asynchronous
12, 436 km; out of which 5,077 km is of 500 KV Transmission connectionsand system stability improvement.
lines. It is estimated that almost one third of the population
has no access to the electricity grid due to the remote locations ±500 kV HVDC Station
(Casa Project)
of the settled areas and the scale of the country. The country’s
total installed capacity (hydro+thermal) is around 11,300 MW. Pesco CHINA
Details about the main hydro and thermal units are included
Tesco Iesco
in Table III. Big Hydro plants are located in the northern areas
of Pakistan, while thermal plants are in the south as evident Gepco
from the power plant map shown in Fig. 3 [21].
Qesco Lesco
TABLE III
H YRDO /T HERMAL U NITS Fesco Legend
Mepco Existing/New
Name of Power Station Province Type of Power station Capacity(MW)
Tarbela KPK Reservoir 3700 500kV Grid
Mangala AJK Reservoir 1200 Sepco T/L
Ghazi Barotha Punjab Canal 1450 HVDC Line
Hesco Hydel Station
Muzaffargarh Punjab Thermal 1300 Thermal Station
Guddu Punjab Thermal 1600 ARABIAN SEA Distribution
Jamshoro Sindh Thermal 800 Future HVDC ±600 kV HVDC Station company
stations Matiari to Lahore

The majority of electricity consumers are located in the
middle of the country, where wind energy potential is minimal.
In the Southern region, wind energy potential is available for
future electricity production.
Pakistan needs to produce around 3,000–4,000 MW electric-
ity per annum according to the demand as reported. To increase
capacity and efficiency, the transmission system needs to be
upgraded [22]. The idea to initiate the usage of HVDC technol-
ogy in Pakistan comes from the proposed CASA-1000 (Cen-
tral Asia-South Asia electricity transmission and trade)project
which will interconnect Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan
Fig. 4. HVDC Grid Map of Pakistan.
As explained earlier,geographical locations and infrastruc-
ture limitations are two major constraints for the transmission
of wind power to the load centers. If a shore is located
nearby in any country, then offshore wind energy farms will
provide a good choice to generate power [25]. Normally
the existing transmission system capacity is designed for the
conventional fossil fuels and thermal based generation systems
and to interconnect large wind energy systems from one
region to another and the existing setup may have capacity

limitations [26].
An HVDC system has proved to be more attractive for
large offshore wind farms located away from the main grid.
Specifically, VSC-HVDC is a favorable technology for inter-
connecting big offshore wind energy farms to the terrestrial AC
grids due to its advantages over conventional HVDC based
line commutated converters.It can easily control power flow
direction without altering the polarity of the DC voltage [27].
Furthermore, VSC technology can operate with weaker AC
grids, no reactive power demand at the converter stations
and reduced harmonics. However, its disadvantage is with
less power and voltage ratings of the converter [28]. The
interconnection of offshore wind farms to a common AC bus
system, point-to-point HVDC transmission link causesdifficul-
ties in controlling each wind energy farm independently.Multi
terminal (MT-HVDC) Systems can overcome this problem.
The VSC-based MT-HVDCtechnology for connecting doubly
fed induction generator based offshore wind farms has shown
better performance in the power oscillations damping and
transient stability during fault conditions [29]. Theinterconnec-
tion of wind power (on shore and offshore) generated along
the coastline of Pakistan to the national grid, combined with
HVDC transmission technology, will be the right choice in
the near future. Where LCC-HVDC systems will be the right
choice for high power applications and VSC –HVDC’s main
role will be to interconnect offshore wind energy farms to the
electricity grid. A possible layout scheme of offshore wind
energy farms linked to a major grid is shown in Fig. 5 [30].
Offshore
Converter Converter Wind
AC Grid Transfo- Onshore Offshore Transfo- Farm (s)
Onshore rmers Converter Converter rmers
= ~
~ =
Fig. 5. Offshore wind farms linked to the major grid.
IV. C ONCLUSION
This paper highlights the need for exploring wind energy
as a potential source to overcome the deficit between demand
and supply of electrical power in Pakistan. It also emphasizes
the challenges and issues related to the penetration of electric
power into the national grid of Pakistan. HVDC technology
has been determined to be a good choice in the future for
the possible transmission of electrical power (wind energy
source) generated along the coastline of Sindh and Baluchistan
provinces to the city centers. This paper also provides details
about updated HVDC converter technologies and the benefits
of HVDC systems for the future expansion of existing trans-
mission lines.
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Kamran Hafeez received the B.S. and M.S. de-

grees in Electrical Engineering from the University
of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar, in 2008.
Currently, he is working as an Assistant Professor
in Electrical Engineering Department at COMSATS
University Islamabad. His research interests include
Power converters, HVDC Systems, Electric Power
Systems.

Shahid Ahmed Khan received the M.S. and

Ph.D. degrees from the University of Portsmouth,
Portsmouth, U.K., in 1997 and 2000, respectively.
He is currently the Dean, Faculty of Engineering at
COMSATS University Islamabad. He has authored
or co-authored 95 international journal/conference
papers and one US patent. His research interests
include Antenna and Radio-wave Propagation, Wire-
less Communications, Electric Power Systems and
HVDC Systems.