120 ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEMS

5.10 ACTUAL CONTROL CHARACTERISTICS

Consider the system of Fig. 5.12. Let the rectifier be equipped with a constant current regulator
and the inverter with a constant extinction angle (CEA) regulator. The constant current
regulator characteristic is
Id = Constant, a vertical line and the constant extinction angle characteristic
Vdr = Voi cos + (RL Rci)Id (5.17)
where Vdr and Id are the sending end voltage and current
V
respectively. These characteristics have been drawn in Fig. 5.17. A

The constant current characteristic should ideally be a vertical C

G
line but in practice it has a high negative slope. Assuming that E
D
the commutation resistance Rci is somewhat greater than the H

line resistance RL, the constant extinction angle characteristic F

due to the inverter is a straight line with a small negative slope
and, intercept as Voi cos as shown in Fig. 5.17 by the line CD.
The operating point of the rectifier inverter system is the point
of intersection (G) of the operating characteristics of the rectifier
and the inverter. The constant current characteristic can be Id
shifted horizontally by adjusting the current setting of the
current regulator. If the current measured is less than the Fig. 5.17 Control characteristics.
current setting, the regulator advances the firing angle of the
rectifier thyristor ( is decreased), thereby the internal voltage
of the rectifier is increased and the current Id is increased. On the other hand, if the current
measured is more than the current setting, the firing angle is further delayed ( is increased)
thereby the internal voltage of the rectifier is decreased and the current Id is decreased.
Similarly, the inverter characteristic can be raised or lowered by means of the tap-changer on
the transformer at the inverter station which varies the alternating voltage on the thyristor
side. As the tap is changed, the constant extinction angle control restores the desired value of
. The internal direct voltage at the inverter is changed in proportion to the alternating voltage
since cos is constant and this changes the direct current Id which, however, is quickly restored
to the set value by the current regulator at the rectifier station by changing the internal voltage
at the station. The d.c. reactor on the line tend to prevent rapid changes in current, thus
easing the duty of the current regulators. From Fig. 5.17, it is clear that if the rectifier
characteristics were perfectly vertical and the inverter characteristic perfectly horizontal, it
could be said that the rectifier controls the direct voltage of the line. However, in practice, each
control affects both current and voltage although it affects one of them more and the other
less.
Suppose the inverter voltage is increased, in order to keep the line current constant, the
rectifier voltage must be increased by the same amount. If the increase in inverter voltage is
small, the rectifier voltage can be increased by advancing the firing i.e., decreasing (electronic
control) and thus the increase is brought about very quickly. However, if the inverter voltage
is increased by the tap changer, the rectifier voltage should also be changed by its own tap
changer. It has already been reported that the ignition angle usually lies between 1020.