AC/DC grids

Concepts and designs for mixed AC/DC grids

At a glance blackout from healthy system parts. In case of a

In the last 20 years the importance of HVDC severe system fault, HVDC links acting as “sys-
long distance interconnections and back to tem couplers” avoid disturbances to spread to
back couplings was increasing significantly all other system areas by splitting the system and
over the world. Classic, thyristor based HVDC isolating the fault-affected areas.
systems have been built up to ± 800 kV DC In many systems the erection of new AC lines is
voltage. A new HVDC technology based on hardly possible. New ideas to use certain exist-
voltage source converters (VSC) allows the ing AC routes with DC backbones can increase
infeed of active and reactive power, acting like transmission capacity. For example, such a DC
a controlled generator in forward and backward overlay grid is discussed in Europe to intercon-
direction. nect off-shore wind parks, and to transport the
The increasing installation of large wind power energy to the on-shore load centers.
plants, especially off-shore wind parks far away
from the shores, requires transporting large
amounts of power over long distances where
AC solutions are not longer possible or too
expensive and DC solutions are required. Due
to reliability issues, in the future the existing
point-to-point HVDC connections can be inter-
connected to form a DC network integrating
several wind farms and AC networks into one
system.
Figure 1: Vision of a European north sea grid
Also increasing trading and changes in the
electrical power generation structure causes the The future trend will be a combination of AC
need of strengthening today’s transmission and DC systems. These hybrid structures need
systems. One solution can be to build an over- more and elaborated control concepts because
lay network using state-of-the-art HVDC trans- in these systems point-to-point power transfers
mission system forming a meshed DC grid. will be changed into flexible multi-terminal op-
eration with different sending and receiving
Siemens Power Technologies International
sources depending on the actual situation of the
(Siemens PTI), your provider of network con-
system and the generation forecast for PV and
sulting, network planning software and trainings
wind plants. New control concepts are under
on the Siemens T&D portfolio, is your partner to
development.
develop solutions for new system concepts for
such mixed AC/DC grids. Our solution
The challenge Siemens PTI is a key partner in the develop-
ment of new HVDC technologies and applica-
Booming mega-cities lead to extremely high
tions, e.g. for defining the control concepts and
load densities in such areas and increase the
for adapting these systems to interconnect the
demand for controlled infeed points. However,
new generation centers to the load centers
such infeed points should not add to the
considering the necessary control behavior, the
stressed short circuit levels that are often close
interconnection to the grid and the different grid
to the limits already. In addition, VSC-based DC
code rules to erect ultra high reliable hybrid
systems can be used to restore a system after
systems for the future.

Siemens PTI − Network Consulting

Due to our long-term experience with the
modeling and analysis of power elec-
tronic devices and the close cooperation
with the engineering groups in the HVDC
business unit within Siemens, we have a
thorough understanding of the individual
components and can help to design
complex DC network concepts and hy-
brid AC/DC system to ensure appropri-
ate and stable behavior.
Based on the innovative Siemens HVDC
Plus technology it is possible to provide
solutions for the new demand of DC
back-bones, DC/AC infeeding stations
and multi-terminal DC systems to collect
off-shore wind power and send it to the
load centers.
Figure 2: Basic HVDC Plus concept
Siemens PTI is involved in several stud-
ies and R&D projects concerning various
topics of DC network including
 Creating accurate dynamic and tran-
sient models
 Developing suitable load-flow control
methods for the DC network
 Calculation of DC short-circuit behav-
ior and stress on the components
Also Siemens PTI is involved in working
groups of DKE and CENELEC for stan-
dardizing the different solutions to pro-
vide a thorough basis for DC network
development.
Application Examples
One major project where Siemens PTI
has been deeply involved has bee the
German DENA studies, driven by the
German government to analyze the fu-
ture needs of the transmission system
due to increasing share of renewable
generation, especially wind farms in the
Published by and copyright © 2011:
Siemens AG
Infrastructure & Cities Sector
Smart Grid Division
Services
IC SG SE PTI BD
Freyeslebenstr. 1
91058 Erlangen, Deutschland
www.siemens.com/energy/power-technologies
North and Baltic Sea and the conse-
quences on the German transmission
network. Together with the four German
Transmission System Operators (TSOs)
technologies and concepts have been
investigated to achieve an optimal solu-
tion for strengthening the network.
One solution under discussion is to build
a DC overlay network for long distance
power transmission. The result was a
proposal of a DC network covering com-
plete Germany. Additionally new control
concepts have been developed for a
safe and stable operation.
Rg. NS-O
2200MW
Rg. NS-W
4400MW
Rg. 22
3300MW
Rg. 73
3300MW
Rg. 74
3300MW
Rg. 75
2200MW
Rg. 41
8800MW
Rg. 42
2200MW
Figure 3: Exemplary DC network for a German
overlay network from the study DENA II
In R&D projects and also to support
standardization work within the DKE and
CENELEC groups concepts for the su-
pervisory DC network control as well as
for the individual converter control have
been developed and analyzed.
The primary objective of a DC grid is to
transmit power between its converter
stations. Depending on the transmission
task, some converter stations import
power into the DC circuit, others export
power. Maintaining the DC voltage within
certain operational limits means export
and import of power in the DC network
need to be balanced at all times by the
Siemens Energy, Inc.
Power Distribution, T&D Service Solutions
Siemens Power Technologies International
400 State Street
PO Box 1058
Schenectady, NY 12301-1058
Siemens Transmission and Distribution Ltd
PTI
Sir William Siemens House, Princess Road
Manchester, M20 2UR
United Kingdom
converter stations, requiring proper con-
trol concepts and settings.
The control functions can be differenti-
ated with respect to their dynamics into
Converter Station Controls and supervi-
sory DC network controls.
Another aspect is the calculations of
short-circuit currents for DC grids. This is
relatively well-known for today’s point-to-
point HVDC connections, but is a very
new topic when it comes to more com-
plex grid structures.
The short-circuit current consists on one
side of a contribution from the cable or
overhead line discharge (see Figure 4
for an example) and on the other side of
Rg. OS
1100MW
the contribution of all converters in the
grid. The resulting fault current depends
Rg. 21
2200MW
Rg. 81
very much on the boundary conditions,
3300MW
such as grid topology, neutral grounding
Rg. 23
6600MW and screen earthing and the length of
the connections between the converters.
Rg. 84
Rg. 83
5500MW
1100MW
Siemens PTI performs transient short-
circuit calculations in the electro-
magnetic transient simulation toolbox of
Rg. 25
®
its simulation software PSS NETOMAC
3300MW
for a number of complex topologies and
as such has a pioneering role within the
Rg. 76 standardization process that is per-
1100MW
formed within the CENELEC framework.
phase-to-earth fault current - screens earthed at ends
8
l
cable
=100km
l =200km
6
l
cable
=400km
cable
l =600km
4 cable
[kA]
2
fault
i
0
-2
-4
0 5 10 15 20
t [ms]
Figure 4: Short-circuit contribution from DC
cable discharge for different cable lengths
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