Paper accepted for presentation at the 2011 IEEE Trondheim PowerTech

Design, Operation and Availability Analysis of a Multi-terminal HVDC Grid a Case Study of a possible Offshore Grid in the Norwegian Sea
. Rui, C. hln, J. Solvik, J. Thon, K. Karijord, T. Gjengedal, Senior Member, IEEE
Several oil and gas installations in the North Sea have electrical power supply from the mainland. Gullfaks and Troll were the first platforms to get power supply via submarine cables. The Troll A platform has AC utility power from shore as well as HVDC power from shore for variable speed pre compressor drives. Both of the power systems have been in operation for several years. The BP field Valhall in Norway will have power supply from shore with a HVDC connection. The floating platform Gja was put into operation in 2010 with a 90 kV AC cable to the shore. Gja must be considered as state of the art regarding the performance of high voltage dynamic cables. There are a number of ongoing initiatives considering electrical power supply to oil and gas installations, offshore wind power and interconnectors between Norway and the continent. In 2009 the Norwegian TSO Statnett initiated a research project to gain competence on offshore grids. The rationale of this research project is to develop Statnett to become a TSO in a possible future offshore grid. The case presented here is based on the petroleum activity in the Norwegian Sea and the assumed need for energy as a consequence of electrification of petroleum platforms. The analyses of the design and operation were performed by STRI and analyses on availability by DNV. Vendors of high voltage offshore equipment were contacted and have given their opinions about possible technological solutions. A HVDC VSC loop with three offshore nodes and two infeeding onshore stations is connected to the main AC grid. The onshore terminals are rated for 1000 MW and are to be connected via the existing Norwegian AC grid. The transmitted power may flow either way between the different nodes. Fig. 1 shows a schematic drawing of the grid. The offshore nodes are designed for 350 MW, connected to a +/300 kV DC grid. This DC voltage level was chosen because it is the maximum voltage level of DC PEX cables. Wind parks and oil or gas installations are connected to the offshore nodes via 132 kV AC cables. Because of the water depth the platforms will be floaters and all cables must thus be dynamic.

AbstractMulti-terminal HVDC subsea cable grids have the ability to integrate offshore wind power and petroleum installations with the main land, as well as transferring energy in parallel with the onshore AC grid. Such grids have presumably lower investment costs than radial cables to each installation. It is shown in this paper that the reliability is higher as well. The operation of a multi-terminal HVDC grid calls for new methods for control and fault clearing. A case study with two land terminals and three offshore terminals is presented in this paper. The work is a part of Statnetts R&D project Offshore Grid design and operation. Index TermsAvailability Droop Control Fault Clearing HVDC Multiterminal HVDC Networks Offshore Grid

I. NOMENCLATURE AC DC HVDC MTHVDC VSC GIS TSO IGBT MTTF MTTR Alternating Current Direct Current High Voltage Direct Current Multiterminal HVDC Voltage Source Converter Gas Insulated Switchgear Transmission System Operator Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor Mean time to failure Mean time to repair II. INTRODUCTION HE development of offshore wind farms, needing connection with land and the electrification of the oil and gas installations replacing fossil fuel gas turbines, makes an offshore grid in the North Sea desirable [1] ,[2], [6]. It would also allow redundant transmission of electrical energy between Northern and Southern Norway and could in the future be connected with other grids in Europe. The large distances make the application of HVDC technologies necessary.
This work is a part of Statnetts research project on offshore grid. For further information please contact one of the authors from Statnett. yvind Rui is with Statnett SF (e-mail: oyvind.rui@statnett.no). Carl hln is with STRI. Johan Solvik is with Det Norske Veritas. Jrgen Thon is with Statnett SF. Knut Karijord is with Statnett SF (e-mail: knut.karijord@statnett.no). Terje Gjengedal is with Statnett SF and NTNU (e-mail: terje.gjengedal@statnett.no)

978-1-4244-8417-1/11/$26.00 2011

strong mainland AC grid and three weak offshore AC grids. Combined with the fact that the converters have different power ratings, this makes it important to consider different control principles. Fig. 3 shows that a fault in one AC grid strongly influences the other AC grids. When a fault has occurred, a part of the grid may be operating as an island. Technical considerations on this configuration have been considered to ensure its feasibility.

Fig. 1. Proposed MTHVDC grid.

A drawing of the node is presented in Fig. 2 [11]. The detailed layout of such a node has been examined by Aker Solutions on request by Statnett [10], [12]. The most important components are a +/- 300 kV DC busbar, an AC/DC converter, two transformers and a 132 kV AC gas insulated switchgear. Auxiliary equipment such as cooling system, pumps and fire protection is also important in order to fulfill the functionality. A detailed presentation of the node is not a part of this paper.

Fig. 3. Simulation results, AC power on all terminals as a consequence of a fault on one [3].

A. DC voltage control Several different control strategies for MTHVDC grids are possible [7], [8]. Two important methods are droop control and voltage margin control. In most cases the use of voltage margin control requires a DC slack node to balance the grid. If the slack node is disconnected this task must be transferred to another node in order to keep the grid stable. When using voltage droop control the change in power reference needed to correct an unbalance in DC voltage is distributed between several converters. This control strategy requires a secondary voltage control equivalent to the secondary frequency control in an AC grid. The control system presented here is a mixture of the two and is shown in Fig. 4 [3]. The three offshore nodes (Sr, Midt and Nord) are connected to weak AC grids with wind power and petroleum platforms. These grids require frequency control from the converters on the nodes and the converters are therefore not obliged to balance the DC grid. The two land terminals use droop control. This is desirable because the connection operates in parallel with the land grid. When using DC voltage droop control (and frequency droop control on the AC side) an unbalance in the active power between the North and Middle part of Norway can be transferred through the offshore grid automatically. In special conditions the wind park should be able to perform frequency control in the AC grid and contributing to the DC grid. This is equivalent to the present Norwegian grid codes for onshore wind power.

Fig. 2. Proposed layout of an offshore node.

III. OPERATION OF MULTI-TERMINAL DC GRIDS A multi-terminal DC grid has not been tested and fast DC breakers are still a developmental issue. Without DC breakers, fast and selective fault clearing without interruption seems difficult to achieve. Both fault clearing with and without DC breakers are considered here. In normal operation the DC grid would be connected to the

Fig. 4. Proposed DC voltage control for different terminals [3].

B. Fault clearing Two different strategies for DC fault clearing have been studied. Either the AC connections are opened with AC breakers followed by isolation of the faulted segment with DC switches. Or by selective fault clearing with opening of fast DC breakers to directly isolate the fault and not disturb the operation of the healthy part of the system. In the case when using DC breakers all the squares in Fig. 5 are breakers, AC and DC breakers for the AC and DC sides of the converter respectively. When not using fast DC breakers the DC side of the converters and DC cables have fast DC switches to isolate the fault after opening of the AC breakers. When clearing a fault the system must first determine where the fault is. Different fault location methods are available such as traveling wave, differential calculation, voltage change or pattern recognition. There are no obvious choices for MTHVDC. In this paper traveling wave is considered. Based on input from suppliers of HVDC equipment it is assumed that this method can locate the fault within 5 ms.

between the occurrence of the fault and the restoration of the supply is about 500 ms, and during this time the offshore platforms will experience an interruption. With DC breakers the fault clearing can be done by blocking the converters and opening the breakers closest to the fault. For DC breakers based on IGBT valves, the supply can be restored within 50 - 60 ms. Mechanical DC breakers will increase this time to about 80 - 100 ms. In existing AC transmission grids, voltage dips with durations up to 100 ms are common; a fault in the DC grid should not adversely impact the load at the offshore platforms. There are some incertanies regarding sensitive equipment such as large compressor drives regarding what voltage dips they are designed to handle. There are also downsides connected to the use of DC breakers. The performance forecast indicates that the introduction of DC breakers introduces a source of error that may lead to reduced availability. This is treated in the availability analysis. C. Island operation Island operation occurs when two or three offshore AC grids are interconnected to each other through parts of the DC system with no connection to the onshore converters. It is assumed that island operation is favorable compared to running each AC grid isolated. In island operation the power generated must not be larger than the load. But if the total generated power does not cover the load, it will lead to a load shedding. All matters conserving island operation will require a custom-made control system with dedicated frequency control different to the one used in normal operation. IV. AVAILABILITY ANALYSIS Availability analysis is widely used within analysis of power grids and HVDC [9]. The overall performance of the offshore grid was estimated by an approach where the system was broken down into subsystems, which were further divided into components [5]. Fig. 6 shows the system on the highest level. Each component was assigned a failure frequency and an estimated downtime in case of failure of the component. The effect of a component failure to the overall system was determined; hence the failure frequency and downtime of the oil platforms were estimated by simulating the changes in states of the different subcomponents. The share of time the system was able to perform its designated function, expressed as the annual average availability, and was found together with the annual average failure frequency and average supply outage at each failure. In addition, the spread in average annual availability was estimated. Preventive maintenance and component aging were not taken into account.

Fig. 5. Indication of location of DC fault [4].

Fault clearing without fast DC breakers requires disconnection of the complete DC grid followed by the isolation of the faulted part and reenergizing. The total time

Fig. 6. The MTHVDC grid implemented in a software tool for availability analysis [5].

The availability of the AC power supply has been measured to assess the potential effect of having wind farms tied back to the offshore nodes. Loss of power due to lack of DC supply may be mitigated or even eliminated by use of wind power [11]. The availability is reported for both the petroleum platform located 5 km and 50 km away from the node, ref Fig. 2. It is a significant difference between these two, because of the single cable from the node. A. Main results The main results of the analysis are given in Table I. The MTHVDC grid was compared with a radial connection of 200 km and power supply with gas turbines. Gas turbines give the highest availability, mainly due to the use of spare machines (2x100 % installed power).
TABLE I MAIN RESULTS OF AVAILABILITY ANALYSIS

The consumers located 5 km away from the node had a slightly better availability than the consumer located 50 km away, for which the availability was 99.0 %. The corresponding average number of outages per year was 1.26, with each outage lasting 64 hours in average. This can be explained by the long repair time for cables. The radial connected consumer is located 200 km from shore and has an availability of 97.5 % with an estimate of about 2.5 outages a year, each lasting 86 hours in average. This means that the offshore grid gives a considerably more reliable power supply from shore than the radial connection. It should be mentioned that harmful interaction between different equipment is not taken into account. This is more likely to happen in a grid for the two other solutions treated here, and should be in focus during the engineering phase. B. Component importance The IBGT system is found to have the greatest impact on the availability of power to consumer, while the DC breaker is the second most important component. This is shown in Fig. 7. To increase the availability further it could be an idea to look at the most significant components in this diagram. There are some uncertainties regarding the reliability of a DC breaker. Due to the lack of experience with DC breakers, there has been made assumptions based on AC breakers.

Power supply option MTHVDC Radial connection Supply with gas turbines

Average availability 99.0 99.4 % 97.5 % 99.8 %

The performance forecast shows that the consumers located 5 km from the nodes receive AC power about 99.4% of the time, and have about 1.24 outages each year, with each outage lasting 39 hours in average.

in this analysis it is better not to have any breaker at all. The results are shown in Fig. 8. This figure also shows two cases; one with busbar switch closed and the other with dual current transformers. These are different configurations of the GIS, and proves to have little impact on the overall availability.

Fig. 7. Different components contribution to unavailability for node A petroleum platform 1 [5].

C. Sensitivity analysis To highlight the significance of the cable a sensitivity analysis towards cable failure rate was done. The results are shown in Table II. The base case for the cable failure rate is 0.005 failures per 100 km and year.
TABLE II SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS

Fig. 8. Results from availability analysis [5].

I. CONCLUSION The reports by STRI and DNV show that an offshore grid is a good solution for offshore power delivery. The availability is higher than for radial connections. The availability is 99.099.4 % depending on the location in the grid. Critical components are the cables and the converter on the offshore nodes. The system could operate as an island if the connection with shore is damaged. Fault clearing would be more effective with a fast DC breaker, but is manageable even without. The fault clearing times are 100 ms and 500 ms, respectively with and without DC breaker. The multi-terminal grid will need a specially developed control system. Further analysis is needed to find the optimal way of operating the grid, although much can be made based on already known technology. High voltage dynamic cables should be further developed. I. APPENDIX
TABLE A.I FAILURE RATES AND REPAIR TIMES THE OFFSHORE EQUIPMENT

Cable failure rate per 100 km and year 0.0007 0.007 0.07

Availability MTHVDC Oil platform 1, node A 99.5 % 99.6 % 99.3 %

Radial

99.2 % 98.9 % 96.9 %

The increase in cable failure rate is much more severe for the radial connection than for the grid. With increasing failure rate the availability goes down. There is one exception for the MTHVDC grid. This is due to the fact that although the simulations run for a long time different events occur in the respective runs. If several cable failures occur in a run this has an important impact in the results. D. Different simulation cases The spread in annual availability for a consumer located 5 km away from the node shows that 8 out of 10 years exhibit power supply availabilities between 98.6 and 99.9%, less than 98.6 % in one year, and above 99.9% in the residual one. The base case assumes that the nodes are fitted with fast DC breakers. Without DC breakers, the number of outages will increase as a result of the need to shut down the entire DC system in a fault situation, but the spread in availability decreases with an increased 10th percentile (P10) as the consequence. With the reliability data for the DC breaker used

Component DC breaker Converter High voltage DC bus DC filter IGBT system Converter reactor AC filter

MTTF [years] 20 7 6 2 7 23

MTTR [hours] 180 24 24 24 24 24

Source DNV internal DNV internal DNV internal DNV internal DNV internal

Transformer Control system Cooling system Sea water lift pump Sea water filter

225 1 2 7

672 9 94 24

DNV internal DNV estimate OREDA-2009, 1.3.1.12 p. 165 IEEE Std 500 reliability data, 18.1.1, page 1400 IEEE Std 500 reliability data, 8.4.1, page 588 OREDA-2009, 1.3.2 p. 310 OREDA 2009, 1.3.1.5, page 157 OREDA-2009, 2.2.2.14 p. 299 IEEE Std 500 reliability data, 18.1.1, page 1400 OREDA-2009, 3.2 p.325 IEEE Std 500 reliability data, 18.1.1, page 1400 DNV estimate Nonelectronic parts reliability data 1991, section 2-58 DNV estimate Nonelectronic parts reliability data 1991, section 2-43 IEEE Std 500 reliability data, 18.1.1, page 1400 OREDA-2009, 3.2.1.1 p.337 CIGRE BROCHURE DNV estimate CIGRE BROCHURE

Voltage transformer Bus bar Bus bar switch Subsea cable

1354 1475 573 0.05 failures per year and 100 km

190 190 190 1440

CIGRE BROCHURE CIGRE BROCHURE CIGRE BROCHURE Nordic HVDC cables

Temperature transmitter Heat exchanger

22

36

13

23

TABLE A.II FAILURE RATES AND REPAIR TIMES ONSHORE EQUIPMENT

Component AC components Converter station High voltage DC bus DC filter IGBT system Converter reactor AC filter Transformer Control system Cooling system Pump Pump motor Strainer

Pump Pump motor Strainer

23 5 55

25 71 24

MTTF [years] 22 7 6 2 7 23 225 1 23 5 55

MTTR [hours] 22 24 24 24 24 24 168 9 25 71 24

Source DNV internal DNV internal DNV internal DNV internal DNV internal DNV internal DNV internal DNV estimate OREDA 2009, 1.3.1.5, page 157 OREDA-2009, 2.2.2.14 p. 299 IEEE Std 500 reliability data, 18.1.1, page 1400 OREDA-2009, 4.4.5.2 p. 539 OREDA-2009, 3.1.2 p. 310 OREDA 2009, 1.3.1.5, page 157 OREDA-2009, 2.2.2.14 p. 299 IEEE Std 500 reliability data, 8.4.1, page 588 DNV estimate

Deioniser Filter cartridges

5 55

18 18

External leakage 100 Ventilation system Ventilation fans 10

24 24

Bypass valves

13

Heating coil Cooling coil

20 5

36 24

Cooler

13

Make up pump Electrical motor Instrumentation

23 5 0.6

25 71 36

Filter

55

24

Coalescer

15

Power switch gear Current transformer Switch Circuit breaker

8816 573 405

190 168 190

External leakage Ventilation system Ventilation fans

100

24

13

Dampers

11

15

OREDA-2009, 3.1.2 p. 310 DNV estimate

II. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank the suppliers of high voltage equipment for useful contributions. Also thank to Elisabeth Abildgaard (summer internship Statnett 2010) for helping with the failure statistics. III. REFERENCES
Havvind Forslag til Utredningsomrder, NVE, Oct. 2010, http://www.nve.no/no/Nyhetsarkiv-/Pressemeldinger/Foreslaarutredning-av-15-omraader-for-havvind/ [2] T. Trtscher, M. Korps, Optimal Design of a Subsea Power Grid in the North Sea, European Offshore Wind Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 14-16, 2009. [3] B. Frankn, Y. Yang, C. hln, "Pre-study of an Offshore Grid, STRI, Tech. Rep., Oct. 2009. [4] C. hln, M. Bollen, M. Degerflt, Offshore Grid Fault detection, STRI, Tech. Rep., Des. 2009. [5] J. Solvik, Availability of Power Supply, DNV, Tech. Rep., Sept 2010. [6] W. He, G. Jacobsen, T. Anderson, F. Olsen, T. D. Hanson, M. Korps, T. Toftevaag, J. Eek, K. Uhlen, E. Johansson, The Potential of Integrating Wind Power with Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms, Wind Engineering, vol. 34 (2), pp. 125-137, 2010. [7] T. Hailesellasie, K. Uhlen, T. Undeland, Control of Multiterminal HVDC Transmission for Offshore Wind Energy, in Proc. Nordic Wind Power Conference, Rnne, Denmark, Sept. 10-11, 2009. [8] C. Ismunandar, A. A. van der Meer, M. Gibescu, R. L. Hendriks, W. L. Kling, Control of Multi-Terminal VSC-HVDC for Wind Power Integration Using the Voltage-Margin Method, 9th International Workshop on Large-Scale Integration of Wind Power into Power Systems as well as on Transmission Networks for Offshore Wind Power Plants, Qubec City, Canada, Oct. 18-19, 2010. [9] S. Zadkhast, M. Fotuhi-Firuzabad, F. Aminifar, R. Billinton, S. O. Faried, A. A. Edris, Reliability Evaluation of an HVDC Transmission System Tapped by a VSC Station, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 25 (3), pp. 1962-1970, 2010. [10] J.G.Waalmann, "Offshore Node," Aker Solutions, Tech. Rep., Des. 2009. [11] H. Sand, S. Granfors, Stability Analyses of an Offshore AC Node, Solvina, Tech. Rep. Des 2009 [12] . Rui, J. Thon, H. Sand, J. G. Waalman, O. J. Bjerknes, K. Karijord, Design and Operation of an Offshore Node connected to Wind Parks, Oil Platforms as well as a multi-terminal HVDC Grid, 9th International Workshop on Large-Scale Integration of Wind Power into Power Systems as well as on Transmission Networks for Offshore Wind Power Plants, Qubec City, Canada, Oct. 18-19, 2010. [1]

IV. BIBLIOGRAPHY
yvind Rui has a Master degree in electrical engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. He graduated in 2009 and is now working with R&D in Statnett.

Jrgen Selmer Thon has long time experience working in the grid and electrical power sector in Norway. He is currently working in the cable technology department in Statnett.

Knut Karijord has long time experience in Statnett. He is currently working in the department for consulting and is head of the R&D project on offshore grid.

Terje Gjengedal has long time experience within wind power and HVDC. He is currently research director in Statnett and part time professor at NTNU, Trondheim.

Johan Solvik has a Master degree in engineering physics. He is working as risk management consultant at DNV specialized in performance forecasting analyses for the offshore oil, gas and wind industries.

Carl hln has extensive experience within electrical system analysis. He is currently with the Swedish research institute STRI.