Analysis of Dual-infeed HVDC with LCC Inverter and

VSC Rectifier
Chunyi Guo, Chengyong Zhao Xiuyu Chen
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
North China Electric Power University University of Manitoba
Beijing, China Winnipeg, Canada
chunyiguo@gmail.com, chengyongzhao@ncepu.edu.cn cxy.ncepu@gmail.com

AbstractA dual-infeed HVDC with LCC inverter and VSC
rectifier at the same busbar is investigated. The impact of VSC
rectifier on LCC inverter is quantified by the Apparent
Increase in Short Circuit Ratio or AISCR index. Then, steady
state and transient aspects, such as the maximum available
power (MAP), temporary over-voltage (TOV), "Commutation
Failure Immunity Index" (CFII), and fault recovery
performance are considered in the system performance analysis.
The results show that, the VSC rectifier has the ability to
improve the maximum available power, regulate the ac voltage,
and enhance commutation failure immunity of LCC inverter.
Moreover, compared with the dual-infeed HVDC with VSC and
LCC both inverters, the VSC rectifier provides more
contribution to the performance improvement of LCC converter.
Index Terms-- Apparent Increase in Short Circuit Ratio; Dual-
Infeed HVDC; Line Commutated Converter; Voltage Source
Converter
but not at the same busbar. References [7]-[8] studied the
interaction between LCC inverter and LCC rectifier in the
multi-infeed HVDC system, and the results show that the
rectifier will help inverter to improve its maximum available
power and immunity to commutation failure. In this paper, a
dual-infeed HVDC with LCC inverter and VSC rectifier at
the same busbar will be investigated. In China, a 5-terminal
VSC-HVDC system will be commissioned in Zhejiang
Province by State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) in 2014.
One of its VSC converters locates close to the inverter of
Luchaogang-Shengsi LCC-HVDC project, as shown in
Figure 1. The real power between Shengsi-island and
Qushan-island can be bidirectional, thus it is meaningful to
analyze the interaction between LCC inverter and VSC
rectifier.
LuchaoGang

I. INTRODUCTION
Line Commutated Converter High Voltage Direct
Current (LCC-HVDC) has been wildly used in many areas, Shengsi
such as asynchronous ac grid connection, long distance bulk Island
Yangshan
power transmission, etc.. However, if the short circuit ratio Island
(SCR) of ac network is low, the LCC-HVDC system would
have poor voltage regulation ability and be susceptible to Qushan
Island
commutation failure [1].
Nowadays, Voltage Source Converter based High Daishan
Voltage Direct Current (VSC-HVDC) have been developing Island
rapidly because of its advantages, including independent and
fast control of active and reactive power, no need for reactive
power support, ability to feed power into passive networks, Zhoushan
Island
and so on[2]-[3].
In previous work, a dual-infeed HVDC system with
LCC inverter and VSC inverter infeeds on the same busbar
are analyzed, and an effective index called Apparent Figure 1. One example of dual-infeed HVDC system
Increase in Short Circuit Ratio (AISCR) was proposed to
In this paper, the dual-infeed HVDC system(one is LCC
quantify the impact of VSC inverter on LCC inverter[4]. One
inverter, and the other is VSC rectifier) is studied. And the
of the examples is the Skagerrak 4 VSC-HVDC link, between
impact of VSC rectifier on LCC inverter is evaluated by the
Norway and Denmark [5]. Reference [6] focused on the
AISCR index. Then the maximum available power (MAP),
situation that VSC inverter is located close to LCC inverter
temporary over-voltage (TOV), "Commutation Failure

This work was supported by the National High Technology Research

and Development Program of China (2013AA050105), National Natural
Science Foundation of China (51177042), and Specialized Research Fund for
the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20130036120006).

978-1-4799-6415-4/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

Immunity Index" (CFII) and fault recovery performance are
considered to further analyze the system performance. It can
be concluded that, compared with VSC inverter, the presence
of VSC rectifier provides more effective support for LCC
infeed to achieve higher MAP, suppress the TOV and
strength the immunity to commutation failure.
II. THE DUAL INFEED HVDC WITH LCC INVERTER AND VSC
RECTIFIER
A dual-infeed HVDC system is shown in Figure 2. One is
LCC operated as an inverter, while the other is VSC as a
rectifier, i.e. the VSC absorbs active power from the ac system.
U Z = Z E0
Figure 2. Dual-infeed HVDC scheme with VSC rectifier and LCC inverter
The system parameters are defined as follows [4]:
Pd, Qd: DC real and reactive powers of LCC-HVDC;
Pac, Qac: Ac real and reactive powers;
Ud,Id: DC voltage and DC current of LCC-HVDC;
U : Line to line voltage at Ac busbar;
XT: Transformer leakage reactance of LCC-HVDC;
T: Transformer turns ratio of LCC-HVDC;
Bc,Qc: Equivalent admittance and Reactive power of the
filters and compensator for LCC-HVDC;
Ud2, Id2: DC voltage and DC current of VSC-HVDC;
Pd2, Qd2: DC real and reactive powers of VSC-HVDC;
T2: Transformer turns ratio of VSC-HVDC;
Z: System equivalent impedance;
E0 : System electromotive force (emf).
In the Figure 2, the LCC-HVDC system is rated at 1000
MW, operated in constant current control mode at the rectifier
side and constant extinction angle control mode at the inverter
side. The data is as in the First CIGRE HVDC Benchmark
model[9]. The VSC-HVDC system is rated at 300 MW
(328MVA), operated in constant DC voltage control and ac
voltage control modes at the inverter side, and constant real
power control and constant ac voltage control modes at the
rectifier side. With the VSC-HVDC link blocked, the SCR at
the receiving ac system is 2.5 based on 1000MW rated
capacity.
III. INVESTIGATION OF APPARENT INCRASE IN SCR
The Apparent increase in SCR (AISCR) is a measure of
the increase in short circuit ratio (SCR) for the LCC-HVDC
that would be necessary in the absence of the VSC-HVDC
link to get a similar performance. The SCR is progressively
increased to a value SCRa where the observed performance of
the LCC converter matches that of the LCC in the dual-infeed
HVDC system, i.e., the LCC in the dual-infeed HVDC
system appears to behave as though it were connected to an
ac network with a larger short circuit ratio of SCRa. The
difference between SCRa and the actual SCR is the AISCR
[4]. The AISCR for the dual-infeed HVDC with VSC rectifier
and LCC inverter is calculated as follows.
3.1 MAP of single LCC-HVDC system
With VSC rectifier blocked, the MAP values of single
1000 MW LCC-HVDC system versus the system SCR can be
obtained as shown in Figure 3, which also given in [4].
1.5
1.4
MAP of LCC-HVDC (pu)
1.3
1.2
1.1
1
0.9
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
SCR
Figure 3. MAPs of LCC with varying SCR
3.2 MAP of LCC with VSC rectifier infeed
When the real power absorbed by 328 MVA VSC-HVDC
varies from 0 to 0.328 pu (full load), the MAP values of
1000MW LCC-HVDC system can be obtained as in Figure 4,
by solving the equations presented in Appendix. For
validation purposes, the results from electromagnetic
transient (EMT) simulation are also presented indicated by
the dark squares. The good agreement validates the analytical
calculations.
Generally, the MAP of the LCC decreases, as the
absorbed active power by VSC is increased. However, it is
interesting that slight MAP increase of LCC can be observed
at the VSC real power range of 0-0.05p.u.. There are two
factors affecting MAP of LCC, 1) remaining reactive power
of VSC-HVDC, 2) the amount of absorbed active power by
VSC-HVDC from receiving AC system. If VSC-HVDC
absorbs more power from receiving AC system, it will
apparently reduce the active power supplied by LCC-HVDC
to AC system, and increase the MAP of LCC-HVDC
indirectly. Thus, these two factors have opposite effects
resulting in the slight MAP increase of LCC at the PVSC range
of 0-0.05p.u..
 3) with VSC rectifier. The results are shown in Table 1. With
1.28
VSC inverter or rectifier infeeds, TOV at the common busbar
1.26 are both suppressed. Meanwhile, the reduction in TOV is
1.24 particularly improved with VSC rectifier (1.08 pu) than with
VSC inverter (1.15 pu).
1.22
MAP of LCC-HVDC(p.u.)

1.2 TABLE 1. TOVS OF AC BUSBAR DURING A PERMANENT LCC BLOCK

1.18
Scenarios Common busbar TOV
1.16
Without VSC 1.22 pu
1.14
With VSC inverter 1.15 pu [4]
1.12 With VSC rectifier 1.08 pu
1.1

1.08 4.2 Commutation failure immunity of LCC inverter with

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
P of VSC-HVDC(p.u.)
VSC rectifier
The CFII index is adopted here to evaluate the
Figure 4. MAPs of LCC with varying VSC power (VSC as rectifier)
susceptibility of LCC converter to commutation failure and it
is defined as in equation (1) [1]:
Critical Fault MVA
3.3 AISCR CFII = 100 (%) (1)
Pd
Based on the results in Figure 3 and Figure 4, the Where, the Critical Fault MVA is the strength of the most
AISCR curve with VSC rectifier (blue line) can be got as in severe fault that the tested system can survive without
Figure 5, where the AISCR curve with VSC inverter (red line) experiencing any commutation failure (CF). P is the dc
d
is also presented for further comparison. The results show power of the converter. The larger CFII value represents
that, instead of VSC inverter, the VSC rectifier will give stronger immunity of LCC inverter to CFs.
more effective support for LCC converter to get higher The CFII values in three different scenarios are also
apparent increase in SCR. The main reason is also the factor considered here, 1) without VSC infeed, 2) with VSC inverter,
2) explained in section 3.2. It also can be got that even if 3) with VSC rectifier. The results are shown in Table 2.
VSC-HVDC absorbs 328MW active power (i.e. no remaining
reactive power), AISCR will not get a zero or minus Value. TABLE 2. COMMUTATION FAILURE IMMUNITY OF LCC INVERTER

Scenarios CFII of LCC

3
Without VSC 13.3[1]
2.5 VSC Rectifier With VSC inverter 16.5 [4]
With VSC rectifier 20.1
2
From the results, it can be concluded that the immunity of
AISCR of LCC-HVDC

LCC converter to CFs is improved with VSC infeeds,

1.5 especially with VSC rectifier (20.1 instead of 16.5 or 13.3).
VSC Inverter

1 4.3 Fault recovery performance of LCC inverter with

VSC rectifier
0.5
Three different scenarios, 1) without VSC infeed, 2) with
VSC inverter, 3) with VSC rectifier, are considered to
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 investigate the recovery performances of LCC converter
P of VSC-HVDC (p.u.) under single-line to ground fault and three-phase to ground
Figure 5. AISCR with varying VSC power (VSC as rectifier)
fault applied at ac common busbar.
The faults are applied at 0.2 s and last 5 cycles. The
simulation results under single-line to ground fault and three-
IV. TRANSIENT STATE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS phase to ground fault are shown in Figure 6 and Figure 7
4.1 TOV of LCC inverter with VSC rectifier respectively.
From the results, whether with or without VSC infeeds, the
After LCC full load shedding, the TOV values of the real power of LCC converter drops to zero due to the fault
receiving ac common busbar in three different scenarios are disturbance, and the LCC inverter can be restored after fault
considered here, 1) without VSC infeed, 2) with VSC inverter, is cleared. Compared with the LCC recovery performance
without VSC, the fault recovery time of LCC inverter with APPENDIX
VSC infeeds is improved slightly. In addition, the impact of The MAP of LCC-HVDC with or without VSC rectifier can
VSC inverter is a little more positive than that of VSC be obtained by solving the equations (1)-(13):
rectifier. However, the fault recovery performance
U [ cos cos( + )]
improvements of LCC by VSC inverter and VSC rectifier are Id = (1)
very close. 2TX T
3 2U 3
Ud = cos X T I d (2)
T
Pd = U d I d (3)
Real Power (p.u.)

Qd = P d tan (4)
cos + cos( + )
cos = (5)
2
Pac = 1 Z U 2 cos EU cos( + ) (6)
Qac = 1 Z U 2 sin EU sin( + ) (7)
Figure 6. Fault recovery performance of LCC inverter unfer single-line to
ground fault Qc = BcU 2 (8)
Pd Pac = 0 (9)
Qd + Qac Qc = 0 (10)
Pd Pd 2 Pac = 0 (11)
Real Power (p.u.)

Figure 7. Fault recovery performance of LCC inverter under three-phase to
ground fault
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the operation characteristics of the dual-
infeed HVDC with LCC inverter and VSC rectifier infeeds on
the same busbar are analyzed. The AISCR index is then
adopted to evaluate the impact of VSC rectifier on LCC
inverter. Then, the MAP, TOV, CFII and fault recovery
performance are considered to further investigate the
operation performances of the dual-infeed HVDC with VSC
rectifier and LCC inverter. From the results, we can get the
following conclusions:
a) Both VSC inverter and VSC rectifier infeeds have
positive impact on LCC inverters.
b) If the VSC rectifier absorbs more real power from the
terminated ac system, the LCC infeed can get larger MAP
value, thus the larger AISCR can be obtained.
c) In the dual-infeed HVDC system, VSC as a rectifier
can provide more contribution for the performance
improvement of LCC converter than VSC as an inverter.
d) With VSC infeeds, the recovery performance LCC
converter from faults is not improved obviously. However,
the commutation failure immunity of LCC inverter can be
improved.
Qd + Qac Qc Qd 2 = 0 (12)
2 2 2
Pd 2 + Qd 2 (U I max ) (13)
Where, Imax is the maximum current through the VSC
converter corresponding to the MVA capacity.
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