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Improving Performance of Multi-Infeed HVDC Systems Using Grid Dynamic Segmentation Technique Based on Fault Current Limiters
Hongyang Huang, Zheng Xu, Member, IEEE, and Xi Lin
receiving grid, simultaneous commutation failure or blocking of the dc links may cause intolerable power imbalance and power ow transfer in the ac system, which poses a serious threat to the stability of the system. Facing these trend and challenges, one of the important considerations is how to improve the performance of these multi-infeed HVDC systems. Traditionally, improving and coordinating the existing controllers in the HVDC systems have been the main countermeasures [4][13], and there has not been much research on this problem from the viewpoint of the network structure adjustment until recently: a novel concept called Grid Shock Absorber is proposed in [14]. The basic idea of this technique is to segment a large ac system into a set of asynchronously operated dc-interconnected sectors for the main purpose of minimizing cascading outages and increasing inter-sector power transfer capability. Such a technique is referred to as the dc-segmentation technique in the rest of this paper. In this paper, we present a new grid dynamic segmentation technique based on a fault current limiter (FCL), which is also from the viewpoint of the network structure adjustment. This proposed FCL-segmentation technique mainly concentrates on systems with multiple inverters in close proximity, as such systems tend to be the most problematic. The basic concept of this technique is to segment multi-infeed HVDC systems into a number of synchronously operated FCL-interconnected sectors so as to improve the transient stability of these systems. Compared with the traditional wisdom, the main innovation of the proposed FCL-segmentation technique resides in the following aspects. 1) Normally, the FCLs are used to reduce the short-circuit current to a level so that circuit breakers could work [15], [16]. However, in the FCL-segmentation technique, the FCLs are mainly used as basic segmentation elements to improve the transient stability of the multi-infeed HVDC systems. 2) The equivalent impendence of the FCLs is zero under normal conditions and increases to a very high value during ac short-circuit faults. Thus, with the application of the FCL-segmentation technique, the power grids can be operated as a whole under normal conditions and segmented into several electrically distant sectors automatically and dynamically by the FCLs during ac short-circuit faults. Other segmentation techniques do not have such dynamic characteristics. Technically speaking, due to the high controllability of the dc links, the aforementioned dc-segmentation technique can

AbstractA grid dynamic segmentation technique based on fault current limiter (FCL) is presented in this paper. The basic concept of this technique is to install the FCLs on appropriate ac lines according to network structure and segment multi-infeed HVDC systems into a number of sectors interconnected by these FCLs. Under normal conditions, the equivalent impedence of the FCLs is zero and does not affect power ow and bus voltage of the system. When short-circuit faults occur in the ac system, the FCLs are activated to limit the short-circuit current and obstruct the propagation of the faults among the sectors. As a result, for the dc systems, the commutation failure duration of the dc links is reduced, and the recovery of the dc systems is speeded, while, for the ac system, the power imbalance and the power ow transfer caused by the simultaneous commutation failure of the dc links are relieved. The transient stability of the whole ac/dc system is thus improved. The effectiveness of the proposed grid dynamic segmentation technique is demonstrated on two representative multi-infeed HVDC systems. Index TermsCommutation failure, fault current limiter (FCL), grid dynamic segmentation, multi-infeed HVDC system, transient stability.

I. INTRODUCTION ECAUSE of the advantage in long distance and bulk power transmission, HVDC technology has been increasingly used in China, where the energy resources are dispersed far away from the load centers [1]. With more and more dc links terminated in close proximity of one common ac system, the multi-infeed HVDC conguration has been developed inside some regional grids, such as the East China Power Grid and the South China Power Grid, and the number of dc links located in these areas is still expected to increase in the near future. Thus, the ac/dc interaction will be more and more complicated for these grids [2], [3]. In particular, when the penetration of the dc power fed in is high compared with the local generation in the
Manuscript received August 30, 2011; revised December 29, 2011; accepted January 24, 2012. Date of publication March 14, 2012; date of current version July 18, 2012. This work was supported in part by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China under Project 2011AA05A119 and by the Alstom Grid China Technology Center under Project CTC-ZJU-001. Paper no. TPWRS-00818-2011. H. Huang and Z. Xu are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang Univeristy, Hangzhou 310027, Zhejiang, China (e-mail: eehongyanghuang@gmail.com; xuzheng007@zju.edu.cn). X. Lin is with the Alstom Grid China Technology Center, Shanghai 201114, China (e-mail: xi.lin@alstom.com). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRS.2012.2187316

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Fig. 1. Basic characteristics of FCLs.

bring more advantages than the proposed FCL-segmentation technique, such as reducing the risk of cascading blackouts, increasing inter-sector power transfer capability, and improving efciency of electricity market [14], [17]. However, for the existing large-scale power systems, if the dc-segmentation technique is adopted, it has to trip all of the ac tie lines among the sectors and replace them with the dc links, while only the FCLs are needed to be installed on these ac tie lines with the FCL-segmentation technique, which may be a more convenient and cost-effective alternative for electrical power companies. Thus, economically speaking, the FCL-segmentation technique may be more favorable than the dc-segmentation technique. This paper is organized as follows. Section II claries the concept and mechanism of the proposed FCL-segmentation technique. Section III describes two representative simplied multi-infeed HVDC systems and their corresponding FCL-segmentation schemes, while Section IV compares the performance of these two simplied systems under different FCL-segmentation schemes. Conclusion and perspectives are presented in Section V. II. PROPOSED FCL-SEGMENTATION TECHNIQUE A. Basic Characteristics of FCLs The basic characteristics of the FCLs, illustrated in Fig. 1, are given here [15], [16]. , the equivalent impe1) Under normal conditions dence of the FCL (denoted as X) is zero and thus has little effect on voltage and power ow of power systems. and the current 2) When a short-circuit fault happens ows though the FCL exceeds the threshold, X is increased (FCLs action impendence) after a short from zero to delay , to limit the short-circuit current. , the FCL is reset and X 3) After the fault is cleared . is reduced back to zero after another longer delay In our following analysis, and are assumed to be 5 and 50 ms, respectively, according to the present production level of the FCLs. B. Concept of the Proposed FCL-Segmentation Technique Depending on the network topologies, the ac/dc hybrid power systems can be generally categorized into two types, given here. In a type-A system, the sending grid and the receiving grid are connected by both the ac links and the dc links. As a result, the rectier and the inverter of the dc systems are embedded in one common ac system. In the type-B system, the sending grid and the receiving grid are connected by only the dc links. Consequently, the rectier and the inverter of the dc systems are located in two asynchronously operated ac systems. The proposed FCL-segmentation technique is applicable to both types of ac/dc systems with multiple inverters in close

proximity. The basic concept of this technique is installing the FCLs on the appropriate ac lines to segment the multi-infeed HVDC systems into a number of sectors interconnected by these FCLs, so as to achieve the following improvements: 1) reducing the short-circuit current; 2) limiting the spread of the ac short-circuit faults; 3) speeding up the recovery of the dc systems after the ac short-circuit faults. As a consequence of the above improvements, the power imbalance and the power ow transfer inside the ac system, caused by the simultaneous commutation failure of the dc systems after the ac short-circuit faults, can be relieved. The transient stability of the entire system is thus improved. The procedure to develop a FCL-segmentation scheme for the multi-infeed HVDC system is generally composed of the following steps. Step 1) Select a set of credible contingencies in the studied system (this set is denoted as ), and determine the transient stability of the system under all the contingencies in . The contingencies, which lead to instability, are picked out to form the critical contin). gency set (this set is denoted as Step 2) Determine the necessity of developing a FCL-segmentation scheme for the studied system. is empty, which indicates that the transient If stability of the system is already satisfactory, then it is no need to segment the studied system, and the procedure stops. is not empty, then the proposed FCL-seg If mentation technique can be considered as a potential solution for improving the stability of the system under these critical contingencies, and the procedure proceeds to step 3). Step 3) Develop a preliminary FCL-segmentation scheme for the studied system based on the following rules. Adequate local generation MVA inside each sector. The electrical distance between the substation (or converter station) in one sector and the generator in another sector is increased signicantly when the FCLs are activated . Therefore, the voltage support for the substations and the converter stations in one sector largely depends on the local generators inside the same sector during this period. Adequate local generation MVA assures sufcient voltage support. Inverter stations are distributed separately among sectors. Normally, no more than two dc links lie in the same sector when a grid is segmented. If this is the case, when a short-circuit fault occurs, only the dc links in the fault sector are greatly affected, and the impact on other dc links is limited. Step 4) Check the transient stability of the studied system under the candidate FCL-segmentation scheme, and adjust the FCL-segmentation scheme (i.e., the installation location and capacity of the FCLs) until the system after the FCL-segmentation can stay . stable under all the contingencies in

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Fig. 2. Flowchart of the procedure to develop a FCL-segmentation scheme for the multi-infeed HVDC system.

For clarity, the owchart of the above procedure is depicted in Fig. 2. C. Mechanism of the Proposed FCL-Segmentation Technique The typical structures of the aforementioned two types of multi-infeed HVDC systems and their corresponding FCLsegmentation schemes are shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b), respectively. In both of these illustrative systems, large amounts of electrical power are transmitted from the sending grids to the receiving grids by the multiple dc links with/without the parallel ac links; the sending grids are electrically far away from the receiving grids, while the inter-area electrical distance inside the receiving grids is quite close. As a result, all of the inverters are located in close proximity, and the typical multi-infeed HVDC congurations are formed inside these receiving grids. Type-A Multi-Infeed HVDC System: The mechanism of the FCL-segmentation technique for the two types of multi-infeed HVDC systems is basically the same. Firstly, taking the type-A system in Fig. 3(a) as an example, the mechanism of the FCL-segmentation technique is stated below. Supposing that a short-circuit fault occurs somewhere and is cleared at , the red arrows in Area 1 at in Fig. 3(a) denote the main inter-area propagation paths of the fault. The response of the system before and after the FCL-segmentation is given in Fig. 4 for comparisons: the phase current on the tie line between the fault area (i.e., Area 1) and the nonfault area (i.e., Areas 2 or 3) is shown in Fig. 4(a), the bus phase voltage in the nonfault area is shown in Fig. 4(b), while the extinction angle and the transmitted dc power of the inverter in the nonfault area are shown in Fig. 4(c) and (d). Before the FCL-segmentation, as the electrical distance inside the receiving grid is close, the ac fault spreads to all of the

three areas. The high fault current and the low bus voltage are sustained until the fault is cleared. As a result, all of the inverters suffer from commutation failure and the dc power transmission is thus interrupted. If the receiving grid is weak, the recovery of both the ac and the dc system will be difcult. The sustained interruption of the dc power will cause great power imbalance and power ow transfer in the ac system, which may lead to instability at last (not shown in Fig. 4). In the FCL-segmentation scheme, the FCLs are installed on the inter-area tie lines inside the receiving grid. The transient behavior of the system is quite different under the same fault after , the FCLs the FCL-segmentation. During are not yet activated. Thus, the current increases, the bus voltage drops, and the inverters all suffer from commutation failure, as exactly the same as the case before the FCL-segmentation. At , the FCLs take action. The electrical distance between the fault area (including the fault point) and other nonfault areas is increased immediately, and the inter-area propagation paths of the fault inside the receiving grid are thus all obstructed. Therefore, as shown in Fig. 4(a) and (b), the fault current is reduced and the bus voltage in the nonfault areas is . Supposing is sufincreased immediately at ciently large, the converter bus voltage in the nonfault areas is soon raised sufciently high to get the dc links out of commutation failure, as shown in Fig. 4(c) and (d). It is seen that the dc systems in the nonfault areas start to recover from commuta, while in the case before tion failure shortly after the FCL-segmentation commutation failure lasts until the fault is cleared, and the recovery of the dc systems is much slower. The fast dc power recovery relives the power imbalance and the power ow transfer in the ac system, and the transient stability of the system is thus improved. When short-circuit faults happen in Areas 2 or 3, the FCLs will function to obstruct the spread of the ac faults and benet the stability of the whole system in a similar way. It should be noted that, in the FCL-segmentation scheme for the type-A system as shown in Fig. 3(a), no FCLs are placed inside the sending grid or on the ac ties between the sending and receiving grids. The reason for this is that, in the illustrative system, the sending grid is electrically far away from the receiving grid (note that this is also the practical situations developed in countries like China), i.e., the impedence of the ac links between the sending and receiving grids is high. As a result, when short-circuit faults occur inside the receiving grid (which tend to threat the stability of the system most), it is almost impossible for the ac faults to spread across these high-impedence lines to the sending grid; the fault current and the voltage drop in the sending grid are quite small. Thus, there is no need to place the FCLs inside the sending grid or on the ac links between the two grids further. For the same reason, when short-circuit faults occur in the sending grid (which tend to be less severe), the impacts of the faults on the receiving grid are also quite small. Installation of the FCLs on those places may be able to reduce the short-circuit current and increase the bus voltage in the sending grid; however, its benet on the transient performance of the multiple inverters inside the receiving grid, which is the major concern of this paper, is very limited. Thus, on the whole, it is unnecessary to place the FCLs inside the sending grid, or on the

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Fig. 3. Typical structures of multi-infeed HVDC systems and their corresponding FCL-segmentation schemes. (a) Type-A multi-infeed HVDC system. (b) Type-B multi-infeed HVDC system.

ac links between the sending and the receiving grid, in the illustrative system. Nevertheless, for situations in which the sending grid and the receiving grid are electrically close, the FCLs may be needed to be placed inside the sending grid or on the ac ties between the two grids. Type-B Multi-Infeed HVDC System: Supposing that a same short-circuit fault occurs somewhere inside Area 1 of the type-B and is cleared at , the red system in Fig. 3(b) at arrows in the gure denote the inter-area propagation paths of the fault. The response of the aforementioned variables in the type-B system (i.e., the inter-area tie line current, the bus voltage in the nonfault areas, the extinction angle and the transmitted dc power of the inverters in the nonfault areas) before and after the FCL-segmentation is similar to their corresponding variables in the type-A system. In other words, Fig. 4 is also applicable to the type-B system. As indicated in Figs. 3(b) and 4, the FCLs are also able to reduce the short-circuit current, limit the spread of the ac fault and speed the recovery of the dc links. Hence, the transient stability of the type-B multi-infeed HVDC system can also be improved with the FCL-segmentation scheme. For the type-B system, the ac short-circuit faults inside the sending (or receiving) grid cannot spread into the receiving (or sending) grid, as these two grids are separated by the dc links. Thus, similarly, it is not necessary to install the FCLs inside the sending grid of the type-B system either, as shown in Fig. 3(b). From the above analysis, it can be seen that the core idea of the FCL-segmentation technique is to operate the power grid as a whole under normal conditions and segment the grid into several electrically distant sectors automatically and dynamically

by the FCLs during the ac short-circuit faults. This is also the reason why we refer to such a technique as a dynamic segmentation technique. The FCL-segmentation technique can further be coordinated with the hierarchical-regional network planning to limit the high short-circuit current in some parts of the receiving grid more efciently. In addition, if no supplementary control is considered for the FCLs, the FCL-segmentation technique has no effects on the steady-state stability and the small-signal stability of the system, because the equivalent impendence of the FCLs is always zero under normal conditions. III. SYSTEM STUDIED A. System Models Corresponding to the aforementioned two types of network topologies, two representative simplied multi-infeed HVDC models are given in Fig. 5(a) and (b), respectively. System A corresponds to the type-A topology. The sending grid and the receiving grid are interconnected by three 500-kV dc links together with three 500-kV ac lines. Each dc line transmits 3000 MW of electrical power and each ac line transmits 1000 MW. Thus, a total of 12 000 MW of electrical power is delivered from the sending grid to the receiving grid. It is worth emphasizing that the ac corridors are much weaker than the dc corridors in System A (i.e., the impendence of these ac corridors is comparatively high), which is similar to South China Power Grid.

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Fig. 5. Simplied models of multi-infeed HVDC systems. (a) System A, which corresponds to the type-A multi-infeed HVDC system. (b) System B, which corresponds to the type-B multi-infeed HVDC system.

terconnected by three 500-kV dc links. Each dc line delivers 4000 MW of electrical power and the total electrical power transmitted from the sending grid to the receiving grid is also 12 000 MW. Actually, System B is originated from the Central China and East China interconnected power system, in which Central China Power Grid is asynchronously connected to East China Power Grid by three HVDC interties. Other operation conditions (i.e., the generation and the load distribution, the parameters of the generators and its excitation systems, the parameters of the HVDC controllers and the dc lines, the parameters of the ac lines inside the sending and the receiving grid, etc.) are all exactly the same for these two systems (see the Appendix). Although these are simplied models, still, most of the important mechanisms of the real systems can be studied using these two models. The proposed FCL-segmentation technique is applied to these two systems for verication in the following analysis. B. FCL-Segmentation Schemes
Fig. 4. Transient response comparison before and after the FCL-segmentation which is applicable to both types of multi-infeed HVDC systems. (a) Phase current of the tie lines between the fault area and the nonfault areas. (b) Phase voltage of the buses in the non-fault areas. (c) The extinction angle of the inverters in the nonfault areas. (d) The transmitted dc power of the inverters in the nonfault areas.

System B corresponds to the type-B topology. The sending grid and the receiving grid are two asynchronous ac grids in-

As indicated in Fig. 5(a) and (b), the inverters form the typical multi-infeed HVDC congurations inside the receiving grids of System A/B. Thus, two candidate FCL-segmentation schemes are developed for System A/B, as shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b), respectively. The dashed lines in Fig. 6 represent the ac corridors in System A. In Scheme 1, buses B7, B10, and B13 belong to Area 1, while other buses in the receiving grid belong to Area 23; the FCL is installed on the ac line between the two areas. In Scheme 2, Area

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Fig. 6. Illustration of the two candidate FCL-segmentation schemes ( : FCL). (a) Scheme 1 for System A/B. (b) Scheme 2 for System A/B.

23 is further divided into Areas 2 and 3, which are separated by another FCL. In both schemes, the action impendence of the FCLs is 60 . IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS A. Overviews The simulation is performed using PSCAD/EMTDC. A three-phase short-circuit fault is applied on bus B12 at 1.0 s and cleared 0.1 s later. The transient responses of System A/B (including the voltage of the inverter buses, the extinction angle and the dc power of the inverters, as well as the active power on the ac corridors) before and after the FCL-segmentation are shown in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively, while the transient stability of the systems is concluded in Table I. B. Performance Comparison of System A before the FCL-Segmentation and Under Scheme 2 The response of System A before the FCL-segmentation is shown in Fig. 7(a). When B12 is three-phase short-circuited, the voltage of the whole receiving grid drops signicantly due to the close electrical distance. Commutation failure occurs in all of the dc links immediately, and the dc power is thus interrupted. The duration of the rst commutation failure for the three dc links is 140, 90, and 200 ms, respectively. Moreover, successive commutation failure is observed in the DC1 and the DC3 link. The recovery of the dc systems is quite difcult. During the fault, a part of the interrupted dc power is compensated by the local generation inside the receiving grid and the rest is

transferred to the parallel ac corridors. Before the instability, the highest active power on the B4B7, B5B8 and B6B9 line reaches 3150, 3100, and 3200 MW, respectively. Excessive power ow transfer overloads the ac corridors. As a result, the bus voltage of the system is decreased, and the angle deviation between the sending and the receiving grid is increased continuously. The system loses synchronism nally. The response of System A under Scheme 2 is shown in Fig. 7(c). Before the action of the FCLs, the voltage of the whole receiving grid drops, and commutation failure occurs in all of the three dc links due to the fault. However, after a 5-ms delay, the inter-area electrical distance is increased as the FCLs are activated. Consequently, the bus voltage in Areas 1 and 2 is increased. The lowest rms voltage of buses B7 and B8 is thus increased from 0.45 and 0.33 p.u. (before the FCL-segmentation) to 0.96 and 0.94 p.u. (under Scheme 2) respectively. The commutation failure duration of the DC1 and the DC2 link is reduced from 140 ms and 90 ms to 40 ms and 40 ms respectively. No dc links suffer from successive commutation failure, and the recovery of the dc systems is much faster compared with the case before the FCL-segmentation. The fast dc power recovery mitigates the power ow transfer on the ac corridors. The highest active power ows through the B4B7, B5B8, and B6B9 line is reduced from 3150, 3100, and 3200 MW to 2650, 2750, and 3150 MW, respectively; the reduced power amounts up to 900 MW. The system can stay stable. As seen from the above analysis, the propagation of the ac short-circuit faults is limited with the application of the proposed FCL-segmentation technique. Thus, for the dc systems, the commutation failure duration of the dc links in the nonfault areas is reduced, and the dc power recovery is speeded up, while, for the ac system, the power imbalance and the power ow transfer caused by the simultaneous commutation failure of the dc links are relieved. The transient stability of the whole ac/dc system is improved. C. Performance Comparison of System A Under Schemes 1 and 2 As analyzed above, System A is stable under Scheme 2. The response of System A under Scheme 1 is shown in Fig. 7(b). When B12 is three-phase short-circuited, commutation failure occurs in all the three dc links immediately due to the voltage drop of the inverter buses. After a 5 ms delay, the FCL obstructs the spread of the fault into Area 1. The lowest rms voltage of the bus B7 is thus increased from 0.45 p.u. (before the FCLsegmentation) to 0.95 p.u. (under Scheme 1). The commutation failure duration of the DC1 link is reduced from 140 to 40 ms and no successive commutation failure. However, the transfer of the dc power, caused by the commutation failure of the DC2 and the DC3 link, still makes the ac corridors overloaded. Before the instability, the highest active power on the B4B7, B5B8 and B6B9 line reaches 3000, 3100, and 3200 MW, respectively; the reduced power amounts to 150 MW compared with the case before the FCL-segmentation. The improvement is so limited that the system still loses synchronism at last. The main reason for the ineffectiveness of Scheme 1 is that Area 23 is comparatively too large and has two inverters located. As a result, when B12 in Area 23 is three-phase short-circuited,

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Fig. 7. Transient responses of System A under the different FCL-segmentation schemes, when B12 is three-phase short-circuited at 1.0 s and cleared 0.1 s later. (a) Case before the FCL-segmentation. (b) Case under Scheme 1. (c) Case under Scheme 2.

the commutation failure of the DC2 and the DC3 link lasts for a long time. The recovery of both the ac and dc systems is difcult. Excessive power transfer eventually leads to instability. However, with Scheme 2, Area 23 is further divided into Areas 2 and 3. In this case, the impact of the ac fault is limited to Area 3 by the FCLs. Compared with the case under Scheme 1, the commutation failure duration of the DC2 link is shorter and the dc power recovery is much faster. The power transfer stress on the ac corridors is reduced. Thus, the system can stay stable under Scheme 2. From the above analysis, it can be concluded that sectors which is too large or with multiple dc links should be avoided when designing a FCL-segmentation scheme. If so, it will be much easier for the FCLs to limit the inuence of the ac faults to a small part of the grid. The number of the dc links, being greatly affected by the fault, will be reduced as well. Thus, a better system performance can be expected. D. Performance Comparison of System B Under Different Schemes The response of System B before the FCL-segmentation is shown in Fig. 8(a). When B12 is three-phase short-circuited,

commutation failure occurs in all the three dc links immediately. The duration of the rst commutation failure for the three dc systems is 90, 180, and 120 ms, respectively. Moreover, successive commutation failure is also observed in the DC2 link. The recovery of the dc systems is difcult. With Scheme 1, the spread of the fault into Area 1 is obstructed by the FCL. As shown in Fig. 8(b), the lowest RMS voltage of bus B7 is increased from 0.45 p.u. (before the FCLsegmentation) to 0.96 p.u. (under Scheme 1). The duration of the rst commutation failure for the DC1 link is reduced from 90 to 40 ms. However, the recovery of the dc systems is still comparatively difcult. The response of System B under Scheme 2 is shown in Fig. 8(c). The ac fault is limited to Area 3 by the FCLs. The lowest rms voltage of the bus B7 and B8 is increased from 0.45 and 0.30 p.u. (before the FCL-segmentation) to 0.96 and 0.94 p.u. (under Scheme 2), respectively. The duration of the rst commutation failure for the DC1 and the DC2 link are reduced from 90 and 180 ms to 40 and 40 ms, respectively, and no dc links suffer from successive commutation failure. The recovery of the dc systems is much faster compared with the previous two cases.

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Fig. 8. Transient responses of System B under the different FCL-segmentation schemes, when B12 is three-phase short-circuited at 1.0 s and cleared 0.1 s later. (a) Case before the FCL-segmentation. (b) Case under Scheme 1. (c) Case under Scheme 2.

TABLE I TRANSIENT STABILITY OF SYSTEM A/B UNDER DIFFERENT SCHEMES

further. It also indicates that segmenting power grid based on the concept of combining the dc-segmentation and the FCL-segmentation techniques is also feasible. Such hybrid segmentation schemes may be even better than the pure dc-segmentation or FCL-segmentation schemes under both technical and economic concerns and should be further investigated. V. CONCLUSION In this paper, a new grid dynamic segmentation technique based on FCLs is proposed to improve the performance of multiinfeed HVDC systems. It is demonstrated that, with the application of this technique, the fault current is reduced, and the spread of the ac short-circuit faults is limited. As a result, for the dc systems, the commutation failure duration of the dc links in the nonfault areas is reduced, and the dc power recovery is sped up, while, for the ac system, the power imbalance and the power ow transfer caused by the simultaneous commutation failure of the dc links are relieved. The transient stability of the whole system is thus improved. The effectiveness of the proposed FCL-segmentation technique mainly depends on the installation location and the capacity of the FCLs. The simulation results reveal that sector which is too large or with multiple dc links should be avoided when segmenting a grid. Much more work, concerning the optimal placement of the FCLs in real large-scale multi-infeed HVDC systems, remain to be done and are currently being pursued. APPENDIX We present Tables II-IV.

Because the sending and the receiving grid of System B have only dc interconnections, the interrupted dc power is compensated by the local generation in the receiving grid alone. Thus, unlike the case in System A, no ac lines in System B are overloaded, as the electrical distance inside the receiving grid is quite close. Both the ac and the dc system can recover from the fault, and the system is stable in all three cases. However, it still can be seen from the above results that: with the FCL-segmentation technique, the propagation of the ac faults is obstructed, the recovery of the dc links in the nonfault areas is sped up, and the performance of the whole system is improved. Combined with the results from System A, it can be concluded that the proposed FCL-segmentation technique is effective for both types of multi-infeed HVDC systems. Furthermore, from the dc-segmentation viewpoint, System B can also be regarded as a dc-segmentation scheme of System A. As shown in the above results, the stability of the system is enhanced after the dc-segmentation, and the application of the FCL-segmentation technique can improve the performance of the dc-segmented system

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TABLE II ACTIVE POWER OUTPUT OF GENERATORS

TABLE III DISTRIBUTION OF LOADS

TABLE IV PARAMETERS OF AC LINES

[9] W. Yang, Z. Xu, and Z. Han, Coordinated hierarchical control strategy for multi-infeed HVDC systems, Proc. Inst. Electr. Eng.Gener. Transm. Distrib., vol. 149, no. 2, pp. 242248, Mar. 2002. [10] X. Mao, Y. Zhang, L. Guan, and X. Wu, Researches on coordinated control strategy for inter-area oscillations in AC/DC hybrid grid with multi-infeed HVDC, in Proc. IEEE/PES Transm. Distrib. Conf. Exhibition: Asia and Pacic, 2005, pp. 16. [11] J. Bauman and M. Kazerani, Commutation failure reduction in HVDC systems using adaptive fuzzy logic controller, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 19952002, Nov. 2007. [12] Y. Sun, L. Peng, F. Ma, G. J. Li, and P. F. Lv, Design a fuzzy controller to minimize the effect of HVDC commutation failure on power system, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 100107, Feb. 2008. [13] R. Eriksson, V. Knazkins, and L. Soder, Coordinated control of multiple HVDC links using input-output exact linearization, Electr. Power Syst. Res., vol. 80, no. 12, pp. 14061412, Dec. 2010. [14] H. Clark, A.-A. Edris, M. EI-Gasseir, K. Epp, A. Isaacs, and D. Woodford, Softening the blow of disturbances, IEEE Power Energy Mag., vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 3041, Jan.Feb. 2008. [15] V. Gor, D. Povh, Y. Lu, E. Lerch, D. Retzmann, K. Sadek, and G. Thumn, SCCLA new type of FACTS based short-circuit current limiter for application in high voltage systems, in Proc. CIGRE Session, 2004, pp. 111. [16] S. Han, X. Mao, and Y. Chang, A study on modeling of high-voltage short circuit current limiter in electromechanical transient simulation, in Proc. Int. Conf. Power Syst. Technol., 2010, pp. 16. [17] O. Alizadeh Mousavi, M. J. Sanjari, R. Cherkaoui, and G. B. Gharehpetian, Power system segmentation using DC links to decrease the risk of cascading blackouts, in Proc. IEEE Trondheim PowerTech Conf., Jun. 2011, pp. 16.

Hongyang Huang was born in Zhejiang, China, in January 1987. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, China, in 2009, where he is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering. His main eld of interest includes power system stability and HVDC transmission.

REFERENCES
[1] D. Huang, Y. Shu, J. Ruan, and Y. Hu, Ultra high voltage transmission in China: Developments, current status and future prospects, Proc. IEEE, vol. 97, no. 3, pp. 555583, Mar. 2009. [2] L. X. Bui, V. K. Sood, and S. Laurin, Dynamic interactions between HVDC systems connected to AC buses in close proximity, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 223230, Jan. 1991. [3] CIGRE Working Group B4.41, Systems with multiple DC infeed, CIGRE, Paris, France, Tech. Rep. 364, Dec. 2008. [4] J. Reeve and S. P. Lane-Smith, Multi-infeed HVDC transient response and recovery strategies, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 19952001, Oct. 1993. [5] L. A. S. Pilotto, M. Szechtman, A. Wey, W. F. Long, and S. L. Nilsson, Synchronizing and damping torque modulation controllers for multiinfeed HVDC systems, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 15051513, Jul. 1995. [6] M. Sato, N. Honjo, K. Yamaji, T. Yoshino, and J. Arai, HVDC converter control for fast power recovery after AC system fault, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 13191326, Jul. 1997. [7] CIGRE Working Group 14.29, Coordination of controls of multiple FACTS/HVDC links in the same system, CIGRE, Paris, France, Tech. Rep. 149, Dec. 1999. [8] A. Hansen and H. Havemann, Decreasing the commutation failure frequency in HVDC transmission systems, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 10221026, Jul. 2000. Zheng Xu (M00) was born in Zhejiang, China, in September 1962. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, China, in 1983, 1986, and 1993, respectively. He has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University, since 1986 and has been a Professor there since 1998. His research areas include HVDC, FACTS, power harmonics, and power quality.

Xi Lin was born in Sichuan, China in 1964. He received the degree from Xian Jiaotong University, Xian, China, in 1985. He was a Guest Researcher with MONENCO Canada, and currently he is responsible for power system analysis with Alstom Grid China Technology Center, Shanghai, China.