AORC Technical meeting 2014

B1-1087
http : //www.cigre.org

Development of 250 kV HVDC Transmission System in Korea

Yoon-Hyoung Kim, Soo-Bong Lee, Tae-Ho Lee, Sung-Yun Kim, Eui-Hwan Jung,
Hee-Chan Park, Su-Kil Lee, Jin-Ho Nam and Seung-Ik Jeon

LS Cable & System Ltd.

Republic of Korea

SUMMARY

HVDC transmission systems have some advantage by comparing with HVAC transmission
system. The capacitive losses at long distance and dielectric losses caused by an extra loss
component are very high at AC power cables. On the other hand, capacitive losses are not present
leaving only the resistive losses at DC power cables and DC leackage current in insulation
material of DC power cables is very small. Further, power grids which have different voltages and
frequencies can be connected by using DC transmission system. For HVDC cables, some material
properties at DC electric field are needed such as high volume resistivity, high DC dielectric
strength and low space charge accumulation characteristic. So development of insulation materials
is a matter of great importance for HVDC transmission system. In Korea, LS Cable & system was
developed XLPE insulation material for HVDC cable. The insulation material was developed in
lab scale first, then evaluated it by producing mini model cable, and finally scaled up to the full
scale cable. In early stage of the research, a nano composite compound was developed for HVDC
XLPE cable insulation by adding nano sized inorganic filler. The developed insulation material
has high volume resistivity than AC and normal DC XLPE compound. In this paper, the volume
resistivity characteristics of HVDC XLPE compound and HVDC transmission system are
described. ±250 kV HVDC XLPE cable system was also put to the type test for LCC and VSC
according to CIGRE TB 496. The cable system passed type test successfully and allows to a
qualification for both technologies VSC and LCC.

KEYWORDS

HVDC, Transmission System, XLPE Cable

ykim0912@lscns.com
1. Introduction
HVDC transmission systems have some advantage by comparing with HVAC transmission system.
The capacitive losses at long distance and dielectric losses caused by an extra loss component are very
high at AC power cables. On the other hand, capacitive losses are not present leaving only the resistive
losses at DC power cables and DC leakage current in insulation material of DC power cables is very
small. Further, power grids which have different voltages and frequencies can be connected by using
DC transmission system. For HVDC cables, some material properties at DC electric field are needed
such as high volume resistivity, high DC dielectric strength and low space charge accumulation
characteristic. So development of insulation materials is a matter of great importance for HVDC
transmission system. In Korea, LS Cable & system was developed XLPE insulation material for
HVDC cable. The insulation material was developed in lab scale first, then evaluated it by producing
mini model cable, and finally scaled up to the full scale cable. In early stage of the research, a nano
composite compound was developed for HVDC XLPE cable insulation by adding nano sized
inorganic filler. The developed insulation material has high volume resistivity than AC and normal DC
XLPE compound. In this paper, the volume resistivity characteristics of HVDC XLPE compound and
HVDC transmission system are described. ±250 kV HVDC XLPE cable system was also put to the
type test for LCC and VSC according to CIGRE TB 496. The cable system passed type test
successfully and allows to a qualification for both technologies VSC and LCC.
The development tests were carried out with no load cycle, load cycle and polarity reversal tests. DC
voltage withstand test with no load cycle was conducted at each polarity of a DC 463 kV for 24 hours.
The load cycle consists of two 24 hours load cycles at negative polarity of DC 463 kV. Additional
performance tests focusing on polarity reversal withstand tests on a 363kV voltage were carried out on
the same cable system loop, where voltage polarity was reversed every eight hours during the heat
cycles. The temperature of conductor was controlled to be at 90 ºC during at least the last 2 hours of
the heating period. The cable system successfully passed the development test.
The type test was carried out on the same cable system loop after the development test. The cable and
outdoor termination were submitted to the complete qualification according to LCC protocol of
CIGRE TB 496. The type test was performed with load cycle and also with polarity reversal test and
superimposed impulse voltage tests. The superimposed impulse voltage test was performed on test
objects that have successfully passed the load cycle test. After the successful completion of the
superimposed impulse test, the subsequent DC test was carried out for 2 hours at negative DC voltage
of 463 kV with no heating. The cable system passed successfully and is qualified for LCC. After the
completion of the type test for LCC, the additional switching impulse withstand tests were carried out
for VSC.

2. Development of HVDC 250 kV XLPE Cable

The 250 kV HVDC XLPE cable was developed based on the material research mentioned earlier. We
have been studied various materials such as conventional AC XLPE, conventional DC XLPE, and
newly developed DC XLPE with nano-particles for HVDC XLPE cable application. The surface of
nano-particles was modified by various surface treatment materials in order to have a compatibility
with polyethylene and improve distribution and dispersion of particles in XLPE matrix. Many
researchers have studied how to improve the dispersion of nano-particles in nano-composites and
develop an effective analytical tool to quantify the degree of dispersion. We have also struggled to
solve these problems in this research. Since the distribution and the dispersion of nano-particles in
nano-composites is critical for the performance and properties of materials, it was very important to
ensure the reasonable dispersion by analytical methods. The distribution and the dispersion of the
treated nano-particles were determined by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and TEM
(Transmission Electron Microscopy) in this study. The image is shown in Figure 1.
The elctrical stress distribution under DC steady state conditions, is determined by the resistivity(or
conductivity) of insulation materials. The resistivity of materials are characterised by using equations
below,

   0 exp( T  E ) (1)

1
Where  0 is the resistivity at reference temperature and electric field,  and  are temperature and
electric field coefficient, respectivly. For calculation of the electric field distribution, knowledge of
temperature and elctric field dependence of resitivity are essential. The volume resistivity
characteristics of insulation materials for cable are shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.
Figure 2 shows the volume resistivity as a function of the applied electric field and measuring
temperature for three different insulation materials: (a) conventional AC XLPE (XLPE-A), (b)
conventional DC XLPE (XLPE-B) and (c) developed nano-DC XLPE (XLPE-C). It can be clearly
seen that the volume resistivity was gradually decreased with increasing applied electric field in all
case, and the volume resistivity of XLPE-C is higher than those of XLPE-B and A.

a) SEM image b) TEM image

Figure 1. Distribution and dispersion of nano-particles

1.00E+19 XLPE-B 1.00E+19 XLPE-B

Volume Resistivity [Ω∙㎝]
Volume Resistivity [Ω∙㎝]

1.00E+18 XLPE-C 1.00E+18 XLPE-C

1.00E+17 XLPE-A 1.00E+17 XLPE-A
1.00E+16 1.00E+16

1.00E+15 1.00E+15

1.00E+14 1.00E+14

1.00E+13
1.00E+13
1.00E+12
1.00E+12
25 35 45 55 65 75 85
5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Electric Field [kV/mm] T [℃]

a) Volume resistivity by electric field b) Volume resistivity by temperature

Figure 2. Volume resistivity characteristics of XLPE compound

a) Measured value b) Approximated value

Figure 3. Effect of temperature and electric field on volume resistivity

2
Specific environmental and installation conditions led to design a copper conductor size of 500 ㎟,
conducted from annealed copper and filled with water blocking compound to limit water propagation
in case of cable severance. The conductor of the cable was applied to keystond shape for the
compactification of cable and the minimization of insulation compound.
The insulation part consists of an inner semi-conducting screen layer, the insulation
compound and an outer semi-conducting insulation screen, extruded simultaneously. A semi-
conducting water swellable tape is then applied between the outer semi-conducting screen and
the metallic sheath in order to limit water propagation along the cable core in case of cable
damage. The metallic sheath is made of lead alloy, over which it is extruded a layer of
polyethylene compound. The armor includes bending, armor and outer covering, applied in
one common process. Armor is made of one layer of galvanized steel wires. Outer covering is
made of polypropylene strings that provide a degree of abrasion protection and reduce cable
friction during laying. Fig. 4 shows the structure of HVDC ±250 kV 500 mm2 XLPE cable,
respectively.

Figure 4. Structure of 250 kV HVDC XLPE cable

3. Qualification test on HVDC transmission system

±250 kV HVDC XLPE cable system was developed consecutively using nano-composite XLPE. At
first the development tests such as DC voltage withstand test and polarity reversal test were carried out
to check the DC operating performance. The overview of test circuit for 250kV HVDC cable system is
shown in Figure 5. The cable system consists of the approximately 50 m long 500mm2 copper XLPE
cable and two terminations.

Figure 5. Overview of qualification test circuit

3
The development tests were carried out with no load cycle, load cycle and polarity reversal tests. Table
1 shows the development test conditions. DC voltage withstand test with no load cycle was conducted
at each polarity of a DC 463kV for 24 hours. The load cycle consists of two 24-hour load cycles at
negative polarity of DC 463kV. Additional performance tests focusing on polarity reversal withstand
tests on a 363kV voltage were carried out on the same cable system loop, where voltage polarity was
reversed every eight hours during the heat cycles. The heating may be achieved by AC current, and a
conductor temperature was controlled to be at 90 ºC during at least the last 2 hours of the heating
period. The cable system successfully passed under the test programme above of the development test.

Table 1. Development test condition

Test item Test condition

DC voltage withstand test ±463kV/24hours
No load cycle test Lightening impulse
±730kV/10times
withstand test
DC voltage withstand test -463kV/2cycles
Load cycle and polarity ±363kV/2cycles
Polarity reversal withstand
reversal tests (Polarity reversals every
test
8hrs)

The type test was carried out on the same cable system loop after the development test. The cable and
outdoor termination were submitted to the complete qualification according to LCC protocol of
CIGRE T.B. 496. The type test was performed with load cycle and also with polarity reversal test and
superimposed impulse voltage tests. In case of the superimposed switching and lightning impulse tests,
a blocking capacitor of 35.7nF and a protection resistor of 30 MΩ were used for the protection of
testing facilities. The superimposed impulse voltage test was performed on test objects that have
successfully passed the load cycle test. After the successful completion of the superimposed impulse
test, the subsequent DC test was carried out for 2 hours at negative DC voltage of 463kV with no
heating. The cable system passed successfully and is qualified for LCC.
After the completion of the type test for LCC, the additional switching impulse withstand tests were
carried out at ±UP2,S voltage levels to be qualified for VSC.

4. Conclusion
This paper describes the development of 250kV HVDC XLPE cable in Korea. The research on the
HVDC power cable system has been carried out for last 6 years. In early stage of the research, a nano-
composite compound was developed for DC XLPE cable insulation by adding nano sized inorganic
filler. The developed insulation materials showed that the volume resistivity was decreased gradually.
±250kV HVDC XLPE cable system was also put to the type test for LCC and VSC according to
CIGRE TB 496. The cable system passed successfully and allows to a qualification for both
technologies VSC and LCC.