HVDC Course Notes

Paul Gowland Special Edition

Dec 2001

Release 1.36
Written by Ralph Barone
 Table of Contents
1. Why HVDC? ...........................................................................................................................1
1.1.Line Costs .................................................................................................................................1
1.2.Charging Currents and Other Reactive Considerations ...................................................1
1.3.Connection of Asynchronous Systems ................................................................................2
1.4.Controllability .........................................................................................................................3
1.5.Fast Response ..........................................................................................................................3
1.6.Low Fault Current Contribution ..........................................................................................3
2. Basic Components of an HVDC System ...........................................................................4
2.1. Valves General.........................................................................................................................4
2.1.1. Mercury Arc Valves.......................................................................................................5
2.1.2. Thyristors ........................................................................................................................9
2.1.3. dV/dt and dI/dt Control..............................................................................................10
2.2. Transformers..........................................................................................................................10
2.3. Switchgear..............................................................................................................................11
2.4. DC Voltage and Current Measurement.............................................................................11
2.5. Line/Converter Configurations .........................................................................................12
2.6. Insulation Systems ................................................................................................................13
2.7. Lines and Cables ...................................................................................................................14
2.7.1. Impedance.....................................................................................................................14
2.7.2. Corona ...........................................................................................................................14
2.7.3. Cable Voltage Stresses.................................................................................................14
2.7.4. Earth/Sea Return .........................................................................................................16
2.8. Thermal Management ..........................................................................................................16
3. Modes of operation..............................................................................................................17
3.1. 6-pulse Diode Rectifier .........................................................................................................17
3.2. Controlled 6-pulse Rectifier and Alpha.............................................................................19
3.3. Controlled 12-pulse Rectifier...............................................................................................20
3.4. Commutation and µ..............................................................................................................20
3.5. Inverters, Gamma and Beta .................................................................................................22
4. Valve Faults...........................................................................................................................24
4.1. Arc backs (MAV only)..........................................................................................................24
4.2. Consequential Arc backs (MAV only) ...............................................................................26
4.3. Arc throughs (MAV only)....................................................................................................27
4.4. Commutation Failures (MAV or thyristor, inverter only)..............................................28
5. Filters and VAR consumption ...........................................................................................29
5.1. VAR Consumption ...............................................................................................................29
5.2. Harmonic Creation ...............................................................................................................34
5.3. Harmonic Filters....................................................................................................................36
5.3.1. Harmonic Filter Capacitors ........................................................................................37
5.3.2. Harmonic Filter Reactors ............................................................................................39
5.4. Active Cancellation...............................................................................................................39
5.5. Capacitor Commutated Converter (CCC).........................................................................39
6. Control Strategies.................................................................................................................40
6.1. Standard V-I characteristics.................................................................................................40
 6.2. Constant V mode...................................................................................................................40
6.3. Const I mode..........................................................................................................................40
6.4. Constant Angle (alpha or beta) Mode................................................................................41
6.5. Constant Gamma Mode .......................................................................................................42
6.6. Constant Q .............................................................................................................................42
6.7. Constant P ..............................................................................................................................43
6.8. Voltage Dependent Current Order Limit..........................................................................43
6.9. Combined Inverter/Rectifier Curves.................................................................................44
7. Voltage Source Converters (aka “HVDC Light™”) ......................................................46
7.1. IGBTs.......................................................................................................................................46
7.2. GTOs .......................................................................................................................................47
7.3. Pulse Width Modulation......................................................................................................47
7.4. Voltage Source Converters ..................................................................................................48
7.5. HVDC Light Characteristics................................................................................................49
7.6. Advantages and Disadvantages .........................................................................................50
7.7. Applications...........................................................................................................................50
7.7.1. Gotland ..........................................................................................................................50
7.7.2. Directlink.......................................................................................................................50
7.7.3. Eagle Pass ......................................................................................................................51
8. Pole I description .................................................................................................................51
8.1. Overview................................................................................................................................51
8.2. Controls ..................................................................................................................................51
8.2.1. Operating Modes .........................................................................................................51
8.2.2. Start/Stop Sequences...................................................................................................53
8.3. Protection ...............................................................................................................................55
8.3.1. Arc back/Commutation Failure Protection.............................................................55
8.3.2. Line Fault Protection ...................................................................................................56
8.3.3. Undervoltage/Excessive Delay Angle Protection ..................................................56
8.3.4. DC Harmonic/AC Power Cross................................................................................57
8.3.5. DC Ground Fault (Station Differential Protection) .................................................57
8.3.6. Overfrequency..............................................................................................................57
8.3.7. Equipment Failure .......................................................................................................57
8.4. Harmonic Filters....................................................................................................................57
8.4.1. Band-pass Filters ..........................................................................................................57
8.4.2. High-pass Filter ............................................................................................................58
8.4.3. Protection ......................................................................................................................58
8.5. First Grade Power .................................................................................................................59
8.6. Operations Notes ..................................................................................................................60
8.6.1. MAV porcelains............................................................................................................60
9. Pole II description................................................................................................................60
9.1. Overview................................................................................................................................60
9.2. Controls ..................................................................................................................................61
9.2.1. Operating Modes .........................................................................................................61
9.2.2. Control Features...........................................................................................................61
9.2.3. Start/Stop Sequences...................................................................................................61
9.3. Protection ...............................................................................................................................63
 9.3.1. Commutation Failure ..................................................................................................63
9.3.2. Snubber Thermal..........................................................................................................63
9.3.3. AC Overvoltage/Undervoltage.................................................................................64
9.3.4. Valve Thermal ..............................................................................................................64
9.3.5. Current Exceeds Order................................................................................................64
9.3.6. Excessive Rectification.................................................................................................64
9.3.7. Line Fault.......................................................................................................................64
9.3.8. Local Fault.....................................................................................................................65
9.4. Harmonic Filters....................................................................................................................65
9.4.1. VIT Filters......................................................................................................................65
9.4.2. Arnott Filters.................................................................................................................66
9.4.3. Protection ......................................................................................................................66
9.5. First and Second Grade Power............................................................................................66
9.6. VAR Sucker............................................................................................................................67
9.6.1. Overview.......................................................................................................................67
9.6.2. Theory............................................................................................................................67
9.7. Operations Notes ..................................................................................................................68
9.7.1. Startup ...........................................................................................................................68
9.7.2. Valve Hall Humidity ...................................................................................................68
10. Neutral Equipment ..............................................................................................................69
10.1. Overview.............................................................................................................................69
10.2. Equipment...........................................................................................................................70
10.2.1. Switching (D2, D4, D5, D13, D16)..............................................................................70
10.2.2. Surge protection (LA4, LA8, LA9, CX2, CX3, SG2).................................................70
10.2.3. Lines and cables............................................................................................................71
10.2.4. Neutral Sensing Equipment .......................................................................................71
10.3. Protection ............................................................................................................................71
10.3.1. Metallic Neutral Overcurrent.....................................................................................71
10.3.2. Loss of Electrode Line .................................................................................................71
10.3.3. AC Power Cross ...........................................................................................................71
10.3.4. Neutral Ground Fault (Arnott Only) ........................................................................71
10.4. Operations Notes ...............................................................................................................71
11. Joint Pole Control.................................................................................................................72
11.1. Stepping Switches ..............................................................................................................72
11.2. Current Limits ....................................................................................................................72
11.3. Operating Modes ...............................................................................................................72
11.3.1. Manual Synch ...............................................................................................................72
11.3.2. Manual Separate...........................................................................................................72
11.3.3. Auto Tie Line ................................................................................................................73
11.3.4. Auto Frequency............................................................................................................73
11.4. Differential Overcurrent Protection ................................................................................73
11.5. Trincomali Overcurrent Protection .................................................................................74
12. Appendix 1 (all the flute music)........................................................................................75
12.1. Output Voltage of a Controlled 6-pulse Rectifier .........................................................75
12.2. Derivation of u....................................................................................................................77
12.3. Derivation of Commutation Voltage Drop ....................................................................79
 Table of Figures
Figure 1 - Cable Equivalent Circuit ..................................................................................................2
Figure 2 - North American HVDC Systems....................................................................................4
Figure 3 - Mechanical Commutation................................................................................................5
Figure 4 - MAV Ignitor.......................................................................................................................6
Figure 5 - MAV Current Dividers.....................................................................................................8
Figure 6 - Thyristor Equivalent Circuit............................................................................................9
Figure 7 - Hall Effect Transducer....................................................................................................12
Figure 8 - Monopolar Layout ..........................................................................................................12
Figure 9 - Homopolar Layout .........................................................................................................13
Figure 10 - Bipolar Layout ...............................................................................................................13
Figure 11 - Cable Voltage Gradients (Cold) ..................................................................................15
Figure 12 - Cable Voltage Gradients (Warm)................................................................................15
Figure 13 - Cable Voltage Gradients (Hot)....................................................................................16
Figure 14 - 6 Pulse Diode Bridge ....................................................................................................17
Figure 15 - 6 Pulse Diode Bridge Voltages ....................................................................................18
Figure 16 - Voltage Across Diode Valve........................................................................................18
Figure 17 - 6 Pulse Bridge Currents................................................................................................19
Figure 18 - 6 Pulse Bridge Voltages (α = 30°)................................................................................19
Figure 19 - Voltage Across Valve (α = 30°)....................................................................................20
Figure 20 - 12 Pulse Bridge Voltages (α = 30°)..............................................................................20
Figure 21 - Commutation.................................................................................................................21
Figure 22 - Commutation Voltage Notches (µ = 20°)...................................................................22
Figure 23 - Rectifiers and Inverters ................................................................................................22
Figure 24 - α, β, γ and µ ....................................................................................................................23
Figure 25 - Bridge with Labels ........................................................................................................24
Figure 26 - Arc-back at inverter ......................................................................................................25
Figure 27 - Arc-back at rectifier.......................................................................................................26
Figure 28 - Arc through at inverter ................................................................................................28
Figure 29 - Commutation Failure at Inverter................................................................................29
Figure 30 - Power Factor of Converter...........................................................................................30
Figure 31 - Pole I MVAR vs MW ....................................................................................................31
Figure 32 - Switched Capacitor QV Characteristics.....................................................................32
Figure 33 - Synchronous Condensor QV Characteristics............................................................33
Figure 34 - SVC QV Characteristics................................................................................................34
Figure 35 - Fundamental. Phase rotation is A-B-C. Positive sequence. ..................................35
Figure 36 - 3rd harmonic. All 3 phases in sync. Zero sequence. ..............................................35
Figure 37 - 5th harmonic. Phase rotation is A-C-B. Negative sequence. ................................36
Figure 38 - 7th Harmonic. Phase rotation is A-B-C. Positive sequence...................................36
Figure 39 - Filter Configurations ....................................................................................................37
Figure 40 - Filter Capacitor Internal Design..................................................................................38
Figure 41 - Active Harmonic Cancellation on DC bus ................................................................39
Figure 42 - Constant V Mode ..........................................................................................................40
Figure 43 - Constant I Mode ............................................................................................................41
Figure 44 - Constant Angle Modes.................................................................................................41
Figure 45 - Constant γ Mode............................................................................................................42
Figure 46 - Constant Q Mode ..........................................................................................................43
Figure 47 - Constant P Mode...........................................................................................................43
Figure 48 - VDCOL at Rectifier .......................................................................................................44
Figure 49 - Combined Rectifier/Inverter Characteristics ...........................................................44
Figure 50 - AC Fault at Rectifier .....................................................................................................45
Figure 51 - Inverter Stability Enhancement...................................................................................46
Figure 52 - IGBT Structure ...............................................................................................................46
Figure 53 - Example PWM waveforms ..........................................................................................48
Figure 54 - VSC Topologies .............................................................................................................49
Figure 55 – Typical HVDC Light Capability Curve.....................................................................49
Figure 56 - Cosine Control...............................................................................................................52
Figure 57 - Pole I Operating Limits ................................................................................................53
Figure 58 - Pole I Operating Point During Startup ......................................................................55
Figure 59 - Pole I Arc Back & Commutation Failure Protection ................................................56
Figure 60 - Pole I Filter Protection ..................................................................................................59
Figure 61 - Pole II Snubber Thermal Limits ..................................................................................63
Figure 62 - Pole II Snubber Thermal Limits ..................................................................................68
Figure 63 - Arnott Neutral Bus........................................................................................................69
Figure 64 - VIT Neutral Bus.............................................................................................................70
Figure 65 - BCH HVDC Differential Protection ...........................................................................74
 1

1. Why HVDC?
1.1. Line Costs
If we wish to transmit a certain amount of power from one place to another, and the
distance between these two places is large, then a large part of the cost of transmitting the
power is in the transmission line. HVDC provides better utilization of conductors and
allows more flexibility in designing the transmission line. If we decide to build
transmission lines using conductor rated at 1000A RMS. and insulators designed for a peak
voltage of 408 kV (500 kV phase to phase voltage), an AC system designed with this
hardware and operating at a power factor of 95% will carry 274 MW per conductor
Vp eak 408 kV
P = Vl ⋅ Il ⋅ cos(θ) = ⋅ Il ⋅ cos(θ) = ⋅ 1000 A ⋅ 0.95 = 274 MW
2 2
A DC system running at the same peak voltage1. will carry 408 MW per conductor.
P = Vl ⋅ Il = 408 kV ⋅ 1000 A = 408 MW

The DC line will carry 1.49 times as much power, per conductor, as the AC line
Also, a DC circuit is one conductor2, while an AC line contains 3 conductors. This can
allow considerable savings in insulator and tower costs. It also allows the transmission to
be slightly more reliable, as the line has less exposure and multiple independent lines can
be strung on the same towers to give some measure of redundancy. In addition, DC
transmission allows more flexibility in staging construction to postpone construction costs
as long as possible.
1.2. Charging Currents and Other Reactive Considerations
The argument in the previous paragraph only holds if we are able to use the line to
its thermal limit. AC transmission theory states that the amount of power that can be
transmitted across one AC conductor is
V ⋅V
P = 1 2 ⋅ sin(δ)
X
where V1 and V2 are the voltages at the ends of the line, X is the line reactance and δ is the
phase angle between the sending and receiving voltages. In a long transmission line, the
line reactance is the limiting factor in determining maximum power transmission. Typical
methods to increase power transmission limits are raising the voltage (going from 230 kV
to 500 kV) or decreasing X (series capacitor stations or the use of bundled conductors). In a
DC system, the equation for power flow is
V − V2
P = I ⋅ V2 = 1
( V − V2 ) ⋅ V2
⋅ V2 = 1
R R
where V1 and V2 are again, the voltages at the line ends and R is the line resistance. The

1Theoretically, using the same insulators, a DC system can be run at the peak voltage value of the AC
waveform. This number is √2 times the line to ground voltage or approx 82% of the AC system's line to line
voltage. There are additional complications (like insulation voltage grading and switching transient voltages),
but this number is a good start.
2This assumes that the earth or sea is being used as a return conductor. In most cases, DC circuits are built
as bipoles, with two circuits of opposite polarities. This reduces the neutral current to the difference of the
currents of the two poles. If a metallic return is required, the insulation requirements are minimal (< 60 kV).
 2

value of R is low enough (typically 10% of X) that full power flow across the line can be
achieved with very small voltage drops across the line. Therefore, for a very long
transmission line, using DC can save the expense of using series capacitor banks or of
going to a higher voltage.
In the case of undersea cables, there is a different limiting factor to the amount of
power that can be transmitted in an AC system. We can model our transmission line or
cable as a series of short segments connected in series. Each of these segments can be
modeled as in the diagram below, where L is the series inductance, R is the series
resistance, G is the shunt conductance and C is the shunt capacitance (all values are per
segment).

L R

G C

Figure 1 - Cable Equivalent Circuit

In an overhead transmission line L has the largest effect, followed by R and C. G is
usually ignored. In a cable, C has the largest effect. If you consider a line made out of
hundreds of these small segments and ignore everything but C, you can imagine a small
amount of current flowing through each of these parallel capacitors. As the cable gets
longer, this capacitive charging current gets larger, as there are more capacitors in parallel.
If you keep making the cable longer and longer, you will reach a point where you have
rated current flowing into one end of the cable but nothing coming out the other, since it is
all shunted through the capacitance of the cable. A solution to this problem is to place
shunt reactors along the line to supply the charging current. If the entire cable is
underwater, this solution is obviously impractical. Since capacitors don't pass DC, DC
transmission schemes do not have this problem and can deliver full rated current at the
receiving end of the cable.
1.3. Connection of Asynchronous Systems
Sometimes situations arise where an AC interconnection between two points would
be desirable, but impossible. Such is the case in Japan where half the country is supplied at
50 Hz and the other half at 60 Hz. Another example is the link between Brazil (60 Hz) and
Paraguay (50 Hz). Specially designed rotating machines3 can be used as frequency
changers, but they are very expensive. Interconnections may also be desired between areas
operating at the same nominal frequency, but where large phase angle swings may occur
between the two areas. This is the case between areas in North America that belong to
different coordinating councils. In both these cases, AC interconnection may be impossible.
In most of these cases, the areas to be connected may be physically very close to each other.

3These units consist of two synchronous machines coupled together, but with different numbers of poles, so
that both run at the same shaft speed even though they operate at different frequencies.
 3

In fact, in the majority of these interconnections, both ends of the DC link are housed in the
same building and the actual DC transmission line is just a short piece of buswork.
1.4. Controllability
If a utility wishes to sell blocks of power to another utility, it would be preferable if
the power transmitted to the purchasing utility could be directly controlled. In a DC
system, the amount and direction of power transfer is determined by the controls in
response to operator inputs. This is unlike AC systems where the direction and amount of
power flow is determined indirectly by the voltages and phase angles in the AC system. In
an AC system, power flow along any one link cannot be controlled without affecting every
other link in the system.
1.5. Fast Response
In an average HVDC systems, a valve is fired every 1/12 of a cycle (every 1.4 ms). In
the worst case situation, it takes 7/12 of a cycle4 to change the valve firing from full
rectification to full inversion. Other time constants (dI/dt limits due to line smoothing
reactors, dP/dt limits on the AC bus, system transient stability) will force the response to be
slower, but the response speed of HVDC systems exceeds that of AC governors.
1.6. Low Fault Current Contribution
When two AC systems are interconnected to produce one larger AC system, a fault
on one network will be fed by generators on both systems. Therefore, as networks get
more highly interconnected, fault levels rise on the system. Interconnecting a weak system
to a strong system may raise the fault levels on the weaker system to the point where
breakers and other station equipment would have to be replaced to handle the increased
fault current. In a DC system, the controls typically limit the fault current contribution to
under twice the operating current regardless of the strength of the AC systems.

4Just short of 10 ms. This includes 1/12 of a cycle (worst case) to wait for the next firing interval plus a 1/2
cycle delay to go from full rectify to full invert.
 4

Quebec-New
England I & II
(2000 MW)
Vancouver
Island I and II Eel River
(780 MW) (320 MW)
Nelson River
McNeill
I & II Madawaska
(150 MW)
(3420 MW) (350 MW)
Chateauguay
Square Butte (1000 MW)
Miles City (500 MW)
(200 MW)
Highgate
CU (200 MW)
(1000 MW)
Pacific David A Hamill
Intertie (50 MW)
(3100 MW) Virginia Smith
(200 MW)

Intermountain
(1920 MW) Blackwater Oklaunion
(200 MW) (200 MW)

Welch
Eddy County (600 MW)
(200 MW)

Base graphic copyright EPRI 1994

Figure 2 - North American HVDC Systems

In the above figure, the dotted lines delineate the various synchronous
interconnections. Back to back links are shown as single boxes. It has been left as an
exercise for the reader5 to determine why the various HVDC links have been built where
they have.

2. Basic Components of an HVDC System

2.1. Valves General
In an HVDC system, the AC current waveform has to be chopped up into segments
and then reassembled on the DC line (or vice-versa at the inverter end). In order to do this,
we require some device whose conduction can be controlled. Very old HVDC systems
used mechanically commutated converters.

5 I’ve always wanted to say that ☺

 5

AØ BØ CØ AØ BØ CØ

DC +

AØ BØ
Synchronous Synchronous
Motor Motor
CØ

DC Commutator
DC -
Detail.

Figure 3 - Mechanical Commutation

By rotating the DC brush holders with respect to the synchronous motor stator
winding, the 'firing angle' of the system can be adjusted. Unfortunately, this kind of
converter is not very mechanically reliable and cannot withstand high voltages or currents.
In the first practical HVDC systems (1954), the conversion was performed by mercury arc
valves, but now this is done exclusively with thyristors. Industrial motor drives and static
exciters, which share the same basic architecture with HVDC systems, use bipolar
transistors, power MOSFETS, GTOs and IGBTs6 also, however the power handling
capabilities of these devices are not high enough for large scale HVDC systems. Smaller
systems (ie: ABB’s HVDC Light) are now sold which using IGBTs and GTOs. These
systems have many advantages over thyristor based HVDC systems.
2.1.1. Mercury Arc Valves
2.1.1.1. Essential Physics
Electrons can be emitted from the surface of a metal when the energy of an
individual electron exceeds what is known as the work function. One way to get more
electron emission is to heat the metal. This increases the kinetic energy of the electrons and
increases the probability that any one of them will actually leave the surface of the metal.
In vacuum tubes, the purpose of the heater is to heat the cathode7 to a temperature where it
will emit copious numbers of electrons. Another way to force electrons to be emitted from
a metal is to subject the surface of the metal to a high electric field. This field then increases
the force on the electrons in the metal to the point where their kinetic energy is sufficient to
overcome the work function. This is the method used in mercury arc valves. A carbon
electrode is inserted into the pool of mercury at the cathode and a positive voltage is
applied to it. At the meniscus, this produces a very high electric field which pulls free
electrons out of the mercury.

6These acronyms stand for Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor, Gate Turn-Off device and
Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor respectively.
7By definition, the anode is the positive terminal and the cathode is the negative terminal of an electronic
valve. This is opposite to the convention for batteries. The way to keep this straight is to remember that
inside the device, electrons are emitted from the cathode and current flows from the anode to the cathode.
 6

Carbon Electrode

Meniscus

Mercury

Figure 4 - MAV Ignitor

When electrons are emitted from a cathode, they tend to distribute themselves
throughout the available space. This space charge produces a voltage distribution
throughout the space. As the space charge density increases near the cathode, it tends to
repel emitted electrons back onto the cathode. The larger the space charge, the more force
it exerts on emitted electrons. In time, the increased voltage from the space charge will
force electrons back to the cathode at the same rate at which they are emitted from the
cathode. At this point, the space charge will be in equilibrium. If we can control the space
charge inside the device, we can control the emission of electrons from the cathode.
If an electron is accelerated by an electric field and strikes an atom with sufficient
velocity, that electron can transfer enough of its energy to the atom to knock another
electron free. We then have 2 electrons and a positively charged ion. In this way, we can
also create a space charge that can conduct a current. Unlike the space charge produced by
thermionic (a heated cathode) emission, this space charge has very little net charge, since it
consists of both positively and negatively charged particles. Therefore, the voltage drop
required to produce a given current is lower for this type of space charge.
2.1.1.2. Vacuum Tube Diode
In a vacuum tube diode, a heated cathode is used as an electron emitter. If the
anode has a negative voltage on it, the field from the anode will tend to repel the cloud of
electrons in the tube and they will cluster around the cathode, where they will build up a
large space charge. The electrostatic force from this space charge will force emitted
electrons back onto the cathode and an equilibrium will be reached where the number of
electrons leaving the cathode equals the number striking the cathode. However, if a
positive voltage is applied to the anode, the cloud of electrons will be attracted to the
anode, where they will strike it and cause an external current to flow. Since the space
charge is no longer concentrated near the cathode, more electrons will be emitted, and in
the steady state there will be a constant flow of electrons from the cathode to the anode.
In the vacuum tube diode, the maximum current is limited by the rate at which
electrons can be emitted from the cathode. Under normal conditions, it takes very little
voltage across the tube to create a large current flow. However, there is a limit to the
amount of current that can be passed through the diode. If we attempt to pass more
current through the diode than can be produced by thermionic emission at the cathode, the
diode will become starved for space charge and the voltage drop across it will rise sharply.
 7

2.1.1.3. Vacuum Tube Triode

In a vacuum tube triode, there is a mesh grid placed between the anode and
cathode. This grid does not fill the space between the anode and cathode, but the wires are
spaced closely enough that the field from it is relatively uniform. The grid allows the
voltage distribution across the tube to be distorted in such a way as to effectively shield the
anode from the cathode. If there is a negative voltage on the grid, the electric field from it
repels the space charge in the triode, keeping the emitted electrons from getting anywhere
near the anode. Because neither the anode or grid emit electrons, there is virtually no
current flow in the device. If the grid voltage is made less negative or slightly positive, it
allows the field from the anode to attract the space charge towards it and accelerates the
electrons emitted by the cathode. Since the grid has virtually no area, most of the electrons
will pass through the grid and end up at the anode, causing a current to flow from anode to
cathode. Therefore, we can use a low power signal (the grid voltage) to control a high
power signal (the anode current). The geometry of the triode determines the power gain of
the device.
2.1.1.4. Mercury Arc Valve
A mercury arc valve consists of a cathode, an ignitor, a grid structure and an anode.
The ignitor sits in a pool of mercury in the cathode and is used to create electron emission.
Evaporated mercury from the cathode fills the tube at a very low pressure. The grid
structure for a mercury arc valve has much more area than that in a similar triode.
If the grid is negatively charged, it electrostatically shields the cathode from the
anode and electrons do not pass from the cathode to the anode (the same as in a triode). If
the grid has a sufficiently positive voltage on it, its field will accelerate electrons from the
cathode towards it. If one of these electrons has sufficient velocity and strikes one of the
mercury atoms in the space between the anode and cathode, the mercury atom will ionize
and release an electron. This electron will be accelerated by the field between the anode
and cathode and it may strike another atom, producing another electron/ion pair. This
chain reaction will continue until the gas in the valve is heavily ionized. Because of the
relative masses of the positive ion and the electron (368,500:1), the ions will remain
relatively stationary and the electrons will move towards the anode. This large number of
positive ions in the valve tends to cancel most of the electrostatic forces generated by the
space charge in the valve and therefore reduces the voltage drop across the valve much
below what could be achieved in a triode of similar voltage and current ratings8.
However, this low voltage drop does not come for free. If we try to shut off a
conducting valve by applying a negative voltage to the grid, the positive ions in the valve
will be attracted to the grid and will cluster near it, canceling out the electrostatic force of
the applied voltage. Therefore, the grid will be ineffective at controlling current until the
ions in the valve are removed. The only way this can be done is by reducing the current in
the valve to zero and allowing the ions time to recombine with non-accelerated electrons
from the space charge. Therefore, in a mercury arc valve, we get much higher power
ratings and lower losses, but at the expense of control of the end of conduction interval.

8Doing some rough calculations, a triode built the size of a mercury arc valve and carrying 300A per anode
(like BC Hydro's Pole I valves) would have a voltage drop of 2,500 kV across it. The Pole I mercury arc valves
typically have about 0.150 kV drop across them.
 8

2.1.1.5. MAV Practical Considerations

When building a mercury arc valve to the size required for HVDC transmission9,
practical considerations dictate changes to the model described in the previous section (one
anode, one cathode and one grid). The voltage withstand capacity of a single grid valve is
quite low. In order to increase the voltage withstand capabilities of the valve, multiple
grids are distributed between the anode and cathode. These grids are interconnected with
a voltage divider that helps to ensure a smooth voltage gradient within the valve. When
the valve is fired, ionization occurs in the space between the cathode and the grid closest to
the cathode. This will then increase the voltage gradient between the first and second grids
and ionization will occur in this space. This sequence continues until the entire space
between anode and cathode is ionized and current then starts to flow between the anode
and cathode. Under normal conditions, this entire process takes place in approx 5 µs.
Designers of mercury arc valves were not successful in increasing the current ratings
of mercury arc valves past around 300 A for a single anode. If we want a valve that can
carry more current than that, we are forced to put multiple anodes in parallel in the valve.
This causes two problems. First, the current may not share equally between the anodes. To
solve this problem, a special multiple winding transformer is placed in series with all the
anodes. The transformer ratio and polarity are such that when current is shared equally
amongst all the anodes, no voltage is generated across the transformer secondaries. Any
current imbalance will create voltages across the non-linear resistors that will tend to force
the currents to be equal.

Current Divider

4:1 4:1 4:1 4:1

Anode 1 Anode 2 Anode 3 Anode 4

Figure 5 - MAV Current Dividers

9The valves in the Nelson River scheme are probably the largest mercury arc valves ever built, with voltage
ratings of 150 kV and current ratings of 2000 A.
 9

If the grids for all the anodes were fired simultaneously, one anode would start to
conduct before the others due to random fluctuations. When this anode starts to conduct,
the voltage of the other anodes drops to nearly zero. Due to capacitance in the grid voltage
dividers, the voltage on some grids (in the anodes that haven't started to conduct yet) may
become negative and cause that anode to stop conducting. In order to avoid this
phenomena, one anode is fired earlier than the others. Once it has started to conduct, the
current divider will hold a relatively constant voltage on the remaining anodes, which can
then be fired.
When a MAV is fired, the ionization proceeds from the bottom of the valve up
towards the anode. As each grid fires, it’s voltage drops to zero and capacitive coupling
from the voltage divider causes the voltage of the grid below it to become negative. This
causes mercury ions to be accelerated and strike the grid. Over a long period of time this
constant bombardment results in erosion of the grids. The rate of erosion is a function of
the voltage across the valve when the valve is fired (when the valve is conducting, there is
only ≈150 V across the valve, so the wear while conducting is minimal). The same
reasoning holds when a valve has multiple anodes. The first anode to fire bears the brunt
of the wear since it fires under full voltage, while the other anodes only have the lower
voltage from the current divider across them. To even out the wear, a circuit called a lead
anode switcher rotates the lead anode duty amongst all the anodes (every 15 minutes in the
original ASEA valves or every cycle in newer designs).
2.1.2. Thyristors
The thyristor (or SCR) is a solid state device. Functionally it is equivalent to an NPN
transistor and a PNP transistor wired into a positive feedback loop.

K
Figure 6 - Thyristor Equivalent Circuit
When current is injected into the gate terminal, the NPN transistor turns on, pulling
current from the anode through the base of the PNP transistor. This turns the PNP
transistor on, allowing current to flow into the load, and also into the base of the NPN
transistor. Therefore, as long as a minimum current flows through the device, each
transistor keeps the other one turned on, even if the external gate current is turned off.
Modern thyristors are fabricated on silicon wafers up to 6 inches in diameter. These wafers
are assembled into a package with electrical terminals, insulation and heat conductive
materials. Although Pole II is air cooled, most modern thyristor systems are water cooled,
with water to air heat exchangers located elsewhere.
Since modern HVDC systems operate at voltages much higher than the rating of
available thyristors, groups of thyristors must be operated in series. In order to operate a
 10

group of thyristors in series, external voltage dividers must be used across each thyristor to
balance the voltage across the thyristors when they are blocking. In addition, special
circuitry must be added to the firing circuitry of each thyristor to ensure that they all turn
on simultaneously.
2.1.3. dV/dt and dI/dt Control
Additional circuitry is required around HVDC valves to control the electrical
environment of the valve. The main variables to control are dV/dt, dI/dt and peak forward
blocking voltage.
Control of dV/dt is necessary to avoid false triggering of the valve. In a thyristor,
applying a waveform with a high dV/dt can cause capacitively coupled currents to flow in
the gate, which will retrigger the thyristor. In the worst case, the thyristor will only be
partially turned on and may be damaged. A similar phenomenon can occur in mercury arc
valves. The dV/dt withstand capability of MAVs and thyristors is even lower when the
valve has just stopped conducting and the charge carriers in the device have not yet
recombined. To control dV/dt, an RC snubber is placed across each valve.

Control of dI/dt is necessary to avoid two phenomena. The first is current spot
overload. When a thyristor is gated, it starts conducting in a small spot near the gate. This
spot spreads rapidly until the entire thyristor is conducting. The instantaneous current
rating of the thyristor is proportional to the size of the current spot. If dI/dt is too high, the
thyristor can be damaged, even though the current is less than the device's normal current
rating. The second dI/dt related phenomena is called arc quenching. When a valve is fired,
it has a similar effect to closing a switch. If the valve circuit has any resonances, they will
be excited by the sudden application of voltage. If the DC current is low, there is a
possibility that the total valve current waveform (DC plus ringing) may briefly attempt to
go negative. When this happens, the valve stops conducting, but is almost immediately
refired by the firing pulse (which has a finite duration). This process can then repeat
numerous times, resulting in a chopped current waveform and very high dV/dt across the
valve. To limit dI/dt, a small inductor is placed in series with the valve.

The final phenomena to be controlled is peak valve blocking voltage. Excessive

voltage (forward or inverse) across a valve can cause the valve to conduct uncontrollably.
In a MAV, this kind of fault is self-healing. In a thyristor, uncontrolled conduction causes
permanent damage. To guard against uncontrolled forward conduction in thyristor valves,
a special circuit called the VBO circuit fires the valve when the forward voltage exceeds a
critical value. Firing the valve reduces the blocking voltage to zero and protects the valve.
Excessive reverse voltage cannot be protected against in this way as the valves will not
conduct in the reverse direction if they are fired.
2.2. Transformers
Transformers are required in HVDC systems to keep the AC system isolated from
the DC system. They are also used to provide a 30° phase shift between the two six-pulse
groups in a twelve pulse converter. Transformers for DC systems have some special
requirements. First, they should be capable of withstanding a DC offset voltage on their
 11

windings since the valve group they are connected to may be floating at a high DC
potential. Secondly, they should be capable of withstanding large amounts of current
harmonics, since the output waveform from a valve group is a square wave. Third, the
equivalent series reactances of each transformer should be closely matched. The
transformer reactance determines the amount of time required for current to commutate
from one valve to another and if these reactances aren't matched, the conduction intervals
of the valves will not be identical. They should be capable of withstanding numerous
faults at their terminals. Valve faults can result in a temporary phase to phase fault across
the transformer. Therefore, the transformer windings should be physically robust. Finally,
there may be unique constraints on the physical layout of the transformer. Since most
HVDC installations are indoor, packing efficiencies can be achieved by arranging for one
set of the transformer bushings to pass through the wall of the valve hall.
There are three standard configurations for HVDC converter transformers. The first
is the standard three phase transformer, with either Y-Y or Y-∆ windings. The second is a
standard single phase, two winding transformer, connected externally as either Y-Y or Y-∆.
The final configuration, and the one that is unique to HVDC is a single phase three winding
transformer, with one primary and two independent secondary windings. One secondary
winding is externally connected as Y-Y and the other is externally connected as Y-∆. Since
HVDC converter stations are such unique installations, the importance of having an on-site
spare transformer available is greater than with an AC substation. Therefore, three-phase
units are not normally used in DC converter stations because of the high cost of spares.
2.3. Switchgear
Since there are no zero crossings in the DC waveform to help extinguish arcs, DC
switchgear would be very difficult to design if the valves themselves were not capable of
interrupting current. In almost all cases, the DC current is interrupted by temporarily
blocking the firing pulses to the valves. AC disconnect switches are used for DC purposes,
sometimes with all 3 phases connected in series to get greater arc length. DC circuit
breakers are rarely part of HVDC schemes, since it is easier (and faster) to interrupt fault
current via the firing controls.
2.4. DC Voltage and Current Measurement
In order to control the operation of the DC system, we first need to be able to
measure the voltages and currents in the system. Since we are not measuring AC, normal
CTs and PTs won't work and specialized transducers are needed to perform these
measurements.
Most older DC current transducers are variations on the magnetic amplifier concept.
The general idea behind magnetic amplifiers is the use of a DC current to drive a magnetic
core (or a pair of cores) partially into saturation. The amount of saturation is sensed by
applying an AC voltage to another winding and measuring the resulting current.
Depending on the turns ratio between the AC and the DC windings, the AC current can
either be larger (amplifier) or smaller (transducer) then the DC current. This AC current
can then be rectified to produce a DC current proportional to the primary DC current.
Modern DCCTs are based on Hall-effect transducers that convert magnetic flux directly to
a voltage. In a Hall-effect device, a current is driven through a small block of
semiconductive material. Any magnetic field will cause the electrons to travel in a curved
 12

path. These electrons will then hit one edge of the block, which creates a voltage between
the edges of the block which is proportional to the driving current and the applied
magnetic field.

Magnetic field applied

No magnetic field (flux goes into page)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I Electron flow V I Electron flow V

+ + + + + + + + + + + +

Figure 7 - Hall Effect Transducer

The simplest way to measure DC voltage is with a resistive voltage divider. This
technique has the disadvantage of referencing a low level control signal to the neutral point
of the DC system in the switchyard. Since this point may not be solidly tied to the ground
point of the controls, there is the possibility of large amounts of noise being injected into
the controls. This scheme can be improved with the addition of an isolation amplifier to
break the connection between the power system ground and the controls ground. Another
way to get isolation between the power system and the controls is to measure the current
through a calibrated resistor using a DCCT. This method is used on Pole II.
The latest development in current and voltage measurement is the optical
transducer. Certain materials exhibit optical properties that are a function of the electrical
or magnetic field that the material is exposed to. Optical transducers use these properties
to modulate a beam of light that passes through the material. An optical receiver at the
other end demodulates the light beam and creates an electrical analogue of the signal to be
measured.
2.5. Line/Converter Configurations
There are four basic configurations possible for point to point (ie: not multiterminal)
DC schemes. These are back to back, monopolar, homopolar and bipolar.
In a back to back scheme, the two ‘ends’ of the DC link are located at the same site.
This configuration is used for links where the two systems to be connected are
asynchronous or quasi-synchronous. The actual DC line in a back to back scheme is
usually just a short section of high-current bus.

I I

Monopolar schemes A B
A: with metallic return
B: with earth/sea return
I I

Figure 8 - Monopolar Layout

 13

In a monopolar scheme, there is one high voltage transmission line in the system.
The current flows in the line from one station to the other and then returns either in a low-
voltage conductor, or back through the earth. This is the simplest scheme possible and is
often a starting point in a staged construction scheme.

I1 I1

Homopolar schemes A B
A: with metallic return
B: with earth/sea return
I1+I2 I1+I2

I2 I2

Figure 9 - Homopolar Layout

In a homopolar scheme, there are multiple high voltage transmission lines in the
system. However, the current flows in the same direction in all lines. Designing a system
this way allows more possibilities for redundancy. Since all poles in a station operate with
the same polarity, the possibility exists of cross-coupling one pole to another (say for
maintenance purposes), or running both poles in parallel on a single line (in the event of a
line fault or line maintenance).

I1 I1

Bipolar schemes A B
A: with metallic return
B: with earth/sea return
I1-I2 I1-I2

I2 I2

Figure 10 - Bipolar Layout

In a bipolar scheme, there are two high voltage transmission lines in the system and
the directions of current flow are arranged such that the return currents for the two lines
flow in different directions and (partially) cancel each other out. This has the advantage of
lowering the current rating of the return path from 2 pu to 1 pu (assuming both poles have
equal current rating). In a earth/sea return situation, there is an additional advantage that
under normal operating conditions, the return current can be made equal to zero, thus
reducing its side effects (communications noise, corrosion and line losses)
2.6. Insulation Systems
The greatest single difference between AC and DC insulation systems has to do with
the way that the voltage gradient across the insulator is determined. In an AC system, the
voltage gradient is defined by the capacitance distribution throughout the bulk of the
 14

insulator. Unless the insulator gets severely contaminated or damaged, the voltage
distribution across it is likely to remain unchanged. In a DC insulation system, the voltage
gradient is determined by the resistive properties of the insulator. Obviously, this means
that surface contamination of the insulator will have a greater effect on the voltage
gradient. To make matters worse, the constant polarity of a DC conductor will tend to
attract contaminants from the air10 and thus get dirtier than an equivalent AC conductor or
insulator. DC insulators are typically differentiated from AC insulators by their much
longer creep lengths.
2.7. Lines and Cables
2.7.1. Impedance
In an AC line, the power that can be transmitted across a line is limited by conductor
heating and the impedance of the line. To lower the inductance of the line, conductors can
be bundled, or series capacitors can be added to the line. In a DC line, conductor heating is
slightly lower due to the absence of skin effect (1" ACSR has approx 4% greater losses at 60
Hz than at DC). Also, the inductance of the line has no effect on the transfer capability of
the line, so series capacitors or conductor bundling (to reduce reactance) are not necessary.
2.7.2. Corona
Due to the constant voltage polarity on DC lines, corona on a DC line will tend to
create a space charge around the line. This space charge electrostatically shields the line
and effectively increases the diameter of the conductor. Because of this shielding effect,
bundled conductors are rarely needed for HVDC transmission. Negatively charged
conductors tend to have higher corona losses than positively charged conductors. In a
bipolar transmission arrangement, the conductors will tend to drain the space charge off
each other, so that the net corona will be 3 to 5 times greater than for a monopolar
arrangement. In a homopolar scheme, the space charges for each conductor will tend to
shield the other conductor, thus reducing total corona losses.
2.7.3. Cable Voltage Stresses
The voltage distribution in a cable follows exactly the same mechanisms as the
voltage distribution across any other insulator. Therefore, the voltage distribution will be
proportional to the resistance as it varies across the diameter of the cable. If the
temperature across the dielectric is constant, the voltage distribution across the cable will
be the same for DC as for AC (ie: highest voltage stress near the center conductor).

10The same principle that electrostatic precipitators are based on.

 15

100% 80°C

Voltage 75% 60°C

Gradient Temperature
(kV/mm)
50% 40°C

25% 20°C
Conductor Sheath

Figure 11 - Cable Voltage Gradients (Cold)

However, the conductivity of insulation varies much more strongly with
temperature than the permittivity11 does. As the cable heats up, a temperature gradient
will build across the cable's radius and the voltage distribution will flatten out.

100% 80°C

Voltage 75% 60°C

Gradient Temperature
(kV/mm)
50% 40°C

25% 20°C
Conductor Sheath

Figure 12 - Cable Voltage Gradients (Warm)

If the cable carries enough current, the temperature gradient will be steep enough to
cause the slope of the voltage gradient curve to reverse. The maximum current capacity of
the cable will be determined by the temperature gradient that will cause the maximum
voltage gradient at the sheath.

11Permittivity (ε) describes the unit capacitance of a dielectric.

 16

100% 80°C

Voltage 75% 60°C

Gradient Temperature
(kV/mm)
50% 40°C

25% 20°C
Conductor Sheath

Figure 13 - Cable Voltage Gradients (Hot)

When a DC cable is operated at a constant voltage and temperature, polarization
charges12 will build up in the dielectric. These charges take a long time to build up in the
cable and take a long time to dissipate13. If the voltage on the cable is rapidly reversed, this
trapped charge can distort the voltage gradient to the point where the insulation can break
down. Therefore, fast reversals of voltage polarity are very dangerous in DC cables.
2.7.4. Earth/Sea Return
In order to reduce the cost of DC transmission, the earth (or sea) can be used as a
return conductor. This reduces line costs14 and line losses and increases circuit reliability.
Earth return is more feasible for DC than for AC because the earth circuit has inductance as
well as resistance, so the effective impedance of the earth is lower for DC.
Problems involved with earth/sea return are galvanic corrosion of metal structures
(pipelines, sewers, etc…) along the current path, adverse effects on fish (their bodies will
tend to line up with externally applied electric fields) and induced noise in circuitry that
has more than one reference to ground.
2.8. Thermal Management
Since all valves have a voltage drop across them when they conduct, heat is
generated in the valve as it operates. As a (very) rough approximation, a conducting valve
has a constant voltage drop across it. Therefore the losses in the valve will be proportional
to the current order.
In addition, heat is also generated by losses in the valve snubber circuits15. All this
heat needs to be dissipated in order to maintain device temperatures. Mercury arc valves
need to be maintained at a constant tank temperature in order to maintain a constant

12 Many molecules (ie: water or most anything that will dissolve in water) have an asymmetrical distribution of
electrons inside them and therefore have their own intrinsic electric field. If an external electric field is applied
to the molecule, it will rotate so that its internal electric field opposes the applied field. Since the molecules
have to physically rotate, this is a slow process.
13 The time constant for the dielectric absorption in the cables used in Pole I and Pole II is on the order of 10
hours. This means that it will take 10 hours for 63% of the polarized molecules in the dielectric to align
themselves with the field, another 10 hours for 63% of the remaining 37% to align themselves, and so on.
14In fact, earth return is dirt cheap.
15Valve snubber losses are a rather complicated function of AC voltage and firing angle, but generically
speaking, they increase as the AC voltage rises or the firing angle goes towards 90°.
 17

pressure of mercury vapor in the valve. If the tank temperature rises too high, the valve
becomes very prone to arc throughs and arc backs. If the tank temperature gets too low,
the vapor pressure drops in the valve and the maximum current that the valve can carry
drops. Thyristors can be permanently damaged by excessive junction temperatures.
HVDC converters tend to be water cooled, although most mercury arc valve
converters have a combination of air and water cooling (water cooling for the tank and air
cooling for the anodes). Some air cooled (ie: Pole II, Eel River, Square Butte and the French
side of the Cross-Channel scheme) and one oil cooled (Cahora-Bassa scheme in Africa)
thyristor converters have been built. Water cooled valves have better cooling capabilities
than air cooled valves, due to the higher heat capacity of water vs. air, however, they also
tend to have water purity (the cooling water must be kept free of ions to reduce leakage
currents) and leakage problems that air cooled valves don't have. Air cooled systems tend
to have problems with maintaining cleanliness due to the large amount of air that has to be
circulated to cool the valves.

3. Modes of operation
3.1. 6-pulse Diode Rectifier
The simplest case to consider is that of six diodes, configured as in the picture below
and connected to an AC supply and a DC load

+
1 3 5
A

C B

4 6 2
-

Figure 14 - 6 Pulse Diode Bridge

If we just consider the top three diodes, we can see that current will flow from the
phase that has the most positive instantaneous voltage through the diode to the load. The
other two phases will be reverse biased and will not conduct. If we only look at the bottom
three diodes, we can see that current will flow from the load through a diode to the phase
that has the most negative instantaneous voltage. At the point where the voltage on one
phase rises above that of the phase that was conducting, it reverse biases the diode that was
conducting and takes over the load current through its diode. Putting it all together,
current flows from the phase that has the most positive voltage through the load to the
phase that has the most negative voltage. Because the phase that has the most positive
voltage obviously doesn't have the most negative voltage, current will never flow in the
two valves connected to a phase (ie 1 and 4) at the same time. In the diagram below, the
trace labeled "Pos valves" is the voltage at the top of the bridge with respect to the Y point
of the transformer, the trace labeled "Neg valves" is the voltage on the bottom of the bridge
with respect to ground and the trace labeled "6-pulse out" is the voltage across the bridge.
 18

1.500

1.000 6 pulse
out

0.500

Pos
0.000 v alv es

-0.500
Neg
v alv es
-1.000

Figure 15 - 6 Pulse Diode Bridge Voltages

If you look at the voltage across one of the valves (valve 1 in this example), you can
see the valve conducts for 120°, then blocks for the other 240° of the cycle. In the middle of
the blocking interval, conduction shifts from valve 3 to valve 5, which changes the voltage
at the cathode of the valve. This is the reason for the hump in the blocking voltage.

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8
-1

-1.2

-1.4

-1.6

-1.8

Figure 16 - Voltage Across Diode Valve

If this circuit feeds a load that draws a constant DC current (ie a circuit with lots of
inductance), the current in the valves will be square waves as shown in the diagram below.
Note that there is always one "positive" and one "negative" valve conducting at any given
time. Note also that the conduction period for a "positive" valve overlaps that for two of
the "negative" valves and vice versa.
 19

Valve 1
Valve 3
Valve 5

Time (°) 0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600 660 720
Valve 2
Valve 4
Valve 6

Figure 17 - 6 Pulse Bridge Currents

3.2. Controlled 6-pulse Rectifier and Alpha
If we use thyristors instead of diodes in the above circuit, we have some measure of
control over the time at which a valve starts to conduct, since a thyristor will not conduct
until the voltage across it is positive and a gate pulse is applied to it. If we choose to fire
the thyristors at some angle (say 30°) after the first possible moment that they could be
fired, then commutation from the previous valve will not occur until this time. The output
waveform will follow the AC waveform of that phase until commutation and so the
average value of the voltage waveform will be lower than if the valves were naturally
commutated. The following diagrams show the voltage waveforms for the positive and
negative sides of the 6-pulse bridge, and the waveform for the entire bridge. The angle that
the firing pulse is delayed from the first possible time that it could be fired is called α
(alpha). If α = 0, then the bridge operates as a diode bridge and produces maximum
voltage. As α is increased, the voltage decreases, going to zero at α = 90°. If α is increased
even more, then the voltage goes negative and reaches a negative peak as α approaches
180°. Mathematically, the output voltage can be described by VDC = 1.35 ⋅ Vll ⋅ cos(α ) 16 ,
where Vll is the line to line AC voltage on the converter transformer secondaries.

1.500

1.000 6 pulse
out

0.500

Pos
0.000 valves

-0.500
Neg
valves
-1.000

α = 30°)
Figure 18 - 6 Pulse Bridge Voltages (α
There are a few things to note in the voltage waveform across the valve. First, the
voltage across the valve actually is positive for some part of the cycle. This is a direct

16See Appendix 1 for the long-winded derivation.

 20

consequence of delaying the firing of the valve. Note also the large voltage change across
the valve when it stops conducting and the jump when valve 5 is fired.

0.5

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2

α = 30°)
Figure 19 - Voltage Across Valve (α
3.3. Controlled 12-pulse Rectifier
If we take two 6-pulse bridges, connect them in series and fire the valves at the same
angle, we will get a waveform that looks identical to the 6-pulse case, but which has twice
the amplitude. Now if one of those bridges is fed from a Y-Y transformer and the other is
fed from a Y-∆ transformer, the voltages going to the two bridges will be 30° out of phase
with each other. If the valves are fired at the same delay angle with respect to the voltage
waveforms going into them, the voltage waveforms coming out of the two bridges will be
identical, but displaced by 30°. Adding these two waveforms together reduces the ripple in
the output waveform.

3.000
12-pulse
2.500 out

2.000
6 pulse
1.500 out

1.000

0.500 Pos
valves
0.000

-0.500 Neg
valves
-1.000

α = 30°)
Figure 20 - 12 Pulse Bridge Voltages (α
3.4. Commutation and µ
All the previous discussion was based on the assumption that when a valve is fired,
all current immediately transfers over from the other valve. This assumption is not true.
 21

There is some inductance (mainly from the converter transformer windings) in series with
each valve and that inductance limits the rate of change of current flow through the valve.

DC Current

V1
Xc

Commutating current Conducting

Just Fired

V2 > V1
Xc

di = V2 - V1
dt
2⋅ X c
Figure 21 - Commutation
Conceptually, the current in a valve during commutation can be broken into two
parts - a constant DC current and varying commutation current. The commutation current
starts at zero Amps and rises at a rate proportional to the instantaneous voltage difference
across the two phases in question. When the commutating current is equal to the DC
current, the current has been commutated from one valve to the other and commutation is
complete. The time taken to commutate the current from one valve to another depends on
the current (the more current, the longer it takes), the firing angle (the closer the firing
angle is to 90°, the higher the voltage difference between phases, therefore commutation
will take less time) and the series reactance of the converter transformers17. This time
period is called µ. During the commutation period, both valves are conducting, therefore
the voltage on the DC bus is the average of that of the two conducting phases. This causes
notches in the DC waveform which lower the average value of the DC voltage.

1.500

1.000 6 pulse
out

0.500

Pos
0.000 v alv es

-0.500
Neg
v alv es
-1.000

17See Section 10.2 for a derivation of the relationship between µ, α, Xc and the AC bus voltage.
 22

µ = 20°)
Figure 22 - Commutation Voltage Notches (µ
The voltage drop from these notches is mathematically equivalent to that which
3
would be caused by a series resistor with a value of ⋅ XC , where Xc is the series reactance
π
of the transformer winding. This gives us our final equation for the output voltage of a 6-
3
pulse rectifier bridge VDC = 1.35 ⋅ Vll ⋅ cos(α) − ⋅ XC ⋅ IDC .
π
3.5. Inverters, Gamma and Beta
If you built a 6-pulse bridge and connected it to a passive load, you would discover
that it could only deliver power to the load for firing angles (α) in the range of 0° to 90°. If,
however, you connected this bridge to an external DC power supply, you would find that
you could fire the valves at angles greater than 90° and that this would feed power from
the DC network through the bridge back into the AC network. Inverter operation is
dependent on an external source being able to force current through the inverter valves.

Current Current

+ +

Power Power
Load Power
Source
- -
Rectifier Inverter

Figure 23 - Rectifiers and Inverters

In an inverter, the valves are fired while the voltage across them is still positive, then
conduction continues until the next valve is fired (even though the voltage across the valve
is positive when the valve is fired, it is negative for the majority of the conduction interval).
To measure the firing angle of an inverter, you could use α, but there are two other
measurements that are more useful. The first measurement is β (beta), which is defined as
180° - α. β measures the time from the firing of the valve to the last possible instance when
the valve could have been fired (the point where the voltage across the valve goes
negative). This is not terribly useful, since the valve has to be fired early enough so that
commutation actually has time to complete before the valve voltage reverses. A more
useful measure is γ (gamma). Gamma measures the time from when the valve has
completed commutating to the next valve to when the voltage across the valve goes
positive. A valve will stop conducting 120° + µ after it has been fired18 and the voltage
across the valve will become positive 300° after the first possible moment the valve could
be fired19. Putting this all together, we get:
α + (120° + µ) + γ = 300°
∴ γ = 180° -α - µ

18Assuming a constant firing angle. Therefore, the equations that follow will not necessarily hold while the
firing angle is being changed.
19180° plus another 120° due to the fact that while the valve is conducting, the next valve fires, shifting the
voltage across the first valve by 120°.
 23

∴ γ = β - µ.

Valve 1 can be fired Valve 1 cannot be fired Valve 3 must be fired before this
now. Alpha is after this time. Beta is time. Gamma for Valve 1 is
measured forwards measured backwards measured backwards from this
from this point. from this point. point.

TØ

RØ

SØ

α β µ γ
180° 120°

120°

Figure 24 - α, β , γ and µ

This is how the standard definition of gamma as β - µ is derived. Note that in the
real world, we measure gamma by measuring the time between when the valve stops
conducting and when the voltage across the valve is positive. Because of this, there is a
subtle trap that comes up if you try and control gamma. Gamma is an after the fact
measurement. By the time you have measured gamma on a valve, it is too late to do
anything about it20. Therefore, any control scheme that controls gamma has to allow some
margin from the minimum gamma in order to compensate for the fact that the controls are
using old data.
If we try to keep gamma very low, then there is the possibility that it may become
negative (remember that we control it first and measure it later). If gamma is negative, the
valve that the current is being commutated out of will have a positive voltage across it

20 In fact, in order to measure γ on valve 1, you have to wait until you have fired valve 3, so the delay is about
a half a cycle.
 24

before the current reaches zero and current will commutate back into it. This is known as a
commutation failure.
Gamma is also a measure of the amount of time the valve has to recover its voltage
blocking capability. Charge carriers have to be swept out of the device after it has stopped
conducting in order for the device to regain voltage blocking capacity. If gamma is too
small, the valve will not have regained full blocking capability when the voltage across it is
positive and the valve will begin to conduct again.

4. Valve Faults
This is only a quick summary of the various types of valve faults and a guide to
identification on the VIT and Arnott fault recorders. For a fuller explanation of the various
types of valve faults, see Chapter 6 in Kimbark. In all the traces shown below, the valve
arrangement is as shown below.
C
RC SC TC
R (AØ)

S (BØ)

T (CØ)
RA SA TA
A

Figure 25 - Bridge with Labels

4.1. Arc backs (MAV only)
In an arc back, a valve that is supposed to be blocking negative voltage loses its
blocking capability and conducts current in the reverse direction. This creates a short
circuit across two phases of the AC line. The fault current is limited only by the
commutating reactance of the transformer and can be very large. Since arc backs can only
occur when the voltage across the valve is negative, arc backs are much more common in
rectifiers (voltage is negative for 240° - α - µ) than in inverters (voltage is negative for γ). In
addition, arc backs in rectifiers have much higher peak currents than inverters because in
an inverter, the voltage that is driving the fault current remains positive for a very short
interval. Some of the factors that can contribute to high arc back rates are high tank
temperature, loss of tank vacuum, high firing angle and high dI/dt just before current
extinction.
 25

Figure 26 - Arc-back at inverter

In the above fault recording, valve RC suffers an arc-back21 after valve SC fires.
When the current in RC hits zero, normally the valve would stop conducting and block the
negative voltage across it. In this case, the valve is unable to block and starts conducting in
the reverse direction (the negative current pulse at A). The voltage from SØ to RØ drives
current from T1 SØ through SC, backwards through RC and back to T1 RØ. When the
direction of the driving voltage reverses (approx γ° later), the current in RC starts to
reverse. If no other valves were fired, the current would commutate from SC to RC and SC
would block. Valve RA is then fired, which puts a short circuit (RA to RC) directly across
the bridge. The voltage across the group falls to zero and the current rises at a rate limited
by the line smoothing reactors. At B, valve SA is fired, which attempts to commutate

21Note: on the fault recorder traces in this document, R, S and T are the European equivalents of the North
American A, B and C phase designations. Also, positive current on the fault recorder trace corresponds
(normally) to conduction of the C valves (common cathode) and negative current corresponds to conduction of
the A valves (common anode). Therefore, the positive current segment of AØ current corresponds to
conduction of valve RC. Also Pole I voltage polarities on the fault recorder are reversed due to a 180° phase
shift in T1/2/5/6. The fault recordings shown here have the correct polarity.
 26

current from RA. Unfortunately, the firing angle has not been changed enough to
compensate for the larger line current22 and SA suffers a commutation failure. One half
cycle later (at D), SC fires and is successful in restoring commutation. Note that there is no
current recorded in CØ for the duration of the event (C). This is because when valve TA
and TC are fired, the voltages do not allow commutation from RØ. This is an easy way to
determine which pair of valves is shorted in a valve fault. The phase with no current is the
phase before the faulted phase.

Figure 27 - Arc-back at rectifier

The example above is an arc back at the rectifier. As you can see, the magnitude of
the fault currents is much higher at the rectifier than at the inverter. In this example, valve
TC has an arc back when SA stops conducting. Current flows forwards through RC and
then backwards through TC.
4.2. Consequential Arc backs (MAV only)
In an arc back, the fault current flows backwards through one anode of the faulted
valve and forwards through one other valve in the bridge. The heating effect of the fault
current makes the other valve more prone to an arc back. If the other valve arcs back when
it is supposed to block, the arc back will continue for another cycle. This sequence of

22Remember, it takes longer to commutate a large current than a small one.

 27

alternating arc backs in the two valves can continue indefinitely and usually is stopped by
opening the breakers feeding the converter transformer.
4.3. Arc throughs (MAV only)
In an arc through, a valve that is supposed to be blocking positive voltage loses its
blocking ability and conducts current in the forward direction. In a rectifier, this is
equivalent to firing the valve early and causes only a minor disturbance23. Since the valve
voltage is only positive for α°, arc throughs are very rare in rectifiers. In an inverter, the
valve voltage is positive for 240° - β, and so arc throughs are much more likely. In an
inverter, an arc through short circuits the bridge and causes the DC line voltage to drop to
zero. Normal commutation will clear the short, and unless the cause of the arc through
persists, normal operation will continue. Some of the factors that can contribute to high arc
through rates are high tank temperature, vacuum leaks and contamination of the grid
fingers.

23Arc throughs in a rectifier are usually unnoticeable unless you happen to manually trigger the fault recorder
at the right time.
 28

Figure 28 - Arc through at inverter

In the above recording, valve TA suffers an arc through when valve RC is fired
(most arc throughs occur when a valve is fired, since this causes high dV/dt across other
valves in the group). When TA starts conducting, it quickly commutates current from SA
(C). Once SA blocks, there is no path for AC current through the bridge and the three
phase currents drop to zero (at B). This is a typical sign of an arc through. The DC current
flows through valves TA and TC. Valve RC tries to commutate the current out of TC, but
fails due to the increased line current. The commutation attempt by RA also fails (D), but
the next attempt (by RC) succeeds.
4.4. Commutation Failures (MAV or thyristor, inverter only)
A commutation failure at an inverter occurs when there is insufficient time for a
valve to commutate current after it has been fired. This can be as a result of a dip in the AC
bus voltage at the inverter, or a late firing pulse from the controls. In a commutation
failure, current is still flowing in the valve when the voltage across the valve becomes
positive. When this occurs, current is commutated back from the valve that just fired.
 29

When the next valve is fired, it causes a short circuit across the bridge. A commutation
failure is not really a fault of the valve, but an inability of the controls to predict future
system conditions. In the DFR fault record, there appears to be a fault on R phase (at ‘A’)
which effectively advances the zero crossing point between R and T phase voltages. Note
that the current has not yet commutated out of valve TC at point ‘A’, so when the R-T
voltage polarity reverses, the current in TC starts increasing again. At point ‘B’, valve TA
is fired and the bridge is shorted through TA and TC. After two unsuccessful commutation
attempts, valve RA finally commutates current out of TA and the bridge continues
running.

Figure 29 - Commutation Failure at Inverter

5. Filters and VAR consumption

5.1. VAR Consumption
In a normal 6 or 12 pulse bridge acting as a rectifier, a valve can only fire after the
voltage across it has become positive. The valve will conduct for 120°, then the valve that
 30

commutates the current from it fires. It can be shown that the current through the valve
lags the voltage across the valve by α + µ/2.

Center of AC bus voltage waveform

Center of current waveform
0°

Phase Voltage 60°

pf

α u

Phase Current

60° + u/2 120° + u

Figure 30 - Power Factor of Converter
Therefore, the valve group always operates at a lagging power factor. If the
waveforms for an inverter are inspected, you will see that the inverter also operates at a
lagging power factor with an angle of γ + µ/224. Because a valve can not fire before the
voltage across it is positive, HVDC systems always absorb VARs from the AC supply. The
amount of VARs consumed is a function of the firing angle and the current order. For this
reason, all HVDC installations contain a source of leading VARs to compensate for the
lagging VARs of the converters.

24Actually,
the shape of the current waveform during commutation is not a straight line as shown. The actual
waveform is a section of a sine wave (the same waveform you see during an arc back). Because of this, the
actual power factor will be slightly worse than α + µ/2.
 31

Pole I MVAR vs MW
gamma = 16°, VDC = 260 kV

200

M
V
A 100
R
s

0
0 100 200 300 400
MW
Figure 31 - Pole I MVAR vs MW
There are four possible sources of VARs for HVDC stations; capacitor banks,
harmonic filters, synchronous condensers and static VAR compensators. Of the four,
harmonic filters are potentially the cheapest source of VARs since they have to be installed
anyway to absorb the harmonics created by the converters. Unfortunately, they provide
the least operating flexibility since they always have to be connected to the AC bus in order
to absorb harmonics.
Capacitor banks provide more operating flexibility than harmonic filters, but their
Q-V characteristic is not optimum. The VAR output of a capacitor bank (or harmonic filter,
for that matter) is determined by the formula Q = CV2. What this means is as the AC bus
voltage rises, the capacitor bank VAR output also rises and as the bus voltage falls, the
VAR output also falls. In terms of supplying VARs for the DC or regulating the AC bus
voltage this is not a good thing, as insufficient VARs are available when they are really
needed and too many are available when they are not needed. Capacitor banks also reduce
the short-circuit capacity of the AC bus and can resonate with the system impedance at
unwanted frequencies. On the positive side, capacitor banks (and harmonic filters)
compensate for system reactance and will tend to decrease commutation time.
 32

1.5

1.25
Volts

0.75

0.5
0 2.5 5 7.5 10

VARs

Figure 32 - Switched Capacitor QV Characteristics

Synchronous condensers can be controlled fairly quickly, have a good Q-V
characteristic (their VAR limits actually go up as the AC bus voltage goes up or down) and
can store energy in their rotational inertia. This stored energy increases the short circuit
ratio of the bus to which it is connected and enhances commutation. Unfortunately, they
are the most expensive source of VARs and require the most maintenance.
 33

1.50

1.25
Volts

1.00

0.75

0.50
-5.00 -2.50 0.00 2.50 5.00 7.50

VARs

Figure 33 - Synchronous Condensor QV Characteristics

Static VAR compensators have most of the advantages of synchronous condensers
(except for energy storage) and are cheaper, with faster controls. Unfortunately, because
SVCs are based on switched capacitors and reactors, the VAR limits of the SVC are a
function of the AC bus voltage. This limits the amount of boost available at low voltage.
Because the controls for SVCs have bandwidths similar to HVDC controls, there can be
possible interaction between the two controls. On the positive side, the two controls can be
coordinated to improve the response of the composite system.
 34

1.50

1.25
Volts

1.00

0.75

0.50
-5.00 -2.50 0.00 2.50 5.00 7.50

VARs

Figure 34 - SVC QV Characteristics

5.2. Harmonic Creation
In an HVDC system, the direct current is smoothed with a line reactor and
commutated from valve to valve. As a result of this, the valve currents are quasi-square
waves. If a Fourier analysis is done on the ideal current waveforms for a 6-pulse group, it
can be found that the harmonics on the AC system are of the order 6n ± 1, where n is a
positive integer (ie n = 1 gives 5 and 7 while n = 2 gives 11 and 13). For a 12-pulse group,
the characteristic harmonics are 12n ± 1. In both these cases, the magnitude of each
harmonic is proportional to 1/n. In the real world, the magnitude of the harmonics are not
as high as in the theoretical case since commutation from one valve to another is not
instantaneous. The effect of a finite commutation time is to smooth out the valve current
waveforms and reduce the magnitude of the higher harmonics. The magnitude of the
current harmonics depends on the current order and the firing angle (the commutation
time µ is a function of firing angle and current). If the valves are not fired at exactly the
same point on the waveform on every valve (ie Pole I) or the valve and commutating
impedances are not identical, non-characteristic (ie not 6n ± 1 or 12n ± 1) harmonics will be
generated. In addition to the harmonics generated on the AC bus, harmonics will also be
generated on the DC line. These harmonics are simply integer multiples of the pulse
number (ie 6n or 12n).
AC and DC harmonics are not independent of each other. Harmonics on the DC
line will be demodulated by the converter action according to the equation
fAC = fDC ± 60 H z and show up on the AC bus as different harmonics. For example, a 60
Hz current on the DC line (perhaps induction from a parallel AC line) will show up in the
AC system as 0 Hz and 120 Hz currents. The DC current in the converter transformers can
cause them to saturate, which then creates AC harmonics (which may cross modulate to the
 35

DC side and cause problems there). The same phenomenon occurs with harmonics and
negative and positive sequence currents on the AC side.
If one looks at harmonics from the point of view of a rotating machine, an
interesting phenomena occurs. All triplen harmonics (of order 3n) appear to be zero
sequence, since the waveforms are in phase for all three phases. Harmonics of order 3n + 1
appear positive sequence and harmonics of order 3n - 1 appear negative sequence25.
Harmonic # 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 25
Sequence - + - + - + - +
Since the 5th and 11th harmonics are negative sequence, they can cause overheating
in motors since their phase rotation is in the opposite direction to the rotation of the
motors.

VA
θ

VB
θ

VC
θ

-1
1 θ 360
Figure 35 - Fundamental. Phase rotation is A-B-C. Positive sequence.

VA
θ

VB
θ

VC
θ

-1
1 θ 360
Figure 36 - 3rd harmonic. All 3 phases in sync. Zero sequence.

25 It should be pointed out that this analysis is based on the harmonics in each phase being equal in amplitude
and having the same phase relationship with the 60 Hz phase quantities. In the real world, single phase and
nd
unbalanced harmonics can exist. Therefore, even though 2 harmonic is considered a negative sequence
harmonic, it can still show up in a transformer neutral.
 36

VA
θ

VB
θ

VC
θ

-1
1 θ 360
Figure 37 - 5th harmonic. Phase rotation is A-C-B. Negative sequence.

VA
θ

VB
θ

VC
θ

-1
1 θ 360
Figure 38 - 7th Harmonic. Phase rotation is A-B-C. Positive sequence.
Current harmonics on the AC system tend to cause telephone interference, increased
motor losses, capacitor overloading and other problems. Therefore, these current
harmonics must be reduced before they can leave the station.
5.3. Harmonic Filters
There are two basic filter arrangements that can be used to prevent harmonics
generated by a HVDC converter from leaving the station. A parallel resonant circuit
(which has high impedance at the resonant frequency) can be inserted in series with circuits
leaving the station. Disadvantages of this arrangement are that the filters have to be sized
to pass the entire current from the converter (which tends to make the filters very large)
and the fact that the entire filter floats at line potential, which increases construction costs.
In addition, this type of arrangement causes very high harmonic voltages to be present on
the station buses. Instead, series resonant circuits (which have low impedance at the
resonant frequency) are usually connected between the AC bus and ground to shunt the
harmonics away from the rest of the power system.
There are three common configurations for harmonic filters: single tuned band pass,
double tuned band pass and high pass. A single tuned band pass filter has a low
impedance at only one frequency. This is the configuration used for the 5th, 7th, 11th, and
13th harmonic filters at VIT and Arnott. Double tuned band pass filters have low
impedance at two frequencies, with a high impedance hump at a third frequency between
the two tuned frequencies. Double tuned filters can be smaller and cheaper than two single
tuned filters and are often used where the addition VARs supplied by two single tuned
filters are not required. The sharpness of tuning of a band pass filter is a function of the
resistance in the circuit (either inductor winding resistance or added series resistors). If
 37

there is very little resistance in the filter, the tuning is very narrow and attenuation at the
tuned frequency is very high. Adding resistance makes the filter less effective at the
resonant frequency, but broadens the tuning and therefore makes the filter less sensitive to
changes in system frequency or changes in filter component values. High pass filters are
used to filter out the higher frequency, lower amplitude harmonics (usually the 17th
harmonic and above), where it would be uneconomical to build individual filters for each
harmonic.

single tuned double tuned

band pass band pass high pass

actual equivalent at equivalent at

schematic low frequencies high frequencies

Figure 39 - Filter Configurations

Tuned filters appear capacitive below their resonant frequency. Therefore, they can
be used as VAR support for the converters. Since the resonant frequency of a single tuned
1
filter is , there are an infinite number of combinations of L and C that can be used
2 π ⋅ LC
to filter a specific frequency. By choosing the value of C to give the required amount of
VARs at 60 Hz, L can then be chosen to tune the filter. Alternatively, L can be set to the
same value for all filters, then C chosen to tune the filters. In the real world both
approaches are balanced off against each other to get the required amount of VARs and
“standard” inductor values.
5.3.1. Harmonic Filter Capacitors
Due to the requirement for high voltage withstand and “large” capacitance values,
capacitors for HVDC filters are built up from series parallel combinations of individual
capacitor cans. These individual cans are also built up from series parallel combinations of
 38

individual capacitor elements26. In order to understand the criteria for protecting the
capacitor bank, it is necessary that we understand how the cans are configured internally
and how the individual elements fail.
There are three main styles of high voltage capacitor; internally fused, externally
fused and fuseless. Each of the three styles demands a slightly different internal
construction and may depend on subtleties of the actual capacitor roll construction.

Internally Fused Externally Fused Fuseless

...
...

... ...

Figure 40 - Filter Capacitor Internal Design

Internally fused capacitors contain a fuse for each element. If an element fails, the
fuse will blow and disconnect the element from the rest of the circuit. Note that in this
scheme, there must be parallel elements in a can or you will lose continuity when an
element fails. As fuses blow in a level of parallel elements, the capacitance of that level
decreases and the voltage across the remaining elements in that level increases. If too
many elements in a level fail, the voltage across the level will exceed the interrupting
capability of the internal fuse, the fuse will not clear and the can will explode. To limit this
voltage rise, a fairly large number of elements are usually placed in parallel in a can.
Externally fused capacitors have no fuses inside the can, but instead rely on one
larger fuse mounted outside the can. Externally fused capacitors must be installed with
multiple cans in parallel or you will lose continuity when a fuse blows.
Fuseless capacitors are a more recent development and are based on the use of a
slightly different dielectric than the older paper in oil. The dielectric in a fuseless capacitor
is a plastic film. The film, and the aluminum electrodes, are designed such that when the
capacitor fails, the dielectric melts and the aluminum electrodes essentially spot weld
themselves together. Since the failure of an element predictably results in that element
being short-circuited, faults are self-clearing. Due to the failure mode of these elements
(short circuit vs open circuit), individual elements in a can are usually arranged in series
strings.

26 These elements are also called “rolls” since they consist of two sheet conductors and a dielectric rolled
together into a flattened oval cylinder.
 39

5.3.2. Harmonic Filter Reactors

Reactors for harmonic filter duty have slightly different design criteria than those for
VAR compensation duty. In fact, in terms of inductance and voltage rating, HVDC filter
reactors are closer in rating to distribution fault current limiting reactors than they are to
transmission shunt reactors. Due to the low required inductance and the fact that large
amounts of harmonic currents flow through them, harmonic filter reactors are often air
cored devices27, although work has been done on iron cored inductors where the core can
be adjusted to tune the filter.
5.4. Active Cancellation
A recent development in HVDC systems has been the development of active
harmonic cancellation systems. In these systems, a large power amplifier is used to inject
out of phase current harmonics onto the AC or DC bus. These current harmonics cancel
the harmonics generated by the valve groups. The advantages of active cancellation are
cheaper hardware, more flexibility in the operation of VAR sources (harmonic filters have
to be in service all the time, while capacitor banks don't), self protection (the controls will
limit the amount of harmonics absorbed to stay within the limits of the amplifier) and the
abolishment of filter tuning problems (the system will track the harmonics even if the
system frequency drifts). Disadvantages are complexity and the requirement for a power
source.

DC Line
Coupling Capacitor

AC Bus Injection
Transformer

Power
Filter Controls
Amp

Figure 41 - Active Harmonic Cancellation on DC bus

5.5. Capacitor Commutated Converter (CCC)
A recent development in HVDC systems (or rather, a redevelopment of an old idea)
is the capacitor commutated converter. One of the disadvantages of regular converters is
fact that for normal firing angles, the converter consumes approximately 0.5 VAR for every
Watt transmitted. This VAR loss is mostly due to the phase shift caused by the delayed
firing of the valves and partly as a result of the transformer inductance. In DC links with
weak AC systems on the inverter end28, this VAR consumption can cause voltage collapse
and limit the amount of power that can be transmitted on the DC link. To counteract this,
one can use series capacitor compensation, as is used on long transmission lines. The series
capacitor bank is connected between the system and the converter, and advances the phase

27 The required inductance is low enough that installing an iron core won’t save much money on the windings.
Also, an air-cored device will have no core losses, which increase with frequency.
28 An awful lot of them - why do you think they're sending the power there?
 40

angle of the voltage applied to the valves, which allows the valves to be fired earlier in
relation to the bus voltage, which reduces the VAR consumption of the converter. Since
the VAR compensation provided by the series capacitors is in proportion to the current
drawn by the converter, it automatically tracks the VAR consumption of the converter.
This also allows the designer to spec smaller filter banks, since they are only required for
filtering, and not VAR support.

6. Control Strategies
6.1. Standard V-I characteristics
It should be understood from the start that the HVDC characteristics shown in the
following drawings are not natural properties of 6 or 12-pulse bridges. The characteristics
of HVDC systems comes from the controls varying the firing angle to control some other
variable. It should also be understood that the characteristics that are usually drawn are
based on variations in V and I that are fast enough not to force tapchanger control, but
slow enough that control time constants do not affect things. Because of this, slow
variations in V or I will cause the characteristics themselves to move (due to tapchanger
control), medium speed variations in V or I will cause the operating point to move along
the characteristic, and high speed variations in V or I will cause the operating point to end
up somewhere on the characteristic. In the high-speed case, there is no guarantee that the
trajectory followed by V and I will lie along the characteristic.
6.2. Constant V mode
In constant voltage mode (usually used at the inverter) the firing angle is varied to
keep the DC line voltage constant. The characteristic for const V mode is shown below

Figure 42 - Constant V Mode

In constant voltage mode, the tapchanger control is usually used to keep the firing
angle within certain bounds. This is the normal mode of control on Pole II at VIT. The
advantages of constant V mode over constant γ are easy setting of power flow (using
constant I mode at the rectifier) and reduced sensitivity to AC voltage disturbances at the
inverter. The disadvantage of constant V mode is that the valves are fired at a slightly
higher angle that for constant γ mode, so VAR consumption is higher.
6.3. Const I mode
In constant current mode, the firing angle is adjusted to keep the DC line current at a
constant value. This is the standard mode of control at the rectifier and the standard mode
at the inverter if the line current falls below the inverter current order (which is set lower
 41

than the rectifier current order). The inverter will only switch to constant current mode if
the rectifier is incapable of supplying its current order due to the line voltage being too
high.

Figure 43 - Constant I Mode

6.4. Constant Angle (alpha or beta) Mode
In constant angle mode, the firing angle is held constant. This control mode gives a
relatively flat characteristic, with a slight slope from the effect of commutating reactance29.
In rectifier mode (const α), the commutating reactance reduces the output voltage of the
bridge, while in inverter mode (const β), the commutating reactance increases the voltage
drop across the bridge. The two curves are actually parallel (as in the drawing on the left),
its just that we have a different polarity convention for inverters, so the drawing gets
flipped (as in the drawing on the right). A constant α mode is usually used as a limit on the
rectifier if constant current mode cannot supply the current order.

+ Const α Const β

V
I I

- Const β

Figure 44 - Constant Angle Modes

29Remember that the effect of the commutating reactance is equivalent to that of a resistor of value 3/π · Xc in
series with the DC line.
 42

6.5. Constant Gamma Mode

In constant gamma mode, the firing angle at the inverter is adjusted to maintain the
margin of commutation (gamma) at a value slightly larger than the minimum gamma
required for successful commutation. At a given current order, this mode produces the
highest DC line voltage and the lowest VAR consumption at the inverter. Since
commutation takes longer at higher DC line currents, the firing angle (β) has to be raised to
maintain constant gamma when the current order is raised. This change in firing angle
causes the slope of the V-I curve to be the opposite of that for constant β mode.
Theoretically, the slope of the V-I curve should be the same as that for constant α, but
transmission line resistance adds to the slope, making it a little steeper than that for
constant α. In constant gamma mode, tapchanger control is used to regulate the DC line
voltage.

Figure 45 - Constant γ Mode

6.6. Constant Q
In constant Q mode, the firing angle is adjusted to keep the reactive power output to
the AC bus constant. This is very important in cases where the inverter is on a very weak
AC bus. Operating an inverter into a weak AC bus can cause two problems. If a
commutation failure occurs at the inverter, the inverter will temporarily block, reducing
the VAR consumption to zero. This sudden change in VAR consumption will cause a large
rise in the AC bus voltage, which can cause subsequent commutation failures in the DC,
which can cause large changes in the AC bus voltage, etc. The second situation occurs
when an operator decides to increase the power flow through the DC. When the current
order is increased, the commutation angle increases, which raises the VAR consumption of
the DC. The increased VAR consumption lowers the AC bus voltage and the actual power
flow through the DC may actually drop. In these situations, constant Q mode can reduce
the effect of the HVDC on the weak AC system.
 43

Figure 46 - Constant Q Mode

6.7. Constant P
In constant power mode, the firing angle is adjusted to keep the product of line
voltage and line current constant. This mode is usually used in conjunction with constant
current or constant voltage mode at the other end and usually is implemented over a
certain range, with voltage and current limits outside of that region. Neither Pole I or Pole
II use this control method, but the Joint Pole Control can adjust the Pole I and II current
orders to emulate this mode. Constant power mode has the disadvantage that depending
on the control scheme at the other end, the inverter and rectifier characteristics may cross at
two points, which causes unstable operation. In addition, constant power mode may
initiate voltage collapse when used on a weak bus. In constant power mode, a drop in the
AC bus voltage causes an increase in current (and VAR consumption), which can cause
further collapse in the AC bus voltage. If the system is weak enough, the bus voltage may
collapse.

Figure 47 - Constant P Mode

6.8. Voltage Dependent Current Order Limit
In the event of a fault on the DC system, typical control strategies will attempt to
maintain the current order even though the DC voltage has collapsed. Many systems
incorporate a voltage dependent current order (VDCOL), similar to foldback current
limiting in bench power supplies.
 44

Figure 48 - VDCOL at Rectifier

In this example, the rectifier has a voltage dependent current order limit and in the
event of a line fault, the current order will be reduced to the lower value to reduce power
dissipated in the fault and lower stresses on the valves. The VDCOL will also reduce the
VAR consumption of the converter under these circumstances, which can help avoid
voltage collapse on the AC bus.
6.9. Combined Inverter/Rectifier Curves
By itself, a rectifier or inverter characteristic means nothing. The operating point of
an HVDC system is determined by the intersection of the rectifier and inverter
characteristics. Therefore, the rectifier and inverter characteristics have to be coordinated
with respect to each other in order for the operating point to follow the correct path under
all circumstances.

B
C
V

D A

Figure 49 - Combined Rectifier/Inverter Characteristics

In most HVDC literature, there is one HVDC characteristic that is usually
considered to be the standard minimum control. In this control scheme (shown above) the
rectifier attempts to keep a constant current flowing through the DC link (section A). The
inverter fires at its minimum gamma in an attempt to keep the DC line voltage as high as
possible (section C). If this was the extent of the control strategy (ie: only sections A and
C), then a drop in bus voltage at the rectifier could reduce the voltage capacity of the
rectifier enough so that the two characteristics no longer overlapped. If this happened, the
operating point could oscillate wildly, although the final operating point would almost
certainly be 0 Volts, 0 Amps.
Since we want to guarantee that the two converter characteristics will always
intersect, we add additional sections to each converters characteristic. If the rectifier cannot
 45

decrease its angle enough to keep maintain the current order (DC line voltage is too high),
the rectifier will remain at a minimum firing angle α (section Β). If the line current drops
below the inverter's current order (which is set less than the rectifier's by an amount called
the current margin), the inverter will switch from gamma control to current control (section
D) and lower the line voltage enough to permit the inverter current order to flow. This
allows the operating point of the HVDC system to be well defined under almost all system
operating conditions.
You will notice that, even for this simple case, the complete characteristic for the
HVDC link involves 2 separate modes at each end. These two modes (const I and const
angle) are the most common. Most HVDC systems use more modes and switch between
them to create the complete characteristic of the system. In addition, there is usually a
slower level of control that adjust the tapchangers to try and keep the angles within certain
limits in the other modes.

2
V

Figure 50 - AC Fault at Rectifier

In the above diagram the rectifier is operating along operating characteristic 1 when
a fault occurs near the rectifier AC bus, lowering the bus voltage. As a result of the
lowered bus voltage, the rectifier characteristic changes from 1 to 2. When this happens,
the combined characteristic follows the dotted path (actually, it may not follow exactly
because the characteristics are static and the behaviour here is dynamic) from the first
equilibrium point to the second. In a typical system, the operating point would return to
normal when the fault cleared, or if the voltage drop was due to a change in the system
configuration, the tapchanger control would raise the rectifier voltage to bring the
operating point back to normal.
One final adjustment is often made to the inverter characteristic to enhance stability.
The slope of the upper section of the inverter characteristic is not much different than that
of the rectifier characteristic. If the rectifier bus voltage drops just the right amount, the
two characteristics will intersect at a shallow angle. This will allow fairly large fluctuations
in current (up to the current margin) for small fluctuations in AC bus voltages. To fix this,
many manufacturers chop off the upper left corner of the inverter characteristic (as shown
below). This allows the two characteristics to intersect at a larger angle, which increases
stability when operating in this region.
 46

1
2

Figure 51 - Inverter Stability Enhancement

7. Voltage Source Converters (aka “HVDC Light™”)

The latest advance in HVDC technology is the voltage source converter. This
technology is currently sold by ABB under the name HVDC Light™. The technology is not
really an extension of existing HVDC converters, but instead is more closely related to that
found in AC motor drives and DC-DC converters. Voltage source converters combine high
power semiconductors (IGBTs or GTOs) with Pulse Width Modulation to produce a
converter that acts as a voltage source, instead of a current source30, as regular HVDC
converters do. In the following text, I will use HVDC Light as a catch all phrase to describe
PWM driven voltage source IGBT converters used in utilities.
7.1. IGBTs

Graphic Copyright International Rectifier Corp™

Figure 52 - IGBT Structure
The IGBT is a recent development in semiconductors. It is essentially a cross
between a MOSFET and a transistor. The IGBT combines the easy gate drive requirements
of the MOSFET (voltage controlled, with only some gate capacitance) with the low on-state
voltage drop of the bipolar transistor.

30 The smoothing reactor built into a regular HVDC converter tends to make them constant current sources (at
least, in the short term). In a voltage source converter, energy storage is provided by a DC bus capacitor,
which attempts to maintain a constant voltage on the DC bus.
 47

Parameter IGBT Thyristor

Max Voltage 4.5 kV 8.5 kV
Max Current 1800 A 2500 A
Max Operating Freq 10 kHz 100 Hz
Losses 2% 0.2 %
The IGBT has three advantages over the thyristor. First, it can be turned off
electrically. This allows converters to be built that allow independent control over Watts
and VARs. IGBTs can also be switched faster than thyristors, which allows converters to be
built which do not produce low order harmonics. Finally, IGBTs are inherently current
limiting31, which, in conjunction with fast control, reduces the ratio between the peak
device rating and the rated converter current.
The IGBT also has three disadvantages compared to the thyristor. First, the
available voltage and current ratings are lower than thyristors. Secondly, the per-unit
losses of IGBTs are higher than thyristors. Finally, the silicon structure of thyristors allows
them to be built as “pucks”, which can be heat-sinked on both sides. IGBTs can only be
heat-sinked on one side of the silicon wafer, which increases the thermal resistance of the
packaging and decreases the maximum power dissipation per unit of silicon.
7.2. GTOs
The GTO, or Gate Turn-Off thyristor, is a very close relative of the thyristor. It is
also a four layer semiconductor, but the doping and layout have been modified in order to
allow the device to be switched off under gate control. The modifications make the loop
gain of the NPN – PNP transistor circuit lower, which allows a negative current pulse on
the gate to turn the GTO off. However, as a result of the low loop gain, a large current
pulse is needed to turn off the GTO (perhaps 10% of the current the GTO is switching). The
high gate drive requirements and associated switching losses tend to complicate GTO
converter design.
7.3. Pulse Width Modulation
Since IGBTs can be switched much faster than 60 Hz, we can dispense with our
regular “on and off once a cycle” switching scheme and investigate schemes which may
provide other advantages. One of the conceptually simplest schemes is PWM or pulse
width modulation. In pulse width modulation, a comparator compares a triangle wave
(the carrier) with that of a reference waveform (in a voltage source converter, the reference
waveform is usually a 60 Hz sine wave). The output of the comparator is a pulse train in
which the width of each pulse is approximately proportional to the amplitude of the
reference waveform at that time.

31The MOSFET front end can be considered to be a voltage controlled current source. The output transistor
can be considered to be a current controlled current source. Therefore, for a given level of voltage drive, the
IGBT will only allow a certain amount of current flow through it.
 48

Referenc e Waveform

Triangle “Carrier” Wave

PWM Output

Figure 53 - Example PWM waveforms

The PWM waveform is essentially digital, so it can be amplified simply by using it to
control high powered switches. If the amplified PWM waveform is then low-pass filtered
to remove the carrier and all of the carrier’s harmonics32, the output becomes a larger
version of the reference waveform. Since the reference in this case is a sine wave, the (post-
filter) output of the converter will also be a sine wave.
7.4. Voltage Source Converters
The converter topologies used in HVDC Light can vary from the very simple to the
very complicated. The tradeoffs here involve trading off the number of voltage levels
available in the converter against the switching frequency. In the simplest scheme, there
are only two available voltages (+V and –V) and the output of the converter is switched
between these two voltages. In order to reduce switching losses at lower output levels, the
scheme can be modified such that three voltages (+V, 0 and –V) are available. This is
achieved by modifying the PWM switching scheme such that both output switches are
open for part of the cycle. If one wishes to reduce switching losses further, two
intermediate voltage buses (+V/2 and –V/2) can be produced inside the converter and two
more switches added. This additional complexity allows each switch to be switched at half
the normal rate and still produce an output which switches at the full rate. The logical

32 This filtering requirement means that the frequency of the carrier has to be higher than the frequency of the
highest frequency in the reference waveform in order to recreate the reference waveform. Of course, the
more “room” there is between the carrier frequency and the highest frequency in the reference waveform, the
easier the implementation of the low-pass filter becomes.
 49

extreme of this is the ALSTOM “chain link” topology, which uses a large number of series
switches (each consisting of a single GTO) with capacitive voltage dividers. Each GTO is
switched at line frequency, but the switching times are all staggered to give the illusion of a
very high composite switching rate.

+V

PWM-A

+V/2
PWM-B
+V +V
Out
PWM PWM-A

PWM-C
Out Out
-V/2
PWM-B PWM-D

-V -V -V

Two-level Three level Multi-level

Figure 54 - VSC Topologies
7.5. HVDC Light Characteristics
Due to the fact that the converters are forced-commutated, they are no longer
constrained to always absorb VARs. In fact, an HVDC Light converter can generate almost
any combination of Watts and VARs within the MVA rating of the converter33. This allows
the converter to be used for power transfer and voltage control simultaneously.

Figure 55 – Typical HVDC Light Capability Curve

The high frequency of the carrier signal and the absence of converter VAR
absorption means that the filters can be much smaller than in a conventional HVDC
converter. In addition, since the AC bus voltage is no longer required in order to

33The “almost” comes about due to the fact that in order to generate leading VARs on the AC network, the
DC bus voltage has to exceed the peak AC bus voltage. Depending on the design of the converters in the
system, the DC bus voltage may not be high enough to generate 1 pu leading VARs.
 50

commutate the inverter, a HVDC Light system can deliver power to a dead bus (assuming
that control and cooling power can be provided before the converter starts).
7.6. Advantages and Disadvantages
When comparing HVDC Light to regular HVDC, it should be kept in mind that
HVDC Light is a moving target. While thyristor technology is fairly static and reasonably
optimized, IGBT technology is still evolving quickly. Therefore, the “balance point”
between the two technologies is expected to shift in the future towards the HVDC Light
side.
HVDC Light Advantages HVDC Light Disadvantages
No need for additional VAR compensation Inherent current limiting makes protection
+ can act as local SVC within ratings coordination of local buses very
limitations “interesting”
Smaller filters Higher losses
Can feed dead buses Limited to 100 MW/converter
Higher cost/MW
7.7. Applications
Areas where HVDC Light is expected to be deployed are, of course, areas where the
unique characteristics of voltage source converters is of high value. The first three schemes
to be built are described below, along with the justification for using HVDC Light in each
case.
7.7.1. Gotland
Gotland was the first commercial HVDC Light system to go into service. The
reasoning for installing a HVDC Light system in this location has almost as much to do
with politics and advertising as it does with technical issues. The original Gotland link was
built by ASEA in 1954 and was the first ever commercial HVDC link. When the time came
for ASEA (now ABB) to showcase their latest technology, what better location than the
place where it all started. The Gotland HVDC Light link transfers 50 MW of power from
the sparsely populated south end of the island, where a number of wind farms are located,
to the heavily populated north end, where the Gotland II and III HVDC links connect the
island to the Swedish mainland. The economic benefits of HVDC Light in this application
came from the VAR sourcing capability of the converters (which removed the need for an
SVC at the south end of the link) and the low cost DC cables34 that were installed. By direct
burying these cables, the right of way approval process was greatly shortened.
7.7.2. Directlink
The Directlink scheme in Australia is interesting from the point of view that the
system is owned and operated by ABB as an independent “generator” on the two
asynchronous grids that it interconnects. They system is rated 180 MW and is built from
three independent sets of 65 MW converters, each with it’s own pair of cables. In this
situation, the advantages of using HVDC Light are the ability to provide a controlled
power transfer between two asynchronous systems (as in regular HVDC), the ability to

34 Remember that DC cables make much better use of the insulation than AC cables due to the lack of
voltage reversals. ABB’s 84 kV HVDC Light cable has same diameter as a 20 kV AC cable (5.5 mm insulation
thickness).
 51

provide VAR support at each end (which appears to be a chargeable commodity in the
Australian power system) and the fast in–service time achieved by using standardized pre-
fab converters and direct-buried cables.
7.7.3. Eagle Pass
The Eagle Pass back to back converter is a low power interconnection between
asynchronous grids in Texas and Mexico. The back to back station not only provides for 36
MW power transfer between the Texas and Mexican grids, but it also provides voltage
support at the edges of the two weak grids. By performing switching on the AC side, both
converters can be connected to the same AC bus, to allow it to provide up to 72 MVAR of
reactive support to either system.

8. Pole I description
8.1. Overview
Pole I was built between 1967 and 1969 by ASEA. One of the prime reasons for
using HVDC technology was that a DC system could use the existing 1L17/18 spare cable
in the first stage, and thus get 78 MW (600 A @ 130 kV) over to Vancouver Island without
having to wait (or pay) for additional cables to be laid in the ocean. In addition, the state of
the art of AC cable technology was near or below 230 kV in 1966, so getting the desired
amount of power over to Vancouver Island would have been expensive to impossible
using AC. The technology used is mercury arc valves. There are two 6-pulse valve groups,
each rated at 130 kV and 1200 A. The pole has a 10% current overload capability (1320 A)
for up to two hours. The total power transfer capability is 312 MW (343 MW for 2 hours).
Each group contains 6 valves, plus a bypass valve which is used during
blocking/deblocking and arc back protection sequences.
8.2. Controls
There are two main reasons for the control strategy of Pole I. The first reason for the
control strategy is that mercury arc valves have increased wear when fired at high angles,
so they should be operated close to their minimum firing angle to minimize maintenance.
Secondly, given the electronics technology of the time, adding additional control features
would have used too much hardware, which would have degraded the reliability.
8.2.1. Operating Modes
Because of the increased grid wear at higher angles, the controls attempt to keep
alpha and gamma as small as possible while still avoiding excessive commutation failures.
Due to the simplicity of the control design, very few control modes are available. Firing
angle is calculated independently for each valve by a device called the DAD, or delay angle
determinator. The control amplifier (aka the regulator) compares the line current to the
current order and increases its output to increase current or decreases its output to
decrease current. The firing angle for each valve is calculated by comparing the common
output of the control amplifier to a modified cosine wave35 generated inside each DAD.
The intersection of the two waveforms determines the firing point.

35 The cosine waves are synchronized to the appropriate AC bus voltages for each valve.
 52

100%

DAD
Input Cosine Wave
alpha
50% limit Valve Firing Angle

Control
Amplifier
Output gamma
0% limit

0 30 60 90 120 150 180

Alpha (°)

Figure 56 - Cosine Control

Since the transfer function between α and the DAD output is a cosine function, the
transfer function backwards from the DAD output to α must be a arc cos function. If you
work through all the math36, you will find that this circuit has a very handy property.
When the pole is running as a rectifier, the current (which is proportional to voltage, which
is proportional to cos(α)) is a linear function of the control amplifier output voltage. This
linearity between control amplifier output and current simplifies the design of the current
regulator.
In Pole I, the rectifier runs in constant current mode, as controlled by the control
amplifier. When the control amplifier outputs its maximum voltage (the current order
can't be met), the DAD limits alpha to 5° (minimum alpha). The minimum alpha
characteristic is determined by the shape of the internal waveforms in the DAD (see “alpha
limit” in Figure 56). A device called the DAMU (Delay Angle Measurement Unit)
measures the firing angle on one valve and applies tapchanger control in order to keep
alpha in the 11° to 19° range. A voltage dependent current order circuit in the control
amplifier limits current at low line voltages.

36 And there’s a lot of it. Check Section 11.2 for most of the equations.
 53

Pole I Operating Limits

Minimum Current 5% Voltage Boost
273
260
10%
Current
Overload
kV
(2 hours)

56
VDCOL
0
0 120 217 Amps 1200 1320
Figure 57 - Pole I Operating Limits
When the pole is running as an inverter, the line current exceeds the inverter current
order by 120 A (the current margin), so the control amplifier reduces it’s output to zero
volts in an attempt to reduce the current. Since, the control amplifier is essentially out of
service in inverter mode, the firing angle would stay constant at the upper limit (marked
gamma limit in the diagram) were it not for the inverter compounding unit. The inverter
compounding unit adds a voltage proportional to the line current to the output of the
control amplifier, by running a signal from the line DCCT through a resistor. Since the
transfer characteristic of the DAD and the variation of u with IDC both have an inverse
cosine term in them, the addition of the line current compensation to the fixed inverter
firing angle creates a constant gamma characteristic. Finally, the amount of resistance in
the current compounding unit is varied as the tapchanger position changes. This is
necessary because the DADs are fed from the PTs on the AC bus side of the converter
transformer, but the actual commutating voltage comes from the valve side of the
converter transformer. Since u is also a function of the line to line voltage at the converter
terminals, the amount of current compensation needs to be modified as the transformer
ratio changes. The gamma setpoint is approximately 15°.
If the line current drops more than 120A (the current margin) lower than the rectifier
current order, the control amplifier will become active and revert to constant current mode.
There is also a minimum alpha limit of 100°, which prevents the inverter from becoming a
rectifier while trying to maintain the current order. Tapchanger control is used to regulate
DC line voltage at 260 kV (130 kV in 6-pulse) at the inverter. If the inverter is in current
control mode, raises are blocked on the tapchangers.
8.2.2. Start/Stop Sequences
In Pole I, either the rectifier or inverter end can be started first. There is minimal
coordination between the rectifier and converter during startup. In this description, we
will assume that the inverter37 is started first, but the actual events are very similar if the
rectifier is started first.

37 While Pole I will start correctly regardless of which end is deblocked first, it is preferable to start the first
group starting with the inverter. If the spill current from Pole II in the line is greater than the VDCOL setting,
 54

8.2.2.1. Inverter
When the inverter is in the blocked state, the bypass switch is closed and all the
valves are blocked. When a start is sent to the inverter, the bypass switch is immediately
ordered to open. When the contacts of the bypass switch start to open, an auxiliary contact
on the bypass switch deblocks firing pulses to the bypass valve. This keeps continuity in
the circuit in the event that there is already current in the circuit (ie if there is spill current
from Pole II or if one valve group is already running).
The next step is to deblock the main valves (which blocks the bypass valve) and fire
the start control unit. The start control unit temporarily pushes α down below 90° and then
lets it rise up to the normal firing angles. This allows the inverter to start as a rectifier and
commutate current out of the bypass valve and bypass switch. After the influence of the
start control unit has gone away, the control amplifier tries to adjust the firing angle and
regulate currents, but runs into the 100° α limit. Since there is no rectifier running, the
current in the line drops to zero and the inverter sits with no current, but with all valves
firing. The inverter will stay in this state until a rectifier group starts up or the group is
manually blocked.
8.2.2.2. Rectifier
When the rectifier is in the blocked state, the bypass switch is closed and all the
valves are blocked. When a start is sent to the rectifier, the bypass switch is immediately
ordered to open. When the contacts of the bypass switch start to open, an auxiliary contact
on the bypass switch deblocks firing pulses to the bypass valve. This keeps continuity in
the circuit in the event that there is already current in the circuit (ie if there is spill current
from Pole II or if one valve group is already running).
The next step is to deblock the main valves (which blocks the bypass valve) and fire
the start control unit. The start control unit temporarily pushes α up past 90° and then lets
it drop back to the normal firing angles. This acts as a soft start, letting the current ramp
up in the line. After the influence of the start control unit has gone away, the control
amplifier starts to adjust the firing angle and regulate currents. The rectifier is in current
control mode, but since the line voltage is zero, the voltage dependent current order limit
limits the current order. At this point, the firing angle is still close to 90º, since the bypass
switch is still closed at the inverter. The rectifier will stay in this state for 30 seconds before
tripping out on DC undervoltage.
8.2.2.3. Rectifier/Inverter coordination
Once the rectifier and inverter are both running, they will work together to reach
the normal operating state. Assume that the inverter valves are firing but not carrying
current and the rectifier has just deblocked (1 on the drawing). When the rectifier starts, it
sends current through the line, which flows through the inverter valves. At this point, both
regulators want to see more line current. The inverter wants to increase gamma, but it is
hard against the minimum alpha limit, so it does nothing. The rectifier reduces its alpha,
which increases the voltage and current from the rectifier. As the line voltage rises, the

the rectifier will be unable to commutate the spill current out of the bypass valve. Because of this, there will be
more current in the DC circuit than in the AC circuit and the commutation failure protection will temporarily
block the rectifier. If Pole II is out of service, or the second group is being started, it is still slightly preferable to
start VIT first, since the weaker AC system will limit arc back current if one occurs during startup.
 55

VDCOL keeps increasing the current limit (2), which forces the rectifier to drive alpha
lower and increase the line voltage and current. Finally at point (3), the line current
exceeds the inverter current order and the inverter starts to lower gamma in order to
increase the line voltage and lower the current. The rectifier reaction to the lower current is
to decrease alpha, which increases the current (4). Finally, at point (5), the inverter runs
into the minimum gamma limit and stops raising the voltage. The rectifier can now
achieve it’s current order and the link stabilizes at this operating point.

Rectifier
α = 5°
Inverter
5
γ = 16°
V 4

α = 100°
3

2
VDCOL
1
I

Figure 58 - Pole I Operating Point During Startup

8.2.2.4. Second groups to start
The sequence of events for the second set of groups to start is identical to that of the
first with a few small changes. First off, there is already a rectifier group running, so when
the inverter is deblocked, the valves start conducting immediately. Secondly, the line
voltage is already up at 130 kV, so the voltage dependent current order limit doesn't come
into effect. Finally, there is an excessive angle protection that trips out one group if the
Pole is running in 12-pulse and the line voltage is under 156 kV for more than 60 seconds.
8.3.
Protection
8.3.1. Arc back/Commutation Failure Protection
Both of these protections are based on comparison of the DC line current with the
AC current measured in the wall bushings. Under normal conditions, the 3-phase rectified
wall bushing current is equal to the DC line current38. In the event of an arc back, the AC
wall bushing current increases dramatically due to the phase to phase short circuit. In the
event of a commutation failure, the AC wall bushing current drops when the bridge shorts
out39.

38Actually, this is kind of obvious if you think about it and draw the current paths through the valve group.
39Since the only two valves that are still conducting are in the same phase, there is no AC path through the
circuit and the AC current drops to zero.
 56

DC DC > AC
Line DC Comm Fail

AC
AØ Arc back
AC > DC
BØ

CØ

Figure 59 - Pole I Arc Back & Commutation Failure Protection

If the measured AC current exceeds the DC current by a certain margin, the output
of the arc back protection unit will temporarily block the valve group and restart it 800 ms
later. If more than 3 arc backs occur within 40 seconds, the valve group will be
permanently blocked. Transformer overcurrent protection can also permanently block the
valve group in the event of persistent arc backs. Since the magnitude of arc back currents
are so much smaller at the inverter than at the rectifier (see Section 4.1) the arc back
protection may not always operate for faults at the inverter.
If the measured DC current exceeds the AC current by a certain margin, a relay is
picked up to indicate that a commutation failure has occurred. If this relay stays up for 400
ms (persistent commutation failure), the valve group will be temporarily blocked and
restarted. If the commutation failure (or any other condition which causes temporary
blocking) persists for 50 seconds, the valve group will be permanently blocked.
8.3.2. Line Fault Protection
In Pole I, only the rectifier responds to DC line faults. A line fault can be detected by
one of two criteria. If the voltage on the line drops at a high rate (the derivative unit) or
drops to a low value (the level unit), a line fault is considered to have occurred. Once a line
fault has been detected, the following sequence of events occurs. The rectifier will be
ordered to operate temporarily as an inverter (α ≈ 165°). This will pull stored energy out of
the DC line and extinguish the arc. The inverter will attempt to maintain current order, but
the inverter is limited to α > 100°, so both ends will extract all the stored energy from the
line. After a set deionization time, the order will be released and the rectifier firing angles
will move back to their normal values, effectively restarting DC transmission. If the
number of line faults exceeds the setting on the executive unit (typically 3), a restart will
not be ordered and the DC undervoltage protection (see next section) will permanently
block the pole.
8.3.3. Undervoltage/Excessive Delay Angle Protection
These protections compare the DC line voltage to the number of running valve
groups at each end and trips valve groups accordingly. If the rectifier (this protection does
not operate at the inverter) is running in 6-pulse and the line voltage is below 65 kV (ie: one
valve group running against a blocked pole or permanent line fault) for more than 5
seconds, the pole will be permanently blocked. BC Hydro added a modification that
extends this time interval to 20 seconds if there are no inverter groups running (this gives
you more time to start up a valve group). If the pole is running in 12-pulse and the line
voltage is below 156 kV (ie: 2 valve groups at one end running against one valve group at
 57

the other), one valve group will be permanently blocked after 60 seconds (this protection
does work at both ends).
8.3.4. DC Harmonic/AC Power Cross
Normally, the DC line current and voltage contain no 60 Hz components. However,
in the event of a control malfunction or an AC line contacting the DC line, large 60 Hz
currents and voltages can exist in the DC line. The DC harmonic protection senses
persistent 60 Hz AC current (possibly caused by asymmetrical firing angles or severe AC
distortion) in the DC line and performs a permanent pole stop.
The AC power cross protection senses AC voltage on the neutral bus and also
performs a permanent pole stop.
Neither of these protections trips back to the AC source, as there is more than one
AC line that could fault to the DC. The AC line’s ground fault protection is relied on to trip
the AC40.
8.3.5. DC Ground Fault (Station Differential Protection)
To protect against ground faults in the converter, Pole I compares the current in the
line (CT1, after the smoothing reactor) to the current in the neutral circuit (CT5, just before
D2). If these currents differ, there must be a ground fault somewhere. The circuit will
alarm at 25 A imbalance and permanently trip the pole if the imbalance exceeds 100 A.
8.3.6. Overfrequency
In the event that the system frequency rises beyond 64 Hz, the Pole I filters will be
tripped out and Pole I will be blocked.
8.3.7. Equipment Failure
Failed Equipment Response
- Main Control Pulse Generator Overcurrent Permanently Block Valve
Group
- Smoothing Reactor Cooling Failure Permanently Block Pole
- Smoothing Reactor Gas Relay
- ADR or CDR Failure
- Converter Transformer Gas Relay
- Mercury Arc Valve Failure Alarm only, block restart
- Loss of first grade AC supply Temporarily Block Pole. Restart
when AC recovers
8.4. Harmonic Filters
Pole I harmonic filtering consists of 5th, 7th, 11th and 13th harmonic single tuned series
filters. In addition, there is a high pass filter.
8.4.1. Band-pass Filters
All of the band-pass harmonic filters have added series resistors to broaden their
tuning. The resistors and reactors for each filter are contained in a single oil-filled unit.
This device has a cylindrical column in the center (which contains the three resistor units)

40Notethat if the DC is still running (not a high probability) when the AC circuit tries to trip, the circuit breaker
may be subject to severe interrupting duty.
 58

and three porcelain tubes radiating out horizontally from the top of the column (which
contain the reactors). The entire device is oil-filled and there is a dedicated circulation
pump and cooling fan unit for each 3 phase reactor/resistor. The resistors in the 5th and 7th
harmonic filters can be shorted out externally to reduce power losses when operating in 12
pulse mode.
In order to achieve the capacitance and voltage ratings required for the band-pass
filters, multiple capacitors must be wired in a series/parallel arrangement. This is done in
two ways. Each can contains 36 individually fused capacitors, wired in series parallel. A
number of cans are then wired in parallel to form what is called a level, then a number of
levels are wired in series to form a bank. In order to tune the filter to the correct resonant
frequency, cans can be added to “tuning” positions within a level. In addition, there are
spare levels available in the structure in the event that extra levels have to be added. If an
element in a can fails, the fuse blows, removing that capacitor from the can. This reduces
the capacitance of the can and raises the tuned frequency of the filter.
Filter 5HF1 7HF1 11HF1 13HF1
# of parallel capacitors per can 12 9 12 18
# of series strings per can 3 4 3 2
Total can capacitance 6.5 µF 3.9 µF 7.62 µF 13.3 µF
# cans in parallel per level 6 4 2 1
# of levels in series per bank 50 40 48 72(60?)
Approx # of levels used per bank 46 36 44 55
Final capacitance per bank 0.848 µF 0.433 µF 0.346 µF 0.242 µF

8.4.2. High-pass Filter

The high-pass filter was originally a slightly more complicated design, but was
simplified in 1994 to enhance its filtering on higher harmonics. Unlike the band-pass
filters, the resistors and reactors in the high pass are all separate units. The high pass filter
has its own disconnect from the 230 kV bus.
8.4.3. Protection
The protection for the band-pass filters is a combination of mechanical and electrical
systems. The reactor/resistor units are protected for pump failure, low oil level, sudden
pressure, gas accumulation and high oil temperature. The capacitor protection is electrical
and is based on comparison of the 60 Hz current in two filters.
 59

5HF1A 230 kV bus 7HF1A HP1A

block 300 Hz
& 420 Hz

pass 60 Hz
Trip

Trip

Figure 60 - Pole I Filter Protection

The 60 Hz component of the filter current is almost entirely determined by the AC
bus voltage, the system frequency and the capacitor impedance. Since the two filters being
compared are on the same AC bus, the effects of voltage and frequency cancel, and the
ratio of the two currents is determined solely by the ratio of the two capacitances. Filters in
the protection block the harmonics from getting through to the measuring relay and the
ratios of the two CTs are adjustable to null out the difference current. If enough capacitors
fail in a filter, the 60 Hz current in that filter will drop, unbalancing the protection and
causing a trip. Note that the protection cannot tell which filter has the failed capacitors.
Another "hole" in the filter protection is that if equal percentages of capacitors fail in both
banks, the currents will still balance and the protection will not operate. In Pole I, the 5th
and 7th harmonic filters are balanced against each other, as are the 11th and 13th. This means
that the bank can be “split” (ie: 5 & 7 in service, 11 & 13 out of service) without
compromising the protection.
The capacitor protection for the high pass filter also works on current unbalance, but
is configured slightly differently. The capacitors for HP1 are grouped together into two
series strings. There is a CT connected across the center points of the two strings of
capacitors. If the capacitance of the two top half strings are equal and the capacitance of
the two bottom half strings are also equal, then no current will flow between the two
strings and there will be no current in the CT. If a capacitor element fails in any one of the
four half strings, it will cause an unbalance current to flow in the CT. If enough elements
fail, than the relay will trip out the high pass filter. The high pass protection has the same
design flaw as the band-pass filters, namely that if the capacitor failures are distributed
evenly across the bank, the protection will remain balanced and not trip.
8.5. First Grade Power
Since the HVDC requires an external AC source to run into, the first grade is only
required to supply uninterrupted power to the controls and most equipment for long
enough to ensure an orderly shutdown.
The Pole I first grade power is a dual redundant scheme. There are two station
service transformers, each of which can be fed from two different 12 kV sources. Each
transformer supplies a 575 V bus (A06 & C06), and a tie breaker connects the two buses in
the event of a source failure of either side. Cooling equipment for Pole I is fed from both
575 V buses, with internal changeover schemes to maintain cooling in the event of a loss of
 60

either supply. The controls require a more reliable source of power, with no transients or
dips. In order to provide isolation from system disturbances (and also to provide control
power for a brief period after a total station outage), there are two motor generator sets
which are used to produce a 208 V bus (A02) for the controls and valves. In addition to the
two MG sets, there is a diesel generator which will pick up the A02 bus and critical station
load in the event of a total station service outage.
The naming of the Pole I first grade supply buses may seem very confusing. The
names get less confusing once you know that ASEA designed the first grade supply with
an ASEA Pole II in mind. Pole I was to use SST1, MG1 and buses A06 and A02. Pole II was
to use SST2, MG2 and buses B06 and B02. SST3, MG3 and bus C06 would act as the backup
supply for both poles. Unfortunately, ASEA didn’t get the contract to build Pole II and the
station service naming has seemed half-done ever since.
8.6. Operations Notes
8.6.1. MAV porcelains
Under normal operating conditions, the anodes of the MAVs are temperature
regulated between 75 and 110 °C by a set of fans and louvers in the base of the valve. If
there is a loss of station service while the valve group is operating, these fans will stop.
This will allow the outside of the porcelains to heat up substantially. If the station service
is then restored before the porcelains are allowed to cool, the louvers will open wide and
the cold air rushing in from the fans can cause the outside of the porcelains to cool quickly,
which can cause them to crack. To avoid this, ASEA added an interlock to the first grade
supply which blocks the diesel from picking up the A02 bus if the A02 bus has been
deenergized for more than 15 minutes.

9. Pole II description
9.1. Overview
Pole II was built between 1976 and 1978. Thyristor technology was deemed reliable
enough at this time to be used. The Pole II design was based heavily on the designs of Eel
River and Square Butte. Unfortunately, the design retained many "features" of the two
previous designs, which can make maintenance difficult.
Pole II, unlike Eel River and Square Butte; but like Pole I, was designed to work as
two independent 6-pulse bridges, as well as a 12-pulse bridge. It is air cooled, so the power
capability of the pole depends on the ambient air temperature. Pole II is nominally rated at
280 kV and 1320 A (370 MW), with an increase to 1700 A (476 MW) when the ambient
temperature is low enough41 to provide the extra cooling.
Unlike Pole I, Pole II does not have a bypass valve in the group. Instead, two valves
in the same phase in the group are fired (forming what is called a bypass pair) whenever a
fast bypass of the group is required. This is not possible in Pole I because the bypass valve
needs to be fired during an arc back clearing sequence. The absence of arc backs in
thyristor valves allows the bypass valve to be dispensed with. GE was not able to meet
their bypass switch requirements with one device, so Pole II has a combination of two
devices to do the job. There is a high speed vacuum type bypass switch, which provides

41Maximum daily temperature must be below 17.2°C and the average daily temperature must be below 7.2°C.
 61

fast operation, and a standard disconnect type shorting switch, which provides long term
high current capability.
9.2. Controls
9.2.1. Operating Modes
The primary mode for the rectifier end is constant current (I-mode in the GE
manuals), with tapchanger control to keep alpha in the range 18.0° to 20.3°. There is an
alpha limit mode (α mode) that keeps alpha at approximately 12° in the event that the
current regulator asks for an α < 12°.
The primary mode at the inverter end is constant voltage (VI, or voltage at inverter
mode). The inverter voltage is regulated to 280 kV (140 kV in 6-pulse) at VIT. There is a
minimum gamma limit of 15.3° (γ mode) in the event that the voltage control asks for a
γ < 15.3°. Tapchanger control attempts to regulate gamma between 15.3° and 20.3°. The
backup mode at the inverter is constant current mode. The inverter goes into constant
current mode if the current at the inverter falls more than a set amount under the rectifier
current order42.
Other operating modes include constant rectifier voltage (VR mode) and constant β
mode. VR mode is used at the inverter end to limit reverse voltages during disturbances
and β mode is used at the inverter during start/stop ramping and commutation failure
recovery.
9.2.2. Control Features
Unlike Pole I, Pole II uses what is called "equidistant firing". Whereas the interval
between firing pulses in Pole I is a function of the AC phase voltages, the firing pulses in
the Pole II valve groups are generated exactly 60° apart regardless of any asymmetries in
the AC bus voltages. This provides better control of non-characteristic harmonics, but is
not as robust when severe AC disturbances occur. Each valve group has its own firing
pulse generator, which creates 6 equally spaced firing pulses per cycle. In addition, the
pole control contains a circuit (Firing Angle Balance, or FAB) that keeps the firing angles on
the two valve groups matched.
9.2.3. Start/Stop Sequences
Note that no matter which end of the HVDC link the dispatcher selects to start first,
the inverter actually starts to run first.
9.2.3.1. First Group to Start
1 The bypass switch at the inverter end is ordered to open. When the contacts
are starting to open, the inverter is started as a rectifier. If Pole I is running, this will assist
in the commutation of spill current from the bypass switch. The inverter will then be
running at a very low voltage and its starting current order of 330 A.
2 When the rectifier detects that the current in the line is approximately 330 A,
it orders its bypass switch to open. When the contacts start to open, the rectifier is

42The current margin is normally 170 A, but it is reduced at lower current orders to a minimum of 50 A to
prevent the current order at the inverter from becoming negative.
 62

deblocked and current is commutated out of the bypass switch. The starting current order
at the rectifier is 500 A.
3 The inverter, seeing the current rise above the current order, will increase its
voltage to lower the current. The rectifier, seeing the current below its current order, will
increase its voltage to increase the current43. As a result, the line voltage will start to
increase.
4 When the line voltage reaches 84 kV, the current orders are switched from the
starting current orders to the actual current orders. As the voltage at the inverter reaches
140 kV, the inverter switches from constant current mode to constant V mode and the link
stabilizes at normal operating values.
9.2.3.2. Second Group to Start
1 The bypass switch at the inverter is ordered to open. When the contacts are
starting to open, the inverter is started as a rectifier to commutate current out of the bypass
switch. Once the current in the bypass switch goes to zero, the inverter switches to inverter
mode and attempts to raise the voltage to 280 kV. Since only one group is running at the
rectifier end, the inverter cannot maintain ordered voltage and drops into current control
mode.
2 The rectifier notices that the line voltage has risen and lowers alpha to the
limit in an attempt to maintain current order. When the running rectifier goes into
constant alpha mode, it allows the start signal to go through to the second rectifier group.
The rectifier bypass switch is ordered to open and the group is deblocked as the bypass
switch opens.
3 Once the second rectifier group is running, the rectifier takes over current
control. The inverter raises the voltage to try and reduce the current to its current order
and then switches into constant V mode.
9.2.3.3. Group Stop
1 When the stop order is received at the inverter, the firing angle on the bridge
to be stopped is slowly ramped towards 90°. This allows the rectifier to maintain current
control as the line voltage drops to 140 kV.
2 When the stop order is received at the rectifier, the controls wait for 50 ms
before ramping the firing angle on the bridge up towards 90°.
3 Approximately 300 ms after the stop order is entered, both the rectifier and
the inverter order a bypass pair, block firing pulses and close their bypass switches.
9.2.3.4. Pole Stop
Note: a pole stop is when either both valve groups in the pole are stopped or when
the single running group in a pole is stopped.
1 When the stop order is received, the inverter will ramp its voltage order to
zero. The rectifier will ramp its current order to the starting order (460 A).

43This looks wrong, but if you think about the polarity of the voltages and currents, it all makes sense in the
end.
 63

2 100 ms after the current ramp is started, current orders at both the rectifier
and inverter will be ramped to zero. When the current is less than 66 A, both controls will
order a bypass pair, block firing pulses and close their bypass switches.
9.3. Protection
9.3.1. Commutation Failure
Pole II takes a more proactive approach to commutation failures than Pole I. In Pole
II, the controls constantly measure the valve currents and transformer flux (to approximate
the secondary voltage without commutation notches). If the controls detect a commutation
failure44, the controls will advance fire the next valve in the triplet (ie: if commutation from
RC to SC fails, then immediately fire TC). This itself causes a small disturbance, but allows
a faster recovery from the AC disturbance. Along with this, the firing angle (β) is
temporarily raised to reduce the chance of another commutation failure occurring. If more
than 3 commutation failures occur in a valve group in under 1 second, the valve group will
be temporarily blocked
9.3.2. Snubber Thermal
As the firing angle is increased in an HVDC converter, the voltage jump across the
valve when it is fired increases. As a result of this, increased currents will flow through the
valve snubber circuits, increasing their power dissipation45. In Pole II, a special circuit
monitors gamma (actually calculated from the ordered beta and current order) and current
order and trips the Pole if the operating point goes outside of preset limits (γ > 40° and I <
1320 A for over 120 sec or γ > 27° and I > 1320 A for over 3 sec).
Gamma (°)
90° 80° 70° 60° 50° 40°
Snubber Thermal Protection
1200
30°
1000
27°
800 Current Limits
20°
600
15.3°
400
10°
200 Minimum Gamma Limit

0 0°

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

Current order (A)
Figure 61 - Pole II Snubber Thermal Limits

44Atthe rectifier, a commutation failure on valve SC would be detected if SC fails to maintain conduction after
being fired and RC conducts 60° after SC has been fired. At the inverter, a commutation failure on SC would
be detected if SC continues to conduct after the voltage across TC goes negative.
45As a first approximation, the power dissipated in the snubber resistors is proportional to sin2 (α).
 64

9.3.3. AC Overvoltage/Undervoltage
The Pole will be temporarily blocked if the AC voltage either exceeds 1.30 PU or is
less than 0.5 PU. In addition, there is a timed overvoltage protection that temporarily
blocks the pole for AC overvoltages between 1.07 (20 sec) and 1.30 (13.6 sec) PU.
9.3.4. Valve Thermal
If the valve cooling is insufficient to limit thyristor junction temperatures (calculated
in the controls) to a safe value, valve thermal protection will operate. The valve thermal
protection calculates the internal junction temperature of the thyristors based on valve hall
outlet air temperature , bypass pair status and valve current. If the calculated junction
temperature exceeds 100° C, an alarm will come up. At 105° C the protection will attempt
to reduce the loading on the pole by ordering a 1320 A current limit. At 110° C, the
protection will order a permanent bridge stop.
9.3.5. Current Exceeds Order
This protection should actually be called "Current Exceeds Maximum Possible
Order". It orders a permanent pole stop if the line current exceeds 1960 A for 500 ms.
9.3.6. Excessive Rectification
The excessive rectification protection trips an inverter that has run for more than 1.6
seconds as a rectifier. This mainly happens when a group is started, but the rectifier fails to
start. When the group is started manually, this protection is blocked for 15 seconds.
9.3.7. Line Fault
The Pole II line fault protection can be initiated in three different ways. The three
criteria are:
Either The line voltage has dropped to under 56 kV for over 600 ms.
Or dV/ >140 kV/ms (70 kV/ms in 6-pulse) and the line voltage is less than
dt
170 kV (85 kV in 6-pulse).
Or Both ends are in current mode simultaneously for more than 200 ms.
If the current is high enough (> 660 A), the controls are capable of clearing line faults
without blocking the valve groups. This is accomplished by temporarily setting the current
margin to zero. The rectifier current order is ramped towards 460 A and three cycles later,
the inverter current order is ramped towards 330 A. Both voltage orders are also ramped
towards 42 kV. As a result of this, both ends will temporarily have identical current orders
twice in this sequence. As the rectifier current order drops under the inverter current order
(and vice versa later on) the line voltage will cross through zero, which will help to
extinguish the arc. If, at the end of this sequence the operating point is 460 A, 42 kV, then
the fault has been cleared and the voltages and currents are ramped back to normal.
If the ramping sequence is unsuccessful in clearing the fault, then a temporary pole
stop will be ordered and a restart attempted. If the fault is so solid that the line voltage
never comes back up, the pole will be permanently stopped. If the fault recurs after restart,
another ramping sequence and temporary pole stop will be attempted. On the third
restart, only one group will be restarted (in the event that the fault will not restrike at half
voltage). If this restart is unsuccessful, the pole will be permanently stopped.
 65

9.3.8. Local Fault

The local converter area is broken up into 5 protective zones. These zones are
monitored by DC differential and overcurrent protection. The zones are:
B zone The high group (V4 or V8), up to and including the smoothing reactor.
C zone The short bus between the two groups, from wall bushing to wall bushing.
D zone The low group (V3 or V7).
E zone The metallic neutral. This zone does not trip, but only alarms.
G zone Second smoothing reactor (only at Arnott).
If the fault is a ground fault, then the pole will be blocked and the faulted bridge
taken out of service. One manual restart of the non-affected group is allowed. For internal
faults (non ground faults), there are four possible situation. If the fault current is under
4000 A and the fault is at the rectifier end, the pole is temporarily blocked and then
restarted. If the fault current is under 4000 A and the fault is at the inverter end, the faulted
group is temporarily blocked and then restarted. If the fault current is over 4000 A and the
fault is at the rectifier end, the pole is temporarily blocked and the unfaulted bridge is
restarted. If the fault current is over 4000 A and the fault is at the inverter end, the faulted
bridge is permanently blocked.
9.4. Harmonic Filters
While the general design of the Pole II filters is the same at Arnott and VIT, the
capacitor cans have been replaced at Arnott, while only the HP2 cans were replaced at VIT.
This leads to some subtle differences in filter performance and protection. The Pole II
filters, like Pole I, consists of 5th, 7th, 11th and 13th harmonic single tuned band-pass filters,
plus one high-pass filter. The 5th and 7th harmonic filters have added resistors to broaden
their tuning, while the 11th and 13th do not. The reactors for the band-pass filters are oil
cooled but do not have an iron core.
9.4.1. VIT Filters
The VIT band-pass filters still use the original GE PCB filled capacitors. These
capacitors are externally fused, so a capacitor failure results in that can being removed
from its level, which reduces the capacitance of the bank and increases the tuned frequency
of the filter.
Filter 5HF2 7HF2 11HF2 13HF2
Individual can capacitance 1.04 µF 0.97 µF 1.04 µF 1.04 µF
# cans in parallel per level 11 6 8 6
# of levels in series per bank 11 11 11 10
Final capacitance per bank 1.04 µF 0.529 µF 0.765 µF 0.555 µF
GE included a temperature compensation scheme which would switch in a small
capacitor bank at low temperatures (less than 6° C) to compensate for the increased
capacitance at low temperatures. Unfortunately, this scheme tended to cause protection
misoperations, so it was disabled and partially removed.
 66

9.4.2. Arnott Filters

The Arnott band-pass filters have been refurbished with new fuseless non-PCB
capacitors. In a fuseless capacitor, failure of an element increases the capacitance and
lowers the tuned frequency of the filter.
Filter 5HF2 7HF2 11HF2 13HF2
# of series capacitors per string 10 10 9 9
# of parallel strings per can 2 2 2 2
Total can capacitance 4.3 µF 3.00 µF 4.15 µF 2.91 µF
# cans in parallel per level 3 2 2 2
# of levels in series per bank 12 11 11 11
Final capacitance per bank 1.074 µF 0.545 µF 0.754 µF 0.529 µF
The original GE temperature compensation scheme has been completely removed at
Arnott.
9.4.3. Protection
The Pole II filter protection is quite similar in concept to the Pole I protection. Both
have mechanical protection for the reactors and a differential protection for the capacitors
that is based on comparing current between the same phase of two different filters. The
reactor protection will only trip on sudden gas pressure, but it alarms for gas
accumulation, oil temperature, oil level and pressure relief. The reactors in the high pass
filter have no protection at all, since they are air cooled. Protection for the band-pass filter
capacitors is similar to that for Pole I with three important differences. Instead of balancing
the CT ratios right at the CT, GE uses auxiliary CTs to balance the 60 Hz currents from each
filter. In addition, GE uses shunt capacitors instead of tuned filters to keep harmonic
currents out of the relays. Finally, the GE protection performs twice as many comparisons
to get around the problem of balanced failures in capacitor banks (while Pole I compares
5HF1A current to 7HF1A current, Pole II compares 5HF2A current to 7HF2A current and
5HF2A current to 11HF2A current). This means that unlike Pole I, the Pole II filters cannot
be split up without having to block protection. To back up the unbalance protection there
is also a phase overcurrent protection (but only on A phase46) and neutral overcurrent
protection.
The high-pass filter protection used to be a voltage unbalance protection based on
PTs connected partway up the two series strings of caps in the high-pass filter capacitors.
Since the PTs were not connected to the midpoint of the capacitor strings, the sensitivity of
the protection was different for capacitor failures above or below the PT. When both high-
pass filters were changed in 1996, the protection was changed to an overcurrent relay
monitoring the difference in current between the two capacitor strings.
9.5. First and Second Grade Power
The Pole II power supply is built as an extension of the Pole I power supply. While
Pole I is a fully redundant scheme (loss of either the A06 or C06 buses shouldn't result in
any loss of transmission capacity), the second grade power loads on Pole II are divided
between the two buses. The breaker panels fed from the A06 (Arnott CC and VIT MM) bus

46 Maybe the designers knew something we didn’t ☺.

 67

supply power for the cooling equipment for the low groups (V3 & V7), while the panels fed
from the C06 bus (Arnott DD and VIT NN) supply power for the cooling equipment for the
high groups (V4 & V8).
The first grade supply is a dual redundant system. One 575 V feed from each
second grade panel is used to supply a battery charger. Each of these two chargers charges
a battery bank, which is then used to supply a 120 V AC inverter. The outputs from the
two inverters then go into a pair of static bypass switches. Each static bypass switch has
three inputs; the inverter it is associated with, the other inverter, and a 575/120 V
transformer fed from the A06 bus. The static bypass switch will select a live source from
those three inputs (in priority order) in order to keep its output bus hot. The two 120 V
first grade buses then supply the DCCTs, controls and cooling control PLCs. The DCCTs
have an internal changeover relay to switch over to the redundant bus if the primary
source goes down. The power supplies in the control have two transformers, one of which
is connected to each first grade AC bus. This allows the power supplies to automatically
draw power from whichever source has the highest voltage. Each charger, battery and
inverter has the capacity to supply full power to the Pole and enough switches are installed
to allow the system to work with any one power source, rectifier, battery and inverter.
9.6. VAR Sucker
9.6.1. Overview
The VAR sucker is an auxiliary control scheme designed to modify the VAR
consumption of Pole II to assist in voltage control at VIT. It can increase Pole II's VAR
absorption by up to 80 MVAR at the expense of power transfer.
9.6.2. Theory
Normally, the firing angle (γ) on Pole II at VIT is maintained in the 15.3° - 20.3°
range by tapchanger control. The VAR Sucker allows operation of Pole II at an increased
firing angle (up to 40°), which causes increased VAR absorption. To put the VAR Sucker
into service, the tapchangers on T3/T4 must first be put into manual mode. This ensures
that the automatic tapchanger control does not regulate γ back to its normal range.
Turning the VAR Sucker on sends a command to the Pole controls to set a 1320 A current
limit. This is necessary because the Pole II snubber thermal protection trips at a lower
value (27° vs. 40°) at currents higher than 1320 A. Increasing the VAR Sucker control from
zero then injects an error signal into the Pole voltage regulator. This error signal makes the
DC line voltage appear high. Regulator action then reduces the line voltage by increasing
the firing angle. Normally, tapchanger control would then intervene by lowering taps and
allowing the firing angle to return to normal. Since the tapchangers are in manual mode,
this does not occur and the pole operates at reduced voltage and a higher firing angle,
thereby trading off watts for VARs.
It should be noted that in the current version of the VAR Sucker controls, that
neither VARs or gamma are directly regulated. DC line voltage is the quantity being
regulated and gamma and VARs are a function of the DC line voltage, the current order
and the AC bus voltage. Therefore, precautions must be taken to ensure that gamma does
not drift into the range where the protection will trip out the pole. Also, in the current
version of the controls, the tapchangers are not blocked at Arnott. Therefore, as the DC
line voltage is dropped, Arnott tapchangers will tap down to maintain alpha at Arnott. If
 68

the VAR Sucker setpoint is reduced rapidly, VIT will raise the line voltage faster than
Arnott can respond47 and VIT will take over current control, causing the line current to
drop by 120 A. The power fluctuations caused by VIT going in and out of current control
mode can have adverse affects on the rest of the power system.
Gamma (°)
90° 80° 70° 60° 50° 40°
Snubber Thermal Protection
1200
30°
1000
27°
800 Current Limits
20°
600
15.3°
400
10°
200 Minimum Gamma Limit

0 0°

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

Current order (A)
Figure 62 - Pole II Snubber Thermal Limits
9.7. Operations Notes
9.7.1. Startup
Since the coordination between the first groups to start is done using the value of the
line current, Pole II cannot be started when there is appreciable spill current from Pole I in
the Pole II line. To this end, GE installed an interlock which blocks the first group from
starting unless VIT D5 is closed (which gives the spill current a low impedance path
through the sea and keeps it out of the Pole II line).
9.7.2. Valve Hall Humidity
Due to the design of the valves (large fiberglass panels) and cooling (air cooled, with
large air flows) in Pole II, the valve structures are especially prone to surface contamination
(although HVDC RAP work on makeup air filtering, valve cleaning and recirc blower belt
shrouds has worked to address this problem). The conductivity of this surface
contamination is a strong function of the valve hall humidity, and starts to plummet as the
relative humidity exceeds 50%. Since the contamination is not distributed equally on the
valve structures, high humidity can cause local overvoltage stresses on the fiberglass
panels. If the stresses are too high, localized tracking can occur on the structures. For this
reason, it is important to monitor the humidity in the valve halls and avoid energizing the
valve group when the humidity exceeds 50%. Since relative humidity increases as the air

47Remember that VIT's tapchangers are still at their normal positions, so VIT can bring the voltage up to
nominal in a matter of cycles. Arnott's tapchangers have been following the DC line voltage drop, so Arnott
requires much longer (up to 1 minute) to raise its voltage the same amount.
 69

temperature drops, the most dangerous condition is "hot standby", when the valve hall is
energized but not running (and thereby not producing any heat).
In addition, if the valve hall humidity is too low, the surface conductivity drops to a
value which allows electrostatic charge to build up on areas of the panels. This can also
cause tracking damage to the panels. Changes made to the cooling controls since 1998 will
help to keep the valve hall humidity between 20% and 50%.

10. Neutral Equipment

10.1. Overview
The neutral is considered to be all the common equipment shared by the two Poles
on the low voltage side of their low group bypass switches. Since this equipment is
required to keep either Pole in service, availability of the neutral is very important. The
neutral path can be configured as a metallic return (with 600 A capacity), a sea return
(which can handle the full current of either Pole), or the metallic return can be connected in
parallel with the unused line conductors of an out of service Pole (with at least 1800 A
capacity).

D2 CT14,
CT3,4,5 D13
15,16
to Pole I to Pole II
CX3
LA8 VD2 LA4

D16

D4
CT10,11 D5 CT8,9 to metallic
to BBE
electrodes D3 neutral
SG2 LA9
(NO)
CX2
CT6

Figure 63 - Arnott Neutral Bus

 70

D2 D13 CT14,
CT3,4,5 15,16
to Pole I to Pole II
LA8 DCX2 DCX3 LA4
CX2 CX3
VD2-1 VD2
D16

D4
CT10,11 D5 CT7 CT8,9 to metallic
to SNE
electrodes neutral
LA9 DNBP

CT6 NBP

Figure 64 - VIT Neutral Bus

10.2. Equipment
10.2.1. Switching (D2, D4, D5, D13, D16)
To provide the most operating flexibility, there are numerous disconnect switches in
the DC neutral. Disconnects D2 (Pole I) and D13 (Pole II) are used to isolate their
respective Poles from the neutral bus (for clearance purposes, or as part of a ground fault
clearing sequence. D4 is used to connect the metallic return cable to the neutral bus and is
also used in metallic neutral fault clearing. D5 connects the neutral bus to the sea return.
Arnott D5 is left permanently closed in order to provide a ground reference for the HVDC
system. D16 is a leftover from the original Pole I installation. It can be used to allow Pole I
to run (in sea return) while the rest of the neutral bus is isolated.
10.2.2. Surge protection (LA4, LA8, LA9, CX2, CX3, SG2)
The bus and overhead sections of the netural circuit are only built to 25 kV
standards. In order to guard against overvoltages, there are several surge protection
devices on the neutral bus. Lightning arrestors LA4 and LA8 start to conduct at voltages
above 36 kV. Capacitor CX3 is connected to the neutral bus to absorb AC transients. The
surge protection at VIT was revised in 2000 as part of the HVDC RAP project. Since the
Arnott neutral bus is permanently grounded, these mods were not required at Arnott.
At Arnott, CX2 and LA9 are left out of service most of the time (the voltage rating of
CX2 is only 18 kV). Spark gap SG2 is designed to flash over at 75 kV. When current is
detected in SG2, a bipole stop is ordered. Due to the fact that D5 is always closed at Arnott,
none of the surge protection equipment at Arnott is ever expected to operate.
Much of the neutral equipment at VIT was refurbished in 2000 as part of the HVDC
RAP project. The original SG2, LA9 and CX2 (as shown on theArnott on-line) were
removed. SG2 was replaced with a large MOV type arrestor (new LA9). A redundant
spare CX3 was installed (new CX2) along with a redundant VD2. CX2 and VD2-1 are
normally left out of service, but they can be switched into service in the event of a
catastrophic deconstruction of CX3 or VD2. If exessive current is detected in LA9, the
 71

protection will close breaker NBP in order to protect the arrestor. NBP is interlocked in
such a way that it can only be opened if DNBP is open.
10.2.3. Lines and cables
The metallic neutral cable is of exactly the same construction and rating as the two
Pole I cables (300 kV, 600 A). In the event that one of the high voltage cables fails, the
neutral cable can be put into use as a line cable and the HVDC run in sea return. The
overhead neutral line is of 25 kV construction.
10.2.4. Neutral Sensing Equipment
There are a number of CTs scattered throughout the neutral bus. CTs 3, 4 and 5
provide metering and protection for Pole I. CTs 14, 15 and 16 provide metering and
protection for Pole II. CTs 8 and 9 monitor the current in the metallic neutral and CTs 10
and 11 monitor the current in the sea. CT7 (at VIT only) is a bidirectional reading CT for
monitoring the direction of current flow in the neutral. VD2 is a resistive voltage divider
that feeds into the neutral bus protection.
10.3. Protection
10.3.1. Metallic Neutral Overcurrent
The metallic neutral cable has a current rating of 600 A. Normally, Pole I and II
current orders are balanced against each other in order to keep the difference current less
than 600 A. In the event that the neutral current increases beyond 550 A, the metallic
neutral overload protection will close VIT D5, thereby forcing the sea to take the majority
of the neutral current. This protection can be manually switched to a higher (1100 A)
setting to allow the use of unused Pole cables in parallel with the neutral.
10.3.2. Loss of Electrode Line
If an open circuit occurred between the neutral bus and the metallic neutral or the
electrode line, the neutral bus voltage could attempt to rise to DC line potential levels. To
prevent this, the loss of electrode line protection closes VIT D5 and permanently stops both
poles when the neutral bus voltage exceeds 15 kV for 1 sec. At Arnott, the protection
performs the same tasks, but the level is set at 1 kV, since the Arnott neutral bus is
permanently grounded through D5.
10.3.3. AC Power Cross
If the 60 Hz AC voltage on the neutral bus exceeds 25 kV, the neutral power cross
protection will close VIT D5 and permanently stop both poles.
10.3.4. Neutral Ground Fault (Arnott Only)
The HVDC system is always grounded at Arnott through Arnott D5. If the DC is
operating in metallic neutral return mode (VIT D5 open), any current resulting from a
metallic neutral cable fault will return through Arnott D5. If current is sensed in Arnott D5
when VIT D5 is open, the protection will close VIT D5 and open VIT D4 and Arnott D4.
10.4. Operations Notes
Neutral overhead line LN1 is rated to handle full neutral cable current (600 A), but is
not rated to handle full Pole current. If the neutral is reconfigured to use spare line cables
to increase the current rating of the neutral, the spare cables have to be tied in at Arnott
and VIT (using D10 or D15) in order to avoid overloading LN1. If the connection is made
 72

at Trincomali and Tsawwassen Beach Terminal, LN1 will be overloaded (and sag into
1L139, which is considered to be a bad thing).
If the neutral cable is isolated in such a way that the line is not provided with a path
to ground somewhere, voltage on the cable can rise through induction. When the voltage
rises high enough, the line can flash over to ground through the spark gaps on the PLC
coupling capacitors at VIT and Trincomali.
If D16 is closed to enable the use of Pole I during a bipole outage, the Pole I neutral
current bypasses CT7, CT10 and CT11. This will cause current metering on the neutral to
read zero. In addition, the neutral ground fault protection at Arnott has to be blocked, as it
will send a closing order to VIT D5 (which is likely locked open as an isolation point) as
soon as Pole I is started.

11. Joint Pole Control

In order to coordinate the operation of Pole I and Pole II, BC Hydro designed a
block of circuitry called the Joint Pole Control.
11.1. Stepping Switches
In order to maintain current margin, the current order must be known at both ends
of the DC link. The current orders at each end must change in such a manner as to avoid
loss of current margin. To do this, the current order must raise first at the rectifier and
lower first at the inverter. The Joint Pole Control performs these functions with counters at
each end and a dedicated logic scheme. The logic scheme ensures that the two counters do
not get out of step by more than one position. It also coordinates the movement of the two
counters so that raises and lowers are applied to the counters in the appropriate order. If,
for some reason, the counters get out of step by more than one position, the counters are
locked and cannot be changed until they are resynchronized.
11.2. Current Limits
Depending on the configuration of the DC transmission system, the full capability of
Poles I and II may not be usable. Current limits are provided to allow the Poles to be
derated to match the capacity of the transmission system. Pole I has current limits at 1320
A (normal operation) and 600 A (loss of one DC cable or metallic neutral operation with
Pole II out of service). Pole II has limits at 1700 A (normal operation), 1320 A (insufficient
valve cooling), 850 A (loss of one DC cable) and 600 A (running into one Pole I cable or
metallic neutral operation with Pole I out of service). The Pole II 1320 A limit can be
initiated automatically by the controls. All others require manual intervention.
11.3. Operating Modes
11.3.1. Manual Synch
Manual Synch mode is (currently) the most common mode of operation of the Joint
Pole Control. In this mode, the selection of current order is made manually, and
communications is in place so that the stepping switches at each end of the link are
automatically synchronized with each other.
11.3.2. Manual Separate
In Manual Separate mode, the current order is still changed manually, but the
communications between VIT and Arnott is considered to be out of service, so manual
 73

intervention is needed at both ends to change the current order. This is the fallback mode
in the event of communications or stepping switch failure. In this mode, there is no
automatic synchronization of current orders between the two sides, so a special procedure
has to be followed to ensure that current margin is maintained. If the current order is
being raised, the rectifier has to be raised first. If the current order is being lowered, the
inverter has to be lowered first.
11.3.3. Auto Tie Line
Auto Tie Line mode is no longer available. This information is for historical interest only.
In Auto Tie Line mode, the DC current orders are varied in order to maintain a
constant power flow on 1L17 and 1L18. By reducing the changes in loading on the AC
cables, the thermal cycling of these cables is reduced and the life of the cables can be
extended. This control mode was useful before the 500 kV circuits from MSA - DMR were
installed. Before the 500 was installed, a 1 MW change in HVDC power transfer was
reflected as a 1 MW change in 138 kV power transfer. However, with the 500 kV
connection in service, a much higher change in HVDC power transfer is required to create
a 1 MW change in the 138 kV power transfer. These large current order changes affect the
VAR consumption of the converters and cause the 230 kV bus voltage to fluctuate. Due to
this, and the fact that the 138 kV cables are being operated open-ended the majority of the
time, this mode was decommissioned in 2001 during revisions to the Auto Frequency mode
controls.
11.3.4. Auto Frequency
Before 2001, Auto frequency mode was a mode that would be entered automatically
from Auto Tie Line mode when the frequency at VIT dropped below a certain setpoint and
the measured power on 1L17/18 was zero. In this mode, the current orders for the DC
would be modified to force the frequency at VIT back to 60 Hz. Due to the addition of the
500 kV MSA - DMR link and the failure of the frequency relay at VIT, this mode was
unusable until 2001, when it was redesigned.
The redesigned Auto Frequency control mode is meant to be invoked manually
(from Manual Sync mode), after a Vancouver Island separation, in order to facilitate the
synchronization of Vancouver Island to the mainland. Once the AC connection between VI
and the lower mainland has been reestablished, the dispatcher can then manually switch
back to manual sync mode.
11.4. Differential Overcurrent Protection
If a DC line fault draws less current than the current margin, then there is a
possibility that the line protection may not see this fault. To get better coverage of high
impedance line faults, an end to end differential current protection was installed by BC
Hydro. The protection telemeters line currents from each station to the other one.
Circuitry at each end compares the local current with the remote current. If both ends
detect a current difference greater than a preset value, an output is provided to start the
line fault protection clearing sequence. The system was designed to trip, but tripping has
been disabled due to false trips from the units.
 74

DC Transmission Line

Buffer A/D A/D Buffer

D/A D/A

Comparator Comparator

Alarm Alarm

Communications

Figure 65 - BCH HVDC Differential Protection

11.5. Trincomali Overcurrent Protection
To provide local protection for the DC cables, an overcurrent scheme is provided at
Trincomali. The overcurrent status at Trincomali is transmitted to VIT, where the
protection will either trip that pole (if the overloaded cable is in a line section) or put the
HVDC in sea return (if the overloaded cable is in a neutral section). If the overcurrent
condition has not reset within one minute, local protection closes a ground disconnect on
the line to force a trip of that pole (and therefore reduce the overload).
 75

12. Appendix 1 (all the flute music)

12.1. Output Voltage of a Controlled 6-pulse Rectifier
θ2
1
V DC . 2 . V ll . cos ( θ ) d θ
θ2 θ1
θ1
1)
π
α
6
3
V DC . 2 . V ll . cos ( θ ) d θ
π
π
α
2) 6

π
. α
3 2. 6
V DC V ll . sin ( θ )
π −π
α
3) 6

3. 2 π π
V DC .V
ll
. sin α sin α
π 6 6

4)

3. 2 π π
V DC .V . sin . cos ( α ) cos . sin ( α )
ll
π 6 6

π π
sin . cos ( α ) cos . sin ( α )
6 6

5)

3. 2 3
V DC .V
ll
. 0.5 . cos ( α ) . sin ( α )
π 2

3
0.5 . cos ( α ) . sin ( α )
2

6)

3. 2
V DC .V . cos ( α )
ll
7) π
 76

V DC 1.35 . V ll . cos ( α )
8)
 77

12.2. Derivation of u

V com 2 . V ll . sin ( θ )
1) θ is measured from the same starting
point as α.
d
V com L. I com
2 dt

L 2 . Lc
3 Since the commutating current is
passing through two transformer
windings.
Xc 2 . π . 60 . L c
4

5 θ 2 . π . 60 . t

α θ
1
I com . V com d t
2. L c
6 α

2 . V ll α θ
I com . sin ( θ ) d t
2 . Lc
7 α

α θ
2 . V ll t
I com . sin dt
2 . Lc 377
α
8

2 . V ll α θ
I com . sin ( t ) d t
2 . 377 . L c
9 α

2 . V ll
I com .( cos ( α θ) cos ( α ) )
2 . Xc
10
V ll
I DC . ( cos ( α ) cos ( α u ))
2. X
11 c Since Icom = IDC when θ = u.

2 . I DC . X c
( cos ( α ) cos ( α u ))
V ll
12
 78

2 . I DC . X c
cos ( α ) cos ( α u )
V ll
13

2 . I DC . Xc
cos ( α u ) cos ( α )
V ll
14

2 . I DC . X c
α u acos cos ( α )
V ll
15

2 . I DC . Xc
u acos cos ( α ) α
V ll
16
 79

12.3. Derivation of Commutation Voltage Drop

Alpha is measured
forwards from this
point.

CØ

AØ

BØ

Interval of interest

1) In the drawing above, let’s assume that we are firing valve 1 (on A phase). If we
ignore commutation, the output of the converter after valve 1 is fired is Va − Vb . If we
 V + Vc 
take commutation into account, the voltage during commutation is  a  − Vb .
 2 
The voltage drop during commutation is simply the difference between these two
terms, and the voltage drop due to commutation is simply the integral of this
function, averaged over the repetition period of the waveform (1/6th of a cycle).
 V + Vc  V V
2) Vdrop = (Va − Vb ) −  a  − Vb = a − c
 2  2 2

2
3) Measuring our angles from where α is measured from, Va = ⋅ Vll ⋅ cos(θ − 60°) and
3
2
Vc = ⋅ Vll ⋅ cos(θ + 60°)
3
2 ⋅ Vll
4) Vdrop = ⋅ (cos(θ − 60°) − cos(θ + 60°)) This is the instantaneous voltage
2 3
2 ⋅ Vll 3 α +u
5) Vdrop = ⋅ ⋅ ∫ (cos(θ − 60°) − cos(θ + 60°)) ⋅ dθ This is the average voltage.
2 3 π α

3 ⋅ Vll α+ u
6) Vdrop = ⋅ ∫ (cos(θ − 60°) − cos(θ + 60°)) ⋅ dθ Doing a few cancellations
2 ⋅π α
 80

3 ⋅ Vll α+ u
7) Vdrop = ⋅ ∫ [cos(θ ) cos(60°) + sin (θ ) sin (60°) − [cos(θ) cos(60°) − sin (θ ) sin (60°)]] ⋅ dθ
2 ⋅π α
Using cos(a+b) = cos(a)cos(b) – sin(a)sin(b) and cos(a-b) = cos(a)cos(b) + sin(a)sin(b)
α+u
3 ⋅ Vll ⌠  1 3 1 3 
8) Vdrop = ⋅   ⋅ cos(θ ) + ⋅ sin (θ ) −  ⋅ cos(θ ) − ⋅ sin (θ )  ⋅ dθ
2 ⋅π  ⌡  2 2 2 2  
α
Plugging in the values for sin(60) and cos(60)
α+u
3 ⋅ Vll ⌠  1 1 3 3 
9) Vdrop = ⋅   ⋅ cos(θ ) − ⋅ cos(θ ) + ⋅ sin (θ) + ⋅ sin (θ ) ⋅ dθ
2 ⋅ π ⌡ 2 2 2 2 
α
Rearranging terms
3 ⋅ Vll α + u
10) Vdrop = ⋅ ∫ 3 ⋅ sin (θ ) ⋅ dθ and cancelling
2 ⋅π α

3 ⋅ Vll α + u
11) Vdrop = ⋅ ∫ sin (θ ) ⋅ dθ taking the root 3 out of the integral
2 ⋅π α
3 ⋅ Vll
12) Vdrop = ⋅ [− cos(α + u ) − − cos(α )] Evaluating the integral
2 ⋅π
3 ⋅ Vll
13) Vdrop = ⋅ [cos(α ) − cos(α + u )] Rearranging terms
2 ⋅π

3 ⋅ Vll   2 ⋅ I DC ⋅ X c 
14) Vdrop = ⋅ cos(α ) −  cos(α ) − 

2 ⋅ π   Vll 
Borrowing equation 14 from “derivation of u”
3 ⋅ Vll − 2 ⋅ IDC ⋅ X c
15) Vdrop = ⋅ Cancelling cos (α)
2 ⋅π Vll
3 ⋅ I DC ⋅ X c
16) Vdrop = −
π
3
17) R equiv = ⋅ Xc
π