Abstract
M.Phil. (Electrical Engineering in Power and Energy Systems)
The high-voltage direct current (HVDC) system is a crucial technology in transmission; however, this system suffers from commutation failure. Commutation failure is defined as an adverse dynamic event that occurs when a converter valve that is supposed to turn off continues to conduct without transferring its current to the next valve in the firing sequence. Commutation failure disturbs the power transfer, yields a large overcurrent in the converter, and causes a voltage drop in an alternating current (AC) network. Although commutation failure in HVDC systems has been studied using many other compensating devices, academic researchers have not given enough attention to evaluating the impact of distributed generation (DG) on the power system. Within this gap and based on the publications researched, no published material could be found regarding the impact of a photovoltaic (PV) plant on HVDC commutation failures. This research project seeks to focus on the impact of an inverter side PV plant on HVDC commutation failures. In this dissertation, the objective is to evaluate the impact of the inverter side PV plant on HVDC commutation failures. The case studies are done by considering the commutation failure severity, the magnitudes of the remaining voltages after different types of faults occurring, and the recovery time required to clear a fault. Case studies are performed in a network with a PV plant and also without a PV plant. The network was set up in Power System Computer-Aided Design (PSCAD) software to find the critical voltages. Further simulations were done in this study using Power System Simulator for Engineering (PSS/E) software. A network by Conférence Internationale des grandes réseaux...