Analysis of Asymmetric Fault Commutation Failure in HVDC System Considering Instantaneous Variation of DC Current

Abstract

HVDC is an important part of reducing energy transmission losses and maintaining energy sustainability. Commutation failure is the most common fault in HVDC systems, but existing commutation failure analysis approaches for HVDC systems do not consider the effects of instantly increasing direct current on the turn-off angle after an asymmetric fault in the AC system. To address this problem, we developed a commutation failure analysis approach that considers instantaneous variation of the DC current and AC voltage after asymmetrical faults. Firstly, the effects of the AC voltage and the DC current on the turn-off angle and the coupling relationship between the two are analyzed. Secondly, an equivalent mathematical model of the DC line, which covers the reactance, is built in Laplace space. Combined with the phase angle offset generated by the voltage after an asymmetric fault, a single relation expression containing only the AC voltage and turn-off angle is obtained by decoupling the DC current and AC voltage. The critical instantaneous AC voltage leading to system commutation failure is then derived based on the critical turn-off angle. Lastly, based on the CIGRE HVDC model built in the PSCAD electromagnetic transient simulation software (PSCAD v46), the accuracy of the proposed commutation failure analysis method compared with the other two methods is verified via simulation experiments under different grounding impedance values, and the applicability of the proposed method is further verified using simulation experiments with different smoothing reactor parameters.