High voltage direct current transmission cables to help decarbonisation in Europe: Recent achievements and issues

Abstract

High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) underground and submarine cables constitute an essential technology for the long‐distance transmission of renewable electrical power with low losses, thereby fostering decarbonisation. In the past 2 decades, all this yielded a quasi‐exponential rise of HVDC cable systems installed worldwide, but has also made the working conditions of HVDC cables harsher. In this paper, the contribution of HVDC cables to decarbonisation is tackled, with particular reference to the situation in Europe, and a few simple calculations showing in general terms the quantitative contribution provided by HVDC cable systems to decarbonisation are given. Then, the major issues towards long‐lasting and reliable HVDC cable systems are summarised briefly, focussing—for the sake of brevity—on the influence of the main HVDC cable technologies, of cable laying environment and of duty service. Some hints are also provided at the chances given by multiterminal HVDC systems.

Experimental and Simulation Studies on Stable Polarity Reversal in Aged HVDC Mass-Impregnated Cables

“…However, Equations ( 11) and ( 12) become incompatible in the presence of variations in permittivity and conductivity, necessitating the existence of space charges in steady state for these equations to hold. This leads to a relational expression derived from combining Equations ( 7) and (10).…”

“…Compared to XLPE cables, MI cables offer the significant advantage of withstanding polarity reversal in Line Commutated Converter (LCC) HVDC systems, primarily due to their low space charge accumulation. This characteristic leads to less distortion in the internal electric field, enhancing the system's reliability [8][9][10]. Owing to these stable electrical properties, MI cables have been extensively utilized in numerous LCC-HVDC systems for years and remain effective in current applications.…”

Study on the influence of mechanism dispersion on transient recovery voltage distribution of modular DC vacuum circuit breakers

“…High-voltage DC transmission (HVDC) technology has been applied in long-distance, large-capacity power transmission, clean energy (wind, solar, etc. ), the accommodation power grid, and so on, exhibiting many advantages over the AC transmission technology [1][2][3][4][5]. In power systems with voltage levels of 110 kV and above, the use of traditional SF 6 circuit breakers has been restricted in the aftermath of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change because SF 6 is a kind of greenhouse gas [6][7][8].…”

A fast and high‐accurate commutation failure identification method for LCC‐HVDC system

“…Line-commutated converter-based high voltage direct current (LCC-HVDC) technology has been widely adopted in power systems due to its advantages in power losses and capital cost. It has been applied to cross-regional, long-distance, and bulk power transmission, providing a solution to the distribution imbalance of energy sources and load centres [1][2][3][4][5]. However, the thyristors used in LCC-HVDC lack self-shutdown capability, leading to inherent defects.…”