A Controllable Thyristor-Based Commutation Failure Inhibitor for LCC-HVDC Transmission Systems

Commutation failure is a serious malfunction in line-commutated high voltage direct current (HVdc) converters which is mainly caused by the inverter ac faults, and results in a temporary interruption of transmitted power and damage to the converter equipment. In this article, a controllable commutation failure inhibitor (CCFI) is developed which obviates the main drawbacks of the existing power electronic based and fault current limiting based strategies. Under normal circumstances, the developed CCFI improves the steady-state stability and the power transfer capability of the inverter ac lines, while it does not cause excessive voltage stress on the converter valves. In addition, it would reduce the risk of commutation failure occurrence, since it does not lead to any voltage drop in the commutation circuit. When a fault occurs at one of the inverter ac systems, its corresponding CCFI limits the fault current depending on the reduced extinction angle. This would not only inhibit the successive commutation failures on the HVdc converter, but also extend the lifetime of components in the inverter ac systems. The practical feasibility of the developed CCFI is assessed through laboratory testing, using a real-time Opal-RT hardware prototyping platform. The obtained results indicate that the developed CCFI can reliably inhibit the commutation failures during various types of faults.