About the Symposium:

DC grid for more Renewable Energy Penetration in the Power Networks of the Future DC grid control and operations

Nowadays, more than ever, the power engineering domain is facing enormous challenges since the increasing interest in intermittent renewable energies, which impose a completely new operation paradigm. The use of these resources must be done in ways that guarantee a secure, autonomous, sustainable, clean and competitive operation. A realistic solution to enhance the share of renewable sources could be wind power generation, which has prompted different countries to install wind turbines offshore. In Europe, the offshore wind potential is able to cover
seven times its whole demand. This push towards offshore has raised even more challenges. HVAC provides the simplest and most economic connection method for short distances, but since the distance of the offshore farms exceed 50-80km, the transmission with High Voltage Direct
Current (HVDC) based on either the conventional current source converter (CSC-HVDC) or the voltage source converter (VSC–HVDC) is unavoidable. The CSC technology characteristics make the multi-terminal (more than three converters involved) operation unfeasible. It has been shown that the VSC structure presents several advantages and is better fit than CSC systems in terms of independent, fast and flexible active and reactive power control. In fact, to reverse power direction in a CSC system is complex and needs a mechanical procedure. On the contrary, the VSC converter behaves as a synchronous generator which solves the problem of power flow reversibility. In addition, the recent advances in power technologies open the door for VSC HVDC to a higher power range, which makes the multi-terminal HVDC (MTDC) system a technical possibility. In addition, the emergence of a wider range of power electronic devices is contributing to revitalize the research on DC transmission networks, where DC/DC converters will play a decisive role. These DC/DC transformers have to be bidirectional (must be able to transfer energy in one direction or another by just making a change in the direction of current), and thus being able to control the power flow between a network and another. The MTDC grid will interconnect remotely located offshore wind farms and connect them in various points to the existing AC infrastructure, to provide a more reliable grid. This enables the opportunity to building a whole overlaying DC SuperGrid, which could have a number of economical and technical advantages over AC transmission. The symposium objective is to provide sufficient clarifications with adapted tools on how to control and handle such complex system in “plug and play” manner.