Planning MTDC Grids

What is it about?

Transmission expansion planning in AC power systems is well known and employs a variety of optimization techniques and methodologies that have been used in recent years. By contrast, the planning of HVDC systems is a new matter for the interconnection of large power systems, and the interconnection of renewable sources in power systems. Although the HVDC systems has evolved, the first implementations were made considering only the needs of transmission of large quantities of power to be connected to the bulk AC power system. However, for the future development of HVDC systems, meshed or not, each AC system must be flexible to allow the expansion of these for future conditions. Hence, a first step for planning HVDC grids is the planning and development of MTDC systems which will be later transformed in a meshed system.

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Why is it important?

This paper presented a methodology that use graph theory for planning MTDC grids and for the selection of connection buses of the MTDC to an existing HVAC transmission system. The proposed methodology was applied to the Colombian case, where the obtained results permit to migrate the system from a single HVDC line to a MTDC grid.

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