The 2018 International Power Electronics Conference

Research on Key Technology and Equipment for

Zhangbei 500kV DC Grid
Guangfu Tang, Member, IEEE, Hui Pang, Zhiyuan He, Member, IEEE, Xiaoguang Wei
Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute, Beijing, China
[email protected]

integration of large-scale clean energy demands the

Abstract — With the capacity of new energy resources such as development and establishment of DC grids
wind power and photovoltaic in Zhangbei region increasing The Zhangbei region, due to its geographical advantage, has
rapidly, the reliable transmission and consumption capabilities of been installed a lot of renewable and clean energy based power
large-scale and high-proportion new energy resources are
stations and this trend has no stop sign until 2020. However,
urgently improved. Considering the advantages of the
VSC-HVDC transmission technology, Zhangbei project is due to the asymmetric distribution of renewable energy
designed as symmetrical bipolar system which adopts half-bridge resources and energy consumption, and characteristics of
modular multi-level converter (MMC) topology and overhead intermittency and fluctuation of renewable energy, the demand
lines for power transmission. In this paper, a system scheme is of the integration and consumption of large-scale renewable
presented, and some results are provided. Meanwhile, a novel energy resources becomes difficult to realize. Fortunately, the
modular cascaded hybrid DC breaker concept is proposed, and
VSC based DC grid technology, as described in this paper,
500kV VSC valve and DC breaker prototype are developed to
meet the requirement of the Zhangbei four-terminal dc grid. offers a good solution to the aforementioned problems.
Index Terms—DC grid, DC breaker, overhead line, Voltage Until now industrial VSC-HVDC projects under operation
Soured Converter, VSC-HVDC. has grown dramatically, also including Zhoushan five-terminal
± 200kV/1000MW(total capacity) and Xiamen ±
320kV/1000MW VSC-HVDC projects in China. Therefore, in
I. INTRODUCTION order to improve the connection and consumption capability of

D ue to the increasing consumption of primary energy and

the degradation of the environment, a side effect of global
economic development, plans have been made by
large-scale renewable energy resources in Zhangbei region, the
±500kV/3000MW four-terminal DC Grid project is proposed
by State Grid Corporation of china (SGCC).
countries around the world to encourage the evolution of This article is organized as follows. In Section II, the design
energy sources from fossil energy towards clean energy. As a of Zhangbei 500kV DC grid is described in terms of the profile
result, this trend accelerates the development and utilization of of Zhangbei DC grid, the system configuration scheme and
large-scale renewable and clean energy. The current and future technical parameter requirements for key equipment. In Section
development of electric power industry in China will focus on III and IV, the key equipment, including the VSC valve
following points: facilitating the efficient exploitation and converter and DC circuit breaker, are introduced respectively.
utilization of renewable clean energy, promoting the optimized Section V presents the research and experimental results of the
allocation and transformation of power resources in a large prototype of VSC valve converter and DC circuit breaker,
scale, securing the reliable power supply, and improving the which serves as the key equipment of the DC grid system.
economical and flexible operation of power system.
Section VI concludes this paper.
Based on a new generation voltage source converter, high
voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) transmission technology
II. DESIGN OF ZHANGBEI 4-TERMINAL HVDC GRID
has captured an increasing number of research. Comparing this
approach with Current Source Converter (CSC) HVDC, the A. Profile of Zhangbei DC Grid
VSC-HVDC is superior in circuit performance, this includes With the rapidly increasing capacity of new energy resources
independent control of both active and reactive power flows, no in Zhangjiakou district, China, the reliable transmission and
requirement for filters or reactive power compensation consumption capabilities of large-scale and high-proportion of
equipment, and fixed voltage polarity for reversed power flows.
new energy resources are urgently improved. However, the AC
Thus, the VSC-HVDC offers a safe and efficient solution for
power grids in Zhangjiakou are relatively weak, and the
the integration and consumption of intermittent renewable
transmission capability improvement of the 500kV AC system
sources. So far, most of VSC-HVDC projects running in the
commercial world adopt the point to point transmission mode. is still limited even by increasing the dynamic reactive power
Comparing with the multiple point to point transmission modes, support. Meanwhile, the power sources of Bashang grid in
the flexible DC grids are more reliable, economical and flexible Zhangjiakou are almost all renewable energy resources. It has
in high voltage and large capacity. With the exploitation of no voltage support provided by the traditional synchronous
renewable energy like wind power and photovoltaic, generators. All of these lead to the difficult transmission and

©2018 IEEJ 2343

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consumption of renewable energy resources. Capacity of

Zhangjiakou district is adjacent to the Beijing - Tianjin - Converter 3000 3000 1500 1500
Station/MW
Tangshan load center. Considering the advantages of the
VSC-HVDC transmission technology, it would be a positive
demonstration to apply VSC-HVDC technology in Zhangbei When the system is in normal operation condition, the
district to solve the problem of renewable energy resources Zhangbei and Kangbao converter stations simultaneously inject
transmission and consumption. Meanwhile, it will also be on power into the DC grid, and serve to maintain voltage stability
operation for "Green Winter Olympics" held by Zhangjiakou and power balance of the whole system. The Fengning and
and Beijing. SGCC is planning to construct the world's first Beijing converter stations receive electrical power from the DC
VSC-HVDC grid demonstration project based on overhead line side according to their load demand. Figure 3 shows the power
in Zhangbei district. Figure 1 shows the geographical location flow in four-terminal DC grid.
of the Zhangbei VSC-HVDC grid demonstration project. 750MW 750MW
1.5kA 1
1.9kA 2 1.5kA

3 5 Fengning
Pumped-storage Kangbao
Power Station
Positive pole Positive pole

0.4kA
0.4kA
AC
Chengde
DC
2 Fengning
L12
L24 1500MW 4 6 1500MW
DC AC 3.0kA 3.0kA
AC
1
L13 L34 DC
4

Changping
AC
DC

3
2.6kA
Kangbao
Zhangbei

7 8
Beijing Zhangbei Beijing
Zhangjiakou
Positive pole Positive pole
Figure 3. Power flow distribution of Zhangbei four-terminal DC grid

Figure 1. Geographical location of Zhangbei four-terminal DC grid

B. System configuration scheme
Zhangbei VSC-HVDC grid demonstration project adopts Considering the cost due to transmission distance and
four-terminal ring, and the operating configuration is bipolar voltage level increment, the overhead lines are adopted for
topology with metallic return line as shown in Figure 2. The Zhangbei VSC-HVDC grid. The use of overhead lines may
main parameters of the system are shown in table I. In Zhangbei increase the fault probability of dc lines. The dc fault current
four-terminal VSC-HVDC grid, the Zhangbei and Kangbao spreads very fast due to very low damping in VSC-HVDC
converter stations are the sending terminals collecting local transmission system [1] and it is difficult to be interrupted
wind power. The Fengning converter station is a regulating because of no zero crossing point. The converters in
terminal connected to a local pumped-storage hydroplant which VSC-HVDC grid consists of numerous power electronic
can suppress the fluctuation of wind power. The Beijing semiconductor devices and the capability for withstanding over
converter station is the receiving terminal used to supply stable current is very limited. Therefore the fast fault clearance and
and clean power for Beijing. isolation is required in VSC-HVDC grid. If it is unable to
isolate faulty areas quickly, multiple converters will be blocked
and result in power transmission interruption of the HVDC grid
[2]. In order to decrease the DC fault impact, the DC grid
should have the capability of fast fault clearance and isolation.
Presently, the modular multi-level converter is widely used
in the practical VSC-HVDC projects as shown in Figure 5(a).
The sub-module (SM) topology mainly includes the half-bridge
SM as shown in Figure 5(b) and full-brideg SM as shown in
Figure 5(c). The half-bridge SM based MMC can not block the
Figure 2. Design schematic of Zhangbei four-terminal DC grid
dc fault current after blocking, but the full-bridge SM based
MMC has the capability to block the dc fault current. There are
TABLE I. two kinds of main technical schemes proposed to achieve this
MAIN PARAMETERS OF ZHANGBEI DC GRID aim according to the fault characteristic of the different MMCs.
Parameter Zhangbei Beijing Kangbao Fengning One is based on the HVDC circuit breaker which is used to
AC break the faulty DC line, and the half-bridge SM based MMCs
220 220 500 500
Voltage/kV are also used. The other one is based on the converter with dc
DC fault clearance capability which uses the SMs as similar as
±500 ±500 ±500 ±500
Voltage/kV
full-bridge, and fast mechanical disconnectors are required to
isolate the faulty areas [2]. The two schemes will be compared

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and one of them is selected for Zhangbei DC grid.

(a) Scheme I-Half-bridge MMC with HVDC Breakers
The first technical scheme is shown in Figure 6, the
converter adopts half bridge MMC submodule [3], and the
HVDC breakers will be placed at both ends of each DC
overhead line [4]. If this technical scheme is adopted, the
converter is no need to have the fault-blocking capability and
the failure recovery of DC grids requires auto-reclose function
for the use of the overhead lines. In order to decrease the DC
fault impact on the interconnected AC and DC system, it allows
to block the nearby converter station, and the power
transmission of the DC grid is uninterrupted.

Figure 8. The active power of converter station

It can be seen that the DC voltage is maintained by the

converter station at the remote end. Once the fault is cleared,
the blocked converter station can be deblocked at short time
and resumes operation.

(b) Scheme II-Full-bridge MMC with fast mechanical

disconnectors
The second technical scheme is shown in Figure 9, the
converter is based on MMC with fault current blocking
capability [5-6]. The DC mechanical disconnectors are placed
Figure 6. The first technical route
at both ends of each overhead DC line. If this technical scheme
The simulation results of the permanent pole to pole fault on is adopted, the DC mechanical disconnector is required to
the dc line between Kangbao and Fengning are shown in Figure isolate the fault. It needs to block all converters in order to
7 and Figure 8. realize fault clearance when the faults occur at DC side, and
isolate the converter and DC faulty line by openning the DC
mechanical disconnectors. This technical scheme will cause the
power transmission interruption which has the great impact on
interconnected AC system.
Full bridge MMC DC mechanical disconnector

1 2

9 10
3 5 Fengning
Kangbao

4 6

Figure 7. The DC voltage of converter station 11 12

7 8
Zhangbei Beijing
Figure 9. The second technical route

The simulation results of the permanent pole to pole fault on

the dc line between Kangbao and Fengning are shown in Figure
10 and Figure 11.

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2.Ultra high disconnectors

speed protection

According to the comparision of the two technical schemes,

scheme I is more suitable for dc fault clearance and isolation in
DC grid. Scheme II will lead to the outage of entire DC grid in
case of partial failure, and therefore it is suitable for
point-to-point VSC-HVDC transimission applications. In
Zhangbei DC grid project, the scheme I is selected.

C. Technical parameter requirements for key equipment

Figure 10. The DC voltage of converter station
As described above, the application of overhead lines will
certainly cause a great increase in the probability of temporary
faults. If a pole-to-pole short-circuit fault occurs on the DC
side, the most serious transient current will impose on the
whole system. Therefore, to ensure the safe, reliable and
continuous operation of the whole system to the maximum
extent, the protection principle for Zhangbei VSC-HVDC grid
is that none or one at most converter station is blocked due to
overcurrent before fault isolation. To meet the above
requirements, on the one hand, the MMC should be able to
withstand fault current for a certain time to avoid blocking as
far as possible. On the other hand, the protection system should
be able to detect and locate DC faults quickly and the HVDC
Figure 11. The active power of converter station
breaker should reduce the transient current before it reaches the
It can be seen that the interruption time of the power threshold for blocking MMC. Therefore, it is required to make
transmission is long caused by the DC fault, and the impact on clear quantitative calculation of transient current levels of DC
the AC system is relatively large, which may cause frequency system, based on which the requirements of technical
and voltage fluctuation of the weak power system such as wind parameters of key equipment is to be put forward.
farms connection. The time for protection system to detect and locate DC fault
is 3ms, which is the fastest speed the protection device can
achieve currently and is also the design parameter of protection
(c) Comparison of the two schemes system for Zhangbei VSC-HVDC grid. Based on the HVDC
Comparing the two technical schemes, it can be seen that the breaker which has been put into operation in Zhoushan
first technical scheme will not cause the global block in the multi-terminal HVDC system and the technic development, the
failure period, and the failure recovery speed is faster relatively. designed time for HVDC breakers in Zhangbei project to break
However, it requires high speed fault location and DC circuit the fault current is 3 ms, which is the same as in Zhoushan
breaker interruption. The second technical scheme requires project, but with a capability of breaking a larger fault current
relatively lower speed for fault location, but it will cause power than in Zhoushan. So It’s 6ms (3ms + 3ms) in total from the
transfer interruption for a long time which has great impact on time the fault occurs until the fault current begins to decay, that
the AC system. Table II summarizes the advantages and means, it is judged if the converters need to be blocked by
disadvantages of each scheme. comparing the fault current at 6ms with their threshold.
TABLE III.
SUMMARY OF ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE TWO SCHEMES When a pole to pole fault of DC side occurs, all the
Items Scheme I Scheme II converters will inject short circuit current into the faulted area.
1. Uninterrupted The major short circuit current components include the
power 1. Lower speed contributions from the discharge of converter capacitors and
Advantages transmission requirement for
2.Fast fault fault location AC grid. In order to limit the transient current during fault
recovery clearance, DC reactors are needed to be installed. Two DC
1. Fast fault 1. Power reactor configuration schemes, namely centralized and
location and transmission
breaking time interruption distributed configuration, are proposed as shown in Figure
Disadvantages requirements 2. Higher 12(a) and 12(b) respectively. According to the further analysis,
2. Higher investment for it is obtained that the DC loop reactance of distributed
overall converters and
investment power loss
configuration is larger than that of centralized configuration.
1.Development 1. Development Therefore, the spread speed of fault current is slower in
Technical
Difficulties
of 500kV of 500kV fast distributed configuration. Thus the distributed configuration of
HVDC breaker mechanical

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DC reactor is recommended for Zhangbei project. less than 20kA/3ms.

20
CB1
CB2
15 CB3
CB4
CB5
10 CB6
CB7
CB8
5

0
(a) Centralized configuration mode 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

·Figure 13. The maximum transient current to be cut off by DC breaker at 6ms
after failure

III. R&D OF VSC CONVETER

The converter valve used in the Zhangbei DC transmission
system is of a bipolar half-bridge modular multilevel topology,
and the sub-module is its fundamental functional unit, as shown
in Figure 14. It can be seen that each converter is made up of
(b) Distributed configuration mode
Figure 12. The influence on fault current under different configuration mode of three phase units, and one phase unit contains two valve bridge
DC reactor arms, which are cascaded through the same number of
sub-modules. Two fully-controlled IGBTs and one capacitor
The simulation result for the maximum line transient current can be found in the topology of each power sub-module unit.
at different time without blocking any MMC after a As for the working principle of converter, the power
pole-to-pole short-circuit fault occurs at different locations on sub-module can be switched in or out by controlling the
DC side in distributed configuration is shown in Table III. It fully-controlled switches. Therefore, the bridge arm voltage
can be seen from Table III, increasing the DC reactance can amounts to sum of the voltage contributed from all switched-in
effectively reduce the transient fault current. However, the power sub-module units. The DC voltage of the converter is
increase of DC reactance will make the DC system dynamic superposed by the voltage of the top bridge arm and the bottom
performance worse. Thus DC reactance cannot be too large. bridge arm together. Thereafter, by changing the number of
power sub-modules to be switched in, the required AC voltage
TABLE III.
THE MOST SERIOUS LINE TRANSIENT CURRENT AT DIFFERENT TIME
can be formed [7].
DC 7ms/ 10ms/ Since IGBT is the core semiconductor component of the
1ms/ 2ms/ 3ms/ 4ms/ 5ms/ 6ms/
react
kA kA kA kA kA kA
kA kA converter valve. Its rated operating voltage depends on the
or voltage ripple of the sub-module DC capacitor, failure rate of
100 19.7 22.4
mH
6.6 10.5 13.6 14.7 18.0 19.5 components, manufacturing level of the metal film of the DC
150 17.5 19.3 capacitor, and the sub-module protection. Considering the
5.5 8.2 10.9 12.6 12.9 15.3
mH above factors, the status quo of system application, operation
200 13.7 18.0
mH
4.8 7.0 9.1 11.1 12.9 13.0 reliability and cost-effectiveness of the converter valve, the
rated operating voltage of each sub-module is set to 2.2 kV.
The overcurrent threshold for blocking MMC of Kangbao Based on the layout of converter valve, each converter arm
and Fengning stations are 4 kA and that of Zhangbei and contains two double-row 4-layer valve towers. Each layer
Beijing stations are 6 kA. Taking the DC reactance as 200mH, consists of 6 valve modules and each valve module contains 6
there will be 2 converters blocked at 6ms after a fault occurs power sub-modules. One valve module consists of multiple
between Kangbao and Zhangbei. This is because Kangbao - converter valve sub-modules. According to the principles of
Zhangbei line is very short and the line impedance is small. To modularization and standardization, the valve module is
meet the requirement that the maximum number of blocked designed to be a standardized unit. Depending on the voltage
converters does not exceed one, a further optimization is made class, the number of cascaded valve modules is selected to
by increasing the DC reactance between Kangbao and satisfy the system needs and to increase its general use. Taking
Zhangbei to 300mH. into account the rated operating voltage of each sub-module,
Error! Reference source not found.13 shows the the reliability and operation conditions, 264 power
maximum transient current to be cut off by DC breaker after sub-modules including 20 redundant sub-modules are applied
failure, and the value at 6ms is 12.984kA. Taking into account a in each converter arm in Zhangbei DC Grid Project.
certain margin and the situation of expansion to the 7 terminals The valve tower consists of valve modules, supporting
in the future, the breaking ability of DC breaker should not be structure parts, conductive bus-bar, cooling water pipes,

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voltage-sharing structure parts, optical fibers, and auxiliary

supporting parts. The modularized multilevel converter valve is
of supporting tower structure featured with air insulation and
water cooling equipment (as shown in Figure 16). The hybrid
structure of converter valve is reflected into the following two
aspects. Firstly, the self-supporting structure is adopted in the
converter valve tower, and meanwhile, the suspended structure
is taken in the power sub-module unit. The prototype of ±
500kV VSC converter valve tower can be seen in Figure 15.
Figure 16. H-bridge modular cascaded hybrid DC breaker and two types of
semiconductor module

The operation principle of IGBT based H-bridge module has

been introduced in reference [9]. The H-bridge module
appearing in the transfer branch adopts the diode full-bridge
rectifier structure that consists of 4 fast recovery DIODEs and 2
press pack IGBTs as well as a snubber circuit. This topology
provides a bidirectional current path as UFD has thereby allow
this hybrid circuit breaker operating bidirectional transmission
as well.

Figure 15. Prototype of ±500kV VSC Converter Valve

The main parameters for ±500kV VSC converter valve are

presented as follows:
 Rated voltage: 535kV
 Rated Capacity: 3000MW
 Switching Impulse Withstand Voltage: 1175kV
 Lightning Impulse Withstand Voltage: 1425kV （a） （b）
Figure 17: The operating state of diode based H-bridge. (a) Conducting state.
 100ms Transient Withstand Current: 32kA (b) blocking state.
 Anti-seismic Level (Seismic Fortification): Level 9
Since the converter valve is capable of withstanding the The diode based H-bridge module has two operating states
transient current up to 32kA within 5 cycles of 100ms, the named the conducting state and blocking state, as shown in
above mentioned breaking ability on DC breaker being figure 17. During the conducting state, the current loop includes
20kA/3ms will not cause any damage or faults on converter D1-IGBT-D3, it is worth noting that no matter current direction
valve [8]. that from D1-D3 or D4-D2 the current direction flowing through
the IGBTs keep constant. As the trip signal is received that the
IV. R&D OF DC CIRCUIT BREAKER blocking state occurs, IGBTs are turned-off and the current
Zhangbei project is designed as symmetrical bipolar system starts to flow through the snubber capacitor. This means the
which adopts half-bridge modular multi-level converter voltage across snubber capacitor could be charged to certain
(MMC) topology and overhead lines for power transmission. value until MOV clamping.
535kV dc breaker must be configured at both ends of the The key operation waveforms of the proposed hybrid DC
transmission lines to allow for rapid clearance of the dc faults breaker around the instant of current interrupting are shown in
such as lighting stroke, and realize fast reclosing after fault Figure 18. The main branch, with low on-state impedance,
clearance. Figure 16 illustrates the proposed diode based conducts load current during normal operation. When a fault
H-bridge hybrid HVDC circuit breaker. The topology contains occurs, the breaker receives the breaking demand sent from
three paralleled branches: the main branch, the transfer branch VSC-HVDC system at t1, the semiconductor modules of main
and the absorption branch. The main branch, carrying nominal branch is switched off to force the fault current commutated to
current, contains an ultra-fast mechanical disconnector in series the transfer branch. Until the main branch current decreases to
connection with several IGBT-based H-bridge module units. zero at t2, the UFD is opened. After the UFD reaches enough
The transfer branch, undertaking the function of fault current distance and is capable of withstanding the TIV, the
breaking, comprises a large quantity of cascaded diode-based semiconductor modules of the transfer branch are switched off
H-bridge module units, of which the advantage is that it can at t3 and the MOVs are activated. As a result, the fault current
reduce the number of IGBTs by half without sacrificing the transfers to the absorption branch during the period of t3~t4.
breaking capability. The absorption branch is made of MOVs to The interruption process of the breaker ends at t5 when the fault
limit the transient interruption voltage (TIV) and to dissipate current decrease to zero.
the magnetic energy stored in the DC system. The reclosing order is received at t6 after successful arc

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extinguishing and the deionization of a DC fault, and then the circuit breaker to check whether their designs meet all the
semiconductor modules of the transfer branch turn on. If the specified engineering requirements.
DC fault still exists, the modules block immediately at t7 when
A. Test for Converter Valve
the current exceeds the protection threshold (ITH) to reduce the
inrush fault current. Otherwise, the main branch will be closed IEC 62501 has defined all the electrical type tests for
and the breaker is put into operation. converter valves, mainly including operational test,
short-circuit test, IGBT overcurrent turn-off test, EMC test and
dielectric test.
Among the aforementioned test items, the operational test is
to check the adequacy of converter valves under the worst
repetitive conditions and to demonstrate correct interaction
between valve electronics and power circuits. The operational
Figure 18. Schematic voltage and current waveforms during current breaking test mainly includes maximum continuous operating duty test,
and reclosing maximum temporary over-load operating duty test, minimum
DC voltage test. The maximum continuous operating duty test
The features of the proposed hybrid HVDC breaker are as is to reproduce the maximum continuous IGBT/diode junction
follows: temperatures based on the worst operating conditions of the
 Excellent fault current breaking capability converter in service. The maximum temporary over-load
 Better voltage distribution operating duty test is for the valve specified for temporary
 UFD arc-less separation over-load conditions. The minimum DC voltage test is to verify
 Fast reclosing capability the correct performance of the valve designs in which energy
 Free scalability assured by modular design for the valve electronic circuits is extracted from the voltage
In order to reduce the footprint of the breaker, components appearing between the valve terminals. As required by IEC
including the UFDs, the semiconductor switches and the 62501, the test conditions shall represent the worst scenarios of
MOVs, are all integrated and installed at a 500kV high potential a valve in service, such as the operating voltage and current,
platform as shown in Figure 19. Thanks to the frame structure coolant flow rate and inlet temperature, switching frequency
design of valve support, the seismic performance can reach up and modulating pattern, etc. All these test conditions are to
to 9.0 on the Richter scale. With the modular design, this ensure that the maximum IGBT junction temperature could be
breaker can be easily scaled for higher voltage levels. achieved during the test. A safety factor, 1.05, needs to be
considered when deriving the testing voltage and current for the
maximum continuous operating duty test and similarly, a safety
factor, 0.95, needs to be considered for the testing voltage of the
minimum DC voltage test. The minimum duration required for
both tests are 30 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively.

Figure 19. The 500kV hybrid HVDC breaker prototype

To echo to the need of Zhangbei DC grid, the parameter

requirements for the breaker are: Figure 20. Operational test circuit of converter valves.
 Rated voltage: 535kV
 Rated current: 3kA Due to the large number of sub-modules configured in MMC
 Breaking time（not including fault clear time）:≤3ms and its high voltage and large capacity, it is unrealistic to carry
 Interrupting current: ≥25kA out operational test on the whole converter in the laboratory.
 Dielectric withstand in open state: ≥800kV Consequently, a scaled-down equivalent test circuit, as shown
 Reclose time: ≤300ms in Figure 20, was proposed to carry out operational test. By
exchanging power between two valves, AC and DC current is
V. TEST OF CONVERTER VALVE AND DC BREAKER generated in test circuit so as to be equivalent to the current
stress under actual operating conditions. The typical waveform
As the key equipment configured in DC grid, the converter
of valve current and voltage during operational test are shown
and the circuit breaker have captured an increasing concern on
in Figure 21.
their operation safety and reliability. For this purpose, it is
essential to carry out a series of tests on the converter and the

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Figure 22. Breaking test circuit for 500kV breaker prototype.

In July 2017, the developed DC breaker prototype passed the

type test. Figure 24 shows the waveform of the reclosing test of
Figure 21. Typical waveform of valve current and voltage during operational the DC breaker. Reclosing test includes two short-circuit
test. current breaking processes. In first breaking operation, the
breaker starts to operate 1.6ms after the thyristor valve has been
B. Test for HVDC circuit breaker triggered and takes 2.6ms to turn off 26kA current, and the TIV
As a new kind of high-end electric equipment in power in this process exceeds 810kV. The second breaking operation
electronic field, hybrid DC circuit breaker has such operating will dial with 9kA current some 300 milliseconds later.
principles and conditions that are different from those of
conventional AC circuit breakers or DC circuit breakers in
medium-low voltage application fields [10]. So far, there has
been no international or national standard that can be referred to
for its electrical test [11]. The complete design of type test
proposed in this paper is based on operation test and insulation
test. Breaking test is the core of operation test.
LC power supply creates high current to simulate the fault
current by discharging the pre-charged capacitor to the
inductor, mainly utilizing a quarter of cycle period at LC
oscillation current rise stage. The advantages of LC power
supply include large impulse power, high energy density, easy
realization of charge and discharge control, as well as wider
Figure 23. Reclosing test waveforms of 500 kV hybrid HVDC breaker.
range of power supply parameter regulation. Under failure
transient state, LC oscillation power supply is the test power Table IV lists the insulation test results for the 500kV DC
supply closest to real VSC-HVDC grid system, di/dt of test breaker prototype.
current is determined by initial test voltage and test reactance,
and the reduction rate of test voltage is determined jointly by TABLE IV
capacitor's capacity and reactance value [12]. INSULATION TEST
In order to verify the core functionality of 500kV DC circuit Test Item Test Result
breaker, overall breaking test on whole machine has been
Terminal-to-ground DC voltage
implemented. Figure 22 shows the breaking test circuit with LC withstand test
856 kV/1 min, 588 kV/3 h
oscillation power supply. Once the capacitors C are fully
Terminal-to-ground switching
charged, the power source is isolated by turning-off mechanical impulse voltage withstand test
1175 kV
switch K. After breakover of DC circuit breaker, the thyristor Inter-terminal DC voltage
856kV/5 s, 588 kV/10 min
valve T is triggered to start test and the DC circuit breaker will withstand test
finally complete breaking. With multiple-trigger of the
thyristor valve, reclosing test will be achieved. The test
inductors L are used for regulating the test current rising rate VI. CONCLUSION
and the final test breaking current amplitude. Zhangbei project adopts half-bridge modular multi converter
(MMC) and uses overhead lines, so that 535kV DC breaker
must be configured at the both end of line to clearthe potential
dc fault such as the lighting strike. In this paper, a system
scheme is presented, and some results are provided.
Meanwhile, a novel modular cascaded hybrid DC breaker
concept is proposed, and 500kV VSC valve and DC breaker

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prototype are developed to meet the requirement of the

Zhangbei four-terminal dc grid. The project will be put into
operation by 2019.
The technological advantages that are available in
large-scale renewable energy integration have made DC power
grid technology viable, attracting global attention. In particular,
this technology is in great demand in Europe, North Africa, and
northwestern China, where renewable energy generates a
relatively large proportion of electricity power. In the coming
decades, the DC power grid technology will embrace rapid
development. The experience gained from designing,
developing, and constructing the Zhangbei DC power grid will
serve as a great reference for development and application of
this technology worldwide.

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