Development, Demonstration, and Control of a Testbed for Multiterminal HVDC System

This paper presents the development of a scaled four-terminal high-voltage direct current (HVDC) testbed, including hardware structure, communication architecture, and different control schemes. The developed testbed is capable of emulating typical operation scenarios including system start-up, power variation, line contingency, and converter station failure. Some unique scenarios are also developed and demonstrated, such as online control mode transition and station re-commission. In particular, a dc line current control is proposed, through the regulation of a converter station at one terminal. By controlling a dc line current to zero, the transmission line can be opened by using relatively low-cost HVDC disconnects with low current interrupting capability, instead of the more expensive dc circuit breaker. Utilizing the dc line current control, an automatic line current limiting scheme is developed. When a dc line is overloaded, the line current control will be automatically activated to regulate current within the allowable maximum value.