On DC-Segmentation of Interconnected Power Systems

The ultimate goal of power system operation and planning is to increase power system reliability which enforces interconnected operation of power system. As a result of power system interconnection, the inter-area oscillation under different disturbances may cause power system partial or total blackout. DC-segmentation of interconnected power systems is a solution in which the topology of the network is changed by dividing it into small segments, and connecting them by DC-links. From the dynamic operation and planning aspects of the power system, the controllability of the system at the presence of multiple HVDC links used for segmented power system is a complicated problem. In this paper a procedure to study the concept of power system DC-segmentation using the DC-links as a grid shock absorber is introduced. A well-established evolutionary technique, namely imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) is used to design a HVDC supplementary controller for a non-segmented interconnected power system. The performance of the controller and the DC-segmented system is investigated after DC-segmentation. The obtained results show the potential value of using supplementary controllers in the DC-segmented power networks.