Power electronic converters for HVDC renewable energy applications

The use of HVDC power systems for transferring electrical energy across large distances is growing as the mix of energy sources, including renewables, feeding our utility grids evolves. This presentation will consider the range of Power Converter topologies that can be used for these HVDC applications and will look at the advantages and disadvantages of a range of topologies in these applications. When we look at future systems with operating at voltages of up to 1000kV and transferring GWs of power this is certainly a demanding application for existing Power Electronic solutions. Techniques for improving the reliability and availability of power converters in these demanding applications will therefore be considered and the use of observer techniques in reducing the dependency on sensors for control and fault detection will be explored.