An HVDC converter converts electric power from high voltage alternating current (AC) to high-voltage direct current (HVDC), or vice versa. HVDC is used as an alternative to AC for transmitting electrical energy over long distances or between AC power systems of different frequencies. HVDC converters capable of converting up to two gigawatts (GW) and with voltage ratings of up to 900 kilovolts (kV) have been built, and even higher ratings are technically feasible. A complete converter station may contain several such converters in series and/or parallel to achieve total system DC voltage ratings of up to 1,100 kV.
Almost all HVDC converters are inherently bi-directional; they can convert either from AC to DC (rectification) or from DC to AC (inversion). A complete HVDC system always includes at least one converter operating as a rectifier (converting AC to DC) and at least one operating as an inverter (converting DC to AC). Some HVDC systems take full advantage of this bi-directional property (for example, those designed for cross-border power trading, such as the Cross-Channel link between England and France). Others, for example those designed to export power from a remote power station such as the Itaipu scheme in Brazil, may be optimised for power flow in only one preferred direction. In such schemes, power flow in the non-preferred direction may have a reduced capacity or poorer efficiency.
Types of HVDC converters
HVDC converters can take several different forms. Early HVDC systems, built until the 1930s, were effectively rotary converters and used electromechanical conversion with motor-generator sets connected in series on the DC side and in parallel on the AC side. However, all HVDC systems built since the 1940s have used electronic (static) converters.
Electronic converters for HVDC are divided into two main categories. Line-commutated converters (HVDC classic) are made with electronic switches that can only be turned on. Voltage-sourced converters are made with switching devices that can be turned both on and off. Line-commutated converters (LCC) used mercury-arc valves until the 1970s, or thyristors from the 1970s to the present day. Voltage-source converters (VSC), which first appeared in HVDC in 1997, use transistors, usually the Insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT).
As of 2012, both the line-commutated and voltage-source technologies are important, with line-commutated converters used mainly where very high capacity and efficiency are needed, and voltage-source converters used mainly for interconnecting weak AC systems, for connecting large-scale wind power to the grid or for HVDC interconnections that are likely to be expanded to become Multi-terminal HVDC systems in future. The market for voltage-source converter HVDC is growing fast, driven partly by the surge in investment in offshore wind power, with one particular type of converter, the Modular Multi-Level Converter (MMC) emerging as a front-runner.
Electromechanical converters
As early as the 1880s, the advantages of DC long-distance transmission were starting to become evident and several commercial power transmission systems were put into operation. The most successful of these used the system invented by René Thury and were based on the principle of connecting several motor-generator sets in series on the DC side. The best-known example was the 200 km, Lyon–Moutiers DC transmission scheme in France, which operated commercially from 1906 to 1936 transmitting power from the Moutiers hydroelectric plant to the city of Lyon. Kimbark reports that this system operated quite reliably; however, the total end to end efficiency (at around 70%) was poor by today's standards. From the 1930s onwards, extensive research started to take place into static alternatives using gas-filled tubes – principally mercury-arc valves but also thyratrons – which held the promise of significantly higher efficiency. Very small mechanical rotary convertors remained in use for niche applications in adverse environments, such as in aircraft and vehicles, as a power conversion method from batteries to the high voltages required for radio and RADAR, until the 1960s and the transistor era.