Following the approved go ahead of the Shetland project The National HVDC Centre is playing a pivotal role in the de-risking of what will both be the first multi-terminal VSC-HVDC connection in Europe, and an excellent insight into the design of future multi-terminal offshore connections and Multi-Purpose interconnection going forward.
Protection Testing
We are undertaking Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) studies involved in the integration of AC protection schemes in the Shetland Island’s converter-dominated low short circuit level network. By bringing together the Replica of the CMS control scheme with actual protection relays with our extensive real-time model of the island’s network, we can thoroughly test the robustness of the overall system during fault conditions.
OEM and Enhanced FST
As with the original Caithness-Moray (CM) link, an enhanced round of system testing will be undertaken at The National HVDC Centre. This will be done using more detailed models and shifting the focus from purely the performance of the HVDC link to overall system performance. This time however, the system testing with the manufacturer will also be undertaken at the Centre. The reason for this is that the phased development of this multi-terminal scheme means that without the replicas there is no way of testing a hardware implementation of the full system together.
The related innovation projects are as follows:
- Protection Performance Overview: and Validation in Low Strength Areas (with Manitoba Hydro International;2020-2021)
- Evaluation of HVDC with Synchronous Condenser: impact on AC Protection (with the University of Strathclyde;2020-2021)
- COMPOSITE Testing: of HVDC-connected Offshore Wind Farms (2020-2021)
- Coordination of AC network protection: during HVDC energisation (with EPRI; 2019-2020)