Suppression to concurrent commutation failure of UHVDC with hierarchical connection mode based on improved dc current prediction

Abstract For the ultra high‐voltage dc (UHVDC) transmission with hierarchical connection mode (HCM) at the inverter side, local commutation failure (LCF) at one layer after the ac fault may cause concurrent commutation failure (CCF) at the non‐fault layer. The inter‐layer couplings at the ac and dc sides add the difficulty to suppress the CCF. The fault instant may decide the dc current variation during the commutation, which affects the suppression effect. This paper shows the mechanism of the CCF including the inter‐layer ac and dc coupling, and proposes a control method for the inverter at the fault and non‐fault layers. First, an analytical expression among the dc current, ac voltage, and extinction angle of both layers is newly derived to find the dominant factors to the CCF. Second, to improve the calculation accuracy, a three‐point sampling function using Newton interpolation is newly proposed to predict the dc current. Finally, a coordinated control strategy based on the constant extinction area, the overlap‐arc area, and the dominant factor of the CCF is proposed to adjust the firing angle and suppress the CCF. The simulation results using the PSCAD/EMTDC software are given to verify the control effect of the proposed method against the CCF.