20 I 0 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution

T he Research, Test and Verification of the HVDC Centralized Control System

Chunsheng Wangl, Sen Liu2, Lijun Huang3, Hao Wu2, Kelin Fant, Guohui Rao\ Zhi He2, Junfang Hao3

1, Shenzhen Branch, XI Electric Corp. Ltd., Shenzhen 518052, China

2, Guangzhou Branch, UHV P ower Transmission Com., CSGP, Guangzhou 510405, China

3, Xl HVDC System Dept., Xuchang 461000, China

E-MAIL: wcsbull@xjgc.com

Abstract: 20.9KBps) in the bandwidth test. (5) Benefitting from the

The necessity of the HVDC centralized control system is distributed software architecture, the HVDC centralized

analyzed, and studies confirm its feasibility. Building a HVDC control system can effectively withstand the stress test (18,000

centralized control system to integrate all of the independent data/second, CPU load rate < 22%) caused by simulated faults

HVDC systems, is helpful to: (1) reducing the requirements of happened in all existing and planned HVDC systems (10

human resources and equipments, centralizing and converter stations) at the same time.

strengthening the maintenance team, enhancing maintenance

capabilities internally, (2) achieving the state of centralized Keywords:

monitoring-controlling and the high-level coordinate control
HVDC Transmission; Centralized Control; SCADA;
with synthesized and optimized strategy.
Converter Station; HVDC Control and Protection System
The designing principles of the centralized control centre

are studied, and the key technologies need be verified are 1. Introduction
determined. To determining the HVDC centralized control

system's feasibility and implementation procedure, it is

necessary to build an appropriately simplified test system to 1.1Necessity of the HVDC £,entralized £,ontrol §ystem
verify all the involved software and hardware, the
(HVDC CCS)

communication network, and the project organization and

Currently, all HVDC converter stations are operated with the
implementation procedure, carefully.
traditional manner independently. One of the both converter
The test tells, (1) The set of the HVDC centralized
stations of one HVDC project acts as the master station in turn, to
control system will not affect the safe operation of the original
be responsible for the operation and controlling of the HVDC
SCADA system in the converter station, but will get a backup
system. For sophisticated operation, the command must come
system one more. (2) The HVDC centralized control system
from the superior dispatching centre, and the operators in both
can receive all real-time data and SERs that are consistent
converter stations complement each other by phone. In faults or
with the original SCADA system without lost, (3) and can
accidents, the operators in both stations must report related
successfully execute all kinds of the HVDC control types such
information to the superior dispatching centre, and then analyzes
as deblocking the HVDC system and putting it into operation.
and operates according to the local station information, it is
(4) Based on the network communication middleware, the
inconvenient to get the complete faults information, and it will
delay «20ms) of the data transmission is in a range that can
affect the speed of fault resolution and the improvement of the
not be sensed. With a huge amount of data, the 2M-channel
system availability.
fully meet the real-time requirements of the transmission of
With human attendance, the operation and management mode
data and commands (normally about 7.9KBps, in fault
 2 20 I 0 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution

of HVDC system is similar to the traditional AC system. But the hydropower of Yunnan and Guizhou to Guangdong.

automatic functions of HYDC systems are more powerful, and the b) The location and electrical position of multiple HYDC

HYDC equipments' reliability is higher, these facts of the HYDC systems is close to each other, it is convenient to build the
[l]
system should be took into account. centralized control centre and maintenance centre, and thus it is

Actually, the main equipments and control and protection convenient to exert the scale advantages of maintenance and

(C&P) systems are essentially similar in different HVDC systems, management.

so there is some degree of duplicate resources allocation, and it 2) Management Conditions

will increase the cost of operation and maintenance. On the other Currently, the configuration of operation, maintenance and

side, every HVDC system operates independently will decrease dispatching departments has take into account the facts of the

the grid's overall security, and can't exert the advantages of converter stations' location, mutual distance, staffing and

AC-DC parallel operation. management, and the relation to the superior dispatching centre. It

It is very necessary to change the traditional distributed ease the planning and management of the HVDC centralized

operation and management mode in HYDC systems. The set of control centre.

HVDC centralized centre is a creative step to achieve this goal. 3) Equipments Conditions
Yunnan, Guizhou power grids connect to Guangxi, Guangdong a) Similar control and protection system.

grids via AC-DC parallel manner, and then form the main Table shows that control and protection systems in different

interconnected power grid of CSGP. The running HVDC systems HVDC systems are products of same series. With similar

list in table 1. technologies in equipments, it is easy to collect the measurements,

to select the communication protocol, to design the interface to the

1.2 Feasibility of the HYDC CCS control and protection system, consistently.

b) HYDC system has powerful automatic functions, and has

China Southern P ower Grid (CSGP) is the first AC-DC high equipments' reliability.
parallel operation grid with long distance, huge capacity in China,
c) Mature communication and data network.
and is accepted as one of the most sophisticated AC-DC power
The real-time performance and reliability of the
systems in the world. communication network based on optical fiber technology IS

Table I The HYDC Systems ofCSGP

helpful for the set of the HYDC centralized control centre.
HVDC System Control and Protection System d) Technologies Condition
TlAN-GUANG SIMADYN D
Domestic manufacturers have absorbed all of related
GUI-GUANG I SIMADYN D
technologies in HYDC control and protection system thoroughly,
GUI-GUANG II SIMADYN D
YUN-GUANG TDC and have developed a better operator control system

In addition, there are a few HVDC systems in planning, such independently.

as the Nuozhadu UHYDC system.

Analyzing the current status and recent planning of the 2. Design of the HYDC CCS

HYDC systems in CSGP, it is feasible to build the HYDC

centralized centre in CSGP, and CSGP has good basic conditions

2.1 Overall Arrangement of the HYDC CCS
to build the HVDC centralized centre.

1) Grid Structure Conditions

For every remote HYDC system, a HYDC CCS may be set to
The HVDC systems put into operation and in planning have
operate and manage both of the converter stations.
following features.
For converter stations with close mutual distance, a HVDC
a) Multiple HYDC systems with the same purpose
CCS is set to operate and manage all of these stations in central
The main purpose of these HVDC systems is to transmit the
 20 I 0 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution 3

area. functions of the actual HVDC CCS, and the tests should

cover all main functions of the HVDC CCS.

2.2 Position of the HYDC CCS in Dispatching System 3) The tests should verify the reliability of the HVDC

CCS.
After the centralized control centre put into mnning, all 4) After completion of the tests, related technical
monitoring and operations in converter stations can be realized in specifications will be determined to illustrate the
control centre. Control centre uses a uniform platform to control effectiveness of the HVDC CCS.
all stations, and manages the sequence of event records (SER),

protection fault information and fault recorder information etc. 3.2 Key Technologies and Test Contents
altogether.

The HVDC CCS will integrate many kinds of related

2.3 Management Mode of the HYDC CCS systems, such as operation and maintenance system, the

production management system etc. According to the principles in

The relation between the converter stations and superior
dispatching centre is unchanged. The HVDC CCS responsible for
the reporting to dispatching centre and accepting commands. The
commands can send to HVDC CCS and related converter stations
at the same time. Normally operators in HVDC CCS accept the
command and execute it, but with faults in HVDC CCS, the
related converter stations will take over the control function.
section 3.1, the following key technologies and test contents
should be included.
I) The building of the HVDC CCS will not affect the
normally operation of the HVDC system, will not
decrease the reliability and redundancy of the HVDC
system. The modification in the converter stations'
control and protection system should be as little as

possible.
l21
3. Design of the HVDC CCS Test System
2) The data, such as analog measurements, digital

measurements, signal measurements and SERs,

The HVDC CCS is sophisticated and with high degree of
gathered in the HVDC CCS should be consistent with
difficulty, and requires high security and reliability. It is necessary
the data in the converter stations, and the time delay
to build an appropriately simplified test system to evaluate the key
should be negligible.
difficulties, to verify the main functions and performance,
3) The commands sent from the HVDC CCS should be
summarize the risk, to heighten the confidence to implement the
correct and reliable. The HVDC CCS must prevent the
CCS, and it is also helpful for formulating a more reasonable
sending of fallacious and wrong commands. The
project schedule. Many tests should be done to verify the key
command execution speed should be as quickly as how
technologies been identified in the feasibility study, and the test
it executed in the converter stations.
data obtained from these tests is important reference to build the
4) The HVDC CCS can connect converter stations with
first HVDC centralized control centre in China.
long distance, and the bandwidth occupation should be

as less as possible.
3.1 Design Principles
5) The HVDC CCS should meet the requirements for high

performance and large-scale configuration, and it has

The following principles should be adopted in designing the
enough ability to operate multiple HVDC system.
test system, identifying the key technologies, and defining the test
The five aspects listed above can cover the requirements of
contents.
the HVDC CCS about the security, the function completeness and
I) The tests should confirm that the set of HVDC CCS
the reliability.
will not decrease the security of the HVDC systems.

2) The test system should have equivalently complete

 4 2010 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution

3.3 Technical Solutions

Communication Dash line: Original Device
system III statIOn

According to the principles in section 3.1 and the key

technologies and test contents in 3.2, the test system's technical

LANI __�____�______r-_______r-
solution is defined after carefully studying and discussion.
LAN2
1) The operator control system in converter station has

multiple control positions, the test system will share

one of the control position via a switch device. This

control position can be switched between the test

system and the converter station manually or

automatically, locally or remotely.

2) The test system will interact with the original operator

control system in shared memory. The communication

message will be analyzed professionally to ensure the

correctness.

3) The test system is an advanced distributed system, with LAN]

redundant, function consistent, load balancing enabled
=r=r-LAN2
SCADA services.

4) Making a loopback network between Guangzhou

��
Shenzhen Guangzhou
station and Shenzhen station to simulate large Station Station

geographical scope. Figure] HYDC Centralized Control Test System

5) In the factory test, the test system will work on a For convenience, the HVDC centralized control centre
simulation system consistent with the actual control and
system is installed in shenzhen station, it connect to the Shenzhen
protection system in the converter station. The field test
converter station through a loopback channel between Shenzhen
will be carried out firstly on outage devices, and then station and Guangzhou station. The distance simulated by the
on charged devices. loopback channel is twice of the actual distance, the simulated

distance can cover all converter stations to be integrated into the

[2 3]
4. Test System and the Tests ,
HVDC CCS.

After the factory test, the test system is installed in Shenzhen

4.2 Switch System
converter station of GUI-GUANG HVDC System.

The network switch system is made up of switch and the

4.1 System Structure
related workstation. The control position can be switched between

the original converter station system and the HYDC CCS locally
The HVDC CCS test system is made up of three part:
or remotely.
communication system in the converter station, the HVDC control

centre system and the communication network. It is shown in

4.3 Project Configuration
figure 1.

In order to finished the HVDC CCS's performance test, besides

accepting all data of Shenzhen station, the HVDC CCS simulated

other 9 station's data according to the scale of Shenzhen station.

 2010 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution 5

The following is the signal quantity of each station. 5.2 Functional completeness

• Measurement: 6,000/ Station

• Analog: 1000/ Station The filed tests are done in Shenzhen converter station. the

• Digital: 2000/ Station control and protection system in this station is made up of two

• Signal: 3000/ Station kinds of equipment, SIMATIC S5 and SIMADYN D. Inside each

• Control: 3000/ Station kind of these equipments, the data processing and communication

• Control: 2800/ Station protocol is same.

• Table 2 Test Results of Data and Control

Set-point(Reference): 200/ Station

• SER: 5000/ Station

Equipment Data Conrol Equipment Type
Pole Ctrl PI � � SIMADYN D
Pole Ctrl P2 � � SIMADYN D
4.4 Pictures
DC Station Ctrl � � SIMATlC S5
AC 500kV Ctrl � � SIMATlC S5
All main pictures, such as, AC 220kV Ctrl � *
SIMATlC S5
• System Overview *
It is not included in the test plan.

• Shenzhen DC Switchyard I) Data Consistency

• Valve Halls The test system received all data of Shenzhen Station

• Reactive Power successfully. The data comparison involved all main equipment,

• 500kV AC Pole I Control & Protection, Pole2 Control & Protection, DC

• Protection Settings Station ControL AC Station ControL ACF Control. All kinds of

• Valve Cooling measurements are compared.

• Status of Sequence The comparison shown that data in HV DC CCS is consistent

with the data of converter station operator control system.

4.5 Sequence Control Scripts SERs are also been compared, and they are consistent.

2) Control tests
All sequence control scripts needed in Shenzhen Station.
The control tests covered all control and protection
such as standby, de-blocking etc, is programmed. All scripts are
equipment except 200kV station control. And it covered all kinds
tested one bye one in factory test and executed successfully in
of command type, control and set-point command.
field test.
On 2009.2.23, the HVDC CCS test system de-blocked Pole2

to put it into running successfully.

5. Test Results

5.3 Reliability of the HVDC CCS

5.1 System Security

Table 3 Time Delay of Data and Command

Condition Test Content Time Delay(ms)

The security is guaranteed by the test implementation order,
Update all data 80
firstly on outage devices, and then on charged devices. The test Update only changed 20
Normal
system doesn't modify the control and protection system in SER 80

converter station besides sharing one of the control position via a Execute Command 1O�100
Update all data 170
switch system.
Update only changed 20
Fault
SER 170
Execute Command 1O�100
 6 2010 China International Conference on Electricity Distribution

The control and protection equipments are real-time system,
the HYDC CCS and the local station operator control system are
only used to monitor the HYDC system and send commands.
These time delays are almost negligible for human being's
reaction and don't affect the security and reliability of the HYDC
system.
The research results contribute to the promotion of related
projects. It is proved that the domestic technological strength is
able to not only constructing of the HYDC centralized control
system, but also to upgrading and replacing the SCADA systems
in the converter station, and thus can avoid the high cost as of
result of the technological monopoly of foreign manufacturers.

5.4 Performance of the HVDC CCS References

In the condition with 10 stations in fault at the same time, [1] cp i±Jl¥J 7J � IXXJ :t� �AU[� � cp t<i' fuu cp iL,' PI tdHJf:n:tli fi ,
with a data updating speed of 18,000 per second, the CPU load 2006.8
rate of the HYDC CCS SCADA server is 22%. It is an excellent [2] cp i±Jl¥J7J� IXXJ :l¥J7J� 1XXJ1!:1)1E�cpt<i'fuU cp JL,'*f3Ht*iJ\�
result. Actually, it is almost impossible to meet all station in fault tiJf:n:tlifi, 2009.9
simultaneously. [3] iq:§1t 4!/=tM9:15J'fl p� 0 "j : m1J 4!.IXXl j'Jjfrdl�; cp fi;'1jjIJ cP iL,'JN B
The performance of the HYDC CCS is enough to monitor tiDl�� iiHJ\�7J�, 2008.10
and control multiple HYDC systems, the system response is fast.
Biography

6. Conclusions
Chunsheng Wang Henan, 1975.3. Master of Power System

The project confirmed that the HYDC centralized control Automation, Hunan University, Changsha, China, 2000. System
system is feasible and can be implemented. Analyst, 2005.
1) The set of the HYDC centralized control system will not Email: wcsbull@xjgc.com.
affect the safe operation of the original SCADA system in the
converter station, but will get a backup system one more.
2) The HYDC centralized control system can receive all
real-time data and SERs that are consistent with the original
SCADA system without lost, and can successfully execute all
kinds of the HYDC control types such as de-blocking the
HYDC system and putting it into operation.
3) Based on the network communication middleware, the delay
«20ms) of the data transmission is in a range that can not be
sensed. With a huge amount of data, the 2M-channel fully
meet the real-time requirements of the transmission of data
and commands (normally about 7.9KBps, in fault 20.9KBps)
in the bandwidth test.

4) Benefitting from the distributed software architecture, the

HYDC centralized control system can effectively withstand
the stress test (18,000 data/second, CPU load rate < 22%)
caused by simulated faults happened in all existing and
planned HYDC systems (10 converter stations) at the same
time.