Economic analysis of flexible LCC-HVDC systems with controllable capacitors

Commutation failure (CF) is a frequent dynamic event at inverter of LCC-HVDC systems caused by AC side faults which can lead to inverter blocking, interruption of active power transfer, and even system blackout. To eliminate CFs and improve system performance, new Flexible LCC-HVDC topologies have been proposed in previous research but with limited analysis on its economic performance. Therefore, to further validate the applicability of Flexible LCC-HVDC topologies, this paper utilizes Life-Cycle Cost Analysis model to analyze the life-cycle cost of inverter stations for conventional LCC-HVDC, Capacitor Commutated Converter based HVDC (CCC-HVDC) topology and Flexible LCC-HVDC topologies including Controllable Capacitor based Flexible LCC-HVDC, AC Filterless Controllable Capacitor based Flexible LCC-HVDC and improved Flexible LCC-HVDC. Through a case study based on a 500 kV, 1000 MW LCC-HVDC scheme, comparison results show that the AC Filterless Controllable Capacitor based Flexible LCC-HVDC topology and the improved Flexible LCC-HVDC topology have lower cost than the conventional LCC-HVDC and CCC-HVDC topologies, which proves that the elimination of CFs can be achieved with reduced cost.