VSC-HVDC- overview and applications and its prospects in Indian power system

With diminishing fossil fuel and larger global push for making environment clean, renewable energy sources like wind, solar etc. are getting more and more importance in planning of power systems. These renewable sources are being integrated into existing power grids. But intermittency of these sources and other technical issues involved with them make the job of power engineers very challenging. A very fast controllable medium is required to evacuate the renewable power into the existing grid without affecting the stability of overall power system. High voltage direct current transmission (HVDC) with its inherent fast controllability feature makes it the best technology for integrating intermittent and weak renewable sources to existing grid. But classical line commutated converter (LCC) based HVDC system has its own limitation like excess dependency on neighboring AC network, reactive power consumption by converters, large requirement of harmonic filters, etc. In this scenario, Voltage Source Converter based HVDC (VSC- HVDC) system emerges as the most suitable option for renewable energy integration with the grid. This article presents an overview of VSC HVDC technology and its various applications and prospect of VSC HVDC technology in the Indian power system.