Experience from the World’s First HVDC Grid

This chapter starts with a brief introduction and general description of the world’s first HVDC grid, the Zhangbei HVDC grid. It outlines the background of the project and the reasons for choosing the HVDC grid configuration. The system design and key equipment are introduced in detail, including the DC grid topology, converter technology, DC circuit breakers, AC choppers and DC reactors and their main parameters. The specific control functions and protection strategies for the project and the hardware-in-loop testing of the control and protection system for the project are described in this chapter. Finally, the operating experiences including operational reliability, test verification and the analysis of equipment faults and system fault conditions are presented.