HIGH VOLTAGE d.c.

TRANSMISSION 125

5.12 REACTIVE 8)H REQUIREMENTS OF 08,+ CONVERTERS

A d.c. line itself does not require reactive power and voltage drop on the line is only the IR drop
where I is the d.c. current. The converters at both ends of the line, however, draw reactive
power from the a.c. system. It varies with the transmitted power and is approximately half of
the power at each end. It is independent of the length of the line. Filters are provided on the
a.c. side of the converters for HVDC transmission to reduce harmonic currents and voltages on
the a.c. side which would otherwise produce interference with other equipment or with
communication lines. These filters are of large size and involve considerable cost. But fortunately
these can also provide a major part of the leading reactive power required by the converter.
The magnitude of reactive power supplied by the filter is greatly influenced by the position of
the a.c. filters. Filters on d.c. side are used to smoothen the d.c. output and thus these are
effective in reducing interference with communication lines. The cost of these filters is much
less compared to those of a.c. filters. Filters usually have one or more L.C. turned circuits with
a fairly high Q say 25 or more and these are designed from the considerations of steady sine
waves obtained by Fourier analysis.
Relations between a.c. and d.c. Quantities
These relations hold good between the a.c. quantities at the point where the voltage waves are
sinusoidal and the d.c. quantities.
Assuming the losses in the Converter Circuit to be negligible, the a.c. power must equal
the d.c. power i.e.,
3VIL cos φ = VdId = IdVo cos α (5.20)
Where V is the r.m.s. line to neutral a.c. voltage and IL the r.m.s. value of the fundamental
frequency component of alternating line current. The line current has the wave shape as shown
in Fig. 5.21.

Ea
Ia Ea

Ia

Ia

Ea

Ia
a
f

Fig. 5.21 Relation between ignition delay and phase displacement.