The teams and replicas of the three main HVDC system manufacturers have been given new premises

The RTE international team, specialising in transient electromagnetic studies and power electronics-based systems (HVDC, FACTS), has moved into the spacious modern buildings at RTE’s new ‘Campus Transfo’ in Jonage. The campus opened its doors at the beginning of this year. These new premises enhance the real-time HVDC and FACTS laboratory capacities implemented by RTE international.

The laboratory, the largest of its kind in Europe, is dedicated to HVDC & FACTS device integration and includes replicas of all HVDC lines operated by RTE. It also integrates RTE international project replicas such as Equinor’s for the Johan Sverdrup complex HVDC link project. The laboratory includes replica units from the three major HVDC system manufacturers in the world.

Studies on offshore wind farm HVDC connection projects

RTE international’s HVDC experts are currently specialising in offshore wind farm HVDC connection projects such as RWE’s Sofia Wind Farm or the SSE Renewables – Equinor – Eni Consortium’s Dogger Bank Wind Farm, both located in the North Sea and directly contributing to the UK’s energy transition. Currently, these are the world’s largest wind projects.

The control and protection systems of the HVDC links significantly affect the power of the electronics-based devices causing voltage instabilities, harmonic multiplication and increase the risk of interactions.

The studies conducted by RTE international allow us to measure these risks and guarantee the reliability of the HVDC systems that will connect the current and developing wind farms to the power system. The experts first model the whole system and carry out simulations to analyse interactions and operability problems. However, the models are still limited in their ability to correctly represent all control and protection functions. Therefore, to complement these data simulations, RTE international’s HVDC experts install and connect replicas to real-time power system simulators to analyse their behaviour.