29 October 2003

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Report to CIGRE-UK on Study Committee B4 (formerly 14)

HVDC and Power Electronics

Chairman : Marcio Szechtman, Brazil

Secretary Willis (Bill) Long, US
UK Regular Member Bjarne Andersen

Mission of B4

To facilitate and promote the progress of engineering and the international exchange of
information and knowledge in the field of HVDC and power electronics. To add value to
this information and knowledge by means of synthesizing state-of-the-art practices and
developing recommendations.

Scope of B4

The work of the Study Committee addresses all the relevant target groups in the Power
Industry interested in Power electronics. In addition to technical aspects also economical
and environmental subjects of this technology are covered.

The Study Committee activities include the following subjects:

HVDC: Economics of HVDC, applications, planning aspects, design, performance, control,
protection, control and testing of converter stations, i.e. the converting equipment itself and
also the equipment associated with the HVDC link.

Power Electronics for AC Transmission and Distribution systems and Power Quality
improvement: economics, applications, planning, design, performance, control, protection,
construction and testing.

Advanced Power Electronics: development of new converter technologies including

controls, use of new semi-conductor devices, applications of these technologies in HVDC,
power electronics for AC systems and power quality improvement. Power electronics used
in other fields of the electric power industry, interesting for other Study Committees; will be
covered by demand, this committee being the sponsoring committee.

2003 Meeting

The 2003 meeting and colloquium for SC B4 was held in Nuremberg, 22-26 September 2003.
WG meetings were held on the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, followed by the SC meeting on
the Wednesday. The theme for the Colloquium was: The changing energy market
in central Europe – opportunities for HVDC or AC Interconnections using FACTS? The meeting
was well attended and very interesting, being set against the background of recent power failures
in Italy and Sweden/Denmark, and of course the failures in London and US. The Colloquium
was followed by a technical tour of the impressive Siemens transformer factory in Nuremberg

2004 Meeting

The Preferential Subjects for the 2004 meeting in Paris (29 th August to 3 rd September) are:

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Subject 1: Technical and Economic Challenges in HVDC and FACTS Use for Energy
Transfers:

· Interconnections
· Conversion of HVAC to HVDC Lines
· Opportunities and barriers posed by new market structures

Subject 2: Transmission Projects Based on HVDC and FACTS

· Feasibility studies
· New applications and new designs
· Impact of environmental issues on projects economics
· Control aspects to enhance system behaviour
· Operating experiences
· Upgrading of existing systems

Subject 3: Power Electronics Applications and Innovations in New Areas-

· Distribution systems
· Power quality
· Distributed generation
· Wind power
· Oil platforms

The Special reporters for the SC B4 session in Paris, 2004 will be Bjarne Andersen, UK and
Hakon Borgen, Norway. 25 Papers have been selected for B4, 6 for PS1, 13 for PS 2 and 6 for
PS 3. 4 of these papers are from UK.

The B4 Session will be held on Wednesday 1 st September 2004. The Study Coimmittee meeting
will be held on Thursday 2 nd September.

B4 Meeting 2005

B4 plans to hold the 2005 Study Committee and Colloquium Meeting in Bangalore, India, Sept
19-24, 2005. The meeting will include a technical visits to the new regional energy control center
and to the nearby HVDC converter station at Kolar. It is also hoped to hold a Tutorial on HVDC
and FACTS in conjunction with this meeting.

Working Group activities

A list of active working groups can be found in the table on the next page. Further details of WG
activities can be found in the presentation given at the 2003 Liaison meeting, which will be
posted on the CIGRE UK website. Further information about the activities in B4, including
reports from WGs can be found by visiting the website:

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~chris143/CIGRE2002SC_B4/

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Active Working Groups * Membership available

No Title, Complete by Present activity

Convenor
UK Member
B4-04 HVDC system performance Permanent Regular statistics reporting
I Vancers, USA biennially at the CIGRE
none Conference
B4-04/ Converter transformer performance 2004 Investigating the reasons
A2 J Christoferson USA transformer failures on a few
None schemes.
B4-19 STATCOM 2003 Completed
I Erinmez, UK
None
B4-33 DC and FACTS for Distribution 2004 Q u es t ion n a ire res p o n s es
K Eriksson SW being sought
Les Falkingham
B4-34 DC stations with Series Capacitors 2004 Contributions received may
D Woodford (CDA) be written up as a CIGRE
None Electra paper.
B4-35 Thyristor controlled Voltage Regulator 2003 Completed and now
J Vithayathil (US) circulating under the 60 days
None rule.
B4-37 DC transmission using Voltage- 2004 Final version of report being
sourced converters. edited at present.
B Andersen (GB)
B4-38 Simulation of HVDC and FACTS 2004 Report is progressing very
D Retzmann (D) slowly.
K M Abbott
B4-39 Integration of large scale wind power 2005 First WG meeting held in
with power electronics. N u r e m b e r g , S ep t em b e r
P Christensen (DK) 2003*
P J Cartwright
B4-40 Static Synchronous Series 2005 No meetings have been held
Compensators (SSSC) so far
A Edris (US)
None
Systems with Multiple HVDC infeed, 2005 2 meetings have been held
B4-41 B Davies (CD) so far.
C D Barker
Impacts of HVDC lines on economics 2005 I n c l u d e s E n v i r o n m en t a l
J W G
of DC projects impact. Work not yet
B 2 /B 4 -
T Weaver (US) started.
42
Awaiting proposals Membership being sought*
JWG Increased system efficiency by new 2006 F irs t m e e t i n g h e ld in
B4-43/ generations of power electronics Nuremberg, September 2003
A 3 /B 3 / D Westermann (CH)
C1 C C Davidson

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Working Groups under consideration

No Title,
Convenor
Guide for functional specification of Custom Power equipment
B2-? Conversion of AC lines to DC
D Woodford (CD) is liaison from B4

Please contact me if you want any further information concerning CIGRE B4 activities, or if you
are interested in becoming a member of any of the active working groups.

Bjarne Andersen
29 th October 2003

My contact details are as follows:

Bjarne Andersen
Andersen Power Electronic Solutions Ltd
7 Deanshill Close
Stafford
ST16 1BW

Phone 01785 256917

Fax 07902 256917
Mobile: 07940 873808
Email: Bjarne@AndersenPES.com

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