Special considerations for AC collector systems and substations associated with HVDC - Connected wind power plants

Offshore wind power plants are growing in terms of rated power and distance from grid entry points and the number of HVDC schemes employed to transmit the generated wind power will continue to increase. This TB considers the special requirements that need to be considered during the design of an offshore AC collector substation connected to a HVDC link as opposed to HVAC. Aspects and issues that have been considered in this work include: overall topology, the number and configuration of AC collector substations, selection of voltage levels, frequency, grid code requirements, reactive power compensation, required studies, protection philosophies and communications systems.