AC Versus DC Link Comparison Based on Power Flow Analysis of a Multimachine Power System

Deregulation and privatization is posing new challenges on high voltage transmission and on distributions systems as well. An increasingly liberalized market will encourage trading opportunities to be identified and developed. High voltage power electronics, such as HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) and FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems) provide the necessary features to avoid technical problems in heavily loaded power systems; HVDC offers most advantages: it can be used for system interconnection and for control of power flow as well. The major benefit of HVDC is its incorporated ability for fault-current blocking, which is not possible with synchronous AC links. In addition, HVDC can effectively support the surrounding AC systems in case of transient fault conditions and it serves as firewall against cascading disturbances. This paper presents a comparison between HVDC link and an HVAC link in a 29 Bus multimachine system, based on load flow analysis using Newton-Raphson method for the AC link case, and sequential method for the HVDC link case.