Master thesis for developing an open PSCAD model for HVDC VSC MMC i Ludvika

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The High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) System Development department is responsible for developments of electrical system design of HVDC plants. Rating and specification of high voltage equipment, definition of concepts for control and protection design as well as system studies are part of the scope of work.

Project timeline
1. Literature background on VSC MMC and HVDC (2 weeks);
2. Familiarizing with the open PSCAD model of an HVDC system (2 weeks);
3. Formulating a list of features needed (2 weeks);
4. Implementation of the features (6 weeks);
5. Simulating the transients and comparison against a full model (4 weeks);
6. Document the work (4 weeks).

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• The rapid advancements in HVDC technology constantly set new targets for development departments both in industry and academia. One critical topic of development is modelling of voltage-source modular multilevel converters – VSC MMC. Most of the development is done based on advanced models and simulations. In many cases coordination in between different developers is based on open models. Such models should represent behavior of a real system with a sufficient accuracy but at the same time be generic enough to share them. In many cases the existing open models require significant work to incorporate all the features needed to fulfill these requirements. Lacking of good models from another hand may lead to inaccurate simulation results and correspondingly lead to misunderstandings within the industry.
• PSCAD is a simulation tool widely used in the industry to perform all types of studies and analysis. Therefore the main focus of the project is a PSCAD model development. The main goal is to have open model performance reasonably close to the real system models used within the company.
• The study combines both academic novelty and industrial implementation, gives an opportunity to look deeper in a real engineering problem, get valuable experience and work together with leading experts in the field. The exact thesis topic will be defined together with the thesis worker.

• We believe that you are a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering with good knowledge in power systems and HVDC technology. It is also desired if you have certain background of PSCAD and basic knowledge of insulation coordination as well as basic understanding of statistical methods.