Electrical assembly for a power transmission network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11005266-B2
Application number	US-201615753708-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 18, 2016
Priority date	Aug 21, 2015
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

There is provided an electrical assembly for use in a power transmission network. The electrical assembly includes a converter including terminals for connection to an electrical network, where the first terminal is a DC terminal. The assembly also includes a DC power transmission medium connected to the DC terminal, and a circuit interruption device including switching element(s) and an energy absorption element, each switching element being switchable to divert a flow of current in the DC power transmission medium through the energy absorption element in order to reduce the flow of current in the DC power transmission medium; The assembly also includes a converter control unit programmed to operate the converter to control a DC voltage at the DC terminal in a leakage current reduction mode to control a voltage across the energy absorption element.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electrical assembly for use in a power transmission network, the electrical assembly comprising:
a converter including: a first terminal and a second terminal, wherein the first terminal is a DC terminal, wherein the second terminal is an AC terminal, and wherein the AC terminal is connected to an AC network;
a DC power transmission medium operatively connected to the DC terminal;
a circuit interruption device connected in series to the DC power transmission medium, the circuit interruption device including at least one switching element and an energy absorption element, the switching element of the circuit interruption device being switchable to divert a flow of current in the DC power transmission medium through the energy absorption element in order to reduce the flow of current in the DC power transmission medium; and
a converter control unit programmed to operate the converter to control a DC voltage at the DC terminal in a leakage current reduction mode so as to control a voltage across the energy absorption element to reduce a leakage current flowing in the DC power transmission medium subsequent to the reduction of the flow of current in the DC power transmission medium through the switching of the or each switching element of the circuit interruption device to divert the flow of current in the DC power transmission medium through the energy absorption element,
wherein the converter control unit is programmed to operate the converter to control a magnitude of an AC voltage at the AC terminal to be lower than a magnitude of the DC voltage at the DC terminal by exchanging reactive power with the AC network connected to the AC terminal so as to prevent a converter current from flowing between the AC and DC terminals when the converter is operated in the leakage current reduction mode, and
wherein the converter is configured to form a current path through which the converter current is permitted to flow between the AC and DC terminals when the magnitude of the AC voltage at the AC terminal is higher than the magnitude of the DC voltage at the DC terminal.

2. The electrical assembly according to claim 1 , further including a switching apparatus operatively connected to the DC power transmission medium, the switching apparatus being switchable to disconnect the DC power transmission medium from a circuit, wherein the converter control unit is programmed to operate the converter to control the DC voltage at the DC terminal in the leakage current reduction mode so as to control a voltage across the energy absorption element to reduce the leakage current flowing in the DC power transmission medium to a value that permits safe opening of the switching apparatus prior to the switching of the switching apparatus to disconnect the DC power transmission medium from the circuit.

3. The electrical assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the energy absorption element includes at least one non-linear resistive element.

4. The electrical assembly according claim 1 , wherein the converter includes at least one voltage source configured to provide a voltage to offset a voltage difference between the AC and DC terminals so as to prevent the converter current from flowing between the AC and DC terminals when the converter is operated to control the DC voltage at the DC terminal in the leakage current reduction mode.

5. The electrical assembly according to claim 4 , wherein the or each voltage source is configured to selectively provide a positive voltage and a negative voltage.

6. The electrical assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the converter includes at least one passive current check element arranged to form the current path through which the converter current is permitted to flow between the AC and DC terminals when the magnitude of the voltage at the AC terminal is at a predefined value relative to the magnitude of the DC voltage at the DC terminal.

7. An electrical assembly for use in a power transmission network, the electrical assembly comprising:
a converter including: a first terminal and a second terminal, wherein the first terminal is a DC terminal, wherein the second terminal is an AC terminal, and wherein the AC terminal is connected to an AC network;
a DC power transmission medium operatively connected to the DC terminal;
a circuit interruption device connected in series to the DC power transmission medium, the circuit interruption device, the circuit interruption device including at least one switching element and an energy absorption element, the or each switching element of the circuit interruption device being switchable to divert a flow of current in the DC power transmission medium through the energy absorption element in order to reduce the flow of current in the DC power transmission medium; and
a converter control unit programmed to operate the converter to control a DC voltage at the DC terminal in a leakage current reduction mode so as to control a voltage across the energy absorption element to reduce a leakage current flowing in the DC power transmission medium subsequent to the reduction of the flow of current in the DC power transmission medium through the switching of the or each switching element of the circuit interruption device to divert the flow of current in the DC power transmission medium through the energy absorption element,
wherein the converter is configured to form a current path through which a converter current is permitted to flow between the AC and DC terminals when a magnitude of a voltage at the AC terminal is at a predefined value relative to the magnitude of the DC voltage at the DC terminal, and the converter includes at least one voltage source configured to provide a voltage to offset a voltage difference between the AC and DC terminals so as to prevent the converter current from flowing between the AC and DC terminals when the converter is operated to control the DC voltage at the DC terminal in the leakage current reduction mode.

Assignees

• General Electric Technology Gmbh

Inventors

• Gupta Robin
• Whitehouse Robert Stephen
• Barker Carl David

Classifications

• H02M7/4835

  comprising two or more cells, each including a switchable capacitor, the capacitors having a nominal charge voltage which corresponds to a given fraction of the input voltage, and the capacitors being selectively connected in series to determine the instantaneous output voltage · CPC title

• H02J3/1857

  the bridge converters being multilevel bridge converters or modular multilevel converters · CPC title

• H02H7/268

  for DC systems · CPC title

• H02H3/087

  for DC applications · CPC title

• Y02E40/20

  Active power filtering [APF] · CPC title