DC-DC Converters for HVDC Grids: A Survey

The recent interest in renewable energies has encouraged the research on a new concept of electrical grid – the Supergrid based on HVDC meshed grids. To be implemented, this new system requires the development of new technologies. One key-enabling technology is the high power DC-DC converter, a topic that is increasingly gaining more attention from both academia and industry.

To help with the conception of new topologies the study of the existing circuits is suggested as the starting point. Reviewing the literature, several topologies for DC-DC conversion in the HVDC field are found. Since the individual study of each topology is time consuming, an analysis of families or groups of circuits is more beneficial at an early research stage. However there is a lack of a formal classification of these circuits and only few publications summarize the different proposals.

Therefore, the objective of this paper is to propose a classification of existing HVDC DC-DC converters, by grouping them in different circuit families based on common characteristics. In addition, the technical applications which could be targeted by each of these families are also identified.

J. D. Páez^1,2, J. Maneiro¹, P. Dworakowski¹, D. Frey^1,2 and S. Bacha^1,2
1SuperGrid Institute, Villeurbanne, France
²G2ELab, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France