Research & Collaboration
What makes us unique?
SuperGrid Institute owes its success to the people who make up our various research departments. Our teams come from diverse backgrounds in industry and academia, and their wealth of experience and skills make the Institute unique. Each individual brings specific expertise to the table.
This melting pot of knowledge offers opportunities for specialists from different fields to collaborate on new and innovative solutions to technical problems.
The Institute also benefits from close collaborative relationships with industry and academic institutions. The complementary strengths of our partners provide insights and innovative approaches to technical challenges. At the same time, we retain total independence in our research. Public-private investments and collaborative projects finance our work.
SuperGrid Institute’s state-of-the-art research facilities, test platforms and laboratories at the Villeurbanne and Grenoble sites are key to the success of our five research departments.
Latest scientific publications
Development of a protection strategy for future DC networks based on low-speed DC circuit breakers
This paper presents a novel protection scheme based on converter breaker; its key element, namely a low-speed mechanical DC breaker, is located at each DC converter output.
Assessment methodology and performance indicators for HVDC grid protection strategies
This paper presents an assessment methodology of protection strategies for meshed grids. It also proposes the computation of two performance indicators to evaluate protection strategies through a reliability and speed perspective. The Monte Carlo method is used to calculate the two indicators proposed. These two indexes can be used as criteria for comparison between protection strategies. Due to the increasing debate around the protection for HVDC grids, three proposals of protection of HVDC grids were chosen as application cases.
Protection strategy for MTDC grids using SFCLS at converter station output
This study proposes a non-selective protection strategy for multi-terminal high voltage direct current grids based on resistive-type superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs). Located at the output of AC/DC converters, the SFCL limits the current contribution from the AC grid in case of DC fault. With this approach, the fault clearing time constraint is relieved allowing the use of mechanical DC circuit breakers for fault current interruption. Furthermore, the breaking capability and energy dissipation requirements of the breaker are greatly reduced. To achieve a fast restoration of the DC grid, a redundant SFCL is introduced in parallel to those in operation, bypassing them when the fault is effectively suppressed. In addition, primary and back-up protection schemes are described and tested using a three-terminal bipolar HVDC grid based on half-bridge modular multilevel converters and cable transmission. Simulations are implemented in EMTP-RV® to analyse and discuss performances of the proposed fault clearing strategy.
