Installation and interfacing HVDC control replicas at the national HVDC centre

The National HVDC Centre (HVDC Centre), located in Scotland, UK; is a simulation and training facility that supports all HVDC schemes connecting to Great Britain's (GB) electricity network. The HVDC Centre has installed replica control hardware for a multi-terminal enabled HVDC scheme under construction in the north of Scotland, the Caithness-Moray HVDC project, (CM Project). This enables real-time modelling to resolve potential issues and mitigate any impact on the delivery and operation of the CM project. This paper describes the practicalities of: specifying, testing, installing and interfacing these replicas, with a real-time simulator, at the HVDC Centre which was completed in August 2018. This paper also describes the subsequent use of the installed replicas to prove and test control measures required for integration of the CM HVDC scheme with the AC Network; together with a quantification of the value of the benefits that replicas provide to HVDC projects and to grid operation.