A Sustainable Design for the New 500 kV HVDC Italian OHLs

A huge growth in solar and offshore renewable energy sources is foreseen in the next decades in Italy: 300 GW of new renewable energy sources power plants are required for a complete decarbonization. Terna, the Italian transmission system operator, planned new extra high voltage and high voltage backbones. New +/- 500 kV HVDC overhead lines are foreseen in the Italian transmission system. The paper deals with the development of a sustainable design for the new+/- 500 kV HVDC Terna's OHLs, allowing for a progressive and efficient reconstruction of existing HV and EHV ac backbones to HVDC operation.