Shunt Reactor Control Performances for HVAC Submarine Cable

The paper introduces a reactive power control algorithm for High Voltage Alternative Current (HVAC) long submarine cable (90 km—230 kV-250 MW). The total submarine cable reactive power varies with the cable loading. As the reactive power changes throughout the loading, the voltage profile of the cable also changes. External variable shunt reactor compensation is necessary to balance the variable reactive power produced by the cable under different loading conditions. The SRC algorithm controls the submarine voltage and current while coordinating with a utility (UT) transformer tap to avoid unnecessary reactor tabs. This paper focuses on shunt reactor controller (SRC) and comparison of different energization techniques to provide voltage stability at an offshore and onshore oilfield with a gas and oil separation plant (GOSP). A total of six variable shunt reactors (four sets at onshore substation and two sets at the offshore substation) has been used to control voltage and current of two submarine cables. The SRC algorithms have been tested and validated using hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation to reduce the risk during field tests and to reduce commissioning time and challenges. HIL test results of energization and de-energization sequence for various loading and unloading conditions is presented in the paper.