Full-bridge VSC: An essential enabler of the transition to an energy system dominated by renewable sources

High-voltage, high-power dc transmission based on Modular Multilevel Voltage-Sourced Converters represents currently the best solution when system resilience, flexibility of control, reliability and availability are of essence. In Europe, such systems are currently being installed or considered as interconnectors between several synchronous zones or embedded into a synchronous zone. New concepts and solutions are under development to meet the most demanding requirements, such as overhead line transmission with fast fault clearing and power recovery, as well as intersystem faults on mixed ac and dc lines. This paper aims at illustrating and discussing the advantages related to the adopted solution for the first German dc corridor.