HVDC interconnection between Eastern and Western Europe

Cooperation between electric utilities in Eastern and Western Europe resulted in the idea of an interconnecting link for energy transmission in order to use the advantages of power exchange. To realize this idea, two alternatives of the interconnection with AC or DC links are under consideration. Due to technical reasons, a DC-link with a maximum transmission capacity of 4000 MW in an ultimate layout consisting of two +/-500 kV bipolar systems could be the most economic solution. However, in order to enable power to be exchanged between countries, multi-terminal HVDC operation is required. Through the proposed project, multi-terminal HVDC operation would offer a number of advantages like optimization of energy production, exchange of power plant reserves and also environmental benefits. In this paper, the technical feasibility of multi-terminal HVDC transmission and the impact on interconnected power systems is presented. Some relevant results of the feasibility study are also discussed in the paper