Efficiency of an alternating current transmission line converted into a direct current system

The concept of energy efficiency could perhaps be summed up as “doing more with less”. This means more power is being transmitted over a long transmission line with fewer losses. There is a special interest in the amount of energy being lost over a line. When looking at how electric power is produced at a remote area, where power generation is built, and has to be transmitted over a long distance through transmission lines to the location of power demand is the challenge. It is thus essential to look at how energy could be transmitted as efficiently as possible. High voltage alternating current (HVAC) has been used for many years as the means of transmitting bulk energy. However, HVAC lines incur increased losses as the distance becomes longer. This research investigates how energy could be transported with minimum losses when an existing HVAC transmission line is converted into a HVDC transmission system and the end users still receive AC as the DC is inverted to AC. To evaluate the effectiveness of this methodology, a number of scenarios have been conducted as case studies. The results show that an existing HVAC transmission line when converted to DC is found to improve the energy efficiency while still meeting consumer demand.