Power System design compromises for large-scale linear particle accelerators

This paper discusses various design aspects of a 280MW Power System for the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC), a 50km long electrons-positrons accelerator, under feasibility evaluation. The key requirements are a very high accelerator availability and constant power flow from the utility grid, considering the pulsed power nature of CLIC. Firstly, the possible power network and cabling layouts are discussed along with potential difficulties on electrical fault clearance. Following, the use of active front-end converters is examined as a means to control the power flow and power quality seen by the 400kV grid. In particular a modular multilevel converter preliminary configuration is described and the compromises related to energy storage and voltage level are discussed.