Towards Canada’s Transcontinental Supergrid: AC/DC Transmission Merge Solutions

Abstract

A major coordinated effort promoted to move clean electricity freely from coast to coast is related to Canada s Transcontinental Supergrid interconnecting all its provinces through highest-quality power transmission The proposed Canada s Supergrid would enable and ensure reliability resilience and energy security of each of the provincial transmission grids and the Transcontinental Supergrid as a whole Supergrid presents the infrastructure for Canada s emerging national electricity market It is backed up by inter-regional scale wholesale experiences of the Australian National Electricity Market European Internal Electricity Market and wholesale electricity markets administered by Regional Transmission Organizations in the U S For Transcontinental Supergrid planning adjusted total transfer capability limits for interprovincial and international transmission paths are proposed to establish an interprovincial coast-to-coast transfer capability target In Supergrid transmission planning High Voltage Direct Current HVDC is seen as a key Supergrid segment leading in today s AC DC Transmission Merge HVDC has demonstrated globally major improvements in its capabilities increasingly needed to enhance the existing AC grid upgrade HVDC multi-value makes it highly competitive technically and economically High capacity long-distance controllable multi-terminal HVDC technology is particularly valuable for transcontinental transmission across multiple jurisdictions HVDC Back-to-Back B2B solutions for provincial interties and international interconnections present a compelling case for the Supergrid planning A set of eight HVDC Voltage Source Converter VSC -based B2B stations 4 860 MW in total is proposed as a core Supergrid Solution to leverage prompt planning and deployment of Canada s Supergrid