Review of MVDC Applications, Technologies, and Future Prospects

Sophie Coffey, Victor Timmers, Rui Li, Guanglu Wu and Agustí Egea-Àlvarez
Additional contact information
Sophie Coffey: Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK
Victor Timmers: Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK
Rui Li: Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK
Guanglu Wu: State Key Laboratory of Power Grid Safety and Energy Conservation, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing 100192, China
Agustí Egea-Àlvarez: Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 24, 1-36

Abstract: This paper presents a complete review of MVDC applications and their required technologies. Four main MVDC applications were investigated: rail, shipboard systems, distribution grids, and offshore collection systems. For each application, the voltage and power levels, grid structures, converter topologies, and protection and control structure were reviewed. Case studies of the varying applications as well as the literature were analyzed to ascertain the common trends and to review suggested future topologies. For rail, ship, and distribution systems, the technology and ability to implement MVDC grids is available, and there are already a number of case studies. Offshore wind collection systems, however, are yet able to be implemented. Across the four applications, the MVDC voltages ranged from 5–50 kV DC and tens of MW, with some papers suggesting an upper limit of 100 kV DC and hundreds of MV for distribution networks and offshore wind farm applications. This enables the use of varying technologies at both the lower and high voltage ranges, giving flexibility in the choice of topology that is required required.

Keywords: medium voltage DC (MVDC); applications; distribution grid; offshore wind; rail; shipboard systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/24/8294/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/24/8294/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:24:p:8294-:d:698580

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().