Hyosung Heavy Industries builds test facility for 2-gigawatt HVDC controller

Hyosung Heavy Industries, the power equipment and grid infrastructure unit of Korean conglomerate Hyosung Group, has built a facility to test the performance of its 2-gigawatt high-voltage direct current (HVDC) controller, marking a first for Korea using homegrown technology, the company said Thursday. The hardware-in-the-loop simulation system, recently installed at the company's research center in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, links an actual HVDC controller to a simulated 2-gigawatt converter valve and power grid. This lets engineers check how the controller responds under conditions close to those of a real grid, the company said. HVDC technology converts alternating current into direct current to carry large amounts of electricity over long distances with less power loss. A 2-gigawatt system requires two to three times as many test scenarios, such as grid faults and emergencies, as a 200-megawatt one, according to the company. The simulator can reproduce hazardous situations that are difficult to test on a live grid and run them repeatedly over long periods, it said. Hyosung said it d