Subsea DC power cable modelling and computational validation

Abstract

The growing number of applications involving the transmission of electrical energy from AC sources for the purpose of interconnecting onshore/offshore AC networks has motivated several investigations to define the most appropriate topological and parametric structures for the purposes in question. In this scenario, the issue of electrical supplies for platforms for oil extraction arises to reduce greenhouse gases produced by local generation units. The strategies used may consist of AC or DC transmission systems, being the latter and attractive from the point of view of technical and operational feasibility. A DC interconnection complex comprises several units, among which the submarine cables stand out. For carrying out performance studies of the system as a whole, the performance assessments require, in addition to the sending and receiving converter stations, DC interconnection cable reliable models. To this end, together with propositions of equivalent circuits and their representative parameters, this article carries out a comparative computational analysis of the calculated parameters with those commercially available.