LEYTE-LUZON HVDC POWER TRANSMISSION:

COMMISSIONING HIGHLIGHTS, PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS

AND OPERATING EXPERIENCE
by

J. F. ALLAIRE* C. D. CLARKE L. R.WILHELMSSON M. P. GARCIA

G. L. DSILETS G. MOREAU B. S. S. EKEHOV NAPOCOR
Hydro-Qubec ABB Power Systems
SNC Lavalin
(Canada) (Sweden) (Philippines)

Abstract - The Leyte-Luzon HVDC power transmission Luzon and, as this power has to be transmitted from
system has achieved a converter availability of 98% Naga in the south-east some 250 km to Manila, the
during its first 15 months of commercial operation. effects on the Luzon grid are considerable.

Despite AC network constraints the commissioning tests This paper describes some of the special control features
were able to optimise the controls and demonstrate the which are necessary to ensure the stability of the
effectiveness of the special frequency and emergency Visayas and Luzon power systems and to allow the
power controls in stabilising both the Leyte and Luzon geothermal power plants to be operated at maximum
networks. The performance measurements confirmed efficiency. The results of several tests of these special
that the specification requirements have been met with control functions carried out during commissioning are
no appreciable level of interference. presented as well as a brief discussion on equipment
related problems and initial operating experience.
Keywords - HVDC - Control - Interconnection -
Commissioning - System test - Geothermal generation -
Availability - Utilisation Disturbance

1. INTRODUCTION
The 440 MW Leyte-Luzon HVDC Transmission Project
connects the power system of Luzon, the major island of
the Philippines and includes the capital, Manila, to that
of Leyte which is part of the Visayan island group. This
project is part of National Power Corporation's
(Napocor) overall plan to connect the existing Luzon,
Visayas, and Mindanao grids into a single national grid
(Figure 1) [1].

The demand for electrical energy is increasing rapidly in

the Philippines and the Leyte-Luzon interconnection
makes it possible to transmit environmentally friendly
geothermal energy to the Manila area. It is also a vital
part of Napocors development program as it permits a
more efficient balance of energy supply and demand.

This is the first time a HVDC system has been

connected to a network almost completely supplied by
geothermal power and is by far the largest load on the
Leyte system - about 2/3 of the installed capacity. It also
represents the largest power source on the island of Figure 1 - Leyte-Luzon HVDC transmission project
___________________________________________________________________
* Tour 800, 12th floor, boul. de Maisonneuve-Est, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H2L 4M8
It is considered that the thorough testing contributed to two identical 70 Mvar banks and a 78 Mvar high pass
the excellent performance of the HVDC system during filter. The AC filter circuit breakers are equipped with
its first full year of operation - the converter availability synchronous closing devices. A passive DC filter (12th
has exceeded the guaranteed value of 98%, and high and 24HP) is also installed at each converter station.
availability is expected in the future.
Shore electrodes made of 40 vertical sub-electrodes are
2. GENERAL SYSTEM DESCRIPTION connected by overhead electrode lines. As the HVDC
line is bipolar, three operating modes are possible, the
The Ormoc converter station is located on Leyte, one of first one being preferred for its lowest losses:
the islands of the Visayas group, and acts normally as a two HV conductors in parallel with sea return
rectifier. The five major islands of this group are one HV conductor with sea return
connected by AC lines and undersea cables at 230 or metallic return.
138 kV. Cebu has the largest load and mainly fossil fuel
fired conventional thermal generation, it imports power 3. MAIN CONTROL FUNCTIONS
from geothermal and thermal resources on Negros and
Panay and up to 200 MW from Leyte. Leyte is also The LeyteLuzon HVDC transmission system normally
connected to Samar, and these two islands (Leysam) operates in power control mode (Figure 5). Current
have a load between about 70 MW and 120 MW. control can be used as a back-up mode. A back-up
synchronous control is automatically activated in the
As shown on Figure 2, the geothermal generation on event of loss of telecommunication. In this mode the
Leyte has a rated capacity of just over 700 MW. With current response is used as the inverter current order, so
all units available the firm capability is about 665 MW. assuring that the current margin is always maintained.
A 30 MW stand-by gas turbine was available during In addition, the reduced voltage (80%) operating mode
commissioning of the HVDC system. can be ordered by the operator as well as being applied
automatically after repeated line faults.
The Naga converter station is located in the south-east
corner of the island of Luzon and acts principally as an To avoid Leyte system collapse should generation be
inverter. As shown on Figure 3, it is connected to the reduced, the HVDC link is normally operated in Leyte
500 kV double circuit Naga-Tayabas (operating at frequency control mode. This is the principal control
230 kV) and Naga-Labo transmission lines (and thence mode of the Leyte-Luzon HVDC system. The frequency
to the Manila area). These lines also transmit power controller (FC) is a proportional regulator with a pre-set
from the Tiwi and Bacman geothermal plants. dead band.

The Leyte-Luzon HVDC interconnection is monopolar Both converter stations have reactive power controls
as shown in Figure 4. The converter valves, smoothing (RPC) which maintain the reactive power balance with
reactors (240 mH) and converter transformers are the the networks and determine when to switch filters. The
same design at both stations. The three 35 Mvar filter
banks at Ormoc are identical while, at Naga, there are TOWARDS METRO MANILA

HVDC LABO TAYABAS

ORMOC 230 kV HVDC

TABANGO
TO ISABEL
CEBU NAGA 230 kV
NEGROS
PANAY
70 Mvar
MALITBOG 138 kV 69 kV
CENTRAL STATION LOAD
TO
SAMAR
DARAGA

TONGONAN I
(130 MW)

BACMAN
MALITBOG UPPER MAHANAGDONG (150 MW)
(250 MW) MAHIAO (200 MW) TIWI "C" TIWI "B" TIWI "A"
(130 MW) (110 MW) (110 MW) (110 MW)

Figure 2 - AC system around Ormoc Figure 3 - AC system around Naga

 256 23 176
km km km

ORMOC NAGA
CONVERTER CONVERTER
STATION STATION
350 kV DC HP3

DC Filter
DC Filter
230 kV 1260 A 230 kV
440 MW

3 filters 2 filters
11/13 11/13
24/36HP 24/36HP

25 km 15 km

Albuera Calabanga
Figure 4 - Schematic of the HVDC interconnection

RPC is provided with a step voltage (flicker) controller after such an action, power can be increased at a fairly
to minimise voltage steps on filter switching, described fast rate since the steam is available.
in section 5.6. The net reactive power balance can be set
by the operator and the RPC also ensures that sufficient Due to the relatively long steam side time constants the
harmonic filtering is always connected. HVDC system is usually operated in Leyte frequency
control mode so that sudden loss of generation capacity
To avoid overloading transmission lines on Luzon, five or reduction in local load (eg loss of the cable to Cebu)
emergency power control modules (EPC) modulate or is immediately compensated for by a change in HVDC
limit the transmitted power based on the status of the power transmission. This allows the Visayas system to
transmission lines or system frequency. These are be run with virtually zero spinning reserve and limits
described in Section 5.5. the probability of having to vent steam.

The Line Fault Locator (LFL) covers the total distance Frequency control cannot prevent sudden reduction in
between the two converter stations and quickly informs HVDC transmitted power (due to blocking, EPC action,
the operator on which of the two DC line conductors the etc.) which results in significant acceleration of the
fault occurred as well as the distance to the fault. Leyte generators. A sequence of generator tripping
based on frequency was developed to ensure that only
4. GEOTHERMAL GENERATION the minimum amount of generation needed to preserve
stability is tripped. Planned and inadvertent blocking
Geothermal power plants use the heat in high quantities from 440 MW did occur during commissioning and did
of relatively low quality naturally occurring steam to result in tripping of some Leyte generators, however the
produce high pressure and temperature steam to drive a units which were tripped were sufficient to stabilise the
conventional steam turbine. The raw steam is collected frequency without causing loss of any of the major
from wells located over a fairly wide area, referred to as generators or other system load.
a steam field. The geothermal power producers on Leyte
request up to 24 hours notice of the need to open or shut
5. TRANSMISSION TESTS
a given steam field. Once open, a steam field takes up to
4 hours to achieve full capacity. 5.1 General Aspects
The transmission tests were performed in two stages
The rate of change of power from a set of generators is
between March and August, 1998. All basic control and
also limited. During the commissioning of the HVDC
system it was generally attempted to limit this to about protection functions were verified at lower power to
reduce the impact on the AC systems. Clearly it was
200 MW/h. Power order ramp rates of 20 MW/min
also necessary to verify the performance of the HVDC
could be followed by the geothermal plant operators if
the total change was limited to about 100 MW. Rapid system at rated power which involved both deliberate
and unintended blocking from 440 MW.
power reduction in an emergency can be achieved by
releasing high pressure steam to the atmosphere and,
 DC switch orders DC yard
Interface
Other
f TCOM
Station
Block/deblock
Frequency 1
Control Protective
(Ormoc) Block orders
Trinitron Multiscan 20 s e

Pow/Cur Ord Id
Pole Cur Ord Converter
Power Firing
COMPAQ
DESKPRO

Control Valve
Control Control

Ud/Angle ref.
Ud
Emergency
Power Control
(Naga) Voltage and Converter
Tap
Angle Ref. Changer Transformer
Status of Calculation Control Interface
f
AC lines

Q/Uac meas.
Reactive
Power AC Filter
Q/U ref.
Control Interface

Figure 5 - Simplified block diagram of the converter controls

Network constraints, official holidays and an election The valve design was shown to be able to maintain this
period extended the total commissioning duration since level without discontinuous current. The converters can,
testing could not be performed continuously. Problems however, be exposed to more frequent operation with
with the Leyte-Cebu AC interconnection forced some of discontinuous current during AC voltage reductions at
the testing to be done with the HVDC system islanded the rectifier due to remote faults with long clearing
on the Leyte system. In this configuration the number times or transformer energisation. Protective functions
of connected geothermal machines and the Leyte (such as valve misfire protection) which could mis-
network voltage were critical, particularly during de- operate during such events had to be tested to ensure
blocking and until a sufficient power level was reached. correct performance.

The non-availability of the Naga reactor and the Naga- 5.4 Frequency Control in Leyte
Tayabas transmission lines imposed operating
restrictions and contributed to delays in the To make full use of the Leyte geothermal resources the
Visayas system is operated with virtually zero spinning
commissioning; however the fact that the HVDC system
reserve. The HVDC power transmitted to Luzon must
was able to function well with the reduced AC system
capabilities is significant. be reduced if significant Leyte generation is lost.

The Frequency Controller (FC) was deactivated during

5.2 Control Instabilities
the first set of commissioning tests in order to test all
At the beginning of high power testing an oscillation in the basic control functions. However, the FC was active
the DC quantities at about 97 Hz was noted which had during the major part of the testing period and so was
not been seen during low power testing. It was found exposed to many different disturbances and operator
that a software error had caused a normally temporary actions, e.g. power ramping, start/stop, control mode
high value of the gain of the current control amplifier to changes, DC line faults (figure 9), and AC system
be present continuously. This was corrected easily by a disturbances on both Leyte and Luzon sides.
change in the software logic.
Several tests were performed to verify the performance
5.3 Operation with 5% Minimum Current of the Frequency Control, including trips of complete
geothermal plants. Tests were performed both with and
An important feature of the Leyte-Luzon HVDC system
without telecommunication in service. In all tests the FC
is that it is designed to operate continuously at 5% of
acted correctly to change the transmitted power and
rated current. This minimises the disturbance to the AC bring the Leyte network frequency back close to 60 Hz.
networks during start/stop and is particularly needed
when the Leyte system is islanded.
 Id
(A)
Io
650 (A)
Ud Io Id
(pu) 325 650
1,0 0 325
f Ud
0,8 (Hz) 0 frequency control
f
60,0 low side set level
59,8
30
59,6 20
59,4 4 seconds
10
(o)

Figure 6 - Load rejection test at Mahanagdong

For reference, a plot of the HVDC quantities and system

frequency against time is shown as Figure 6 for the case 1000 MW/s
of a 158MW load rejection at Mahanagdong.

5.5 Emergency Power Control

The Emergency Power Controller (EPC) reduces the
transmitted power to help the Luzon AC network. The
EPC over-rides Leyte frequency control and consists of
five power reductions which are imposed automatically
if specific system conditions are encountered (Table I).
The first one is always active while the other four can
be individually activated by the operator.

Table I Description of the EPC functions

EPC Initiated by Action
Loss of both Naga-
1 Block DC link 28-JUL-98 - 18:38
Tayabas lines
Loss of one Naga- Reduce power to
2
Tayabas line 440 MW at 15 MW/s
Reduce power to 80% Figure 7 - AC faults on Labo lines and EPC 3
Loss of both Naga-
3 of prefault at
Labo lines
1000 MW/s of filter breaker closing to increase the reactive power
Loss of Reduce power to consumption. The extinction angle is later ramped back
4
telecommunication 440 MW at 15 MW/s to normal over a few seconds. Prior to switching a filter
Luzon frequency > Reduce power until off, the extinction angle is slowly increased and is then
5
60,6 Hz f < 60,3 Hz stepped back to normal as the breaker opens. During the
sequence the active power is held relatively constant by
To detect if an AC line is not available the EPC system a fast controller. This function is installed at Naga and
uses either breaker status or line power measurement. tests showed that the voltage step is reduced from 4% to
Special care has to be taken when using measurement of 3% without much of a transient at the rectifier. If
line power to prevent inadvertent initiation of the EPC needed, the voltage step could probably be reduced
during power swings. further.

The tests of the EPC activation modules were initially For Leyte-Luzon, a similar function was also added at
performed by simulating the status of the breakers of the the rectifier. This requires co-ordination of actions with
critical AC lines or the power measurement on the AC the inverter since, at filter switch in, the angle has to be
line. Later "natural" events occured which led to EPC increased simultaneously at both ends at the instant the
actions. Figure 7 shows the initiation of EPC 3 after an breaker is closed and then ramped back slowly. At filter
AC fault resulted in the loss of both Labo lines. switch off, both angles have to be increased slowly and
stepped back at the instant of the breaker opening. This
5.6 Step Voltage Control control reduces the step voltage from 1,2 to 0,6% at the
Reduction of the voltage step when switching a filter at rectifier; but causes a 1% voltage step at the inverter, as
an inverter has been implemented on previous projects shown in Figure 8. This must be considered when
(appendix 8.2 of [2]). As control actions are only taken evaluating the efficacy of such a function at a rectifier.
at the inverter this is relatively simple and is effected by
temporarily increasing the extinction angle at the instant
 without

with

with

without

without

with

with

without

24-JUL-98 - 10:47&11:28

4-JUL-98 - 17:12

Figure 8 - Filter closing in Ormoc with and Figure 9 - Staged DC line fault at Ormoc end
and without step voltage control
about two seconds later. The magnitude of the
5.7 DC Line Fault Locator under-swing is interesting as there was no loss of
The fault locator evaluates the distance to a fault using generation during the event. It seems that the turbine
the travelling waves originating from the fault to stop governors reduced steam input quickly but were slow in
GPS synchronised clocks installed in Naga and Ormoc. restoring it again.
The design used on previous projects had to be adapted The fault locator proved to be very precise for staged
for Leyte-Luzon to allow for the presence of a cable in faults - evaluating the distance of the fault to within a
the middle of the line. For Leyte-Luzon, the signal to span; however it was not so successful with faults due to
stop the GPS clock is taken from a special winding on vegetation. Figure 10 is an example of such an event
the DC line current transducers (DCCT) rather than by a with three successive faults occurring on the Leyte side
current signal obtained from a capacitor installed on the (deduced from the rate of change of DC line voltages
DC line as used in some previous projects. recorded in Naga and Ormoc). The top two curves show
Twenty seven (27) DC line faults were staged for the that the first two faults were detected by the derivative
evaluation of protective functions and the fault locator. part of the line protection while the third was detected
Faults were applied between the line conductor and the by the level part. It also shows the third restart was at
tower using a pendulum made with fuse wire at five reduced voltage. The three bottom curves are a zoom of
locations at various power levels and operating modes. the third fault and show that the steady state impedance
of the fault was about 160 ohms.
Figure 9 presents typical results of such a test: this fault,
as it was close to the rectifier, was sensed by the For this type of fault the line voltage does not collapse
derivative part of the line protection which initiated a entirely at the instant of fault. The transient is enough
fast retard to extinguish the fault. After a de-ionisation to stop the GPS clock at one end but is too attenuated at
time of about 150 ms the re-start was successful. This the other end, thus preventing a distance evaluation.
event shows a significant frequency excursion: at first, After commissioning enhancements were made to the
the frequency increases to about 60,5 Hz during the LFL which improved its performance significantly.
de-ionisation but an under-swing (59,1 Hz) follows However it still does not locate all vegetation related
faults.
 value and a tendency to resonance at around 5th to 7th
harmonic. This resonance was evidenced when closing a
generator transformer breaker not equipped with pre-
insertion resistors tripped the HVDC transmission. All
DC converter transformer breakers are fitted with pre-
insertion resistors, so no similar problem was noted.

6. PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS
Tests were performed during commissioning to verify
AC and DC filter performance, conducted and radiated
noise, audible noise, and the electrode parameters.
6.1 AC Filter Performance
A maximum value of 1% was specified for individual
voltage harmonics. In Ormoc, this figure was exceeded
at the 7th harmonic at one stage but, when the test was
repeated to investigate this, the high level had vanished
and was not experienced again. A specific combination
of power plants and AC system configuration is thought
to have created a resonance, but this was never proved.
At Naga, a high level of 3rd harmonic was found; but
this was related to the high level of voltage unbalance.

6.2 DC Filter Performance

A maximum value of 2,0A was specified for equivalent
psophometric current (IPE) when operating with normal
AC voltage (between 219 and 242 kV). This value was
10-JUL-98 - 13:28 only exceeded when operating at minimum current and
reduced voltage, a very rare condition.

Figure 10 - Vegetation induced DC line faults 6.3 Conducted and Radiated Noise

5.8 AC System Disturbances The maximum value of 14 mV (4 kHz bandwidth) in the

power line carrier (PLC) band (75kHz to 500 kHz)
On Leyte, a number of planned AC system disturbance specified for the conducted noise was not exceeded. The
tests were performed including generator tripping, AC radiated noise was also found satisfactory as it did not
line faults, and load shedding as discussed previously. exceed the specified level (100 mV/m at 500 kHz).
On Luzon, the critical state of the AC system precluded
staged tests, however a number of AC line faults did 6.4 Audible Noise
occur naturally (e.g. lightning) and the response of the The highest outdoor sound level at a distance of 200 m
DC link was recorded and analysed. Cases both with from the HVDC equipment was measured at 56 dB(A),
and without commutation failure were observed and the which was 10 dB(A) below the specified maximum.
recovery was normal (as in Figure 7). It was noted that
the DC link sensed the perturbation for fairly remote 6.5 Electrode Parameters
faults in the Metro Manila area, but the response was
very stable. The measured values of voltage gradient on the shore
and in the water were much below the specified levels
Another observation was that, on Luzon with only one of 5 and 1 V/m respectively. The current balance in the
Naga-Tayabas line in service, the negative sequence sub-electrodes at Albuera is not yet as close as desired.
voltage (V2/V1) increased significantly as the HVDC
transmitted power rose - from 0,9% at 22 MW to 2,7% 7. EQUIPMENT PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
at 440 MW. This did lead to some generator tripping in
southern Luzon. Since the transmission lines are not During the commissioning one converter transformer
transposed, the voltage unbalance increases as the failed in operation and a large number of thyristor valve
power transmitted towards Metro Manila rises from grading resistors failed. The transformer was repaired
around 200 MW to over 600 MW. The presence of the in Sweden and the grading resistors were replaced on
second Naga-Tayabas line improved the situation, and site by resistors from another supplier.
some help was obtained by changing conductor The most probable cause for the fault on the converter
positions on some double circuit lines. transformer has been identified positively enough to be
On Leyte, an over-sensitive relay is believed to have able to say that the fault is not of a generic nature.
tripped the newly commissioned cable to Cebu after a The resistor problem was traced to cracks in the epoxy
by-pass pair operated at Naga (the relay was modified). insulation and resistors of a new type were installed.
The high generation to load ratio results in a high X/R
8. OPERATING EXPERIENCE the HVDC link to modulate power to ensure stability of
the Visayas network and limit tripping of generators at
The converter energy availability (EA) for the first the Leyte geothermal plants. Emergency converter
15 months of commercial operation has been 98,11%. control actions in Naga have effectively minimised the
The energy availability of the whole interconnection impact of loss of lines in the Luzon network.
was 0,8% lower because of the time used to cut trees
under the DC line. The guaranteed converter availability Performance measurements have shown the converters
of 98% was attained in the first year of operation. to have no important impact on the connected networks
and on the environment.
The utilisation factor of the interconnection in the first
year of commercial operation was limited to about 80% The prompt intervention of NAPOCOR operation and
due to restrictions in the amount of power available for maintenance personnel combined with well planned and
export to Luzon. This limitation abated in the following quickly performed annual maintenance have permitted
three months and the utilisation factor has reached 90%. the converters to attain the guaranteed availability of
98% in the first year of operation.The utilisation factor
DC overhead line to ground faults have been the main was reaching 90% in the fall of 1999.
cause of forced outages. These faults are caused by fast
growing vegetation underneath the DC line. Clearing of
10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
the right of way is therefore important to reduce the
number of forced outages. The authors wish to thank the personnel of the National
Power Corporation, ABB, Hydro-Qubec and SNC-
9. CONCLUSION Lavalin who have contributed to the commissioning,
operation and maintenance of the Leyte-Luzon HVDC
The Leyte-Luzon HVDC Power Transmission system Power Transmission System.
was successfully commissioned and started commercial
operation in August 1998. Further optimisation of the
11. REFERENCES
DC line fault locator might enable it to locate all faults
due to vegetation. The step voltage control has shown [1] Fidel S. Correa, Leif R. Wilhelmsson,
its ability to reduce step voltage on filter switching by Jacques F. Allaire, "Leyte-Luzon HVDC Power
half at Ormoc but causes a 1% voltage step at Naga. At Transmission Project", [Proc. CIGRE Symposium
Naga, it reduces the step voltage from 4% to 3%. on Power System Issues in Rapidly Industrialising
Countries, Paper 210-04, Kuala Lumpur, Sep.1999]
Simultaneous commissioning of the HVDC system and
geothermal plants in Leyte presented challenges, but [2] "Guide to the Specification and Design Evaluation
commissioning went relatively smoothly. Converter of AC Filters for HVDC Systems", [CIGRE
frequency control in Ormoc demonstrated the ability of Brochure no 139, Working Group 14.30, Apr.1999]