Presentation at the IEEE PES Working Group Meeting

What happened

Professor Kyeon Hur delivered a presentation titled “Korea’s Expanding HVDC Landscape and Enabling Research” at the IEEE PES Working Group 15.05.02 meeting, “Dynamic Performance and Modeling of HVDC Systems and Power Electronics for Transmission Systems,” during PESGM 2026. He discussed Korea’s transition from individual HVDC links, including the Jeju–mainland interconnections, toward a national HVDC backbone incorporating the West Coast Energy Highway. He also introduced large-scale EMT modeling and simulation studies aimed at addressing the expansion of renewable generation, semiconductor clusters, and AI data centers. In particular, he outlined the phased development of ±525 kV, 2 GW VSC-HVDC corridors through 2038 and the longer-term expansion toward offshore wind integration and multiterminal DC grids. Professor Hur also presented an analytical method for determining the HVRT operating boundary of MMC-HVDC systems by jointly considering their P-Q operating region and modulation limits. EMT simulations were used to demonstrate how the transformer voltage ratio and equivalent grid reactance affect HVRT feasibility. He then demonstrated an in-house web-based HVDC design and verification tool that supports topology selection, parameter design, performance assessment, PSCAD-based EMT verification, and automated report generation.