APPLICATION OF POWER ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGIES TO THE 21ST-CENTURY BULK POWER TRANSMISSION IN JAPAN

The electric power industry in Japan is now carrying out a nation-wide research and development programme for the effective application of power electronics technologies to the bulk transmission network and interconnected power systems for the 21st century. The programme will continue for eight years funded by ten power utilities and subsidy fi om the national government. The research and development programme specifically consists of the following three study projects: AC high-voltage/large-current transmission (feasibility study on enhancement measures for AC transmission capability, and verification test of their effectiveness using a power system simulator); multiterminal HVDC transmission (feasibility study on multiterminal HVDC transmission, and development and verification test of a prototype control/protection device), high performance AC/DC converter (development of a partial model for a 300 MW self-commutated converter, and field test of the developed partial model).