INELFE: main description and operational experience over three years in service

Abstract

In October 2015 a new HVDC-VSC interconnection between France and Spain was commissioned in the Eastern Pyrenees, becoming the first Europe's DC underground cable embedded within a synchronous and meshed AC network. Given this particularity, the new interconnection required special operation features, which guaranteed an improvement in system security and a commercial transfer capacity increase from 1.400 to up to 2.800111This has enabled the French-Spanish interconnection to reach higher values of Available Transmission Capacity in some hours MW. This paper will summarize the most important characteristics of the HVDC link, an overview of the implemented smart control system and the most relevant items in real time operational experience faced by REE during these years in service.