The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE's) Office of Electricity (OE) announced the four winners of the American-Made High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Prize. The winning teams proposed innovative solutions with strong potential to help close the technology gaps that hinder HVDC deployment in the United States, strengthening the resiliency and flexibility of the nation’s grid.

 

The following teams have each been awarded $50,000 in cash prizes for their efforts.

Dr. Richard Zhang, Virginia Tech — Multi-Functional Intelligent Voltage-Source-Converter HVDC  
This submission aims to develop a multi-functional, intelligent voltage-source-converter which will significantly reduce engineering costs and time in the design, test, and commission phases for commercial HVDC projects. The proposed design also ensures that operations are controlled, minimizing energy product losses caused by unstable conditions.

SixPoint Materials, Inc. — Hybrid HVDC Breaker Using GaN Semiconductor  
This team is developing a gallium nitride (GaN) photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) for hybrid HVDC circuit breakers, therefore decreasing operational costs and increasing response time and efficiency. These efforts will help meet the need of rapidly growing renewable powerplants that require reliable, multi‐terminal HVDC transmission systems.

University of South Florida — Generalized Dynamic Circuit Model Design for HVDC  
This submission provided a unified modeling framework for HVDCs that enables three types of analysis simultaneously: stability, harmonics, and ferroresonance. To meet this goal, this team developed dynamic circuit representations for HVDC converters with both DC and AC ports, accelerating HVDC system studies in the planning and design stages. 

Drexel University — Proactive Solid State Circuit Breaker for HVDC System Protection 
This submission aims to minimize power outages and provide more reliable protections for DC systems through the development of a proactive solid state circuit breaker (P-SSCB). Based on the design's modularity, the P-SSCB can be further extended to higher voltage and higher current applications.

 

Thank you to all of the competitors for your participation!