China’s HVDC development for large-scale renewable integration: A system-level technology roadmap

Large-scale renewable integration requires transmission systems that can move electricity from remote resource bases to distant load centers while maintaining stability in increasingly converter-dominated grids. Using China as a reference case, this review presents a technology roadmap for High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) across three layers: system drivers, converter and system architectures, and power semiconductor devices, traced through China’s Five-Year Plan phases. The analysis synthesizes provincial electricity data, planning documents, project inventories, patent families, publication keyword analysis, and literature on converter topologies and device platforms. China’s HVDC expansion was initially driven by west-to-east bulk power transfer, but is now increasingly shaped by weak-grid controllability, multi-infeed commutation failure risk, and the need for flexible renewable integration. These pressures are base-specific: the Northwest is constrained by weak-grid dynamics and oscillatory interactions, the Southwest by hydro-wind-solar coordination, and the Eastern coast by compact offshore transmission requirements. As a result, architecture selection is shifting from a primarily cost-and-capacity logic toward a controllability-and-resilience logic. This shift has driven diversification beyond conventional Line Commutated Converter (LCC) toward Voltage Source Converter (VSC) schemes now approaching the ± 800 kV Ultra High Voltage Direct Current class, hybrid LCC/VSC configurations, and emerging converter variants whose viability depends on unresolved device and engineering conditions. By mapping China’s phased experience to structurally analogous challenges in Brazil, India, and Europe, the review argues that the transferable value lies not in a single preferred topology but in a planning logic: HVDC architecture must be matched to resource geography, grid strength, engineering validation, and device readiness.