IEEE Electrification Magazine

Modular Multilevel Converters: Recent

Applications [History]
By Gen Li and Jun Liang
The story of the modular multilevel converter (MMC) started with the invention by Prof. Rainer Marquardt
in 2001. Since then, this new concept has been recognized as a milestone achievement in power
electronics. MMC has revolutionized the capabilities of power conversion technologies, particularly in the
high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission system.
MMC is now the most widely recognized type of voltage source converter (VSC) for HVDC because it
provides an efficient and flexible alternative to traditional two-level and three-level VSCs. Also, featuring
its low switching frequency and harmonic distortion, compact footprint, scalable system design and
flexible control, the MMC has gained more traction in areas beyond HVDC, as shown in Figure 1.

MMC
Applications

Power Motor Drives Power Quality

Transmission & MVDC & Others

Static Unified Power

HVDC Offshore Energy
Synchronous Quality
Systems Wind Systems
Compensator Conditioner Storage
Figure 1 Applications of MMCs.

Power Transmission
Figure 2 shows a typical three-phase MMC. The nature of the MMC is the switching on and off different
numbers of the cascaded submodules (SMs) in the arms to produce multilevel voltage waveforms at the
AC terminal. In industrial MMC-HVDC, there will be several hundred SMs in each arm to generate a quasi-
sinusoidal voltage waveform. Therefore, large AC passive filters are not required. Moreover, the
embedded redundant SMs (e.g. 5%-10%) ensure the continuity of operation at full capacity in case of
component failures.
Each SM within the MMC is a discrete voltage source with a capacitor holding its output voltage. This
modular design realizes the converter’s scalability in terms of voltage and current. The half-bridge (HB)
and full-bridge (FB) SMs shown in Figure 2 are most commonly used in practical applications. The fully
controllable insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are at the heart of the SMs, which enables the MMC
to regulate the active and reactive power independently and flexibly.
 IEEE Electrification Magazine

HB
SM1 SM1 SM1 SM
or
SMN SMN SMN
FB
Arm SM

Phase

Vout

SM1 SM1 SM1

SMN SMN SMN Vfundamental

Figure 2 A typical MMC topology.

The HB-MMC has proven its high efficiency and reliability in many MMC-HVDC projects worldwide. The
world’s first HVDC link using the HB-MMC is the Trans Bay Cable project (± 200 kV / 400 MW) connecting
the San Francisco and Pittsburg in California, U.S. It was commissioned in November 2010 and then
upgraded to have the black-start capability in 2016. The HB-MMC technology has become more mature
in point-to-point, multi-terminal and back-to-back HVDC systems.
The Nan’ao project is the world’s first three-terminal MMC-HVDC network (± 160 kV / 240, 120, 63 MW)
commissioned in China in December 2013. The first multi-terminal MMC-HVDC network in Europe will be
the three-terminal system (± 320 kV / 1200, 800, 600 MW) interconnecting the Shetland Islands and the
Scottish mainland by 2024. This network is designed as a five-terminal system for future HVDC extensions.
Europe’s first back-to-back MMC (± 140 kV / 410 MW) is in the Kriegers Flak Combined Grid Solutions
project to integrate the three offshore wind farms called Baltic 1, Baltic 2 and Kriegers Flak and
interconnect the asynchronous grids of Denmark and Germany. The project became operational in
December 2020.
Due to the attractive features of HB-MMC’s low losses, compact design and small footprint, it has been
used in many offshore wind HVDC projects. A recent one is the ± 400 kV / 1100 MW Rudong offshore wind
MMC-HVDC link commissioned in China in December 2021. The 100 km HVDC link connects three offshore
wind farms to the onshore station. It is now the largest offshore wind project in Asia.
As the HB-MMC cannot block the infeeding fault currents from the AC source during a DC fault, an HB-
MMC based DC network needs to interrupt DC fault currents by means of DC circuit breakers (DCCBs) or
AC side switchgears. The ± 500 kV Zhangbei four-terminal HB-MMC HVDC grid in China is the world’s first
project that uses DCCBs for overhead DC transmission line fault clearance. The Zhangbei project is in
bipolar configuration, in which the largest converter station is of 3000 MW. It was commissioned in June
2020. The 720 km North Sea Link (connecting Norway and UK) commissioned in October 2021 is currently
world’s longest HB-MMC HVDC (± 515 kV / 1400 MW, bipolar) link using undersea power cable.
In the FB-MMC, the SM capacitors can be inserted into the circuit in either voltage polarity. This gives
higher control freedom compared with the HB-MMC. For example, FB-MMC can reduce its DC voltage to
zero and even reverse it to negative polarity. In this way, the current control on the AC and DC sides can
be maintained even under faults, which makes the FB-MMC suitable for HVDC with overhead DC
 IEEE Electrification Magazine

transmission lines. A DC fault in an FB-MMC HVDC link can be cleared by reverting the DC voltage
temporarily for current extinction and electric arc deionization. However, the FB-MMC has some
disadvantages limiting its wide applications: its power losses, cost and weight are much higher than the
HB-MMC.
The world’s first HVDC link that uses the FB-MMC technology is the ULTRANET project in Germany. It’s a
bipolar FB-MMC link (± 380 kV / 2000 MW) with 340 km DC overhead lines placed on existing AC pylons
which are retrofitted to transmit AC and DC power together. The ULTRANET link will be commissioned in
2023, then it will be extended with another 300 km DC cable based FB-MMC HVDC link called A-Nord,
which will form Germany’s first multi-terminal HVDC system by 2028.
In fact, to achieve the fault blocking capability and at the same time reduce the power losses and cost,
many MMC topologies have been proposed in the literature, such as the alternate arm converter (AAC)
and clamp-double-submodule (CDSM) based MMC, as shown in Figure 3. Instead of using IGBTs, an MMC
based on the integrated-gate commutated thyristors (IGCTs) has been proposed for HVDC applications to
improve the efficiency, reliability, voltage rating and largely reduce cost. The hybrid MMC using mixed HB-
and FB-SMs can be an alternative for overhead line based HVDC systems. With at least 50% of FB-SMs, it
can achieve the DC fault regulating capability with reduced cost and power losses compared to the
traditional FB-MMC. However, due to the high cost, complexity and immaturity of those topologies, they
are not widely deployed in practical HVDC projects. The HB-MMC is still now dominating the MMC-HVDC
market.

SM1 SM1 SM1

SMN SMN SMN

(b)

SM1 SM1 SM1

SMN SMN SMN

(c)
(a)

Figure 3 MMCs with alternative topologies. (a) AAC; (b) CDSM; (c) IGCT SM.

Thanks to the intensive research, development and field application of the MMC-HVDC technology, its
voltage and capacity have reached the same level as its counterpart the line commutated converter (LCC)
based HVDC. Table 1 shows the products of HVDC converter manufacturers worldwide. It can be seen that
some suppliers are now able to produce MMCs for ± 800 kV ultra-high-voltage DC (UHVDC) applications.
This makes the hybrid LCC/MMC HVDC a promising solution integrating the advantages of the two
technologies in terms of capital cost, power losses, control flexibility, fault blocking, etc.
Table 1 HVDC converter manufacturers (Non-Exhaustive)

Manufacturers LCC MMC

Hitachi Energy ± 1100 kV, 12 GW ± 640 kV, 3 GW
Siemens Energy ± 800 kV, 10 GW ± 525 kV, 2 GW
GE Grid Solutions ± 800 kV, 6.4 GW ± 525 kV, 2.1 GW
 IEEE Electrification Magazine

Toshiba ± 500 kV, 1.2 GW 250 kV, 300 MW

Mitsubishi -- ± 500 kV, 1 GW
NR ELECTRIC ± 1100 kV, 12 GW ± 800 kV, 5 GW
RXHK -- ± 800 kV, 5 GW
XUJI Group ± 1100 kV, 12 GW ± 500 kV, 1.5 GW
XD Group ± 1100 kV, 12 GW ± 800 kV, 5 GW
TBEA ± 1100 kV, 12 GW ± 800 kV, 5 GW
NARI Group ± 1100 kV, 12 GW ± 535 kV, 3 GW

The world’s first hybrid LCC/MMC HVDC project is the Skagerrak 4 link (500 kV / 700 MW) commissioned
in 2015. In this project, the newly built MMC-HVDC link was tied together with the existing Skagerrak 3
LCC-HVDC link to form a bipolar configuration. The MMC link not only boosts the transmission capacity
but also mitigates the risk of commutation failures on the nearby LCC through MMC’s fast reactive power
support. MMC’s black-start capability also helps achieve a fast system restoration. Similar technology has
been used in the Hokkaido-Honshu HVDC link (250 kV / 300 MW) in Japan, which was commissioned in
2019.
China’s Kun-Liu-Long project commissioned in December 2020 is the world’s first ± 800 kV hybrid
LCC/MMC UHVDC transmission network. It is a three-terminal system in a bipolar configuration, wherein
the power sending end is an LCC station with 8000 MW and the two receiving ends are MMCs with 3000
MW and 5000 MW. The MMCs use cascaded low-voltage (LV) and high-voltage (HV) bridges to build up
the DC voltage to 800 kV, as shown in Figure 4. Moreover, in each bridge, the hybrid MMC with mixed HB-
SMs (30%) and FB-SMs (70%) is used to achieve the DC overhead line fault clearance. The total length of
the overhead transmission line is over 1489 km.
800 kV
Arm inductor
800 kV DC
wall bushing HV Valve
Hall
SM1 SM1 SM1
HV Transformer
SMN SMN SMN Start-up
800 kV Transformer
wall bushing resistor
LiuBei MMC Station
in Guangxi, 3000 MW
SM1 SM1 SM1

400 kV DC SMN SMN SMN

wall bushing
Arm inductor KunBei LCC Station
400 kV in Yunnan, 8000 MW
400 kV DC
wall bushing LV Valve (b)
Hall
SM1 SM1 SM1
LV Transformer
SMN SMN SMN LongMen MMC Station
Start-up In Guangdong, 5000 MW
400 kV Transformer
resistor
wall bushing
Main devices:
6× Start-up resistors
SM1 SM1 SM1 6× Transformers
12× Arm inductors
Neutral wire SMN SMN SMN
3× 800 kV Transformer wall bushings
wall bushing 3× 400 kV Transformer wall bushings
Arm inductor
3× 800 kV DC wall bushings
6× 400 kV DC wall bushings
3× Neutral wire wall bushings
To the negative pole 70% FB-SM and 30% HB-SM
(a)

Figure 4 The Kun-Liu-Long hybrid LCC/MMC UHVDC project. (a) Setting of the HV and LV MMC bridges (positive pole); (b) System
topology.
 IEEE Electrification Magazine

The Baihetan-Jiangsu ± 800 kV UHVDC transmission project is another hybrid LCC/MMC UHVDC project
under construction in China. The hydropower from the Baihetan station, the world’s second-largest
hydropower station, will be transmitted over 2100 km to the load center in Jiangsu province. The
configuration of this project is depicted in Figure 5. The power sending end is an LCC station with 8000
MW and the receiving end station contains cascaded LCC (4000 MW) and MMCs (3 ´ 1333 MW). A 12-
pulse LCC is used for the HV inverter bridge. The DC terminal voltage of this LCC is 400 kV. There is a
common DC bus of 400 kV at LCC’s LV terminal which the three parallel-connected HB-MMCs connect to.
The LCC and MMCs will be integrated into the 500 kV Jiangsu power grid at different locations. This UHVDC
project is planned to be fully commissioned in late 2022.
800 kV 2100 km 800 kV
500 kV
LCC LCC
500 kV
400 kV

LCC MMC

Figure 5 The Baihetan-Jiangsu hybrid LCC/MMC UHVDC project (positive pole).

There are specific concerns about this cascaded LCC/MMC design. One of the most challenging issues is
the low multi-infeed effective short-circuit-ratio (MIESCR) caused by the existing multiple LCC-HVDC links
located in the Jiangsu power grid. Additionally, several LCC-HVDC links infeeding to the same power region
are under construction, which may further exacerbate the MIESCR and therefore may increase the risk of
suffering concurrent commutation failure and voltage instability. This is the same concern as the Kun-Liu-
Long project. The cascaded LCC/MMC architecture is therefore proposed to relieve the above challenges.
The utilization of the LCC in the HV bridge can also reduce the risk of the failure of MMCs which lack
operating experience in UHVDC applications. Moreover, due to the DC fault handling capability of the LCC,
the proposed system can protect the overhead line from DC faults through proper LCC control. This avoids
the use of DCCBs or FB-MMC in UHVDC. Therefore, the HB-MMC is used. The compact design and small
station footprint of MMCs allow their deployment in urban areas (load centers).

Motor Drives and MVDC Systems

Due to the salient performance in efficiency and controllability, the MMC has also gained wide interest
for medium-voltage (MV) applications, such as the MV motor drives and MVDC systems.
Compared to traditional MV converters for the drive systems, MMC’s excellent output voltage control
allows it to run with almost any motor. It also does not necessarily need a transformer and output
harmonic filters. The modular and redundant configuration of the MMC improves the system’s reliability
and availability. Therefore, the MMC is suitable for achieving the electrification of the shipboard and
aircraft drive systems wherein reliability is a critical concern. Figure 6 shows a typical MMC based motor
 IEEE Electrification Magazine

drive system. The MMC drives the AC machine without using a transformer. The front rectifier can be a
diode-based multi-pulse rectifier or a VSC.
Motor drive
Front
rectifier
SM SM SM

SM SM SM

AC
machine
3-phase OR
AC

SM SM SM

SM SM SM

(a)
Static frequency converter Static frequency converter

FB FB FB HB HB HB HB HB

FB FB FB HB HB HB HB HB
1-phase
3-phase 3-phase 1-phase
AC 16.7 Hz
AC 50 Hz AC 50 Hz AC 50 Hz

FB FB FB HB HB HB HB HB

FB FB FB HB HB HB HB HB

(b) (c)
Figure 6 MMC machine drives applications. (a) Three-phase motor drive; (b) Direct AC/AC FB-MMC; (c) Indirect AC/DC/AC HB-
MMC.

The MMC can also be used as static frequency converters (SFCs) for traction power supply in the electrified
railway systems. Figure 6 shows two MMC based SFCs. The three-phase FB-MMC can perform AC/AC
conversion for railway power supply systems in a low-frequency e.g. 16.7 Hz. Compared with other VSC
based railway power supply systems, the direct AC/AC FB-MMC does not need the expensive and bulky
16.7 Hz transformer and 33 Hz filter. However, this topology needs a frequency separation accompanied
by a complex control. The indirect AC/DC/AC MMC consists of a three-phase AC/DC HB-MMC and a single-
phase DC/AC HB-MMC. This topology is suitable for 50 Hz railway systems because it will need larger SM
capacitors and higher current rating devices on the single-phase part compared to the direct MMC if it is
used for 16.7 Hz systems.
Due to the application of the MMC in HVDC, the technology readiness level of MMCs for MVDC systems
is in place. The MVDC systems can be viewed as acting in the same way as HVDC, just on a smaller scale
 IEEE Electrification Magazine

and over comparatively shorter distances or at a specific site. The MVDC system can also be a layer
connecting the HV and LV systems. Such MVDC systems allow much more flexible ways of grid operation
beyond the scope of conventional AC systems by flexible power flow control and hence a more efficient
use of renewable energy resources.
Unlike the MMC in VSC-HVDC applications, consensus on using MMC in MVDC hasn’t been built. Some
initial work has been carried out to select the optimal converters for MVDC systems, considering different
converters’ reliability, capital cost, power losses, etc. The two-level and three-level VSCs are competitive
at a low voltage range, e.g. less than 10 kV. MMCs start to show benefits for the voltage range higher than
10 kV. There have been some pilot projects in field to test the feasibility of MMCs for MVDC distribution
networks, as shown in Table 2. However, the selection of MVDC converters still needs to be case-by-case
based on the requirements on size, weight, capacity, voltage level, fault protection, etc. There are also
other alternative converters for MVDC applications. For example, the cascaded three-level VSC used in
the ANGLE-DC project (±27 kV / 33 MW, bipolar) in the UK.
Table 2 Applications of MMCs in MVDC systems

DC Voltage
Projects Year Converters
/ kV
Baolong industrial
2018 ± 10, ± 0.375 HB-MMCs and two-level VSC
district, China
Guizhou University, Hybrid MMCs with HB-SM (50%)
2018 ± 10, ± 0.375
China and FB-SM (50%)
± 10, ± 0.375, HB-MMCs and HB-MMC with IGCT
Tangjia Bay, China 2018
± 0.11 clamp modules
Zhangbei Flexible
Substation and AC/DC MMCs with CDSM in the power
2018 ±10 kV, 0.75
Distribution Network, electronic transformers
China
Suzhou Industrial
2018 ± 20 kV HB-MMCs
Park, China

Taking the Tangjia Bay project as an example, as shown in Figure 7, the network consists of three MMCs
with capacities of 10 MW, 10 MW and 20 MW. The DC voltage is ±10 kV. The converters in Stations 2&3
are the widely used HB-MMCs. The converter in Station 3 uses an HB-MMC with IGCT based cross-clamped
SMs (ICM). The connection between the HB-SM and ICM is shown in Figure 7. The ICMs will be always on
during normal operations. They will be blocked if a DC fault is detected to block the AC side infeeding
current. Therefore, no DCCB is installed in the DC terminal of MMC1. A dual-active-bridge based DC-DC
converters are used in this network to supply DC loads in different DC voltage levels. The project is in
Zhuhai China and was commissioned in 2018.
 IEEE Electrification Magazine

MMC1 10 MW MMC3 20 MW

AC ± 10 kV AC

DC DC

Arm in MMC1
AC
± 110 V SM
DC
DC SM

...
MMC2 10 MW
DC DC ICM
DC Loads
SM ICM
± 375 V
DCCB SM
... ... (b)

DC Loads DC
AC
(a) AC Loads

Figure 7 Tangjia Bay MVDC distribution network. (a) System topology; (b) Connection of the ICM.

Power quality and other applications

Another application of MMCs is to build the static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) and unified
power quality conditioner (UPQC) to provide reactive power compensation during faults and transient
conditions and address the power quality issues (harmonics, distorted and unbalanced voltages).
The ± 75 MVar STATCOM deployed at the East Claydon substation in the UK in 2001 can be considered as
the first commercial STATCOM using the MMC configuration (a chain-link topology). The gate turn-off
thyristor is used in the H-bridge blocks in the STATCOM. Nowadays, the IGBT based MMC-STATCOM
performs much better in efficiency, dynamic responses, modularity and flexibility. They can be installed
at distribution and transmission levels. Both HB- and FB-SMs can be used in different converter
configurations, as shown in Figure 8. A FB-MMC based STATCOM station built in South Korea in 2018 has
reached to ± 400 (3 ´ ±134) Mvar. The MMC-STATCOM can also be installed with thyristor switched
capacitors and thyristor switched reactors to further increase the dynamic reactive power range.
The MMC-UPQC can achieve excellent active filtering functions for distribution networks. The series-
connected MMC will be regulated in the AC voltage control mode to support the grid voltage and
therefore can address the voltage sag and swell problems. The parallel-connected MMC will be regulated
in the current control mode which can provide reactive power compensation, absorb harmonics and
control negative-sequence components. Due to the high-quality output voltage waveform of the MMC,
the use of the transformer at the parallel MMC can be avoided, which is an advantage for its application
in distribution networks.
 IEEE Electrification Magazine

HB HB HB
HB HB HB

FB FB FB
HB HB HB
FB FB FB
HB HB HB

FB
FB
(a)
Distorted and
unbalanced
load

(b)

Figure 8 MMC based STATCOM and UPQC. (a) STATCOM configurations; (b) UPQC.

There have been discussions to use the MMC in PV systems. The MMC can be employed as the centralized
inverter for large-scale grid-connected PV plants. However, due to the intermittence of the photovoltaic
power generation, MMC’s DC side voltage needs to be controlled to achieve the maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) and the dynamic balancing of the SM capacitors is challenging. Also, considering the high
capital cost of the MMC, the traditional two-level and three-level VSCs are still dominating in the MV and
LV PV integration. Instead, the PV modules can be connected to each SM directly or through an extra
interface (e.g. a DC/DC converter), as shown in Figure 9. However, those kinds of topologies are still under
investigation to address their limitations, for instance, the MPPT under partial shading, circulating current
control, SM voltage balancing, etc.

DC

PV
DC

(a)

DC
Battery

DC

(b)

Figure 9 MMC SMs with PV panel and battery. (a) PV embedded SMs; (b) Battery embedded SMs.

The MMC is also an option for the energy storage system. For example, the supercapacitor can be installed
in the DC side of an MMC-STATCOM to build the so-called energy storage STATCOM (E-STATCOM), as
shown in Figure 8. This device combines the active power compensation capability in STATCOM. The
energy stored in the supercapacitor can be released to support the grid during a disturbance. It can
 IEEE Electrification Magazine

emulate system inertia and provide a fast frequency response. Therefore, it is also called a frequency
stabilizer. One commercial product has been launched in 2018, which allows ± 50 MW active power for a
few seconds and ± 70 MVar reactive power. Similar to the above SM with a PV panel, a battery can also
be installed within a SM to form an MMC based battery energy storage system (BESS), as shown in Figure
9. As the SM can be independently regulated, the MMC-BESS features in excellent state-of-charge
management of the batteries to avoid overcharge and overdischarge. Therefore, the retired batteries (e.g.
from electrical vehicles) can be deployed in such topology. In the literature, some topologies connect the
battery/superconductor and PV panel to the SM to mitigate PV’s power fluctuation and even supply power
at night. Although attempts have been made to realise these SM embedded topologies, more work should
be done to increase their technology readiness level.

Conclusion
The MMC is now a very popular technique being used in power systems with a large amount of power
electronic interfaces. The recent successful applications in the HVDC, offshore wind, motor drive and
STATCOM make the MMC well-placed to expand its industrial applications and commercial products,
especially in the medium-voltage levels. To achieve this, their cost, efficiency, reliability, control and fault
management should be further investigated. Efforts should also be made to study the use of other devices
except for IGBT, such as the wide-bandgap power devices (e.g. silicon carbide and gallium nitride) and
IGCT, which may offer new breakthroughs.

For Further Reading

• M. A. Perez, S. Ceballos, G. Konstantinou, J. Pou and R. P. Aguilera, “Modular Multilevel
Converters: Recent Achievements and Challenges,” IEEE Open J. Ind. Electron. Soc., vol. 2, pp. 224-
239, 2021.
• S. Du, A. Dekka, B. Wu and N. Zargari, “Modular Multilevel Converters: Analysis, Control and
Applications,” Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley-IEEE Press, 2018, pp. 231 - 269.
• P. Sun, Y. Tian, J. Pou and G. Konstantinou, “Beyond the MMC: Extended Modular Multilevel
Converter Topologies and Applications,” IEEE Open J. Power Electron., vol. 3, pp. 317-333, 2022.
• H. Rao, et al., “Key technologies of ultra-high voltage hybrid LCC-VSC MTDC systems,” CSEE J.
Power Energy Syst., vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 365-373, Sept. 2019.
• G. Abeynayake, G. Li, T. Joseph, J. Liang and W. Ming, “Reliability and Cost-Oriented Analysis,
Comparison and Selection of Multi-Level MVdc Converters,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 36, no. 6,
pp. 3945-3955, Dec. 2021
• S. Coffey, V. Timmers, R. Li, G. Wu, and A. Egea-Àlvarez, Review of MVDC Applications,
Technologies, and Future Prospects, Energies, vol. 14, no. 8294, 2021.
 IEEE Electrification Magazine

Biographies
Gen Li (M’18) received the [Link]. degree in Electrical Engineering from Northeast
Electric Power University, Jilin, China, in 2011, the [Link]. degree in Power Engineering
from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2013 and the Ph.D. degree in
Electrical Engineering from Cardiff University, Cardiff, U.K., in 2018.
From 2013 to 2016, he was a Marie Curie Early Stage Research Fellow funded by the
European Commission’s MEDOW project. He has been a Visiting Researcher at China
Electric Power Research Institute and Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute,
Beijing, China, at Elia, Brussels, Belgium and at Toshiba International (Europe), London, U.K. He has been
a Research Associate at the School of Engineering, Cardiff University since 2017. His research interests
include control and protection of HVDC and MVDC technologies, power electronics, reliability modelling
and evaluation of power electronics systems.
Dr. Li is a Chartered Engineer in the U.K. He is an Associate Editor of the CSEE Journal of Power and
Energy Systems. He is an Editorial Board Member of CIGRE ELECTRA. He is an IET Professional Registration
Advisor. His Ph.D. thesis received the First CIGRE Thesis Award in 2018. He is the Vice-Chair of IEEE PES
Young Professionals and the Technical Panel Sectary of CIGRE UK B5 Protection and Automation.

Jun Liang (M’02-SM’12) received the [Link]. degree in Electric Power System & its
Automation from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 1992
and the [Link]. and Ph.D. degrees in Electric Power System & its Automation from the China
Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI), Beijing, in 1995 and 1998, respectively.
From 1998 to 2001, he was a Senior Engineer with CEPRI. From 2001 to 2005, he was a
Research Associate with Imperial College London, U.K. From 2005 to 2007, he was with
the University of Glamorgan as a Senior Lecturer. He is currently a Professor in Power
Electronics with the School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff, U.K. He is the Coordinator and
Scientist-in-Charge of two European Commission Marie-Curie Action ITN/ETN projects: MEDOW (€3.9M)
and InnoDC (€3.9M). His research interests include HVDC, MVDC, FACTS, power system stability control,
power electronics, and renewable power generation.
Prof. Liang is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). He is the Chair of IEEE UK
and Ireland Power Electronics Chapter. He is an Editorial Board Member of CSEE JPES. He is an Editor of
the IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy.