HVDC Grid Control Patents: Leaders, Growth & White Space 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (19) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 235 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the HVDC grid control patent record shows
HVDC grid control covers the converter-side and network-side logic that keeps multi-terminal DC links stable, shares frequency-regulation duty between AC grids, and coordinates reactive power at the point of interconnection. The 235 records in scope span filings from 2015 through the current data cut-off, and the claim language leans heavily on power-system control rather than raw power-electronics hardware, which is why grid and conversion classes dominate the composition figures rather than semiconductor or converter-topology classes.
The assignee base is a mix of grid-equipment incumbents, wind-turbine OEMs and a handful of universities and research assignees. Concentration at the top does not mean the technology is settled — it means the core control loops for VSC-HVDC and LCC-HVDC have accumulated dense prior art, while newer problems such as asynchronous grid coordination and multi-vendor interoperability remain comparatively open.
The sections below break the field down by assignee concentration, filing trend, technology composition by IPC subclass, and the most-cited records that define the prior art baseline.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 235 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing rose sharply after 2021, with 2025-2026 undercounted
Annual filings peaked at 26 in 2017, dipped, then grew from 7 in 2021 to 19 in 2024 — a 171% increase over that three-year span. The 2025 and 2026 figures (down to 3 for the partial 2026 year) understate real activity, since publication typically trails filing by around 18 months; treat the post-2024 tail as incomplete rather than a slowdown.
Grid-systems claims dominate; control-logic classes stay thin
H02J (power supply and grid systems) appears in 82.6% of the 235 records, with H02M (power conversion) at 20.9% and F03D (wind motors) at 20.4% reflecting the wind-integration use case. Protective circuitry (H02H, 6.0%), dedicated control systems (G05B, 4.3%) and motor/generator control (H02P, 3.0%) are all comparatively thin — since a record can carry multiple classes, these shares add up to more than 100% of the 235-record total.
Shares are the percentage of the 235 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on High-Voltage Direct Current: HVDC Grid Control Patent Landscape with Eureka
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Try EurekaThe prior art baseline: most-cited records
Dynamic frequency coordination control for asynchronous regional grids across wet and dry seasons
The filing combines VSC-HVDC frequency-synchronous control with LCC-HVDC bilateral frequency limiting to share frequency-regulation duty automatically between a sending-end and receiving-end grid, adding adaptive reactive power support on the VSC-HVDC side to balance fluctuations across seasonal hydro-driven load swings.Filed by Kunming University of Science and Technology, published 2026-03-19 — illustrates how asynchronous-grid coordination and seasonal load variation are being claimed as distinct problems from steady-state HVDC control.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20170338651A1 | Integrated multi-mode large-scale electric power support system for an electrical grid | 49 |
| 2 | US20130128630A1 | Method of controlling the power input to a HVDC transmission link | 46 |
| 3 | WO2009082326A1 | Method, system and device for controlling wind power plants | 36 |
| 4 | US20110178646A1 | Reactive power management for wind power plant internal grid | 29 |
| 5 | US20150115721A1 | Power system and method of operating a power system | 28 |
| 6 | US7848120B2 | Voltage-sourced HVDC system with modulation function | 27 |
| 7 | US20170009738A1 | Wind turbine operation based on a frequency of an ac output voltage signal provided by a power converter of t… | 23 |
| 8 | US20180219380A1 | Passive islanding-to-grid-connected switch method | 23 |
| 9 | WO2020254161A1 | Fast frequency support from wind turbine systems | 21 |
| 10 | US20180159422A1 | Power conversion device | 19 |
Citation counts are drawn from within this searched corpus and favour older filings; read them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a ranking of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Four read-outs from the assignee, trend and classification data that matter for where to file, watch or design around.
The top of the field is dense, but only just
The leader holds 22 records and fifth place holds 12 — a real gap, but not a monopoly. With the top 10 combined at 62.6% of all records, over a third of the field sits with assignees outside the ranked leaders, which is where freedom-to-operate searches often turn up unexpected blockers.
Activity is accelerating, not cooling off
Filings grew from 7 in 2021 to 19 in 2024. The apparent drop-off after 2024 reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than reduced R&D activity, so treat 2025-2026 counts as provisional.
Grid-systems claims dominate the composition
H02J appears far more often than any converter- or control-specific class, which tracks with the field's framing around network-level regulation rather than device-level power electronics. Wind integration (F03D, 20.4%) is a substantial secondary theme, tying HVDC control tightly to renewable interconnection.
Older US filings anchor the citation graph
The most-cited records date to the early-to-mid 2010s and cover grid-support architecture and reactive power management for wind plants — foundational claims that later filers routinely cite. New entrants should expect these to surface in any freedom-to-operate check on wind-linked HVDC control.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to high-voltage direct current: hvdc grid control patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a few concrete next steps depending on whether you are scoping freedom-to-operate, tracking a competitor, or looking for filing white space.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on the top-cited records
The five most-cited records anchor reactive power management, grid-support architecture and HVDC transmission control. Any new VSC-HVDC or wind-linked filing should be checked against these before drafting claims.
Search these records in EurekaWatch the co-assignee clusters for consolidation signals
The strongest co-assignee pairing in this dataset appears at 20 shared records, well above the next tier — a pattern worth tracking if you are assessing competitive structure or licensing counterparties.
Explore assignee relationships in EurekaScope claims around under-claimed control classes
G05B, H02P and G01R each sit under 5% of the 235 records despite HVDC control being the field's core subject. That gap is worth testing with a targeted prior art search before assuming it is occupied.
Test a draft claim in EurekaFrequently asked questions
The assignee ranking covers 85 companies across the 235 records in scope, with the leader holding 22 records and the field concentrated enough that the top 5 combined account for 39.6% of all records. The mix includes grid-equipment incumbents, wind-turbine OEMs and a smaller number of university and research assignees. No single company approaches a monopoly position, so competitive tracking needs to look past the leader to the full ranked list rather than assuming one dominant player.
Filing grew from 7 records in 2021 to 19 in 2024, a 171% increase over that three-year span, and 2017 remains the single highest year on record at 26 filings. The lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 are an artefact of publication lag — patent applications typically publish around 18 months after filing — rather than a genuine slowdown. Any read of the most recent one to two years should treat those figures as incomplete rather than as evidence of declining activity.
H02J, the power supply and grid systems class, appears in 82.6% of the 235 records in scope, making it by far the most common classification. H02M (power conversion) and F03D (wind motors) follow at 20.9% and 20.4% respectively, reflecting how closely HVDC control patenting is tied to renewable interconnection. Dedicated control-system classes such as G05B and H02P sit under 5% each, which is a smaller footprint than the subject matter might suggest given that control logic is the field's core topic.
The classification data points to control-specific classes — G05B (control and regulating systems), H02P (motor and generator control) and G01R (measurement) — as comparatively under-claimed relative to the dominant grid-systems class H02J. Asynchronous multi-grid coordination and seasonal or variable-load frequency sharing, as illustrated by recent filings, also look less crowded than steady-state converter control. These are reasonable starting points for a novelty search rather than confirmed gaps, since low class share does not guarantee no relevant prior art exists.
The top 5 assignees hold 39.6% of the 235 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 62.6%, which indicates meaningful concentration without a single dominant filer. Fifth place sits at 12 records and tenth place at 9, showing a fairly gradual drop-off rather than a sharp cliff after the leader. This shape is typical of a maturing but still active field: enough prior art at the top to require careful clearance, and enough of the remaining 37.4% spread across other assignees that smaller and newer filers still have room to establish positions.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.