HVDC Transmission Simulation Patents: Who Leads, Gaps 2026
- Filing activity peaked in 2018 at four families and has not returned to that level since — this is a maturing niche, not a growth curve.
- China dominates the receiving-office mix with 19 of the tracked filings, well ahead of Europe, Japan, Denmark, Hungary and Austria combined.
- The dataset is small and concentrated 33 patent families in total, with recent-year momentum flat to negative across every named assignee.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (3) — 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 33 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families at the intersection of HVDC transmission and simulation or modeling methods — electromagnetic transient simulation, converter modeling, DC grid simulation and real-time simulation — filed under IPC classes covering grid power supply (H02J3/36), computational modeling (G06F30) and power conversion (H02M7). It is a narrow, applied slice of the broader HVDC field: not the power electronics hardware itself, but the methods used to model, validate and de-risk it before deployment.
The corpus spans 2017 to the present cut-off, with publication lagging filing by roughly 18 months, so the last one to two years understate real activity. Filing has already passed its visible peak, and the assignee base is a mix of Chinese state grid entities, research institutes and a small number of established international vendors.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 33-family dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
A peak already behind it
Filings rose from a single family in 2017 to a peak of four in 2018, then fell back; the midpoint year 2022 recorded zero. That flat-to-declining pattern, combined with a small total family count, points to a technology area where the core simulation methods were staked out early rather than one still being actively contested.
Grid systems dominate, conversion and compute follow
H02J (power supply and grid systems) appears in 28 of the 33 families, making it the anchor classification for this dataset. H02M (power conversion) follows at 15 and G06F (digital data processing, covering the simulation/computation angle) at 11 — consistent with a field where grid-integration claims outnumber pure computational-method claims.
Shares are the percentage of the 33 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on HVDC Transmission Simulation and Modeling with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hvdc transmission simulation and modeling and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
Design method and system for direct-current loop impedance (US20240362388A1)
The filing establishes an impedance model for a DC loop within an HVDC system, scans system parameters against that model to derive a feasible region for each, substitutes feasible-region values into a DC loop impedance equation, and compares the resulting impedance against a target value.Filed by Electric Power Research Institute / China Southern Power Grid, published 2024-10-31.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN108649597A | 一种故障迁移方法和故障对HVDC换相失败影响的分析方法 | 8 |
| 2 | JP4673428B2 | HVDCシステム及びHVDCシステムの電圧源変換器の制御方法 | 8 |
| 3 | CN102280898A | 控制高压直流系统中的电压源变换器的方法和变换器站 | 7 |
| 4 | CN109494781A | 一种高压直流输电换相重叠角实时估值的方法 | 3 |
| 5 | CN116362018A | 一种MMC-HVDC系统电磁暂态仿真的方法及终端 | 2 |
| 6 | US20240362388A1 | Design method and system for direct-current loop impedance | 2 |
| 7 | CN106099950A | 一种减小次同步振荡负阻尼的HVDC电流控制方法 | 2 |
| 8 | EP2036181B1 | HVDC system and method to control a voltage source converter in a HVDC system | 2 |
| 9 | CN117744344A | 基于LCC-HVDC的多速率机电暂态仿真方法及系统 | 1 |
| 10 | CN113489071A | 一种计算特高压直流受端交流滤波器投入容量的方法和系统 | 1 |
Citation counts reflect influence within this searched corpus and skew toward older filings; they are not a measure of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Read together, the filing trend, the IPC mix and the citation table describe a field that was staked out early and has since gone quiet at the top.
Activity has not recovered since 2018
The trend line runs from one family in 2017 to a peak of four in 2018, with 2022 recording zero. For a corpus this size, that is a real signal rather than noise: the foundational simulation methods for HVDC transient and converter behavior appear to have been claimed in a short early window.
China is the primary filing venue by a wide margin
Nineteen of the tracked families were filed through the Chinese office, versus single digits each for Europe, Japan, Denmark, Hungary and Austria. Strategies built around European or Japanese freedom-to-operate should treat the smaller Western filing counts as a data gap risk, not necessarily as open white space.
Grid-integration claims outweigh pure computation claims
H02J appears in the large majority of records, with H02M and G06F trailing. Claims framed purely as computational or algorithmic methods (G06F30) are the smallest slice, suggesting more room to differentiate on the modeling-method side than on the grid-integration side.
Joint filings cluster around Chinese grid-research pairings
Co-assignment is limited but consistent: university-utility pairs and grid-company-institute pairs each appear twice among the strongest links. This points to institutional research partnerships rather than cross-border joint ventures as the dominant collaboration mode in this niche.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hvdc transmission simulation and modeling, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where activity has stalled
Every named assignee in the recent-year momentum data shows zero filings in the latest tracked year, including one entity with a recorded year-over-year decline. That flatness across the board, rather than a single company pulling ahead, is the defining feature of this landscape right now.
ABB entities hold early foundational filings
ABB's technology and Swiss-registered entities appear among the historically active assignees, consistent with ABB's long-standing role in HVDC converter technology, but neither shows filing activity in the most recent tracked year.
Tsinghua University anchors the academic side
Tsinghua University appears both independently and in the dataset's strongest co-assignee pairing, alongside a Shanghai grid-company partner, reflecting a university-utility research pipeline rather than solo commercial filing.
Southern Power Grid's research arm shows the sharpest pullback
China Southern Power Grid Science Research Institute is the only named assignee with an explicit year-over-year decline figure in the momentum data, dropping to zero in the latest year after prior activity.
State Grid entities file through multiple affiliated units
State Grid Corporation and its provincial and research affiliates appear across several of the tracked records and co-assignee pairs, indicating that filing activity is distributed across the group's structure rather than centralized in one unit.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| ABB Technology Ltd. | 0 | — |
| ABB (Switzerland) Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Tsinghua University | 0 | — |
| State Grid Shanghai Electric Power Company | 0 | — |
| State Grid Corporation of China | 0 | — |
| China Southern Power Grid Science Research Institute Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| State Grid Economic and Technological Research Institute Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| China Electric Power Research Institute Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking or identifying open claim space.
Check freedom-to-operate against the Chinese filing concentration
With 19 of 33 families filed through China, any commercialization plan touching Chinese grid infrastructure should treat this as the primary jurisdiction for clearance searching, not a secondary check.
Run a freedom-to-operate search in EurekaWatch for renewed filing after the 18-month publication lag clears
The most recent years in this trend are understated by definition; a follow-up pull in a year's time will reveal whether the post-2018 slowdown is a genuine plateau or a reporting artifact.
Set a monitoring alert in EurekaDraft claims around the under-claimed sub-areas
Real-time simulator interfacing and DC fault ride-through modeling show thinner coverage than the core grid-integration claims — a reasonable starting point for a differentiated first filing.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about HVDC simulation patents
This dataset identifies 33 patent families published between 2017 and the mid-2026 cut-off, searched against IPC classes covering grid power supply, computational modeling and power conversion. That is a small, specialized corpus compared to broader HVDC hardware patenting, because it is scoped specifically to simulation and modeling methods rather than converter or transmission hardware itself. Given the 18-month publication lag, the true count for the most recent one to two years is likely higher than currently visible.
The dataset shows activity distributed across Chinese state grid entities, affiliated research institutes, universities including Tsinghua, and established international vendors such as ABB's technology and Swiss-registered units. No single assignee shows filing activity in the most recent tracked year, and the strongest co-assignee pairings are university-utility or grid-company-institute partnerships rather than single-company dominance. This spread suggests the field is institutionally rather than commercially concentrated.
The trend data shows a rise from one family in 2017 to a peak of four in 2018, followed by a decline with zero recorded at the 2022 midpoint. This pattern is consistent with foundational simulation methods — electromagnetic transient models, converter control simulation approaches — being claimed early in the tracked window, leaving less unclaimed ground for follow-on filings. It does not necessarily mean underlying HVDC engineering activity has slowed, only that the simulation-method claim space filled quickly.
Relative to the dense coverage of grid-integration claims under H02J, sub-areas such as real-time digital simulator interfacing, DC fault ride-through modeling, multi-terminal DC grid protection co-simulation and hardware-in-the-loop converter validation appear thinly represented in this 33-family corpus. These are reasonable areas to search in more depth before filing, though thin representation in one search string is not proof of an open field — it warrants a targeted follow-up search rather than an assumption.
Yes, by receiving office: 19 of the 33 tracked families were filed through the Chinese patent office, compared with single-digit counts each for Europe, Japan, Denmark, Hungary and Austria. This likely reflects both the concentration of state grid research infrastructure in China and possible under-representation of filings routed through other offices in this particular search string, so teams evaluating non-Chinese markets should treat the smaller counts as a starting point rather than a conclusion.
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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.