Patent Description:
Due to operational and safety considerations, different parts of high voltage installations are often connected using optical networks. It is an object of the present disclosure to describe alternative communication arrangements and their components for use in high voltage installations.

Document <CIT> provides a system for managing at least one sub-assembly of an electric battery, comprising a plurality of power storage cells. The system includes, for each power storage cell, a circuit for managing the state of the cell and a communication circuit, which is configured such that it receives and transmits data relative to the cell. The communication circuit is configured such that it transposes, over a carrier frequency in excess of <NUM>, the data to be received and transmitted. The management system further includes, for each sub-assembly, a loss cable connecting the power storage cells of said sub-assembly. The loss cable acts as a waveguide and is coupled by capacitive coupling to the communication circuit of each power storage cell.

Document <CIT> discloses a wireless communication system using a waveguide. A communication device for transmitting signals between a substation control unit and control units of bay elements comprise transceiving devices connected to the substation and the bay element control units, and a waveguide enclosing and connecting antennas of said transceiving devices. The transceiving devices produce electromagnetic radio frequency waves to communicate information between the control units. The waveguide protects the waves against interference.

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to a high voltage (HV) installation using high-frequency (HF) communication signals.

Other preferred embodiments may be found in the dependent claims. Further details of the disclosed methods, devices and system are provided in the following, which are helpful for understanding the claimed invention.

The HV installation comprises a plurality of power electronic cells, namely power electronic switching cells, configured to operate at different electrical potentials, each power electronic cell comprising a cell-side transceiver with an antenna for receiving and/or transmitting HF communication signals, and
a waveguide configured to carry and shield HF communication signals of the plurality of power electronic cells. The waveguide has a plurality of sections configured to leak HF communication signals present in the waveguide into a corresponding plurality of adjoining areas and vice versa. Each power electronic cell of the plurality of power electronic cells is arranged physically separated and in proximity to the waveguide, such that the respective power electronic cell is electrically insulated from the waveguide and the antenna of the respective cell-side transceiver is arranged in the respective adjoining area.

Such an arrangement is particularly useful for transmitting and shielding high frequency communication signals in distributed HV applications, such as different cells of a substation operating at different voltage potentials. Among others, the inventors have discovered that by physically separating the power electronic cells from a leaky waveguide, i.e. a waveguide comprising sections configured to leak HF communication signals present in the waveguide into a corresponding plurality of adjoining areas and vice versa, various forms of HF wireless communication system can be applied in HV installations, wherein different power electronic cells operate at different electrical potentials and therefore need to be insulated from one another.

Compared to free-space, unshielded wireless communication techniques, the used communication channel can be protected from outside disturbances, such as network jammers, to protect critical parts of an electrical network. At the same time, the relatively high installation effort required for installing dedicated optical links between cells of a HV installation can be avoided.

According to a further embodiment, the waveguide is
configured to carry HF communication signals having a carrier frequency in excess of <NUM>, preferably in excess of <NUM>, and/or below <NUM> and/or having a wide bandwidth in excess of <NUM> or <NUM> or in excess of <NUM>.

Microwave band electromagnetic signals in excess of several GHz are highly attenuated in conventional free space communication. However, within waveguides they can propagate over distances typically incurred in HV installations, e.g. tenth to hundreds of meters without significant attenuation. Use of such high frequencies signals therefore helps to protect communication signals from outside disturbances as any source of interference would have to be located very close to the HV installation, making deliberate attacks very difficult and remote attacks practically infeasible for physical limitation placed on the required transmission power.

The use of waveguides also makes further frequency resources available for controlling and monitoring power electronic cells. Enabling broader bandwidth in turn enables to carry multiple HF communication signals having different carrier frequencies in parallel, which allows to increase at least one of the communication signal transmission redundancy and/or to reduce a communication signal transmission delay by transferring multiple communication signals in parallel using different carrier frequencies.

HF communication signals may be exchanged directly between two or more of the plurality of power electronic cells, e.g. in a peer-to-peer architecture, or between one of the power electronic cells and at least one control hub coupled to the waveguide using at least one hub-side transceiver.

For example, a control hub may generate HF control signals for the power element cells, such as firing signals and/or synchronization signals, and/or receive HF operating status signals from the power element cells, such as logging signals, fault recording signals and/or health monitoring signals.

In at least one embodiment, the at least one hub-side transceiver may be attached to a first terminal section of the waveguide and may be connected to the at least one control hub using an optical fiber network, such that the waveguide is electrically insulated from the at least one control hub. In this way, greater voltage differences between the control hub and the individual power electronic cells may be realized, for example by connecting the waveguide to an intermediate voltage level.

In different embodiments, redundant communication channels between the plurality of power electronic cells and at least one control hub may be created by using multiple parallel waveguides, multiple cell-side transceivers, multiple hub-side transceivers and/or multiple control hubs.

For certain applications, such as high voltage direct current (HVDC) converters, the plurality of power electronic cells may be divided into N subgroups, with each of the subgroups being connected via a different one of N waveguides. In this case, different cell subgroups and their waveguides can be operated at different voltage levels, e.g. an average voltage level of the subgroup of cells, to minimize the required distance between the respective waveguide and the individual power electronic cells to a minimum.

In at least one embodiment, at least one of the antennas of the cell-side transceivers is configured as a first directional antenna and/or at least one of the plurality of sections of the waveguide comprises a second directional antenna. Use of directional antennas reduces unwanted crosstalk between individual power electronic cells and thereby improves the signal to noise ratio. It also makes it more difficult to disturb the communication from the outside, for example using a jammer. Moreover, it enables greater distances between the waveguide and the respective power electronic cells for a given carrier frequency.

Directional antennas may be formed as patch antennas, array antennas, leaky array antennas, horn antennas, or any other type of antenna forming a directed, anisotropic electrical field.

To enable the desired leaking of the HF communication signals and, optionally, to obtain a desired shape of the leaked electrical field, each section of the plurality of sections of the waveguide may comprise at least one opening, in particular one of a slit, a row of holes, or an array of holes, which are configured to leak the HF communication signals into the corresponding plurality of adjoining areas.

Such openings or the antennas of the HV installation may be protected from environmental influences using protective elements, such as a radome covering the antennas and/or a dielectric lenses covering at least one opening in at least one of the plurality of leaky sections. Such protective elements may also be used for field shaping, such as improving the directionality of the antenna or opening underneath the protective element. Radomes and dielectric lenses may also exhibit a frequency selectivity. For example, frequencies in a certain band, e.g. used for exchanging the HF communication signals with the power electronic cells, can pass and other frequencies can be attenuated or blocked.

A body of the waveguide may be formed by different types of waveguides, such as a hollow metallic waveguide, a dielectric waveguide, a coaxial cable, or a stripline waveguide. Such types of waveguides are widely available and may be adapted, for example by the addition of opening as detailed above, to leak HF communication signals carried therein into desired areas adjoining the waveguide.

Further advantageous embodiments of the present disclosure are disclosed in the attached set of claims as well as in the following detailed description of embodiments.

The accompanying figures are included to provide a further understanding. In the figures, elements of the same structure and/or functionality may be referenced by the same reference signs. It is to be understood that the embodiments shown in the figures are illustrative representations and are not necessary drawn to scale.

High voltage direct current (HVDC) and flexible alternating current transmission systems (FACTS) converter stations comprise several power semiconductor switching cells. These switching cells are arranged within valve structures in case of HVDC systems or power electronic building blocks (PEBB) in case of FACTS. In each case, each power electronic cell is connected to a control unit via a high speed, real-time communication network. The communication between the control unit and the individual cells and the electronic devices comprised therein includes gate firing signals, operating status signals and cell monitoring signals, for example.

The term high voltage (HV) may refer to any voltage in excess of <NUM> kV used in energy distribution networks. For example, it may refer to medium voltage, high voltage, extra high voltage or ultra-high voltage energy distribution networks having a rated operating voltage in excess of <NUM> kV, <NUM> kV, <NUM> kV, or <NUM> kV for example. It is useful in substations or converter stations operating, for example, at <NUM> kV, <NUM> kV, <NUM> kV, <NUM> kV or <NUM> kV or similar voltages in the range of <NUM> kV to <NUM> kV or even above this voltage level.

As part of the operating environments and the power electronic building blocks used for switching different electrical pathways, differences in the electrical potential between individual cells commonly occur, which need to be bridged by communication signals. To comply with corresponding insulation requirements, communication signals so far have been communicated via insulating optical fiber links. However, implementing an optical fiber link network, in particular in relatively complicated network topologies, is very labor and cost intensive and needs to be configured and manually connected to each devices of each cell.

At the same time, conventional, e.g. radio-link, wireless communication systems, such as WiFi networks according to the IEEE <NUM> series of standards, are not suitable for the specific application area of HV installations. This is in part because radio signals can be distorted and attenuated by the metallic structures of HV equipment, or disturbed by neighboring communication, such as neighboring WiFi networks. Moreover, the use of a conventional wireless communication system may present a weakness in a corresponding part of the infrastructure. In particular, the use of a wide spectrum jammer could be used to effectively block firing signal, thus deactivating the corresponding converter station.

<FIG> shows a first HV installation <NUM> comprising three power electronic cells <NUM> and one waveguide <NUM>. Each one of the power electronic cells <NUM> may be arranged on a different electrical potential, e.g. V<NUM> to V<NUM>. Moreover, the waveguide <NUM> may be arranged on another electrical potential, e.g. V<NUM>.

The waveguide <NUM> comprises sections <NUM> configured to leak at least some of the HF signal carried inside the waveguide <NUM> to its outside and vice versa. Thus, the waveguide <NUM> may be referred to as "leaky waveguide" and the sections <NUM> may be referred to as "leaky sections".

In the depicted embodiment, the leaky sections <NUM> are arranged at regular intervals from each other and opposite the locations of the individual power electronic cells <NUM>. An HF communication signal <NUM> travelling within the waveguide <NUM> leaks out towards the respective power electronic cells <NUM> in the sections <NUM>. As a consequence, a local electrical field is created in adjoining areas <NUM>, in which the HF communication signal <NUM> can be picked up by the power electronic cells <NUM>. In other areas, for example on the opposite side of the waveguide <NUM> or between the leaky sections <NUM>, the HF communication signal <NUM> has such a low signal strength that it cannot be received with a conventional receiver or transceiver. Inversely, from the positions of the respective power electronic cells <NUM>, it is possible to couple HF communication signals through the leaky sections <NUM> into the waveguide <NUM>. Injection of HF signals from other areas and/or directions into the waveguide <NUM> is infeasible due to a very low coupling coefficient.

<FIG> shows the HF signal coupling between the waveguide <NUM> and the power electronic cell <NUM> in more detail. As can be seen in <FIG>, the power electronic cells <NUM> comprise at least one transceiver <NUM>, which in turn is connected to an antenna <NUM>. The antenna <NUM> is arranged at a side of the power electronic cell <NUM> facing the leaky section <NUM> of the waveguide <NUM>. In the depicted embodiment, the waveguide <NUM> comprises an opening <NUM> there, facing the antenna <NUM>. That is to say, the opening <NUM> or other leaky part of the waveguide <NUM> and the cell-side antenna <NUM> are arranged opposite to each other and are configured to exchange HF signals over the relative short air gap between them, used to electrically insulate the cell <NUM> from the waveguide <NUM>.

As further indicated in <FIG>, the opening <NUM> may be protected by a radome <NUM> to protect the inside of the waveguide <NUM> from environmental influences, such as moisture or dirt. This is particularly useful in an outdoor environment.

The HF communication signals <NUM> exchanged between the antenna <NUM> and the waveguide <NUM> may have a very high carrier frequency and/or bandwidth. Use of so-called super high frequency (SHF, <NUM>-<NUM>) and extremely high frequency (EHF, <NUM>-<NUM>) signals has the advantage that the respective communication signals <NUM> are attenuated rapidly in air or other environments, such as a free space (vacuum) or protective gas, and this effectively prevents or at least limits their disturbance.

As shown in <FIG>, any signal source placed outside a power station, e.g. tens to hundred meters away, will face significant signal attenuation. For example, at a distance of <NUM>, the free space path loss of <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> communication signals lies at or exceeds <NUM> dB. Accordingly, very powerful signal sources would be required to disturb such corresponding SHF or EHF signals from a reasonable distance, making a potential jamming of the HF communication signals <NUM> from outside practically unfeasible.

In contrast, as shown in <FIG>, the signal loss of HF communication signals <NUM> in different frequency ranges between <NUM> and <NUM> inside an appropriate waveguide is relatively good. Depending on the frequency used and the type of the waveguide employed, signal attenuation lies only between <NUM> and about <NUM> dB per meter of length of the used waveguide. Thus, successful communication within a typical high voltage installation with waveguide length of several meters to several tens of meters using HF communication signals <NUM> is possible. The additional attenuation in the free space between the leaky waveguide <NUM> and the antenna <NUM> of the respective power electronic cell <NUM> is relatively low, as typically only a few centimeters to a few tens of centimeters needs to be bridged.

<FIG> shows different configurations of leaky sections <NUM> of different waveguides <NUM> arranged in linear fashion, i.e. along a common axis corresponding to the main axis of the waveguide <NUM>. The leaky sections <NUM> are arranged at a distance D from each other, for example with respect to their centers as shown in <FIG>.

<FIG> shows a single rectangular slit <NUM> arranged within each leaky section <NUM>. <FIG> shows a single rounded slit <NUM>, i.e. a slit with rounded corners. In each case, the frequency and spatial characteristic of the leaked electrical field can be influenced by the dimension of the slits <NUM> and <NUM>, in particular, their length L and width W.

<FIG> shows another configuration of a leaky waveguide <NUM>, wherein in each leaky section <NUM> a single circular hole <NUM> is provided. <FIG> shows yet another configuration of a waveguide <NUM>, wherein in each leaky section <NUM> a row of holes <NUM> is provided. In the depicted embodiment, three circular holes <NUM> are arranged in a single row at periodic intervals I. In this case, the transmission characteristics of the leaky sections <NUM> are essentially defined by the radius R of the hole <NUM>, and optionally, by the number of holes and their interval I. Similarly, a one dimensional arrangement of slits may be used in each leaky section <NUM> (not shown).

<FIG> shows further configurations of leaky sections <NUM> of different waveguides <NUM> arranged in a non-linear or multi-dimensional fashion.

In <FIG>, three rounded slots <NUM> are arranged slightly offset in a direction perpendicular to the main direction of the waveguide <NUM> and its normal surface, i.e. the direction into which it leaks. In the example shown in <FIG>, the middle slot <NUM> is arranged in a central position X, Y of the leaky section <NUM>. The rounded slots <NUM> on either side of the central slot <NUM> are arranged at position X-DX and X+DX respectively along the main direction and at positions Y-DX and Y+DY in the perpendicular direction, as shown.

In the configuration of the waveguide <NUM> shown in <FIG>, a two-dimensional array of circular holes <NUM> is provided in each leaky section <NUM>. In particular, two rows of three circular holes <NUM> each are provided in each section <NUM>. In the depicted embodiment, these are spaced by first distance DX in the main direction from each other and by a second distance DY in a second, orthogonal direction. The distances DX and DY may be the same or may be different. As detailed later, the provision of an array <NUM> of holes <NUM> essentially implements a leaky array antenna <NUM> which has directional properties.

<FIG> shows a second HV installation <NUM> comprising a total of six power electronic cells <NUM>, a common, linear waveguide <NUM> and a control hub <NUM>. The control hub <NUM> is connected by a communication link <NUM>, such as a wired or optical network with a hub-side transceiver <NUM>. The hub-side transceiver <NUM> is arranged at a first terminal section of the linear waveguide <NUM> and is used for feeding control signals into the waveguide <NUM> and receiving operating status signals from the waveguide <NUM>. The hub-side transceiver <NUM> may include some additional HF amplifier to boost the signal power. At an opposite, second terminal section of linear waveguide <NUM>, a termination element <NUM> is provided, which avoids unwanted reflections of the HF communication signal <NUM> within the waveguide <NUM>. In the case that the individual semiconductor switches arranged within the power electronic cells <NUM> are arranged in cabinet housings, the waveguide <NUM> can be arranged below or above the respective cabinets without touching or being electrically connected to them.

In the architecture shown in <FIG>, the control hub <NUM> can communicate with each one of the power electronic cells <NUM> by exchanging HF communication signals <NUM> between the hub-side transceiver <NUM> and the respective cell-side transceivers <NUM> (not shown in <FIG>). In addition, the individual power electronic cells <NUM> can also communicate directly with each other by exchanging HF communication signals <NUM> between respective cell-side transceivers <NUM> through the waveguide <NUM>.

The second HV installation may be used to control the switching of semiconductor cells in a converter, such as a HVDC or FACTS converter. In this application, the voltage potentials of the individual switching power electronic cells <NUM> of the converter oscillate around a common voltage, such as electrical ground. Accordingly, the waveguide <NUM> may be connected to such a common potential, in particular electrical ground. In this case, the waveguide <NUM> can be connected to the control hub <NUM> using a wired network. <FIG> shows a third high voltage installation <NUM> comprising a total of <NUM> power electronic cells <NUM> arranged in four subgroups <NUM> of four cells <NUM> each. Each subgroup <NUM> comprises a separate waveguide <NUM>, which is essentially configured in a similar way as the waveguides <NUM> described above. The different waveguides <NUM> of the four subgroups <NUM> each have a corresponding hub-side transceiver <NUM>, which is connected by respective optical fiber link <NUM> to a common control hub <NUM>.

The HV installation <NUM> of <FIG> may be a HVDC installation, in which switching cells are arranged in groups of stacked layers, also referred to as valve structures. One leaky waveguide <NUM> is provided for each row of switching cells <NUM>, also referred to as a module in this context. As each module waveguide <NUM> will reside on an individual electrical potential, the transceivers <NUM> are connected to a valve control unit in the control hub <NUM> on an electrical ground potential via an optical backbone formed by the fiber links <NUM>.

<FIG> shows a fourth HV installation <NUM> comprising six power electronic cells <NUM> and a waveguide <NUM> as described before. The HV installation <NUM> may represent an enhanced converter with active energy storage, such as a HVDC or FACTS converter. The waveguide <NUM> may be used for communication between a main controller (not shown in <FIG>) and local control units <NUM> arranged at a top or bottom of corresponding energy storage cabinets <NUM>. The local control units <NUM> can then communicate with individual storage units <NUM>, such as supercapacitors, through a local wired network <NUM>. Similar to the converter described with reference to <FIG>, the waveguide <NUM> can be electrically connected to a ground potential and be installed below or above the cabinets <NUM> housing the storage units <NUM>.

<FIG> shows three different approaches for creating redundant communication channels in one of the HV installations described before.

In the situation depicted in <FIG>, two redundant waveguides <NUM> are arranged in parallel below or above a corresponding power electronic cell <NUM>. The power electronic cells <NUM> and the two (or more) waveguides <NUM> are arranged in such a way that one or more antennas <NUM> of a cell-side transceiver <NUM> may receive HF communication signals <NUM> from each one of the waveguides <NUM>.

<FIG> shows another approach to achieve redundancy with regard to the waveguides <NUM>. In the depicted example, two essentially linear waveguides <NUM> are adjoined by a T-junction <NUM> to receive signals from and forward signals to a single hub-side transceiver <NUM>. In this way, the provision of an additional transceiver <NUM> can be avoided.

<FIG> shows yet another approach for achieving redundancy. In this embodiment, two redundant hub-side transceivers <NUM> are connected to two parallel terminal sections of a common waveguide <NUM>. To feed the signals from both of the hub-side transceivers <NUM> into the common part of the waveguide <NUM> where the power electronic cells <NUM> are arranged, the respective terminal sections are joined by an (inverse) T-junction <NUM>.

In the configurations shown in <FIG>, two waveguides <NUM> are connected by respective hub-side transceivers <NUM> and optical fiber links <NUM> to a common control hub (not shown). However, to further improve redundancy, it is also possible to connect each one of the transceivers <NUM> to a separate, redundant control hub. Similarly, more than one cell-side transceiver <NUM> and/or antenna <NUM> may be employed for each power electronic cells <NUM>.

As described before, the signal attenuation in free-space is quite high, in particular for SHF and EHF communication signals <NUM>, limiting unwanted coupling between neighboring areas <NUM>. However, at lower operating frequencies and/or larger distances between the individual power electronic cells <NUM> and waveguide <NUM>, some undesired multipath propagation may occur as shown in <FIG>. This may be the case when the distance between the waveguide <NUM> and individual power electronic cells <NUM> has to be increased, for example due to particularly high voltage potentials of the individual power electronic cells <NUM> with respect to the electrical potential of the waveguide <NUM>.

A single slot <NUM> in each leaky section <NUM> of the waveguide <NUM> as shown in <FIG> provides a rather wide radiation pattern, which can cause crosstalk between the neighboring leaky waveguide sections <NUM> and cell-side transceivers <NUM>, which in turn downgrades the communication performance. To reduce such crosstalk, directional antennas may be used instead. In this context, <FIG> shows the respective radiation pattern of a non-directional antenna <NUM> and a directional antenna <NUM>. A directional antenna <NUM> may be formed on the leaky section <NUM> of the waveguide <NUM>, may be connected to the cell-side transceivers <NUM>, or both.

<FIG> shows possible implementations for directional antenna <NUM>. In particular, <FIG> shows a patch antenna <NUM> of dimensions 60x60 mm for communication in a <NUM> frequency range. <FIG> shows an area antenna <NUM> with a total of <NUM> antenna elements <NUM> arranged in eight rows and eight columns having essentially the same dimension and configured for a carrier frequency of <NUM>. The directional antennas <NUM> may be connected to the cell-side transceivers <NUM> in a conventional manner.

<FIG> further shows how such a directional antenna <NUM> may be attached to a leaky section <NUM> of a waveguide <NUM>. As shown in <FIG>, an antenna like signal pick-up element <NUM> extends from the directional antenna <NUM> towards the inside of the waveguide <NUM>. The signal pick-up element <NUM> picks up the HF communication signal <NUM> propagating through the waveguide and emits a corresponding electromagnetic signal towards the power electronic cell <NUM> (not shown in <FIG>).

In the embodiment shown in <FIG>, the directional antenna <NUM> is arranged below a radome <NUM>, which protects the antenna <NUM> and the inside of the waveguide <NUM> from outside elements, such as moisture, dirt or hazardous substances. The radome <NUM> may also act as a high frequency lens and enhance the directivity of the directional antenna <NUM> arranged below.

<FIG> shows another protection mechanism for a waveguide <NUM> using a single opening <NUM> to leak an HF communication signal <NUM> in section <NUM> of the waveguide <NUM>. In this case, the opening <NUM> is sealed by an HF lens <NUM>. The HF lens <NUM> also serves as a field shaping element and may focus the leaked electromagnetic field on a corresponding antenna <NUM> of a cell-side transceiver <NUM> (not shown).

<FIG> shows another embodiment of a waveguide <NUM> having several leaky sections <NUM>. The leaky sections <NUM> described so far were non-directional and allowed both cell-to-cell communication as well as cell-to-hub communication. In the configuration shown in <FIG>, directional couplers <NUM> are employed. The directional couplers <NUM> facilitate selected propagation of HF communication signals <NUM> from a hub-side transceiver <NUM> towards each of three cell-side transceivers <NUM> arranged in the respective leaky sections <NUM> and vice versa. However, practically no signal propagation takes place in the opposite direction, e.g. from one of the leaky sections <NUM> towards a second terminal section of the waveguide <NUM> where a termination element <NUM> is arranged. In this way, cell-to-cell communication is effectively prevented. With that unwanted cross-coupling between individual power electronic cells <NUM> can be reduced significantly, further improving a signal-to-noise ratio.

Several features used in known wireless communication systems can be applied in one of the HV installation based on leaky waveguides <NUM> as discussed above, to improve the system reliability and scalability.

For example, the relatively wide bandwidth of the used waveguide channels, especially at microwave range frequencies, allows frequency diversity and/or frequency multiplexing to be exploited. In the first case, a transceiver such as the hub-side transceiver <NUM> sends multiple copies of the same signal at different frequency in ranges admitted by the waveguide <NUM> in order to improve the chances of successful transmission. To improve robustness even further, such an HV installation can be combined with one of the physically redundant communication channels as shown in <FIG> to further increase the reliability.

In the second case, the same transceiver, such as the hub-side transceiver <NUM>, is equipped with multiple HF modules, each module simultaneously transmitting at different frequency to reach different power electronic cells <NUM>. This facilitates shortening of the communication cycle times or allows to serve more cells <NUM> in the same cycle time.

Similarly, power electronic cells <NUM> and control hubs <NUM> could simultaneously communicate in both directions using different frequencies by employing frequency division duplexing (FDD) to reduce the overall latency of the communication network formed between the components of the HV installation. Equally, cell-to-cell communication can happen at the same time as controller-to-cell communication using different carrier frequencies.

The various components, systems and installations described above have the following benefits: They enable radio frequency and, in particular, microwave frequency communication for high voltage and medium voltage systems as the use of waveguides <NUM> minimizes the path loss providing a low attenuation propagation channel. At many wavelengths, the communication reliability can be increased or, alternatively, the power and cost of transmitting devices, such as the cell-side transceivers <NUM> and the hub-side transceivers <NUM>, can be reduced. The waveguides <NUM> also provide a well-defined propagation path and therefore reduces multipath and cross-path talk defects significantly. They also protect the HF communication signal <NUM> from external interference, including intentional interference by jammers or similar devices. They enable in particular a waveguide system for microwave communication providing ultra-high bandwidths with the consequence of benefits in terms of low latency and high reliability.

The required HF components have a high maturity and comparatively low component costs. Many high frequency components are available for the considered high frequency communication range.

The leaky waveguide <NUM> is very well suited for HV application as insulation issues are unlikely to occur. Differences in electrical potential are bridged by free-space HF propagation between the waveguide <NUM> and the cell-side transceivers <NUM>. There is no direct connection between the waveguide system and the cell-side transceivers <NUM> as required. Multiple optical fibers used in current optical networks of HV and MV applications can be replaced by one single leaky waveguide <NUM>, greatly simplifying the efforts related to structural design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of the optical cables.

Claim 1:
A high voltage, HV, installation (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>), comprising:
- a plurality of power electronic switching cells (<NUM>) configured to operate at different electrical potentials and insulated from one another, each power electronic switching cell (<NUM>) comprising a cell-side transceiver (<NUM>) with an antenna (<NUM>) for receiving and/or transmitting high-frequency, HF, communication signals (<NUM>); and
- a waveguide (<NUM>) configured to carry and shield HF communication signals (<NUM>) of the plurality of power electronic switching cells (<NUM>);
characterized in that
- the waveguide (<NUM>) has a plurality of sections (<NUM>) configured to leak HF communication signals (<NUM>) present in the waveguide (<NUM>) into a corresponding plurality of adjoining areas (<NUM>) and vice versa; and
- each power electronic switching cell (<NUM>) of the plurality of power electronic switching cells (<NUM>) is arranged physically separated and in proximity to the waveguide (<NUM>), such that the respective power electronic switching cell (<NUM>) is electrically insulated from the waveguide (<NUM>) and the antenna (<NUM>) of the respective cell-side transceiver (<NUM>) is arranged in the respective adjoining area (<NUM>).