As the AC grid at the receiving end of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems becomes increasingly complex, the control characteristics of traditional voltage-dependent current order limiter (VDCOL) units configured at inverter stations have become difficult to adapt to the regulation of modern power systems. To address this issue, an optimization method for the VDCOL control segment of HVDC based on simulated annealing algorithm is proposed. Firstly, based on the steady-state model of the inverter station of the HVDC transmission system and the response characteristics of the conventional VDCOL control segment, the power interaction characteristics between the inverter station and the AC system at the receiving end are analyzed, and the relationship between the DC current command value and the reactive power consumption of the inverter station is derived. Secondly, a typical fault set for HVDC transmission systems is designed, and an optimization scheme for the multi-inflection point parameters of the U-I characteristic curve of the VDCOL control segment based on simulated annealing algorithm is proposed. Finally, the improved U-I characteristic curve of the VDCOL control segment is obtained using a joint simulation method combining MATLAB and PSCAD/EMTDC. Through comparative simulation analysis with the conventional VDCOL control segment, it can be seen that the proposed method better meets the actual demand for system transient reactive power and can effectively suppress the occurrence of continuous commutation failures in the HVDC transmission system.