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In this paper, two topologies are presented for the enhanced-boost quasi-Z-source inverters (qZSI), namely continuous input current configuration and discontinuous input current configuration of enhanced-boost qZSI with two-switched impedance networks. Similar to enhanced-boost impedance-source inverters (ZSIs), these proposed inverter topologies possess very high boost voltage inversion at low shoot-through duty ratio and high modulation index to provide an improved quality output voltage. Compared to enhanced-boost ZSIs with two-switched Z-source impedance networks, these proposed inverter topologies share common ground with source and bridge inverter, overcome the starting inrush problem, and draw continuous input current and the lower voltage across the capacitors. Moreover, the input ripple current is negligible. This paper presents the operating principles and analysis of continuous input current configuration enhanced-boost qZSI with two-switched impedance networks and compares with ZSI, switched inductor ZSI, DA/CA-qZSI, and enhanced-boost ZSIs. The theoretical analysis is done and is validated through simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A single-phase common-mode transformerless grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) converter, which is based on the integration of two stages, is proposed in this paper. Transformer elimination in grid-connected PV systems has many advantages. It not only reduces cost, size, and weight but also increases the complete system efficiency. Since there is no galvanic isolation between grid and PV array, a leakage current may appear due to the PV parasitic capacitance to the ground, if this is not taken into account in the converter design. This paper presents a dc/dc boost converter integrated with a full-bridge inverter. The integration of these two stages reduces the ground leakage current. The neutral line of the grid is directly connected to the negative terminal of the PV array, eliminating any possibility of leakage current in this terminal. The principle of operation of the transformerless converter is analyzed, and a 200-W topology is experimentally tested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For the purpose of improving the performances of T-type neutral point clamped (T-NPC) photovoltaic (PV) grid-connected inverter under large grid, a passivity-based decoupling control scheme is proposed in this paper. First, the Euler–Lagrange (EL) mathematical model of a T-NPC PV grid-connected inverter with an LC filter is built based on the power circuit and operating principles. Second, with this EL mathematical model and passivity of the inverter, the passivity-based controller is designed by the damping injecting method. Third, by adopting a proportional integral regulator to directly control direct current (dc) voltage, together with passivity-based indirect control, better performances of the dc voltage control can be further obtained. With the proposed passivity-based controller, the PV grid-connected inverter can achieve both dynamic current decoupling under the synchronous rotating dq coordinate and dc side voltage dynamic decoupling, which can improve the quality of the current connected into the power grid. The passivity-based PV grid-connected inverter is with strong robustness against parameters perturbations of resistors and attenuating the influence of delay in the inverter. Moreover, the passivity-based decoupling control scheme proposed in this paper for the T-NPC PV grid-connected inverter has a simple structure, and is easily debugged and realized in engineering. Experimental results under 10-kW prototype show that the proposed control scheme is effective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dual-inverter configuration has been attracting increasing attention, especially in motor drives, for its advantages in fault tolerance, multilevel modulation effect, dc voltage utilization, etc. However, its switch fault diagnosis is difficult due to the symmetry of the two sub-inverters. A signal processing approach is proposed in this paper to detect the switch open-circuit fault occurrence and further identify the specific faulty switch, benefiting maintenance and fault-tolerant operation. In this scheme, the faulty phase and the faulty switch pair, consisting of the faulty switch and the switch on its diagonal, are identified using the stator phase currents average values. Following that, the bridge of the faulty phase is forced into a unipolar mode by artificially turning off one switch in the healthy pair continuously. Through properly controlling the duty ratios of the other switches in this bridge, the faulty switch is allowed to be further identified from the faulty pair by analyzing the behavior of the induced current in this phase. This approach is independent of either the speed or the voltage information. The effectiveness is validated through experiments on a sensorless controlled open-end winding induction motor drive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inverter nonlinearity and sampling current dc bias can cause harmonic distortion of estimated back electromotive forces (EMFs), and therefore results in position estimation error and degrades control performance of model-based sensorless techniques of permanent-magnet synchronous motors, especially in low speed region. In this paper, the effects of inverter nonlinearity and sampling current dc bias on back EMF estimation are analyzed. A voltage feedforward compensation method based on an iterative learning control (ILC) algorithm is proposed and it is used to eliminate the harmonics of estimated back EMFs and position estimation error, so as to improve the performance of sensorless control. Compensated voltages at different rotor positions are calculated online by the ILC algorithm and stored in a lookup table. The method does not depend on current polarity and inverter model. And it is simple and easy to implement. The effectiveness of the proposed compensation method is verified by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel voltage regulator design methodology for a three-phase voltage source inverter with uncertain load dynamics. Different from existing literature, the load is treated as a dynamic uncertainty and a robust optimal state-feedback controller is proposed through the integration of optimal output regulation theory and backstepping method. To avoid sensing the inductor current, an output-feedback control scheme is developed as well. Stability of the inverter–load system is rigorously analyzed via the small-gain techniques. It is ensured that the tracking error asymptotically converges to zero through both the proposed state-feedback and output-feedback controllers. A standard proportional resonant controller is also designed for the purpose of comparison. It is shown that the proposed controller has inherent robustness and does not require retuning with different applications. The controller design method is generalized for grid-tie applications, since the grid can be regarded as a stable load system. Simulations and experimental results show the effectiveness of the control approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancement in modulation strategies brings emergent solutions to suppress the leakage current in three-phase two-level transformerless grid-connected voltage source inverters (VSIs). However, most of the techniques are analyzed based on reduced common-mode voltage pulsewidth modulation (PWM) in motor drivers but fail to satisfy the specific requirement of grid-connected applications, such as wider power factor operation and lesser current distortion. To overcome such substantial drawbacks, this paper proposes a novel scalar PWM method for transformerless grid-connected VSIs. First, presented through a generalized scalar approach with unified zero-sequence voltage generation, the method is simple to implement and favored in practice. Besides, systematic and comprehensive mathematical analysis is illustrated to exhibit the validity of implemented method in reducing leakage current and shows its advantages over whole power factor range in terms of dc-link current harmonic, output current quality, and switching losses. Finally, simulations and experimental results are carried out to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an effective sliding mode controller (SMC) for a grid-connected 7-level packed U-cell (PUC7) inverter. The aim is to design a simple controller that deals effectively with the complex control problem of the PUC7 inverter (multiobjective control problem). The selection of the control actions is achieved according to the system state error at every sampling time, regardless of the previous values, which makes the control technique model-independent. The control algorithm evaluates online two cost functions (one for each state error), which are derived on the basis of sliding mode theory, and it selects the optimal control input in order to satisfy the reaching conditions of the two cost functions. Compared with the existing solutions, the proposed SMC technique ensures lower average switching frequency by tuning the hysteresis bandwidth of the capacitor-voltage error. The fast implementation, needless of gains tuning, and simple design procedure are the main features of the proposed algorithm. Simulation and experimental results are presented to prove the effectiveness of the proposed technique in controlling the PUC7 inverter with high dynamic performance and robustness against disturbances and parameters mismatch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unplanned islanding is intended to be identified due to the adverse effects on personnel and electrical equipment. In this paper, an active islanding identification technique is proposed based on disturbance injection through q-axis controller and an investigation technique, which incorporates measurement of mean of absolute frequency variation of the voltage signal passed through band-pass filter. The proposed technique is proven to be robust, offering decentralized islanding identification and being applicable to dynamic loading scenario, identifies island formation with zero nondetection zone for all the loads of quality factor $ (Q_{f}) \leq$ 2.5, and does not destabilize the system on postislanding. The islanding identification time is $ < $ 180 ms for all the loads of $ Q_{f} \leq$ 2.5, which is applicable to various international standards. The MATLAB2017b/Simulink platform is utilized to validate the efficacy of the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the use of advanced bus clamping switching sequences to reduce the impedance network inductor current ripple of the three-phase Z-source inverter (ZSI). Proposed technique is named as ABC4_MCB. MCB denotes that the maximum constant boost control method is used for the voltage boosting. One of the conventional space vector pulsewidth modulation of ZSI, “ZSVM6,” is termed as ZSVM6_MCB under the maximum constant boost control method. The switching sequences of ABC4_MCB technique are designed in such a way that it offers around 34% reduction in the maximum instantaneous inductor current ripple as compared to the ZSVM6_MCB for the equal average switching frequency. The factor of percentage reduction in the inductor current ripple using the proposed technique is constant over the entire range of shoot through duty ratio (0–0.48). Theoretical findings have been verified using simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new multilevel inverter (MLI) topology that utilizes trinary sequence for the dc sources. It gives maximum output voltage level with minimum dc source and switch count when compared to other sequences, such as symmetric, natural, binary, and quasi-linear. This is due to the fact that the trinary sequence generates of all additive and subtractive combinations of input dc levels in the output voltage waveform. The concept is implemented on a 9-level asymmetric MLI using only four active devices. Multicarrier unipolar pulsewidth modulation technique is adopted to create the switching pulses. Theoretical calculation of total harmonic distortion in both voltage and current waveforms has been performed using asymptotic time domain formula. These values are compared with simulation and experimental values for different modulation indices. Power loss calculation for proposed topology is discussed with appropriate mathematical equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an improved rotating restart method for a sensorless permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive system using repetitive zero voltage vectors. To restart the sensorless PMSM drive system, a method for estimating initial rotor position and speed is required due to the absence of sensors such as encoders and resolvers. The rotor position and speed can be estimated using the short-circuit current vectors generated by applying zero voltage vectors. However, the estimated rotor position and speed can be inaccurate. The inaccurate rotor position that causes the current is distorted by the back-electromotive force of the PMSM, and it is impossible to precisely control the system. Therefore, an improved rotating restart method for the sensorless PMSM drive system using repetitive zero voltage vectors is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through simulation and experimental results using a 5-kW PMSM drive system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Squirrel-cage induction motor (SQIM) fed by a pulsewidth modulated voltage source inverter (VSI) is subjected to voltage and current surges. It may cause additional losses in the motor, insulation failure, high bearing current, and electromagnetic interference. To mitigate these problems, sinusoidal LC filter is placed at the ac-side of the VSI. This paper proposes a new methodology to design the filter. In this method, the filter inductance is chosen based on the maximum ripple in the inverter ac-side current and the voltage drop across the filter inductor, and the filter capacitor is chosen based on the steady-state reactive power demand of the SQIM. The effects of the designed filter on the switch current, losses in the drive, temperature of the dc-link capacitor, dv/dt at the motor terminal, stator flux, and air-gap torque of the SQIM are discussed. The performance of the drive with the filters, designed by the proposed method and the standard method, are experimentally tested on a two-level silicon carbide VSI-fed SQIM and comparative analysis is carried out. The impact of the designed filter on the drive is also shown when the neutral point of the filter capacitors is connected with the mid-point of the dc link. The stability of the closed-loop controlled SQIM drive with the proposed filter, and simulation results are presented to verify its performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel inverters (MLI) with reduced components are becoming popular to achieve higher voltage levels with lower cost and complexities of the circuit. Most of the reduced switch MLIs use a large number of isolated voltage sources that have a large total standing voltage (TSV) and higher losses. Moreover, many reduced component MLIs have been developed to reduce the number of switches only and have not utilized the dc-link voltages properly. Thus, an inverter needs to be designed in which the number of dc sources is also small and utilized fully. In this paper, a novel single-phase, multicell MLI configuration is presented that can generate a maximum number of output voltage levels using a minimum number of switches and dc sources. Two optimal configurations of the proposed MLI are proposed based on the minimum requirements of components with the optimum voltage stress of the highest rated switches. Moreover, the TSV of the proposed optimal MLI also becomes low. A generalized multicell optimum MLI is presented and the number of components, voltage stress of all the switches, and the TSV of the proposed as well as the other inverters also determined by the generalized expressions for comparison purpose. The prototype of a specimen 15-level inverter and the optimal 75-level inverter cell is further developed and implemented using DS 1103 in the laboratory to show the effectiveness of the proposed configuration. The experimental results corresponding to the different modulation indices are presented here for the verification of the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional three-level inverter only has voltage buck capability. The quasi-Z-source three-level T-type inverter (QZS 3LT $^2$ I) has been proposed to realize voltage buck–boost operation. In this paper, we further propose a novel modulation scheme for the QZS 3LT $^2$ I to realize voltage boosting, reduce the common-mode voltage (CMV), and control the neutral-point voltage balance simultaneously. The proposed scheme adopts a large vector, a medium vector, a small vector with low CMV magnitude, a zero vector, and a shoot-through vector to generate the output voltage. According to sector number and neutral-point voltage difference, a p-type or n-type small vector with low CMV magnitude is properly selected to balance the neutral-point voltage. Shoot-through states are inserted within zero vector to boost the dc input voltage without affecting the ac output voltage. Dwell times of basic vectors are calculated through the revised volt–second balance equation. Furthermore, a coordinate control strategy between neutral-point voltage balance and voltage boosting is proposed. Doing so, the CMV magnitude can be restricted within one-sixth of dc-link voltage and neutral-point voltage imbalance can be effectively mitigated. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by simulations and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel fault-tolerant method for active–neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) inverter using a modified carrier-based pulsewidth modulation. At a fault event, the ANPC inverter is divided into subinverters, and the modulating signal is modified to two modulating signals. The modified modulating signals are used to control the subinverters and allow continuous operation of the three-level ANPC inverter during faulty conditions even up to four open-switch faults per phase. This technique provides the fault-tolerant capability of the ANPC inverter without the need to add any additional phase legs or complex control strategies. Furthermore, the proposed technique ensures the voltage balancing of the dc-link capacitors. The performance of the proposed fault-tolerant technique is verified through simulation studies in MATLAB/Simulink under different faulty conditions. The feasibility of the proposed technique is also verified experimentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new robust field-weakening approach for reluctance synchronous motors regulated by direct torque and flux control. Compared to the existing direct torque and flux control based field-weakening methods that cannot achieve maximized DC-link voltage utilization and are parameter dependent, the proposed approach contributes to improve the field-weakening performance of reluctance synchronous motor in two aspects. First, it extends the constant power speed range through autonomous stator flux reference adjustment, which maximizes the dc-link voltage utilization. Smooth transition between the maximum torque per ampere trajectory and field-weakening trajectory is also realized. Second, it enhances the parameter robustness of drives in very high-speed region by employing a torque reference adjustment scheme. This effectively avoids the instability of drives caused by machine parameter variations. The proposed approach is verified experimentally on a laboratory setup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The control delay weakens the active damping (AD) performance of digitally controlled LCL/LLCL-type grid-connected inverters (GCIs). The equivalent virtual impedance paralleled with the filter branch explains the effect of the capacitor-current-feedback AD. However, the virtual impedance appears capacitive or even negative due to the delay, which significantly weakens the effectiveness of AD. This paper proposes a single-cycle-lag compensator (SCLC) to eliminate the adverse effects caused by the control delay. The method retains effectiveness in applications with high resonant frequency or large control delay. It keeps system a positive equivalent resistance with a high equivalent inductance. The positive equivalent resistance leads to positive damping effect, while the high equivalent inductance causing little resonant frequency deviation can be neglected. Moreover, the effect of the impedance variation that causes the resonant frequency deviation is analyzed and the restrictions of the proposed method are discussed. By optimizing the LCL/LLCL filter parameters, the adaptability of the SCLC to the grid impedance variation can be further improved. With the SCLC, the LCL/LLCL-type GCIs achieve better steady-state and dynamic performances. Finally, experimental results are presented to verify the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In $LCL$ -type grid-tied inverters, the lumped disturbance, including parameter uncertainties, unmodeled dynamics, and grid harmonics, will deteriorate the current tracking performance and lead to high total harmonic distortion (THD). The uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE) scheme provides an effective way to attenuate the lumped disturbance. However, UDE for the current control in $LCL$ -type grid-tied inverters is far from perfect. In this paper, a discrete-time modified UDE (MUDE) scheme is proposed to improve the current tracking performance and robustness. In MUDE, a reduced-order model of the $LCL$ filter, combined with an active damping scheme, is proposed. The stability performance is discussed in detail, and a rigorous stability condition is proposed for the first time. Moreover, the analysis of the controller sampling frequency and grid impedance, and their influences on the system stability is presented. A design case based on the stability condition is also given. Comparative experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laminated busbars connect capacitors with switching power modules, and they are designed to have low stray inductance to minimize electromagnetic interference. Attempts to accurately measure the stray inductance of these busbars have not been successful. The challenge lies with the capacitors, as they excite the busbar producing their individual stray inductances. These individual stray inductances cannot be arithmetically averaged to establish the total stray inductance that applies when all the capacitors excite the busbar at the same time. It is also not possible to measure the stray inductance by simultaneous excitation of each capacitor port using impedance analyzers. This paper presents a solution to the above dilemma. A vector synthesis method is proposed, whereby the individual stray inductance from each capacitor port is measured using an impedance analyzer. Each stray inductance is then mapped into an xyz frame with a distinct direction. This mapping exercise allows the data to be vectored. The total stray inductance is then the sum of all the vectors. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated on a busbar designed for H-bridge inverters by comparing the simulation and practical results. The absolute error of the total stray inductance between the simulation and the proposed method is 0.48 nH. The proposed method improves the accuracy by 14.9% compared to the conventional technique in measuring stray inductances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a number of bidirectional inductive power transfer systems (BD-IPT) suitable for wireless grid integration of electric vehicles have been developed. These developments have been fueled by the enhanced efficiency and spatial tolerance offered by BD-IPT systems. A typical BD-IPT system utilizes two synchronized full-bridge converters operating at fixed duty cycles to drive the primary and secondary magnetic couplers. However, in order to cater for a wide range of loading conditions, additional circuitry is employed at the expense of cost and power density. As an alternative solution, this paper proposes a novel power converter, named a boost active bridge (BAB), to replace the full-bridge converters. The BAB topology caters to a wide range of loading conditions without the need for any extra switching devices. A comprehensive mathematical model that predicts steady-state currents, voltages, and power transfer is presented to highlight the operating principles of the BAB technology. Experimental results obtained from a 3.5-kW prototype show a nearly constant efficiency under all loading conditions, validating the viability of the proposed BAB topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the use of resistor–inductor (RL) filters for motor overvoltage issues caused by cables connecting inverters to electric machines. Using existing filter design formulae and fixing the desired peak motor voltage, an RL filter is designed for a 15-kW industrial drive. This filter is used with a Silicon IGBT inverter and a matching between the design targets and the experimental results are found. Using the same filter with an SiC MOSFET inverter, a detrimental effect in overvoltage mitigation task is found. From simulations, it is noticed that combination of filter resistor parasitic inductance and high $dv/dt$ causes unpredicted additional high-frequency motor overvoltages. These phenomena require higher filter inductance values with respect to the standard one, thus previous filter design formulae cannot be used. New design formulae, valid when inverters with high $dv/dt$ are used, are proposed and experimentally validated. Interestingly, using the proposed formulae, it is discovered that the best filter resistance is not equal to the characteristic impedance of the cable. A design guideline that permits to optimally design the RL filter without simulation tool, considering the resistor parasitic inductance and the inverter $dv/dt$ is finally proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multilevel dodecagonal voltage space vector generation scheme for variable-speed drive applications with single-dc-link operation requires a large value of capacitance for cascaded H-bridge (CHB) filters, when operated at lower speeds. In existing schemes, the multilevel dodecagonal structure is obtained by cascading a flying capacitor inverter with a CHB. In this paper, a new scheme has been proposed to minimize the capacitance requirement for full speed operation by creating vector redundancies using modular and equal voltage CHBs. Also, an algorithm has been developed to optimize the selection of vector redundancies among the CHBs in order to minimize the voltage ripple of the floating capacitors. The proposed algorithm considers instantaneous capacitor voltages and phase currents for optimal selection of vector redundancies. A mathematical model for capacitor voltage deviation is presented, and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified in both the simulation and the experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the current control design procedure of a single-phase grid-tied five-level packed U-cell inverter (PUC5) with an LCL output filter. The PUC5 inverter is used as an interface of renewable energy sources, such as solar applications. The LCL filter is calculated according to the grid-tied operation and converter ratings. An optimal controller, based on a linear quadratic regulator with integral action, is designed to inject a sinusoidal current with low harmonic distortion at unity power factor. For that design, the PUC5 inverter is modelled in the D–Q frame. The sensorless voltage control is incorporated into the switching technique to balance the PUC5 capacitor voltage and generate a five-level waveform at the output. Experimental tests are performed on a laboratory benchmark to confirm the theoretical design. The results prove the efficiency and accuracy of the adopted control strategy in a steady state and under transients of grid current, grid inductance, ac and dc voltage amplitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an investigation on finite control set model predictive current control, validated experimentally with a rear axle electrical drive unit used in automotive applications. An improved problem formulation is suggested which lowers the computational turnaround time of the solver with approximately $\text{40}\%$ for an horizon length of $N=4$. Apart from the computational requirement aspects, the assessment focuses on inverter efficiency, phase current total demand distortion, and acoustic performance. The proposed solution is evaluated against a standard double proportional and integrator (PI) field-oriented current controller with pulsewidth modulation. It is shown that the proposed solution is feasible, the associated optimization problem at hand can be solved in real time, while exploiting the attractiveness of the proposed improvements. In summary, it is concluded that the inverter efficiency can be improved without deteriorating neither the phase current harmonics nor the acoustic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Input-series-output-parallel (ISOP) inverter system is very suitable for high dc input voltage and large ac output current power conversion applications. If this topology is applied to the grid-connected occasion, a bulky-capacity grid-connected inverter can be built with multiple small-capacity standardized inverter modules, which can significantly improve the reliability of the system operation and facilitate system design. In this paper, we investigate an ISOP LCL-type grid-connected inverter system, and put forward an optimized way for the topology of combined LCL filters first. Then, the inverter-side inductor current is carefully chosen as the controlled variable and thus a concise distributed control method is proposed to achieve multiple control objectives. On the basis of the presented distributed control, the redundant control technique is also provided to heighten the reliability of the grid-tied ISOP inverter indeed. Finally, a three-module prototype is built and the experimental results validate the effectiveness of the raised strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In complex terrain, semi-airborne transient electromagnetic surveying can effectively solve the detailed exploration problems to replace ground manual operation. This method has the advantages of high efficiency, deep exploration depth, and high signal-to-noise ratio. As the core component of the system, the constant-current transmission converter determines the primary field source of the surveying system. High-accurate and stable-output electromagnetic transmission technology is the key issues of the surveying equipment development. In this paper, the converter circuit topology is designed in detail and a novel model reference adaptive proportional-integral control algorithm is put forward. The rising overshoot of current is eliminated and falling edge is linear. Finally, the 20-kW high-power transmitting instrument has been completed and used for field experiments. A large number of experimental results show that the transmitting instrument can achieve high-power constant-current emission, stable output, and good dynamic performance. And the steady-state accuracy is better than the traditional transmitter. The converter successfully improved the semi-airborne transient electromagnetic system detection capability and achieved satisfactory results in field experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Failure of the commutation process is a serious malfunction in line-commutated high-voltage direct current (HVdc) converters, which mainly occurs due to inverter ac faults and may lead to outage of the HVdc system. In this paper, an improved strategy is developed that functions based on the SIEMENS HVdc control system under normal conditions and switches to a designed commutation failure inhibition module (CFIM) during an inverter ac fault. From the response speed point of view, since the designed CFIM does not require any proportional-integral controller, the inverter control system has a quick performance in prevention of the commutation failure. This is achieved by direct measurement of the overlap area using the waveforms of the valves anode–cathode and commuting voltages. In addition, from the accuracy aspect, the proposed method has a superior performance in comparison with the existing strategies. It is because of the fact that by direct measurement of the overlap area, variations of both direct current and the commutation inductance are considered, and hence, the unnecessary increase of the inverter reactive power consumption during the fault and the repetitive commutation failures are prevented. The practical performance and feasibility of the proposed strategy is validated through the laboratory testing, using the real-time Opal-RT hardware prototyping platform. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed strategy can effectively inhibit the commutation failure or repetitive commutation failures under different fault types by considering the lowest possible reactive power consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of virtual-synchronous machine and generator as well as synchronous inverter (synchronverter), in recent years, has facilitated the integration of inverter-interfaced distributed energy resources (IIDERs) into the synchronous generator (SG) dominant microgrids and power grid. In this concept, the voltage source inverter (VSI) is controlled in such a way that it mimics the behavior of SG. To provide a reliable utilization of the IIDERs, a seamless transition of the VSIs between islanded and grid-connected operation modes is required. This paper integrates a novel virtual torque and virtual flux linkage-based synchronizing technique into the synchronverter controller to provide a plug ‘n’ play capability of the VSIs and their smooth transition between these two operating modes. Comprehensive mathematical modeling, design, and dynamic stability analysis as well as dSPACE-based real-time simulation are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multilevel drive can be realized by using an open-ended machine, fed from dual two-level inverters. The topology supplied from isolated dc sources is suitable for transportation electrification. In vehicular systems, it is essential that the isolated dc sources, comprising of battery packs, should discharge uniformly and maintain balanced dc voltage at the dc-link terminal. A simple carrier-based pulsewidth modulation (PWM) technique is presented in this paper, which can effectively regulate the power drawn between the two two-level inverters while maintaining the multilevel operation of the drive. The modulation technique can balance the instantaneous state of charge of independent battery packs and dynamically equalize the power flow from the two inverters, based on drive requirement. This will enhance the reliability of the propulsion system in electric vehicles. The operation of the proposed PWM technique has been validated through detailed simulation and experimental tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an explicit predictive current control scheme implemented with a low carrier frequency pulsewidth modulation (PWM) on an induction machine fed by a three-level neutral point clamped inverter. The PWM carrier and the main current sampling frequency are both set to 1 kHz, resulting in a 500 Hz average switching frequency per device, which is very suitable for large drive applications. The explicit predictive control is introduced to optimize the available bandwidth provided by such a low sampling frequency, maximizing the dynamic performance. The strategy has been tested in a 2.2-kW induction motor experimental prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-phase pulsewidth modulation inverter fed induction motor drive system is widely applied in high power drive applications. Sensor faults are very common in the drive system, which, once occur, might result in degraded system performance or even system shutdown. In order to rapidly and accurately diagnose the sensor faults, this paper proposes an intelligent time-adaptive data-driven method to identify the fault location and fault type of sensors in the drive system. An emerging machine learning technology named extreme learning machine (ELM) is applied to learn the sensor fault dataset; an ensemble ELM classifier is then designed to improve diagnostic accuracy, based on which a time-adaptive fault diagnosis process is proposed to achieve a high and balanced diagnostic accuracy and speed. As a data-driven method, the proposed method only employs the phase current, dc-link voltage, and speed signals as the inputs to the ensemble ELM classifiers and requires no additional sensors and other hardware. Simulated and experimental tests show that the proposed method can rapidly and accurately detect the fault sensor location and identify offset fault, stuck fault, and noise faults with an average diagnostic accuracy of 98% and the average decision time of 10 ms after the fault occurs. Moreover, such diagnosis method is robust to the fluctuation of catenary voltage and dc-link voltage, fault severity, and variation of model parameters, speed, and load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an extended Kalman filter (EKF) based control strategy for fault ride-through operation in two-stage grid-connected photovoltaic (GPV) system. Unlike the conventional controllers for ride-through operation, the proposed strategy does not compromise with power quality improvement features in the system while enabling ride-through operation. The controller accounts for nonlinear loads in the system, grid harmonic-currents elimination, and grid-currents balancing even during the harmonic/distorted grid voltages. The IEEE Standard-1547.4 compels the distributed resource to ride-through during voltage disturbances caused by faults. For the ride-through operation, a limit is imposed on PV active power injection to prevent inverter overcurrents and dc-link energy aggregation, which reduces the lifetime of dc-link capacitor. The reactive power is fed to the grid, as per the depth in voltage-sag. The derated PV array power is supplied in cases where the inverter cannot handle the utmost PV-power. The power quality improvement is ensured using EKF state estimator, which precisely estimates the fundamental load currents. In distribution network with modern nonlinear loads, especially at far radial ends, the grid voltages are prone to huge diversions and the proposed controller provides a possible solution to maintain active/reactive power support and maintain power quality in the network. The effectiveness of the strategy is demonstrated through simulations and experiments. Under all disturbances, the harmonic content in grid currents is observed within limits, in accordance with the IEEE Standard-519. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-stage isolated battery-driven grid interface (IBDGI) with front-end three-phase dual active bridge (DAB) dc–dc converter is promising to be applied in the residential battery energy storage system for supporting photovoltaic (PV) integration, load shifting, and backup power purposes. However, the second harmonic current (SHC) caused by the pulsating power of the downstream single-phase inverter will increase the battery's degradation and the component stress of the front-end converter. In this paper, a reduction method is proposed for the IBDGI with three-phase DAB converter using a load current feedforward control. The proposed idea is to incorporate virtual impedance to the output impedance of the front-end converter. The easy-to-be-implemented method does not need to modify the original voltage closed-loop controller but suppress SHC while keeping good dynamic performance. As the first step, the small-signal model of the three-phase DAB converter is provided. The parameter sensitivity analysis is proposed to demonstrate that the SHC can be well-suppressed within $\pm \text{20}\%$ parameter error of the feedforward control. Finally, a 1 kW experiment setup is built to verify the performance of the proposed SHC reduction method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a two-degrees-of-freedom control algorithm based on uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE), aimed to minimize the total harmonic distortion of inverter output voltage is proposed, possessing enhanced robustness to fundamental frequency variations. A multiple-time-delay action is combined with a commonly utilized low-pass UDE filter to increase the range of output impedance magnitude minimization around odd multiples of fundamental frequency for enhanced rejection of typical single-phase nonlinear loads harmonics. Marginal robustness improvement achieved by increasing the number of time delays is quantified analytically and revealed to be independent of delay order. The performance of the proposed control approach and its superiority over two recently proposed methods is validated successfully by experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the analysis of the input dc-link voltage ripple in multilevel inverter based on H-bridge and level doubling network (LDN). The LDN is basically a half-bridge fed by a floating capacitor, with voltage self-balancing capability, recalling the concept of a flying capacitor configuration. The amplitude of the LDN voltage ripple is analytically determined considering both the low-order and the switching harmonic components. In particular, peak-to-peak distributions of voltage ripples over the fundamental period are analytically determined, making possible the design of dc-link capacitor relying only on the dc-voltage ripple requirements. The case study makes reference to negligible switching ripple in the output current. It well represents either grid connection or passive load having almost sinusoidal currents. Numerical simulations carried out by MATLAB/Simulink and a complete set of experimental verifications are given to confirm the theoretical developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel structure of switched capacitor converter (SCC) is proposed. First, the basic unit of the proposed SCC is presented. After that, a generalized structure of the proposed SCC is discussed. The presented SCC uses one dc source, several switches, diodes, and capacitors to produce multistep dc boosted output voltage. The capacitors in the SCC can be charged in trinary asymmetrical pattern. A detailed comparative study between the proposed and other recently developed SCC structures is presented. It is shown that the proposed SCC can produce an output voltage level with lower total standing voltage and lower maximum switch stress voltage as compared to most of the suggested SCC structures. Further, a switched capacitor multilevel inverter (SCMLI) based on cross-switched multilevel inverter has been developed and analyzed for symmetric and asymmetric dc source configurations. For fair comparison with the existing SCMLI structures, the overall cost of the structures is compared based on a cost function (CF). The proposed SCMLI provides lower cost function/output voltage level (CF/NL) in comparison with most of the other SCMLI structures for both symmetric and asymmetric dc source configurations. Extensive experimental studies validate the operation and performance of the proposed SCMLI structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new resonant generator topology for dual-frequency induction heating. The design offers functionalities that are not present in other solutions, which allow the ratio of equivalent resistance to be controlled at high (HF) and medium (MF) resonant frequencies. A simulation is performed of its interactive work during dual-frequency induction heating, using a specially developed software algorithm. The simulation combines coupled numerical calculations of the electromagnetic and thermal fields during dual-frequency heating of the workpiece with the analysis and modification of the resonance frequencies and power at HF and MF, in accordance with a user-imposed duty cycle. The results are used as the basis for a 100-kW physical model of the generator. The proposed LCLC topology for a dual-frequency resonant inverter with adjusted series inductance allows better use of the ac–dc power supply system, easier implementation of sequential dual-frequency heating, and easier control of MF and HF power waveforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beat phenomenon is an important concern in the reduced dc-link capacitance motor drive system. In previous research works, the topic is mainly concentrated on the beat phenomenon caused by the interaction of the fluctuated dc-link voltage and the motor phase voltage. In this paper, another form of the beat phenomenon generated by the fluctuated dc-link voltage and the severely fluctuated load torque is investigated. The effect of the beat phenomenon on the grid current and the motor speed is analyzed, which fluctuate with the low-frequency oscillation. In order to improve the drive system performance, a power balancing controller is proposed to suppress the grid current fluctuation, and a resonant controller is utilized to regulate the periodic power signals. Meanwhile, the applied fluctuated torque suppression method could improve the performance of the motor speed, which is only sensitive to the frequency of the fluctuated load torque. Experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For parallel-connected LCL-type inverters in islanded operation, it is difficult to reshape the large harmonic impedance by the conventional capacitor voltage control due to the presence of grid-side inductor, which seriously deteriorates the voltage quality at the point of common coupling (PCC) under nonlinear loads. To address this issue, a harmonic voltage distortion damping method is proposed in this paper, which mainly includes a direct output voltage control and the parallel virtual-admittance control. First, the direct output voltage control converts the grid-side inductor into the equivalent output impedance of the inverter itself by changing the voltage feedback variable from capacitor voltage to output voltage, and then the harmonic impedance is reshaped from a large value to a small value with the P + Repetitive controller. However, it is found that the direct output voltage control fails to damp PCC voltage distortion with droop-frequency offset. That is because its voltage controller cannot guarantee the resonance bandwidth of main harmonic frequency, and then a slight droop-frequency offset can cause a large increase in the harmonic impedance. For this, the parallel virtual-admittance control is further proposed to limit the size of the output impedance to no more than that of the impedance in parallel, which effectively reduces the adverse effect of droop-frequency offset on the quality of the PCC voltage. Further, the parallel virtual-admittance control is simplified with the same harmonic voltage distortion damping consequent. The system stability conditions are analyzed in detail, and its proper control parameters are selected without complicated trial. Finally, the experimental results validate the proposed control method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the design and experimental validation of disturbance observer (DO)-based control for grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) inverters fed by a dc–dc boost converter considering unbalanced grid voltages. The control scheme uses multiples controllers that are developed based on employing DO technique along with a feedback-linearizing (FBL) control. The main controller is designed to regulate the active and reactive powers injected into the grid via controlling the grid-tied inverter. Under unbalanced grid voltages, the active and reactive power is composed of a dc component as well as an ac component that oscillates at twice the grid frequency. Therefore, the unknown perturbation, representing the mismatch between the nominal and actual system, can be treated as a sum of a constant offset and a sinusoidal disturbance. To ensure accurate control of the active/reactive power, a DO is designed to estimate the unknown perturbation, which is then canceled by a FBL control. By considering the control input limitation in the observer synthesis, an antiwindup compensator arises naturally in the control law, which attenuates the effect of the windup phenomenon during control saturation. Moreover, a simplified representation of the DO is proposed to facilitate real-time implementation. The proposed approach for the power control can be used in both balanced and unbalanced systems since it can reject constant and sinusoidal disturbances. Experimental tests were performed to investigate the ability of the proposed control scheme to achieve good transient and steady-state performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum electrolytic capacitors (AECs) are connected in a bank to meet the requirement of capacitance, voltage, and current rating for dc-link of power electronic converters. The performance of capacitor bank deteriorates with time due to the degradation of AECs in the bank. Further, each AEC in the bank degrades differently based on its core temperature, which in turn depends on the current and its equivalent series resistance (ESR). Therefore, health monitoring of a bank would require monitoring of individual AECs in the bank. However, extending the available literature on health monitoring of an AEC to the capacitor bank would require voltage/current sensors for individual AECs. To address the aforementioned issue, this paper suggests a method to assess the health of individual AECs online in the bank without using sensors for each AECs. The proposed method involves estimation of current through each capacitor, which is used to determine the core temperature by using a thermal model of AEC. The core temperature is used for estimation of ESR and capacitance of each capacitor using physics-of-failure based degradation model. For the consistent matching of the degradation model to the actual degradation of the capacitor, the coefficients of the model are sequentially updated. For updating, an algorithm based on extended Kalman filter is used. The proposed scheme is experimentally validated on laboratory prototype of single-phase, grid-connected solar PV inverter under variable load conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nine-arm modular multilevel converter (9A-MMC) has been recently proposed as a reduced MMC topology variation for six-phase drive applications, with 25% reduction in the number of employed arms and associated components, compared to a standard dual three-phase MMC, however with a limited output voltage amplitude. This paper proposes a hybrid 9A-MMC comprised of half-bridge submodules (SMs) in both the upper and lower arms, and full-bridge SMs in the middle arms. By employing the negative-voltage state of the full-bridge SMs, the hybrid 9A-MMC avoids the limitations imposed on the dc-link voltage utilization, while achieving further reduction in the component count, compared to a standard 9A-MMC with identical half-bridge SMs. The operating principles of the proposed hybrid 9A-MMC are illustrated with mathematical analysis, whereas its characteristics are verified through both simulation and experimentation. An assessment of the proposed topology quantifying its employed components is also provided, in comparison to other MMC-based six-phase machine drives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-stage single-phase inverter system has found many applications in distributed generators and grid-connected systems. However, the existence of double-line frequency ripple on the dc-bus voltage due to single-phase inverter's operation has given rise to some design and reliability issues. Some of these are the degradation in the quality of inverter's output voltage and shortening of dc-bus capacitor's lifetime. The problem is rooted in the controller design of the front-end dc–dc converter, which is often designed based on a simplified mathematical model of the dc–dc converter that fails to account for some complex phenomena, such as system's nonlinearities and circuit parameter variations due to temperature and aging effects. In this paper, a disturbance-observer-based control is proposed where these unmodeled effects are treated in the form of lumped disturbance and compensated for in a feed-forward manner. The major advantage of this control solution is that only minimal plant information is needed for controller design and that a decoupled composite controller can be realized, where the feedback compensator is designed to meet certain stability criteria while the disturbance-observer-based feed-forward compensator is designed to handle fast transient events. A prototype of a dual-active-bridge (DAB) dc–dc converter implemented with disturbance-observer-based control is constructed to verify its effectiveness. Experimental results show that the dynamic response of the DAB converter is significantly improved and the double-line frequency ripple on the dc-bus voltage is effectively suppressed by the proposed control solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new Lyapunov-based model predictive controller is proposed for a 7-level packed U-cell (PUC7) grid-connected inverter. A cost function of the proposed model predictive controller is designed from the system stability point of view, inspired by the Lyapunov control theory. The proposed controller eliminates the need for gains that are associated with cost function coefficients, as seen in classical model predictive control based controllers. Therefore, the control design problem is significantly simplified. In addition, the average switching frequency is also reduced, as shown in both simulation and experimental results, leading to a reduction in switching losses. Simulation and experimental tests, on a PUC7 lab prototype, demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed control system, in terms of high disturbance rejection, robustness to parameter mismatches, and fast dynamic response. Such features qualify the proposed control strategy as a good candidate for grid-tied applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synchronverters are inverters that mimic the behavior of synchronous generators. In this paper, we propose five modifications to the synchronverter algorithm from the paper “Synchronverters: Inverters that mimic synchronous generators,” (IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 1259–1267, Apr. 2011), to improve its stability and performance. These modifications are implemented in software and do not require any changes in the inverter hardware. The first two modifications concern the control of the virtual field current in the synchronverter so that it is more robust to faults. We prove the stability of the grid-connected synchronverter with this improved field current controller. The third modification is to increase the effective size of the filter inductors virtually. This is motivated using results from the stability analysis of a constant field current synchronous generator connected to an ac power grid and also by practical considerations. Simulations and experiments show that this leads to a much better response to changes in grid frequency, voltage, or to imbalance in the grid. The fourth modification is to change the formula for the (virtual) nominal active mechanical torque to take into account the (virtual) losses in the output impedance of the converter. This makes the tracking of the desired active power much more accurate. The fifth modification is to introduce virtual capacitors in series with the inverter outputs to filter spurious dc components from the current supplied to the grid. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Droop control strategy is widely applied in ac microgrid to realize the seamless mode transition and achieve average power sharing among different inverters. However, there is a lack of analysis about the operation performance of droop control strategy in grid-connected mode. In this paper, grid fluctuation and control accuracy of reactive power are illustrated to be the main influence factors for power flow control according to the small-signal model. The feedforward of grid frequency and voltage magnitude is proposed to mitigate the impacts of grid fluctuation on power flow control. Since the feedforward items are achieved through the synchronous reference frame phase-locked loop with the input of filter capacitor voltage, extra sensors for grid voltage are avoided. Moreover, voltage magnitude control is introduced to enhance the control accuracy of reactive power flow. In addition, modified droop control loops are also proposed to improve the system stability. With the implementation of the proposed control scheme, improved power flow control and enhanced system stability are achieved with the feature of seamless mode transition maintained. Finally, the major contribution of this paper is verified by a laboratory prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an improved direct torque control (DTC) technique of a two-level inverter-fed five-phase induction motor (FPIM) drive for low-speed operation is presented. The operation of the FPIM with distributed winding requires the elimination of third-harmonic voltage, which, if not taken care of, would generate distorted stator current. For this, the concept of virtual vectors (VVs) is utilized. Before selecting the VVs for the DTC operation, a theoretical analysis is carried out to find the effects of these VVs on the torque and flux response of the FPIM under different speed and loading conditions. It is found that the rotor speed plays a crucial role in the selection of VVs. A particular VV has different effects on the torque change as speed varies. This analysis helps in the selection of VVs, hysteresis torque bandwidth, flux bandwidth, and efficient formation of sectors. Furthermore, in this paper, the performance of the FPIM during low-speed operation is improved by avoiding the demagnetization of the stator flux. To achieve this, a new modified lookup table is proposed. Superiority of the proposed method over the reported approaches is illustrated by experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A grid-forming inverter (GFI) is an important component for the operation of an islanded microgrid. Its purpose, similar to a conventional slack bus generator, is to build up a reference voltage for other distributed generating units in the microgrid. Usually, a nested-loop proportional plus integral (PI) control structure is employed to control a GFI in a dq reference frame. However, conventional PI-based nested-loop control method has a deteriorative performance under parameter variations. In this paper, a novel nested-loop control strategy is proposed for control of a GFI system containing an {LC} output filter and loads. The proposed method does not require a precise model for the inverter system and can better deal with uncertainties and {LC}$ filter resonance without using any passive or active damping mechanisms. It utilizes a sliding-mode control in the inner current loop and a mixed {H_2}/{H_\infty } optimal control in the outer voltage loop, which provides the advantages of constant switching frequency, low total harmonic distortion, robustness against parameters variations, and fast transient response. The simulation and hardware experiments presented in this paper demonstrate the proposed controller's improved transient and steady-state performance in various key criteria, over conventional PI-based nested-loop control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new topology for half-bridge Z-source inverter is proposed. The proposed topology has only one impedance network. Unlike to the conventional half-bridge inverter, the proposed topology can provide zero voltage level at the output. It also increases output voltage level and stabilizes it in the desired value. Capacitor voltage stress in the proposed topology is low, and, therefore, nominal voltage of capacitor and cost decreases. In this paper, the steady-state analysis of the proposed inverter in two new operations which are named synchronous operation of diodes and asynchronous operation of diodes is conducted based on mathematics calculations. A method to obtain high-voltage gains by cascading the Z-network and combining middle inductors is presented that leads to cost, size, and weight reduction. Comparison among the proposed converter with conventional ones shows its excellent performance. The experimental results have good agreement with analytical analysis for the proposed topology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]