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This paper proposes a novel dual input nine-level inverter (DINLI) topology which requires only seven controllable devices. The dual inputs are un-identical DC voltage sources in the ratio 1:3. A simple control scheme is derived by appropriately modifying the phase disposition pulse width modulation technique to generate high-quality 9-level output from the DINLI topology. At any given instant, a maximum of four switches conduct out of which only a maximum of two switches operate at high frequency, bringing down the switching and conduction losses significantly and improving the overall system efficiency. The bidirectional DINLI (BDINLI) topology with reactive power capability can be realized by replacing the unidirectional devices with the controlled switches (i.e., total nine switches). In addition, the proposed DINLI topology does not require extra voltage balancing circuits which further improves the efficiency. The DINLI operation is verified through MATLAB simulations for grid-connected applications and its extension to an n-level, 3-phase application is also investigated. Experiments performed on a 1KVA laboratory prototype to validate the theoretical claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new single-source three-phase seven-level inverter with an inherent three-time voltage boosting capability for medium-voltage applications. The proposed topology is comprised of series connection of two switched-capacitor (SC) networks with an added half-bridge module per phase. Each of such integrated SC networks requires a single capacitor associated with three active power switches. The three-time voltage boosting feature of the proposed topology can reduce the dc-link voltage requirements by 50% in comparison to the traditional neutral point clamped (NPC), flying capacitors, active NPC (ANPC), hybrid clamped ANPC, and cascaded H-bridge topologies, and 75% to advanced ANPC topologies. It can also reduce the number of required switches and capacitors as well as their voltage stresses compared to those state-of-the-art topologies reported in the literature. By integrating “n” number of added SC networks in the proposed seven-level basic topology, the number of output voltage levels can be extended to 2n+3 per phase. A finite control set model predictive control algorithm is also derived to control the converter in both the active and reactive power exchanges modes without distorting the generated grid current quality. The capacitor voltage balancing is inherent in the proposed topology, and thus, there is no need for any additional voltage balancing circuit, which further reduces the control complexity. The performance of the proposed topology and its control algorithm are validated by several measurement results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventionally, the converter of switched reluctance motor (SRM) is fed by the uncontrollable diode bridge rectifier (DBR), which leads to a low grid-side power factor (PF) and high current total harmonic distortion (THD). In this paper, an alternative solution for the grid-connected high-speed SRM drive system with improved PF is proposed. In the proposed drive system, the three-level active front end (AFE) is connected in cascade with the midpoint converter for SRM operation. A centralized strategy, which controls the AFE and SRM together, is proposed to govern the motor speed and grid-side PF by regulating the real power and reactive power of the system, respectively. Specifically, the real power, reactive power, and the voltage balancing of split capacitors are controlled by the model predictive directed power control (MP-DPC) algorithm, which significantly reduces the control complexity and guarantees the fast dynamic response. Consequently, satisfying speed regulation, high PF, low current THD, and bi-directional power-transfer capability are achieved. An idea-proofed testbench is constructed in laboratory, and the applicability of the proposed drive system is verified by a series of experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new transformer-less three-level grid-tied inverter is proposed in this article. By employing the switched-capacitor (SC) modules, a new topology is derived. The proposed topology has some features which are high efficiency, the capability of voltage boosting without utilization of any additional boost stage, and suppressing the leakage current by using common grounded strategy. In this article, a peak current control is employed to generate the gate pulses of power semiconductor switches and adjustment of both active and reactive powers. By doing so, the grid injected current is controlled and adjusted to have a proper quality. The operation modes, design consideration, and a comparison with some recently proposed grid-connected topologies are done through this paper. Finally, the performance and feasibility of the proposed inverter are confirmed with a 500 W experimental prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variable frequency transformer (VFT) combines the principles of rotary transformer and phase shifting transformer to control active power transfer between two electric grids. The active power transfer control concepts, design, and transient performance of the VFT have been studied in detail and are reported in the literature. However, reactive power flow through the VFT has not been studied so far. In the existing installations, in order to meet the VFT internal reactive current requirements (magnetizing), switched capacitor banks are being used on the two sides of the VFT. These switched capacitor banks are oversized to deal with uncontrolled reactive power exchange that can happen between the two networks through the VFT. This may achieve desired power factor operation, but cannot prevent the undesired reactive power exchange. This paper presents the detailed study on reactive flow through the VFT. The paper also proposes a new VFT configuration (with integrated partially-rated series voltage compensation scheme and corresponding control) to achieve a full control over reactive power flow. Thereby, the proposed configuration can achieve the bidirectional and decoupled active and reactive power flow through VFT. The proposed VFT configuration and control are validated using real-time hardware in-loop evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the performance of a self-excited reluctance generating system by using active and reactive power balances. The FEA simulation results are employed to account for both saturation and cross magnetizing effect of $d$ - and $q$ -axis inductances. The procedure to determine the operating point with this method is proposed, and the influence of generator parameters, including stator resistance and inductances, are also investigated. Experiments are carried out at no-load and resistive load conditions separately, verifying the predicted values. In addition, the active and reactive power balance curves are also used to determine whether the generating system works at certain conditions. If there are no crossing points between the two curves, the generator is not able to generate. At last, it is shown that the capacitors and load resistors can be selected based on the power and reactive balances, achieving both high output power and high power factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel decentralized control for offshore wind farms connected to the onshore grid through a high-voltage dc link by means of a diode rectifier. The proposed control system is implemented in each wind turbine generator system (WTGS). The capacitor placed at the filter of the wind turbine front-end converter is used for the proposed control implementation. Frequency control is achieved by aligning the capacitor voltage vector along a reference axis rotating at the reference frequency. Then, a frequency-reactive power droop control allows the synchronization of all the WTGSs. On the other hand, this droop strategy also leads to total reactive power sharing among WTGSs without relying on communications. An additional secondary frequency control is also implemented to compensate the frequency deviation caused by the droop control. The proposed control system has been validated by simulation and results demonstrate the appropriate performance even during start-up and faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doubly fed induction generators are suitable for systems having limited speed range as the overall control can be carried out by fractionally rated converters. However, brushes and slip-rings used in these generators reduce system reliability and demand greater maintenance. Dual stator winding induction generator (DSWIG), being brushless, removes this limitation. Two distributed windings are embedded in the stator and the rotor is squirrel-cage. One of the windings is interfaced to an uncontrolled rectifier and the other to a fractionally rated PWM converter. Uncontrolled rectifier degrades the power quality within the generation system. At the same time, reactive power demand in induction generators increases with loading. This paper deals with design and control of a standalone dc system based on DSWIG, where a combination of passive tuned filter and series capacitor is utilized to address the voltage regulation and power quality issue. Simulation results using MATLAB/Simulink and experimental results (obtained from a laboratory prototype) have been presented, compared, and discussed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a voltage and frequency control (VFC) and an average-value model (AVM) of a line-commutated converter for a rectifier station in an offshore wind farm (OWF) connected by a high-voltage direct current link. A capacitor bank is placed at the AC terminals of the rectifier station to perform VFC within the OWF. The proposed model uses the active and reactive power generated by the OWF as inputs, while the state variables are the voltage magnitude and phase angle at the capacitor bank bus. The proposed VFC is based on the orientation of the voltage vector at the capacitor bank bus toward a synchronous reference axis. It is then demonstrated that frequency control is achieved by regulating the reactive power balance at the capacitor bank bus, while voltage control is carried out by regulating the active power balance. Moreover, it is demonstrated that in a diode rectifier, although voltage cannot be controlled as in a thyristor rectifier, it is bounded within acceptable limits. In addition, small-signal study is performed to facilitate controller design and system stability analysis. VFC and the accuracy of the proposed AVM are validated by simulation, using both the proposed AVM and a detailed switching model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a hybrid pulse width modulation (PWM) based field weakening control strategy for a hybrid-inverter-driven open-winding (OW) permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) system. The hybrid-inverter consists of two voltage source inverters, one is connected to a dc voltage source and named as main inverter (MI), and the other is connected to a floating capacitor and called compensation inverter (CI). A novel hybrid PWM technique is proposed for the hybrid-inverter, in which a double-vector-based PWM is applied to the MI to reduce the switching frequency, and the conventional space vector PWM is applied to the CI to compensate the reactive power. Furthermore, a field weakening (FW) control strategy based on the hybrid PWM technique is proposed to better utilize the dc-link voltage and extend the operation range of the OW-PMSM system. Simulation and experimental studies are carried out to verify the high efficiency and wide speed range of the proposed strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an enhanced hierarchical control structure with multiple current loop damping schemes for voltage unbalance and harmonics compensation (UHC) in ac islanded microgrid is proposed to address unequal power sharing problems. The distributed generation (DG) is properly controlled to autonomously compensate voltage unbalance and harmonics while sharing the compensation effort for the real power, reactive power, and unbalance and harmonic powers. The proposed control system of the microgrid mainly consists of the positive sequence real and reactive power droop controllers, voltage and current controllers, the selective virtual impedance loop, the unbalance and harmonics compensators, the secondary control for voltage amplitude and frequency restoration, and the auxiliary control to achieve a high-voltage quality at the point of common coupling. By using the proposed unbalance and harmonics compensation, the auxiliary control, and the virtual positive/negative-sequence impedance loops at fundamental frequency, and the virtual variable harmonic impedance loop at harmonic frequencies, an accurate power sharing is achieved. Moreover, the low bandwidth communication (LBC) technique is adopted to send the compensation command of the secondary control and auxiliary control from the microgrid control center to the local controllers of DG unit. Finally, the hardware-in-the-loop results using dSPACE 1006 platform are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates an induction machine with a novel concept of the rotor fed by a converter. The stator is Y-connected and directly connected to the grid, while the rotor windings are open-ended and fed by a back-to-back converter with a floating capacitor. Power factor and efficiency improvements of the induction motor are studied with different settings of phase-shift angle between the two converters. Moreover, the dynamic performance of the induction machine is explored in MATLAB/Simulink and verified experimentally on a 1.8-kW induction machine in the laboratory. The result shows good agreement between simulation and experiment. At a constant speed, variable load operation of the induction machine is obtained by setting the frequency of the rotor voltage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]