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This paper presents a novel hierarchical cooperative control strategy to solve the problems of unbalanced State of Charge (SoC), unreasonable load current sharing, and unstable bus voltage for battery storage system (BSS) in islanded DC microgrid. In the communication layer, a neighbor-to-neighbor communication network architecture is constructed in which each battery storage unit (BSU) only communicates information with neighboring nodes, and a multi-agent consensus algorithm is used to iteratively estimate the relevant average global variables. In the main control layer, the droop coefficient is dynamically adjusted by constructing a fast SoC convergence function to ensure that the load current is reasonably distributed based on the rated capacity of each BSU. In the secondary control layer, a virtual voltage drop equalization controller and an average bus voltage compensation controller are designed to eliminate the impact of line impedance mismatch and compensate the average bus voltage. Furthermore, an optimized factor is designed to accelerate the later stage of SoC convergence. Finally, a DC microgrid experimental platform based on StarSim HIL is built, and the results demonstrate that the proposed strategy can achieve the control objectives of fast SoC balance, proportional load current sharing, and bus voltage stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper improves the position sensorless drive by sensing actual machine phase voltages. A high-bandwidth phase voltage measurement is developed for pulsewidth modulation (PWM) voltage inverters. On the basis, the actual phase voltage is obtained based on the digital integration of PWM voltage using the capture modulator in existing drive microcontrollers (MCU's). Comparing to existing phase voltage measurement, no separated A/D converter and communication hardware are required because PWM pulses are directly measured using MCUs. However, for standard machines without neutral points, only line-to-line ac PWM voltages can be measured for the phase voltage reconstruction. Since the capture based on transistor-transistor logic (TTL) logics receives only digital signals, a preprocess circuit to convert ac PWM line voltages to equivalent digital signals is proposed. This paper clearly explains the voltage sensing hardware using MCU capture modulator. According to experimental results, a 150-MHz sampling rate for phase voltage measurement is achieved based on the proposed capture-based voltage measurement. Although the physical limitation of back electromotive force estimation still appears, the proposed phase voltage measurement substantially enhances the sensorless drive performance at low speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The output voltage of power electronic converters is a very important quantity for dynamic control of power electronic systems. In electrical drives without electromechanical position or speed sensor, the terminal reference voltage is used to obtain the rotor position. Dead-time effects and semiconductor voltage drop lead to distortion in the actual output voltage and degrade the control performance when the back electromotive force magnitude is low. Thus, for stable low-speed operation, output voltage sensing becomes necessary. Due to the switching nature of power electronic systems, this is not a trivial task, especially when instantaneous measurement of the terminal voltage is required. In this paper, an instantaneous switching-period average voltage sensing technique is proposed that utilizes a combined approach of oversampling and filtering. Based on the theoretical analysis of the sampling- and filter-induced measurement distortion, a general solution for an optimal filter design is derived. The additional sensing circuit is integrated into the low-side gate driver of the converter outputs. This paper includes details about the hardware implementation and extensive verification measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper puts into perspective the state-of-the art knowledge on bearing currents and diagnosis tools, which rely on shaft voltages and bearing currents phenomena. Today, shaft signals measurements are progressively included in predictive health monitoring of large turbo and hydro generators. In addition, bearing fault diagnosis through shaft signals have recently gained some attention to improve reliability and estimation of the remaining useful life in electrical drives. The main objective of this paper is to provide diagnosticians with a broad overview of the current trends in fault diagnosis through shaft signals. Therefore, the study presents a critical review of the measurements methods, advantages, and disadvantages of fault diagnosis methods, and suggests future possible enhancements for bearing health monitoring through shaft signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional single-phase power-factor-correction (PFC) rectifiers with active power decoupling capability typically require more than three active switches in their circuits. By exploring the concept of power-buffer cell, a new single-stage PFC rectifier with two active switches, one inductor and one small power-buffering capacitor is reported in this paper. The proposed converter can achieve high-power factor, wide output voltage range, and power decoupling function without using electrolytic capacitor. Additionally, an automatic power decoupling control scheme that is simple and easy to implement is proposed in this paper. The operating principle, control method, and design considerations of the proposed rectifier are also provided. A 100-W prototype with ac input voltage of 110 Vrms and a regulated dc output voltage ranging from 30 to 100 V has been successfully designed and practically tested. The experimental results show that with only a 15 μF power-buffering film capacitor, the proposed converter can achieve an input power factor of over 0.98, peak efficiency of 93.9%, and output voltage ripple of less than 3%, at 100-W output power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The multi infeed interaction factor (MIIF) index was introduced by CIGRE as a measure of inter-inverter interactions in multi-infeed HVDC systems, which include only line-commutated converter based HVDC (LCC–HVDC) links. The MIIF is although valid among LCCs in hybrid multi-infeed HVDC systems, but not among voltage-source converters (VSCs) as well as between LCC and VSC when the VSC operates under the constant ac voltage control mode. In this paper, a multi-infeed voltage interaction factor (MVIF) index is firstly proposed as the quantitative measure of inter-inverter interactions in hybrid multi-infeed HVDC systems. Compared to the MIIF, the MVIF is unified since it is applicable regardless of inverter types and control modes. Moreover, the quasi-steady-state power-flow model of hybrid multi-infeed HVDC systems is utilized as the mathematical framework to develop the analytical calculation method of the MVIF. This lends a theoretical basis for the efficient evaluation of inter-inverter interactions. Furthermore, the parametric dependence of the MVIF is analyzed to provide an exhaustive perspective of inter-inverter interactions. This offers a useful tool to aid planning and operation of hybrid multi-infeed HVDC systems. Finally, dynamic simulations conducted on the PSCAD/EMTDC program validate the MVIF and its analytical calculation method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a data-driven framework for controlling distributed energy resources (DERs) in a balanced radial power distribution system with the objective of regulating voltages across the whole system. The objective is to determine optimal DER power injections that minimize the voltage excursions outside a desirable voltage range without knowing a complete model of the power distribution system. To this end, we approximate the nonlinear relationship between the voltage magnitudes and the power injections by a linear model. The parameters of this linear model—referred to as the voltage sensitivities—can be computed using information on the network topology and the line parameters, the values of which will be estimated. Assuming the knowledge of feasible network topology configurations and distribution line resistance-to-reactance ratios, we propose a framework for identifying the true network topology configuration and the corresponding line parameters using only a few measurements of voltage magnitudes and power injections. Utilizing the estimated voltage sensitivities, the optimal DER power injections can be readily determined by solving a convex optimization problem. Due to its data-driven nature, the proposed framework is intrinsically adaptive to changes in system conditions such as unknown topology reconfiguration. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is validated via numerical simulations on the IEEE 123-bus distribution test feeder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), because of faster response, portability and the low operating temperature has found wide usage in applications requiring regulated output voltage. Alongwith voltage regulation, optimum stack efficiency is important for reliable operation. Overall, the maximum efficiency point (MEP) operation and voltage regulation need to be achieved while restricting the PEMFC operation till maximum power point (MPP). This demands operational adaptability of PEMFC over a wider range, to meet the desired levels of voltage regulation, maximum efficiency and MPP operation. However, achieving all the objectives simultaneously is challenging since operating points corresponding to the objectives differ. This paper proposes a control strategy that achieves operation dependent adaptability of PEMFC between the objectives as per the demand. The adaptability in controller tuning for MPP and voltage regulation has been formulated as multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem with a constraint on controller parameters, for allowing the PEMFC operation closer to MEP. The solution of MOO problem provides a set of controller configurations, each achieving different operating scenarios/objectives of the PEMFC system. Compared to the existing works aiming at either of the objectives, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is reflected in terms of simultaneous attainment of all the objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a modification of the Vienna rectifier (VR) to obtain more than three voltage levels at the DC line connection, while preserving the unity power factor at the AC grid side. The proposed unidirectional multilevel there-phase rectifier, called the “Negev rectifier”, has a reduced device count and utilizes a unique novel Time Division Multiplexed based control scheme, which makes the challenging N-level VR expansion possible. The Negev rectifier can serve as a grid interface for supplying dc voltage to multilevel inverters with 4 up to 7 voltage levels, eliminating the burden of inverter-side voltage balancing control. The Negev hardware can be constructed by two complementary topologies, making it suitable for either high current or high voltage applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An isolated bidirectional dc–dc converter, which combines parallel-connected two-level converters (TLCs) on the medium-voltage side and a modular multilevel converter (MMC) on the high-voltage side, namely a TLC-MMC converter, is a promising candidate for the interconnection of medium-voltage direct current (MVDC) and HVdc grids. Different from typical phase-shift controlled isolated bidirectional dc–dc converters, transformer currents of a TLC-MMC converter are regulated by the MMC in a closed-loop manner in order to achieve extremely low switching losses and low total device rating of power-semiconductor devices in TLCs. This paper addresses the dedicated operation technique and the voltage-balancing control of the TLC-MMC converter. The MMC in the TLC-MMC converter operates with six-step phase voltages and sinusoidal phase currents. Such an operation makes the MMC present remarkable differences to ac–dc applications. The direct-modulation technique, which is the most-used technique performed to MMCs in line-frequency ac–dc power conversion, has been concluded not applicable to the MMC in a TLC-MMC converter due to the significant sixth-order oscillation resulted in the dc-link voltage. Thus, the indirect-modulation technique is employed, and consequently a closed-loop voltage-balancing control is mandatory for the MMC. Possible measures for voltage balancing have been explored, and effective voltage-balancing control with a simplified implementation is proposed. Validity and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy have been verified by both simulations and experiment using a downscale prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The method used to calculate insertion indexes plays an important role in determining the overall performance of the modular multilevel converter. Direct voltage control, which is the simplest option, results in a large circulating current ripple because this modulation technique does not account for the arm voltage ripples. This led to the development of compensated modulation techniques that compensate for the arm voltage ripples thereby eliminating the circulating current ripple. There are two variants of compensated modulation—closed loop and open loop. The closed-loop version requires measurement of the arm voltages without distortion and delay, which is difficult to achieve in practice. The open-loop method overcomes this challenge by using estimated arm voltages. However, accurate knowledge of the system parameters is needed for effective removal of the circulating current ripples. This is a limitation because the parameters change with time and operating conditions. This paper presents a modified version of the open-loop method, which includes a scheme for correcting parameter errors online. The method estimates the parameters, arm capacitances, and time delay, by using feedback controllers acting on the circulating current ripples. Mathematical derivation of the method, together with its validation using simulation and experimental tests, is presented in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel grid synchronization method with bumpless start that requires minimal computational load and can selectively track the positive sequence of the grid voltage in an unbalanced and distorted three-phase weak grid. Only 12 floating-point operations are required to obtain the in-phase and quadrature components that define a synchronous frame which tracks the positive sequence of the grid voltage. Contrary to a phase-locked loop (PLL), the presented scheme does not require to measure any ac voltages. Therefore, this sensorless method is particularly suited for weak-grid conditions, in which the voltage at the point of common coupling may contain significant noise and can experience larger deviations from the grid voltage (compared to a strong grid) due to the voltage drop in the weak grid impedance. The error in the estimated phase depends on the accuracy of the plant model. If the LCL filter parameters are known, then both the proposal and a PLL-based scheme result in the same steady-state error. Experimental results show the advantages of the proposal compared to a moving average filter PLL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel method for controlling direct voltage regulated active dc-link capacitance reduction circuits (ACRC) is proposed in this paper. Instead of forcing the dc-link voltage of the power conversion system to follow a constant reference, the ACRC imposes dc-bus voltage in proportion to the integral of its input current. Consequently, it resembles an adjustable value capacitor from the dc-link side. Therefore, as opposed to existing control strategies, the proposed method simultaneously allows the dc-link voltage to reflect the power balance of the system and the pulsating power component to be diverted into significantly reduced auxiliary capacitance via a bidirectional dc–dc converter. As a result, replacing bulk dc-link capacitance by the proposed circuitry does not require any modification of existing grid-connected power conversion system controllers, thus allowing plug-and-play operation. The proposed approach is validated by application to a commercial power factor correction front end by both simulations and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-signal stability of ac power systems is able to be assessed by measuring their terminal impedance, and a transformerless series injector is very attractive for wideband measurement of load impedances. A typical implementation of the transformerless series injector is paralleled H-bridge (PHB) converters, where dc voltage imbalance will occur when system current magnitude is larger than a critical point, and thus the operation region of the series injector is seriously restricted. To address this issue, this paper presents a deep analysis on the mechanism behind dc voltage imbalance for PHB-based series injector, and it is revealed that a positive feedback exists in the dc voltage balancing loop under high system current magnitude. Then an enhanced control scheme is proposed to balance dc voltages in full system current range, where a reactive component is injected in the output voltage while reactive circuiting current is introduced among H-bridge converters for redistributing active power. Furthermore, the system behavior with the proposed scheme is comprehensively analyzed and the reference design for the injected reactive component magnitude in the output voltage is offered. Finally, the imbalance mechanism and the proposed scheme are validated by simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When fast voltage control is used in a power factor control, the ripple of the dc link causes current harmonics. This paper proposes a method to reduce the harmonic content of a fast voltage loop in a power factor correction, which can both produce low distortion during steady-state operation and fast recovery from a load transient. The performance is achieved by using a Takagi–Sugeno-type nonlinear controller for dc-link voltage control. The proposed nonlinear control is compared with linear proportional–integral (PI) control, which is tuned to meet the standardized regulations for the harmonic content in a 3-kW single phase power supply. The results show that the presented nonlinear voltage controller can maintain the dynamic performance of the linear control with reduced current harmonics. It is also shown that the used nonlinear control method requires only marginally more complex control algorithm compared to commonly used linear PI control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the application of GUM supplement 1 and supplement 2 in the intercomparison procedure of a group of four dc voltage reference standards. The results obtained are presented and according to these, the choice of a restriction is suggested to improve the uncertainty and avoiding the strong correlation of the estimated values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a regeneration protection solution is proposed to address the dc-link overvoltage issue and the unequal power sharing in the parallel uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems. First, a dc-link voltage protection control strategy is proposed to protect the inverter against the excessive dc-link voltage that may trigger the protection mechanism of the UPS system. In addition, an active power-sharing control strategy by regulating the virtual resistance is proposed to solve the circulating current caused by UPS regeneration issue. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed regeneration protection solution is verified by experimental results from the parallel UPS system prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on a fully distributed peer-to-peer control scheme for voltage regulation and reactive power sharing of multiple inverter-based distributed energy resources (DERs) in ac microgrids. The proposed peer-to-peer control strategy is fully distributed enabled through broadcast gossip communication, where each DER unit only requires local voltage and current measurement from its own and some (but not all) nearby neighbors for the voltage and reactive power sharing control. Employing the broadcast gossip communication protocol with attractive scalability and reliability properties, the control inputs can be updated to restore the voltage magnitudes at the point of common coupling to a desired value ensuring an accurate reactive power sharing for each DER. Since the proposed distributed controllers are implemented on local DERs, the central controller and hierarchy are no longer required. Accordingly, the microgrid system stability is preserved in the peer-to-peer requirements of line switches, which in turn, enables a plug-and-play operation of DERs and their robustness against microgrid topology change scenarios. Simulation studies in a modified IEEE 34-bus test network demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a control algorithm based on modified enhanced phase-locked loop (MEPLL) in dynamic voltage restorer (DVR). It compensates distortions and unbalances in the supply voltage along with voltage sag/swell. Three-phase MEPLL extracts the fundamental positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence components from the distorted/unbalanced signals. Further fundamental positive-sequence components are used in the reference load voltage calculations. In addition to track the angle of the input signals similar to the conventional PLLs, the proposed algorithm (MEPLL) offers features of getting fundamental and sequential components in case of distorted or unbalanced grid voltage for all the three phases simultaneously. Optimization approach named as autonomous groups particle swarm optimization, a variant of PSO is used for the calculation of PI-controller gains. The integrated time square error is used as a cost function for optimization of an error between the reference and actual values. This approach of tuning PI gains improves the performance by eliminating the manual process. The proposed control algorithm is implemented in DVR system using MATLAB software and validated in a laboratory environment. The performance shows that the proposed control algorithm gives time effective and satisfactory solution for the unpredictable issues mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The five-level nested neutral-point-clamped (5L-NNPC) converter is one of the most promising topologies for medium-voltage (2.3–7.2 kV) high-power applications such as medium-voltage drives, wind energy conversion systems, and grid-connected systems. The 5L-NNPC requires a fewer number of switching devices, freewheeling and clamping diodes, and flying capacitors compared to the existing five-level multilevel converters. In the 5L-NNPC topology, each flying capacitor voltage is regulated at one-fourth of the dc-bus voltage to obtain the five-level operation. Due to the lack of redundant switching states, it is difficult to control the flying capacitor voltages by using the pulse-width-modulation-based classical control methods. This paper proposes a model-predictive current control (MPCC) approach to control the flying capacitor voltages along with the output currents of the 5L-NNPC converter. The discrete-time model of 5L-NNPC is developed to implement the MPCC scheme. The simulation and experimental studies are conducted to verify the dynamic and steady-state performance of 5L-NNPC with the MPCC scheme. The performance of the proposed MPCC approach is compared with the conventional space-vector-modulation-based voltage-balancing approach. Furthermore, the flying capacitor voltage control capability of MPCC is verified at different load power factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The kinetic energy stored in the rotating mass of wind turbine generators can provide the effective power quality solution to the inertia-free stand-alone (IFSA) microgrid by improving its stability. In conventional power systems, the power released from the inertia of synchronous generators regulates the system frequency. However, the frequency does not vary much even when a large disturbance or a load change occurs in the IFSA microgrid with only converter-based generators. This paper proposes a new inertia control method for a type-4 permanent magnet synchronous generator wind turbine system in the IFSA microgrid by utilizing the measurement of the dc-link voltage of the converter and its derivatives, not by the system frequency. Several case studies are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed inertia control in the IFSA microgrid with electromagnetic transients program-based simulation. Also, its effectiveness is verified with the experimental results from the hardware-in-the-loop test implemented by the controller interface with the digital signal processor, which is connected to the real-time digital simulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sources in a dc microgrid are required to have a proportional current sharing and an improved voltage regulation. Conventional droop-based control techniques achieve the proportional current sharing, but the voltage regulation of an individual bus may be large due to a high value of droop gains. In the literature, secondary controllers are discussed to improve either the voltage regulation of one bus or the average voltage regulation of the entire system. Most of these techniques rely on the communicated values of both the terminal voltage and the output current of individual sources. This paper puts forth a new approach to address the aforementioned issues. A figure of merit called quality index is introduced, which constitutes a weighted average of terms representing the voltage regulation and the power sharing at each source bus/node. An online algorithm to find the optimal droop coefficient based on the quality index is suggested. It does not require the knowledge of the system parameters. Furthermore, it reduces congestion in the communication network, as only output current information is exchanged among sources. Equations for the current sharing error and the voltage regulation in a microgrid system are derived based on droop gain values of the sources. Operation of the proposed algorithm is verified using a computer simulation. The method is validated on a scaled-down dc microgrid prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a new insertion index generation method to control modular multilevel converter's (MMC) topology. Unlike classical closed-loop methods, where the sum of all measured capacitor voltages per arm is used in the generation process of insertion indices, the proposed method uses available leg average voltage, i.e., the arithmetic mean of per leg available upper and lower arm voltages. Full mathematical development of available arm voltage ripple expressions is presented. Impact of the insertion method on arm voltages driving input and output currents is thoroughly evaluated and discussed. The proposed method inherently stabilizes arm stored energy; thus, no additional control loops are required to achieve regulation of arms energy difference. Moreover, the number of measured signals to be fed back to a high-level controller is reduced to half. Analytical findings along with experimental results obtained on a 6-kVA, 10-cells-per-arm MMC proved the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the design of an active-damping controller that shapes the dynamics of an LCL grid connected voltage source converter (VSC) to mimic an L-filter connected VSC. This makes possible to use simpler classical proportional plus resonant or proportional plus integral controllers design methods to regulate the grid current with minimum penalties in both performance and stability margins. The active-damping design follows a model-reference approach and is synthesized through a (sub)optimal \mathcal H_\infty algorithm. The controller uses the grid current and point of common coupling voltage, although it allows the selection of a different set of measurements. Effectiveness of the method is demonstrated with time- and frequency-domain experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes solutions to the problem of voltage sags caused by distributed generators anti-islanding protection. This is a recently identified power-quality (PQ) concern resulting from the increasing penetration of distributed generators into distribution networks. This problem has been previously investigated by the authors and it was revealed that it can seriously affect PQ indices as well as distributed generators reconnection procedures. However, no solutions have been formerly proposed or investigated. In this context, this paper investigates several potential solutions to be adopted by the utility and/or by the DG owners and presents a thorough evaluation of their main advantages and disadvantages. Besides this investigation, simple step-by-step procedures for assessing the effectiveness of each solution are described. The presented studies and procedures will guide the utility engineers in decision-making process associated with the choice of reasonable mitigation techniques to this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an extended electromotive-force-based discrete-time sliding-mode observer (DSMO) for rotor position/speed sensorless control of interior permanent-magnet synchronous machines (IPMSMs). Without using voltage sensors to measure IPMSM terminal voltages, the reference voltages generated by the vector control system are used as inputs for the DSMO. However, due to the inverter dead-time effect, the mismatch between the reference voltages and actual terminal voltages will degrade the performance of DSMO. In this paper, the periodically oscillating rotor position estimation error caused by the dead-time is first analyzed. Then, a dead-time compensation scheme is proposed to mitigate this position estimation error. The proposed DSMO with the dead-time compensation scheme is validated on an IPMSM control system used in heavy-duty, off-road, hybrid, and electric vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is an emerging and highly attractive multilevel converter topology for high-voltage and high-power applications. This paper proposes the control method of parallel-connected modular multilevel converters (parallel-MMCs), which assumes that the multiple MMCs are directly connected at both ac and dc sides to effectively enhance the power rating as expected. Two key problems were first solved for the parallel-MMCs under the normal operation conditions: voltage balancing of submodules and mitigation of circulating currents, where the novel transformed third-order harmonic resonant controller in the synchronous reference frame was employed to mitigate the dominant second-order and fourth-order circulating currents and a sixth-order harmonic resonant controller is used to attenuate the zero-sequence sixth-order circulating current existed in all phase currents per MMC. Considering the high risk of switches fault in the parallel-MMCs, the fault-tolerant operation schemes were then proposed in this paper to address the major concerns of open-circuit and short-circuit switch fault in a submodule, respectively. Carefully controlling the healthy submodules and the corresponding phase arms, the parallel-MMCs can successfully maintain their balanced capacitor voltages and mitigate the circulating currents with the qualified output waveform obtained. In addition, the parallel configuration of MMCs provides the unique solution for the short-circuit switch fault operation which was seldom discussed in the published literature works with respect to the MMC fault-tolerant operation schemes. MATLAB simulations and the constructed experimental prototype have verified the performance of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Filters for switching ripple attenuation are essential at the input, and sometimes at the output for certain applications, for the deployment of matrix converters (MCs). Due to the absence of inertial elements in the MC structure and the consequent tight input–output coupling, the filter parameters significantly affect its dynamic behavior. This paper presents an exhaustive filter design method for synchronous applications of the MC in power systems. Apart from the usual considerations of ripple attenuation, voltage regulation, reactive current loading, and internal losses, this paper also addresses additional constraints which may be imposed by requirements of dynamic performance and reliable commutation. Rigorous analytical justification of each design step is provided and the sequential design process is summarized. Relevant experimental results are presented to validate the proposed design tool. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a new control strategy for voltage source converter based Multi-Terminal High Voltage Direct Current (MTDC) systems. The proposed control approach ensures accurate power sharing between the droop-controlled converter stations. By communicating the power-sharing index between neighboring converters, the proposed approach achieves exact droop control operation independent of the DC system topology and line parameters. The pilot voltage droop based controller, which is an alternative communication-based approach for achieving precise power sharing, was used as a base case for comparison. Modal analysis is carried out to reveal the sensitivity of the system's eigenvalues to the changes in control parameters (e.g., power droop gain, proportional integral gains of the proposed controller) and the latencies in the communication. It is demonstrated that the proposed strategy remains in the stable operation even when excessive latencies are encountered in the communication. Nonlinear simulations are conducted in the MATLAB/Simulink environment in four- and five-terminal MTDC grids, validating the capability of the proposed controller to achieve the desirable performance under various operational conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of photovoltaic (PV) technology, more utility-scale PV systems are being integrated into rural areas where abundant and low-cost land is available. In these areas, step-voltage regulators (SVRs) with an open-delta configuration are widely used for voltage regulation. However, since SVRs were initially designed for tackling slow and smooth load variations, frequent PV output fluctuations can cause excessive tap changes. Moreover, rural communication facilities are normally expensive and underdeveloped, so only limited parameters are recorded with low resolution and reliability. Thus, much needed tap information cannot be properly monitored in a cost-effective way. In contrast, a downstream load center or utility-scale PV site is commonly well equipped with modern sensors and data acquisition systems, which provide the possibility for tap evaluation. Therefore, this paper proposes a new remote tap position estimation approach to accurately assess the upstream tap positions of open-delta SVRs from downstream measurements. Furthermore, the proposed approach is firmly validated through field testing under the support of the local utility and PV plant owner. This novel method not only enables reliable tap position monitoring with high precision for utilities to research PV–SVR interaction, but also provides valuable information to PV owners for correctly analyzing downstream voltage performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an improved pilot voltage droop based control for the multiterminal high-voltage dc (MTDC) systems. The proposed control strategy maintains adequate power sharing and efficient voltage regulation among the converter stations. The incorporation of the average voltage sharing loop enables achieving superior dynamic performance while avoiding dc system average voltage deviation from nominal value. Furthermore, the frequency consensus algorithm is used for modifying the power reference of converters to achieve the desired frequency deviation sharing between the ac areas connected through the droop controlled voltage source converters. Finally, the incorporation of the frequency locked loop enables achieving fast grid synchronization and superior dynamic performance for the control of the converter stations. The simulations carried out in the MATLAB/Simulink environment revealed the effectiveness of the controller to provide enhanced dc voltage regulation and frequency deviation sharing during disturbances in the MTDC system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-phase phase-modular isolated power factor correction rectifiers are an interesting alternative to phase-integrated three-phase rectifiers as matrix-type phase modules allow a single-stage isolated energy conversion between the three-phase mains and a dc bus. Therefore, this paper presents a phase-modular isolated matrix-type rectifier which can be connected to the mains either in star (Y) or delta ( \Delta) configuration, enabling a wide input voltage range. Additionally this allows to select the voltage and current stresses of the phase module switches according to the used semiconductor technology, for example {\text{650 V}} Si or GaN devices could be used in rectifiers powered from the {400} or \text480 V\text{rms} mains. A detailed analysis of the operating principles and switching behavior of the converter is presented, showing that zero voltage switching can be achieved in the phase modules. Additionally a third harmonic current injection concept is proposed which allows an up to {15} \% higher output voltage in \Delta -mode. The concepts are validated with measurements taken on a {\text{7.5}}\;{\text{kW}}, {\text{400}}\;{\text{V}} dc output voltage prototype converter achieving 97.2 \% efficiency and a total harmonic distortion of < 2 \% at rated power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmonics have been considered as one of the major issues in future power grids. With the increasing demand in advanced control functions, power electronic converter interfaced distributed generators (DGs) are expected to perform harmonic compensation when necessary. It has been demonstrated in a number of studies that DG converters operating in voltage-controlled mode can be easily configured to realize voltage harmonic compensation utilizing naturally embedded voltage control loop. While for DGs operating in current-controlled mode (CCM), such function was rarely studied. Considering that CCM is commonly used in renewable energy based generators and energy storage systems, it has certain significance to achieve the same function with CCM converters. Aiming at such objectives, this paper proposes a voltage detection based harmonic compensator (HC) for CCM converters. The novelty and main advantages of the proposed method include the following. It realizes seamless interface of HC with inner fundamental current control loop. Compared with a conventional active power filtering method, it does not require remote load harmonic current measurement since it is local voltage detection based. Compared with a conventional voltage detection based method, it offers better performance because of directly harmonic voltage regulation. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Energy storage system (ESS) is generally used to manage the intermittency of the renewable energy sources (RESs). The proper control strategy is needed to effectively maintain the power balance between the RESs, load demand, and ESS. The conventional control strategy for the hybrid energy storage system (HESS) uses the high-/low-pass filter method for system net power decomposition and the ESS power dispatch. In this paper, a new joint control strategy is proposed for photovoltaic-based dc grid system, with battery and supercapacitor (SC) as a HESS. The new joint control strategy utilizes the uncompensated power from the battery system to increase the performance of the overall HESS. The advantages of the proposed control strategy over the conventional control strategy are faster dc-link voltage restoration and effective power sharing between the battery and the SC. The detailed stability analysis of the proposed control strategy is also presented. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy over the conventional control strategy is validated with the short-term and long-term experimental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the development of highly efficient electric power converters, the number of studies on the construction of low-voltage dc (LVDC) systems is gradually increasing. To use LVDC distribution systems, voltage regulation methods to compensate for the voltage drop and to limit the voltage unbalance are essential. In a bipolar LVDC distribution system, a voltage drop and voltage unbalance could occur because of the load current and the variation in the amount of power supplied to the poles. However, not enough research has been conducted on voltage regulation methods for LVDC distribution systems. To reduce the voltage drop and the voltage unbalance, this paper proposes a voltage regulation method based on the neutral to line drop compensation (NLDC) method, which employs a modified LDC to calculate the sending-end reference voltage. In the NLDC method, the neutral current and neutral line impedance are taken into consideration to compensate for the neutral line potential fluctuation and voltage drop on the pole. The next sending-end voltage is determined by checking the voltage unbalance factor, and it is adjusted to maintain it within the allowable voltage unbalance factor. A voltage regulation algorithm and a bipolar LVDC system model are implemented using the Electromagnetic Transients Program. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several hierarchical centralized control schemes for either rotor angle or voltage stability improvement have been proposed in the literature. They all rely on exchanging information between different subsystems of a large-scale power system. By contrast, in this paper, we propose a hierarchical decentralized control scheme to enhance a unified manner rotor angle and voltage stability while using metered values collected within each subsystem, without any exchange of information between subsystems. Specifically, weakly coupled coherent areas of a power system are first determined. Then, secondary control agents are implemented in each of them to detect and damp rotor angle and voltage instabilities using local synchrophasor measurements. Decentralized control laws based on Lyapunov theory are implemented on FACTS devices for achieving global rotor angle asymptotic stability. Finally, a tertiary voltage control agent provides reference settings to the secondary voltage agents and takes control actions in case the latter fail to damp voltage instabilities. We show that the proposed scheme minimizes the communication bandwidth requirement while exhibiting a system-wide situational awareness. Simulations carried out on the IEEE 118-bus system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical decentralized control method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Electromagnetic launch (EML) system needs pulse power supply (PPS) as the energy source for discharging in EML experiments. The EML system’s work effectiveness is decided by the PPS’s parameters, such as the charging precision of the voltage, the energy density of the energy storage module, and the charging rate. As the development of EML technology, the experiment needs more and more energy and the number of energy storage module is increasing rapidly. However, the output power of the charging power supply cannot hold up the requirement energy at the same time. So, how to charge the numerous modules rapidly and accurately becomes a key problem to be solved. In this paper, the load is divided to several groups and a controller to manage the multigroups of load is designed, with the function of voltage feedback and isolation driving. The design of the isolation drive technology is introduced, which include the design of the pulse signal amplification and shaping circuit, the isolation pulse transformer, the drive circuit, and the optical fiber communication circuit. The voltage feedback system is also introduced and the control strategy of the multigroup loads’ switchover and voltage measuring method is designed. The digital signal process controller that used to achieve these functions is introduced and the controller is applied in the charging experiment for multigroups of load and the results prove that the controller can be used effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the influence of the axial magnetic field (AMF) arc control on voltage distribution (VD) of double-break vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs) in order to gain balanced VD, and thus enhance the breaking capacity. The interaction of vacuum arc plasma, postarc current (PAC), and AMF is discussed. We conduct the breaking test of double-break VCBs with externally applied AMF of a different pulsewidth, magnitude, and a different moment. The PAC, postarc charge, and the VD are measured to analyze the relationship between the AMF arc control and the VD. The optimal AMF arc control and the relationship between the AMF magnitude and the unbalanced voltage ratio are gained when the grading capacitors were 400 pF. The experimental test showed that the proper AMF arc control can improve the unbalanced VD. The mechanism is that the proper AMF arc control can make the postarc charge small and stable, so the unbalanced postarc charge, which caused the unbalanced VD is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flying-capacitor-based multilevel converter is one of the well-known breeds of the multilevel power converters. This paper proposes a new flying-capacitor-based multilevel converter to minimize the number of flying capacitors (FCs) and power switches. The advantage of the proposed FC-based multilevel converter in comparison with the conventional flying-capacitor multicell converter is that it needs fewer FCs. Also, in comparison with the stacked multicell converter, the proposed multilevel converter requires fewer semiconductor switches. In order to balance the voltage of the FCs in proposed multilevel converter, a new active voltage balancing method which is fully implemented using logic-form equations is presented. The proposed voltage balancing method measures output current and FC voltages to generate switching states to produce the required output voltage level, as well as balance the FCs voltages at their reference values. The output voltage of the proposed multilevel converter controlled with suggested active voltage balancing method can be modulated with any pulse-width-modulation (PWM) method, such as phase-shifted-carrier PWM or level-shifted-carrier PWM. Simulation results and experimental measurements of proposed FC-based multilevel converter are presented to verify the performance of the proposed converter, and its novel switching and modulation strategy, which is based on the active voltage balancing method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Generic electrical simulation models of wind power generation have been developed as standards, such as the IEC 61400-27-1, to be used by wind industry, system operators, and academia for power system stability studies. In this paper, the IEC type 3 wind turbine model with wind turbine level voltage controller and with wind power plant level power factor controller is validated based on field measurements from a 52-MW wind power plant. In addition to the validation of the IEC type 3 wind turbine and wind power plant controller models, a comparison of the validation approaches, which are the full grid and play-back simulation, is provided together with a survey of the existing validation studies and recommendations for future modeling and validation tasks. The implemented IEC models are tuned to match the measurements accurately and the validated values for the control parameters of the reference wind power plant model are given. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Phase-shifted carrier modulation is an industry standard in its application to multilevel H-bridge converters. The major advantage of this scheme over level-shifted and space vector modulation schemes is its inherent ability to evenly distribute losses between semiconductor devices. However, phase-shifted schemes suffer from harmonic degradation when operated at the low carrier frequencies required in high-power high-level number applications. This paper develops a model predictive modulation (MPM) scheme that achieves superior harmonic performance, compared to phase-shifted modulation, while ensuring equal semiconductor loss distribution. With respect to complete-enumeration-based predictive techniques, the proposed modulation significantly reduces the number of times the system cost function is evaluated. Reducing the number of calculations by several orders of magnitude ensures computational feasibility. Simulation and experimental results are presented, which confirm correct operation of the modulation strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper summarizes an instability monitoring and protection method based on local identification of global voltage instability (LIVES) and applies it to an IEEE test system for voltage stability and security assessment. The identification method (LIVES-alarm) is tested with both detailed and Quasi-Steady-State simulation tools, and two protection schemes, based respectively on reverse Load Tap Changer operation (LIVES-restore) and firm load shedding, are evaluated and compared using the unstable scenario provided with the test system. The effect of load sensitivity to voltage is also investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a cascaded H-Bridge (CHB)-multilevel converter (MC)-based photovoltaic (PV) system with no voltage or current sensors at the dc-side is proposed. Eliminating the dc-side sensors simplifies the hardware, leading to lower cost and higher reliability of the PV system. A novel scheme estimating the capacitors’ voltages from the ac output voltage of the inverter is developed. The scheme allows replacing all dc-side voltage sensors by a single-voltage sensor at the ac-side of the converter. Furthermore, the dc current sensors, conventionally required for the maximum power point tracking (MPPT), are also eliminated. Instead, the outputs from the capacitors’ voltage control systems are utilized for the MPPT. The effectiveness of the proposed dc-side sensorless system is experimentally demonstrated on a 2-kW single-phase seven-level CHB converter-based PV system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the energy reductions possible in commercially available FPGAs configured to support voltage, frequency and logic scalability combined with power gating. Voltage and frequency scaling is based on in-situ detectors that allow the device to detect valid working voltage and frequency pairs at run-time while logic scalability is achieved with partial dynamic reconfiguration. The considered devices are FPGA-processor hybrids with independent power domains fabricated in 28 nm process nodes. The test case is based on a number of operational scenarios in which the FPGA side is loaded with a motion estimation core that can be configured with a variable number of execution units. The results demonstrate that voltage scalability reduces power by up to 60 percent compared with nominal voltage operation at the same frequency. The energy analysis show that the most energy efficiency core configuration depends on the performance requirements. A low performance scenario shows that serial computation is more energy efficient than the parallel configuration while the opposite is true when the performance requirements increase. An algorithm is proposed to combine effectively adaptive voltage/logic scaling and power gating in the proposed system and application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of the residual voltage of a surge protective device (SPD) connected to an overhead distribution line due to nearby natural cloud-to-ground lightning and to rocket-triggered lightning are analyzed in this paper. The residual voltage of the SPD is found to be closely related to the ground potential rise at the grounding terminal of the SPD. For natural lightning occurring 1.8 km to 10.5 km away from the SPD, the ground potential rise (GPR) is too small to influence the residual voltage of SPD. For rocket-triggered lightning with a 40-m distance between the lightning channel and the SPD, the residual voltage of SPD is primarily determined by the voltage induced in the distribution line for return stroke and large M-components process, whereas the influence of the GPR becomes strong in the minor M-components stage. For a 5-m distance between the lightning channel and the SPD, the residual voltage of SPD originates primarily from the GPR during the entire flash, exhibiting the characteristics of reversed polarity. The duration of SPD's residual voltage may be up to the order of milliseconds due to the GPR in the case of the large M-components and a long continuing current process, which may cause damage to the SPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) servo controller for the current control of shunt-active power filter (SAPF) operating under balanced and unbalanced supply voltages. This LQG controller is comprised of a LQ regulator and a Kalman filter (KF) that minimizes the error between the output currents and their variations. A feedback compensator is used in LQG servo controller that benefits an SAPF system by increasing tracking error reduction, gain stability, reducing amplitude distortion and sensitivity to external disturbances. A KF-based new reference current generation scheme is developed here to resolve the difficulty of tuning gains of a proportional integral controller and for avoiding the use of voltage sensors making it cost effective. Consequently, this reference scheme has self-capability of dc-link voltage regulation by adaptively estimating the peak value of source reference current with changing load conditions. The control algorithm is embedded in SAPF using a MATLAB/Simulink software environment. The effectiveness of the proposed LQG ServoKF algorithm is evaluated through comparison with an existing LQRKF algorithm and then validated with experimental studies pursued using a dSPACE1104 computing platform. From the obtained experimental and simulation results, it is observed that the proposed control strategy exhibits superior performance in terms of robustness improvement and current harmonics mitigation under steady-state and dynamic load conditions, thus making it more effective for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a simple signal injection method is proposed for sensorless control of permanent-magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) at a low speed, which ideally requires one voltage vector only for position estimation. The proposed method is easy to implement, resulting in low computation burden. No filters are needed for extracting the high-frequency current signals for position estimation. The use of low-pass filters (LPFs) in the current control loop to obtain the fundamental current component is not necessary. Therefore, the control bandwidth of the inner current control loop may not need to be sacrificed. The proposed method may also be further developed to inject two opposite voltage vectors to reduce the effects of inverter voltage error on the position estimation accuracy. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by comparing with other sensorless control method. Theoretical analysis and experimental results are given for validating the proposed new sensorless control method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a two-level voltage controller for large-scale power systems. The aim of the controller is to maintain a near-optimal voltage profile in the transmission network by coordinating discrete reactive power (var) control devices in the system. The controller is targeted for implementation in electric power transmission utility companies where most of the voltage controls are coordinated by switching of discrete var devices such as shunt capacitor and reactor banks and transformer banks load tap changers (LTCs). By effectively dividing the controller responsibilities between local substation controls and a central coordinator at control center level, the design is aimed at voltage control of large-scale power systems. At local level, the substation controllers maintain their respective substation bus voltages by local power-flow-like computations using mostly local PMU measurements. The central coordinator computes and provides the voltage set-points to the substation controllers and also coordinates by enabling or disabling the local controllers as needed. The controller is being designed towards prototype implementation in Southern California Edison (SCE), starting with local controllers at specific substations in the first stage. It is tested on real-time dynamic models and large-scale power-flow simulations of SCE transmission network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart grid technologies are expected to increase system efficiency and reliability using advancement in automation, communication, computation, and optimization. Several control algorithms have been developed or enhanced for operation and control of smart distribution grid. In recent years, volt/var control (VVC) algorithms have been proposed for energy saving in distribution systems due to advancement provided by smart grid automation and control. VVC helps to lower distribution feeder voltage to decrease energy consumption. However, quantification of this impact is hard due to several external factors such as weather and end users' behavior. On the other hand, existing evaluation methods of VVC algorithms are either not suitable for long-term study or intrusive. This paper addresses these issues by proposing a new technique to estimate “distribution system demand without smart grid implementation” utilizing “data measured from system with smart grid implementation.” Interdependence of voltage and load is considered based on estimated load characteristic. Our key contribution is developing a method for quantifying the real-time energy saving of smart grid automation and control focused on VVC and implementing in an electric utility in eastern Washington, USA. The algorithm is developed using both commercial and open-source software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a control strategy for the power flow management of a wayside energy storage system based on a supercapacitor technology installed in a tramway network. The control is based on the management in real time of voltage levels at catenary point connections in order to optimize the energy flow among the running tramcars and substations with the goals of improving the energy saving and reducing the voltage drops in the supply network. The suggested control algorithm was experimentally validated using a laboratory-scale model to verify the effectiveness of the strategy. A lithium-ion capacitor module with 72 series-connected laminated cells of the JSR Micro ULTIMO type was used. Thus, an emulation of a real tramway network in the city of Naples (ANM) was implemented to evaluate the potential impact in terms of costs/benefits of the next installation on the ANM network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]