Search

This paper proposes a power controller used for three-phase inverters with small dc-link capacitors fed by a single-phase diode rectifier. The effect of the reactive power was investigated based on a power flow analysis between a dc-link and three-phase inverter. These results enable the development of a direct active/reactive power controller in discrete time instead of adopting a classical proportional-integral (PI)-type current regulator, which directly leverages the total power flow of the system. A suitable reactive power selection method was presented to improve the overall system efficiency. The command voltage vector at each discrete time step can be simply and intuitively determined by an inverter power without requiring motor current-regulating PI gains and additional control functions. The proposed controller regulates an average motor velocity/airgap torque while simultaneously shaping a grid-side current with a high power factor and low harmonics to meet IEC61000-3-2 requirements. The proposed structure can be applied to three-phase inverters for a broad family of ac motors, such as induction and permanent magnet synchronous motors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a multilevel step-up dc/dc converter for dc-grid-based offshore wind energy conversion applications. The main features of the proposed multilevel converter are as follows: 1) the voltage stress of the power devices can be reduced, making it suitable for high-voltage applications; 2) the boost inductor can be reduced significantly, leading to the outstanding dynamic performance; and 3) high-voltage gain can be obtained and thus is well-suited for high-gain applications. Theoretical analysis was carried out for a four-level step-up converter, based on which, the converter can be extended to any arbitrary number of levels. The proposed four-level converter was verified by a simulation and evaluated by comparing with a conventional multilevel dc/dc converter in terms of the component stress and power device count. The developed topology was implemented on a 2-kW prototype converter to evaluate its feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a high-efficiency multilevel flying-capacitor (FC) dc/dc power conversion with a lower passive component rating and power device count for distributed renewable energy systems. A resonant technique is adopted for the proposed dc/dc converter to achieve zero-current switching (ZCS) for all switches. Theoretical analysis is carried out for the proposed quintuple topology with three active switches. The proposed converter is evaluated to the conventional FC converter, in terms of the component rating and count, to highlight its advantages with respect to the power density and cost. The experimental results of a 1-kW prototype FC converter are presented to validate the theoretical analysis and principles, as well as attest the feasibility of the proposed topologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, the interest in offshore wind farms has been significantly increased because of the stronger and more stable winds at sea, which will lead to a higher power production. DC/DC power conversion solutions are becoming more popular for fulfilling the growing challenges in the high-voltage (HV) dc-connected offshore wind power industry. This paper presents several multilevel modular dc/dc conversion systems based on the capacitor-clamped (CC) module concept for high-power offshore wind energy applications. Two types of the CC modules, namely, the double-switch (DS) module and the switchless (SL) module, are discussed. A soft-switching technique is adopted to achieve minimal switching losses and the maximum system efficiency. Theoretical analysis is carried out for the $2n+1$-level cascaded configurations based on the CC modules. The inherent interleaving property of the proposed configurations effectively reduces the output voltage ripple without adding extra components. A cascaded hybrid topology is developed by the combination of DS and SL modules. The proposed hybrid topology achieves higher efficiency and lower component count. The cascaded hybrid approach is evaluated in terms of the power device count, reliability, and efficiency against other HV dc/dc topologies to demonstrate its advantage for HVDC-connected offshore wind farms. The experimental results of two 5-kW prototype CC converters are presented to validate the theoretical analysis and principles as well as attest the feasibility of the proposed topologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]