Active power filter based on three-phase two-leg switch-clamped inverter

A novel three-phase two-leg switch-clamped inverter is presented to achieve multilevel pulse-width modulation (PWM) operation, harmonics elimination, reactive power compensation and dc-link voltage regulation. Four active switches with voltage stress of dc-link and two ac switches with voltage stress of half dc-link are used in the proposed inverter. In this paper, the proposed inverter is operated as a controllable current source to supply the necessary active power for the compensation of inverter losses, to suppress current harmonics, and to compensate the reactive power drawn from the non-linear loads. Therefore, the balanced and sinusoidal line currents are drawn from the ac source. Two control loops are used in the adopted control scheme to maintain the constant dc-link voltage (outer loop with low-bandwidth control) and to achieve the line current command tracking (inner 1oop with high-bandwidth control). The mathematical model of the proposed converter for the operation active power filter is derived and the control scheme is provided. Computer simulations and experimental results based on a laboratory scale-down prototype are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

Analysis and implementation of three-phase power quality compensator under the balanced and unbalanced load conditions

An active power filter with asymmetric inverter legs are presented to eliminate harmonics, compensate reactive power and draw the balanced line current from the AC source under balanced and unbalanced load conditions. Three inverter legs are used in the adopted voltage source inverter. In each leg, four active switches are adopted to achieve three-level pulse-width modulation (PWM). No clamped diode or flying capacitor is used in the proposed inverter. In the adopted control algorithm, a classical proportional-integral voltage controller and hysteresis current controller are used to maintain DC-link voltage constant and to track line current commands, respectively. A voltage compensator is added in the inner control loop to compensate the neutral point voltage variation due to load variation. Based on the proposed PWM control scheme, a three-level voltage pattern is generated on the AC terminal of the inverter. The system configuration and mathematical analysis are discussed in the paper. Finally, the experimental results based on a laboratory scaled down prototype are provided to verify the effectiveness of the control algorithm.     

DC–AC Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Boost Inverter With No Inductors for Electric/Hybrid Electric Vehicle Applications

This paper presents a cascaded H-bridge multilevel boost inverter for electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid EV (HEV) applications implemented without the use of inductors. Currently available power inverter systems for HEVs use a dc–dc boost converter to boost the battery voltage for a traditional three-phase inverter. The present HEV traction drive inverters have low power density, are expensive, and have low efficiency because they need a bulky inductor. A cascaded H-bridge multilevel boost inverter design for EV and HEV applications implemented without the use of inductors is proposed in this paper. Traditionally, each H-bridge needs a dc power supply. The proposed design uses a standard three-leg inverter (one leg for each phase) and an H-bridge in series with each inverter leg which uses a capacitor as the dc power source. A fundamental switching scheme is used to do modulation control and to produce a five-level phase voltage. Experiments show that the proposed dc–ac cascaded H-bridge multilevel boost inverter can output a boosted ac voltage without the use of inductors.      

New power consolidation-inversion-control system for faraday MHD generator

The authors propose a new power consolidation-inversion-control system for the Faraday MHD generator using the voltage source PWM inverters. The dc output power for each electrodes pair of the MHD generator is at first inverted into three-phase ac power by a voltage source PWM inverter, and then the ac powers are consolidated by transformers. The proposed system does not need such expensive equipment as an ac filter or phase modifier and can independently and simultaneously control the active and reactive powers provided to the electric power system. Numerical simulations of the whole system, including the Faraday MHD generator, the proposed power consolidation-inversion-control system, and the electric power system, show that the proposed system can stably and steadily transmit and control the electric power from the MHD generator to the electric power system. It is also confirmed that the proposed system can independently and simultaneously control the active and reactive powers and can be used as a fast power controller.     

双电源交错备用型通用电能质量控制器

传统的通用电能质量控制器(GPQC)直流侧如果没有储能装置,则无法实现不间断供电;即使直流侧装设储能装置,蓄电池储能或超级电容器储能都存在补偿时间、补偿容量及使用寿命均有限等问题。为此提出了一种由两个并联变换器和两个串联变换器构成(每一个并联变换器和串联变换器都通过一个直流电容交错的连接在一起)的新双电源交错备用型通用电能质量控制器(DPS-GPQC)和一种简单有效的控制策略。DPS-GPQC能够同时补偿电网谐波电压、电压跌落和上升、电压中断、三相电压不平衡、谐波电流及无功电流,且能够实现两个不同电源之间能量的交错备用。基于MATLAB/SIMULINK的仿真结果表明了DPS-GPQC良好的性能和所提控制策略的有效性。因此,所提结构既能同时解决两个不同系统的大多数电能质量问题,又可以有效提高电力系统的供电可靠性。     

Influence of AC-DC parallel interconnection on voltage stability of AC systems

The static and dynamic characteristics of power supply to each node in a hybrid ac-dc power system are analyzed by means of static and transient P-V curves. Three kinds of dc transmission control scheme are compared. DC transmission systems are more effective in delivering power to inverter nodes. The constant firing angle, constant current control techinque provides more power to inverter nodes than the conventional constant current, constant voltage and constant power, constant extinction angle techniques. Transient digital simulations indicate that dc interconnection improves voltage stability to both the opening of a dc interconnected line and one-line opening of ac double-circuit interconnected lines.     

HVDC transmission system using multilevel power converters based on dual three-phase two-level inverters

Multilevel converters are now an attractive solution for high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) electrical energy transmission systems. Unlike the well-known two-level voltage source converters, multilevel converters use 3 or more voltage levels or steps per leg to modulate the ac voltages, decreasing voltage distortion and reducing electromagnetic interference. This work presents a HVDC transmission system based on a new multilevel structure using a dual two-level converter topology. This structure attains multilevel operation and advantages using two well known three-phase voltage source two-level inverters connected to one three-phase open windings transformer. The proposed dual converter structure has two independent dc links allowing each inverter to process half of the total power. This arrangement is fitted with a control system designed to control the active and reactive power towards their specific set point values, while balancing the voltages of the two dc link capacitors in real time. Obtained results show the effectiveness of the proposed HVDC transmission system.     

Three-phase voltage-fed type PWM power converter via power factor control

Recently, the voltage-fed type PWM converters have been investigated for their ideal and inherent properties as a dc power source. However, the current control system generally used may be somewhat complicated due to dc voltage detection. We propose here a simple control system of the PWM converter using the power factor control in which dc voltage detection is not always needed. In this system, the dc voltage is given by the line voltage and the modulating index of the PWM converter. The principle of the PWM control system is shown at first. From the simplified circuit model and its phasor diagrams, some basic relations of the PWM converter system are obtained and some fundamental characteristics are shown. From these investigations, it is seen that the phase control region is restricted to a certain angle, which depends on the setting power factor, the modulating bypass index of the PWM and the load. Under the operating condition of unity power factor, it is given by ±π/4 for both the converting and inverting operations. The system can be operated over the all-control range of the modulating index by restricting the angle to this critical value for the angle over this control range. The ideal operating characteristics as a dc power source can be verified by some experimental results, including the operating waveforms of line current, the steady state characteristics and the transient response between both operations of the converter and inverter. In this system it is simple to construct the control circuit; it also has some inherent and excellent characteristics as a voltage fed type dc power source. This control system may be applicable to any types of PWM converter used today.     

A suitable single-phase pulse width modulation current source inverter for utility interactive photovoltaic generation system

A suitable single-phase inverter for the utility interactive photovoltaic generation system is proposed. The single-phase Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) current source inverter has a novel circuit configuration in which an auxiliary branch is added to the normal single-phase bridge circuit. To reduce the size and weight of the dc reactor, a double frequency parallel resonance circuit (LC tank circuit) is inserted in the dc side of the inverter. As a result, the double frequency voltage appearing in the dc side of the inverter due to the pulsation of the single-phase instantaneous power is perfectly suppressed by the tank circuit. The constant dc current without pulsation is supplied from PV array to the inverter. The inverter provides a sinusoidal ac current for domestic loads and the utility line with unity power factor. The virtual maximum power of the PV array can be obtained without any feedback control. In the system, the PV array can play an important role as a current-limiter due to its V-I characteristics. Computed waveforms by simulation are shown. Excellent inverter equipment will be realized that is smaller in size and lighter in weight than is usual for a conventional inverter.     

Fault-tolerant switched capacitor–based boost multilevel inverter

This paper proposes a fault-tolerant switched capacitor (SC)–based boost multilevel inverter. The proposed inverter is able to convert a low-level dc voltage into a desired ac output voltage in single-stage power conversion. It can accomplish a high voltage gain by using multiple SC cells arrangement at reduced voltage stresses on the switching devices and passive circuit elements in the boost network. The principle of operation and steady-state analysis of the proposed topology are presented to formulate the mathematical relationship between input dc and output ac voltage. In addition to that, the proposed inverter can also provide reliable electrical power supply at prescribed ac output voltage in the event of open-circuit failure of power switches. The fault tolerability is realized by reconfiguring the pulse width modulation (PWM) control scheme, whereas the reduction in output voltage is compensated by the boosting characteristic of the inverter. The effectiveness of the proposed inverter has been compared with other impedance source multilevel inverters in terms of voltage gain, boosting capability, and voltage stresses. A laboratory prototype of the proposed inverter is developed for experimentation, and its operation is validated by simulation and experimental results.     

A novel modulation technique with interleaved‐and‐shifted shoot‐through state placement for quasi‐Z‐source inverters

In this paper, a single‐phase quasi‐Z‐source (qZS) inverter (qZSI), integrating the pulse width modulation (PWM) control with interleaved‐and‐shifted shoot‐through state (STS) placement modulation technique, is proposed to simultaneously achieve both dc voltage boost and dc‐ac inversion. Instead of placing the STS in both inverter legs simultaneously, the addressed method inserts the STS only in left/right inverter leg separately during the positive/negative half cycle of the output voltage to reduce switching losses and thermal stresses of the power devices. The STS shift is also studied to decrease the switching numbers of power devices and thus can improve the efficiency further. Theoretical analysis and design guidelines of the studied inverter are included. Improvement in effectiveness and performance of the devised scheme and modulation strategy are proved experimentally and compared with the previous studies on a built laboratory prototype.     

Nonlinear modeling and control of a photovoltaic fed improved hybrid DSTATCOM for power quality improvement

This paper proposes a low rating photovoltaic fed improved hybrid distributed static compensator (DSTATCOM) for the compensation of harmonics and reactive power. The proposed system satisfies the load active power demand with reduced power rating of the photovoltaic source for same load rating as compared to the standard L or LCL filters. The system is modeled and controlled by considering the non-linearity of the system. A dc voltage droop regulator is used to control the power flow from solar system and to maintain dc link voltage. To make the system robust, switching pulses for inverter is generated using sliding mode controller. The efficacy of proposed model with sliding mode controller over linearly controlled system is validated through simulation results. The proposed system prototype is developed and operated in real time to show the effectiveness of the system.     

A new control algorithm of active power line conditioner for improving power quality

In this paper, a new control algorithm for active power line conditioner (APLC) is proposed. The proposed APLC contains two power converters, a series power converter and a shunt power converter. The series power converter is operated as a current source, and it has the function of a harmonic isolation to block the harmonic current from the nonlinear load to mains and the harmonic voltage from the mains to load. The shunt power converter is operated as a voltage source to supply a clean and regulated output voltage to the load. Both power converters use the same dc bus. To demonstrate its performance, a prototype is developed and tested. The tested results show that the proposed APLC has the expected performance.     

Investigation of performance of UPFC without DC link capacitor

This paper presents an analysis of the dynamic operation of unified power flow controller without DC link capacitor. In this scheme of UPFC the shunt converter present in the static synchronous compensator is operated as a current source rectifier, which maintains a fixed DC voltage and DC current on the DC link without capacitor. The capacitor in the DC link is replaced by an AC filter on the line side with a very small value to reduce higher order harmonics. The voltage source inverter present in the series compensator is operated with space vector modulation technique. The proposed scheme is fully validated through digital simulation. The simulated results show that the DC link voltage is maintained constant without DC link capacitor; STATCOM provides good voltage regulation and static synchronous series compensator influences power flow over the transmission line. Transient responses of single machine infinite bus power system have also been presented.     

Control Means for Minimization of Losses in AC and DC Motor Drives

Motor drive losses can be reduced considerably by independently controlling the voltage and frequency for ac motors, and the field current and armature voltage for dc motors for any torque and speed operating point. The quantities to be controlled are already accessible in inverter ac power supplies and phase-controlled rectifier dc power supplies. The control signals can be supplied by an open- loop controller which solves the loss minimization equations using preset drive parameters, or by an optimizing controller that measures or calculates the losses and finds the combination of quantities that minimizes the losses.     

An indirect current control of hybrid power filter for varying loads

This paper presents an indirect current control scheme of parallel hybrid power filter system (PHPF) with self-supporting dc bus to eliminate harmonics generated by the nonlinear load. The PHPF system consists of a shunt passive filter with an active filter (AF) in series with it connected at the point of common coupling (PCC) in parallel with nonlinear load. The AF is realized using a three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) with self supported dc bus. The compensation principles and dynamics of the system are discussed in detail. A proportional-integral (PI) controller over average dc bus voltage of the AF connected in series with passive filter is used for the control of the PHPF. The modeling equations of the PHPF are derived for compensation of harmonics generated by a three-phase rectifier load. The effectiveness of proposed control technique of the PHPF is demonstrated through simulated results under the dynamics of change of loads.     

单相MMC变流器及其在新型牵引供电系统中应用的研究

为解决传统牵引供电系统中所存在着电能质量和过分相问题,首先介绍了一种基于MMC-MTDC的新型牵引供电系统。新型牵引供电系统中需要单相变流器向牵引网提供稳定的电压和频率,据此对单相H桥型模块化多电平换流器MMC(modular multilevel converter)进行了研究。介绍了该变流器的拓扑特性,建立了相应的数学模型。将牵引网络认为成无源网络,设计一种基于虚拟同步坐标系下外环定交流电压、内环电流的单相H桥MMC型逆变器向单相无源网络供电的双闭环控制策略;为了抑制桥臂电流所含的二次分量,使用准比例谐振器设计了环流抑制器。最后,在PSCAD/EMTDC中搭建仿真模型。仿真结果验证了系统控制策略的可行性和环流抑制器的有效性,变流器能够向牵引网络提供稳定的电压和频率。     

燃料电池发电系统中功率变换器的研究

针对燃料电池输出电压等级较低变化范围较宽的输出特性,研究了一种新型变换器,该变换器由前级高增益直流变换器与后级交流变换器组成级联结构。高增益直流变换器采用平均电流控制策略,实现了较高增益的升压及稳压功能,且具有较低开关管电压/电流应力;后级交流变换器采用改进型虚拟同步发电机算法,能够快速准确的跟踪负荷变化、实时无误差的调节频率并具有良好的无功电压下垂特性。通过分析可知:仿真时前级直流输出电压一直稳定在700 V,当无功功率增加200 Var时,电压幅值的波动约为0.5 V,逆变器输出频率不随负荷的波动而发生变化,稳定在50.012 Hz;实验时该直流变换器具有较高的电压增益,可达20倍的增益,并能够稳定在期望值50 V附近稳定工作。仿真及实验分析都验证了采用的拓扑电路结构和控制方法的可行性。     

New control approach for a PV-diesel autonomous power system

A new control scheme for the hybrid photovoltaic-diesel single-phase autonomous power system is proposed. The main advantage of this scheme is that the voltage control is accomplished by the interface inverter without need to the automatic voltage regulator of the diesel-driven generator. Unlike three-phase systems, frequency and voltage control in single-phase autonomous power systems imposes additional complexity. This is due to the pulsating nature of the single-phase loads instantaneous power at twice the rated frequency that may degrade the control efficacy. This obstacle is addressed in this paper and a new scheme is presented. The approach includes three control loops for maximum power tracking, voltage control and frequency control. The generator field current is held constant at its nominal value avoiding the saturation in the field circuit. A robust fuzzy logic controller is adopted for the speed control loop of the diesel engine. The dynamic performance of the system is investigated under different operating conditions.     

A voltage source PWM rectifier-inverter with feedforward control of instantaneous power

In general, diode rectifiers with electrolytic capacitors on the dc side have been used as dc power supplies for voltage source inverters. This type of rectifiers, however, causes many problems such as poor power factor and harmonics. Recently, voltage source PWM rectifier-inverters have been studied to provide the following advantages; (1) harmonic-free on both ac sides; (2) unity power factor on the input ac side; (3) power flow of either direction or power regeneration; (4) reduction of the dc capacitor. It is, however, difficult for a conventional one to regulate the capacitor voltage on transient states because of having only a voltage feed-back loop. This paper describes a voltage source PWM rectifier-inverter with feed-forward control of instantaneous power. Based on the pq theory, the instantaneous power which is calculated in the control circuit of the inverter is fed forward to the control circuit of the rectifier. The feed-forward control of instantaneous power makes a great contribution to sufficiently suppress voltage fluctuation of the dc capacitor on transient states. Transient characteristics are discussed and some interesting experimental results of a laboratory model are shown.