Paul Thøgersen

Investigation of Active Damping Approaches for PI-Based Current Control of Grid-Connected Pulse Width Modulation Converters With LCL Filters

This paper deals with various active damping approaches for PI-based current control of grid-connected pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) converters with LCL filters, which are based on one additional feedback. Filter capacitor current, as well as voltage feedback for the purpose of resonance damping, are analyzed and compared. Basic studies in the continuous Laplace domain show that either proportional current feedback or derivative voltage feedback yields resonance damping. Detailed investigations of these two approaches in the discrete z-domain, taking into account the discrete nature of control implementation, sampling, and PWM, are carried out. Several ratios of LCL resonance frequency and control frequency are considered. At high resonance frequencies, only current feedback stabilizes the system. At medium resonance frequencies, both approaches have good performance. At low resonance frequencies, stability gets worse, even though voltage feedback offers slightly better damping properties. Measurements validate the theoretical results.

PI State Space Current Control of Grid-Connected PWM Converters With LCL Filters

Design and analysis of PI state space control for grid-connected pulsewidth modulation (PWM) converters with LCL filters based on pole placement approach is addressed. State space control offers almost full controllability of system dynamic. However, pole placement design is difficult and usually requires much experience. In this paper, a suitable pole placement strategy is proposed, which ensures fulfilling the requirements, which are commonly specified with respect to rise time, overshoot, and proper resonance damping. Controller parameter expressions are derived in terms of system parameters and specified poles and zeros. Hence, straightforward controller tuning for a particular system setting is possible. Performance is analyzed by means of transfer function-based calculations, simulations with MATLAB, and experimental tests. Dynamic performance and robustness against grid impedance variations are addressed as well as harmonic rejection capability and other practical issues.

On the energy optimized control of standard and high-efficiency induction motors in CT and HVAC applications

This paper contains an analysis of how the choice of energy optimal control of induction motors is influenced by motor construction, standard versus high-efficiency motor, and by application, constant torque (CT) and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) (interpreted as vector and scalar motor drives). The analysis is made with a 2.2 kW voltage-source-inverter-fed squirrel-cage motor drive as an example throughout the paper, but through statistics on the use of motors and their efficiencies, the conclusions are widened to a broader range (0-50 kW). Energy optimal control strategies are reviewed and cos(/spl thetav/) control, a model-based control, and a search control are implemented in the laboratory in a vector and a scalar motor drive. The convergence speed for the strategies and their ability to reject disturbances are investigated by experiments. It is also shown experimentally that, for both standard and high-efficiency motors, motor energy-efficiency improvement is achievable by energy optimal control below 60% load torque. The energy savings using energy optimal control strategies are measured on a pump system with a certain load cycle. Model-based control is recommended for CT applications and cos(/spl thetav/) control for HVAC applications.

A sensorless, stable V/f control method for permanent-magnet synchronous motor drives

When permanent-magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) are used for pump and fan applications, V/f control methods can be used to control them. The problem with open-loop V/f control of PMSMs without having damper windings in the rotor is the inherent instability after exceeding a certain applied frequency. In this paper, a new V/f control method is proposed for motor drives for stable operation in a wide frequency range. The magnitude of the voltage is controlled in order to maintain a constant stator flux linkage in the PMSM. The applied frequency is modulated proportional to the input power perturbations to stabilize the drive for a wide frequency range. No position sensor is required to implement this stabilizing technique. The small-signal analysis and the experimental results confirm the effectiveness of this stabilizing technique. The experimental results also indicate the satisfactory performance of the drive for pump and fan applications.

Switching Frequency Reduction Using Model Predictive Direct Current Control for High-Power Voltage Source Inverters

In this paper, a novel current control approach called model predictive direct current control (MPDCC) is presented. The controller takes into account the discrete states of the voltage source inverter (VSI), and the current errors are predicted for each sampling period. Voltage vectors are selected by a graph algorithm, whereby the most appropriate vector is chosen based on an optimization criterion. However, this depends on whether the state of the system is transient or steady. In the first case, the current error should be minimized as fast as possible in order to obtain fast dynamics. In the latter one, the VSI switching behavior is optimized since the switching losses account for a large amount of the total converter losses in high-power drive systems. MPDCC has been developed for a general neutral-point isolated resistive-inductive load with an internal voltage source. For demonstration, the presented control strategy has been implemented on a small-scale permanent-magnet synchronous machine drive system with a two-level VSI. This new approach has several advantages. The most important one is that the switching frequency is reduced up to 70% compared to linear control combined with pulsewidth modulation. Second, MPDCC obtains fast dynamic responses, which are already known from, e.g., direct torque control.

A Systematic Approach for Dynamic Security Assessment and the Corresponding Preventive Control Scheme Based on Decision Trees

This paper proposes a decision tree (DT)-based systematic approach for cooperative online power system dynamic security assessment (DSA) and preventive control. This approach adopts a new methodology that trains two contingency-oriented DTs on a daily basis by the databases generated from power system simulations. Fed with real-time wide-area measurements, one DT of measurable variables is employed for online DSA to identify potential security issues, and the other DT of controllable variables provides online decision support on preventive control strategies against those issues. A cost-effective algorithm is adopted in this proposed approach to optimize the trajectory of preventive control. The paper also proposes an importance sampling algorithm on database preparation for efficient DT training for power systems with high penetration of wind power and distributed generation. The performance of the approach is demonstrated on a 400-bus, 200-line operational model of western Danish power system.

Improved modulation techniques for PWM-VSI drives

PWM-VSI based AC motor drives have two main problems. The inverter is nonlinear which causes instability problems in some specific working points of the AC machine and it emits acoustical noise due to the switching frequency. Nonlinearities like dead-time in the power devices, a load dependent DC link voltage ripple and the voltage drop across the switches are modelled and compensated by improved modulation techniques in order to obtain an ideal inverter. Different feedback and feedforward techniques are proposed. The acoustic noise is reduced by using a random modulation strategy. Measurements show a significant improvement by using feedforward and feedback techniques for linearizing the inverter as well as an improvement in reduction of the acoustic noise emission is achieved by using random modulation. It is concluded that a combination of a random modulation strategy and feedforward/feedback techniques gives an almost ideal AC motor drive system.<<ETX>>

A review on fundamental grid-voltage detection methods under highly distorted conditions in distributed power-generation networks

In distributed power generation systems a fast and accurate positive-sequence fundamental grid-voltage frequency and magnitude tracking is required to synchronize grid-connected converter-systems with the mains. In this paper state-of-the-art fundamental grid-voltage detection methods based on the extension of the Synchronous Reference-Frame phase-locked loop with either an additional pre-filter for the phase detection or an extended loop-filter are presented and compared to each other. The performance of these methods is studied in the laboratory environment during harmonic voltage-distortions as well as characteristic grid-faults. Furthermore, a new approach using a combined pre- and extended loop-filter technique to improve the harmonic voltage-distortion rejection abilities is presented and thoroughly verified by measurements. The analysis reveals that the optimal choice of the PLL-methods is a trade-off between the dynamic performance requirements and the accuracy of the grid-voltage tracking during highly distorted grid-conditions. Furthermore, the proposed combined filter approach reveals fast voltage tracking performance with good voltage distortion rejection abilities.

Improving Power Converter Reliability: Online Monitoring of High-Power IGBT Modules

The real-time junction temperature monitoring of a high-power insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module is important to increase the overall reliability of power converters for industrial applications. This article proposes a new method to measure the on-state collector-emitter voltage of a high-power IGBT module during converter operation, which may play a vital role in improving the reliability of the power converters. The measured voltage is used to estimate the module average junction temperature of the high and low-voltage side of a half-bridge IGBT separately in every fundamental cycle of the current by calibrating them at load current. The measurement is very accurate and also measures the voltage at the middle of a pulse-width modulation (PWM) switching. A major objective is that this method is designed to be implemented in real applications. The performance of this technique is measured in a wind power converter at a low fundamental frequency. To illustrate more, the test method as well as the performance of the measurement circuit are also presented. This measurement is also useful to indicate failure mechanisms such as bond wire lift-off and solder layer degradation. The measurements of and rise in the junction temperature after five million cycles of normal operation of the converter are also presented.

A review on real time physical measurement techniques and their attempt to predict wear-out status of IGBT

Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) are key component in power converters. Reliability of power converters depend on wear-out process of power modules. A physical parameter such as the on-state collector-emitter voltage (Vce) shows the status of degradation of the IGBT after a certain cycles of operation. However, the Vce mainly shows the wear-out of bond wire lift-off and solder degradation. The Vce is normally used to estimate the junction temperature in the module. The measurement of Vce is sensitive to the converter power level and fluctuations in the surrounding temperature. In spite of difficulties in the measurement, the offline and online Vce measurement topologies are implemented to study the reliability of the power converters. This paper presents a review in wear-out prediction methods of IGBT power modules and freewheeling diodes based on the real time Vce measurement. The measurement quality and some practical issues of those measurement techniques are discussed. Furthermore, the paper proposes the requirements for the measurement and prognostic approach to determine wear-out status of power modules in field applications. The online Vce measurement for a selected topology is also shown in the paper.