Enhanced decoupling current scheme with selective harmonic elimination pulse width modulation for cascaded multilevel inverter based static synchronous compensator

This dissertation is dedicated to a comprehensive study and performance analysis of the transformer-less Multilevel Cascaded H-bridge Inverter (MCHI) based STATic synchronous COMpensator (STATCOM). Among the shunt-connected Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) controllers, STATCOM has shown extensive feasibility and effectiveness in solving a wide range of power quality problems. By referring to the literature reviews, MCHI with separated DC capacitors is certainly the most versatile power inverter topology for STATCOM applications. However, due to the ill-defined transfer functions, complex control schemes and formulations were emerged to achieve a low-switching frequency high-bandwidth power control. As a result, adequate controller parameters were generally obtained by using trial and error method, which were practically ineffective and time-consuming. In this dissertation, the STATCOM is controlled to provide reactive power (VAR) compensation at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) under different loading conditions. The goal of this work is to enhance the performance of the STATCOM with the associated proposed control scheme in achieving high dynamic response, improving transient performance, and producing high-quality output voltage waveform. To evaluate the superiority of the proposed control scheme, intensive simulation studies and numerous experiments are conducted accordingly, where a very good match between the simulation results and the experimental results is achieved in all cases and documented in this dissertation

Study and RTDS implementation of some controllers for performance and power quality improvement of an induction motor drive system

The present research work is directed to study of some controllers for design, modelling, simulation and RTDS implementation of induction motor (IM) drive system to identify suitable controller for high performance.Initially dynamic modelling and simulation of a feedback linearization scheme for high performance IM drive is carried out. The flux measurement required in this scheme is achieved using flux estimator rather sensor to simplify the system. The complexity and calculation involved in reference frame transformation is taken care by implementing the scheme in stationary reference frame. Two linear and independent subsystems: (i) Electrical and (ii) Mechanical are created by linearizing control scheme. The systematic design of closed loop control scheme using Proportional Integral (PI) controller is developed for implementation. To take care of uncertainties in the system the Fuzzy controller is added to speed controller. Sliding Mode (SM) controller considered to be a robust control strategy is designed and developed for IM drive. A procedure of finding gain and bandwidth of the controller is developed to take care of model inaccuracies, load disturbances and rotor resistance variation. During practical implementation of this controller for IM leads to oscillations and of state variable chattering due to presence of limiter and PWM inverter in the system. Iterative Learning controller (ILC) introduced in recent time is gaining popularity due to capability to take care of short comings of Sliding Mode controller. Feedback and feed forward Iterative Learning controller combining fuzzy logic is designed and developed. The MATLAB/SIMULINK model of IM drive with controllers designed are simulated under various possible operating conditions. A comparative study of three controllers is carried out in similar situation and the response of the drive system is presented.Normally we neglect stability aspect of IM while investigating procedure for performance improvement of IM drive. Stability study of IM in open loop and closed vii loop conditions using Lyapunov criteria and also considering the power balance equation are presented

Power-electronic systems for the grid integration of renewable energy sources: a survey

The use of distributed energy resources is increasingly being pursued as a supplement and an alternative to large conventional central power stations. The specification of a powerelectronic interface is subject to requirements related not only to the renewable energy source itself but also to its effects on the power-system operation, especially where the intermittent energy source constitutes a significant part of the total system capacity. In this paper, new trends in power electronics for the integration of wind and photovoltaic (PV) power generators are presented. A review of the appropriate storage-system technology used for the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources is also introduced. Discussions about common and future trends in renewable energy systems based on reliability and maturity of each technology are presented

ACTIVE FILTERING APPLIED TO A LINE-COMMUTATED INVERTER FED PERMANENT MAGNET WIND GENERATOR

In this paper, the implementation of a shunt active power filter (APF) for compensating reactive and harmonic currents generated by a line-commutated inverter (LCI) in the permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) wind energy conversion systems (WECS) is presented. The system consists of wind turbine and PMSG with a sensor-less MPPT and a LCI to deliver the power to the grid. The filter consists of a three-phase current controlled voltage source inverter (CC-VSI) with a filter inductance at the ac output and a dc-bus capacitor. The CC-VSI is operated to directly control the ac grid current to be sinusoidal and in phase with the grid voltage. The switching is controlled using ramptime current control, which is based on the concept of zero average current error. The simulation results indicate that the filter is able to handle the reactive and harmonic currents, so that the grid currents are sinusoidal, in phase with the grid voltages and symmetrical. The filter also can operate accurately regarding the wind variation

Comparison of doubly-fed induction generator and brushless doubly-fed reluctance generator for wind energy applications

Phd ThesisThe Doubly-fed Induction Generator (DFIG) is the dominant technology for variable-speed wind power generation due in part to its cost-effective partially-rated power converter. However, the maintenance requirements and potential failure of brushes and slip rings is a significant disadvantage of DFIG. This has led to increased interest in brushless doubly-fed generators. In this thesis a Brushless Doubly-Fed Reluctance Generator (BDFRG) is compared with DFIG from a control performance point of view. To compare the performance of the two generators a flexible 7.5kW test facility has been constructed. Initially, a classical cascade vector controller is applied to both generators. This controller is based on the stator voltage field orientation method with an inner rotor (secondary stator) current control loop and an outer active and reactive power control loop. The dynamic and steady state performance of two generators are examined experimentally. The results confirm that the BDFRG has a slower dynamic response when compared to the DFIG due to the larger and variable inductance. Finally a sensorless Direct Power Control (DPC) scheme is applied to both the DFIG and BDFRG. The performance of this scheme is demonstrated with both simulation and experimental results.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Overseas Researcher Scholarship (ORS

Application of Unified Power Flow Controller to Improve the Performance of Wind Energy Conversion System

This research introduces the unified power flow controller (UPFC) as a means to improve the overall performance of wind energy conversion system (WECS) through the development of an appropriate control algorithm. Also, application of the proposed UPFC control algorithm has been extended in this research to overcome some problems associated with the internal faults associated with WECS- voltage source converter (VSC), such as miss-fire, fire-through and dc-link faults

Measurements, Models, Systems and Design

531 s.

Unified Power Quality Conditioner: protection and performance enhancement

The proliferation of power electronics-based equipment has produced a significant impact on the quality of electric power supply. Nowadays, much of the equipment is based on power electronic devices, often leading to problems of power quality. At the same time this equipment is typically equipped with microprocessor-based controllers which are quite sensitive to deviations from the ideal sinusoidal line voltage. Conventional power quality mitigation equipment is proving to be inadequate for an increasing number of applications, and this fact has attracted the attention of power engineers to develop dynamic and adjustable solutions to power quality problems. One modern and very promising solution that deals with both load current and supply voltage imperfections is the Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC). This thesis investigates the development of UPQC protection scheme and control algorithms for enhanced performance. This work is carried out on a 12 kVA prototype UPQC. In order to protect the series inverter of the UPQC from overvoltage and overcurrent during short circuits on the load side of the UPQC, the secondary of the series transformer has to be short-circuited in a reasonably short time (microseconds). A hardware-based UPQC protection scheme against the load side short circuits is derived and its implementation and effectiveness is investigated. The main protection element is a crowbar connected across the secondary of the series transformer and consisting of a pair of antiparallel connected thyristors, which is governed by a very simple Zener diode based control circuit. Also, the software-based UPQC protection approach is investigated, the implementation of which does not require additional hardware

Doubly-fed induction generator used in wind energy

Wound-rotor induction generator has numerous advantages in wind power generation over other generators. One scheme for wound-rotor induction generator is realized when a converter cascade is used between the slip-ring terminals and the utility grid to control the rotor power. This configuration is called the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG). In this work, a novel induction machine model is developed. This model includes the saturation in the main and leakage flux paths. It shows that the model which considers the saturation effects gives more realistic results. A new technique, which was developed for synchronous machines, was applied to experimentally measure the stator and rotor leakage inductance saturation characteristics on the induction machine. A vector control scheme is developed to control the rotor side voltage-source converter. Vector control allows decoupled or independent control of both active and reactive power of DFIG. These techniques are based on the theory of controlling the B- and q- axes components of voltage or current in different reference frames. In this work, the stator flux oriented rotor current control, with decoupled control of active and reactive power, is adopted. This scheme allows the independent control of the generated active and reactive power as well as the rotor speed to track the maximum wind power point. Conventionally, the controller type used in vector controllers is of the PI type with a fixed proportional and integral gain. In this work, different intelligent schemes by which the controller can change its behavior are proposed. The first scheme is an adaptive gain scheduler which utilizes different characteristics to generate the variation in the proportional and the integral gains. The second scheme is a fuzzy logic gain scheduler and the third is a neuro-fuzzy controller. The transient responses using the above mentioned schemes are compared analytically and experimentally. It has been found that although the fuzzy logic and neuro-fuzzy schemes are more complicated and have many parameters; this complication provides a higher degree of freedom in tuning the controller which is evident in giving much better system performance. Finally, the simulation results were experimentally verified by building the experimental setup and implementing the developed control schemes