Improved natural balancing with modified phase shifted PWM for single-leg five-level flying-capacitor converters

Flying capacitor converters (FCCs), as most multilevel converter topologies, require a balancing mechanism of the capacitor voltages. FCCs have the valuable property of natural voltage balancing when a special modulation technique is used. The classic methods, like Phase-Shifted Pulse Width Modulation (PS-PWM), result in very slow balancing for some duty ratio ranges. Previous work showed that for a single-leg five-level FCC one time constant is infinite for a zero desired output voltage. In this paper, a modified PS-PWM scheme for a single-leg fivelevel FCC is presented which results in faster balancing over the total duty ratio range. The modified PS-PWM scheme is studied, resulting in an averaged voltage balancing model. This model is verified using simulations and experiments. The modified PS-PWM scheme solves the slow balancing problems of the normal PS-PWM method for odd-level FCCs, while maintaining the passive control property, and it provides a self-precharge capability

New Topologies and Advanced Control of Power Electronic Converters for Renewable Energy based Microgrids

Solar energy-based microgrids are increasingly promising due to their many features, such as being environmentally friendly and having low operating costs. Power electronic converters, filters, and transformers are the key components to integrate the solar photovoltaic (PV) systems with the microgrids. The power electronic converters play an important role to reduce the size of the filter circuit and eliminate the use of the bulky and heavy traditional power frequency step-up transformer. These power converters also play a vital role to integrate the energy storage systems such as batteries and the superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) unit in a solar PV power-based microgrid. However, the performance of these power converters depends upon the switching technique and the power converter configuration. The switching techniques can improve the power quality, i.e. lower total harmonic distortion at the converter output waveform, reduce the converter power loss, and can effectively utilize the dc bus voltage, which helps to improve the power conversion efficiency of the power electronic converter. The power converter configuration can reduce the size of the power converter and make the power conversion system more efficient. In addition to the advanced switching technique, a supervisory control can also be integrated with these power converters to ensure the optimal power flow within the microgrid. First, this thesis reviews different existing power converter topologies with their switching techniques and control strategies for the grid integration of solar PV systems. To eliminate the use of the bulky and heavy line frequency step-up transformer to integrate solar PV systems to medium voltage grids, the high frequency magnetic linkbased medium voltage power converter topologies are discussed and compared based on their performance parameters. Moreover, switching and conduction losses are calculated to compare the performance of the switching techniques for the magnetic-linked power converter topologies. In this thesis, a new pulse width modulation technique has been proposed to integrate the SMES system with the solar PV system-based microgrid. The pulse width modulation technique is designed to provide reactive power into the network in an effective way. The modulation technique ensures lower total harmonic distortion (THD), lower switching loss, and better utilization of dc-bus voltage. The simulation and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed pulse width modulation technique. In this thesis, an improved version of the previously proposed switching technique has been designed for a transformer-less PV inverter. The improved switching technique can ensure effective active power flow into the network. A new switching scheme has been proposed for reactive power control to avoid unnecessary switching faced by the traditional switching technique in a transformer-less PV inverter. The proposed switching technique is based on the peak point value of the grid current and ensures lower switching loss compared to other switching techniques. In this thesis, a new magnetic-linked multilevel inverter has been designed to overcome the issues faced by the two-level inverters and traditional multilevel inverters. The proposed multilevel inverter utilizes the same number of electronic switches but fewer capacitors compared to the traditional multilevel inverters. The proposed multilevel inverter solves the capacitor voltage balancing and utilizes 25% more of the dc bus voltage compared to the traditional multilevel inverter, which reduces the power rating of the dc power source components and also extends the input voltage operating range of the inverter. An improved version magnetic-linked multilevel inverter is proposed in this thesis with a model predictive control technique. This multilevel inverter reduces both the number of switches and capacitors compared to the traditional multilevel inverter. This multilevel inverter also solves the capacitor voltage balancing issue and utilizes 50% more of the dc bus voltage compared to the traditional multilevel inverter. Finally, an energy management system has been designed for the developed power converter and control to achieve energy resiliency and minimum operating cost of the microgrid. The model predictive control-based energy management system utilizes the predicted load data, PV insolation data from web service, electricity price data, and battery state of charge data to select the battery charging and discharging pattern over the day. This model predictive control-based supervisory control with the advanced power electronic converter and control makes the PV energy-based microgrid more efficient and reliable

A Review on Control Strategies and Topologies of Multi Level Converter System

In recent decades, high-performance and medium voltage energy management for academia and industry have been attracted by multi-level converter topologies. In addition, the multi-level principle is used without decreasing the inverter power output to synthesise the harmonic distortion on the output waveform. For the reduction of harmonic distortion in the output waveform, the multi-level principle is used. The following topologies are presented: diode clamped inverters (neutral point clamped), condenser clamped (flying condenser), multi-level cascading (dc source, etc.) and the most effective modulation methods built for this converter category: multi-level, selective harmonic removal and space m vectors. A series of different topologies are given in this paper. Multi-level inverters have been gaining popularity in research teams and in the production of industrial applications for high and medium voltage applications for 20 years. Moreover, compared to a conventional converter, multi-level inverters can generate switched waveforms with reduced harmonic slopes. Recently, multi-level inverters have increased interest in their ability to generate high-quality wave forms at lower frequencies; the multi-level topology used in dynamic restaurant voltages reduces the harmonic distortion of the inverter output waveform without inverter output losses. By integrating control techniques for multi-level inverters, this paper discusses the most common topologies, making their implementations flexible in some power applications in many industrial areas

Multilevel inverters for renewable energy systems

Voltage source inverters have become widely used in the last decade primarily due to the fact that the dangers and limitations of relying on fossil fuel based power generation have been seen and the long term effects felt especially with regards to climate change. Policies and targets have been implemented such as from the United Nations climate change conference (COPxx) concerning human activities that contribute to global warming from individual countries. The most effective way of reducing these greenhouse gases is to turn to renewable energy sources such as the solar, wind etc instead of coal. Converters play the crucial role of converting the renewable source dc power to ac single phase or multiphase. The advancement in research in renewable energy sources and energy storage has made it possible to do things more efficiently than ever before. Regular or 2 level inverters are adequate for low power low voltage applications but have drawbacks when being used in high power high voltage applications as switching components have to be rated upwards and also switch between very high potential differences. To lessen the constraints on the switching components and to reduce the filtering requirements, multilevel inverters (MLI's) are preferred over two level voltage source inverters (VSI's). This thesis discusses the implementation of various types of MLI's and compares four different pulse width modulation (pwm) techniques that are often used in MLI under consideration: three, five, seven and nine level inverters. Harmonic content of the output voltage is recorded across a range of modulation indices for each of the three popular topologies in literature. Output from the inverter is filtered using an L only and an LC filter whose design techniques are presented. A generalized prediction algorithm using machine learning techniques to give the value of the expected THD as the modulation index is varied for a specific topology and PWM switching method is proposed in this study. Simulation and experimental results are produced in five level form to verify and validate the proposed algorithm

Five-Level Flying Capacitor Converter used as a Static Compensator for Current Unbalances in Three-Phase Distribution Systems

This thesis presents and evaluates a solution for unbalanced current loading in three-phase distribution systems. The proposed solution uses the flying capacitor multilevel converter as its main topology for an application known as Unbalanced Current Static Compensator. The fundamental theory, controller design and prototype construction will be presented along with the experimental results. The Unbalanced Current Static Compensator main objective is the balancing of the up-stream currents from the installation point to eliminate the negative- and zero-sequence currents originated by unbalanced single-phase loads. Three separate single-phase flying capacitor converters are controlled independently using a d-q rotating reference frame algorithm to allow easier compensation of reactive power. Simulations of the system were developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK™ in order to validate the design parameters; then, testing of the UCSC prototype was performed to confirm the control algorithm functionality. Finally, experimental result are presented and analyzed

Coconut dehusker machine

Generally, coconut is dehusked manually using either a machete or a spike. These methods required skill labor and tiring to use. Attempts made so far in development of dehusking tools have been only partially successful and not effective in replacing manual methods. The reasons quoted for the failure of these tools include unsatisfactory and incomplete dehusking, breakage of the coconut shell while dehusking, spoilage of useful coir, greater effort needed than manual methods, etc

Hybrid Modulation Technique with DC-Bus Voltage Control for Multiphase NPC Converters

The article presents a novel carrier-based pulsewidth modulation technique for multiphase neutral point clamped converters. The technique is aimed to actively control the neutral point (NP) potential while supplying the desired set of line-to-line voltages to the load. Standard techniques are either based on the sole common mode voltage injection or on the sole multistep switching mode; contrarily, the proposed algorithm combines these two approaches to take advantage of their main benefits. The technique performs well for each number of phases, for each modulation index, and for each type of load. It can control in closed-loop the NP voltage to any desirable value with a reduced number of switching transitions. The proposed approach has been experimentally validated and compared with other carrier-based algorithms

Soft switching techniques for multilevel inverters

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Elétrica

Asenkron motorlar için ayarlanabilir gerilim uygulamalı V/f tabanlı hız denetiminde farklı PWM tekniklerinin performans analizi

This paper presents a comparative study and a method to improve Volt-Hertz (V/f) based speed control of Induction Motors (IMs). For this purpose, Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) and space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) techniques are investigated and evaluated, especially from the point of their control performance on the V/f-based control for three-phase IMs working at different load and speed conditions. From this aspect, it is a different study from the literature. Steady and transient effects of both techniques on the above mentioned control methods are analyzed for several case studies. Afterwards, adjustable boost voltage application with modified reference commands technique is proposed for both PWM methods in order to improve start-up performance. All investigations for both PWM models are carried out under the same conditions. Although SVPWM technique gives more effective results in many cases, the proposed method provides noticeable improvements on SPWM-based applications from point of performance on the control method. As a novelty of this study, it is shown that, the bad performance of the control method at low frequency in SPWM application, which has lower computational burden for low cost microcontroller, can be improved by applying adjustable boost voltage along with modified references that are proportional to the DC bus current