Shift & night work – the positive impact, challenges and action to deal with it

Shift work means work that takes place on a schedule of employee outside the normal hours eight at morning until at five at evening. Well, it involves day and night shifts, which is whether in an early morning shifts, and rotating shifts. In Malaysia, shift work happens usually to the health care workers, precision production and repair workers, machines operator, and aviation workers and so on. Especially in manufacturing, employees tend to make sure machines run twenty-four hours per day rather than buying more machines to operate on a day shift

Single-Phase DC-AC Boost Converter

This paper describes a new power conversion circuit topology for single-phase DC-AC boost converter, based on the dc-dc boost converter. It comprises an H-bridge, fed from a single input dc source through a boosting inductor. Change of load current flow is achieved with four current-steering diodes. The proposed boost inverter configuration performs single stage power conversion, which minimizes switching losses and attains higher efficiency as compared to the conventional boost inverter. The steady-state operating principle of the power circuit configuration and control strategy are described. A multi-loop structure controller is used to ensure a high dynamic performance. Computer simulations demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed boost inverter.http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v33i2.1

Design and Implementation of Hybrid Active Power Filter (HAPF) for UPS System

Hybrid Active Power Filter (HAPF) is designed and applied for Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) System to mitigate harmonic currents in UPS during the power conversion from rectifiers to inverters (AC-DC-AC Converters). Various UPS types and topologies are used for continuous power supply without delay and protection to connected loads. In spite of the fact that UPS is one of the power quality apparatus but it has also drawback of disturbing the power system quality of system by current harmonics and voltage distortion during conversion of power. Passive and EMI Filters could not eliminate harmonics effectively from UPS system therefore it requires modern, rapid filtering method as well combination of Active and Passive Filters. Proposed model of HAPF for UPS System could mitigate current harmonics for optimal power transfer and minimize losses, increase overall efficiency, reliability and life span of equipment. Higher harmonic current and higher voltage distortion leads to greater power loss. In this paper the (d-q) theorem is applied for the identification of harmonic currents. The d-q theorem and calculation creates the signal of reference compensation current and this produced signal of current is tracked by the yield current of the voltage source converter.. Hysteresis based controller for HAPF is applied to create the switching signals to regulate and maintain the voltage source converter output currents. Harmonics and efficiencies are analyzed at different loads and on charging and discharging of batteries of various UPS System in different industries and sectors on the basis of experimental investigation then HAPF is designed and implemented. In simulation results, it is observed that THD reduced from 46 to 10%, the harmonic currents were compensated and eliminated effectively which improved power quality of UPS System. Furthermore, addition of proposed HAPF could save the power up to 15 % which lost due to poor power quality of UPS System

Line-Interactive UPS for Microgrids

Line interactive Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) systems are good candidates for providing energy storage within a microgrid to help improve its reliability, economy and efficiency. In grid-connected mode, power can be imported from the grid by the UPS to charge its battery. Power can also be exported when required, e.g., when the tariffs are advantageous. In stand-alone mode, the UPS supplies local distributed loads in parallel with other sources. In this paper, a line interactive UPS and its control system are presented and discussed. Power flow is controlled using the frequency and voltage drooping technique to ensure seamless transfer between grid-connected and stand-alone parallel modes of operation. The drooping coefficients are chosen to limit the energy imported by the USP when re-connecting to the grid and to give good transient response. Experimental results of a microgrid consisting of two 60kW line interactive UPS systems are provided to validate the design

High-Efficiency MOSFET-based MMC Design for LVDC Distribution Systems

LVDC distribution networks have the potential to release larger capacity without having to upgrade the existing cables. One of the main challenges of LVDC networks is the extra customer-end DC-AC conversion stage. This paper proposes and evaluates a 5-level Si MOSFET-based MMC as a promising alternative to the conventional 2-level IGBT-based converter. This is due to the comparatively higher efficiency, power quality and reliability, and reduced EM emissions. A comprehensive analysis of a Si MOSFET 5-level MMC converter design is performed to investigate the suitability of the topology for LVDC applications. Detailed theoretical analysis of the 5-level MMC is presented, with simulated and experimental results to demonstrate circuit performance. To suppress the AC circulating current, especially the dominant 2nd harmonics, this paper presents a double line-frequency PI with orthogonal imaginary axis control method. Comparison of simulation and experimental results with those for double line-frequency PR control shows that the proposed PI controller has better performance. In addition, it is simpler to implement and more immune to sampling/discretisation errors

A review on power electronics technologies for power quality improvement

Nowadays, new challenges arise relating to the compensation of power quality problems, where the introduction of innovative solutions based on power electronics is of paramount importance. The evolution from conventional electrical power grids to smart grids requires the use of a large number of power electronics converters, indispensable for the integration of key technologies, such as renewable energies, electric mobility and energy storage systems, which adds importance to power quality issues. Addressing these topics, this paper presents an extensive review on power electronics technologies applied to power quality improvement, highlighting, and explaining the main phenomena associated with the occurrence of power quality problems in smart grids, their cause and effects for different activity sectors, and the main power electronics topologies for each technological solution. More specifically, the paper presents a review and classification of the main power quality problems and the respective context with the standards, a review of power quality problems related to the power production from renewables, the contextualization with solid-state transformers, electric mobility and electrical railway systems, a review of power electronics solutions to compensate the main power quality problems, as well as power electronics solutions to guarantee high levels of power quality. Relevant experimental results and exemplificative developed power electronics prototypes are also presented throughout the paper.This work has been supported by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. This work has been supported by the FCT Project DAIPESEV PTDC/EEI-EEE/30382/2017 and by the FCT Project newERA4GRIDs PTDC/EEIEEE/30283/2017

Sistema UPS line-interactive monofásico com compensação ativa de potência série e paralela

This work presents a single-phase Line-interactive UPS System implementation with series and parallel active power-line compensation, which performs harmonic suppression and voltage sag/swell compensation of the utility voltage, as well as maintaining the output voltage regulated. Additionally, the UPS performs reactive power compensation and harmonic suppression of the load current, resulting in an effective power-factor correction. Thereby, when the incoming power grid is present, the UPS works as a universal active power filter compensating the input current and output voltage. On the other hand, when an outage occurs, the UPS feeds the load with regulated and harmonic free voltage. For this purpose, two single-phase PWM converters are employed, which are referred as series active power filter (SAPF), which acts as a sinusoidal current source, and parallel active power filter (PAPF), which acts as a sinusoidal voltage source. Both the APFs are controlled to be in phase with the input voltage. In order to extract the sinusoidal compensation reference current, used in SAPF control, an algorithm based on synchronous reference frame (SRF) is used. The sinusoidal output voltage reference and the coordinates of the synchronous vector are obtained by using a phase-locked loop (PLL) algorithm. Experimental results and computational simulations are presented to confirm the theoretical development and evaluate both the dynamic and steady state behavior of the UPS system.Este trabalho apresenta o projeto e implementação de um sistema UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) Line-Interactive monofásico com compensação ativa de potência série e paralela, o qual realiza a supressão de harmônicos e compensação de afundamentos e elevações da tensão da rede elétrica, além de manter a tensão na carga regulada. Adicionalmente, a UPS atua na compensação de potência reativa e supressão dos harmônicos de corrente da carga, resultando em uma efetiva correção do fator de potência. Desse modo, com a rede elétrica presente, a UPS opera como filtro ativo universal realizando a compensação da corrente de entrada, bem como da tensão de saída. Quando a rede elétrica está ausente, a UPS alimenta a carga com tensão regulada e com baixa taxa de distorção harmônica. Para este fim, dois conversores monofásicos PWM são empregados, sendo estes chamados de filtro ativo série (FAS), o qual atua como fonte de corrente senoidal e o filtro ativo paralelo (FAP), o qual atua como fonte de tensão senoidal, ambos controlados para operar em fase com a tensão da rede. Com o objetivo de extrair a corrente de referência senoidal de compensação, usada no controle do FAS, é utilizado um algoritmo baseado no sistema de eixo de referência síncrona (SRF-Synchronous Reference Frame). Para a obtenção da referência da tensão senoidal de saída, assim como as coordenadas do vetor unitário síncrono utilizados pelo algoritmo SRF, um sistema de detecção de ângulo de fase (PLL-Phase Locked Loop) monofásico é utilizado. Ensaios experimentais, bem como simulações computacionais são realizados a fim de confirmar o desenvolvimento teórico e avaliar o desempenho dinâmico e estático do sistema UPS

Improved single-phase line-interactive UPS

An improved single-phase line-interactive uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is proposed for low-power applications with low cost. The proposed UPS is comprised of two push-pull converters based on low-voltage battery for reduced cost: one in series with the input and the other in parallel with the load. In the presence of input power, the UPS acts as an output voltage regulator and at the same time as an active filter while charging the battery. In case of loss of input power, the UPS supplies a regulated sinusoidal voltage to the load, drawing power from the battery. The series converter compensates only a small percentage of the input voltage carrying the input car-rent and, therefore, a reduced rating is made. The parallel converter always supplies a nominal voltage and makes a seamless transition to backup mode. In the voltage determination of the parallel converter, the nominal voltage is derived using the feedback linearization concept and then a perturbed voltage is determined for the reactive power control or output voltage regulation. Experimental results obtained from a 1-kVA prototype are discussed.X1171sciescopu