Enhancement of Power Quality in Domestic Loads Using Harmonic Filters

This study deals with the mitigation of current harmonics, which is primarily important to alleviate power quality problems in modern times. Current harmonics produced by different widely used loads have been evaluated and related parameters have been tabled. Using the data obtained, a non-linear load was modelled to serve as the test load. Different mitigation solutions and techniques were studied to select an appropriate filter design for domestic single-phase application. The Active Power Filter (APF)'s steady-state and dynamic output was evaluated with reference current extraction techniques like PQ and SRF theories in Simulink. For a fair comparison, various parameters related to the filter design were kept identical between the tests conducted; and to test the dynamic performance, a highly inductive load was connected halfway through simulation. The reactive power compensation offered by the filter was studied by using various waveforms and parameters are investigated and tabulated. The study was carried out to identify a reference current extraction technique that yields the best performance and understand the implementation of the same to identify inherent issues that can sometimes be overlooked because of their simplicity and ease of implementation. The performance of two commonly used reference current extraction techniques were analyzed by subjecting it to highly non-linear and highly inductive loads that were modelled based on various loads that were analyzed

Contributions to impedance shaping control techniques for power electronic converters

El conformado de la impedancia o admitancia mediante control para convertidores electrónicos de potencia permite alcanzar entre otros objetivos: mejora de la robustez de los controles diseñados, amortiguación de la dinámica de la tensión en caso de cambios de carga, y optimización del filtro de red y del controlador en un solo paso (co-diseño). La conformación de la impedancia debe ir siempre acompañada de un buen seguimiento de referencias. Por tanto, la idea principal es diseñar controladores con una estructura sencilla que equilibren la consecución de los objetivos marcados en cada caso. Este diseño se realiza mediante técnicas modernas, cuya resolución (síntesis del controlador) requiere de herramientas de optimización. La principal ventaja de estas técnicas sobre las clásicas, es decir, las basadas en soluciones algebraicas, es su capacidad para tratar problemas de control complejos (plantas de alto orden y/o varios objetivos) de una forma considerablemente sistemática. El primer problema de control por conformación de la impedancia consiste en reducir el sobreimpulso de tensión ante cambios de carga y minimizar el tamaño de los componentes del filtro pasivo en los convertidores DC-DC. Posteriormente, se diseñan controladores de corriente y tensión para un inversor DC-AC trifásico que logren una estabilidad robusta del sistema para una amplia variedad de filtros. La condición de estabilidad robusta menos conservadora, siendo la impedancia de la red la principal fuente de incertidumbre, es el índice de pasividad. En el caso de los controladores de corriente, el impacto de los lazos superiores en la estabilidad basada en la impedancia también se analiza mediante un índice adicional: máximo valor singular. Cada uno de los índices se aplica a un rango de frecuencias determinado. Finalmente, estas condiciones se incluyen en el diseño en un solo paso del controlador de un convertidor back-to-back utilizado para operar generadores de inducción doblemente alimentados (aerogeneradores tipo 3) presentes en algunos parques eólicos. Esta solución evita los problemas de oscilación subsíncrona, derivados de las líneas de transmisión con condensadores de compensación en serie, a los que se enfrentan estos parques eólicos. Los resultados de simulación y experimentales demuestran la eficacia y versatilidad de la propuesta.Impedance or admittance shaping by control for power electronic converters allows to achieve among other objectives: robustness enhancement of the designed controls, damped voltage dynamics in case of load changes, and grid filter and controller optimization in a single step (co-design). Impedance shaping must always be accompanied by a correct reference tracking performance. Therefore, the main idea is to design controllers with a simple structure that balance the achievement of the objectives set in each case. This design is carried out using modern techniques, whose resolution (controller synthesis) requires optimization tools. The main advantage of these techniques over the classical ones, i.e. those based on algebraic solutions, is their ability to deal with complex control problems (high order plants and/or several objectives) in a considerably systematic way. The first impedance shaping control problem is to reduce voltage overshoot under load changes and minimize the size of passive filter components in DC-DC converters. Subsequently, current and voltage controllers for a three-phase DC-AC inverter are designed to achieve robust system stability for a wide variety of filters. The least conservative robust stability condition, with grid impedance being the main source of uncertainty, is the passivity index. In the case of current controllers, the impact of higher loops on impedance-based stability is also analyzed by an additional index: maximum singular value. Each of the indices is applied to a given frequency range. Finally, these conditions are included in the one-step design of the controller of a back-to-back converter used to operate doubly fed induction generators (type-3 wind turbines) present in some wind farms. This solution avoids the sub-synchronous oscillation problems, derived from transmission lines with series compensation capacitors, faced by these wind farms. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and versatility of the proposa

Low-pass filtering or gain tuning free simple DC offset rejection technique for single and three-phase systems

This paper aims to address the DC offset rejection problem in grid synchronization algorithm. A simple approach to estimate the unknown grid frequency in the presence of DC offset is proposed for this purpose. Some of the existing techniques available in the literature use either low-pass filter or an additional integrator to eliminate the DC offset. Both approaches require an additional parameter to tune. However, tuning the additional parameter is not straightforward. Moreover, tuning the overall system can be complicated due to the presence of DC offset rejection part. The proposed approach does not require any additional parameter to tune. By considering the orthogonal signal instead of the DC offset as an additional state, the proposed technique can efficiently estimate the unknown frequency of the grid. Application to both single and three-phase grids are provided. Comparative experimental results with DC offset rejection capable second-order generalized integrator (SOGI) phase-locked loop (PLL) (SOGI-PLL) demonstrate the effectiveness and suitability of the proposed technique

Measuring Electromagnetic Properties of Superconductors in High and Localized RF Magnetic Field

Niobium-based Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) particle accelerator cavity performance is sensitive to localized defects that give rise to quenches at high accelerating gradients. In order to identify these material defects on bulk Nb surfaces at their operating frequency and temperature, it is important to develop a new kind of wide bandwidth microwave microscopy with localized and strong RF magnetic fields. A novel near-field magnetic field microwave microscope that enables mapping of the local electrodynamic response in the multi-GHz frequency regime at liquid helium cryogenic temperatures was successful built via the combination of a magnetic writer and a near field-microwave microscope [1] [2]. This magnetic writer can create a localized and strong RF magnetic field and should achieve a condition with Bsurface ~150 mT and sub-micron resolution (Chapter 3). Our objective is to study the extreme and local electrodynamic properties of Niobium (Nb), and to relate these properties to specific defects that limit the ultimate RF performance of superconducting radio frequency cavities made from Nb. Therefore, in this dissertation, many superconducting materials, especially the candidate materials for superconducting RF cavities, were tested at a fixed location to analyze the local electrodynamic response through linear and nonlinear microwave measurements. For the linear measurement (Chapter 4), many fundamental properties of RF superconductivity such as the critical temperature Tc and penetration depth lambda can be identified. For the nonlinear response measurement (Chapter 5), both the intrinsic and extrinsic nonlinearities from the superconductors are excited by our magnetic write head probe. Many models are introduced to identify the measured nonlinearity, including the intrinsic nonlinearity from the modulation of the superconducting order parameter near Tc, and the extrinsic nonlinearity from the moving vortex model, weak-link Josephson effect, and the possible nonlinear mechanism from switching events between the Meissner state and the mixed state. These models of extrinsic nonlinearity are studied in Chapter 6. The high transition temperature and low surface resistance of MgB2 attracts interest in its potential application in superconducting radio frequency accelerating cavities. However, compared to traditional Nb cavities, the viability of MgB2 at high RF fields is still open to question. Hence, in Chapter 7, two-gap high quality MgB2 films with thickness 50 nm, fabricated by a hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition technique on dielectric substrates, are measured at a fixed location to investigate its RF properties. The third harmonic measurement on MgB2 films shows different nonlinear mechanisms compared to the bulk Nb measurement [3] . We conclude that the nonlinear response for the high quality MgB2 films at temperature less than Tc shows the nonlinearity from the moving vortices and from the following possible mechanisms: First, an intrinsic nonlinearity from the proximity-induced second Tc. Second, the intrinsic nonlinearity arising from Josephson coupling between the sigma and pi bands of the two gap nature of MgB2. Third: The potential nonlinearity from the reported superconducting nodal gap properties. Finally the future plan to raster scan on the SRF candidate materials is proposed to relate the nonlinear electromagnetic images to the physical defects on the superconductor surface. These efforts can finally feed back to the cavity processing techniques and suggest new thoughts for alternate surface processing treatment in the future. [1] T. Tai, et al., IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 21, 2615, (2011). [2] T. Tai et al., IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 23, 7100104, (2013). [3] T. Tai et al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 15, 122002, (2012)

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

Contributions to the multi-frequency control of gridtied voltage source converters

El interés por la producción de energía limpia está en aumento y la generación de este tipo de energía se puede fomentar mediante la instalación de generadores locales. Dichos generadores son conectados a la red de distribución a través de convertidores de potencia. Al mismo tiempo el número de cargas conectadas a la red está incrementando y con ello el número de cargas no lineales. Estas últimas consumen corrientes armónicas y esto provoca distorsión armónica a la red. En esta tesis se estudia y se presentan contribuciones en el control de los convertidores de potencia para que al mismo tiempo que se inyecta potencia, el convertidor sea capaz de actuar adecuadamente frente a la distorsión armónica del voltaje de la red (control multifrecuencial). En primer lugar, esta tesis cubrirá el estudio de las diferentes técnicas de control de corrientes armónicas y también de las diferentes técnicas de sincronización y detección de componentes armónicas de tensión presentes en la red. En cuanto al cálculo de referencias de corrientes armónicas, se explican las principales variantes dependiendo de la funcionalidad deseada y se estudia la entrega de potencia instantánea constante incluso con red distorsionada. Además, se propone un nuevo método de cálculo para eliminar las principales oscilaciones de potencia sin exceder las limitaciones de distorsión de corrientes. También se describen las limitaciones del convertidor cuando se trabaja con componentes fundamentales y armónicas. Se analizan los principales saturadores multifrecuenciales para evitar la sobremodulación y se propone un nuevo saturador que no empeora la dinámica total del sistema y siempre consigue el mínimo THD de corriente. Por último, se aborda la problemática de la distorsión armónica del voltaje de red. Primero se estudia la compensación de las corrientes consumidas por cargas locales y después se propone la compensación directa de la tensión del PCC. En esta tesis se intenta incrementar el número de funcionalidades que puede desempeñar el convertidor para que además de entregar potencia, sea capaz de mejorar la calidad de la red, sin exceder las limitaciones físicas del convertidor. Cada una de las contribuciones es validada mediante resultados de simulación y experimentales