Keeping a Constant Level of Losses in the Low-Voltage Cells of a High-Voltage Multilevel Frequency Converter in Emergency Modes of Its Operation

  • Yuliya K. KAZEMIROVA
  • Aleksey S. ANUCHIN
  • Aleksandr A. ZHARKOV
  • Maksim M. LASHKEVICH
  • Dmitriy I. ALYAMKIN
  • Aleksey V. KOVYAZIN
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24160/0013-5380-2023-3-62-70
Keywords: high-voltage frequency converter, multilevel inverter, walking cell pulse-width modulation, low-voltage cell failure, equalization of losses

Abstract

High-voltage adjustable-frequency drives require special inverters for their operation. A cascaded multilevel frequency converter constructed on the basis of a multi-winding transformer and a set of low-voltage cells has received a widespread use. The main advantage of this converter topology are a low harmonic distortion level of the output voltage and current waveforms, as well as high reliability owing to the possibility to exclude a failed cell from operation without the need to shut down the drive. For equalizing the losses among the converter’s power cells, a pulse-width modulation (PWM) algorithm with a “walking” cell has been developed. Owing to a series connection of the cells, the effective PWM frequency is increased in proportion to the number of cells. However, if one cell fails, the switching frequency of the cells remained in operation increases in comparison with the switching frequency of phase cells when all of them are in the healthy state. This results in a growth of switching losses in the phase with one of its cells taken out from operation. The article discusses a control algorithm with which the nominal level of losses is kept in the cells of all phases under emergency operation conditions. The proposed algorithm has been verified on a model, in which a uniform distribution of losses and high quality of the output voltage have been obtained.

Author Biographies

Yuliya K. KAZEMIROVA

(National Research University "Moscow Power Engineering Institute"; LLC "NPF Vector", Moscow, Russia) – Postgraduate Student, Assistant of the Automated Electric Drive Dept.; Software Engineer.

Aleksey S. ANUCHIN

(National Research University "Moscow Power Engineering Institute"; LLC "NPF Vector", Moscow, Russia) – Head of the Automated Electric Drive Dept.; General Director, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Professor.

Aleksandr A. ZHARKOV

(National Research University "Moscow Power Engineering Institute"; LLC "NPF Vector", Moscow, Russia) – Docent of the Automated Electric Drive Dept.; Chief Design Engineer, Cand. Sci. (Eng.).

Maksim M. LASHKEVICH

(LLC "NPF Vector", Moscow, Russia) – Lead Software Engineer, Cand. Sci. (Eng.).

Dmitriy I. ALYAMKIN

(LLC "NPF Vector", Moscow, Russia) – Head of Development Dept., Cand. Sci. (Eng.).

Aleksey V. KOVYAZIN

(Tchaikovsky Branch of the Perm Research Polytechnic University, Tchaikovsky, Perm region, Russia) – Docent of the Automation, Engineering and Information Technologies Dept.

References

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1. Pharne I.D., Bhosale Y.N. A Review on Multilevel Inverter Topology. – International Conference on Power, Energy and Control (ICPEC), 2013, pp. 700–703, DOI: 10.1109/ICPEC.2013.6527746.
2. Rodriguez J., Lai J.-Sh., Peng F.Z. Multilevel Inverters: A Survey of Topologies, Controls, and Applications. – IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2002, vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 724–738, DOI: 10.1109/TIE.2002.801052.
3. Booma N., Sridhar N. Nine Level Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel DC-Link Inverter. – International Conference on Emerging Trends in Electrical and Computer Technology, 2011, pp. 315–320, DOI: 10.1109/ICETECT.2011.5760135.
4. Singh S. et al. Performance Analysis of a New Carrier Rotation Method for Cascaded H-bridge Multilevel Inverter. – IEEE First International Conference on Smart Technologies for Power, Energy and Control (STPEC), 2020, DOI: 10.1109/STPEC49749.2020.9297729.
5. Shi X. et al. A Comparison of Phase Disposition and Phase Shift PWM Strategies for Modular Multilevel Converters. – IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, 2013, pp. 4089–4096, DOI: 10.1109/ECCE.2013.6647244.
6. Pаt. US 8982593 B2. Cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) Inverter Level Shift PWM with Rotation / T. Nondahl et al., 2015.
7. McGrath B.P., Holmes D.G. Multicarrier PWM Strategies for Multilevel Inverters. – IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2002, vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 858–867, DOI: 10.1109/TIE.2002.801073.
8. McGrath B.P, Holmes D.G. A Comparison of Multicarrier PWM Strategies for Cascaded and Neutral Point Clamped Multilevel Inverters. – IEEE 31st Annual Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 2000, DOI:10.1109/PESC.2000.879898.
9. Kazemirova Y. et al. PWM Strategy for Equal Distribution of Losses Between Low-Voltage Cells in an MV Frequency Converter. – 55th International Universities Power Engineering Conference (UPEC), 2020, DOI: 10.1109/UPEC49904.2020.9209791.
10. Kazemirova Y. et al. Analysis of Walking Cell PWM Strategy in Multilevel Frequency Converter in Fault Condition. – 9th International Conference on Modern Power Systems (MPS), 2021, DOI: 10.1109/MPS52805.2021.9492601.
11. Milovanović S., Dujić D. Comprehensive Spectral Analysis of PWM Waveforms with Compensated DC-Link Oscillations. – IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 2020, vol. 35, No. 12, pp. 12898–12908, DOI: 10.1109/TPEL.2020.2996418.
12. Di Piazza M.C., Pucci M. Efficiency Analysis in Induction Motor Drives with Discontinuous PWM and Electrical Loss Minimization. – International Conference on Electrical Machines (ICEM), 2014, pp. 736–743, DOI: 10.1109/ICELMACH.2014.6960263.
13. Van der Broeck H.W., Skudelny H.-C., Stanke G.V. Analysis and Realization of a Pulsewidth Modulator Based on Voltage Space Vectors. – IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 1988, vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 142–150, DOI: 10.1109/28.87265.
14. Maharjan L. et al. Fault-Tolerant Operation of a Battery-Energy-Storage System Based on a Multilevel Cascade PWM Converter with Star Configuration. – IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 2010, vol. 25, No. 9, pp. 2386–2396, DOI: 10.1109/TPEL.2010.2047407.
15. Bazzi A.M., Krein P.T. Review of Methods for Real-Time Loss Minimization in Induction Machines. – IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 2010, vol. 46, No. 6, pp. 2319–2328, DOI: 10.1109/TIA.2010.2070475.
Published
2023-01-26
Issue
No 3 (2023): Issue № 3
Section
Article