The HVDC system has many significant benefits and is widely used around the world. The protection of HVDC system is always an issue, which should be solved. This paper presents the working principle of different protection schemes. The advantages and disadvantages of these protection schemes are also introduced. In order to solve the HVDC fault, two protection strategies are proposed. One design focusses on the topologies of the HVDC breaker in the HVDC line, such as all-solid HVDC breaker, resonant HVDC breaker, and hybrid HVDC breaker. The other design is from the viewpoint of converter topology, which has two types. One type generates the counter-emf in arms, such as full bridge MMC, hybrid MMC, and clamp-double MMC. The other type cuts off the current path from the AC side to the DC side, which is also introduced in this paper. Some performances of these topologies are compared, such as switching time and efficiency.
One of the emerging research topics in the propulsion drive of the electric vehicles is the improvement in the efficiency of its component parts, namely, the propulsion motor and the associated inverter. This paper is focused on the efficiency of the inverter and analyzes the improvement that follows from the replacement of the silicon (Si) IGBT devices with silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs. To this end, the paper starts by deriving the voltage-current solicitations of the inverter over the working torque-speed plane of the propulsion motor. Then, a proper model of the power losses in the inverter over a supply period of the motor is formulated for the two types of device, including the integrated freewheeling diode. By putting together the voltage-current solicitations and the device power losses, the efficiency maps of the Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET inverters are calculated and compared over the torque-speed plane. The results for the Si IGBT inverter are supported by measurements executed on a marketed C-segment compact electric car, while the SiC MOSFET loss model is validated by an on-purpose built test bench. Finally, the overall efficiency of the propulsion drive is calculated by accounting for the motor efficiency. Main outcomes of the paper is a quantitative evaluation of both the improvement in the efficiency achievable with the SiC MOSFETs and the ensuing increase in the electric car range.
This paper presents the experimental verification of a 2 kW battery energy storage system (BESS). The BESS comprises a full-bridge bidirectional isolated dc-dc converter and a PWM converter that is intended for integration with a photovoltaic (PV) generator, resulting in leveling of the intermittent output power from the PV generator at the utility side. A phase-shift controller is also employed to manage the charging and discharging operations of the BESS based on PV output power and battery voltage. Moreover, a current controller that uses the d-q synchronous reference frame is proposed to regulate the dc voltage at the high-voltage side (HVS) to ensure that the voltage ratio of the HVS with low-voltage side (LVS) is equivalent to the transformer turns ratio. The proposed controllers allow fast response to changes in real power requirements and results in unity power factor current injection at the utility side. In addition, the efficient active power injection is achieved as the switching losses are minimized. The peak efficiency of the bidirectional isolated dc-dc converter is measured up to 95.4% during battery charging and 95.1% for battery discharging.
The tracking of the maximum power point (MPP) of a photovoltaic (PV) solar panel is an important part of a PV generation chain. In order to track maximum power from the solar arrays, it is necessary to control the output impedance of the PV panel, so that the circuit can be operated at its Maximum Power Point (MPP), despite the unavoidable changes in the climate conditions such as temperature and Irradiance. A new MPPT analog technique to track the Maximum Power Point (MPP) of PV arrays is proposed. This new technique uses simple and classical functions of electronic circuits. An Off-Grid PV system was considered to apply and validate the proposed new technique. The entire circuit was implemented in circuit-oriented simulator Proteus-ISIS. We present the results associated with the design, the realization, and the experimentation of a PV system equipped with a new analog MPPT command. The obtained results have shown good efficiency of analog technique (more than 98.5%). The second part of the paper consists of the description of the design and the realization of the novel analog MPPT integrated chip. The integrated circuit (IC) was designed and realized using HV CMOS technology 0.35-µm.
High-voltage converter employing IGCT switches (VDC=2800 V) for traction application is presented. Such a power traction drive operates with an unstable input voltage over 2000⋯4000 V DC and with an output power up to 1200 kW. The original power circuit of the high-voltage converter is demonstrated. Development of the attractive approach to designing the low-loss snubber circuits of the high-frequency IGCT switches is proposed. It is established on the complex multilevel analysis of the transient phenomena and power losses. The essential characteristics of the critical parameters under transient modes and the relation between the snubber circuit parameters and the losses are discussed. Experimental results for the prototype demonstrate the properties of new power circuit. The test results confirm the proposed high-voltage converter performance capability as well as verifying the suitability of the conception for its use in the Russian suburban train power system and other high-voltage applications.
