• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2015

A static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) applied to rapidly changing, highly unbalanced loads such as electric arc furnaces (EAFs), requires both positive-sequence and negative-sequence current control, which indicates fast response characteristics and can be controlled independently. Furthermore, a delta-connected STATCOM with cascaded H-bridge configuration accompanying multiple separate DC-sides, should have high performance zero-sequence current control to suppress a phase-to-phase imbalance in DC-side voltages when compensating for unbalanced load. In this paper, actual EAF data is analyzed to reflect on the design of current controllers and a pioneering zero-sequence current controller with a superb transient performance is devised, which generates an imaginary -axis component from the presumed response of forwarded reference. Via simulation and experiments, the performance of the positive, negative, and zero-sequence current control of a cascaded H-bridge STATCOM for EAF is verified.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.262-269
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• 2010

This paper proposes a practical design for a Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel (CHBM) inverter based on Power Electronics Building Blocks (PEBB) and high performance control to improve current control and increase fault tolerance. It is shown that the expansion and modularization characteristics of the CHBM inverter are improved since the individual inverter modules operate more independently, when using the PEBB concept. It is also shown that the performance of current control can be improved with voltage delay compensation and the fault tolerance can be increased by using unbalance three-phase control. The proposed design and control methods are described in detail and the validity of the proposed system is verified experimentally in various industrial fields.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.106-114
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• 2017

In this paper, the Selective Harmonic Mitigation-PWM (SHM-PWM) method is used in single-phase and three-phase Cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) inverters in order to fulfill different power quality standards such as EN 50160, CIGRE WG 36-05, IEC 61000-3-6 and IEC 61000-2-12. Non-equal DC link voltages are used to increase the degrees of freedom for the proposed SHM-PWM technique. In addition, it will be shown that the obtained solutions become continuous and without sudden changes. As a result, the look-up tables can be significantly reduced. The proposed three-phase modulation method can mitigate up to the 50th harmonic from the output voltage, while each switch has just one switching in a fundamental period. In other words, the switching frequency of the power switches are limited to 50 Hz, which is the lowest switching frequency that can be achieved in the multilevel converters, when the optimal selective harmonic mitigation method is employed. In single-phase mode, the proposed method can successfully mitigate harmonics up to the 50th, where the switching frequency is 150 Hz. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is verified by simulations and experiments on a 9-level CHB inverter.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.702-710
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• 2016

Global concern and interest in the safety of nuclear power plants have increased considerably since the Fukushima accident. In the event of a severe accident, the reactor vessel water level cannot be measured. The reactor vessel water level has a direct impact on confirming the safety of reactor core cooling. However, in the event of a severe accident, it may be possible to estimate the reactor vessel water level by employing other information. The cascaded fuzzy neural network (CFNN) model can be used to estimate the reactor vessel water level through the process of repeatedly adding fuzzy neural networks. The developed CFNN model was found to be sufficiently accurate for estimating the reactor vessel water level when the sensor performance had deteriorated. Therefore, the developed CFNN model can help provide effective information to operators in the event of a severe accident.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.12
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• pp.2303-2310
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• 2009

Defense systems are needed to prevent catastrophic failures of a power grid due to cascaded events. Cascaded events can be attributed to improper operations of protective relays. Especially, it is the most dangerous problem that trips of backup relays by overload. In this paper, a new algorithm of predicting Zone 3 acting time of distance relay is proposed using the real time synchronized data from PMUs on the transmission system when the power system is danger. In the proposed, some part of the power system are outage when some unexpected fault in the power system, the algorithm will monitor the impedance locus of distance relay. At this time, if there is a big change of Impedance locus, the algorithm will calculate the Zone 3 acting time of the distance relay by the over load. In the case studies, the estimation and simulation network have been testified and analysed in Matlab Simulink.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.593-597
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• 2003

Multilevel power conversion technology has received increasing attention recently for high power applications. The converters with the technology are suitable for high voltage and high power applications due to their ability to synthesize waveforms with better harmonic spectrum and apply for the high voltage equipment with a limited voltage rating of device. In the family of multilevel inverters, the topologies based on cascaded H-bridges are particularly attractive because of their modularity and simplicity of control. This paper presents multilevel inverter with cascaded H-bridge for large-power motor drives. The main features of this drive 1) reduce harmonic injection 2) can generate near-sinusoidal voltages, 3) have almost no common-mode voltage; 4) are low dv/dt at output voltage; 5)do not generate significant over-voltage on motor terminal; The topology of the developed product is presented and the feasibility study of the inverter on 3300v 1MVA 7-level H-bridge type was tarried out with experiments.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.334-340
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• 2004

In this paper, an efficient switching pattern to equalize the size of transformer is proposed for a multi-level inverter employing cascaded transformers. It is based on the prior selected harmonic elimination PWM(SHEPWM) method. Because the maximum magnetic flux imposed on each transformer becomes exactly equal each to each, all transformers can be designed with the same size regardless of their position. Therefore, identical full-bridge inverter units can be utilized, thus improving modularity and manufacturability. The fundamental idea of the proposed switching pattern is illustrated and then analyzed theoretically. The validity of the proposed switching strategy is verified by experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.133-145
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• 2009

In this paper a modular high performance MV-to-LV rectifier based on a cascaded H-bridge rectifier is presented. The proposed rectifier can directly connect to the medium voltage levels and provide a low-voltage and highly-stable DC interface with the consumer applications. The input stage eliminates the necessity for heavy and bulky step-down transformers. It corrects the input power factor and maintains the voltage balance among the individual DC buses. The second stage includes the high frequency parallel-output DC/DC converters which prepares the galvanic isolation, regulates the output voltage, and attenuates the low frequency voltage ripple ($2f_{line}$) generated by the first stage. The parallel-output converters can work in interleaving mode and the active load-current sharing technique is utilized to balance the load power among them. The detailed analysis for modeling and control of the proposed structure is presented. The validity and performance of the proposed topology is verified by simulation and experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.512-521
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• 2016

Cascaded H-bridge multilevel (CHBML) inverters usually include a large number of isolated dc-voltage sources. Some faults in the dc-voltage sources result in unequal cell dc voltages. Unfortunately, the conventional phase-shifted carrier (PSC) PWM method that is widely used for CHBML inverters cannot eliminate low frequency sideband harmonics when the cell dc voltages are not equal. This paper analyzes the principle of sideband harmonic elimination, and proposes an improved PSCPWM that can eliminate low frequency sideband harmonics under the condition of unequal dc voltages. In order to calculate the carrier phases, it is necessary to solve transcendental equations for low frequency sideband harmonic elimination. Therefore, an approach based on the artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm is presented in this paper. The proposed PSCPWM method enhances the reliability of CHBML inverters. The proposed PSCPWM is not limited to CHBML inverters. It can also be applied to other types of multilevel inverters. Simulation and experimental result obtained from a prototype CHBML inverter verify the theoretical analysis and the achievements made in this paper.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1186-1194
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• 2017

This paper proposes an improved low frequency Selective Harmonic Mitigation-PWM (SHM-PWM) technique. The proposed method mitigates the low order harmonics of the output voltage up to the $50^{th}$ harmonic well and satisfies the grid codes EN 50160 and CIGRE-WG 36-05. Using a modified criterion for the switching angles, the range of the modulation index for non-linear SHM equations is improved, without increasing the switching frequency of the CHB converter. Due to the low switching frequency of the CHB converter, mitigating the harmonics of the converter up to the $50^{th}$ order and finding a wider modulation index range, the size and cost of the passive filters can be significantly reduced with the proposed technique. Therefore, the proposed technique is more efficient than the conventional SHM-PWM. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, a 7-level Cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter is utilized for the study. Simulation and experimental results confirm the validity of the above claims.