• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.368-376
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• 2012

This paper deals with an optimization approach of 3D space placement of power components under volume and thermal constraints. It consists in optimizing semiconductors positions on a heat sink by respecting the components junction temperatures and minimizing the heat sink size. The aim is to remove risks on the 3D converter components placement and ensure their effective integration before carrying out the first physical prototype. This approach is based on coupling an optimization environment with a thermal finite element simulation tool. A pre-sizing step using analytical models is performed to set the optimization computations coupled to numerical simulation.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.357-362
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• 2012

In this paper, a power electronic converter which is composed of two converters - bidirectional AC/DC converter and Series Active Power Filter (SAPF), is discussed. Structural schemas and ways of operation of control systems of converters, which are used to eliminate non sinusoidal parts of the network source voltage, are presented. At the same time, the control used stabilizes the value of the voltage feeding the load. Taking in consideration the combined functions which the device executes, it may be called Unified Voltage Conditioner - UVC.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.503-508
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• 2012

Tracking the Maximum Power Point (MPP) of a photovoltaic (PV) array is usually an essential part of a PV system. The problem addressed by Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) techniques is to find the voltage $V_{MPP}$ or current $I_{MPP}$ at which a PV array should operate to generate the maximum power output $P_{MPP}$ under a given temperature and irradiance. MPPT control methods such as the perturb and observe method and the incremental conductance method require a microprocessor or DSP to determine if the duty cycle should be increased or not. This paper proposes a simple and fast analog MPPT method. The proposed control scheme tracks the MPP very quickly and its hardware implementation is simple when compared with the conventional techniques. The new algorithm can successfully track the MPP even in the case of rapidly changing atmospheric conditions. In addition, it has higher efficiency than ordinary algorithms.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.551-560
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• 2011

This paper proposes a grid-tied power conditioning system for the fuel cell power generation, which consists of a 2-stage DC-DC converter and a 3-phase PWM inverter. The 2-stage DC-DC converter boosts the fuel cell stack voltage of 26-48V up to 400V, using a hard-switching boost converter and a high-frequency unregulated LLC resonant converter. The operation of the proposed power conditioning system was verified through simulations with PSCAD/EMTDC software. Based on the simulation results, a laboratory experimental set-up was built with a 1.2kW PEM fuel-cell stack to verify the feasibility of hardware implementation. The developed power conditioning system shows a high efficiency of 91%, which is a very positive result for the commercialization.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.477-486
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• 2012

This paper proposes a novel current control scheme for vector-controlled induction machine (IM) drives in the overmodulation (OVM) range, with which the voltage utilization of the voltage-source inverter (VSI) can be maximized. In the OVM region, the original voltage reference is modified by changing its magnitude and angle, which causes the motor current to be distorted, resulting in a deterioration of the current control performance. To meet with this situation, the harmonic components in the feedback currents should be eliminated before being input to the PI current controllers. For this, a composite observer is applied to extract the fundamental and harmonic components from the distorted currents, which gives a good performance without a delay and the effect of a fundamental frequency variation. In addition, through a detailed analysis of the response of the PI current controllers in the OVM range, the effectiveness of using the composite observer is demonstrated. Simulation and experimental results for a 3-kW induction motor drive are shown to verify the validity of the proposed method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.487-494
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• 2012

A new low cost high power density photovoltaic power conditioning system (PV PCS) with an energy storage system is proposed in this paper. Its high power density and cost effectiveness can be achieved through the unification of the maximum power point tracker and the battery charger/discharger. Despite the reduced power stage, the proposed system can achieve the same performance in terms of maximum power point tracking and battery charging/discharging as the conventional system. When a utility power failure happens, the proposed system cannot perform maximum power point tracking at the UPS mode. However, the predetermined battery voltage near the maximum power point of the PV array can effectively generate a reasonable PV power even at the UPS mode. Therefore, it features a simpler structure, less mass, lower cost, and fewer devices. Finally, to confirm the operation, validity, and features of the proposed system, a theoretical analysis and experimental results from a single phase AC 220Vrms/1.5kW prototype are presented.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.333-343
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• 2012

This paper proposes a strategy of flicker mitigation for doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbine systems. In the weak grid system where the grid impedance ratio is low, the reactive power compensation only cannot suppress the flicker sufficiently due to the limited power capacity of the converters or the DFIG. For the full suppression of flickers, the active power smoothening using the energy storage system (ESS) needs to be utilized together with the reactive power compensation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by PSCAD/EMTDC simulation results for a 2[MW] DFIG wind turbine system and by experimental results for a 3[kW] wind turbine simulator.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.326-332
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• 2012

This paper proposes a simple active damping algorithm for small-scale wind power systems with an LCL filter. Compared to an L filter or an LC filter, an LCL filter can decrease the harmonics induced by low switching frequencies and produce a satisfactory grid-side current using a comparatively low inductance. Additional active damping of the filter resonance is necessary when an LCL filter is used. This paper introduces an active damping method using a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) filter to improve performance without additional sensors or complexity. Experimental results are shown to verify the validity of the proposed algorithm as an active damping method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.458-467
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• 2012

Single phase converters suffer from ripple power pulsating at twice the line frequency. The ripple power is usually absorbed by a bulky capacitor bank and/or a dedicative LC resonant link, resulting in a low power density and a high cost. An alternative solution is using a dc link active power filter (APF) to direct the pulsating power into another energy-storage component. The main dc link filter capacitor can then be reduced substantially. Based on a mainstream dc APF topology, this paper proposed a new control strategy incorporating both dual-loop control and repetitive control. The circuit parameter design is also re-examined from a control point of view. The proposed APF scheme has better control performance, and is more suited for high power applications since it works in CCM and with a low switching frequency.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2011

In this paper, a new soft switching three phase inverter with a quasi-resonant dc-link is presented. The proposed inverter has a dc-link switch and an auxiliary switch. The inverter switches are turned on and off under zero voltage switching condition and all auxiliary circuit switches and diodes are also soft switched. The control utilizes PWM and the auxiliary switch does not require an isolated gate drive circuit. In this paper, the operation analysis and design considerations of the proposed soft switching inverter are discussed. The presented experimental results of a realized prototype confirm the theoretical analysis.