• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.90-96
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• 2011

Congestion management is one of the most challenging aspects in the recently deregulated electricity markets. FACTS devices have been shown to be an efficient alternative to control the flow of power in lines, resulting in increased loadability, lower system loss and a reduced cost of production. In this paper, the application of a static series synchronous compensator (SSSC) for the purpose of congestion management of power systems has been studied. A sensitivity-based analysis method is utilized for effective determination of the SSSC location in an electricity market. The method is topology based and it is independent of the system operation point. A power injection p-model is developed for the SSSC in this study. Numerical results based on the modified IEEE 14 bus system with/without the SSSC demonstrate the feasibility as well as the effectiveness of the SSSC for congestion management in a network. The results obtained when using the SSSC to improve system transfer capability and congestion management is encouraging.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.399-409
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• 2012

In DC-DC Buck converters with average current mode control, the current loop compensator provides additional design freedom to enhance the converter current loop performance. On the other hand, the current loop circuit elements append substantial amount of complexity to not only the inner current loop but also the outer voltage loop, which makes it demanding to quantify circuit and operating parameter effects on the small-signal dynamics of such converters. Despite the difficulty, it is shown in this paper that parameter effects can be analyzed satisfactorily by using an existing small-signal model in conjunction with a newly proposed simplified alternative. As a result of the study, new insight into average current mode control is uncovered and discussed quantitatively. Measurable experimental results on a prototype averaged-current-mode-controlled Buck converter are provided to facilitate the analytical study with good correlation.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.74-81
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• 2011

The cutoff frequency of the output LC filters of PWM inverters limits the control bandwidth of the converter system while it attenuates voltage ripples that are caused by inverter switching activities. For a selected cutoff frequency of an output LC filter, an infinite number of L-C combinations is possible. This paper analyses the characteristics of output LC filters for PWM inverters terms of the L-C combinations. Practical circuit conditions such as no-loads, full resistive-loads, and inductive-load conditions are considered in the analysis. This paper proposes a LC filter design method for PWM inverters considering both the voltage ynamics and he inverter stack size. An experimental PWM inverter system based on the proposed output LC lter design uideline is built and tested.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2011

This paper proposes a method for comparing and evaluating anti-windup proportional-integral (PI) control strategies. The so-called PI plane is used and its coordinate is composed of the error and the integral state. In addition, an anti-windup PI controller with integral state prediction is proposed. The anti-windup scheme can be easily analyzed and evaluated on the PI plane in detail. Representative anti-windup methods are experimentally applied to the speed control of a vector-controlled induction motor driven by a pulse width modulated (PWM) voltage-source inverter (VSI). The experimental results compare the anti-windup PI controllers. It is empathized that the initial value of the integral state at the beginning of the linear range dominates the control performance in terms of overshoot and settling time.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2011

In this paper, a function model of back-to-back PWM converters, based on the switching function, is developed for simplified simulation of power electronic application systems. For the function model, the PWM power switches are represented by dependent power sources. By using the proposed function model, the computer memory and the run time required for the simulation of power circuits can be significantly reduced. It is shown that the simulation results generated from the function models are almost the same as the ones obtained by using the switching power device model.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.28-36
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• 2011

In this paper, a three phase cycloconverter type high frequency AC link inverter is discussed. The configuration consists of a high frequency full-bridge inverter and a high frequency transformer followed by a three phase cycloconverter whose switch is composed of anti-series connected MOSFETs with a common source. A simple digital control strategy based on space vector modulation (SVM) and repetitive control for the cycloconverter is proposed although its input voltage is a high frequency AC pulse. The operation principle of the proposed control strategy is analyzed and the equivalent working modes during one interval are also presented. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified through Matlab/Simulink simulations and experiments on a 1.45kW prototype.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.599-605
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• 2011

This paper proposes a gain scheduling method that improves the stability of grid-connected systems employing an LCL-filter. The method adjusts the current controller gain through an estimation of the grid impedance in order to reduce the resonance that occurs when using an LCL-filter to reduce switching harmonics. An LCL-filter typically has a frequency spectrum with a resonance peak. A change of the grid-impedance results in a change to the resonant frequency. Therefore an LCL-filter needs a damping method that is applicable when changing the grid impedance for stable system control. The proposed method instantaneously estimates the grid impedance and observes the resonant frequency at the same time. Consequently, the proposed method adjusts the current controller gain using a gain scheduling method in order to guarantee current controller stability when a change in the resonant frequency occurs. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been verified by simulations and experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.294-304
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• 2012

This paper proposes a fuzzy speed tracking controller and a fuzzy rotor angular acceleration observer for a surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor (SPMSM) based on the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model. The proposed observer-based controller is robust to load torque variations since it utilizes rotor angular acceleration information instead of the load torque value. Linear matrix inequality (LMI) sufficient conditions are given to compute the gain matrices of the speed tracking controller and the observer. In addition, it is mathematically verified that the proposed observer-based control system is asymptotically stable. Simulation and experimental results are presented to confirm that the proposed control algorithm assures a better transient behavior and less sensitivity under model parameter variations than the conventional PI control method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.285-293
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• 2012

Multilevel inverters have gained attention in high-power applications due to their numerous advantages in comparison with conventional two-level inverters. In this paper a simplified Space-Vector Modulation (SVM) algorithm for a three-level Neutral-Point Clamped (NPC) inverter is implemented on a Freescale$^{(R)}$ DSP56F8037. The algorithm is based on a simplification of the space-vector diagram for a three-level inverter so that it can be used with a two-level inverter. Once the simplification has been achieved, calculation of the dwell times and the switching sequences are carried out in the same way as for the two-level SVM method. Details of the hardware design are included. Experimental results are analyzed to validate the performance of the simplified algorithm.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.418-423
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• 2011

This paper presents a simulation model and a parameter identification scheme of an induction motor drive for electric vehicle. The induction motor in automotive applications should operate in very high efficiency and achieve the maximum-torque-per-ampere (MTPA) feature even with saturated magnetic flux under very high torque. The indirect vector control which is typically adopted in traction drive system requires precise information of motor parameters, particularly rotor time constants. This work models an induction motor considering magnetic saturation and proposes an empirical identification method using the current controller in the synchronous reference frame. The proposed method is applied to a 22kW-rated induction motor for electric vehicle.