• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.195-203
• /
• 2018

In the variable speed Wind Turbine based on ElectroMagnetic Coupler (WT-EMC), a synchronous generator is coupled directly to the grid. Therefore, like conventional power plants, WT-EMC is able to inherently support grid frequency. However, due to the reduced inertia of the synchronous generator, WT-EMC is expected to be controlled to increase its output power in response to a grid frequency drop to support grid frequency. Similar to the grid frequency support control of Type 3 or Type 4 wind turbine, inertial control and droop control can be used to calculate the WT-EMC additional output power reference according to the synchronous generator speed. In this paper, an experimental platform is built to study the grid frequency support from WT-EMC with inertial control and droop control. Two synchronous generators, driven by two induction motors controlled by two converters, are used to emulate the synchronous generators in conventional power plants and in WT-EMCs respectively. The effectiveness of the grid frequency support from WT-EMC with inertial control and droop control responding to a grid frequency drop is validated by experimental results. The selection of the grid frequency support controller and its gain for WT-EMC is analyzed briefly.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.618-628
• /
• 2016

Active power filter (APF) has been proved as a flexible solution for compensating the harmonic distortion caused by nonlinear loads in power distribution power systems. Digital repetitive control can achieve zero steady-state error tracking of any periodic signal while the sampling points within one repetitive cycle must be a known integer. However, the compensation performance of the APF would be degradation when the grid frequency varies. In this paper, an improved repetitive control scheme with frequency adaptive capability is presented to track any periodic signal with variable grid frequency, where the variable delay items caused by time-varying grid frequency are approximated with Pade approximants. Additionally, the stability criterion of proposed repetitive control scheme is given. A three-phase shunt APF experimental platform with proposed repetitive control scheme is built in our laboratory. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed repetitive control scheme.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.102-112
• /
• 2015

In the Nordic grid, a trend observed the recent years is the increase in grid frequency variations, which means the frequency is outside the normal range (49.9-50.1 Hz) more often. Variations in the grid frequency leads to changes in the speed of rotation of all the turbines connected to the grid, since the speed of rotation is closely related to the grid frequency for synchronous generators. When the speed of rotation changes, this implies that the net torque acting on the rotating masses are changed, and the material of the turbine runners must withstand these changes in torque. Frequency variations thus leads to torque oscillations in the turbine, which become dynamical loads that the runner must be able to withstand. Several new Francis runners have recently experienced cracks in the runner blades due to fatigue, obviously due to the runner design not taking into account the actual loads on the runner. In this paper, the torque oscillations and dynamic loads due to the variations in grid frequency are simulated in a 1D MATLAB program, and measured grid frequency is used as input to the simulation program. The maximum increase and decrease in the grid frequency over a 440 seconds interval have been investigated, in addition to an extreme event where the frequency decreased far below the normal range within a few seconds. The dynamic loading originating from grid frequency variations is qualitatively found by a constructed variable $T_{stress}$, and for the simulations presented here the variations in $T_{stress}$ are found to be around 3 % of the mean value, which is a relatively small dynamic load. The important thing to remember is that these dynamic loads come in addition to all other dynamic loads, like rotor-stator interaction and draft tube surges, and should be included in the design process, if not found to be negligible.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
• /
• v.54 no.12
• /
• pp.609-615
• /
• 2005

A 30kW electrical power conversion system is developed for a variable speed wind turbine. In the wind energy conversion system(WECS) a synchronous generator with field current excitation converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy. As the voltage and the frequency of the generator output vary according to the wind speed, a 6-bridge diode rectifier and a PWM boost chopper is utilized as an ac-dc converter maintaining the constant dc-link voltage with only single switch control. An input current control algorithm for maximum power generation during the variable speed operation is proposed without any usage of speed sensor. Grid connection type PWM inverter converts dc input power to ac output currents into the grid. The active power to the grid is controlled by q-axis current and the reactive power is controlled by d-axis current with appropriate decoupling. The phase angle of utility voltage is detected using software PLL(Phased Locked Loop) in d-q synchronous reference frame. Experimental results from the test of 30kW prototype wind turbine system show that the generator power can be controlled effectively during the variable speed operation without any speed sensor.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.168-174
• /
• 2016

In this paper, current control using PI controller in the synchronous reference frame is analyzed through the relationship among bandwidth, resonance frequency, and sampling frequency in the grid-connected inverter with LCL filter. Stability is investigated by using bode plot in frequency domain and root locus in discrete domain. The feedback variable is the grid current, which is regulated by the PI controller in the synchronous reference frame. System delay is modeled as 1.5Ts, which contains computational and PWM modulator delay. Two resonance frequencies are given at 815 Hz and 3.16 kHz from LCL filter parameters. Sufficient phase and gain margins can be obtained to guarantee stable current control, in case that resonance frequency is above one-sixth of the sampling frequency. Unstable current control is performed when resonance frequency is below one-sixth of the sampling frequency. Analysis results of stability from frequency response and discrete response is the same regardless of resonance frequency. Finally, stability of current control based on theoretical analysis is clearly verified through simulation and experiment in grid-connected inverters with LCL filter.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.161-168
• /
• 2019

This study introduces a new topology to decrease the voltage stress experienced by a 13.56 MHz electrical variable capacitor (EVC) circuit with an asymmetrical switch structure applied to the impedance matching circuit of a radio frequency (RF) plasma system. The method adopts a symmetrical switch structure instead of an asymmetrical one in each of the capacitor's leg in the EVC circuit. The proposed topology successfully reduces voltage stress in the EVC circuit due to the symmetrical charging and discharging mode. This topology can also be applied to the impedance matching circuit of a high-power and high-frequency RF etching system. The target features of the proposed circuit topology are investigated via simulation and experiment. Voltage stress on the switch of the EVC circuit is successfully reduced by more than 40%.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.44-57
• /
• 2019

Recently, the use of LLCL filters for grid inverters has been suggested to give better harmonic attenuation than the commonly used L and LCL filters, particularly around the switching frequency. Nevertheless, this filter is mainly designed for constant switching frequency pulse width modulation (CSF PWM) methods. In variable switching frequency PWM (VSF PWM), the harmonic components are distributed across a wide frequency band which complicates the use of a high order filter, including LCL and LLCL filters. Recently, a confined band variable switching frequency (CB-VSF) PWM method has been proposed and demonstrated to be superior to the conventional constant switching frequency (CSF) PWM in terms of switching losses. However, the applicability of LLCL filters for this type of CB-VSF PWM has not been discussed. In this paper, the authors study the suitability of an LLCL filter for CB-VSF PWM and propose design guidelines for the filter parameters. Using simulation and experimental results, it is demonstrated that the effectiveness of an LLCL filter with CB-VSF PWM depends on the parameters of the filters as well as the designed variable frequency band of the PWM. Simulation results confirm the performance of the suggested LLCL design, which is further validated using a lab scale prototype.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of IIIuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers Conference
• /
• 2002.11a
• /
• pp.303-306
• /
• 2002

This paper presents a novel method for measuring the ground impedance in grounding systems. A square wave current was injected to the main grounding grid through auxiliary electrode, and the test current and ground potential rise(GPR) were measured using the band-pass filter. Ground impedance was calculated from the sinusoidal waveforms of the test current and GPR in frequency range of 20~2100Hz. Also the resistance and reactance component of ground impedance were analyzed.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.65 no.4
• /
• pp.533-538
• /
• 2016

In a power grid that has a high penetration of wind power, the highly-fluctuating output power of wind turbine generators (WTGs) adversely impacts the power quality in terms of the system frequency. This paper proposes a power smoothing scheme of a variable-speed WTG that can smooth its fluctuating output power caused by varying wind speeds, thereby improving system frequency regulation. To achieve this, an additional loop relying on the frequency deviation that operates in association with the maximum power point tracking control loop, is proposed; its control gain is modified with the rotor speed. For a low rotor speed, to ensure the stable operation of a WTG, the gain is set to be proportional to the square of the rotor speed. For a high rotor speed, to improve the power smoothing capability, the control gain is set to be proportional to the cube of the rotor speed. The performance of the proposed scheme is investigated under varying wind speeds for the IEEE 14-bus system using an EMTP-RV simulator. The simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme can mitigate the output power fluctuation of WTGs caused by varying wind speeds by adjusting the control gain depending on the rotor speed, thereby supporting system frequency regulation.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.1265-1274
• /
• 2018

This paper proposes a virtual flux (VF) and positive-sequence power based control strategy to improve the performance of grid-interfaced three-phase voltage source converters against unbalanced and distorted grid conditions. By using a second-order generalized integrator (SOGI) based VF observer, the proposed strategy achieves an AC voltage sensorless and grid frequency adaptive control. Aiming to realize a balanced sinusoidal line current operation, the fundamental positive-sequence component based instantaneous power is utilized as the control variable. Moreover, the fundamental negative-sequence VF feedforward and the harmonic attenuation ability of a sequence component generator are employed to further enhance the unbalance regulation ability and the harmonic tolerance of line currents, respectively. Finally, the proposed scheme is completed by combining the foregoing two elements with a predictive direct power control (PDPC). In order to verify the feasibility and validity of the proposed SOGI-VFPDPC, the scenarios of unbalanced voltage dip, higher harmonic distortion and grid frequency deviation are investigated in simulation and experimental studies. The corresponding results demonstrate that the proposed strategy ensures a balanced sinusoidal line current operation with excellent steady-state and transient behaviors under general grid conditions.