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In the electrical engineering field, there are two types of system which can potentially generate resonance under excitation, one is the electrical system with inductor and capacitor, the other is the mechanical system with spring-mass characteristic. A lot of research on active damping control algorithms for grid-connected inverters with LCL filter and inverter-driven machine with multirotating masses have been demonstrated. However, research works for these two systems were carried out independently and there is a lack of systematic comparison for modelling and control between these two systems. This article will unify the mathematical models and active damping control algorithms for these two systems. It is found that the mathematical models and control structures are fundamentally the same. The existing or future potential active damping control algorithms used in electrical system can be applied in mechanical system and vice versa to avoid reinventing the wheel. Parameter sensitivity analysis for controller and feedback gains was performed for electrical systems in the discrete z-domain. For mechanical systems, it is found that a substantial electromagnetic torque overshoot was introduced when applying the active damping control and it was analyzed quantitatively with various damping coefficients to guide the inverter design. Finally, experimental tests were done to verify the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High penetration of renewable energies through fast-response power converters results in a considerable displacement of conventional synchronous generators and losing of system inertia for frequency control. Modular multilevel converters (MMCs) can be employed serving as an interface between the large-scale renewable generation and power grids. In a microgrid with high shares of renewables integrating through MMCs, submodule (SM) capacitors can be used as energy storage to provide a degree of synthetic inertia for system frequency support. This paper quantitatively exploits the MMC synthetic inertia in a microgrid with flexible renewable penetration levels. An MMC inertia coefficient concept is proposed. It is mainly affected by the penetration ratio, the SM capacitance, and the modulation index of an MMC, with the system operation constraints. According to the analysis, a substantial portion of system inertia can be provided by properly designed MMCs. Detailed MMC frequency control loops are presented. The capacitor average voltage is proportionally linked to the frequency deviation, in order to flexibly adjust the capacitor energy during frequency events. The MMC output active power is deliberately and simultaneously regulated according to the capacitor energy change rate. By controlling the MMC capacitor voltage, dc side power, and output active power, an amount of energy can be released or absorbed by SM capacitors to improve the system frequency response during the frequency event transients, while the renewable generation is scarcely influenced. The proposed concept is experimentally verified and the results show that, with proper system parameters and control loops, the line frequency deviation and the rate of change of frequency can be significantly reduced. Good agreements of the system frequency characteristics have been achieved between the theoretical calculation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct modulation principle is widely used in modular multilevel converters (MMCs) for its simplicity and natural stability. However, it results in strong active and reactive power coupling. This paper carefully analyzes and identifies four power coupling paths and two power influence factors with the direct modulation principle. Full power decoupling of the MMC can be realized by cutting off the derived coupling paths and compensating the influence factors. However, this will further deteriorate the already poor damping of the MMC and significantly increase dc-bus current fluctuations. To solve this problem, the sources resulting in poor damping are identified and then a new closed-loop dc-bus current controller is incorporated into the control system. Finally, the proposed power decoupling strategy with the newly designed current controller realizes completely decoupled power regulation, avoids overload operation, and obviously improves the dynamic performance of the MMC. Furthermore, it increases the stability of the MMC system under all possible operation conditions. The proposed control strategy is confirmed by experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is very attractive in a high-voltage dc (HVdc) transmission system due to its high modularity and scalability. It is also a promising candidate for medium-voltage applications. An MMC has many power devices that lead to a relatively low reliability based only on a direct failure rate calculation. The reliability of an MMC can be improved by redundant designs. Lots of redundant designs and strategies have been proposed in recent years, while their reliability improvements are hardly quantified in existing literature. In practice, reliability improvement with constraint costs is a challenge. In view of these, this paper proposes a reliability and cost assessment scheme for MMC redundant designs and strategies. Reliability and cost are quantified for comparison purposes. A medium-voltage application is used to demonstrate the reliability and cost assessment scheme. The reliability analysis is based on a combinatorial model and the Poisson process model. The cost analysis focuses on capital cost and power loss cost. The proposed reliability and cost analysis scheme provides a guideline for MMC redundant design and redundant strategy selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel high-efficiency resonant light emitting diode (LED) backlight driver with passive current balancing and dimming is proposed and analyzed in this paper. The proposed LED driver achieves uniform brightness of each LED string by the charge balance of the resonant capacitor, which benefits from high efficiency. By controlling the output current of one LED string, the output currents of other LED strings can be controlled via current balancing of resonant capacitors, which makes its control simple. The proposed LED driver uses only one active switch, which decreases circuit volume and simplifies the control. Furthermore, a wide load range can be achieved by controlling the turn-on duty ratio of the single power switch of the LED driver with a fixed frequency. Finally, a prototype of a high-dimming-ratio small-size three-string LED driver is provided to verify the studied results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A high-performance three-phase pulse width modulation (PWM) converter with reduced dc-link capacitor under unbalanced ac voltage conditions is proposed in this paper. The unique feature of the converter lies in that sinusoidal symmetrical ac currents and ripple free dc voltage can be achieved simultaneously without using a bulky capacitor, which was thought to be a dilemma in the past. The control scheme is implemented in an α–β frame, so the complex rotate transformations are avoided, and it does not require the extraction of positive and negative sequence currents, which simplifies the control algorithm. A two-quadrant operation active power compensator together with its controller is developed to suppress the voltage ripple in the dc-link. Compared with the passive compensation method, the compensator is equipped with a smaller capacitor to reduce the system size, weight, and cost. Moreover, the compensator could be integrated with the conventional three-phase three-leg PWM converter seamlessly. The effectiveness of the proposed control schemes is verified by the experiment results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a novel dual-input matrix converter (DIMC) to integrate two three-phase ac type energy resources to a power grid. The proposed matrix converter is developed based on the traditional indirect matrix converter under reverse power flow operation mode, but with its six-switch voltage source converter replaced by a nine-switch configuration. With the additional three switches, the proposed DIMC can provide six input terminals, which make it possible to integrate two independent ac sources into a single grid-tied power electronics interface. The proposed converter has input-to-output voltage boost capability since power flows from the converter's voltage source side to its current source side. Commanded currents can be extracted from the two input sources to the grid. The proposed control and modulation schemes guarantee sinusoidal input and output waveforms as well as unity input power factors. The simulation and experimental results using a laboratory prototype are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control and modulation schemes for the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper concentrates on the design, control, and implementation of an LCL-filter-based shunt active power filter (SAPF), which can effectively compensate for harmonic currents produced by nonlinear loads in a three-phase three-wire power system. With an LCL filter added at its output, the proposed SAPF offers superior switching harmonic suppression using much reduced passive filtering elements. Its output currents thus have high slew rate for tracking the targeted reference closely. Smaller inductance of the LCL filter also means smaller harmonic voltage drop across the passive output filter, which in turn minimizes the possibility of overmodulation, particularly for cases where high modulation index is desired. These advantages, together with overall system stability, are guaranteed only through proper consideration of critical design and control issues, like the selection of LCL parameters, interactions between resonance damping and harmonic compensation, bandwidth design of the closed-loop system, and active damping implementation with fewer current sensors. These described design concerns, together with their generalized design procedure, are applied to an analytical example, and eventually verified by both simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]