Nine-Switch Multiport Converter Applied to Battery-Powered Tramway with Reduced Leakage Current

Electrically powered rail transport is constantly increasing in order to meet the high demand for people and cargo transportation, whether with high-speed trains, subways, suburban trains, or electric tramways. In these types of applications, power electronics solutions such as integrated and efficient converters with multiple functionalities are highly desirable. Among these converters, one family stands out for its ability to generating multiple output terminals with reduced number of switches, namely, the nine-switch converter. Therefore, this paper proposes a multiport converter solution based on the nine-switch converter topology that integrates multiple functionalities with a reduced switch count. The converter, responsible for the power drive of the electric tramway, is exclusively powered by a battery. Moreover, it presents a strategically connected passive filter that provides a low-impedance path for high-frequency currents, avoiding leakage of the current circulation in the induction motor. Its phase-shift pulse-width modulation is capable of reducing the high-frequency components of the current delivered by the battery. The energy storage system is designed to optimize the system capacity based on the known real load profile of a public tramway, with a maximum power of 532.1 kW. The control system is designed and applied considering the battery as the energy source. Simulations were performed in the Matlab/Simulink environment to validate the proposed system, along with experiments using a reduced-scale prototype controlled by the dSPACE platform. The results present the converter’s proper operation with integration of the source and AC load, presenting improved features compared with conventional solutions in terms of reduced leakage of the current circulation from the AC load and reduced battery current ripple.