PELS DLs

Medium-voltage (MV) grid-connected solid-state-transformer (SST) based fast-charging (FC)  stations provide several merits in terms of improved efficiency, power density, current limiting capability, etc. However, the propositions in literature are either not bidirectional (to simultaneously support V2G and G2V) or are unable to interface multiple types of plug-in electric-vehicles (PEVs), which are not able to meet the expectations of future fast-charging infrastructures. The fast-charging solutions available commercially are mostly for interfacing with the low voltage grid, and are unable to connect multiple type of PEVs. In this lecture, a futuristic  MV grid-connected public multi-port FC/dC station is presented which not only resembles a conventional vehicle refuelling station’s functionality by simultaneously interfacing all three types of PEV categories (heavy or hPEVs, medium or mPEVs and light or lPEVs), but also facilitates bidirectional power flow for V2G applications. The modulation, operation and control schemes of the front-end (FE) MVAC-LVDC single-stage conversion and back-end (BE) DC-DC conversion of the proposed architecture are presented in details. Real-time digital-simulator (RTDS) based  Hardware-in-loop (HIL) test results for full-scale 22 kV, 1 MVA architecture’s bidirectional operation verifies the proposed operation and controller for full-scale operation. The architecture facilitates simultaneous FC/dC of 1 hPEV within 49.5 min, 2 mPEVs within 28 min and 4 lPEVs within 16 min, while adhering closely to the prescribed charging/discharging schedules of each  PEV. Finally, a proportionally scaled down 1 kV, 13.2 kVA experimental verification validates the architecture’s performance during drastic net power flow change conditions and exhibits a peak efficiency of 96.4% with a power density of 3.2 kVA/L. A comprehensive benchmarking of the proposed architecture with commercially available FC products is also presented. 

The electric power system is going through an unprecedented transformation and related challenges in the implementation of smart grids. The smart grid is based on the flexible electrical power system that coordinates different energy resources and loads with the aim of delivering sustainable, economical and reliable electrical supply to the loads in an efficient manner. In this presentation, a plug and play type autonomous-microgrid system formation is proposed. Multiple distributed generating sources and loads interaction is considered pertaining to the stability of the micro-grid. The proposed method enables communication-less operation of each of the elements of the micro-grid system. It is also considered that the sources are of different power capacity as can be seen in a typical autonomous micro-grid system. Spatial Repetitive Controller (SRC) is proposed to control each of the distributed generating sources in a decentralized manner to stabilize the overall micro-grid system. The proposed system considers sudden change in load as well as other distributed generators conditions like a true plug and play operation. A novel signature frequency voltage injection method is proposed to identify the presence of special distributed generator and operation of backup distributed generators. The implemented control architecture also ensures stability of the micro-grid fundamental frequency even in the case of dynamic conditions unlike the traditional droop-control method. A detailed experimental study is carried out and the experimental results presented show the efficacy of the proposed system.

Renewable energy sources (RESs) have been receiving significant attention recently worldwide as a sustainable alternative type of energy supply in the energy mix. Inverters are being used to convert the dc voltage into ac voltage before being injected into the grid or isolated loads.

In this presentation, a novel current control technique is proposed to control both active and

reactive power flow from a renewable energy source feeding a micro-grid system through a single-phase parallel connected inverter. The parallel connected inverter ensures active and reactive power flow from the grid with low current THD even in the presence of non-linear load. A p-q theory-based approach is used to find the reference current of the parallel connected converter to ensure desired operating conditions at the grid terminal. The proposed current controller is simple to implement and gives superior performance over the conventional current controllers such as rotating frame PI controller or stationary frame Proportional Resonant (PR) controller. The stability of the proposed controller is ensured by direct Lyapunov method. A new technique based on the Spatial Repetitive Controller (SRC) is also proposed to improve the performance of the current controller by estimating the grid and other periodic disturbances. Detailed experimental results are presented to show the efficacy of the proposed current control scheme along with the proposed non-linear controller to control the active and reactive power flow in a single-phase micro-grid under different operating conditions.

Renewable energy sources (RESs) have been receiving significant attention recently worldwide as a sustainable alternative type of energy supply in the energy mix. Inverters are being used to convert the dc voltage into ac voltage before being injected into the grid or isolated loads.

In this presentation, a control strategy for a single-phase series connected inverter with the

micro-grid is proposed to interface AC loads not only to regulate the load voltage under voltage disturbances but also, to control the load power drawn from the micro-grid. The inverter compensating voltage works in such a way that, irrespective of any type of disturbances in the micro-grid voltage (such as sag, swell or harmonic distortions), the load voltage is maintained at its rated voltage level with low THD in voltage. The proposed control strategy also facilitates a specific amount of active power flow (from renewable energy source) to the load irrespective of the micro-grid voltage condition. The rest of the load power is supplied by the micro-grid. To facilitate this control strategy a Spatial Repetitive Controller (SRC) is proposed and implemented in micro-grid phase (q ) domain to make the controller independent of the micro-grid frequency. The proposed controller ensures dynamic stability of the system even if there is a sudden change in the micro-grid frequency. Detailed experimental results are presented to show the efficacy of the proposed series inverter system along with the controller under different operating conditions

This presentation will cover industry expectations for engineers specialized in the power electronics and related fields. Dr. Singh will cover his own career journey starting from his technical education and how he navigated difficulties and failures in life. Starting from a humble farming/agriculture background in India and rising to John Deere Technical Fellow in Power Electronics wasn't an easy journey, there are many tips that Dr. Singh could provide to the aspiring power electronics experts presently enrolled in the graduate programs or in their early career in industry. Often Dr. Singh gets questions related to should students stay in the core areas of engineering or quit core engineering profession for so called/perceived more lucrative career opportunities in the computer science and information technology fields. Dr. Singh plans to cover this topic to clear doubts hovering in the young minds. This talk includes some project examples that were of high risk and high visibility, and failure wasn’t an option for Dr. Singh, therefore there are a number of lessons to be learned from Singh inducing sharing of information that could help young professionals in their efforts to navigate through difficulties and uncertainties. Last phase of the lecture will be used for open ended Q&A and interactions with attendees.

This presentation covers control algorithms for active filter (AF). A three-phase insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) based current controlled voltage source inverter (CC-VSI) with a DC bus capacitor can be used as an AF. There are many control algorithms for the AF such as reactive power control, active power control, power-balance control, direct and quadrature (d-q) model-based control systems, etc. It is noted that most existing feedforward control methods of the AF system result in switching notches (sharp-rising ripples) in the supply current during transitions of the stepped waveshape nonlinear load current. Through laboratory experimentation, it is demonstrated that the direct current control method, which works on the principle of feedback, eliminates switching notches in supply currents and locks sinusoidally shaped three-phase supply currents in-phase with the supply voltages. Use of wide bandgap (WBG) devices will also be discussed as WBG devices offer significant potential to miniaturize AF hardware.

In this lecture a broad review of vehicles for farming operation will be given starting from tillage to crop harvesting. Agriculture and farming vehicles that have significant use of power electronics will be covered such as Exact Emerge Planter for seeding operation. This presentation will cover how power electronics supports crop-care system to exactly apply prescription such as fertilizers, pesticides, fungicide, etc. Idea is to create awareness that power electronics professionals could enable increased productivity so that by 2050 over 9.5 billion could have food, shelter, and an efficient transportation system. This talk will also cover how vehicle electrification enables many functions, forms, and features in off- and on-highway vehicles that were not cost- and space-effective possible without SiC and GaN devices.

This presentation will cover publicly known information on the 200 kW 1050 VDC silicon carbide (SiC) inverter technology development project in John Deere. The SiC inverter converts vehicle engine power into electrical power needed for the permanent-magnet-motor based electric powertrain used in heavy-duty construction and mining vehicles. The presentation will cover design, development, and test verification of WBG technology deployed in the successful realization of a power-dense (43 kW/Liter) high-temperature (suitable for 115°C coolant) high-efficiency (> 98% over entre range of coolant) SiC dual-inverter.

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are the main infrastructures in the microgrids to ensure power balance and stable operation, as well as in the utility grid to enhance flexibility and stability. Bi-directional DC-DC converters are the key elements in BESS, which interface batteries and DC bus for power transfer. In this lecture, a comprehensive review for isolated bi-directional DC-DC converters is presented. The requirements of BESS on isolated bidirectional DC-DC converters with high efficiency and high power density are introduced. Two major solutions of isolated bidirectional DC-DC converters, CLLC resonance converter and dual-active-bridge (DAB) converter, are investigated and compared, including modeling methods, control strategies and design considerations with the use of SiC and GaN devices. This lecture points out that both CLLC and DAB converters have their own advantages and good application prospects in future large-scale energy storage systems. Moreover, a modular multi-port CLLC converter based on high frequency AC bus sharing is proposed to integrate multiple battery stacks, which features high efficiency, high reliability and good scalability.

Hybrid AC/DC microgrids with DC and AC sources/loads are considered to be the most likely future microgrid structures, since DC subgrid features high efficiency and free of harmonics/reactive power, and AC subgrid is easy to connect conventional utility grid. A panoramic overview of hybrid AC/DC microgrids is given in this lecture through the review of ongoing projects. The operation control and power management strategies of hybrid AC/DC microgrids based on the inter support between AC subgrid and DC subgrid are discussed. High penetration integration of renewable generation brings some challenges into hybrid AC/DC microgrids, hence, this lecture focuses on the coordination control between renewable generation and energy storage. Moreover, as a future trend, the conceptual framework of networked microgrid clusters is introduced to further enhance system operation flexibility. Smart multi-functional services of AC/DC interfacing converters are presented in terms of resilience control, active stabilization, power quality improvement and cost-efficiency optimization.

In the future smart grid, it is a significant trend to integrate large capacity renewable energy into medium voltage (MV) DC grids. The high power conversion techniques for wind generation, photovoltaic generation and hydrogen energy system integrated into MVDC grids are reviewed and compared in this lecture, including the system configurations, AC-DC and DC-DC converter designs, control strategies and fault protection. Novel solutions of DC grid-connected photovoltaic generation system are presented, providing new ways to integrate solar energy to DC grids with high efficiency and high power density. As the key element of high power isolated DC-DC converters, high frequency transformers with high withstand voltage are studied in terms of multi-physics modeling, magnetic integration, insulation design, thermal design and multi-objective optimization.

Power loss modelling of magnetic components becomes increasingly important in the design of power electronics converters, especially in the case of higher switching frequencies enabled by emerging wide-bandgap devices where the magnetic component loss can be significant. There are clear challenges in both the core loss and winding loss estimation. For the core loss, under PWM (rectangular) excitation with dc-bias and non-50% duty cycle, the conventional Steinmetz Equation or Improved Steinmetz Equation are not accurate anymore. For winding (copper) loss, the increased skin and proximity effect and random winding patterns make the conventional modelling methods very difficult to work. This lecture will introduce a ‘Triple Pulse Test’ (TPT) method, which can be used to predict the losses of magnetic components through a number of tests with three pulses and a loss map. The proposed TPT is analogous to the common ‘Double Pulse Test’ for characterising the losses of power electronics devices and converters. How to further build a user-friendly datasheet for magnetic components based on the TPT will be discussed. Several examples of inductors, transformers with various magnetic material will be given to demonstrate the proposed method. 

The controllability of capacitor voltages in multilevel converters is essential to enable their use in practice. This includes the voltage control of the dc-link capacitors and the flying capacitors (FC). When the number of voltage levels of NPC converters is four or higher, or simplified multilevel topologies with reduced number of devices are used, the capacitor voltage control becomes particularly challenging. This lecture will introduce a new ‘Redundant Level Modulation’, when combined with optimal zero-sequence injection, has superior capability to balance the dc-link capacitor voltages and control the flying capacitor voltages through software, without the need of additional hardware. This enables conventional NPC converters with four or higher number of levels or simplified topologies to operate independently as a single rectifier or inverter (or with a passive front end) over the full power factor and modulation index range. This lecture will also review various multilevel topologies and existing control methods to introduce the new advanced modulation method. Several exemplar multilevel converters using the proposed method and how new wide-bandgap devices can further facilitate the adoption of the proposed method will be shown. 

The power rating of large off-shore wind turbines is getting higher and higher, reaching 14MW. Medium-voltage power conversion is generally favoured for large wind turbines in terms of higher power density, reduced current level, associated losses, cable twisting, etc. This lecture will first review existing power conversion (drive train) solutions for large wind turbines and then propose three multi-level modular high power converter topologies together with corresponding generator configurations for large wind turbines. A configuration with a 10-kV generator, a modular power converter, and a multi-winding step-up transformer will be presented in detail with experimental results, which has clear application potential for 10MW+ wind turbines. The proposed converter has fault-tolerant capability, which is essential given the high maintenance/repair cost for wind power applications. The lecture will also talk about how to reduce the amount of capacitance required in the system given the capacitors have the highest failure rates among the converter components. Furthermore, converter topology options for future 20MW wind turbines will also be presented and discussed.

This lecture will first provide an overview of the performance of state-of-the-art SiC devices and converters. While the opportunities in achieving higher-density, higher-efficiency and higher-frequency are clear, there are also significant design challenges relating to high speed (dv/dt), high voltage and high temperature operation. For example, in SiC motor drives, the high switching speed and high switching frequency can cause increased level of motor over-voltage, insulation and bearing degradation. These challenges will be analysed and several solutions aiming to fully exploit the superior characteristics of SiC devices will be given, through new topologies, new modulation and control, soft-switching, filtering, etc. Several design examples such as a 500kW high-density power converter based on SiC MOSFETs, high temperature converters with 180°C SiC BJTs and high voltage 10kV SiC converters for solid state transformer applications will be given to demonstrate the opportunities, design challenges and the proposed solutions.

The increasing demand for more efficient, flexible and reliable loads, storage systems and renewable energy sources has promoted energy conversion systems extensively in industrial, commercial and residential low voltage networks. However, these converters generate reactive power as well as network disturbances, in particular waveform distortion in a broad range of frequencies.   The main aim of this lecture is to review and analyse:  ·  Standards and recommended practices·  Needs for revision of IEEE and IEC standards, e.g. IEC 61000-3-2 &12, IEC 61000-3-16, IEC-61000-4-7&30, IEC 61000-2-2, IEEE 519, IEEE 1547·   Quality aspects of industrial, commercial and residential grids;·  Power quality metering and monitoring systems

Due to an increasing number of modern power electronics converters (such as solar inverters, wind turbines, electrical vehicle chargers, storage converters and variable speed motor drive systems) low frequency distortion (harmonics, interharmonics within 0-9 kHz) and higher frequency distortion (9-150 kHz) as well as different other disturbances and interactions have been reported in distribution networks around the world. These issues are e.g.:   ·   generation of higher frequency distortion (switching frequency emission) and fast transients  ·   creation of new or shift in existing resonant frequencies in grids   ·   strong interactions between grid and power converters, reducing harmonic instability, reliability and power quality of the grids ·   modelling, measurement and analysis of potential problems