Orientador: José Antenor Pomilio / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T00:46:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alvarenga_MarcosBalduinode_D.pdf: 18917931 bytes, checksum: a0630621c255135a8bf5fd49974daea6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Esta tese apresenta contribuições para o emprego de inversor multinível em cascata simétrica como filtro ativo de potência. O balanceamento das tensões nos barramentos CC é feito a partir de informação de um único bit obtido em cada módulo do conversor. O balanceamento é realizado através da postergação ou da supressão dos pulsos e, também, pela organização da ordem de acionamento das chaves semicondutoras de potência. A estratégia de modulação desenvolvida permite também a equalização dos pulsos de chaveamento entre os diversos módulos do inversor e suprime um porcentual de comutações redundantes ou irrelevantes, minimizando as perdas do conversor. Toma-se como parâmetro de qualidade a distorção harmônica decorrente de tais procedimentos. A técnica desenvolvida viabiliza a inserção de células em redundância, o que aumenta a confiabilidade da operação, favorecendo sua aplicação em filtros ativos de potência e dispositivos de condicionamento aplicados em redes de energia elétrica. O controle da corrente do filtro ativo e o controle das tensões nos barramentos CC são executados por dois controladores independentes, cujos projetos são detalhados e equacionados. A estratégia foi avaliada em um protótipo experimental de baixa tensão, constituído de um conversor multinível composto por quatro células simétricas, sendo uma em redundância, comandadas por um microcontrolador. Foram realizadas, também, simulações, considerando um alimentador de distribuição com 22,5 MVA e 13,8 kV. Nas análises dos resultados, são considerados os valores estabelecidos por normas relativas ao limite de harmônicas de corrente / Abstract: The present thesis shows contributions to the use of symmetrical cascaded multilevel inverter as active power filter. The balancing of the voltages on the DC bus is made from a single bit of information obtained in each converter module. Balancing is performed by postponement or suppression pulses and also for organizing the order of activation of the power semiconductor switches. The modulation strategy developed also allows the equalization of switching pulses between different inverter modules and removes a percentage of redundant or irrelevant switching, minimizing the losses of the converter. Taken as the quality parameter was the harmonic distortion resulting from such procedures. The technique developed enables the insertion of cells in redundancy, which increases reliability of the operation, in favor of their use in active power filters and conditioning devices used in power grids. The current control of active filter and control voltages in DC buses are performed by two independent controllers, whose projects are detailed and calculated. The strategy was evaluated in an experimental prototype low-voltage, consisting of a multilevel converter composed of four symmetrical cells, one redundancy, controlled by a microcontroller. It was also performed simulations considering a distribution feeder with 22.5 MVA and 13.8 kV. In the analysis of the results it was taken into account established values by standards for harmonic current limit / Doutorado / Energia Eletrica / Doutor em Engenharia Elétrica

Orientadores: Ernesto Ruppert Filho, Marcelo Gradella Villalva / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T00:52:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gazoli_JonasRafael_M.pdf: 7156744 bytes, checksum: 8382e373834c6001d3a70cd31e6f291f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta uma contribuição à pesquisa e ao desenvolvimento de microinversores monofásicos para sistemas fotovoltaicos de energia solar conectados à rede elétrica de baixa tensão. O objetivo principal da pesquisa é apresentar o projeto, a construção e os resultados experimentais de um microinversor eletrônico que processa a energia proveniente de um painel fotovoltaico e faz a conexão deste dispositivo com a rede El. São apresentados estudos teóricos e simulações sobre painéis fotovoltaicos, sobre a modelagem e o controle de conversores eletrônicos e sobre o algoritmo de rastreamento do ponto de máxima potência. São apresentados resultados experimentais obtidos com um microinversor experimental desenvolvido em laboratório, constituído de dois estágios de conversão (CC-CC e CC-CA) / Abstract: This thesis presents a contribution to research and development of single-phase micro-inverters for low voltage grid-connected photovoltaic systems. The main goal of this research is to present the project, the development and experimental results of an electronic micro-inverter that processes the energy from a photovoltaic panel and connects this device to the main grid. Theoretical studies and simulations on photovoltaic panels are shown, as the modeling and control of the electronic converters and the maximum power point tracking algorithm. Results with an experimental microinverter consisting of two stages (DC-DC and DC-AC) are also shown / Mestrado / Energia Eletrica / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

Orientadores: Ernesto Ruppert Filho; Marcelo Gradella Villalva / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T00:11:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ota_JoaoInacioYutaka_M.pdf: 7717643 bytes, checksum: c0a1a3d8391b140cd3113fbbbc0106b8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre filtro ativo de potência paralelo para sistema trifásico com quatro fios, discutindo técnicas de compensação e de controle de correntes. O estudo concentra-se no filtro ativo paralelo composto por um inversor do tipo fonte de tensão com quatro pernas. Com esta estrutura de conversor são realizados estudos e simulações em computador de estratégias de compensação de correntes harmônicas e de controle de correntes. São investigadas técnicas de controle repetitivo, ressonante e proporcional-integral. Os sistemas de controle de correntes são construídos com um algoritmo de modulação por largura de pulsos tridimensional com vetores espaciais, que é investigado em detalhes no trabalho / Abstract: This dissertation presents a study of three-phase four-wire shunt active power filter, discussing compensation and control currents techniques. The study focuses on the shunt active filter composed by a four-leg voltage source inverter. Using this converter structure studies about strategies for compensation of harmonic currents and current control are carried out through computer simulations. Repetitive, resonant and proportional-integral control techniques are investigated. The current control system is performed using an algorithm of three-dimensional space-vector pulse width modulation, which is investigated in detail in the work / Mestrado / Energia Eletrica / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

The present doctoral thesis concentrate efforts in the consolidation of the benefits introduced by the plug-in repetitive action in the performance of pulse-width modulated voltage source inverters. The work is focused in the application of these inverters in double conversion uninterruptible power systems to comply the most demanding requirements of the international standards. The use of the plug-in repetitive action, in this application, is suitable because the inverter demands the advantageous characteristics of cyclic disturbance rejection by it introduced. In this scenario, this thesis is divided in two parts. The first one comprise the proposition of algorithms to solve some disadvantageous characteristics of the repetitive actions, such as the reduced stability margin and the unsuitable performance under reference signals with variable frequency. The second one, by the other hand, comprise the questions related to the design of these repetitive action controllers. It is included the proposition of a methodology that link the design of these controllers with the output filter of a double conversion UPS. Finally, it is worth to emphasize that are presented simulation and experimental results, obtained on a 1kVA laboratory prototype, that validate the proposes carried out. / A presente tese de doutorado concentra esforços na consolidação dos benefícios introduzidos pela ação de controle repetitiva auxiliar no desempenho de inversores de tensão modulados por largura de pulso. O trabalho está focado na aplicação destes inversores em fontes ininterruptas de energia (UPS) de dupla conversão, com o intuito de atender aos mais exigentes requisitos de desempenho das normas internacionais. A utilização da ação de controle repetitiva auxiliar, nesta aplicação, é adequada porque o inversor demanda as características vantajosas de rejeição de distúrbios cíclicos por ela introduzida. Neste contexto, esta tese se divide em duas partes. A primeira parte compreende na proposição de algoritmos para solucionar algumas das características desvantajosas dos controladores de ação repetitiva, tal como a reduzida margem de estabilidade e o desempenho não satisfatório para sinais de referências de freqüência variável. A segunda parte, por outro lado, trata das questões relacionadas ao projeto destes controladores de ação repetitiva, sendo proposta uma metodologia que integra o projeto destes controladores ao filtro de saída de uma UPS de dupla conversão. Por fim, destaca-se que são apresentados resultados de simulação e experimentais, obtidos em um protótipo de 1kVA, para validar as propostas deste trabalho.

[ES] En este trabajo se proponen técnicas de control específicas para la paralelización de inversores sin transformador conectados a red, en aplicaciones de interconexión de buses de microrredes híbridas e instalaciones fotovoltaicas de gran potencia. La paralelización de inversores presenta múltiples ventajas como la modularidad, la redundancia o la flexibilidad para ampliar la potencia de un sistema o de una instalación. En el caso de inversores fotovoltaicos centralizados, también permite la conexión/desconexión de módulos inversores conectados en paralelo permitiendo una mayor eficiencia global cuando se trabaja a bajas potencias. Sin embargo, la paralelización de inversores provoca la aparición de corrientes de circulación que pueden provocar efectos indeseables en el sistema o en la instalación. Las contribuciones que se llevan a cabo en esta tesis están todas ellas orientadas a la mejora de la operación de inversores en paralelo en las aplicaciones descritas y son las siguientes: 1) Se presenta un modelo preciso en pequeña señal de n inversores conectados en paralelo con filtro de conexión a red LCL, en el cual se tienen en consideración los términos de acoplamiento entre fases de los inductores trifásicos. 2) Se propone una técnica de control en la que se emplean n-1 lazos de regulación que controlan la componente homopolar de las corrientes e imponen un valor nulo en régimen permanente, a fin de eliminar las corrientes de circulación. 3) Se propone el uso de moduladores en espacio vectorial de tres dimensiones (3D-SVM) para implementar el control de la componente homopolar de las corrientes. 4) Se muestran resultados analíticos, de simulación y experimentales que validan el esquema de control propuesto considerando la aparición de corrientes de circulación debido a distintos factores: desbalanceo de inductancias entre las fases de un inversor y de distintos inversores, desbalanceo de potencia entre inversores y empleo de modulaciones distintas en los inversores conectados en paralelo. Los ensayos experimentales se realizan sobre un convertidor trifásico de 10 kW formado por la conexión en paralelo de dos módulos de 5 kW cada uno. 5) Se muestran resultados de simulación y experimentales de la aplicación de las técnicas de reducción de corrientes de circulación a convertidores de interconexión entre los buses de alterna y continua de microrredes híbridas. Los ensayos experimentales se particularizan a un convertidor trifásico de 7.5 kW formado por un módulo de 5 kW y otro de 2.5 kW conectados en paralelo, emulando una eventual ampliación de potencia del 50%. 6) Se lleva a cabo el estudio por simulación de un sistema fotovoltaico de 2 MW compuesto por cuatro inversores de 500 kW conectados en paralelo, demostrando que el control de las componentes homopolares de las corrientes reduce en gran medida el valor de las corrientes de circulación y mejora el desempeño de la instalación. 7) Por último, se propone una técnica de control para mejorar la eficiencia global de inversores fotovoltaicos centralizados de potencia elevada, el cual se basa en la utilización de modelos funcionales bidimensionales de eficiencia para activar/desactivar los módulos de potencia en función del punto de operación del campo fotovoltaico. / [CA] En aquest treball es proposen tècniques de control específiques per a la paral·lelització d'inversors sense transformador connectats a la xarxa, en aplicacions d'interconnexió de busos de micro-xarxes híbrides i instal·lacions fotovoltaiques de gran potència. La paral·lelització d'inversors presenta múltiples avantatges com ara són la modularitat, la redundància o la flexibilitat per ampliar la potència d'un sistema o d'una instal·lació. En el cas d'inversors fotovoltaics centralitzats, també es permet la connexió/desconnexió de mòduls inversors connectats en paral·lel permetent una major eficiència global quan es treballa a potències baixes. En canvi, la paral·lelització d'inversors provoca l'aparició de corrents de circulació que poden provocar efectes indesitjables en el sistema o en la instal·lació. Totes les contribucions que es porten a terme en aquesta tesi estan orientades a la millora de la operació de inversors en paral·lel en les aplicacions descrites i son les següents: 1)Es presenta un model precís en xicoteta senyal de n inversors connectats en paral·lel amb filtre LCL de connexió a xarxa, en el qual es tenen en consideració els termes d'acoblament entre fases dels inductors trifàsics. 2) Es proposa una tècnica de control en la que s'usen n-1 llaços de regulació que controlen la component homopolar de les corrents i imposen un valor nul en règim permanent, a la fi d'eliminar les corrents de circulació. 3) Es proposa l'ús de moduladors en espai vectorial de tres dimensions (3D SVM) per implementar el control de la component homopolar de les corrents. 4) Es mostren resultats analítics, de simulació i experimentals els quals validen l'esquema de control proposat considerant l'aparició de corrents de circulació degut a diversos factors: desbalanceig d'inductàncies entre les fases d'un inversor i de distints inversors, desbalanceig de potència entre inversors i ús de modulacions distintes en els inversors connectats en paral·lel. Els assajos experimentals es realitzen sobre un inversor trifàsic de 10 kW format per la connexió en paral·lel de dos mòduls de 5 kW cadascun. 5) Es mostren resultats de simulació i experimentals de l'aplicació de les tècniques de reducció de corrents de circulació a convertidors d'interconnexió entre els busos d'alterna i contínua de micro-xarxes híbrides. Els assajos experimentals es particularitzen a un convertidor trifàsic de 7.5 kW format per un mòdul de 5 kW i altre de 2.5 kW connectats en paral·lel, emulant una eventual ampliació de potència del 50 %. 6) Es duu a terme l'estudi per simulació d'un sistema fotovoltaic de 2 MW format per quatre inversors de 500 kW connectats en paral·lel demostrant que el control de les components homopolars de les corrents redueixen en gran mesura el valor de les corrents de circulació i millora l'acompliment de la instal·lació. 7) Per últim, es proposa una tècnica de control per a la millora de l'eficiència global d'inversors fotovoltaics centralitzats de potència elevada, el qual es basa en la utilització de models funcionals bidimensionals d'eficiència per activar/desactivar els mòduls de potència en funció del punt d'operació del camp fotovoltaic. / [EN] In this work they have been proposed specific control techniques for the parallelization of transformerless inverters connected to the grid in two specific applications: i) the interlinking converter between ac and dc bus of hybrid microgrids and ii) high power photovoltaic farms. Paralleling of inverters presents some advantages as modularity, redundancy or flexibility for increasing the power of a system or of a plant. In photovoltaic centralized inverters, the parallel inverters can be connected and disconnected in order to improve the global efficiency when the system works at low power. However, the inverters paralleling causes the appearance of circulating currents which can produce undesirable effects in the system or in the plant. The contributions that are carried out in this thesis are all of them aimed at improving the operation of parallel inverters in the described applications and they are as follows: 1) It has been presented an accurate small signal model of n parallel inverters with an LCL grid filter, in which the mutual coupling terms of the three-phase inductors has been considered. 2) It has been proposed a control technique with n-1 control loops that control the zero-sequence current component by setting a zero value in steady state, looking for eliminating the circulating currents. 3) It has been proposed the use of three-dimension space vector modulator (3D SVM) to implement the zero-sequence currents control. 4) The analytical results have been validated by means of simulation and experimental results, showing the performance of the proposed control scheme considering the appearance of circulating currents due to different factors: i) inductor imbalances between the phases of an inverter or ii) between different inverters, iii) power imbalances between inverters and iv) the use of different modulation techniques in the parallel inverters. The experimental tests have been carried out on a 10 kW three-phase converter composed by the parallel connection of two 5 kW modules. 5) They have been shown both simulation and experimental results of the application of circulating current reduction techniques to interlinking converters between the DC and the AC buses of hybrid microgrids. The experimental tests have been particularized to a 7.5 kW three-phase converter composed by a 5 kW and a 2.5 kW module connected in parallel, emulating an eventual 50 % power expansion. 6) Is has been carried out the simulation study of a 2 MW photovoltaic system composed by four 500 kW inverters connected in parallel, showing that the control of the zero-sequence currents greatly reduces the value of the circulating currents and improve the system performance. 7) Finally, it has been proposed a control technique for the improvement of the global efficiency of high power photovoltaic centralized inverters, which is based in the use of bidimensional functional efficiency models to activate/deactivate the power modules according to the operation point of the photovoltaic farm. / Liberos Mascarell, MA. (2021). Técnicas de control para la conexión en paralelo de inversores aplicadas a convertidores de interconexión entre los buses de CC y CA de microrredes híbridas e inversores fotovoltaicos centralizados de alta potencia [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/168190 / TESIS

Der erste Teil dieser Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, welchen Einfluss kurzzeitige Schwankungen der erneuerbaren Energiequellen auf die synchrone Netzfrequenz haben. Zu diesem Zweck wird eine lineare Antworttheorie für stochastische Störungen von dynamischen Systemen auf Netzwerken hergeleitet. Anschließend wird diese Theorie verwendet, um den Einfluss von kurzfristigen Wind- und Sonnenschwankungen auf die Netzdynamik zu analysieren. Hierbei wird gezeigt, dass die Frequenzantwort des Netzes weitestgehend homogen ist, aber die Anfälligkeit für Leistungsschwankungen aufgrund von Leitungsverlusten entlang des Leistungsflusses zunimmt. Der zweite Teil der Arbeit befasst sich mit der Modellierung von netzbildenden Wechselrichterregelungen. Bislang existiert kein universelles Modell zur Beschreibung der kollektiven Dynamik solcher Systeme. Um dies zu erreichen, wird unter Ausnutzung der inhärenten Symmetrie des synchronen Betriebszustandes eine Normalform für netzbildende Akteure abgeleitet. Anschließend wird gezeigt, dass dieses Modell eine gute Annäherung an typische Wechselrichter-Dynamiken bietet, aber auch für eine datengesteuerte Modellierung gut geeignet ist. Der letzte Teil der Arbeit befasst sich mit der Analyse des Risikos von Stromausfällen, welche durch Hurrikans verursacht werden. Hohe Windgeschwindigkeiten verursachen häufig Schäden an der Übertragungsinfrastruktur, welche wiederum zu Überlastungen anderer Komponenten führen und damit eine Kaskade von Ausfällen im gesamten Netz auslösen können. Simulationen solcher Szenarien werden durch die Kombination eines meteorologischen Windmodells sowie eines Modells für kaskadierende Leitungsausfälle durchgeführt. Durch Monte-Carlo-Simulationen in einer synthetischen Nachbildung des texanischen Übertragungsnetzes können einzelne kritische Leitungen identifiziert werden, welche zu großflächigen Stromausfällen führen. / The first part of this thesis addresses the question which impact short-term renewable fluctuations have on the synchronous grid frequency. For this purpose, a linear response theory for stochastic perturbations of networked dynamical systems is derived. This theory is then used to analyze the impact of short-term wind and solar fluctuations on the grid frequency. It is shown that while the network frequency response is mainly homogenous, the susceptibility to power fluctuations is increasing along the power flow due to transmission line losses. The second part of the thesis is concerned with modeling grid-forming inverter controls. So far there exists no universal model for studying the collective dynamics of such systems. By utilizing the inherent symmetry of the synchronous operating state, a normal form for grid-forming actors is derived. It is shown that this model provides a useful approximation of certain inverter control dynamics but is also well-suited for a data-driven modeling approach. The last part of the thesis deals with analyzing the risk of hurricane-induced power outages. High wind speeds often cause damage to transmission infrastructure which can lead to overloads of other components and thereby induce a cascade of failures spreading through the entire grid. Simulations of such scenarios are implemented by combining a meteorological wind field model with a model for cascading line failures. Using Monte Carlo simulations in a synthetic test case resembling the Texas transmission system, it is possible to identify critical lines that trigger large-scale power outages.

Multilevel converters are finding increased attention in industry and academia as the preferred choice of electronic power conversion for high power applications. They have a wide application area in a variety of industries involving transportation and energy management, a significant portion of which comprises of multilevel inverter fed induction motor drives. Multilevel inverters are ideally suitable for high power drives, since the switching frequency of the devices is limited for high power applications. In low power drives, the switching frequency is often in the range of tens of kHz, so that switching frequency harmonics are pushed higher in the frequency spectrum thereby the size and cost of the filter are reduced. But higher switching frequency has its own drawbacks, in particular for high voltage, high power applications. They cause large dv/dt stress on the motor and the devices, increased EMI problems and higher switching losses. An engineering trade-o is thus needed to select the minimum switching frequency without compromising on the output voltage quality. The present work is an alternate approach in this direction. Here, new inverter topologies and PWM strategies are developed that can eliminate a set of harmonics in the phase voltage using 12-sided polygonal space vector diagrams, also called dodecagonal space vector diagrams. A dodecagonal space vector diagram has many advantages over a hexagonal one. Switching space vectors on a dodecagon will not produce any harmonics of the order 6n 1, (n=odd) in the phase voltage. The next set of harmonics thus reside at 12n 1, (n=integer). By increasing the number of samples in a sector, it is also possible to suppress the lower order harmonics and a nearly sinusoidal voltage can be obtained. This is possible to achieve at a low switching frequency of the inverters. At the same time, a dodecagon is closer to a circle than a hexagon; so the linear modulation range is extended by about 6.6% compared to the hexagonal case. For a 50 Hz rated frequency operation, under constant V/f ratio, the linear modulation can be achieved upto a frequency of 48.3 Hz. Also, the harmonics of the order 6n 1, (n=odd) are absent in the over-modulation region. Maximum fundamental voltage is obtained from this inverter at the end of over-modulation region, where the phase voltage becomes a 12-step waveform. The present work is developed on dodecagonal space vector diagrams. The entire work can be summarized and explained through Fig. 1. This figure shows the development of hexagonal and dodecagonal space vector diagrams. It is known that, 3-level and 5-level space vector diagrams have been developed as an improvement over 2-level ones. They Figure 1: Development of hexagonal and dodecagonal space vector diagrams have better harmonic performance, reduced dv/dt stress on the motor and devices, better electromagnetic compatibility and improvement of efficiency over 2-level space vector diagrams. This happens because the instantaneous error between the reference vector and the switching vectors reduces, as the space vector density increases in the diagram. This is shown at the top of the figure. In the bottom part, the development of the dodecagonal space vector diagram is shown, which is the contribution of this thesis work. This is explained in brief in the following lines. Initially, a space vector diagram is proposed which switches on hexagonal space vectors in lower-modulation region and dodecagonal space vectors in the higher modulation region. As the reference vector length increases, voltage vectors at the vertices of the outer dodecagon and the vertices from the outer most hexagon is used for PWM control. This results in highly suppressed 5th and 7th order harmonics thereby improving the harmonic profile of the motor current. This leads to the 12-step operation at rated voltage where all the 5th and 7th order harmonics are completely eliminated. At the same time, the linear range of modulation extends upto 96.6% of base speed. Because of this, and the high degree of suppression of lower order harmonics, smooth acceleration of the motor upto rated speed is possible. The presence of multilevel space vector structure also limits the switching frequency of the inverters. In the next work, the single dodecagonal space vector diagram is improved upon to form two concentric dodecagons spanning the space vector plane (Fig. 1). The radius of the outer dodecagon is double the inner one. It reduces the device rating and the dv/dt stress on the devices to half compared to existing 12-sided schemes. The entire space vector diagram is divided into smaller sized isosceles triangles. PWM switching on these smaller triangles reduces the inverter switching frequency without compromising on the output voltage quality. The space vector diagram is further refined to accommodate six concentric dodecagons in the space vector plane (Fig. 1). Here the space vector diagram is characterized by alternately placed dodecagons which become closer to each other at higher radii. As such the harmonics in the phase voltage are reduced, in particular at higher modulation indices. At the same time, because of the dodecagonal space vector structure, all the 6n ± 1, (n=odd) harmonics are eliminated from the phase voltage. A nearly sinusoidal phase voltage can be generated without resorting to high frequency switching of the inverters. The above space vector diagrams are developed using different inverter circuits. The first work is developed from cascaded combination of three 2-level inverters, while the second and third works use 3-level NPC inverters feeding an open end induction motor drive. The circuit topologies are explained in detail in the respective chapters. Apart from this, PWM switching schemes and detailed analysis on duty cycle calculations using the concept of volt-second balance are also presented. They show that with proper switching schemes, the proposed configurations can substantially reduce the overall loss of the inverter. Other operational issues like capacitor voltage balancing of 3-level NPC inverters and improvement of input current drawn from the grid are also covered. All the above propositions are first simulated by MATLAB and subsequently verified by an experimental laboratory prototype. Motor current waveforms both at steady state and transient conditions during motor acceleration show that the induction motor can be fed from nearly sinusoidal voltage at all operating conditions. Simplified comparative studies are also made with the proposed converters and higher level inverters in terms of output voltage quality and losses. These are some of the constituents for chapters 2, 3 and 4 in this thesis. Additionally, the first chapter also covers a brief survey on some of the recent progresses made in the field of multilevel inverter. The thesis concludes with some interesting ideas for further thought and exploration.

For medium and high-voltage drive applications, multilevel inverters are very popular. It is due to their superior performance compared to 2-level inverters such as reduced harmonic content in the output voltage and current, lower common mode voltage and dv=dt, and lesser voltage stress on power switches. The popular circuit topologies for multilevel inverters are neutral point clamped, cascaded H-bridge and flying capacitor based circuits. There exist different combinations of these basic topologies to realize multilevel inverters with modularity, better fault tolerance, and reliability. Due to these advantages, multilevel converters are getting good acceptance from the industry, and researchers all over the world are continuously trying to improve the performance of these converters. To meet such demands, three multilevel inverter topologies are proposed in this thesis. These topologies can be used for high-power induction motor drives, and the concepts presented are also applicable for synchronous motor drives, grid-connected inverters, etc. To get nearly sinusoidal phase current waveforms, the switching frequency of the conventional inverter has to be increased. It will lead to higher switching losses and electromagnetic interference. The problem with lower switching frequency is the intro- duction of low order harmonics in phase currents and undesirable torque ripple in the motor. The 5th and 7th harmonics are dominant for hexagonal voltage space-vector based low frequency switching, and it is possible to eliminate these harmonics by dodecagonal switching. Further improvement in the waveform quality is possible by octadecagonal voltage space-vectors. In this case, the complete elimination of 11th and 13th harmonic is possible for the entire modulation range. The concepts of dodecagonal and octadecagonal voltage space-vectors are used in the proposed inverter topologies. The first topology proposed in this thesis consists of cascaded connection of two H-bridge cells. The two cells are fed from unequal DC voltage sources having a ratio of 1 : 0:366, and this inverter can produce six concentric dodecagonal voltage space- vectors. This ratio of voltages can be obtained easily from a combination of star-delta transformers, since 1 : 0:366 = ( p 3 + 1) : 1. The cascaded connection of two H-bridge cells can generate nine asymmetric pole voltage levels, and the combined three-phase inverter can produce 729 voltage space-vectors (9 9 9). From this large number of combinations, only certain voltage space-vectors are selected, which forms dodecagonal pattern. In the case of conventional multilevel inverters, the voltage space-vector diagram consists of equilateral triangles of equal size, but for the proposed inverter, the triangular regions are isosceles and are having different sizes. By properly placing the voltage space-vectors in a sampling period, it is possible to achieve lower switching frequency for the individual cells, with substantial improvement in the harmonic spectrum of the output voltage. During the experimental veri cation, the motor is operated at di erent speeds using open loop v=f control method. The samples taken are always synchronised with the start of the sector to get synchronised PWM. The number of samples per sector is decreased with increase in the fundamental frequency to limit the switching frequency. Even though many topologies are available in literature, the most preferred topology for drives application such as traction drives is the 3-level NPC structure. This implies that the industry is still looking for viable alternatives to construct multilevel inverter topologies based on available power circuits. The second work focuses on the development of a multilevel inverter for variable speed medium-voltage drive application with dodecagonal voltage space-vectors, using lesser number of switches and power sources compared to earlier implementations. It can generate three concentric 12-sided polygonal voltage space-vectors and it is based on commonly available 2-level and 3-level inverters. A simple PWM timing computation method based on the hexagonal space-vector PWM is developed. The sampled values of the three-phase reference voltages are initially converted to the timings of a two-level inverter. These timings are mapped to the dodecagonal timings using a change of basis transformation. The voltage space- vector diagram of the proposed drive consists of sixty isosceles triangular regions, and the dodecagonal timings calculated are converted to the timings of the inner triangles. A searching algorithm is used to identify the triangular region in which the reference vector is located. A front-end recti er that may be easily implemented using standard star-delta transformers is also developed, to provide near-unity power factor. To test the performance of the inverter drive, an open-loop v=f control is used on a three-phase induction motor under no-load condition. The harmonic spectra of the phase voltages were computed in order to analyse the harmonic distortion of the waveforms. The carrier frequency was kept around 1.2 KHz for the entire range of operation. If the switching frequency is decreased, the conventional hexagonal space-vector based switching introduce signifi cant 5th, 7th, 11th and 13th harmonics in the phase currents. Out of these dominant harmonics, the 5th and 7th harmonics can be completely suppressed using dodecagonal voltage space-vector based switching as observed in the first and second work. It is also possible to remove the 11th and the 13th harmonics by using voltage space-vectors with 18 sides. The last topology is based on multilevel octadecagonal (18-sided polygon) voltage space-vectors, and it has better harmonic performance than the previously mentioned topologies. Here, a multilevel inverter system capable of producing three octadecagonal voltage space-vectors is proposed for the fi rst time, along with a simple timing calculation method. The conventional three-level inverters are only required to construct the proposed drive. Four asymmetric power supply voltages with 0:3054Vdc, 0:3473Vdc, 0:2266Vdc and 0:1207Vdc are required for the operation of the drive, and it is the main drawback of the circuit. Generally front-end isolation transformer is essential for high-power drives and these asymmetric voltages can be easily obtained from the multiple windings of the isolation transformer. The total harmonic distortion of the phase current is improved due to the 18-sided voltage space-vector switching. The ratio of the radius of the largest polygon and its inscribing circle is cos10 = 0:985. This ratio in the case of hexagonal voltage space-vector modulation is cos30 = 0:866, which means that the range of the linear modulation for the proposed scheme is signifi cantly higher. The drive is designed for open-end winding induction motors and it has better fault tolerance. It any of the inverter fails, it can be easily bypassed and the drive will be still functional with reduced speed. Open loop v=f control and rotor flux oriented vector control schemes were used during the experimental verifi cation. TMS320F2812 DSP platform was used to execute the control code for the proposed drive schemes. For the entire range of operation, the carrier was synchronized with the fundamental. For the synchronization, the sampling period is varied dynamically so that the number of samples in a triangular region is fi xed, keeping the switching frequency around 1.2 KHz. The average execution time for the v=f code was found to be 20 S, where as for vector control it took nearly 100 S. The PWM terminals and I/O lines of the DSP is used to output the timings and the triangle number respectively. To convert the triangle number and the timings to IGBT gate drive logic, an FPGA (XC3S200) was used. A constant dead-time of 1.5 S is also implemented inside the FPGA. Opto-isolated gate drivers with desaturation protection (M57962L) were used to drive the IGBTs. Hall-effect sensors were used to measure the phase currents and DC bus voltages. An incremental shaft position encoder with 2500 pulse per revolution is also connected to the motor shaft, to measure the angular velocity. 1200 V, 75 A IGBT half-bridge module is used to realize the switches. The concepts were initially simulated and experimentally verifi ed using laboratory prototypes at low power. While these concepts maybe easily extended to higher power levels by using suitably rated devices, the control techniques presented shall still remain applicable.

For medium and high-voltage drive applications, multilevel inverters are very popular. It is due to their superior performance compared to 2-level inverters such as reduced harmonic content in the output voltage and current, lower common mode voltage and dv=dt, and lesser voltage stress on power switches. The popular circuit topologies for multilevel inverters are neutral point clamped, cascaded H-bridge and flying capacitor based circuits. There exist different combinations of these basic topologies to realize multilevel inverters with modularity, better fault tolerance, and reliability. Due to these advantages, multilevel converters are getting good acceptance from the industry, and researchers all over the world are continuously trying to improve the performance of these converters. To meet such demands, three multilevel inverter topologies are proposed in this thesis. These topologies can be used for high-power induction motor drives, and the concepts presented are also applicable for synchronous motor drives, grid-connected inverters, etc. To get nearly sinusoidal phase current waveforms, the switching frequency of the conventional inverter has to be increased. It will lead to higher switching losses and electromagnetic interference. The problem with lower switching frequency is the intro- duction of low order harmonics in phase currents and undesirable torque ripple in the motor. The 5th and 7th harmonics are dominant for hexagonal voltage space-vector based low frequency switching, and it is possible to eliminate these harmonics by dodecagonal switching. Further improvement in the waveform quality is possible by octadecagonal voltage space-vectors. In this case, the complete elimination of 11th and 13th harmonic is possible for the entire modulation range. The concepts of dodecagonal and octadecagonal voltage space-vectors are used in the proposed inverter topologies. The first topology proposed in this thesis consists of cascaded connection of two H-bridge cells. The two cells are fed from unequal DC voltage sources having a ratio of 1 : 0:366, and this inverter can produce six concentric dodecagonal voltage space- vectors. This ratio of voltages can be obtained easily from a combination of star-delta transformers, since 1 : 0:366 = ( p 3 + 1) : 1. The cascaded connection of two H-bridge cells can generate nine asymmetric pole voltage levels, and the combined three-phase inverter can produce 729 voltage space-vectors (9 9 9). From this large number of combinations, only certain voltage space-vectors are selected, which forms dodecagonal pattern. In the case of conventional multilevel inverters, the voltage space-vector diagram consists of equilateral triangles of equal size, but for the proposed inverter, the triangular regions are isosceles and are having different sizes. By properly placing the voltage space-vectors in a sampling period, it is possible to achieve lower switching frequency for the individual cells, with substantial improvement in the harmonic spectrum of the output voltage. During the experimental veri cation, the motor is operated at di erent speeds using open loop v=f control method. The samples taken are always synchronised with the start of the sector to get synchronised PWM. The number of samples per sector is decreased with increase in the fundamental frequency to limit the switching frequency. Even though many topologies are available in literature, the most preferred topology for drives application such as traction drives is the 3-level NPC structure. This implies that the industry is still looking for viable alternatives to construct multilevel inverter topologies based on available power circuits. The second work focuses on the development of a multilevel inverter for variable speed medium-voltage drive application with dodecagonal voltage space-vectors, using lesser number of switches and power sources compared to earlier implementations. It can generate three concentric 12-sided polygonal voltage space-vectors and it is based on commonly available 2-level and 3-level inverters. A simple PWM timing computation method based on the hexagonal space-vector PWM is developed. The sampled values of the three-phase reference voltages are initially converted to the timings of a two-level inverter. These timings are mapped to the dodecagonal timings using a change of basis transformation. The voltage space- vector diagram of the proposed drive consists of sixty isosceles triangular regions, and the dodecagonal timings calculated are converted to the timings of the inner triangles. A searching algorithm is used to identify the triangular region in which the reference vector is located. A front-end recti er that may be easily implemented using standard star-delta transformers is also developed, to provide near-unity power factor. To test the performance of the inverter drive, an open-loop v=f control is used on a three-phase induction motor under no-load condition. The harmonic spectra of the phase voltages were computed in order to analyse the harmonic distortion of the waveforms. The carrier frequency was kept around 1.2 KHz for the entire range of operation. If the switching frequency is decreased, the conventional hexagonal space-vector based switching introduce signifi cant 5th, 7th, 11th and 13th harmonics in the phase currents. Out of these dominant harmonics, the 5th and 7th harmonics can be completely suppressed using dodecagonal voltage space-vector based switching as observed in the first and second work. It is also possible to remove the 11th and the 13th harmonics by using voltage space-vectors with 18 sides. The last topology is based on multilevel octadecagonal (18-sided polygon) voltage space-vectors, and it has better harmonic performance than the previously mentioned topologies. Here, a multilevel inverter system capable of producing three octadecagonal voltage space-vectors is proposed for the fi rst time, along with a simple timing calculation method. The conventional three-level inverters are only required to construct the proposed drive. Four asymmetric power supply voltages with 0:3054Vdc, 0:3473Vdc, 0:2266Vdc and 0:1207Vdc are required for the operation of the drive, and it is the main drawback of the circuit. Generally front-end isolation transformer is essential for high-power drives and these asymmetric voltages can be easily obtained from the multiple windings of the isolation transformer. The total harmonic distortion of the phase current is improved due to the 18-sided voltage space-vector switching. The ratio of the radius of the largest polygon and its inscribing circle is cos10 = 0:985. This ratio in the case of hexagonal voltage space-vector modulation is cos30 = 0:866, which means that the range of the linear modulation for the proposed scheme is signifi cantly higher. The drive is designed for open-end winding induction motors and it has better fault tolerance. It any of the inverter fails, it can be easily bypassed and the drive will be still functional with reduced speed. Open loop v=f control and rotor flux oriented vector control schemes were used during the experimental verifi cation. TMS320F2812 DSP platform was used to execute the control code for the proposed drive schemes. For the entire range of operation, the carrier was synchronized with the fundamental. For the synchronization, the sampling period is varied dynamically so that the number of samples in a triangular region is fi xed, keeping the switching frequency around 1.2 KHz. The average execution time for the v=f code was found to be 20 S, where as for vector control it took nearly 100 S. The PWM terminals and I/O lines of the DSP is used to output the timings and the triangle number respectively. To convert the triangle number and the timings to IGBT gate drive logic, an FPGA (XC3S200) was used. A constant dead-time of 1.5 S is also implemented inside the FPGA. Opto-isolated gate drivers with desaturation protection (M57962L) were used to drive the IGBTs. Hall-effect sensors were used to measure the phase currents and DC bus voltages. An incremental shaft position encoder with 2500 pulse per revolution is also connected to the motor shaft, to measure the angular velocity. 1200 V, 75 A IGBT half-bridge module is used to realize the switches. The concepts were initially simulated and experimentally verifi ed using laboratory prototypes at low power. While these concepts maybe easily extended to higher power levels by using suitably rated devices, the control techniques presented shall still remain applicable.

The necessity to incorporate renewable energy systems into existing electric power grid and need of efficient utilization of electrical energy are growing every day. A shunt connected Voltage Source Inverter(VSI) capable of bidirectional power flow and fast control has become one of the building block to address such requirements. However with growing number of grid connected VSI, new requirements related to harmonic injection, higher overall efficiency and better performances during short term grid disturbances have emerged as challenges. For this purpose a grid connected three phase four wire VSI with LCL filter can be considered as a general module to study different control approaches and system behavior under ideal and non-ideal grid conditions. This work focuses on achieving enhanced performance by analyzing effect of non-ideal conditions on system level and relating it to individual control blocks. In this work a phase locked loop structure has been proposed which is capable of extracting positive sequence fundamental phase information under non-ideal grid conditions. It can also be used in a single phase system without any structural modification. The current control for the three phase four wire VSI system has been implemented using Proportional Resonant (PR) controller in a per phase basis in stationary reference frame. A simplified controller design procedure based on asymptotic representation of the system transfer function is proposed. Using this method expressions for controller gains can be derived. A common mode model of the inverter system has been derived for low frequencies. Using this model a controller is designed to mitigate DC bus imbalance caused by sensor and ADC channel offsets. A multi-rate approach for digital implementation of PR controller with low resource consumption, that is suitable for an FPGA like digital controller ,is proposed. This multi-rate method can maintain resonance frequency accuracy even at low sampling frequency and can easily be frequency adaptive. Anti-wind up methods for PI controller have been studied to find suitable anti-wind up methods for PR controller. The tracking anti-wind up method is shown to be suitable for use with a PR controller. The effectiveness of this method under sudden disconnection and reconnection of VSI from grid is experimentally verified. A resonant integrator based second order filter is shown to be useful for active damping of LCL filter resonance with a wide range of grid inductance variation. The proposed method utilizes the LCL filter capacitor voltage to estimate resonance frequency current. Suitability of fundamental current PR controller for active damping alone, and with the proposed method show the superiority of the proposed method especially for low switching frequencies. Design oriented analysis of the above topics are included in the thesis. The theoretical understandings developed have been verified through experiments in the laboratory and can be readily implemented in industrial power electronic systems.