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Abstract - A new medium voltage drive has been insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), have increased
developed based on the active neutral-point clamped 5-level significantly. This has permitted the extension of these
(ANPC-5L) topology with the option of transformerless
network connection. In the last decade three-level neutral- devices to medium voltage (MV) applications. However,
point clamped (NPC) converters have become the industry the use of fast switching devices under high voltage
standard in MV Drives. Although the three-level NPC generates high dv/dt on the converter output. In addition,
converter has proven itself in the toughest applications in the switching and conduction losses are also significantly
industry, the call for more efficient use of energy has raised increased limiting the power throughput and reducing the
the demand for converters to be used with standard
catalogue motors, both for retrofit and new installations. overall converter efficiency. In order to bring the
The option to avoid the additional cost of the input switching component stresses to acceptable values, new
transformer in such applications is also a great advantage. topologies of multilevel converters have emerged,
The structure of the converter will be described with an including five-level topologies. The ability to generate a
explanation of the multiple levels of redundancy available. higher number of output voltage levels can additionally
The necessary conditions for regulating the neutral-point
and phase (or floating) capacitor voltages will be illustrated. reduce the voltage and current harmonic content applied
The direct torque control (DTC) method is used in the to the load when compared to three-level topologies.
inverter control. The synchronous frame current regulator Typically, five-level structures are obtained as a
used for rectifier control allows for full four-quadrant natural extension of existing three-level topologies such
operation on the network side. The modular mechanical as the NPC converter or the floating-capacitor (FC)
design philosophy will be displayed along with the salient
technical features: rectifier and inverter operating converter [2]. Additional semiconductors and energy
waveforms, protection concept, and ride through behavior. storage elements are incorporated into the classical three-
Finally, experience in pilot installations will be described. level converters to produce the extra levels. For both
Index Terms -- multilevel systems, motor drives, medium topologies, however, practical issues appear which make
voltage, overvoltage protection, short circuit protection, them less acceptable for application in industry. For
direct torque control, transformerless active rectifier. example, if all components are maintained at the same
voltage rating, the required higher number of clamping
diodes and capacitors increases cost and complexity.
I. INTRODUCTION
Another important aspect is the increased difficulty of
The three-level neutral-point clamped (NPC) converter regulating the DC link capacitor voltages of the NPC and
[1], using the integrated gate commutated thyristor the flying capacitor voltages of the FC. In the five-level
(IGCT), has become the standard in medium voltage NPC the DC link is subdivided into four equal voltage
drives in the last decade. This configuration has proved to levels by using a split bank of four capacitors instead of
be very successful in demanding applications with fast two as in the three-level approach. In the FC the number
torque requirements and high power with overload. These of floating capacitors is increased from three to ten going
applications call for specially designed motors (inverter from the three-level to the five-level form [3]. The large
grade motors) that are more expensive than standard number of redundancies in this case demands an
catalogue motors. However the majority of motors are elaborate control technique.
used in pump, fan and compressor applications with These difficulties are avoided in the cascaded H-bridge
requirements that allow the use of standard catalogue multilevel topology [4], which is characterized by series
motors. These applications normally greatly benefit from connections of single-phase H-bridge converters.
being speed controlled and this has raised the demand for However, the use of this strategy is limited in some
a new type of inverter that is compatible with the applications due to the necessity of isolated dc power
standard catalogue motor design. The requirements fall sources. Typically this entails the use of diode rectifier
into three major areas: a) common mode voltages that can front ends coupled to relatively complex input
lead to bearing problems, b) motor harmonic content, transformers. This can be acceptable at high power levels,
leading to overheating of the motor and c) voltage rise but in the lower power MV range the cost of these
time (dv/dt) affecting the motor insulation lifetime. transformers becomes prohibitive. A further limitation is
Over the same time period the voltage and current that the power flow can only be controlled in two
ratings of fast power semiconductor devices, such as the quadrants. Other variants of this topology have active
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paths selected by the switches. For a positive output to V/2 , the switching state V2 results in mid-point
phase current, for example, state V5 discharges the phase current flow, while V1 is connected to the negative
capacitor while V6 charges it as demonstrated in Fig. 4. potential. Thus by properly choosing the redundant phase
A similar behavior is observed for the voltage level V/2 states with knowledge of the output current, the phase
produced by the states V1 and V2. Depending on the capacitor voltages and the NP voltage can be maintained
direction of the output phase current, these states have the within a specified margin of their nominal values. Since
ability to charge or discharge the phase capacitor. the phase capacitors are of lower capacitance value
compared to the DC link capacitors they are given a
higher priority in the balancing logic.
For a three-phase system, the level of flexibility of
controlling the output, mid-point and phase-capacitor
voltages is quite large. On the other hand the complexity
is significant as well. The number of distinct output
voltage vectors increases from 18 in a three-level
structure to 61 in a five-level structure. Furthermore, due
to the presence of redundant vectors, the number of 3-
phase switching states increases to 125 as shown in the
space vector diagram of Fig. 5. As an illustration consider
the zero voltage vector labeled 0 in the diagram, there are
five distinct 3-phase combinations possible. For each of
the vectors on the smallest hexagon labeled 1, 33, 65, 97,
Fig. 3 Phase states and allowed transitions for the ANPC-5L. 129 and 161 there are four possibilities. The 3-phase
switching states are labeled according to the voltage level
of each phase (R S T) where the output voltage levels V,
+VDC V/2, 0, V/2 and V are numbered from 2 to 2,
respectively.
NP Vdc/2 PH
-VDC
V6
+VDC
NP Vdc/2 PH
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In order to take advantage of all this flexibility, the bounds the redundant phase state which minimizes the
controller needs to find a proper combination of 3-phase error is chosen. Thus, based on the status of the NP
switching states to produce the voltage vectors to regulate voltage, the phase capacitor error and the level of
the desired output quantities and phase states to balance redundancy available, an actual switching transition is
the mid-point potential and phase-capacitor voltages. executed by the modulator.
B. Inverter control Direct Torque Control C. AFE Synchronous Reference Frame PI Control
The inverter side of the converter uses Direct Torque The chosen control method is vector control
Control (DTC) based on multilevel hysteresis bands to synchronized to the network frequency. The primary
control the machine torque and flux. The details of 2- purpose of the AFE vector controller is to maintain the
level DTC are explained in [8], therefore only the main DC link voltage level under all conditions. For this
differences involved in the multilevel variation, shown in purpose a DC bus voltage PI controller is employed as
Fig. 6, are described here. As the torque error (Mref-Mact) the outer loop. The AFE uses a phase locked loop (PLL)
crosses each hysteresis boundary the level crossed is to synchronize with the supply frequency. The PLL
indicated by an integer which is related to the size of the generated angle is then used in the dq-transformations for
hexagon in the vector diagram of Fig. 5 with +1 the inner current PI regulators. Here the d-axis current is
indicating the smallest and +4 indicating the largest. used to control the real power (i.e. Vdc) and the q-axis
Negative values indicate reverse rotation. Additional current controls the reactive power. Thus flexible reactive
inputs to the optimal voltage vector selection table are power control is possible permitting compensation of the
also needed: the flux magnitude error and the sign of the supply network voltage and therefore avoiding reactive
phase currents and an algorithm to calculate the needed power penalties.
sector location of the stator flux vector. This allows the For highest efficiency, unity power factor operation
use of symmetry and mirroring to reduce to overall size (zero reactive power => iq* = 0) can be realized.
of the lookup table. Regeneration of motor braking energy back to the utility
is also inherent to an AFE further reducing unnecessary
energy loss. To improve the dynamic performance of the
controller there is also the possibility to feedback the
power consumed by the inverter and motor load. The
modulator for the rectifier is based on a 5-level carrier
based PWM method as described previously in [6].
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construction philosophy. Components are sized to assure IV. TESTING INFRASTRUCTURE
the expected lifetime and easy front side access is The ACS 2000 has been tested in a back-to-back
provided for all critical components. The drawer design (B2B) configuration. For such a configuration two ACS
of the phase modules facilitates quick and safe 2000 drives are installed: the DUT (device under test) and
replacement in case of faults. In the picture the phase a load inverter. Both drives are supplied from a common
module drawers are located in the far right cabinet and three-phase network connection and are connected to
the CM filter is in the far left cabinet with an integrated their respective electric machines which are coupled on a
fan. The interfaces are standard for both the DTL and common shaft. One practical result of this
external transformer configurations [9]. The converter interconnection is that only the losses in the drive system
and terminal cabinets are also identical for both must be provided by the supply. In addition both drives
configurations. (DUT and loading inverter) are ACS 2000 drives making
it possible to investigate both motoring and regenerating
modes simultaneously. Long-term B2B tests were also
done to establish the high reliability of the drive.
50
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waveforms are shown in Fig. 11. A typical current uses ABBs thyristor crowbar concept which further
waveform is shown in Fig. 12. It is clear that the new minimizes the risk of damage resulting from a failure.
five-level inverter produces an output that is quite close
to sinusoidal. The result meets the requirements to drive cl-aru +DC cl-inu
2
NP
voltage (kV)
-2
+
-4
Cdcl
-6
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04
time(s)
-DC
Converter phase to phase voltage
15
Fig. 13 Thyristor crowbar circuit placement in the dc link also
10 showing the rectifier and inverter side clamping circuits.
5
The thyristor crowbar protective circuit is shown in
voltage (kV)
0
Fig. 13 in relation to the DC link capacitors and the
-5 clamping circuits for the rectifier and inverter. In case of
a failure (e.g. short circuit, DC link overvoltage etc.), the
-10
crowbar thyristors are fired, shorting the DC link. The
-15
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 capacitor energy is than safely dissipated through a
time(s)
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rotating mass has sufficient energy to supply these needs. where it replaced a 630 kW cascade drive that was
When the main supply voltage returns the machine can be controlling the speed of a slip-ring induction motor on a
immediately accelerated back to the desired reference clinker cooler exhaust fan.
speed.
Rectifier Ridethrough performance
80 8000 TABLE II - TARGET INDUSTRIES AND APPLICATIONS
Voltage Industries Applications
60 6000
9500
By controlling the clinker cooler exhaust fan, the drive
DC link voltage (V)
9000
keeps the pressure in the kiln hood constant. It does this
Rectifier
8500
Inverter by regulating the fan speed that draws cold air through
8000 the clinker cooler in relation to the hot air that is being
7500 drawn through the kiln.
7000 In this case the new drive was chosen by the Jura
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
time(s) Cement Factory because of the simple installation,
Inverter Ridethrough performance
100 commissioning and operation of the drive. In addition the
Speed ACS 2000 can control the speed over the full range from
0%-100% compared to the previous installation which
50
Speed/Torque %
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the
contributions of current and former colleagues in the
development of this technology: P. Barbosa, N.
Celanovic, M. Winkelnkemper, F. Wildner, C. Haederli,
P. Steimer, J. Steinke, and many others at MV Drives.
REFERENCES
[1] Nabae, A.; Takahashi, I. & Akagi, H. A New Neutral-Point-
Clamped PWM Inverter Industry Applications, IEEE
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[2] Meynard, T. & Foch, H. Multi-level conversion: high voltage
choppers and voltage-source inverters Power Electronics
Specialists Conference, 1992. PESC '92 Record., 23rd Annual
IEEE, 1992, 397-403 vol.1.
[3] Rodriguez, J.; Lai, J.-S. & Peng, F. Z. Multilevel inverters: a
survey of topologies, controls, and applications Industrial
Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, 2002, 49, 724-738.
[4] Osman, R. A., Medium-voltage drive utilizing series-cell
multilevel topology for outstanding power quality, Conference
Record of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting Industry
Applications Conference, IEEE IAS, 1999, vol. 4, pp. 2662-2669.
[5] Rodriguez, J.; Moran, L.; Pontt, J.; Hernandez, J.; Silva, L.; Silva,
C. & Lezana, P. High-voltage multilevel converter with
regeneration capability Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions
on, 2002, 49, 839-846.
[6] Barbosa, P.; Steimer, P.; Steinke, J.; Winkelnkemper, M. &
Celanovic, N., Active-neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) multilevel
converter technology, European Conference on Power
Electronics and Applications, EPE, 2005, CDROM.
[7] Bruckner, T.; Bernet, S. & Guldner, H., The active NPC
converter and its loss-balancing control IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Electronics, 2005, 52, 855-868.
[8] Pohjalainen, P.; Tiitinen, P. & Lalu, J., The Next Generation
Motor Control Method: Direct Torque Control (DTC), EPE
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[9] Kieferndorf, F.; Basler, M.; Serpa, L. A.;Fabian, J.-H.; Coccia, A.;
Scheuer, G. A., A New Medium Voltage Drive System Based on
ANPC-5L Technology, International Conference on Industrial
Technology, ICIT 2010, CDROM.
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