EPSRC 1st Grant: "Compact Modular Multilevel Converters for Offshore Wind Integration"

EPSRC 第一资助：“用于海上风电集成的紧凑型模块化多电平转换器”

• 批准号: EP/R002924/1
• 负责人: Alessandro Costabeber
• 金额: $ 12.89万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FR002924%2F1
• 关键词: EPSRC; 1st; Grant; Compact; Modular

The global electricity network has recently been experiencing a large scale integration of renewable energy sources, mainly photovoltaic and wind. This transformation is driven by the need for a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, to limit greenhouse effect and mitigate global warming at the same time improving security of the supply. Large coal power plants are the main contributors of CO2 emissions, and electricity demand is constantly growing, especially in large urban/industrial areas. In this scenario, renewable energies are the only viable alternative to reduced environmental impact and carbon footprint of the electrical system. The main drawback of renewable energies is that they are usually generated far from where the energy is consumed. Typical examples in the UK are offshore wind farms, harvesting energy in the North Sea and delivering it to the mainland. Installing wind farms offshore gives higher wind speed and minimises the environmental impact, but might result in hundreds of kilometres separating the generator and the users. When distance increases, traditional and well-established AC transmission technology becomes unsustainable for its high energy loss.High Voltage DC (HVDC) is the technology enabling bulk power transmission over long distances (>600km for overhead cables, >40km for submarine cables), thanks to its higher efficiency and lower cost. Compared to AC power transmission, DC transmission is more complex, relying on Power Converter stations to transform from AC to DC at the wind farm side and back to AC when power is delivered to the mainland. Major issues in the design of converter stations for HVDC are size, weight, cost, efficiency, and manufacturing/maintenance. The basic problem is that these converters, when based on conventional technology, can be as large as a medium-sized industrial building and as heavy as 10000 tons for a typical 1GW installation. This poses two main challenges, at both ends of the HVDC link:1.Offshore challenge: installing large and bulk converters offshore increases the cost of the platform, and reduces competitiveness of offshore wind. In addition, construction, commissioning and maintenance of the converter are both complex and expensive.2.Onshore challenge: the converter onshore is often located in densely populated areas where energy is needed but land is expensive and limited. Also, environmental and visual landscape impact are a concern. This project will propose compact power conversion topologies for offshore and urban stations that have reduced size, weight, cost and environmental impact while maintaining adequate performances. In addition, the commissioning phase will be taken into account in the explored topologies, in order to increase modularity at system level and reduce construction efforts. The topologies will be discussed with key industry stakeholders and compared to standard state of art solutions, to identify the most attractive option, and the result of this trade off will feed into three work packages: design of the proposed converter, computer simulation and construction of a laboratory demonstrator to prove the feasibility and functionality of the proposed technology.

全球电网最近正在经历大规模的可再生能源整合，主要是光伏和风能。这一转变的驱动因素是减少二氧化碳排放、限制温室效应和缓解全球变暖，同时提高供应安全。大型燃煤电厂是二氧化碳排放的主要来源，电力需求不断增长，特别是在大城市/工业区。在这种情况下，可再生能源是减少电力系统对环境影响和碳足迹的唯一可行替代方案。可再生能源的主要缺点是它们的产生地通常远离能源消耗地。英国的典型例子是海上风电场，在北海收集能源并将其输送到大陆。在海上安装风电场可以提供更高的风速并最大限度地减少对环境的影响，但可能会导致发电机和用户相距数百公里。当距离增加时，传统的、成熟的交流输电技术因其高能量损失而变得不可持续。高压直流（HVDC）是一种能够实现长距离大容量电力传输的技术（架空电缆> 600公里，海底电缆> 40公里），由于其更高的效率和更低的成本。与交流输电相比，直流输电更为复杂，在风电场侧依靠换流站将交流电变换为直流电，并在向大陆输送电力时再将其变回交流电。高压直流换流站设计的主要问题是尺寸、重量、成本、效率和制造/维护。基本问题是，这些转换器在基于传统技术时，可能与中型工业建筑一样大，对于典型的 1GW 装置来说，重量可能高达 10000 吨。这给高压直流链路的两端带来了两个主要挑战： 1.海上挑战：在海上安装大型变流器会增加平台成本，并降低海上风电的竞争力。此外，变流器的建设、调试和维护既复杂又昂贵。2.陆上挑战：陆上变流器通常位于人口稠密的地区，这些地区需要能源，但土地昂贵且有限。此外，环境和视觉景观影响也是一个问题。该项目将为海上和城市电站提出紧凑的电力转换拓扑，在保持足够性能的同时，减小尺寸、重量、成本和环境影响。此外，在探索的拓扑中还将考虑调试阶段，以提高系统级别的模块化程度并减少施工工作量。将与主要行业利益相关者讨论这些拓扑，并与标准的最先进解决方案进行比较，以确定最具吸引力的选择，这种权衡的结果将纳入三个工作包：拟议转换器的设计、计算机模拟和实验室演示器的构建，以证明拟议技术的可行性和功能。