Force commutated high power electronics

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Introduction: Everyone is familiar with electronics because of communication (TV, radio, internet, wireless and mobile) and consumer products. But such electronics are limited to low power ranges. Power electronics deal with the mega-watt levels of electric utilities. Hydro-Quebec, for example, is connected to New Brunswick, USA (and Ontario Hydro in the near future) by dc lines for reasons of security. The equipment for converting from AC to DC and back to AC are based on power electronic technology. All renewable energy technologies (wind, photovoltaic, solar, etc. ) require similar equipment from frequency changing (DC to 60 Hz AC, or variable frequency AC to 60 Hz AC). After decades of researching under the theme, "Force commutated high power electronics" to improve power electronic converters in the forms of High Voltage DC (HVDC) stations, and Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) controllers, the next phase of consists of integrating the frequency changers of renewable energy sources to improve the overall dynamic performance of power grids. The exciting prospect is: when renewable energy sources reach penetration of 30%, the power electronically controllable power (coming from the frequency changers) in the power grid becomes 30% also. Objective: Besides continuing to improve HVDC and FACTS equipment, the added challenge is to use the 30% power electronically control to stabilize and improve the damping of large interconnected power systems whose inter-area oscillations have, in the past, led to blackouts. Scientific Approach: Besides power electronic technologies, the research methods will be extended to small signal stability analysis, application of eigenfunction concepts and computation of eigenfunctions by parallel processors of supercomputers.