Next Generation Grid Connected Converters for Smart Grid

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Grid connected converters are widely used in different sectors of industry, including energy generation and transmission, power supplies for information and communication technology (ICT), renewable energy systems, and smart grid. In power systems, more and more grid connected converters are required to further improve the penetration of renewable energy. Nowadays, high efficiency grid connected converters are essential to the power system to regulate energy flow, adjust reactive power and store energy to storage devices. The power system applications include solid state var compensators, utility scale energy storage systems and flexible AC transmission systems among others. On the consumer side, more and more grid connected converters are used in industry to improve efficiency. For example, motor drives industry employs active PWM rectifiers to feed back the kinetic energy to the grid; the ICT industry wants to develop high efficiency high power density grid connected converters to power the servers; and commercial building owners would like to eliminate the harmonic currents due to the low cost compact florescent lighting (CFL) and LED lighting. All these efforts require the development of high reliability and high efficiency grid connected converters. This proposal aims to solve the challenges existing in current grid connected converters. The challenges include: reliable detection of grid synchronization under severe disturbances, fast and reliable digital control system for new generation high frequency wide band gap devices (like Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride devices) and reduced size of passive components. The technology developed in this proposal will be demonstrated in four different projects with four applications: energy storage for utility and residential applications, high power density rectifiers for the ICT industry, active power filters for commercial buildings, and renewable energy systems with multi-inverters. The proposed research is expected to generate innovative technology, which will be transferred to Canadian industry through the research and development collaborative projects.