Advanced High-Power Systems for Medium-Voltage Motor Drives

为了满足日益增长的电能需求，同时减少对环境的影响，未来的电力系统需要更加节能。大功率电动机驱动是电能的主要消耗者，在节能方面有很大的改进潜力。这种改进的关键是电力电子技术的进步。拟议的研究将集中在推进最先进的电力电子技术，在中压（MV）范围内（2.3至15kV）运行，用于电机驱动应用。******大功率中压变频器在石油和天然气，化工，采矿和金属，水泥，发电和公用事业，牵引，食品和饮料行业有广泛的应用。能源效率、电能质量、成本、尺寸、可靠性、故障保护以及易于安装和维护是大功率中压电机驱动器电力电子技术发展的主要挑战。现有的基于多电平结构概念的中压电力电子变换器虽然具有优于传统变换器的优点，但其电压水平仍然局限在6.9kV。这是因为市场上可用的功率半导体的额定电压的限制和目前的多电平中压功率变换器的结构。现有的高电压解决方案需要使用复杂的变压器，这是不高效的，或者使用模块化拓扑结构，显著增加了组件的数量，这是不经济有效和可靠的。******拟议的研究计划将侧重于一种新型的模块化和可扩展的功率转换结构，以进一步扩展高压（>6.9kV）应用的中压驱动器，提高效率、性能、成本、尺寸、重量、可靠性和故障检测能力。预计该研究计划的理论结果和成功实施将提供一套新的电力电子拓扑结构和先进的控制技术，以引入大功率中压变频器领域的新技术，这将为所有使用工业电动机的部门产生显著的节能效果。该研究项目还将帮助培养具备所需知识和技术技能的下一代电力工程师，为当地和国家的企业和行业做出贡献。

To meet the growing demand for electrical energy while reducing environmental impact, electrical systems of the future will need to be much more energy efficient. High-power electric motor drives are the major consumers of electrical energy and they have significant potential for improvement in terms of energy saving. The key to this improvement is advances in power electronics technology. The proposed research will focus on advancing the state-of-the-art in power electronic technologies that operate in the medium-voltage (MV) range (2.3 to 15kV) for motor drive applications.******High-power MV drives have a wide range of applications in the oil and gas, chemicals, mining and metals, cement, power generation and utilities, traction, and food and beverage industries. Energy efficiency, power quality, cost, size, reliability, fault protection, and easy installation and maintenance are the main challenges in the development of power electronics for high-power MV motor drives. Although existing MV power electronic converters based on the concept of multilevel structure have advantages over the conventional converters, their voltage level is still limited to 6.9kV. This is because of the limitation in voltage rating of the available power semiconductors in the market and the structure of the current multilevel MV power converters. The existing solutions for higher voltage need to employ a complex transformer, which is not efficient, or use a modular topology with a significant increase in the number of components which is not cost-effective and reliable. ******The proposed research program will focus on a novel family of modular and scalable power conversion structure for further expansion of MV drives for higher voltage (>6.9kV) applications with improved efficiency, performance, cost, size, weight, reliability, and fault detection capability. It is expected that the theoretical results and the successful implementation of this proposed research program will provide a new set of power electronic topologies and advanced control techniques to introduce new technologies in the area of high-power MV drives which will produce significant energy savings for all sectors using industrial electric motors. This research program will also help to educate the next generation of power engineers with required knowledge and technical skills to contribute to local and national businesses and industries.