Force commutated high power electronics

导读：由于通信（电视、广播、互联网、无线和移动）和消费产品，每个人都熟悉电子产品。但这种电子设备仅限于低功率范围。电力电子学处理的是兆瓦级的电力设施。例如，出于安全考虑，魁北克水电公司通过直流线路与美国新不伦瑞克省（以及不久的将来的安大略省水电公司）相连。交流转直流和回交流的设备是基于电力电子技术的。所有可再生能源技术（风能、光伏、太阳能等）都需要类似的设备进行频率转换（直流电到60赫兹交流电，或变频交流电到60赫兹交流电）。

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.