International Journal of Electrical Engineering.

ISSN 0974-2158 Volume 8, Number 4 (2015), pp. 365-377

© International Research Publication House
http://www.irphouse.com

Direct Grid Integration of Renewable Energy

Systems Using a High-Frequency Link Cascaded
Medium-Voltage Converter

P. Bhaskar Prasad, B. Murali Mohan and M. Lakshmi Prasanna

Assistant Professor Dept of EEE, AITS Rajampet

Assistant Professor Dept of EEE, AITS Rajampet
(M. Tech), E. P. S Student Dept of EEE, AITS Rajampet

Abstract

This paper presents a High-frequency link multilevel cascaded medium

voltage converter. Medium-voltage converters eliminate the step-up
transformer for direct grid integration of renewable power plants, but MMC
converters require multiple DC supplies. The high frequency magnetic link is
used to generate the multiple isolated DC sources for all H-bridge inverter
cells of the MMC converters and it also minimizes the voltage imbalance,
common mode issues. The proposed system performance is analyzed in the
MATLAB/Simulink environment. It is expected that the proposed new
technology will have great potential for future renewable power generation
and smart grid application.

Index Terms─ Direct grid integration, high-frequency link, medium-voltage

converters, modular multilevel cascaded converters, renewable energy
systems.

I. INTRODUCTION
The energy and environment represents two major areas of current global crisis and it
is more and more widely recognized that renewable energy sources, especially wind
and solar energy, can offer effective solutions to these enormous challenges as the
wind and solar power development is experiencing dramatic growth. Since 2007,
medium-and large scale PV power have attracted great interest and PV power plants
of more than 10 MW in capacity have now become a reality [1]. More than 200 PV
power plants have been installed in the world, each of them generating an output more
than 10 MW. In future some are to have a capacity in excess of 250 MW. These
multi-megawatt PV power plants require large area of land. So they are usually
366 P. Bhaskar Prasad, B. Murali Mohan and M. Lakshmi Prasanna

installed in remote areas far from cities. However the renewable energy sources have
highly variable daily and seasonal patterns and consumer power demands are also
extremely variable in nature. Therefore it is difficult to operate a standalone power
system which is supplied from only one renewable source unless there are appropriate
energy storage facilities. For this grid integration is the only possible solution if
enough storage facilities are not available.
Currently there are 318 GW of wind power generation installed worldwide. Wind
forms cover large areas of land. The land area covered by a 3. 6 MW turbine can be
almost 0. 37 km2, such that 54 turbines would cover about a land area of 20 km2.
Offshore wind forms can save land rental expense which is equivalent to 10-18% of
total operating and maintenance cost of a wind form, offshore based wind forms have
attracted great attention in the last few years. To integrate scattered wind turbine
generators to a medium-voltage a power frequency transformer is commonly used to
step-up the voltage for long distances transmission. Fig. 1. shows the traditional wind
turbine with step-up transformer.

Fig. 1. Fully rated converter based wind turbine generator system

In an offshore wind turbine power generation system transformer is installed at a

height of 80m inside the nacelle together with the other equipment such as the
generator and converter. The tower diameter and weight depends on rotor and nacelle
which is of heavy weight. Maintenance is also critical if liquid-filled step-up
transformers used in the generation. Approximately the installation cost of offshore
wind form is 20% of the total capital cost. For these reasons considerable attention
has recently been directed toward reducing the weight, size as well as maintenance
cost by eliminating step-up transformer.
With the fast development of power electronics, it is becoming a reality to replace the
combination of low-voltage inverter and step-up transformer by a medium voltage
converter for direct grid connection to reduce the system volume and weight, as well
as the cost. In comparison with the conventional two-and three-level converts, the
multilevel converters present lower switching losses, lower voltage stress on the
switching devices and higher equality output power, and thus suite better for medium-
voltage applications. Although there are several multilevel converter topologies,
Direct Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Systems 367

because of (e. g. some special features like number of components scales linearly with
the number of levels, and individual modules are identical and completely modular in
construction hence enabling high level number attainability) the modular multilevel
cascaded (MMC) converter topology can be considered as a possible candidate for the
medium-voltage applications [3]-[7]. However the MMC converter requires multiple
isolated and balanced DC sources [9]-[11]. As a result its application is not straight
forward, especially in wind power generation.
To eliminate the step-up transformer of wind turbine generators, in 2008 a multicoil
modular permanent magnet generator was proposed [12]. This multiwinding generator
has special winding arrangement and complicated control strategies to generate
multiple DC supplies of the MMC converters. An improved control strategy was
verified and is almost same generator converter system [13]-[14]. To eliminate the
step-up transformer in 2010, another approach was proposed [15]. To generate
multiple Dc supplies for the MMC converters a few six phase generators are placed in
the nacelle. All the generators are driven by the same wind turbine and each stator
winding generates an isolated source for an H-bridge inverter cell of the MMC
converter. Even though these MMC converters generates medium-voltage ac outputs
but these approaches requires special modular generators and multiple traditional
generators to generate isolated multiple DC supplies for the MMC converters, and
introduce electrical isolation problems between the generator and grid.
The quasi-Z source inverter has attracted significant attention in recent years due to
some special features [16]-[17]. A medium-voltage PV inverter which is a
combination of few quasi-Z source inverters into an MMC converter was proposed in
2012 [18], where the quasi-z source inverter generates dc supplies for the MMC
converter, but it does not have electrical isolation between the PV array and medium-
voltage grid. Multiple isolated high frequency link-based medium-voltage PV inverter
topology was proposed [19]-[20] where the high frequency link generates dc supplies
for the MMC converters. In these proposed systems voltage balancing is the
challenging issue since each module is connected to a PV array through a dc/dc
converter. A common dc link inverter was proposed in 2012 [21]-[22]. The proposed
system may reduces the voltage imbalance problem in the grid side, but the generation
of common dc-link voltage from different PV arrays makes the inverter operation
complex and limits the range of maximum power point tracker (MPPT) operation.
Nowadays, it is common to use high-frequency magnetic links in designing grid-
connected power electronic converters, which can provide electrical isolation without
increasing system volume and weight [23]. For example, operated at 1. 2 kHz, the
weight and size of a 3 MW transformer can be less than 8% of an equivalent 50 Hz
unit. For fabrication of high-frequency transformer, the amorphous material has
excellent magnetic characteristics such as high saturation flux density and relatively
low specific core losses at medium to high frequencies [2]. The commercially
available amorphous material is Metglas. The saturation flux density of the Metglas
alloy 2605S3A is 1. 41 T and the specific core loss at 10 kHz sinusoidal excitation of
0. 5T is 20 W/kg.
In this paper, a high-frequency link cascaded medium-voltage converter is proposed
for direct grid integration of renewable energy sources. Multiple isolated and balanced
368 P. Bhaskar Prasad, B. Murali Mohan and M. Lakshmi Prasanna

DC supplies are generated by the common-magnetic link for all of the H-bridge
inverter cells of the MMC converter from a single or multiple renewable energy
sources. The high frequency link multilevel cascaded medium-voltage converter-
based grid integration will have the following advantages: 1) No requirement for
special or multiple generators for the wind turbine generator system; 2) a wide range
of MPPT operation for PV systems; 3) An inherent dc-link voltage balance due to the
common magnetic-link; 4) Direct grid integration without using step-up transformer;
5) An inherent minimization of the grid isolation problems through the high-
frequency link; 6) An overall compact and light weight system. To verify the
feasibility of the proposed system a simulink model is developed with modular five-
level cascaded converter which gives three phase 1kV rms as output.

II. PROPOSED MEDIUM-VOLTAGE CONVERTER-BASED DIRECT GRID

INTEGRATION SYSTEM
A. Basic block diagram of the proposed system
In this paper, as an approach to eliminate the step-up transformer to integrate
renewable sources to grid, an amorphous alloy 2605SA1-based common magnetic
link is considered. The array dc power is converted to a medium frequency ac through
a medium-frequency inverter. The inverter is also ensures constant output voltage.
The inverter is connected to a primary winding of a multiwinding high-frequency
link. Each secondary winding works as an isolated source and is connected to an H-
bridge cell through a bridge rectifier.

Fig. 2. Proposed medium-voltage PV inverter system.

The number of primary windings depends on the number of PV arrays and the number
of secondary windings depends on the number of levels of the inverter. The detailed
power circuit of a three-phase five level PV inverter system is shown in fig3. In large
PV power plants, several PV arrays are operated in parallel. For this case, multi input
and multi output magnetic link can be used, where each PV is connected to a primary
winding through a booster and medium-frequency inverter as shown in fig2.
Direct Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Systems 369

Fig. 3. Detailed power conversion circuit

The magnetic link provides electrical isolation between the PV array and the grid,
thus inherently overcomes the common mode and voltage imbalance problems.
B. Design and Analysis of the Proposed System
If ml is the number of levels of the converter, the number of cascaded modules on
each phase can be calculated from
𝑚𝑙 − 1
𝑀𝑛 = 1
2
If Vll(rms) is the grid line to line voltage, the minimum dc-link voltage of
each H-bridge inverter cell can be calculated from
𝑉𝑙𝑙 𝑟𝑚𝑠
𝑉𝑑𝑐 (𝑚𝑖𝑛 ) = 2 2
𝑚𝑙 − 1
To determine the nominal dc-link voltage of each H-bridge inverter cell, a voltage
reserve of 4% is assumed, i. e.,
𝑉𝑑𝑐 𝑛𝑜𝑚 = 1. 04𝑉𝑑𝑐 (𝑚𝑖𝑛 ) 3
If Ip(rms) is the inverter phase current, the apparent output Power can be
calculated from
𝑆𝑐 = 3 𝑉𝑙𝑙 𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝐼𝑝 𝑟𝑚𝑠 4
The highest voltage rating of commercially available IGBT is 6. 5 kV and, this is
suitable for 2. 5 kV and lower voltage inverter systems with traditional two-level
converter topology. Although high voltage devices such as 3. 3-, 4. 5-, and 6. 5 kV
IGBTs are available in the market, They are still costly as shown in fig. 4.
370 P. Bhaskar Prasad, B. Murali Mohan and M. Lakshmi Prasanna

Fig. 4. Market price of power semiconductor devices (IGBTs).

The lower voltage devices, such as 0. 6-, 0. 9-, 1. 2-, 1. 7-and 2. 5 kV IGBTs are not
only matured in technology but also relatively low in price. On the other hand the
cascaded connection of low voltage rated semiconductors can be a cost effective
solution for medium-voltage inverter applications. The high-number of levels means
that medium-voltage attainability is possible to connect the PV array to the medium-
voltage ac network directly as well as possible to improve the output power quality.
The total harmonic distortions (THD) of levels ranging from 7-level to 19-level with
four modulation schemes (e. g., the phase shifted carriers with sinusoidal references
(SPWM), the phase shifted carriers with third harmonic injected sinusoidal references
(THPWM), the phase-shifted carrier with 600 modulated sinusoidal references
(SDPWM), and the phase shifted carriers with trapezoidal type references (TRPWM))
is illustrated in fig. 5.

Fig. 5. Calculated THD at different number of levels ranging from 7-level to 19-
level with four modulation schemes.
Direct Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Systems 371

Component number and control complexity increases linearly as the number of levels
increases. Therefore, the optimal selection of the number of inverter levels is
important in order to achieve the best performance/cost ratio of the PV systems. Each
H-bridge cell commutation voltage of a seven-level topology-based 11 kV inverter is
2696 V, which may be supported by the 6. 5 kV IGBT. Thus, at least seven-level
topology is required to design the 11-kV inverter. The output power quality of a 21-
level inverter is good enough to feed into the 11-kV ac grid directly. The low-price 1.
7-kV IGBT can be used to design the 21-level inverter. For a 33-kv system, at least
15-level topology is required and 55-level topology is sufficient for the power quality.
Therefore, 7-level to 21-level MMC inverter topologies are considered for an 11-kV
inverter system and 15-level to 55-level converter topologies are considered for the
33-kV system. The device voltage utilization factor (DVUF), ratio of commutation
voltage of respective commutation cells (Vdc nom) and device commutation voltage
for a device reliability of 100 failures in time (FIT) due to cosmic radiation
(Vcom@100FIT) are summarised in table I. A higher DVUF is essential for the cost
effective design, since the semiconductor cost is a significant figure for medium-
voltage inverter applications. From Table I, it can be seen that only a few inverters
have high DVUFs. In order to ensure a cost effective design, the inverters with levels
of number 9, 11, 15, 19, and 21 for an 11-kV system are considered for the further
analysis. The number of arithmetic and logical operation (ALOs) for switching
section and cost of semiconductors are calculated and summarized in table II. The
THD is calculated through MATLAB/Simulink environment.

TABLE II Selection of IGBTs for MMC Converters

TABLE II Comparison of MMC Converters

III. Simulink Model and Result Analysis

To verify the feasibility of the proposed system a simulink model is developed with
372 P. Bhaskar Prasad, B. Murali Mohan and M. Lakshmi Prasanna

modular five-level cascaded converter which gives three phase 1kV rms as output.
Fig. 6. shows the PV sub system in the simulink model.

Fig. 6. PV sub system.

Gate pulses are applied to the switching devices of the converter and the obtained
output voltage and line currents are as shown in fig. 7, fig. 8. Each level of the output
voltage contains a number of PWM pulses.

Fig. 7. Simulated three phase line voltages of 1-kV multilevel cascaded converter
Direct Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Systems 373

Fig. 8. Simulated line currents of the 1-kV multilevel cascaded converter.

Fig. 9. Frequency spectrum of line voltages

The frequency spectrum of line voltages is shown in fig. 9. The output voltage
waveform contains about 4. 07% THD.

IV. EXTENSION WORK

Renewable energy sources have daily and seasonal variable patterns. Due to these
reasons, uninterrupted power supply to any load is not possible by a stand-alone
renewable resource. For this problem, grid integration of renewable sources is the
only practical solution. In extension work both PV and Wind power generation
systems are connected to the grid. There are always periods without wind. Thus,
WECS must be linked energy storage or parallel generating system if supplies are to
be maintained. Fig. 10. shows the sub system of wind power generation along with
PV sub system. The following are the simulation results when two renewable sources
(PV, Wind power generation systems) are connected to the grid through medium/high
frequency link.
374 P. Bhaskar Prasad, B. Murali Mohan and M. Lakshmi Prasanna

Fig. 10. Sub system of Wind power generation system along with PV system.

Fig. 11. simulated three phase line voltages of 1. 2 kV multilevel converter.

Fig. 12. Simulated three phase line currents of 1. 2 kV multilevel converter.

The frequency spectrum of line voltages when two renewable sources (PV, Wind
power generation systems) are connected to grid is shown in fig. 13. The Output
voltage waveform contains about 2. 24% THD.
Direct Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Systems 375

Fig. 13. Frequency spectrum of line voltages.

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new-medium voltage PV inverter system is proposed for medium – or
large-scale PV power plants. A common magnetic link is employed to interconnect
PV arrays to form a single source. Multiple isolated and balanced dc supplies for the
multilevel inverter have been generated through the common magnetic link, which
automatically minimizes the voltage imbalance problem. The grid isolation and safety
problems have also been solved inherently due to electrical isolation provided by the
High-frequency link. Although the additional windings and rectifiers may increase
loss of the proposed system, the overall performance is still similar to the traditional
system. The elimination of line filter and step-up transformer from traditional system
will enable the large cost savings in terms of the installation, running and maintenance
of the PV power plant.. In extension work both PV and Wind generation systems are
connected to the grid to give uninterrupted power supply to the required areas. Here,
the proposed medium-voltage system has been developed by MATLAB/Simulink
model.

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