Converter Monitoring Unit for Retrofit of Wind Power Converters

Bjorn Rannestad, Anders Eggert Maarbjerg, Kristian Frederiksen, Stig Munk-Nielsen, Kristian Gadgaard

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A converter monitoring unit (CMU), which will enable condition monitoring of wind turbine converters is presented in this paper. Reducing the cost of corrective maintenance by means of condition monitoring is a way of lowering operation and maintenance costs for wind turbine systems. The CMU must be able to detect a broad range of failure modes related to Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) power modules and associated gate drives. IGBT collector-emitter on-state voltage (vce on) and current (i c) is sampled in the CMU and used for detection of emerging failures. A new method for compensation of unwanted inductive voltage drop in the vce on measurement path is presented, enabling retrofitting of CMUs in existing wind turbines. Finally, experimental results obtained on a prototype CMU are presented. Experimentally the vce on dependency to IGBT junction temperature and deterioration of gate drive voltage is investigated. The proposed method shows good detectability of both thermally related degradations of the power module and detectability of deterioration of gate drive voltage. It is also expected that the proposed method will enable detectability of other failure mechanisms.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7953522
JournalIEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
Volume33
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)4342 - 4351
Number of pages10
ISSN0885-8993
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2018

Keywords

  • Condition monitoring
  • Converters
  • Insulated gate bipolar transistors
  • Logic gates
  • Monitoring
  • Multichip modules
  • Pulse width modulated power converters
  • Voltage measurement
  • Wind turbines
  • Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs)

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