TY - JOUR
T1 - Internal balance during low-voltage-ride-through of the modular multilevel converter statcom
AU - Tsolaridis, Georgios
AU - Kontos, Epameinondas
AU - Chaudhary, Sanjay K.
AU - Bauer, Pavol
AU - Teodorescu, Remus
PY - 2017/7
Y1 - 2017/7
N2 - Grid faults are common in power systems and can have a severe impact on the operation of the converters in the system. In this paper, the operation of a Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC)-based Static Synchronous Compensators (STATCOM) is investigated during grid faults. The study focuses on the challenging internal control of the converter to allow the independent control of the energy levels of each arm, with the goal to maintain internal balancing of the MMC during contingencies. Extensive experimental results highlight the need for a sophisticated internal control. Moreover, the experimental analysis verifies that, by using the proposed control structure, the MMC can effectively ride through a fault on the AC side without tripping, while injecting the necessary positive and negative sequence reactive current levels according to the most recent grid codes.
AB - Grid faults are common in power systems and can have a severe impact on the operation of the converters in the system. In this paper, the operation of a Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC)-based Static Synchronous Compensators (STATCOM) is investigated during grid faults. The study focuses on the challenging internal control of the converter to allow the independent control of the energy levels of each arm, with the goal to maintain internal balancing of the MMC during contingencies. Extensive experimental results highlight the need for a sophisticated internal control. Moreover, the experimental analysis verifies that, by using the proposed control structure, the MMC can effectively ride through a fault on the AC side without tripping, while injecting the necessary positive and negative sequence reactive current levels according to the most recent grid codes.
KW - Arm energy balance
KW - Circulating current controller
KW - Grid asymmetries
KW - Low-voltage ride-through
KW - Modular multilevel converter
KW - STATCOM
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85025167914&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/en10070935
DO - 10.3390/en10070935
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85025167914
SN - 1996-1073
VL - 10
JO - Energies
JF - Energies
IS - 7
M1 - 935
ER -