System-Level Reliability Modelling and Evaluation in Power Electronic Based Generation Systems

The power systems are becoming power electronics-dominant with an ever increasing penetration level of renewable energies, like wind and solar photovoltaic. In this regard, new methods must be developed to model and assess such systems in terms of reliability—which is of paramount importance in the design, planning, and operation of power systems. On the other hand, conventional reliability metrics in power system analysis do not take into account wear out of power components as well as the complicated structure of a power converter when doing such analysis. The hypothesis is that physics of failure analysis can be applied to each component and converter, and then aggregated up to an assessment of the power system, where also dependency on the operating conditions should be included. The modelling and evaluation methods should take into account the uncertainty of operation and climate conditions. The assessment method should further be able to quantify the demands to the individual components/converter before they are used e.g., in the design phase. In other words, the overall goal is to develop new methods for ensuring reliable and safe operations of power electronic based power systems. An integrated reliability assessment tool, which can incorporate both the physical characteristics of hardware components and control software optimisation at the system level, will be developed for predicting the lifetime of power electronic based power systems. New insights into the mutual interactions of power electronic converters at multiple time scales will be revealed to leverage the control effects of power electronics for power grid stabilisation and protection.

Funding: Villum Foundation.