• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1123-1130
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• 2018

Voltage stabilization is an essential component of power quality in low voltage DC (LVDC) microgrid. The microgrid demands the interconnection of a number of small distributed power resources, including variable renewable generators. Therefore, the voltage can be maintained in a stable manner through the control of these distributed generators. In this study, we did research on the new advanced operating method for a photovoltaic (PV) simulator in order to achieve interconnection to a bipolar LVDC microgrid. The validity of this voltage stabilization method, using the distributed generators, is experimentally verified. The test LVDC microgrid is configured by connecting the developed PV simulator and DC load, DC line, and AC/DC rectifier for connecting the main AC grid. The new advanced control method is applied to the developed PV simulator for the bipolar LVDC grid in order to stabilize the gird voltage. Using simulation results, the stabilization of the grid voltage by PV simulator using the proposed control method is confirmed the through the simulation results in various operation scenarios.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.11
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• pp.1800-1805
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• 2016

The micro-grid designed as bipolar ${\pm}750V$ low-voltage DC power distribution system demonstrated by KEPRI, demands interconnection of a number of small decentralized power source including variable renewable generator. Therefore, variable researches for the influence of interconnection with the bipolar typed DC grid and these variable power sources are required for superior quality of power distribution. Renewable power generation simulators for the bipolar ${\pm}750V$ low-voltage DC power distribution system are necessary for such researches. In this paper, we carry out a research on the photovoltaic simulator that be actually able to interconnect with a bipolar ${\pm}750V$ low-voltage micro-grid. Simulator for this research is not only able to simulate photovoltaic generation according to weather informations and PV modules characteristics, but also contribute to stabilization of bipolar ${\pm}750V$ low-voltage of the system. Therefore, the simulator was designed to develop a system that can situationally respond to variable control algorithms such as the MPPT control, droop control, EMS power control, etc.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.549-558
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• 2017

DC distribution has several differences compared to AC distribution. DC distribution has a higher efficiency than AC distribution when distributing electricity at the same voltage level. Accordingly, power can be transferred further with low-voltage DC. In addition, power flow in a DC grid system is produced by only a voltage difference in magnitude. Owing to these differences, operation of a DC grid system significantly differs from that of an AC system. In this paper, the power flow problem in a bipolar-type DC grid with unbalanced load conditions is organized and solved. Control strategy of energy storage system on a slow time scale with power references obtained by solving an optimization problem regarding the DC grid is then proposed. The proposed strategy is verified with computer simulations.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1357-1368
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• 2018

In this paper, a novel high gain bidirectional modular dc-dc converter (BMC) with unipolar and bipolar structures for dc network interconnections is proposed. When compared with traditional dc grid-connecting converters, the proposed converter can achieve a high voltage gain with a simple modular transformerless structure. A sub-modular structure for the BMC is proposed to eliminate the unbalanced current stress between the different power units (levels) in the BMC. This can realize current sharing and standardized production and assembling. In addition, phase-interval operation is introduced to the sub-modules to realize low voltage and current ripple in both sides of the converter. Furthermore, two types of bipolar topologies of the sub-modular BMC were proposed to extend its application in bipolar dc network connections. In addition, the control system was optimized for grid-connection applications by providing various control strategies. Finally, simulations of a 3-level unipolar sub-modular BMC and a 4-level bipolar sub-modular BMC were conducted, and a 1-kW experimental 3-level unipolar prototype was developed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed converter.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.786-794
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• 2015

In this paper, a new power control strategy for the bipolar-type low voltage direct current (LVDC) distribution system is being proposed. The dc distribution system is considered as an innovative system according to the increase of dc loads and dc output type distribution energy resources (DERs) such as photovoltaic (PV) systems and energy storage systems (ESS). Since the dc distribution system has many advantages such as feasible connection of DERs, reduction of conversion losses between dc output sources and loads, no reactive power issues, it is very suitable solution for new type buildings and residences interfaced with DERs and ESSs. In the bipolar-type, if it has each grid-interfaced converter, both sides (upper, lower-side) can be operated individually or collectively. A complementary power control strategy using two ESSs in both sides for effective and reliable operation is proposed in this paper. Detailed power control methods of the host controller and local controllers are described. To verify the performances of the proposed control strategy, simulation analysis using PSCAD/EMTDC is being performed where the results show that the proposed strategy provides efficient operations and can be applied to the bipolar-type dc distribution system.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.476-483
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• 2014

This paper describes the operational analysis results of the bipolar DC distribution system coupled with the distributed generators. The energy management for AC/DC power trade and the operational principle of distributed generators and energy storages were first analyzed by computer simulation with PSCAD/EMTDC software. After then a hardware simulator for the bipolar DC distribution system was built, which is composed of the grid-tied three-level inverter, battery storage, super-capacitor storage, and the voltage balancer. Various experiments with the hardware simulator were carried out to verify the operation of bipolar DC distribution system. The developed simulator has an upper-level controller which operates in connection with the controllers for each distributed generator and the battery energy storage based on CAN communication. The developed hardware simulator are possible to use in designing the bipolar DC distribution system and analyzing its performance experimentally.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.563-569
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• 2002

This paper proposes an inverter for the grid-connected photovoltaic system based on the transformer-less inverter. This system consists of a high frequency DC-DC converter, high frequency transformer, diode bridge rectifiers, a DC filter, a low frequency inverter, and an AC filter. The 20kHz switched high frequency converter is used to generate bipolar PWM pulse, and the high frequency transformer transforms its voltage twice, which is subsequently rectified by diode bridge rectifiers for a full-wave rectified 60 Hz sine wave power output. Even though the high frequency link system needs more power semiconductors, a reduced size, light weight, and saved parts cost make this system more comparative than other power conditioning systems due to elimination of 60Hz transformer.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.336-344
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• 2017

This paper presents the three-port DC-DC converter modeling and controller design procedure, which is part of the solid-state transformer (SST) to interface medium voltage AC grid to bipolar DC distribution network. Due to the high primary side DC link voltage, the proposed converter employs the three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) topology at the primary side and 2-two level half bridge circuits for each DC distribution network. For the proposed converter particular structure, this paper conducts modeling the three winding transformer and the power transfer between each port. A decoupling method is adopted to simplify the power transfer model. The voltage controller design procedure is presented. In addition, the output current sharing controller is employed for current balancing between the parallel-connected secondary output ports. The proposed circuit and controller performance are verified by experimental results using a 30 kW prototype SST system.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.685-694
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• 2015

The power loss of the controllable switches in modular multilevel converter (MMC) HVDC transmission systems is an important factor, which can determine the design of the operating junction temperatures. Due to the dc current component, the approximate calculation tool provided by the manufacturer of the switches cannot be used for the losses of the switches in the MMC. Based on the enabled probabilities of each SM in an arm, the current analytical models of the switches can be determined. The average and RMS currents can be obtained from the corresponding current analytical model. Then, the conduction losses can be calculated, and the switching losses of the switches can be estimated according to the upper limit of the switching frequency. Finally, the thermal resistance model of the switches can be utilized, and the junction temperatures can be estimated. A comparison between the calculation and PSCAD simulation results shows that the proposed method is effective for estimating the junction temperatures of the switches in the MMC.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.1805-1811
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• 2017

Recently, DC systems are considered as efficient electric power systems for renewable energy based clean power generators. This discloses several critical issues that are required to be considered before the installation of the DC systems. First of all, voltage/current switching stress, which is aggravated by large fault current, might damage DC circuit breakers. This problem can be simply solved by applying a superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) as proposed in this study. It allows a simple use of insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) as a DC circuit breaker. To evaluate the proposed resistive type SFCL application to the DC circuit breaker, a DC distribution system is composed of the practical line impedances from the real distribution system in Do-gok area, Korea. Also, to reflect the distributed generation (DG) effects, several DC-to-DC converters are applied. The locations and sizes of the DGs are optimally selected according to the results of previous studies on DG optimization. The performance of the resistive type SFCL applied DC circuit breaker is verified by a time-domain simulation based case study using the power systems computer aided design/electromagnetic transients including DC (PSCAD/ EMTDC(R)).