• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.486-496
• /
• 2016

The voltage unbalance of an LVDC bipolar distribution system was controlled for high power quality. Voltage unbalance may occur in a bipolar distribution system depending on the operation of the converter and load usage. Voltage unbalance can damage sensitive load and lead to converter accidents. The conditions that may cause voltage unbalance in a bipolar distribution system are as follows. First, three-level AC/DC converters in bipolar distribution systems can lead to voltage unbalance. Second, bipolar distribution systems can be at risk for voltage unbalance because of load usage. In this paper, the output DC link of a three-level AC/DC converter was analyzed for voltage unbalance, and the bipolar voltage was controlled with algorithms. In the case of additional voltage unbalance according to load usage, the bipolar voltage was controlled using the proposed converter. The proposed converter is a dual half-bridge converter, which was improved from the secondary circuit of a dual half-bridge converter. A control algorithm for bipolar voltage control without additional converters was proposed. The balancing control of the bipolar distribution system with distributed power was verified through experiments.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.786-794
• /
• 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
• /
• v.63 no.4
• /
• pp.476-483
• /
• 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 Electrical Engineers
• /
• v.65 no.11
• /
• pp.1800-1805
• /
• 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.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.419-425
• /
• 2020

DC distribution system has been evaluated as an excellent one in comparison with existing AC distribution network because it needs fewer power conversion stages and the full capacity of the equipment can be used without consideration for power factor. Recently, research and development on the implementation of DC distribution networks have been progressed globally based on the rapid advancement in power-electronics technology, and the technological developments from the viewpoint of infrastructure are also in progress. However, to configure a distribution network which is a distribution line for DC, more accurate and rapid introduction of analysis technology is needed for the monitoring, control and operation of the system, which ensure the system run flexible and efficiently. However, in case of a bipolar DC distribution network, there are two buses acting as slack buses, so the Jacobian matrix cannot be configured. Without solving this problem, DC distribution network cannot be operated when the network is unbalanced. Therefore, this paper presented a comprehensive method of analysis with consideration of operating elements which are directly connected between neutral electric potential caused by the unbalanced of load in DC distribution network with bipolar structure.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.229-236
• /
• 2019

This study proposes a DC-DC converter topology of solid-state transformer for low-voltage DC distribution. The proposed topology consists of a voltage balancer and bipolar DC-DC converter. The voltage and current equations are obtained on the basis of switching states to design the controller. The open-loop gain of the controller is achieved using the derived voltage and current equations. The controller gain is selected through the frequency analysis of the loop gain. The inductance and capacitance are calculated considering the voltage and current ripples. The prototype is fabricated in accordance with the designed system parameters. The proposed topology and designed controller are verified through simulation and experiment.

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

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.348-355
• /
• 2022

A bipolar DC distribution system suffers from an imbalance in voltages when asymmetric loads are connected at the outputs. Dedicated voltage balancers are required to address the imbalance in bipolar voltage levels. However, additional components eventually increase the cost and decrease the efficiency and power density of the system. Therefore, to deal with the imbalance in output voltages without adding any extra components, this study presents a coupled inductor-based voltage balancing technique with a dual-output CLL resonant converter. The proposed coupled inductor does not require extra magnetic components to balance the output voltages because it is the result of resonant inductors of the CLL tank circuit. It can also avoid complex control schemes applied to voltage balancing. Moreover, with the proposed coupled inductor, the CLL converter acquires good features including zero voltage and zero current switching. Detailed analysis of the proposed coupled inductor is presented with different load conditions. A 3.6-kW hardware prototype was built and tested to validate the performance of the proposed coupled inductor-based voltage balancing technique.

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

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.391-396
• /
• 2022

In this study, a new voltage-balancing dual-active bridge converter that integrates a DAB converter with a voltage balancer is proposed for a bipolar DC distribution system. The proposed converter is configured to connect two loads to the transformer secondary center tap of the DAB converter, and no additional components are added. The proposed converter has the same operation as the conventional DAB converter, and it makes both output voltages similar. Moreover, the imbalanced current offset between the two loads is bypassed only on the secondary side of the transformer. Consequently, the proposed converter integrates a voltage balancer without any additional components, and no additional loss occurs in the corresponding components. Thus, high efficiency and high power density can be achieved. The feasibility of the proposed converter is verified using 3 kW prototypes under 380 V input and 190/190 V output conditions.