• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.567-577
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• 2012

This paper introduces a new scheme to balance the DC bus voltages of a cascaded H-bridge converter which is used as a Distribution Static Synchronous Series Compensator (D-SSSC) in electrical distribution network. The aim of D-SSSC is to control the power flow between two feeders from different substations. As a result of different cell losses and capacitors tolerance the cells DC bus voltage can deviate from their reference values. In the proposed scheme, by individually modifying the reference PWM signal for each cell, an effective balancing procedure is derived. The new balancing procedure needs only the line current sign and is independent of the main control strategy, which controls the total DC bus voltages of cascaded H-bridge. The effect of modulation index variation on the capacitor voltage is analytically derived for the proposed strategy. The proposed method takes advantages of phase shift carrier based modulation and can be applied for a cascaded H-bridge with any number of cells. Also the system is immune to loss of one cell and the presented procedure can keep balancing between the remaining cells. Simulation studies and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method in the balancing of DC bus voltages.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.313-320
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• 2018

This study proposes a new voltage balancer with bidirectional DC-DC converter function. The proposed balancer can serve as a voltage balancer and a bidirectional DC-DC converter. Thus, the balancer can be applied to battery management systems or fast chargers in electric vehicles (EVs) charging stations while balancing bipolar DC bus voltages. The proposed system has unlimited voltage balancing range unlike the conventional voltage balancing control using a three-level DC-DC converter. A comparison of the voltage balancing range between the proposed and conventional scheme is explored to confirm this superiority. Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed system.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1235-1243
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• 2015

This paper presents a modified Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation Technique (SVPWM), which solves the well-known problem of voltage imbalance in the capacitors of a single-phase multilevel inverter. The proposed solution is based on the measurement of DC voltage levels at each capacitor of the inverter DC bus. The measurements are then used to adjust the size of the active vectors within the SVPWM algorithm to keep the voltage waveform sinusoidal regardless of any voltage imbalance on the DC link capacitors. When a voltage deviation exceeds a predetermined hysteresis band, the correspondent voltage vector is restricted to restore the voltage level to an acceptable threshold. Hence, the need for external voltage regulators for the voltage capacitors is eliminated. The functionality of the proposed algorithm is successfully demonstrated through simulations and experiments on a grid tied application.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.535-537
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• 2008

This paper proposes a modularized two-stage charge equalization converter for a series-connected lithium-ion battery string. In this paper, the series-connected battery sting is modularized into M modules, and each module has K cells in series. With this modularization, low voltage stress on the electronic devices can be achieved. A two-stage dc-dc converter with cell selection switches is employed. The first stage dc-dc converter steps down the high bus voltage to about 10 V. The second stage dc-dc converter integrated with selection switches equalizes the cell voltages. A prototype for 88 lithium-ion battery cells is optimally designed and implemented. Experimental results verify that the proposed equalization method has good cell balancing performance showing low voltage stress, small size, and low cost.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.319-328
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• 2020

The recent use of distributed power generation systems constructed with DC-DC converters has become extremely popular owing to the rising need for environment friendly energy generation power systems. In this study, a new single-phase five-level inverter for off-grid applications constructed with a multilevel DC-DC step-up converter is proposed to boost a low-level DC voltage (36 V-64 V) to a high-level DC bus (380 V) and invert and connect them with a single-phase 230 V rms AC load. Compared with other traditional multilevel inverters, the proposed five-level inverter has a reduced number of switching devices, can generate high-quality power with lower THD values, and has balanced voltage stress for DC capacitors. Moreover, the proposed topology does not require multiple DC sources. Finally, the performance of the proposed topology is presented through the simulation and experimental results of a 400 W hardware prototype.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2020.08a
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• pp.118-120
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• 2020

양극성 DC 배전 시스템에는 높은 전압과 낮은 전압을 가진 두 양극성 버스가 사용된다. 두 양극성 버스간의 양방향 전력제어를 위해 DAB 컨버터가 사용된다. 또한, 양극성 DC 버스에는 두 극성에 균등한 전력 흐름이 형성되지 않기 때문에 이를 해결하는 전압 벨런서가 각각의 양극성 DC 버스마다 필요하다. 따라서 양극성 DC 배전 시스템을 구동하기 위해서는 총 3개의 전력변환장치가 필요하고 다수의 장치로 인해 전력밀도와 전력변환효율이 낮아지게 된다. 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위해 복수의 양극성 DC 버스 전압을 벨런싱하고 양방향 전력제어도 가능한 새로운 구조의 DAB 컨버터를 제안한다. 기존의 3단 구조와 달리 전력변환단계를 하나로 줄일 수 있어 전력밀도와 전력변환효율이 상승하게 된다. 제안하는 DAB 컨버터는 입력과 출력에 인덕터를 사용하여 입력과 출력에 접속되는 두 양극성 DC 버스 전압의 벨런싱을 가능하게 한다. 3-kW급 프로토타입을 통해 제안한 컨버터의 성능을 검증한다.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1595-1607
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• 2018

In this paper, a hierarchical control strategy is introduced to control a new three-port multidirectional DC-DC converter for integrating an energy storage system (ESS) to a bipolar DC microgrid (BPDCMG). The proposed converter provides a voltage-balancing function for the BPDCMG and adjusts the states of charge (SoC) of the ESS. Previous studies tend to balance the voltage of the BPDCMG buses with active sources or by transferring power from one bus to another. Furthermore, the batteries available in BPDCMGs were charged equally by both buses. However, this power sharing method does not guarantee efficient operation of the whole system. In order to achieve a higher efficiency and lower energy losses, a triple-layer hierarchical control strategy, including a primary droop controller, a secondary voltage restoration controller and a tertiary optimization controller are proposed. Thanks to the multi-functional operation of the proposed converter, its conversion stages are reduced. Furthermore, the efficiency and weight of the system are both improved. Therefore, this converter has a significant capability to be used in portable BPDCMGs such as electric DC ships. The converter modes are analyzed and small-signal models of the converter are extracted. Comprehensive simulation studies are carried out and a BPDCMG laboratory setup is implemented in order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed converter and its hierarchical control strategy. Simulation and experimental results show that using the proposed converter mitigates voltage imbalances. As a result, the system efficiency is improved by using the hierarchical optimal power flow control.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.186-196
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• 2013

This paper presents a low voltage-stress AC-linked charge equalizing system for balancing the energy in a serially connected, valve-regulated lead acid battery string using a modular converter that consists of multiple transformers coupled together. Each converter was coupled through an AC-linked bus to increase the overall energy transfer efficiency of the system and to eliminate the problem of the unbalanced charging of batteries. Previous solutions are based on centralized and modularized topologies. A centralized topology requires a redesign of the hardware and related components. It also faces a high voltage stress when the number of batteries is expanded. Modularized solutions use low-voltage-stress, double-stage, DC-linked topologies which leads to poor energy transfer efficiency. The proposed solution uses a low-voltage stress, AC-linked, modularized topology that makes adding more batteries easier. It also has a better energy transfer efficiency. To ensure that the charge equalization system operates smoothly and safely charges batteries, a small intelligent microcontroller was used in the control section. The efficiency of this charge equalization system is 85%, which is 21% better than other low-voltage-stress DC-linked charging techniques. The validity of this approach was confirmed by experimental results.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.194-200
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• 2014

In DC micro-grid system energy storage systems (ESS) are responsible for storing energy and balancing power. Also, control target of the bidirectional DC-DC converter(BDC) for ESS should be changed depending on the operating mode. During the grid connected mode, the BDC controls the battery current or voltage. When a grid fault occurs, the BDC should change the control target to regulate the DC-bus. The BDC with conventional control method may experience large transient state during the mode change. This paper proposes a control method of BDC for ESS. The proposed control method is able to provide autonomous and seamless mode transfer by a variable current limiter. To validate the proposed concept, simulation results using PSIM and experimental results from a 2kW prototype are provided.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.259-267
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• 2008

Power quality improvement in a three-phase four-wire system is achieved using a new topology of DSTATCOM (distribution static compensator) consisting of a star/delta transformer with a tertiary winding and a three-leg VSC (voltage source converter). This new topology of DSTATCOM is proposed for power factor correction or voltage regulation along with harmonic elimination, load balancing and neutral current compensation. A tertiary winding is introduced in each phase for a delta connected secondary in addition to the star-star windings and this delta connected winding is responsible for neutral current compensation. The dynamic performance of the proposed DSTATCOM system is demonstrated using MATLAB with its Simulink and Power System Blockset (PSB) toolboxes under varying loads. The capacitor supported DC bus of the DSTATCOM is regulated to the reference voltage under varying loads.