TY - JOUR
T1 - Modular Embedded Multilevel Converter for MV/HVDC Applications
AU - Zhang, Di
AU - Dong, Dong
AU - Datta, Rajib
AU - Lei, Qin
AU - Lei, Qin
AU - Garces, Luis
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received December 5, 2017; revised March 27, 2018; accepted May 24, 2018. Date of publication June 26, 2018; date of current version October 12, 2018. Paper 2017-SECSC-1514.R1, presented at the 2016 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, Milwaukee, WI, USA, Sep. 18– 20, and approved for publication in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS on INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Conversion Systems Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. This work was supported by GE Global Research Center (GRC) internal funding. (Corresponding author: Dong Dong.) D. Zhang is with the Utility Power Electronics Lab, General Electric Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY 12309 USA (e-mail:,zhangd@ge.com).
Publisher Copyright:
© 1972-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2018/11/1
Y1 - 2018/11/1
N2 - Many of the renewable energy resources, like offshore wind, utility PV farms, are located far away from the load centers, which requires dc power transmission system to efficiently deliver power. Voltage-source converter solution is required in many applications due to the stability and compensation requirement. This paper presents a new voltage source converter topology for medium to high voltage dc application, named modular embedded multilevel converter (MEMC). MEMC is based on a three-level topology structure and consists of series-connected insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) bridge stacks, like the popular modular multilevel converter (MMC) and series-connected thyristor or press-pack high voltage integrated gate-commutated thyristor or IGBT stacks. The basic operation principle, control solutions, and the methods to commutate the thyristors are explained in detail. Due to the three-level structure, the total number of IGBT stacks are reduced by half compared with MMC, leading to much lower energy storage, weight, volume, and system complexity. Also by replacing part of the IGBT stack in MMC with thyristor stack, both of the system conduction loss and switching loss can be further reduced. There are other topology variations of MEMC with a similar operational principle but different characteristics.
AB - Many of the renewable energy resources, like offshore wind, utility PV farms, are located far away from the load centers, which requires dc power transmission system to efficiently deliver power. Voltage-source converter solution is required in many applications due to the stability and compensation requirement. This paper presents a new voltage source converter topology for medium to high voltage dc application, named modular embedded multilevel converter (MEMC). MEMC is based on a three-level topology structure and consists of series-connected insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) bridge stacks, like the popular modular multilevel converter (MMC) and series-connected thyristor or press-pack high voltage integrated gate-commutated thyristor or IGBT stacks. The basic operation principle, control solutions, and the methods to commutate the thyristors are explained in detail. Due to the three-level structure, the total number of IGBT stacks are reduced by half compared with MMC, leading to much lower energy storage, weight, volume, and system complexity. Also by replacing part of the IGBT stack in MMC with thyristor stack, both of the system conduction loss and switching loss can be further reduced. There are other topology variations of MEMC with a similar operational principle but different characteristics.
KW - High voltage direct current (HVDC)
KW - modular embedded multilevel converter (MEMC)
KW - modular multilevel converter (MMC)
KW - voltage source converter (VSC)
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U2 - 10.1109/TIA.2018.2850891
DO - 10.1109/TIA.2018.2850891
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85049122739
SN - 0093-9994
VL - 54
SP - 6320
EP - 6331
JO - IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
JF - IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
IS - 6
M1 - 8398437
ER -