Current-Source Converter and Cycloconverter Topologies For Industrial Medium-Voltage Drives
Current-Source Converter and Cycloconverter Topologies For Industrial Medium-Voltage Drives
Current-Source Converter and Cycloconverter Topologies For Industrial Medium-Voltage Drives
7, JULY 2008
Abstract—This paper, along with an earlier published paper as the power supply to the machine, converting a three-phase ac
Part 1, provides a comprehensive review of the state of the art voltage with a fixed magnitude and frequency to a three-phase
of high-power converters (above 1 MW) for adjustable-speed ac ac voltage with variable magnitude and variable frequency [4].
drives. In this highly active area, different converter topologies
have been developed for various drive applications in the industry. It allows power flow in both directions in an efficient way. CCV
Due to its extensive coverage, the subject is divided into two parts: drives are a mature technology with technical advantages in
multilevel voltage source and current source converter topologies. low-speed range and high-torque applications, such as grinding
This paper is focused on the second part and covers the current mills. Another example is a 400-MW hydropumped storage
source converter technologies, including pulsewidth-modulated drive with a 20-pole generator/motor fed by a 72-MVA three-
current-source inverters (CSIs) and load-commutated inverters.
In addition, this paper also addresses the present status of the phase 12-pulse CCV [5]. Matrix converters also belong to this
direct converter, which is also known as cycloconverter (CCV). category but are not addressed in this paper since the power
This paper focuses on the latest CSI and CCV technologies and rating of these converters is only up to 150 kVA [6] until now,
an overview of the commonly used modulation schemes. It also unable to reach the megawatt level for large drives due to the
provides the latest technological advances and future trends in limitation of the bidirectional switching devices required by the
CSI- and CCV-fed large drives. This paper serves as a useful
reference for academic researchers and practicing engineers in the converters.
field of power converters and adjustable-speed drives. The indirect converters can be divided into voltage source
and current source topologies, depending on the dc-link energy
Index Terms—Current-source inverter (CSI), cycloconverter
(CCV), high-power drives, load-commutated inverter (LCI). storage components. The voltage source converters normally
use dc capacitors in the dc-link circuits, whereas the current
source converters employ dc inductors (chokes) in the dc
I. I NTRODUCTION
circuit.
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WU et al.: CURRENT-SOURCE CONVERTER AND CCV TOPOLOGIES FOR INDUSTRIAL MEDIUM-VOLTAGE DRIVES 2787
TABLE I
COMPARISON OF VOLTAGE- AND CURRENT-SOURCE CONVERTER TECHNOLOGIES
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B. Modulation Techniques
The switching pattern design for the CSI should generally
satisfy two conditions: 1) DC current id should be continuous,
and 2) the inverter PWM current iw should be defined. The
two conditions can be translated into a switching constraint: At
any instant of time (excluding commutation intervals), there are
only two sets of series-connected switches conducting, i.e., one
set in the top half of the bridge such as S1 in Fig. 2 and the other
in the bottom half of the bridge such as S2 . Various modulation
techniques have been developed for the PWM CSI, including
selective harmonic elimination (SHE), trapezoidal pulsewidth
modulation (TPWM), and space vector modulation (SVM).
The SHE is an offline modulation scheme that can eliminate
a number of unwanted low-order harmonics in the inverter
PWM current iw [21]. Because high-power applications require Fig. 3. Modulation schemes for CSIs: (a) SHE, (b) trapezoidal PWM, and
(c) SVM.
low losses, low switching frequency is needed. This is why
three, five, or seven switching angles per quarter of a cycle the positive half cycle or in the negative half cycle of the inverter
are preferred. In the case shown in Fig. 3(a), five pulses are fundamental frequency. Such an arrangement can satisfy the
employed. The switching angles are precalculated and then switching constraint mentioned earlier.
imported into a digital controller for implementation. Fig. 3(a) In addition to the TPWM and SHE schemes, the CSI can also
shows a typical SHE waveform that satisfies the CSI switching be controlled by SVM [22]. A typical space vector diagram for
constraint. There are five pulses per half cycle with five switch- the CSI is shown in Fig. 3(c), where I1 –I6 are active vectors
ing angles in the first π/2 period. However, only two out of the and I0 is zero vector. The active vectors form a regular hexagon
five angles, i.e., θ1 and θ2 , are independent. Given these two with six equal sectors, whereas the zero vector I0 lies at the
angles, all other switching angles can be derived. center of the hexagon.
The two switching angles provide two degrees of freedom, For a given length and position, Iref can be synthesized
which can be used either to eliminate two harmonics in iw by three nearby stationary vectors, based on which switching
without modulation index control or to eliminate one harmonic states of the inverter can be selected and gate signals for the
and provide an adjustable modulation index. The first option is switches can be generated. When Iref passes through sectors
preferred since the adjustment of inverter output current iw is one by one, different sets of switches are turned on or off. The
normally accomplished by varying id through rectifier control, inverter output frequency corresponds to the rotating speed of
instead of inverter modulation index control. The switching Iref , whereas the magnitude of its output current can be adjusted
angles for the elimination of various current harmonics are by the length of Iref .
given in [16]. The SVM scheme has not yet found practical applications
Fig. 3(b) shows the principle of trapezoidal modulation, mainly due to the following three facts: 1) The magnitude of
where vm is a trapezoidal modulating wave and vcr is a triangu- the inverter output current is normally adjusted through the
lar carrier wave. Similar to the carrier-based PWM schemes for rectifier, instead of the inverter modulation index; 2) the by-
voltage-source inverters (VSIs), the gate signal is generated by pass (shoot-through) operation of the SVM scheme will cause
comparing vm with vcr . However, the trapezoidal modulation additional switching losses; and 3) the harmonic performance
does not generate any gate signals in the center π/3 interval of of the SVM is not as good as that of the SHE scheme. However,
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C. Applications
Because of its simplicity and reliability, the LCI configura-
tion is applied in large drives where high dynamical perfor-
mance is not required, such as high-power fan drives, grinding
mills, and high-power motor and generator starters. The start-
Fig. 11. Block diagram of 100-MW LCI-fed drive system. ing function is very important for the black starting of large
the drive consists of two independent channels, resulting in a generators with island operation, especially for recovering after
total of four identical six-pulse SCR bridges. To reduce the a power blackout.
line current THD, the line-side bridges are configured as a In a conventional LCI-fed drive, the drive can slowly be
12-pulse rectifier, where the 5th, 7th, 17th, and 19th harmonic started by pulsing the dc-link current produced by the rectifier.
currents produced by the six-pulse bridges are canceled by a This process continues until the SM generates sufficient in-
phase-shifting transformer with 30◦ phase shift between its two duced voltage to naturally commutate the inverter. This method
secondary windings. features no extra components but suffers a long starting time.
The line current distortion can further be reduced by har- To solve the problem, an LCI-fed commutatorless series motor
monic filters connected to the tertiary winding of the trans- drive has been proposed [39]. The drive is composed of a three-
former or active filters [33]. These series-resonant LC filters phase diode rectifier, an LCI, and an SM with its field winding
are normally tuned to the 3rd, 5th, 11th, and 13th harmonic connected in series with the dc link. This unique design enables
frequencies to attenuate possible 3rd and 5th harmonic currents the drive to operate over the entire speed range, including
produced by the voltage distortion/unbalance of the utility grid startup, with better dynamic performance.
and also to mitigate the 11th and 13th harmonic currents that are Another interesting application of LCIs has been pro-
not eliminated by the 12-pulse rectifier. Power factor correction posed for a container ship [40], where a 24-pulse SCR
can be achieved by the proper design of the LC filters [32]. rectifier–inverter system serves as a frequency converter. This
These filters can produce a leading current that can compensate converter converts a voltage of 14 Hz to 25.7 Hz generated by a
the lagging current produced by 12-pulsed rectifier. shaft generator to a bus voltage of 6.6 kV with a fixed frequency
Both the line-side and motor-side bridges can operate in rec- of 60 Hz for the ship’s main distribution system. In addition,
tifying or inverting mode, allowing the synchronous machine LCI-based medium-voltage ship electric propulsion is available
to operate as a motor or generator. For fast dynamic braking, in the industry1 with 24- or 48-pulse configuration, from 0 to
the load mechanical energy can automatically be converted to 150 r/min and up to 2 × 21 MW.
electrical energy by the LCI and then sent back to the utility
supply. IV. CCV S
The SM has two sets of stator windings with 30◦ electrical A. Topology Description
phase shift between the two windings. It is essentially a six-
phase motor for the reduction of torque pulsations caused by Phase-controlled CCVs are direct ac–ac converters based on
quasi-square current waveforms in each of the stator windings. the antiparallel connection of thyristor converters without a dc
As a result, the torque pulsations and mechanical stress on the link employing a well-known and mature control technology of
shaft train are greatly reduced. natural commutation, as described in [41] and [42].
The efficiency of the LCI drive is usually very high. When The basic operating principle is to use a switch arrange-
the drive operates under the rated conditions, the converter ment, as shown in Fig. 12(a) (six-pulse CCV), to synthesize
efficiency can be higher than 99%. This is very important a variable-amplitude and low-frequency ac voltage by succes-
in large drives, where a small reduction in energy efficiency sively connecting the load to the different phases of the ac
translates into high operation costs. supply Fig. 12(b).
Megawatt-range drives require high reliability due to down- The main advantages are the low switching losses and,
time production losses. LCI-based drives have been a cost- therefore, high efficiency; the inherent bidirectional power flow
effective solution for very large power applications for capability through the complete speed range; very high power
adjustable-speed drives; even its reliability comes close to ratings with low space requirement; simple and robust structure;
that of CCV drives [34]. Production losses due to converter low maintenance; and high reliability. The drawbacks are the
unavailability in a typical grinding mill application can rise up limited frequency range ( source frequency), low power
to USD 17 000 per hour. Hence, fast and accurate detection and
diagnose of a fault can reduce emergency maintenance or trou- 1 [Online]. Available: www.industry.siemens.com.
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WU et al.: CURRENT-SOURCE CONVERTER AND CCV TOPOLOGIES FOR INDUSTRIAL MEDIUM-VOLTAGE DRIVES 2793
Fig. 12. Six-pulse CCV: (a) power circuit (one phase) and (b) waveform
synthesis.
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2794 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 55, NO. 7, JULY 2008
Fig. 14. Application of CCV-fed gearless drives for mineral grinding mills.
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WU et al.: CURRENT-SOURCE CONVERTER AND CCV TOPOLOGIES FOR INDUSTRIAL MEDIUM-VOLTAGE DRIVES 2795
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Meeting, Sep. 23–27, 2007, pp. 1766–1772. Jorge Pontt (M’00–SM’04) received the Engi-
[50] J. Pontt, J. Rodríguez, W. Valderrama, and G. Sepúlveda, “Resonance neer and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering
effects, power quality and reliability issues of high-power converters-fed from the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María
drives employed in modern SAG circuits,” Miner. Eng., vol. 17, no. 11/12, (UTFSM), Valparaíso, Chile, in 1977.
pp. 1125–1134, Nov./Dec. 2004. Since 1977, he has been a Professor with the
[51] R. Errath, P. Burmeister, and A. Sapin, “SAG mill operation with weak Department of Electrical Engineering and the De-
network conditions,” in Proc. Int. Conf. SAG, Vancouver, BC, Canada, partment of Electronics Engineering, UTFSM, under
2001. CD-ROM. the R&D and graduate program of power electronics.
[52] J. Pontt, J. Rodríguez, J. San Martín, R. Aguilera, J. Rebolledo, He leads the Laboratory for Reliability and Power
E. Caceres, I. Illanes, and P. Newman, “Interharmonic currents assessment Quality, UTFSM (LACSE) and is currently the Di-
in high-power cycloconverter-fed drives,” in Proc. IEEE PESC, Jeju, rector of the Millennium Nucleus on Industrial Elec-
Korea, Jun. 2006, pp. 1–6. tronics and Mechatronics (NEIM), UTFSM. He is a coauthor of the software
[53] P. Syam, P. K. Nandi, and A. K. Chattopadhyay, “Improvement in Harmonix, which is used in harmonic studies in electrical systems. He is also
power quality and a simple method of subharmonic suppression for a Consultant in the mining industry, particularly in the design and application
a cycloconverter-fed synchronous motor drive,” Proc. Inst. Electr. of power electronics, drives, instrumentation systems, and power quality issues,
Eng.—Electr. Power Appl., vol. 149, no. 4, pp. 292–303, Jul. 2002. with management of more than 80 consulting and R&D projects. He has had
[54] P. Syam, G. Bandyopadhyay, P. K. Nandi, and A. K. Chattopadhyay, scientific stays at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
“Simulation and experimental study of interharmonic performance of (1979–1980); the University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany (1990); and
a cycloconverter-fed synchronous motor drive,” IEEE Trans. Energy. the University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany (2000–2001). He is a
Convers., vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 325–332, Jun. 2004. Cofounder of the spin-off company ETT Ltda. (Chile) related to instrumen-
[55] P. Syam, P. K. Nandi, and A. K. Chattopadhyay, “Effect of output cur- tation for large grinding mills. He has published more than 100 refereed journal
rent ripple on the input supply current and the power quality for a and conference proceeding papers.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria. Downloaded on December 18, 2008 at 14:36 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
WU et al.: CURRENT-SOURCE CONVERTER AND CCV TOPOLOGIES FOR INDUSTRIAL MEDIUM-VOLTAGE DRIVES 2797
José Rodríguez (M’81–SM’94) received the Engi- Samir Kouro (S’04–M’08) was born in Valdivia,
neer degree from the Universidad Técnica Federico Chile, in 1978. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D.
Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile, in 1977, and the degrees in electronics engineering from the Uni-
Dr.-Ing. degree from the University of Erlangen, versidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM),
Erlangen, Germany, in 1985, both in electrical Valparaíso, Chile, in 2004 and 2008, respectively.
engineering. In 2004, he joined the Department of Electronics
Since 1977, he has been with the Depart- Engineering, UTFSM, as a Research Assistant, and
ment of Electronics Engineering, University Técnica is currently an Associate Researcher. His research
Federico Santa María, where he is currently a interests include power converters and adjustable-
Professor. From 2001 to 2004, he was the Director speed drives.
of the Department of Electronics Engineering. From Dr. Kouro was distinguished as the youngest
2004 to 2005, he served as Vice Rector of academic affairs, and since 2005, he researcher in Chile being granted a government-funded research project
has been the Rector of the university. During his sabbatical leave in 1996, he (FONDECYT) as Principal Researcher in 2004.
was responsible for the Mining Division, Siemens Corporation, Santiago, Chile.
He has extensive consulting experience in the mining industry, particularly in
the application of large drives such as cycloconverter-fed synchronous motors
for SAG mills, high-power conveyors, and controlled ac drives for shovels and
power quality issues. He has directed more than 40 R&D projects in the field of
industrial electronics. He has coauthored more than 250 journal and conference
proceeding papers and contributed one book chapter. His research group has
been recognized as one of the two centers of excellence in engineering in Chile
from 2005 to 2008. His main research interests include multilevel inverters, new
converter topologies, and adjustable-speed drives.
Prof. Rodríguez has been an active Associate Editor for the IEEE Power
Electronics and IEEE Industrial Electronics Societies since 2002. He has served
as Guest Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS
in four instances [Special Sections on Matrix Converters (2002), Multilevel
Inverters (2002), Modern Rectifiers (2005), and High Power Drives (2007)].
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