National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC

Other

USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Sandia Corporation

University of Missouri

Unm Rainforest Innovations

Montana Technological University

Northern Plains Power Technologies

Jason C Neely

Jack David Flicker

Lee Joshua Rashkin

Steven F Glover

Robert Kaplar

Michael Ropp

Raymond H Byrne

Joshua Stewart

Jacob Mueller

Sigifredo Gonzalez

Lee Gill

Luciano Andres Garcia Rodriguez

Jarod James Delhotal

Stephen Buerger

Robert W Brocato

Harold P Hjalmarson

Jane Lehr

Gregory W Pickrell

Ryan Thomas Elliott

Joshua Alan Love

Daniel J Trudnowski

David A Schoenwald

Wendy A Amai

Charles Q Little

Felipe Wilches Bernal

Timothy J McCoy

Norbert H Doerry

Brian Joseph Pierre

James Richards

Emily Ann Schrock

Felipe Wilches-Bernal

Ricky James Concepcion

Abraham Ellis

Scott Perlenfein

Forest Eugene White

Jason Ryan Finn

Geoff L Brennecka

Steven D Pekarek

Jason M Banaskavich

Dustin Schutz

Daniel S Stutts

A disclosed switching apparatus, such as a circuit breaker, includes a transistor switch circuit connected between a power input terminal and a load terminal, and, connected to the power input terminal and bypassing the transistor switch circuit, a switchable bypass leg that is optically switched by a series-connected photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS). The transistor switch circuit includes at least one cascade of three or more series-connected transistors, and at least one resistor network configured to divide a voltage from a voltage source across a cascade of series-connected transistors. Operating the switch apparatus includes detecting whether a sensed electric current is in a fault condition, opening the transistor switch circuit upon detecting a fault condition, and then closing the PCSS so that the electric current is diverted onto a switchable bypass path. The opening of the transistor switch circuit comprises turning OFF a normally-ON transistor switch circuit.

Optically switched circuit breaker with cascaded transistor topology

A switching apparatus includes three or more series-connected transistors, and it further includes a balancing network. The balancing network includes a resistor network configured to divide a voltage from a voltage source across the series-connected transistors. The resistor network includes at least two resistive legs connected in parallel. In each resistive leg, two or more resistors are connected in series. The balancing network may further comprise at least one capacitive leg of series-connected capacitors connected across the series-connected transistors, and it may further comprise at least one leg of series-connected avalanche diodes connected across the series-connected transistors for overvoltage protection. In example embodiments, the series-connected transistors are JFETs. In other example embodiments, the series-connected transistors may be HEMTs or GaN transistors.

High voltage switch with cascaded transistor topology

A dual-wound machine comprises a dual-wound generator supplying power to two separate powered zones. The generator comprises a wound rotor with a field winding and a stator with two sets of phase windings and a field control loop that controls the excitation voltage applied to the field winding and therefore the magnetic field produced by the rotor, in order to maintain a constant field flux in the generator and mitigate dynamic coupling between the two sets of phase windings when supplying power to unbalanced loads.

Excitation control of dual-wound machines for coupling mitigation

The present invention relates to PMU-based control systems for dampening inter-area oscillations in large-scale interconnected power systems or grids to protect against a catastrophic blackout. The control systems receive phasor measurements from two or more locations on an AC transmission line and generates a power control command to a power resource on the grid.

Systems and methods for controlling electrical grid resources

The present invention relates to systems and methods that use separation of time scales to mitigate interaction between unintentional islanding detection schemes and GSFs.

Systems and methods using collaborative controls to maintain unintentional islanding standards

A hybrid switched capacitor power converter for high-power applications is provided. The converter has a transistor-switched input-stage boost converter followed by a capacitor-and-diode ladder circuit. The converter is adapted to produce an output voltage of at least 5 kV at a power level of at least 0.5 kW. The ladder circuit includes one or more multi-stage rails.

Passive high-power-density grid interface device

A system and method for control of dispatchable resources on an electrical power distribution grid is disclosed. The disclosed method provides improved response to power imbalance based on a communications signal independent of system frequency. The communication signal provides a feed-forward control of dispatchable power resources. A communications network is employed to generate a signal to dispatchable resources that a power imbalance has occurred. Due to fast response power transmission network interfaces associated with the dispatchable resources, the respective resources respond in significantly less time than feedback controlled conventional generators which depend on line frequency sensing. The rapid response mitigates the impact of power imbalances and enables greater penetrations of converter-interfaced power generation units such as renewable energy sources to be connected to the grid.

Communication enabled fast-acting imbalance reserve

Systems and methods for identifying an island condition in a power distribution system and disconnecting distributed generators in the case of islanding. The systems and methods are used to enable reliable detection of island formation with high false-trip immunity, for any combination of distributed energy resources, and for distributed energy resources using grid support functions.

Subharmonic power line carrier based island detection systems and methods

An emulator apparatus that emulates entities included in a microgrid is described herein. The emulator apparatus emulates a load with time-varying inductance/resistance or an energy storage device or combination of energy storage devices. The emulator apparatus is electrically coupled to a system or device that is desirably tested/maintained/designed. The emulator apparatus emulates a particular device, and response of the system of device to the emulated device is monitored for purposes of design, testing, or maintenance.

Emulator apparatus for microgrid testing and design

An emulator is described herein, wherein the emulator is configured to emulate a rotary energy generator. The rotary energy generator can be one of a wind turbine, a diesel engine, or a hydrokinetic generator. The emulator includes an electromechanical motor that is mechanically linked to a generator. A motor drive is electrically coupled to the electromechanical motor, and controls torque at a rotor of the electromechanical motor. Electromagnetic torque produced by the generator is estimated, and the motor drive is controlled based upon the estimated generator torque.

Emulator for rotary energy sources

A control architecture and associated control methods are under development to allow a single user to control a team of multiple heterogeneous UMS as they conduct multi-faceted (i.e. multi-objective) missions in real time is disclosed. The control architecture is hierarchical, modular and layered and enables operator interaction at each layer, ensuring the human operator is in close control of the unmanned team at all times. The architecture and key data structures are introduced. Two approaches to distributed collaborative control of heterogeneous unmanned systems are described, including an extension of homogeneous swarm control and a novel application of distributed model predictive control. Initial results are presented, demonstrating heterogeneous UMS teams conducting collaborative missions.

System and method for operator control of heterogeneous unmanned system teams

A DC power bus having reduced parasitic inductance and higher tolerable operating temperature is disclosed. In example embodiments, a bus structure overlies a printed circuit board, and an array of capacitors is arranged on a surface of the printed circuit board distal the bus structure. The bus structure comprises an upper metal plate, a lower metal plate, and a dielectric film interposed between the upper and lower metal plates. The capacitors are connected in parallel between conductive planes of the printed circuit board. The upper and lower metal plates of the bus structure are connected to respective conductive planes of the printed circuit board.

Low-inductance direct current power bus

A torque ripple sensor and method for torque ripple sensing and/or mitigation. A piezoelectric sensor is positioned relative to a motor so that torque fluctuations due to torque ripple of the motor are transmitted to the sensor, resulting in strain of a piezoelectric element. A resulting signal can be amplified and conditioned for determining a magnitude of the torque ripple and/or fed into a feedback loop for applying current control or a counter-torque to the motor for torque ripple mitigation.

Torque ripple sensor and mitigation mechanism

Growing community of inventors

Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Jason C Neely