Abb Technology Ag

Abb Schweiz Ag

Abb Technology Ltd

Abb Ab

Hitachi Energy Switzerland Ag

Abb Power Grids Switzerland Ag

Ying Jiang-Häfner

Lars Döfnäs

Roland Siljeström

Per Holmberg

Gaurav-Kumar Kasal

Lars-Erik Lennart Juhlin

Jürgen Häfner

Christer Sjöberg

Praveen Kumar Barupati

Mats Andersson

Wim Van-Der-Merwe

Sören Nyberg

Adil Abdalrahman

Baoliang Sheng

Axel Andersson

Sri Ramya Kalluri

Saurav Roy-Choudhury

Morteza Mohammadi

Yifan Jia

Annika Lokrantz

Kristoffer Nilsson

Vinothkumar Kannan

Kanstantsin Fadzeyeu

Kristoffer STÅLHAMMAR

A first converter station is part of a high voltage direct current transmission system that includes a DC transmission link connected to the first converter station a second converter station. A DC current and a DC voltage of the DC transmission link are sensed by the first converter station. It is determined that the sensed DC current is equal to or larger than a threshold current value, that the sensed DC current is equal to or larger than the threshold current value, and that at least a partial recovery of the sensed DC voltage has occurred. On the basis that it is determined that the at least a partial recovery of the sensed DC voltage has occurred, it is determined that a phase-to-ground fault has occurred. In response to determining that a phase-to-ground fault has occurred, a power delivered by the first converter station can be reduced.

Communication less control technique for hybrid HVDC

Methods of energizing converters, and converter stations thereof, based on a mix of half-bridge (HB) converter cells and full-bridge (FB) converter cells are provided. According to one embodiment, a method for energizing a converter may include establishing a direct electrical connection between DC terminals of a converter, electrically connecting the converter to an AC power source via AC connectors and obtaining, from the AC power source and for a certain period of time, an AC voltage between two electrical phase lines for charging capacitors of the FB cells connected to the two electrical phase lines. Accordingly, the FB cells will be charged to a higher value and they may be controlled for charging capacitors of the HB submodules to at least a minimum voltage required to start switching devices of the HB submodules by drawing power from the AC power source.

Energization of a converter including a mix of half-bridge and full-bridge submodules

A first voltage source converter and converter station including such a first voltage source converter, as well as a method and computer program product for controlling the first voltage source converter are disclosed. The first voltage source converter has a DC side for connection to a DC system, has an AC side for connection to an AC system and is interconnected with an AC side of a second voltage source converter, which has a DC side connected to the DC system. The first voltage source converter includes a number of converter valve pairs, each being connected to a corresponding AC phase of the AC system and a control unit controlling the converter valves to generate at least one AC waveform and to reduce oscillations between the converters.

Controlling a voltage source converter in a DC system

A control unit rod interface arrangement couples between AC and DC power systems. The interface includes at least two poles for coupling between the DC and AC power systems. Each of the poles includes a converter for conversion between AC and DC power. If a fault has occurred in one of the poles, a transient current, or fault current, may flow through a neutral bus line connected to the pole, the pole's converter and the location of the fault in the pole. Such a transient or fault current should preferably be damped out as quickly as possible, after which the pole may be electrically isolated from the other components of the interface arrangement. Such a transient or fault current may be damped out relatively quickly by opening of a neutral bus switching element of the neutral bus line connected to the pole after the converter has entered a blocking mode and a circuit breaker at the AC side of the converter has been opened so as to effect discontinuation of flow of current between the AC side of the converter and the AC power system.

Method and arrangement for facilitating clearing of a pole fault and isolation of a faulted pole in a power transmission system

An arrangement, method and computer program product are provided for limiting circulating currents in a converter converting between AC and DC. The converter has a number of AC and DC terminals and includes a number of converter arms, where a first and a second converter arm are connected in parallel between a first DC terminal and a first AC terminal. Each converter arm includes a string of series-connected converter cells. The arrangement includes a control unit that obtains a current of the first converter arm and a current of the second converter arm, forms an average of the two converter arm currents, forms a first and a second voltage control signal based on the average and uses the first and second voltage control signal in the control of the voltage provided by the first and second converter arm.

Arrangement, method and computer program product for limiting circulating currents

A method for controlling a first and a second reverse-conducting insulated gate bipolar transistor (RC-IGBT), electrically connected in series, is disclosed. A collector of the first RC-IGBT is electrically connected to a positive pole of a direct current voltage source, and an emitter of the second RC-IGBT is electrically connected to a negative pole of the DC voltage source. Further, an emitter of the first RC-IGBT is electrically connected to a collector of the second RC-IGBT to form an alternating current terminal. A gate voltage is applied to respective gates of the first and second RC-IGBTs, wherein the gate voltage is controlled based on a magnitude and a direction of an output current on the AC terminal and on a command signal alternating between a first and a second value.

RC-IGBT switching pulse control

A method and apparatuses for handling delayed zero crossing in fault current through a circuit breaker are disclosed. An interface arrangement is configured to couple an alternating current, AC, power system with a direct current, DC, power system, or vice versa. The interface arrangement includes at least one converter for conversion of AC power to DC power, or vice versa, which includes a DC side for coupling of the converter to the DC power system and an AC side for coupling of the converter to the AC power system. A circuit breaker is arranged in a current path between the AC side of the at least one converter and the AC power system. There may be a risk of delayed zero crossing in fault current occurring in case a fault occurs in a predefined portion of the interface arrangement. If a fault is sensed to occur in the interface arrangement within the predefined portion of the interface arrangement, opening of contacts of the circuit breaker can be delayed by a selected delay time period, compared to if the fault would have been within a portion of the interface arrangement different from the predefined portion.

Method in, apparatus for, and interface arrangement between an alternating current power system and a direct current power system

A method to control a voltage source converter (CON; CON) in a HVDC system comprises the step of controlling a frequency and a voltage amplitude of an AC voltage (UV; UV) generated by the voltage source converter (CON; CON) independently of the conditions in an AC network (N; N) connected to the voltage source converter (CON; CON). This method is performed by a control unit of a HVDC system. In a special embodiment, the method forms the basis of a method to black start an AC network, where the AC network comprises transmission lines and is connected to at least two AC power stations, where one of the at least two AC power stations is connected via a HVDC system to the AC network.

HVDC system and method to control a voltage source converter in a HVDC system

Cells in a phase leg of a multilevel converter are controlled through regulating, using tap-changer control, the modulation index of the converter to above 0.80, providing a group of carrier waves for the phase leg, where these carrier waves are identical but displaced in time from each other with a time delay, providing a voltage reference for the phase leg being separate from voltage references provided for other phase legs, stop switching of the cells when waveform values of a power transmission converter waveform are detected to be in a selected interval around a peak value of the power transmission converter waveform and control switching of the cells based on comparisons of the respective carrier waves with the voltage reference when the waveform values of the power transmission converter waveform are detected to be outside the selected interval.

Cells control in a multilevel converter

A method is provided for controlling power flow within a wind park system for power transmission to a main power grid, the wind park system including two or more parallel-connected island wind park grids. The method includes the steps of: controlling a first voltage source converter as a swing bus in frequency control, the frequency control including controlling frequency to a steady state reference operating point for operating points within a power dead band and by frequency droop control when exceeding an end point of the power dead band, and controlling at least a second voltage source converter in power control, the power control including controlling power flow to a steady state reference operating point for operating points within a frequency dead band and by power droop control when exceeding an end point of the frequency dead band. A controller and computer program product are also provided.

Method for controlling power flow within a wind park system, controller, computer program and computer program products

A method and a device to discharge cell capacitors in a cell based voltage source converter. Each cell has switching elements in half bridge or full bridge configuration and a capacitor in parallel to the half or full bridge. Each cell has two terminals, whereof at least one is between two switching elements. The converter has AC and DC terminals, with the possibility to connect each of the terminals to ground, via a further switching element. A resistor is implemented into at least one of the ground connections. To discharge to capacitors, the switching elements in the respective cells are configured such, that the capacitor is in parallel connection to the terminals. The capacitors are thus discharged via the resistor to ground.

Capacitor discharge in a cell based voltage source converter

An interface arrangement for connection between an AC system and a DC system and to a method of disconnecting a DC system from an AC system are disclosed. The arrangement includes a converter for conversion between AC and DC having a DC side for connection to the DC system and an AC side for being coupled to the AC system, a set of circuit breakers coupled between the AC side of the converter and the AC system and a breaker assisting unit including a set of branches connected between the AC side of the converter and ground, where each branch includes a switch in series with an impedance element.

Interface arrangement between AC and DC systems using grounding switch

A method to control a voltage source converter in a HVDC system includes controlling a frequency and a voltage amplitude of an AC voltage generated by the voltage source converter independently of the conditions in an AC network connected to the voltage source converter. The method is performed by a control unit of an HVDC system. The method may form a basis of a method to black start an AC network. The AC network includes transmission lines and is connected to at least two AC power stations. One of the at least two AC power stations is connected via a HVDC system to the AC network.

A voltage source converter station including a multilevel voltage source converter, for conversion of electrical power between AC and DC, and a control system. The voltage source converter includes a plurality of switching cells including switchable semiconductors, and the control system includes at least one main control unit for providing a voltage reference signal and a plurality of cell control units. Each cell control unit uses carrier based pulse width modulation for controlling the switching of a respective cell, where the main control unit is communicatively connected to the cell control units and provides the reference voltage signal to each cell control unit and each cell control unit creates a switching signal to each respective switching cell using the reference voltage signal and a carrier signal to effectuate the conversion.

Precision switching for carrier based PWM

A method and a system to influence the power generation of at least one adjustable speed generator. The system includes a first voltage source converter connected to a local AC bus. The local AC bus is provided with power by the at least one adjustable speed generator. A second voltage source converter connected to an AC grid. A DC link is connected between the first and the second voltage source converter. At least one control unit controls the first and the second voltage source converters. The at least one control unit performs the method to control the AC voltage in the local AC bus via the first voltage source converter and to modify a reference value for the AC voltage magnitude of the local AC bus in dependence on the AC voltage magnitude of the AC grid.

Growing community of inventors

Ludvika, Sweden

Ying Jiang-Häfner