Abstract
DC technology has gained considerable interest in the medium voltage applications due to the benefits over the AC counterpart. However, to utilize the full capacity of this development, the selection of a suitable power electronic converter topology is a key aspect. From the pool of voltage source converters (VSC's), it is unclear which topology is suitable for multi-megawatt applications at medium voltage dc (MVdc) levels. To address this, the paper proposes a selection guideline based on reliability and optimum redundancy levels of VSCs for MVdc applications. This will be combined with other functional factors such as operational efficiency and return-on-investment. Three candidate multi-level topologies namely three-level neutral point clamped converter (3L-NPC), modular multi-level converter (MMC) and cascaded 3L-NPC (which is being used for the first MVdc link in the U.K.) have been evaluated over two-level-VSC from <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm$</tex-math></inline-formula> 10 kV to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm$</tex-math></inline-formula> 50 kV. Results show that with the increase of MVdc voltage level MMC shows better performance whereas at low MVdc voltage levels 3L-NPC is the prominent topology.
Highlights
M EDIUM voltage dc (MVdc) technology is becoming an attractive solution for distribution networks thanks to its high power transfer capability, excellent controllability and operational flexibility [1]
To bridge this research gap and identify the suitable voltage source converter (VSC) topology for MVdc voltage levels, this paper proposes a selection criterion based on the optimal redundancy level with the consideration of the VSC reliability, preventive maintenance interval, operational efficiency, the total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI)
The primary motivation of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of utilizing suitable multi-level VSC topologies at different MVdc voltage levels
Summary
M EDIUM voltage dc (MVdc) technology is becoming an attractive solution for distribution networks thanks to its high power transfer capability, excellent controllability and operational flexibility [1]. For high-voltage dc (HVdc) applications, the modular multilevel converter (MMC) has been the most favored choice due to its exceptional waveform quality, compact and modular design [14], [15] To this end, the assessment of VSC topologies at different dc voltage levels has been a key research area that received interest recently [9], [16], [17]. To bridge this research gap and identify the suitable VSC topology for MVdc voltage levels, this paper proposes a selection criterion based on the optimal redundancy level with the consideration of the VSC reliability, preventive maintenance interval, operational efficiency, the total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI). The practicality of the proposed selection methodology is applied to the ANGLE-DC case and tested
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