Unbalanced Voltage Conditions Research Articles

Zero-sequence controller requirements and comparison for a delta-CHB STATCOM under unbalanced operation

Delta-configured Cascaded H-Bridge (DCHB) topology is a suitable alternative for Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) applications. However, under unbalanced voltage and/or current conditions, zero-sequence current needs to be injected to guarantee dc-link capacitor voltage balancing. The control loop of this zero-sequence current is analyzed in this paper, in order to determine the requirements that the implemented controller must fulfill. Considering these requirements, appropriate transient response and stability margin indicators are defined to quantify and evaluate the performance of different controllers that could be employed —Proportional-Resonant controller (PR), PR controller with delay compensation (PRd), and Vector Proportional-Integral controller (VPI) are proposed and analyzed for this application in this paper. Based on the defined indicators, the VPI is the most appropriate among the studied control techniques. Experimental results validate the analytical model of the controllers and their performance.

Multiple control strategies for smart photovoltaic inverter under network voltage fluctuations and islanded operation

This article proposes a central control system that communicates with both grid-tied and off-grid control systems to offer various control strategies for operating a smart photovoltaic (PV) inverter. The target is to connect two sets of PV panels and one set of battery storage unit to either a 440 V/60 Hz utility grid or to feed local loads at 380 V/50 Hz using a smart inverter. When the smart PV inverter is connected to the grid, on the one hand, it injects fixed and programmed active power into the grid under all operating conditions, both normal and critical conditions, and on the other hand, by reciprocal exchanging reactive power with the grid, it addresses balanced and unbalanced fluctuations of the grid voltage. Also, when the smart PV inverter is disconnected from the grid, it can operate as an islanded mode to feed time-varying three-phase loads. Nonlinear simulations of the time domain in MATLAB-Simulink software show that the set of control strategies offered for the smart PV inverter not only by controlling the active power leads to the sale of electricity to the grid, but also by controlling the reactive power problems on the grid side such as voltage drop as a result of single-line-to-ground (SLG) or line-to-line-to-ground (2LG) faults, balanced grid voltage fluctuations such as voltage sag-swell and unbalanced voltage conditions will be resolved. Also, variable three-phase loads are fed well in off-grid mode.

General Method to Foresee the Behavior of Virtual Synchronous Machines Working With Distorted and Unbalanced Voltage Conditions

To make photovoltaic and wind power plants able to provide grid services (i.e., inertial behavior, grid support and harmonic compensation), several control algorithms have been proposed in the literature during the last years. The most promising ones make the power electronic converters behave as conventional alternators, using the concept of Virtual Synchronous Machine (VSM). Several VSM models are available in the literature, some of which can improve the voltage quality at the point of connection with the grid behaving as harmonic and unbalance sinks under non–ideal grid voltage conditions. However, the literature lacks a general method to foresee the behavior of a generic VSM configuration in such conditions along with a well–established definition of the needed features to make VSMs able to work as harmonic or unbalance sinks. Therefore, this paper proposes a simple and general method to foresee the behavior of different VSM configurations under non–ideal grid voltage conditions before any experimental verification. The proposed method accurately foresees the VSMs behavior, as experimentally demonstrated on five VSM models available in the literature, working with fifth harmonic and inverse sequence voltage distortions. Moreover, the method identifies which VSM configuration can feature a beneficial harmonic and unbalance compensation.

Impact of Inter-Turn Short Circuit in Excitation Windings on Magnetic Field and Stator Current of Synchronous Condenser under Unbalanced Voltage

Inter-turn short circuit in the excitation windings of synchronous condensers is a common fault that directly impacts their normal operation. However, current fault analysis and diagnosis of synchronous condensers primarily rely on voltage-balanced conditions, while research on short-circuit faults under unbalanced voltage conditions is limited. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the fault characteristics of inter-turn short circuits in the excitation windings of synchronous condensers under unbalanced grid voltage. Mathematical models were developed to represent the air gap flux density and stator parallel currents for four operating conditions: normal operation and inter-turn short circuit fault under balanced voltage, as well as a process without fault and with inter-turn short circuit fault under unbalanced voltage. By comparing the harmonic content and amplitudes, various aspects of the fault mechanism of synchronous condensers were revealed, and the operating characteristics under different conditions were analyzed. Considering the four aforementioned operating conditions, finite element simulation models were created for the TTS-300-2 synchronous condenser in a specific substation as a case study. The results demonstrate that the inter-turn short circuit fault in the excitation windings under unbalanced voltage leads to an increase in even harmonic currents in the stator parallel currents, particularly the second and fourth harmonics. This validates the accuracy of the theoretical analysis findings.

Sliding mode control of four‐leg inverters in a stand‐alone microgrid for unbalance, neutral to ground voltage, and harmonics compensation

AbstractIn a stand‐alone microgrid, voltage control is an important issue to keep the grid balanced under unbalanced load conditions. The other important challenges in microgrids include handling the neutral to the ground voltage (NGV) as well as total harmonic distortion (THD) under its limits due to the IEEE standards. A four‐leg inverter is the best choice for a three‐phase transformerless inverter employed in a stand‐alone microgrid. To control the inverter, sliding mode control (SMC) is a well‐known nonlinear control system to handle unbalanced and nonlinear load conditions as it can provide high sinusoidal load voltage with high performance and fast dynamic response. This paper proposes an enhanced SMC control method for minimizing the NGV and THD in addition to compensating for unbalanced load voltage conditions simultaneously in a three‐phase four‐leg inverter. In order to verify the results of the proposed method, simulation results with MATLAB/Simulink are presented to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed SMC under various load conditions. The proposed method provided fast dynamic response and fixed switching frequency. Further, a significant reduction occurred in NGV and THD. The simulation results of this method compared with the MPC method indicated the better performance of the proposed method against the unbalanced and nonlinear various load conditions.

Stator Inter-Turn Short-Circuits Fault Diagnostics in Three-Phase Line-Start Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors Fed by Unbalanced Voltages

This paper addresses the diagnostics of stator faults in three-phase line-start permanent magnet synchronous motors. More traditional fault diagnostic methodologies are unable to properly diagnose stator inter-turn short-circuit faults in three-phase motors under unbalanced supply voltage conditions, since both conditions impact the fault indicators used for inter-turn short-circuit fault diagnostics in a similar way. In this paper, the relation between the symmetrical components of the three-phase quantities and the harmonic components of the Extended Park’s Vector Approach (EPVA) is established. It is proved that the negative component and the EPVA harmonic component at a frequency twice the supply frequency are directly related to the fault occurrence. It is also proved that the healthy motor negative impedance is constant and not load-dependent. Based on this, the negative impedance/admittance is indirectly analyzed, through the combined use of the Extended Park´s Vector Approach of both voltage and current, and is explored for the fault diagnostics. Experimental results, obtained for different load torques, unbalanced supply voltage values, and fault severity levels, show that inter-turn short-circuit fault diagnostics can be achieved even under unbalanced supply voltage conditions based on the analysis of the motor admittance, at a frequency twice the supply frequency, that is the negative sequence admittance.

Resilience analysis and optimal control of grid‐connected converters under unbalanced voltage conditions

AbstractThe operational stability of grid‐connected converters is affected by unbalanced grid voltage, which often leads to overcurrent. The traditional control method maintains the grid‐into current within the rated limit by adjusting the current reference value. However, this method limits the output active power of the converters and affects their reliability, which can cause active power shortage or even disconnection of the power grid. To deal with this issue, this paper proposes an effective control strategy. First, the interaction between AC and DC sides of the converters under unbalanced voltage conditions is analysed. Second, the resilience is defined and elaborated. Third, considering various constraints such as the grid‐into current harmonics, power fluctuations and DC side voltage fluctuations, the operation resilience range of the converters is calculated. Based on the resilience range, an optimal operating point is selected and an optimal strategy is developed. Compared with the traditional strategy, the proposed strategy allows improving the maximum active power output capacity and resilience of the grid‐connected converters under unbalanced grid conditions, while simultaneously limiting the power fluctuations and grid‐into current distortions within an allowable range. Last, simulation and experimental results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed strategy.

Modeling of Symmetrical Six-Phase Induction Machines Under Stator Faults

This paper addresses the occurrence of stator faults in six-phase induction machines, with a symmetrical winding, operating under both balanced and unbalanced supply voltage conditions. A dynamic model of the motor was developed in Matlab/Simulink environment, taking into consideration the occurrence of inter-turn short circuit faults. To validate the proposed approach, simulation results, covering the full range of operation and different fault severity levels, are compared with the motor experimental performance. The voltages and currents obtained from the simulation present a good agreement with the corresponding experimental results, demonstrating the accuracy of the proposed model

Improved control of dynamic voltage restorer for compensation of unbalanced and harmonic-distorted grid voltage

Doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) are vulnerable to unbalanced voltage and harmonic distortion, which will lead to the heating problem of stator/rotor windings and the damage of gearbox. This paper establishes the transient modeling of the DFIG under composite unbalanced voltage and harmonic distortion condition, and elaborates the dynamic response of DFIG from the perspectives of rotor voltage, active power and reactive power under voltage harmonics and unbalance. It also presents an improved control strategy for a dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) to accurately track the specific voltage harmonics, with targeted consideration of constraining unbalanced voltage and fifth- and seventh-order voltage harmonics. The extractions of each voltage signals are presented in this paper via multiple notch filter (MNF), which has a good low-pass characteristic and an excellent performance in trapping the specific AC signals. The presented notch-filter-based algorithm has the advantages of simper control structure and faster response speed, and is more accurate in harmonic extraction. A 1.5-MW DFIG has been employed to establish the object of protection in simulation analysis to verify the validity of the proposed control strategy. The results show that the proposed control strategy is effective which is consistent with the theoretical model, and the oscillations of each crucial parameter can be well-suppressed.

Power Decoupling Method for Voltage Source Inverters Using Grid Voltage Modulated Direct Power Control in Unbalanced System

The grid voltage modulated direct power control (GVM-DPC) is a novel power regulation method for grid-connected voltage source inverters (VSI). However, interactions between real and reactive powers still exist in GVM-DPC under unbalanced grid voltage condition, which may deteriorate its transient performance. This article proposes a power decoupling method for GVM-DPC-based VSI in unbalanced systems based on the dynamic feedforward power compensation strategy, which can reduce the coupling magnitudes of real and reactive powers in the transient stages. First, the power coupling mechanism of positive and negative sequence real and reactive powers of VSI under the unbalanced voltage condition is analyzed. Then, the power coupling magnitudes (PCM) are derived according to relationships among the positive sequence components of real power, reactive power and point of common coupling (PCC) voltages. Next, the PCM are compensated into the GVM-DPC for the better decoupling performance. Furthermore, a stability analysis of the proposed control system is studied based on the impedance model, and a comparison with the traditional power decoupling method based on virtual impedance is conducted to show the superiority of the proposed method. Finally, simulations, hardware-in-loop test and experiment are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

GRID INTEGRATION OF VOLTAGE SOURCE CONVERTER USING POWER SYNCHRONIZATION CONTROL

Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are integrated with electric power systems around the world at an accelerated pace. Due to their intermittent nature, integrating RES into the power grid is a challenging task. Because of their good controllability and superior performance in weak AC grids, the three phase Voltage Source Converters (VSCs) are generally used for this purpose. The grid connected converter has to correctly detect the grid voltage signal during voltage distortion and unbalance condition. In this research work, a control method using power synchronization for grid integration of VSC is developed and simulated. In this control technique, the electricity fed to AC grid from VSC is controlled using the internal synchronization mechanism as like in conventional synchronous machine. Utilizing this type of control, the instability of VSC affected by a standard Phase Locked Loop during weak grid condition can be avoided. Moreover, a VSC terminal could support a weak AC system with strong voltage, just similar to an ordinary synchronous machine organizer. Simulations are done in Matlab/Simulink to validate the system performance of grid attached VSC with the Power Synchronization Control.

RPCNNet: A Deep Learning Approach to Sense Minor Stator Winding Interturn Fault Severity in Induction Motor Under Variable Load Condition

In this article, a deep learning-based automated framework has been proposed to sense minor stator winding interturn (MSIT) fault in an induction motor (IM) without having load level information. For this purpose, an experimental setup has been configured in laboratory through which three phase current signal of a three-phase squirrel cage IM has been recorded at different MSIT fault, different loading level and external voltage unbalance condition. In this proposed framework, three phase stator current profiles firstly are converted to 1-D Park’s vector modulus (PVM) signal using Park’s transformation and extended Park’s vector approach (EPVA). Thereafter, PVM of three phase stator currents have been encoded into RGB image using recurrence plot (RP) technique and have been fed to a customized convolutional neural network module (RPCNNet) for detection of MSIT fault severity. The recognition performance of the RPCNNet is also compared with four benchmark convolutional neural network (CNN) models namely “VGG16,” “AlexNet,” “ResNet50,” and “DenseNet201,” respectively. From the result, it is observed that RPCNNet has shown comparable performance and offers significantly reduced computational cost compared to the benchmark CNN models. Proposed framework has also outperformed the existing approaches by a significant margin and shown promising result under both noiseless and noisy environment. The proposed framework is also capable of differentiating MSIT fault condition from unbalanced supply voltage condition. Hence, proposed framework is very much suitable for practical application.

Optimal Suppression Strategy for Capacitor Voltage Ripples of Hybrid MMCs Under Unbalanced Grid Voltages

Submodule (SM) capacitor voltage ripples in modular multilevel converters (MMCs) can be suppressed by harmonic injection strategy, which can reduce the volume and cost of MMCs. The existing methods using the dual harmonic injection strategy for hybrid MMCs only consider steady-state conditions. Harmonic injection strategies for unbalanced grid voltage conditions only use single harmonic injection and can be applied for single-phase faults. To address the above issues, this paper proposes an optimal dual harmonic injection of second-order harmonic current and third-order harmonic voltage strategy for hybrid MMCs. Firstly, the mathematical model of MMC under unbalanced grid voltages is established. Then the ripple characteristics of SM capacitor voltage are analyzed to reveal the relationship between the capacitor voltage and the arm power ripples. Based on the developed instantaneous arm power model, optimal harmonic injection parameters are calculated. A hybrid MMC simulation model is built in PSCAD/EMTDC to verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The results show the excellent performance of the proposed strategy in suppressing the voltage ripples under unbalanced voltage conditions.

Improved Virtual Space Vector Modulation Scheme for the Reduced Switch Count Three-Level Inverter With Balanced and Unbalanced Neutral-Point Voltage Conditions

This article presents an improved virtual space vector modulation scheme for the reduced switch count three-level inverter with balanced and unbalanced neutral-point voltage (NPV) conditions. By analyzing the effects of unbalanced NPV conditions on basic voltage vectors, the new virtual vectors are constructed by considering the dc unbalancing coefficient and distribution factor for small vectors simultaneously. To facilitate the calculation of duty cycles, the nonorthogonal coordinate system is employed. In addition, an optimized control scheme is developed to obtain the optimized distribution factor, and the relative durations of P-type and N-type small vectors are adjusted to control the voltages across two dc-link capacitors separately. The satisfactory quality of output currents is maintained with both balanced and unbalanced NPV conditions. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is verified by simulated and experimental results.

A Second-Order Voltage Ripple Suppression Strategy of Five-Level Flying Capacitor Rectifiers Under Unbalanced AC Voltages

Unbalanced ac voltages drastically deteriorate the performance of five-level flying capacitor (FC) rectifiers. Without introducing an extra buffering circuit to absorb the second-order oscillating power, it is an incompatible contradiction for realizing both negative-sequence current reduction and second-order voltage ripple suppression. In this article, based on the idea of using FCs in the rectifier to absorb the oscillating power, a second-order voltage ripple suppression strategy for unbalanced ac voltage conditions is proposed. Reducing the negative-sequence currents and suppressing the dc voltage ripples can be simultaneously realized. Simulations and experimental results verified the effectiveness and performance of the proposed scheme well.

Dual-module VSG control strategy under unbalanced voltage conditions

Dual-module VSG control strategy under unbalanced voltage conditions

Neural Classification of Rotor Faults in Three-Phase Induction Motors using Electric Current Signals in the Frequency Domain

Three-phase induction motors are widely used in different applications in the industry due to their robustness, low cost, and reliability. Untimely identification and correct diagnosis of incipient faults reduce cost and improve the maintenance management of these machines. This paper explores a new method for robust classification of rotor failures in three-phase induction motors (MITs) connected directly to the electrical network, operating in a steady-state, under unbalanced voltages and load conditions. Through an innovative methodology, an analysis of the electrical current signals from 1 hp and 2 hp motors in the frequency domain was performed. Such analysis was applied in constructing input matrices for a Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network (MLPNN) to detect faults. Furthermore, this methodology proved to be robust because the samples of the failing and healthy motors include voltage unbalance conditions in the electrical supply and a significant variation in the load applied to the motor shaft. Such load variation was used for the detection of failures of 1, 2, and 4 broken bars consecutively on the rotor and in the condition of 2 broken bars and 2 other broken bars diametrically opposite. The results were promising and were obtained using 847 real samples from an experimental bench used to construct the neural model and its respective validation.

An Expanded Lyapunov-Function Based Control Strategy for Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Active Front-End Converters

Cascaded H-bridge multilevel (CHBML) active front-end (AFE) converters exhibit some enticing benefits, comprising high adaptability for numerous applications, such as tractions, solid-state transformers, electric vehicle charging stations, and medium and high power electric drives. Yet, when the CHBML- AFE is operating under an unbalanced load condition, it is crucial to utilize an advanced control technique to maintain system stability. In this research, a Lyapunov Function (LF)-based control approach is utilized for regulating a single-phase CHBML- AFE with LCL filter to achieve global asymptotic stability. A capacitor voltage feedback is introduced and added to the traditional LF-based control strategy to reduce the resonance of the LCL filter. Furthermore, the proportional-resonant (PR) control procedure is utilized to derive the grid current reference, offering improvement to the robustness of the current control design. A balanced DC voltage control method is also employed to suppress the unbalanced DC voltage conditions among CHBML- AFE cells. In addition, the transfer function of the reference grid current and the actual grid current is evaluated for the CHBML- AFE with LCL filter parameters and their eventual variations in the employed control technique. The effectiveness of this control strategy is validated utilizing simulation and experimental studies.

Detection of High-Resistance Connections in Industrial Power Systems During Induction Motor Start-up

We propose a methodology for detecting and isolating high-resistance connections (HRC) in industrial power systems during induction motor (IM) start-up. Negative sequence components are analyzed during the IM start-up transient in different points of the electric system of an industrial plant. The effects of HRC are evaluated using an analytical model of an industrial power system in steady state and validated with numerical simulations obtained of a transient model. These results show not only the possibility to detect HRC but also its isolation from unbalance voltage conditions of the grid. In addition, an approximation of the total power of motors affected by the HRC is calculated with our proposal. This power and the electric one-line diagram of the industrial plant allow us to determine the location of HRC. Finally, the proposal is validated by using experimental results obtained in a meat processing industry.

Optimal MPPT and BES Control for Grid-Tied DFIG-Based Wind Energy Conversion System

As the wind energy is progressively pursued to supplement conventional power generation, the stochastic wind behavior considerably deteriorates power quality (PQ) and stability of the connected grid. This article is attributed to the comprehensive control design of the grid-integrated doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) wind energy system that aims to address encountered wind variability and PQ intricacies. Battery energy storage with bidirectional dc–dc converter control is assimilated at the dc-link of the DFIG that regulates the dc-link voltage to mitigate the wind power fluctuations in specified grid power modes. A higher order adaptive control for grid-interfaced converter accurately computes desired weights of various components to exercise accurate power balance and PQ control. Moreover, a novel Jaya particle swarm optimization algorithm is adopted for the optimal tuning of wind maximum power point tracking and the dc-link voltage PI controller parameters that significantly improves steady-state and dynamic responses of both the controllers. The rotor speed converges faster with precise reference tracking that leads to almost zero steady-state error using optimized PI controller gains. Along with the attenuated initial overshoot and fast settling time during sudden large step wind speed change, the dc-link voltage also characterizes superior response with optimal tuning during load unbalance and abnormal grid voltage conditions. The presented control strategy analyzes the capability of DFIG system under variable wind-speed changes, specified grid power modes, load changes, and other grid disturbances. The satisfactory system response is endorsed through experimental results conducted on a laboratory prototype.