Title:- Performance Investigation of a Three-Phase Three-level NPC bidirectional Improved Power

Quality Converter under supply perturbations

Research Field :- Power Electronics
Covered under:- i. Electrical Engineering
ii. Electronics & Communication Engineering

Introduction
In recent years, many power electronic converters utilizing switching devices are being widely used in
domestic, commercial and industrial applications, ranging from few watts to MWs. However these converters
suffer from the drawbacks of harmonic generation and reactive power flow as well as offer highly non-linear
characteristics thus contributing to power quality problems. These are reflected in the system in the form of
reduced efficiency of rectifiers, deteriorated performance of induction motors, interference with nearby
communications networks, neutral burning, mal-operation of relays, blowing of fuses and so on. To overcome
these problems, passive and active filters have been used in combination with the conventional ac/dc converters.
Another method is to employ the power capacitors to improve the power factor by supplying the reactive vars.
On the other hand, Active Power Filters (APFs) have been researched to compensate harmonics as well as
reactive power requirements of the non-linear loads. But the size, cost and complexity are the main drawbacks
of these compensation techniques.
A new breed of converters has been made possible mainly because of the use of modern high-speed,
solid-state, self-commutating power semiconducting devices such as power MOSFETs, IGBTs, IGCTs, etc. and
are specifically known as Switched-Mode Rectifiers (SMRs), Power Factor Correction Converters (PFCs), High
Power Factor Converters (HPFCs) and Improved Power Quality Converters (IPQCs). These improved power
quality ac/dc converters are included as an inherent part of the ac-dc conversion system which produces better
power quality on the line-side and load-side of converters with higher efficiency and reduced size.
Although multilevel converters offer a viable solution for medium and large power ratings in many
industrial applications and produce excellent line-side and load-side performances (unity input power factor,
negligible line-current THD, and regulated and reduced-rippled dc output voltage), the neutral point of the
neutral-point clamped converters is prone to fluctuations due to the irregular charging and discharging of dc-bus
capacitors. Also in most of the reported literature, ideal supply conditions are assumed for performance analysis
of these converters which is not always the case in practical environment.

Importance
The power quality problems introduced by conventional ac/dc converters are globaly recognized and a
lot of research has been carried out to solve this burning problem. In some foreign universities, separate
departments of power quality have been established for the purpose of active research in this field. A lot of
research literature is available in the form of international journals and some books published by IEEE, Elsevier
and IET press. The IEEE 519 and IEC61000 standards are being enforced to ensure a good quality of power and
this has compelled the researchers to develop new topologies and control algorithms for these converters.
The premiere technical institutes of the country like IITs and IISc Bangalore are actively involved in the
research on the power quality related issues, design and development of converter topologies and control
algorithms. Many young researchers have been involved in working on the said research problem for their
Ph.Ds. under MHRD sponsored scholarship/assistantship. The proposed research project is an effort to open a
door to the research activities in this filed at USTU Uttarakhand.

Objective
The objective of the proposed research project is to address the burning issue of power quality in power
systems due to the widespread use of ac/dc converters. A multilevel converter will be designed and developed
for excellent performance in terms of line-side power quality (near-unity input power factor and negligible THD
of source current), excellent load-side performance (well regulated and reduced-rippled dc output voltage). The
proposed control algorithm will ensure better performance even with operation under distorted mains conditions
and also with source voltage fluctuations and load perturbations.

Methodology
For carrying out research studies in a systematic way, step by step procedure will be adopted:
Step 1: In the first step, thorough literature survey about the power quality problems introduced by AC/DC
converters will be done. Literature survey will also be conducted about the various topologies and
control schemes used for improved power quality AC/DC converters.
Step 2: After the thorough study, mathematical model of the proposed converter will be developed and
analyzed for improved performance.
Step 3: A complete simulation model consisting of load and control circuit will be developed in
MATLAB/Simulink environment using mathematic modeling of the said converter.
Step 4: Control algorithm will be designed for the efficient control of converter. Algorithms like PWM,
Hysteresis current control and Space vector modulation will be implemented using the simulation
models.
Step 5: Exhaustive simulation and comparative analysis of the existing three-phase, improved power quality
AC-DC converters including the multilevel converters will be done.
Step 6: The performance of improved power quality multilevel converter with proposed control algorithm
will be thoroughly investigated for supply-side and load-side improved power quality.
Step 7: Extensive results will be obtained under different operating conditions to investigate the steady-state,
transient state and dynamic performance of the converter. The performance of the proposed
multilevel improved power quality converter will also be investigated under distorted mains
conditions.

References
[1] A. H. Bhat & Pramod Agarwal, “Three-Phase, Power Quality Improvement AC/DC Converters: A Review”.
Electric Power Systems Research, Elsevier, vol. 78, Issue 2, pp. 276-289, 2007.
[2] Jih-Sheng Lai, Fang Zhebg Peng, “Multilevel Converters- A New Breed of Power Converters,” IEEE Trans.
Industrial Electronics, vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 509-517, May/June 1996.
[3] Hengchun Mao, Fred C. Y. Lee, Dushan Boroyevish, and Silva Hiti, “ Review of high-performance three-
phase power-factor correction circuits,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.,vol. 44, no. 4, Aug. 1997, pp. 437-446.
[4] C. L. Chen, C. M. Lee, R. J. Tu, and G. K. Horng, “A novel simplified space-vector-modulated control
scheme for three-phase switch-mode rectifier,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 46, no. 3, June 1999.
[5] M. Marchesoni and P. Tenca, “Diode-clamped multilevel converters: A practicable way to balance dc-link
voltages,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol 49, no. 4, August 2002.
[6] A. H. Bhat and P. Agarwal, “Three-phase, power quality improvement ac/dc converters,” Elsevier Electric
Power Systems Research, pp. 276-289, 2008.
[7] A. H. Bhat and N Langer,” Supply Perturbation Compensated Control Scheme for Three-Phase Neutral-
Point Clamped Bi-directional Rectifier” International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems,
IJEPES (Elsevier) vol: 54, pp: 17-25, 2014.
[8] A. H. Bhat and N Langer, “Capacitor Voltage Balancing of a Three-Phase Neutral-Point Clamped Bi-
directional Rectifier Using Optimized Switching Sequences” IET Power Electronics Vol-6, issue-6, pp:
1209-1219, 2013.
[9] A. H. Bhat and N Langer, “Capacitor Voltage Balancing of a Three-Phase Neutral-Point-Clamped Rectifier
Using Modified Reference Vector” IEEE Transaction on Power Electronics, Vol-29, issue-2, pp: 561-568,
February 2014.