中国电气工程学报(英文) ›› 2017, Vol. 3 ›› Issue (2): 24-31.

• • 上一篇    

  

  • 出版日期:2017-09-25 发布日期:2019-10-31

Derivation of Multilevel Voltage Source Converter Topologies for Medium Voltage Drives

Yunwei Li*, Zhongyi Quan   

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 1H9, Canada
  • Online:2017-09-25 Published:2019-10-31
  • Contact: E-mail: yunwei.li@ualberta.ca.
  • About author:Yunwei Li received the B.Sc. in engineering degree in electrical engineering from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 2002, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2006. In 2005, Dr. Li was a Visiting Scholar with Aalborg University, Denmark. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ryerson University, Canada. In 2007, he also worked at Rockwell Automation Canada before he joined University of Alberta, Canada in the same year. Since then, Dr. Li has been with University of Alberta, where he is a Professor now. His research interests include distributed generation, microgrid, renewable energy, high power converters and electric motor drives. Dr. Li serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics. Dr. Li received the Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award from IEEE Power Electronics Society in 2013 and the second prize paper award of IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics in 2014. Zhongyi Quan received the B.Eng. in Instrumentation and Control from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 2010, and M.Sc. degree in Instrumentation and Control from Beihang University, Beijing, China, in 2013. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. His current research interests include modulation and control of motor drives.

Abstract: Multilevel voltage source converters(MLVSCs) have been widely applied in the medium voltage drive(MVD) industry. The performance of a MVD system is strongly dependent on the utilized topology. As of today, many interesting topologies have been proposed and evaluated in literature. In addition to proposing new topologies, another important research topic is the MLVSC topology derivation. In this paper, two topology derivation principles, i.e. horizontal conformation principle and vertical conformation principle, are proposed from the standpoint of modularity. In both principles, a MLVSC topology can be considered as a certain combination of one base switching cell and several module switching cells. With the proposed principle, the derived topology will naturally have modularity, which is favorable in practical applications. In addition, voltage level extension based on cascaded H-bridge building blocks(HBBBs) is also introduced. The challenging issues faced by the emerging topologies for MVD applications are also discussed. It is hoped that this paper can provide a new perspective on the MLVSC topology derivation and inspire new topologies in the future.

Key words: Multilevel converters, voltage source converters, topologies, medium voltage drives.