Predictive optimisation of high-power IGBT switching under Active Voltage Control

Active Voltage Control (AVC) is an implementation of classic Proportional-Derivative (PD) control and multi-loop feedback control to force IGBT to follow a pre-set switching trajectory. The initial objective of AVC was mainly to synchronise the switching of IGBTs connected in series so as to realise voltage balancing between devices. For a single IGBT switching, the AVC reference needs further optimisation. Thus, a predictive manner of AVC reference generation is required to cope with the nonlinear IGBT switching parameters while performing low loss switching. In this paper, an improved AVC structure is adopted along with a revised reference which accommodates the IGBT nonlinearity during switching and is predictive based on current being switched. Experimental and simulation results show that close control of a single IGBT switching is realised. It is concluded that good performance can be obtained, but the proposed method needs careful stability analysis for parameter choice. © 2013 IEEE.

808 nm high-power laser grown by MBE through the control of Be diffusion and use of superlattice

808 nm high-power laser diodes are gown by MBE. In the laser structure, the combination of Si-doped GRIN (graded-index) region adjacent to n-AlGaAs cladding layer with reduced Be doping concentration near the active region has been used to diminish Be diffusion and oxygen incorporation. As compared with the laser structure which has undoped GRIN region and uniform doping concentration for Si and Be, respectively, in the cladding layers, the slope efficiency has increased by about 8%. Typical threshold current density of 300 A/cm(2) and the minimum threshold current density of 220 A/cm(2) for lasers with 500 mu m cavity length are obtained. A high slope efficiency of 1.3 W/A for coated lasers with 1000 mu m cavity length is also demonstrated, Recorded CW output power at room temperature has reached 2.3 W.

Power and control in international retail franchising

Alexander, Nicholas, Doherty, Anne Marie, 'Power and control in international retail franchising', European Journal of Marketing (2006) 40(11-12) pp.1292-1316 RAE2008

Feasibility of online collaborative voltage stability control of power systems

This paper presents the results of feasibility study of a novel concept of power system on-line collaborative voltage stability control. The proposal of the on-line collaboration between power system controllers is to enhance their overall performance and efficiency to cope with the increasing operational uncertainty of modern power systems. In the paper, the framework of proposed on-line collaborative voltage stability control is firstly presented, which is based on the deployment of multi-agent systems and real-time communication for on-line collaborative control. Then two of the most important issues in implementing the proposed on-line collaborative voltage stability control are addressed: (1) Error-tolerant communication protocol for fast information exchange among multiple intelligent agents; (2) Deployment of multi-agent systems by using graph theory to implement power system post-emergency control. In the paper, the proposed on-line collaborative voltage stability control is tested in the example 10-machine 39-node New England power system. Results of feasibility study from simulation are given considering the low-probability power system cascading faults.

Robustness of Damping Control Implemented by Energy Storage Systems Installed in Power Systems

An energy storage system (ESS) installed in a power system can effectively damp power system oscillations through controlling exchange of either active or reactive power between the ESS and power system. This paper investigates the robustness of damping control implemented by the ESS to the variations of power system operating conditions. It proposes a new analytical method based on the well-known equal-area criterion and small-signal stability analysis. By using the proposed method, it is concluded in the paper that damping control implemented by the ESS through controlling its active power exchange with the power system is robust to the changes of power system operating conditions. While if the ESS damping control is realized by controlling its reactive power exchange with the power system, effectiveness of damping control changes with variations of power system operating condition. In the paper, an example power system installed with a battery ESS (BESS) is presented. Simulation results confirm the analytical conclusions made in the paper about the robustness of ESS damping control. Laboratory experiment of a physical power system installed with a 35kJ/7kW SMES (Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage) was carried out to evaluate theoretical study. Results are given in the paper, which demonstrate that effectiveness of SMES damping control realized through regulating active power is robust to changes of load conditions of the physical power system.

Universal power quality manager with a new control scheme

A new universal power quality manager is proposed. The proposal treats a number of power quality problems simultaneously. The universal manager comprises a combined series and shunt three-phase PWM controlled converters sharing a common DC link. A control scheme based on fuzzy logic is introduced and the general features of the design and operation processes are outlined. The performance of two configurations of the proposed power quality manager are compared in terms of a recently formulated unified power quality index. The validity and integrity of the proposed system is proved through computer simulated experiments

A hierarchical physical model-based approach to predictive control of a thermal power plant for efficient plant-wide disturbance rejection

Extending the work presented in Prasad et al. (IEEE Proceedings on Control Theory and Applications, 147, 523-37, 2000), this paper reports a hierarchical nonlinear physical model-based control strategy to account for the problems arising due to complex dynamics of drum level and governor valve, and demonstrates its effectiveness in plant-wide disturbance handling. The strategy incorporates a two-level control structure consisting of lower-level conventional PI regulators and a higher-level nonlinear physical model predictive controller (NPMPC) for mainly set-point manoeuvring. The lower-level PI loops help stabilise the unstable drum-boiler dynamics and allow faster governor valve action for power and grid-frequency regulation. The higher-level NPMPC provides an optimal load demand (or set-point) transition by effective handling of plant-wide interactions and system disturbances. The strategy has been tested in a simulation of a 200-MW oil-fired power plant at Ballylumford in Northern Ireland. A novel approach is devized to test the disturbance rejection capability in severe operating conditions. Low frequency disturbances were created by making random changes in radiation heat flow on the boiler-side, while condenser vacuum was fluctuating in a random fashion on the turbine side. In order to simulate high-frequency disturbances, pulse-type load disturbances were made to strike at instants which are not an integral multiple of the NPMPC sampling period. Impressive results have been obtained during both types of system disturbances and extremely high rates of load changes, right across the operating range, These results compared favourably with those from a conventional state-space generalized predictive control (GPC) method designed under similar conditions.

Plant-wide predictive control for a thermal power plant based on a physical plant model

A constrained non-linear, physical model-based, predictive control (NPMPC) strategy is developed for improved plant-wide control of a thermal power plant. The strategy makes use of successive linearisation and recursive state estimation using extended Kalman filtering to obtain a linear state-space model. The linear model and a quadratic programming routine are used to design a constrained long-range predictive controller One special feature is the careful selection of a specific set of plant model parameters for online estimation, to account for time-varying system characteristics resulting from major system disturbances and ageing. These parameters act as nonstationary stochastic states and help to provide sufficient degrees-of-freedom to obtain unbiased estimates of controlled outputs. A 14th order non-linear plant model, simulating the dominant characteristics of a 200 MW oil-fired pou er plant has been used to test the NPMPC algorithm. The control strategy gives impressive simulation results, during large system disturbances and extremely high rate of load changes, right across the operating range. These results compare favourably to those obtained with the state-space GPC method designed under similar conditions.