High Performance, High Reliability Medium Voltage Drives

Mukul Rastogi, Member IEEE, Peter W.Hammond, Member IEEE, and Richard H .Osman, Senior Member IEEE

Abslraci-During the past decade Medium Voltage Drives have undergone considerable advancement as a result of innovations in circuit topologies, switching devices, control techniques and microprocessors. This paper shows that a combination of the Series-Cell, Multi-level topology and the latest control technology can provide scaleable architecture, good input and output power quality, high performance and reliability in Medium Voltage Drives. A new feature that vastly improves the reliability of the system, called transparent cell bypass, is presented. Another novel feature that allows braking torque to be produced in non-regenerative drives is also described.
Index Terms--AC motor drives, multi-level topologies, nonregenerative braking and reliability.
1. INTRODUCTION

are two-fold, namely, reduced output dv/dt and higher effective switching frequency. Such waveform quality does not require the use of output filters in most motor drive applications. The series-cell circuit [2,3] and the flying capacitor circuit [4] are among the popular multi-level topologies in use today. The series cell approach uses separate H-Bridge inverters in series to develop the output voltage in each phase. Each cell in one phase is isolated from the others, and also from the cells in other phases. However, in the flying capacitor circuit, the cells consist of two devices and a capacitor and are connected in series very much like in a switched capacitor network. The cells in a given phase are directly connected to one another without the need for isolation. The requirement of an input transformer does result in a larger overall size for the series-cell circuit, but does not matter when the drive input voltage is higher than the output voltage rating of the drive (or the motor voltage rating). The structural difference between the two topologies provides a distinct advantage for the series-cell topology that can be used to greatly increase the reliability of the drive. In the event of a cell failure, the faulted cell can be effectively removed (bypassed) from the circuit and the drive can resume operation (although with reduced voltage capability) within a very short period of time. Such a feature cannot be provided with the flying capacitor topology without the use of devices that are at-least double their normal voltage rating. This paper shows that a combination of the series-cell topology along with its control system can provide excellent input and output power quality, good control performance, and high reliability for medium voltage drives applications. Some novel features offered by the drive such as transparent cell bypass and dual-frequency (non-regenerative) braking are described. 11. COMPLETE DRIVE SYSTEM

In recent years, medium voltage drives have evolved rapidly from the traditional current source based drives. Such drives consist of an input thyristor rectifier with a dc-link inductor and an output inverter comprised of thyristor or GTO devices. A capacitor filter is used to improve output power quality. Additional circuits are required to ensure commutation in the case of a thyristor inverter or to reduce switching losses in the case of a GTO inverter. Although this topology offers good reliability and low cost, it suffers from poor input and output power quality, and high common mode voltage. Voltage source drives with GTO devices are used at higher power levels. Such drives also suffer from low switching frequencies and large output voltage steps, and require large output filters to mitigate switching frequency components and common-mode voltages. Multi-pulse rectifiers at the input have been used in such drives to improye input power quality. Advances in high voltage semi-conductors have allowed the (voltage source) Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) inverter to be extended to 4kV applications without the need for series connection of devices [I]. However, the typical switching frequency of such devices at higher power levels is about 500Hz, thus limiting the effective switching frequency to IkHz. With the NPC topology, the voltage step size is half and the effective switching frequency is twice as compared to those of a two-level inverter. As with two level drives, NPC based solutions still require significant filtering at the output. Other multi-level topologies use low-voltage rated converters in series to obtain medium voltage at the output with much finer granularity. Advantages of waveform quality M. Rastogi, P. W.Hammond and R. H. Osman are with Robicon, 100 Sagamore Hill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15239 USA (telephone: 1-724-3399500, e-mail: mrastogi@robicon.com, phammond@robicon.com and roman@ robicon.com).

A . Power Structure
Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the power circuit of a drive based on the series-cell topology [2,3]. Each output phase consists of single-phase inverters, or power cells, in series. The output voltage is synthesized using phase-shifted PWM resulting in a 2N+1 (where, N is the number of cells in series) level voltage waveform. Figure 2 shows the power circuit of a single-phase inverter. The input of each cell is fed from a dedicated three-phase secondary winding of a multi-pulse transformer. For the drive shown, the secondaries are arranged to provide 3 sets of phaseshifted windings resulting in an 18-pulse arrangement. With the secondary windings rated for 460V, the drive can provide

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Figure 1. Block diagram of a scries-cell multilevel medium voltage drive.

processor are passed to logic devices (EPLDs) that are responsible for PWM signal generation and data exchange between the main control processor and the cells. Each EPLD is programmed to communicate with up to six cells. A separate EPLD is used for controlling all of the bypass contactors. Data exchange between the control and the power side of the drive is done through fiber-optic cables. The same processor also performs other functions such as user programming and manmachine interface.

Fig. 2. Typical power cell with optional contactor for bypass.

2.4kV at the output. Higher voltage levels of 3.3kV, 4.16kV and 4.8kV can be achieved by increasing the number of series cells to 4, 5 and 6, respectively. In these cases, the pulse number of the input transformer is progressively increased to 24, 30 and 36. Further increase in output voltage capability is achieved with the design of a cell with higher voltage rating. At present, the largest drive installed is rated for 19OOOhpat 7.2kV. An example of the high input and output power quality is given in Fig. 3, where the input and output current waveforms from a 4kV. 600hp drive at rated power are shown. The input current distortion (with a 30-pulse input transformer) is 3.5%. In order to provide cell bypass during the event of a cell malfunction, a mechanical contactor is used at the output terminals (Fig. 2). The mechanical contactor is controlled to remove the cell from the circuit under such a condition. Cell bypass is discussed in further detail in Section 111 A.

Fig. 3b output Voltage

(L-L)

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B. Control Implementation
A single control processor uses measured voltage and current signals to perform motor control, drive input monitoring and fault handling. Voltage commands calculated by the
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Fig. 3. Drive voltage and current waveforms from a IScell, 600hp. 4kV drive. (a) Input side (I.3kV/div., 57Ndiv.. Z d d i v . ) . and (b) output side (Z.SkV/div., SOA/div.. ZSmddiv.) waveforms.

The control system maintains synchronous sampling while allowing the user to change the switching frequency of the IGBTs. For example, with an IGBT switching frequency of

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600Hz, the effective switching frequency for the drive shown in Fig. I will be 3.6kHz. The sampling rate of the feedback signals is synchronized to this frequency. Since this sampling rate depends on the number of cells and the selected switching frequency, the control system is designed to be versatile enough to handle any combination of cells (from 2 to 8 in series) while allowing a switching frequency between 200 and 1200Hz.

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C. Motor Control
Stator flux control is used for ac motor control [ 5 ] . The measured current and voltage signals are transformed to the synchronously rotating frame. A flux estimator is used to compute stator flux amplitude, frequency and phase. A block diagram of the control is shown in Fig. 4. The flux and speed regulators are used to generate current commands for the flux and torque producing components, respectively. The current regulators regulate the measured d-q currents to the commanded values. Feed-forward signals (not shown in the figure) are added to decouple the flux and torque, and to improve transient response. Stator resistance is the parameter that primarily affects the stability of stator flux based control. An incorrect value of rotor resistance only causes speed error. The problem of stability at low speeds is alleviated with the use of auto tuning to determine motor parameters and with the use of a robust flux estimator. A torque linearity of +/-5% is achieved in the 1-100% speed range with a static speed accuracy better than 0.5%. A torque response time that is less than 2ms can be consistently achieved. Experimental results with a 4kV, 600hp drive (with 12 cells rated for 630V input and a sampling rate of 4.8kHz) and an equally rated motor are shown in Fig. 5 .

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Fig. Sa. Experimental results showing measured speed vs. measured torque for various operating speeds.
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Fig. 5. Torque step (0-100%) response at (b) S%, and (c) 75% speed. Waveforms shown are torque reference (channel 3, 22A/div.) and actual torque current (channel 4,22A/div.).
111. NOVEL FEATURES

A . Transparent Bypass

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This feature allows the drive to bypass a cell that has a fault due to the failure of any component in that cell. A bypass contactor as shown in Fig. 2 is used in each cell to provide a completely independent way of removing a faulted cell from the drive output circuit [6,7]. Such a feature greatly enhances the reliability of the drive. Moreover, the control uses information of the faulted cell and maximizes the voltage capability of the drive using a technique called Neutral-Shift. The operation of the control after bypass is briefly described here using Figs. 6-8, in which a drive with 15 cells is shown as a series connection of voltage sources. With 100% of the cells in use, 100% of the original voltage is available. The voltage commands for phase A are displaced from phase B and from phase C by 120' (Fig. 6). When cells are bypassed in one of the drive phases, the output voltage will tend to become unbalanced. This is illustrated in Fig. 7 where two cells are bypassed in phase A. One possible remedy is to bypass an equal number of cells in all three phases, even though some

Fig. 4. Block diagram of control for ac motors. Blocks shown in dashed lines are added for dual-frequency braking.

The multi-level nature of the output allows the drive to produce sinusoidal voltages at high fundamental frequencies. The basic limitations are the IGBT switching losses and the sampling rate of the control system. With the present design, these drives can be used (without the need for output filters) at output frequencies of up to 330Hz.

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may not have failed. Obviously, this method prevents unbalance in the output phase voltages, but sacrifices possible voltage capability, i.e. 87% of the cells are functional, but only 60% will be in use, and only 60% voltage will be available. A better approach is illustrated in Fig. 8. This method takes advantage of the fact that the star-point of the cells is floating, and is not connected to the neutral of the motor. Therefore the star-point can be shifted away from the motor neutral (neutralshift), and the phase angles of the output phase voltages can be adjusted, so that a balanced set of motor voltages is obtained even though the phase voltages are not balanced. In Fig. 8 the full remaining 87% of functional cells are in use, and 80% voltage is available. The phase angles of the module voltages have been adjusted so that phase A is displaced from phase B and from phase C by 132.5", instead of the normal 120O.

Neutral shift is provided by injecting a fundamental, zerosequence component into the phase voltage commands, very similar to third-harmonic injection in a traditional voltage-source drive [7]. Figure 9 shows steady state waveforms from a 15-ceI1, 4kV, 600hp drive operating with severe unbalance. Even under such unbalanced conditions the motor currents remain balanced and sinusoidal. Transient operation is shown in Fig. IO, in which the drive bypasses one cell after receiving a fault indication, and resumes operation within 0.3sec of the cell failure.
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Fig. 6. Simplified representationof a I5-cell drive.

A 87% of the Cells

Fig. 9. Effect of neutral shift on unbalanced operation in a IS-cell drive. Only 4 cells in phase A. 1 cell in phase B and 5 cells in phase C are. operating at rated current (74A) and speed (60 Hz). Waveforms shown are phase 9, C voltage commands (channels 2&3: 62.5%/div.) and motor currents (channels 1&4: 48A/div.).

are in use, but imbalanced.

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Fig. 7. 15-cell drive (ofFig. 5) with 2 cells bypassed in phase A. Fig. 10. Transient operation during cell bypass. Waveforms shown are motor current (CHI, 198Ndiv.). motor voltage (CH2, 3.1 kVldiv.), drive input voltage (3.1 kV/div.) and drive input current (CH4. 85Aldiv.).

available.

B. Dual-Frequency Braking
Non-regenerative ac drives that need occasional negative torque for braking require additional circuits to return the braking energy to the AC mains, or to dissipate the braking energy in a resistor. Both of these solutions add cost to the drive, and are especially undesirable for large modular mediumvoltage drives. Additional power devices can be avoided by using the existing circuits to inject DC current into the motor windings. This method dissipates the braking energy in the motor, and adds little cost to the drive. However, DC injection braking is not very effective unless the available current is

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Fig. 8. 15-cell drive (of Fig. 6), re-balanced by adjusting phase angles (using Neutral-Shift).

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several times rated, especially for large motors. Another drawback is that estimation of motor speed is very difficult during DC injection braking. The proposed method causes extra losses to be induced in the motor, by applying a second set of three-phase voltage vectors to the motor, in addition to the normal set of voltage vectors used for speed control [8,9]. The normal set of voltages (at the fundamental frequency) is controlled to absorb the kinetic energy from the load while providing braking torque. On the other hand, the second set of voltages (at a frequency different from the fundamental frequency) induces losses in the motor to dissipate the energy absorbed from the rotating inertia (of the motor and load). This process of energy exchange is shown in Fig. 11. Thus when the energy absorbed from the rotating inertia is made equal to the energy dissipated in the motor, then the DC link does not participate in any exchange of power and hence does not experience any change in dc bus voltage.

also used to obtain information about the motor losses at the loss inducing frequency. The loss inducing voltage commands at the desired torque pulsation frequency are added in d-q reference frame. The control uses the motor losses to provide a braking torque level.
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The selection of the frequency of the second set of voltages, or the loss inducing frequency, is based on maximizing motor losses (and hence providing the most braking torque), which increase in direct proportion of the applied frequency due to skin effect in the rotor bars. However, a large loss inducing frequency also requires a large converter voltage at that frequency which limits the amount of fundamental frequency voltage available for receiving energy from the motor. The loss inducing frequency can be varied with motor speed in order to maintain a fixed torque pulsation frequency. Figure 12 shows the results of an off-line optimization for a 4kV, MHz, lOOOhp, 1780rpm motor to maximize braking while fully utilizing the converter [9]. A 300Hz torque pulsation frequency was chosen. Above 60% speed the voltage and current capability of the converter are used completely. Most of the current is at the loss inducing frequency and is required to create losses in the motor. In the higher speed range, the motor is operated at a lower than rated flux level. Below 60% speed, rated flux is maintained while operating in converter current limit. Also shown is the achievable braking torque as compared to DC injection braking. As seen in Fig. 12c, the proposed method provides much higher torque per ampere than DC injection, while permitting continuous estimation of motor speed. The control modifications needed for dual-frequency braking are shown within dashed lines in Fig. 4. Motor voltage and current feedback signals that are used for normal control are
263

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Fig. 12. (a) Drive voltage, (b) drive current and (c) motor torque as a function of speed with full utilization of converter capability.

Figures 13 and 14 show an example of braking with a 600hp, 4kV, 74A motor. Figure 13 shows the various current components, while Fig. 14 shows the measured torque and speed during braking. A peak braking torque of 33% (of rated) is measured on the shaft connecting the motor to the load inertia, which were almost equal in the test set-up.

Recently other techniques to provide braking in nonregenerative drives have been proposed. One technique, referred to as Flux Braking, saturates the motor and uses the available converter current capability to create additional core losses in the motor to consume the energy from the rotating inertia [IO]. Another method, referred to as Pulsed-Braking hereafter, creates losses in the motor by pulsing the magnetizing current at a low frequency, while maintaining an average value to regulate motor flux [l 11. These methods are compared (qualitatively) to the proposed method in Table 1.
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All three methods allow continuous estimation of motor speed and also produce torque pulsations. The proposed method is superior to the other two methods in terms of braking torque production and control of the torque pulsation frequency. However, with the proposed method the heat is dissipated in the rotor. which has the most difficulty in getting rid of the heat due to its limited surface area. The stator windings on the other hand have a natural heat sink in the motor casing. Thus the proposed method is well suited for applications in need of occasional braking.

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In recent years, technological advancements in various fields have lead to improvements in medium voltage drives. This paper shows that these innovations have been applied in the development of a series-cell, multi-level, based medium voltage drive with an advanced control system to provide scaleable architecture and good performance. Two new features offered by the drive have also been presented. Transparent cell bypass enhances the reliability of the drive allowing faulted cells to be removed from the circuit and resume operation within a very short period of time. The drive is show6 to provide maximum output voltage capability in the event of cell bypass.
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Fig. 13. Torque current reference (CH2), current at loss-inducing frequency (CH3) and magnetizing current reference (CH4) during braking. Channel 1 shows the time during which braking is enabled TekmSingleSeyfl OOkSp

A new method, called dual-frequency braking, to develdp braking torque in two quadrant drives is described. Advantages of this method include higher braking torque as compared to other methods and a single torque pulsation frequency that can be selected by the user.
REFERENCES

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Fig. 14. Measured shaft torque (CH2). measured speed (CH3) and estimated speed (CH4) during braking. Channel 1 shows the time during which braking is enabled. Table I . Comparison of non-regenerative braking methods.
Feature

Braking torque capability Torque pulsation frequency

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Dual-Frequency Braking

Limited to core losses

Reasonable

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At multiples of field pulsation frequency

Fixed at one frequency, but user selectable

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I Rotor

[l] P.K Steirner, J.K. Steinke and H.E. GNning, A reliable, interfacefriendly Medium Voltage Drive based on robust IGCT and DTC technologies, 1999 IEEE-IAS Annual Meeting, pp. 1505-1512. [Z] P.W. Hammond, Medium voltage PWM drive and method, U.S. Patent 5,625,545. [3] P. W. Hammond, A new approach to enhance power quality for medium voltage drives, IEEE IAS Transactions, Volume 33, No. I. January 1997. [4] T. Meynard and H, Foch, Electronic device for electrical energy conversion between a voltage source and a current source by means of controllable switching cells, U.S. Patent 5,737.201. [5] X. Xu and D.W. Novotny. Implementation of a Direct Stator Flux. Orientation Control on a Versatile DSP System, IEEE-IAS Annua! Meeting, 1990, pp. 404-409. [6] P. W. Hammond, Multiphase power supply with plural series connected cells and failed cell bypass, U.S.Patent 5,986,909. ic [7] P. W. Hammond et 1 , Enhancing the Reliability of Modular Medium Voltage Drives, to be presented at the 2001 IEEE-PCIC ,P Conference. P.W. Hammond and M. Rastogi, Apparatus and method to tr; [8] generate braking torque in an AC drive, U.S.Patent 6,262.555. [9] M. Rastogi and P.W. Hammond, Dual-frequency braking in AC ;: drives, IEEE-PESC, 2000. [IO] P.Tiitinen, The next generation motor control method, IEEE: PEDES, 1996. pp. 37-43. [ 1 11 J. Jiang and J. Holtz, An efficient Braking Method for controlled AC Drives with a Diode Rectifier Front End, 2000 IEEE-IAS Annual Meeting.
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