INTRODUCTION

• NEED FOR SAVING ENERGY

Energy conservation is of great concern in the major parts of the world.

The role of motors in energy saving is very important today all over the world,
mainly due to the widespread use and popularity of electric motors. Thanks to
significant and continuous progress in power electronics, it is possible today to
control the speed of motors with reduced or almost no losses, compared with past
techniques (E.g. speed controlled by resistance).

The electronic equipment which controls the speed by supplying to the motor
variable frequency and/or voltage is named ASD (Adjustable Speed Drives). In some
cases, the term ASD is applied to the motor and control equipment combined.
Adjustable speed drive (ASD) systems are increasingly being installed because of
the improved efficiency, availability, and reliability they offer. The improved
efficiency, availability, and reliability are themselves higher than in the past years
due to better electronic components and topology.

ASDs generally comprise a frequency converter that supplies a three-phase

electric motor coupled to a driven machine. According to the voltage level of the
grid and the voltage level of the frequency converter, converter transformer (step
down or step up) may also be part of the system.

The recent evolution and development of semiconductor devices combined

with updated control strategies suggest that it is an appropriate time for a global
survey of the technology. The attached questionnaire is intended to provide an
overview of the present situation and an outlook of possible future development, as
far as known.

Construction techniques and types of ASDs may be very different. Energy

efficiency is promoted across all fields of energy use- however the electricity
industry appears to be specifically targeted due to high proportion of coal fired
generation.

In US there were government assistance programs 20 years ago for wind

farms. Besides there were in US rebate programs launched by electric utility
companies 20 years ago for installing ASDs, on pumps and fans all the same.

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ADJUSTABLE SPEED DRIVES
• INTRODUCTION
Adjustable speed drive (ASD) or variable-speed drive (VSD) describes
equipment used to control the speed of machinery. Many industrial processes such
as assembly lines must operate at different speeds for different products. Where
process conditions demand adjustment of flow from a pump or fan, varying the
speed of the drive may save energy compared with other techniques for flow
control. Where speeds may be selected from several different pre-set ranges,
usually the drive is said to be "adjustable" speed. If the output speed can be
changed without steps over a range, the drive is usually referred to as "variable
speed". Adjustable and variable speed drives may be purely mechanical,
electromechanical, hydraulic, or electronic.

The primary function of any adjustable speed drive is to control the speed,
torque, acceleration, deceleration and direction of rotation of a machine. Unlike
constant speed systems, the adjustable speed drive permits the selection of an
infinite number of speeds within its operating range.

Most multi-purpose production machines benefit from adjustable speed

control, since frequently their speeds must change to optimize the machine process
or adapt it to various tasks for improved product quality, production speed or safety.
Lathes and other machine tools run small diameter work pieces at high speeds and
large diameter pieces at low speeds to optimize the feed rate into the cutting tool. A
printing press is operated at the speed that produces the best quality product,
which may vary greatly with the weight and coating of paper, and the
characteristics of the inks used. Also, the controlled acceleration provided by an
adjustable speed drive allows the press to accelerate smoothly to prevent breaking
the web of paper. A pump supplying water in a high rise building may run at very
slow speeds at 3 o'clock AM to maintain system pressure, but be called upon at 3
o'clock PM to run at high speeds to provide high flow rates necessitated by water
usage by the inhabitants.

While early types of adjustable speed drives based upon mechanical and
hydraulic principles still remain in limited usage, the overwhelming choice today for
industrial applications is the electrical adjustable speed drive. No other type offers
the combined benefits of high performance, high efficiency, low maintenance,
versatility and moderate initial cost. Electrical adjustable speed drives are offered in
a number of basic types, but the two most versatile for general purpose applications
and therefore the most common, are direct current (DC drives) and adjustable
frequency (AC drives) as manufactured by Fincor Electronics. Electrical adjustable
speed drives typically consist of three principle elements, as outlined below and as
shown by the system block diagram.

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 Figure1: Functional block diagram

1. OPERATOR CONTROL STATION - THE BOSS

Allows the operator to start and stop the drive controller by push buttons or
switches, and set the motor speed by turning a potentiometer to the desired dial
setting. Operator controls may be integrated into the controller or mounted
remotely from the drive controller.

2. DRIVE CONTROLLER – THE BRAINS

The drive controller converts the fixed voltage and frequency of the
alternating current, (AC), plant power source into an adjustable power output to
control the drive motor over a wide speed range. The output is established by the
speed control potentiometer. The controller includes sensing circuits to hold or
regulate the motor at the desired speed with variations in the source voltage and
changes in motor load. The controller also includes protective circuitry and devices
to prevent damage from overloads, power source transients and output power
faults.

3. DRIVE MOTOR - THE MUSCLE

The drive motor translates electrical energy into mechanical motion. The
output is a shaft rotation (RPM), which varies in proportion to the power applied by
the drive controller. The motor shaft is normally coupled to a gear reducer or other
mechanical power transmission device to further reduce the motor speed to a level
useable by the driven machine.

• FIXED SPEED OF ELECTRIC MOTORS

Alternating-current electric motors run at speeds closely determined by the
number of poles in the motor and the frequency of the alternating current supply.
This is unlike the steam engine, which can be made to run over a range of speeds
by adjusting the timing and duration of valves admitting steam to the cylinder.

AC motors can be made with several sets of poles, which can be chosen to
give one of several different speeds (say, 720/1800 RPM for a 60 Hz motor). The
number of different speeds available is limited by the expense of providing multiple
sets of windings. If many different speeds or continuously variable speeds are
required, other methods are required.

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 Direct-current motors allow for changes of speed by adjusting the shunt field
current. Another way of changing speed of a direct current motor is to change the
voltage applied to the armature.

An adjustable speed drive might consist of an electric motor and controller

that is used to adjust the motor's operating speed. The combination of a constant-
speed motor and a step-lessly adjustable mechanical speed-changing device might
also be called an adjustable speed drive. Electronic variable frequency drives are
rapidly making older technology redundant.

• ADJUSTING SPEED AS A MEANS OF CONTROLLING A

PROCESS

The following are process control benefits that might be provided by an

adjustable speed drive:
 Smoother operation
 Acceleration control
 Different operating speed for each process recipe
 Compensate for changing process variables
 Allow slow operation for setup purposes
 Adjust the rate of production
 Allow accurate positioning
 Control torque or tension

• TYPES OF ASD’s
Before electric motors were invented, mechanical speed changers were used
to control the mechanical power provided by water wheels and steam engines.
When electric motors came into use, means of controlling their speed were
developed almost immediately. Today, various types of mechanical drives, hydraulic
drives and electric drives compete with one another in the industrial drives market.

• Mechanical adjustable speed drives

1. Variable pitch drives
Variable pitch drives are pulley and belt drives in which the pitch
diameter of one or both pulleys can be adjusted.
2. Traction drives
Traction drives transmit power through metal rollers running
against mating metal rollers. The input/output speed ratio is adjusted
by moving the rollers to change the diameters of the contact path.
Many different roller shapes and mechanical designs have been used.

• Hydraulic adjustable speed drives

1. Hydrostatic drives:
A hydrostatic drive consists of a hydraulic pump and a hydraulic
motor. Since positive displacement pumps and motors are used, one

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 revolution of the pump or motor corresponds to a set volume of fluid
flow that is determined by the displacement regardless of speed or
torque. Speed is regulated by regulating the fluid flow with a valve or
by changing the displacement of the pump or motor. Many different
design variations have been used. A swash plate drive employs an
axial piston pump and/or motor in which the swash plate angle can be
changed to adjust the displacement and thus adjust the speed.
2. Hydrodynamic drives:
Hydrodynamic drives or fluid couplings use oil to transmit torque
between an impeller on the constant-speed input shaft and a rotor on
the adjustable-speed output shaft. The torque converter in the
automatic transmission of a car is a hydrodynamic drive.
3. Hydro viscous drives:
A hydro viscous drive consists of one or more discs or connected
to the input shaft pressed against a similar disc or discs connected to
the output shaft. Torque is transmitted from the input shaft to the
output shaft through an oil film between the discs. The transmitted
torque is proportional to the pressure exerted by a hydraulic cylinder
that presses the discs together.

• Continuously variable transmission (CVT)

Mechanical and hydraulic adjustable speed drives are usually
called transmissions or continuously variable transmissions when they
are used in vehicles, farm equipment and some other types of
equipment.

• Electric adjustable speed drives

1. DC motor drives:
DC drives are DC motor speed control systems. Since the speed
of a DC motor is directly proportional to armature voltage and inversely
proportional to field current, either armature voltage or field current
can be used to control speed. Several types of DC motors are
described in the electric motor article. The electric motor article also
describes electronic speed controls used with various types of DC
motors.

2. Eddy current drives:

An eddy current drive consists of a fixed speed motor and an
eddy current clutch. The clutch contains a fixed speed rotor and an
adjustable speed rotor separated by a small air gap. A direct current in
a field coil produces a magnetic field that determines the torque
transmitted from the input rotor to the output rotor. The controller
provides closed loop speed regulation by varying clutch current, only
allowing the clutch to transmit enough torque to operate at the desired
speed. Speed feedback is typically provided via an integral AC
tachometer.

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 Eddy current drives are a type of slip controlled drive. Slip
controlled drives are generally less efficient than other types of drives.
The motor develops the torque required by the load and operates at
full speed. The output shaft transmits the same torque to the load, but
turns at a slower speed. Since power is proportional to torque
multiplied by speed, the input power is proportional to motor speed
times operating torque while the output power is output speed times
operating torque. The difference between the motor speed and the
output speed is called the slip speed. Power proportional to the slip
speed times operating torque is dissipated as heat in the clutch.

3. AC motor drives:
AC drives are AC motor speed control systems and are categorized as:
1. Slip controlled drives
Slip controlled drives control the speed of an induction
motor by increasing a motor's slip. This is accomplished by
reducing the voltage applied to the motor or increasing the
resistance of the rotor windings. Because they are generally less
efficient than other types of drives, slip controlled drives have
lost popularity and have recently been used only in special
situations.
2. Adjustable-frequency drives
Adjustable-frequency drives (AFD) control the speed of
either an induction motor or a synchronous motor by adjusting
the frequency of the power supplied to the motor. Adjustable
frequency drives are also known as variable-frequency drives
(VFD).

Figure2: motor characteristics

When changing the frequency of the power supplied to an

AC motor, the ratio of the applied voltage to the applied
frequency (V/Hz) is generally maintained at a constant value
between the minimum and maximum operating frequencies.
Operation at a constant voltage (reduced V/Hz) above a given
frequency provides reduced torque capability and constant
power capability above that frequency. The frequency or speed
at which constant-voltage operation begins is called the base
frequency or speed. Whether the applied voltage is regulated
directly or indirectly the V/Hz tends to follow the general pattern
described for the performance described.
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 • MOST IMPORTANT FIELDS OF APPLICATIONS OF ASD

The most important fields of application are: pumps and fans (in electric
utilities, pulp and paper industry), gas compressors (in petroleum refining and in
natural gas pipe lines), sag mills, ball mills, rod mills and fans smelters (in copper
mining), general manufacturing, agitators in chemical industry, elevators and lifts in
conveying.

• IMPORTANT SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES USED IN FREQUENCY

CONVERTERS REQUIRED IN ASD’s

The most important semiconductor devices in use for frequency converters

are: IGBTs, GTOs, IGCTs, and SGCTs.

IGBT = Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor

GTO = Gate Turn off Thyristor

IGCT = Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor

SGCT = Symmetrical Gate Commutated Thyristor

According to the Korean expert in case of fans and pumps for the general
industry there are a lot of possible solutions: IGBT, GTO and IGCT. In the other cases
only IGBT is practically considered.

• Main limits/merits (technical aspects, cost, reliability-

maintenance, etc) of the present technology devices/frequency
converters.

TABLE.1 LIMITS/PENALTIES

TECH. ASPECTS COSTS RELIAB./MAINTENA

TYPE OF DEVICE
NCE

IGBT Electric noise H H

IGCT Topology design L H

GTO Drive difficulty H M

TABLE.2 MERITS

TYPE OF DEVICE TECH. ASPECTS COSTS RELIAB./MAINTEN

ANCE

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 IGBT High class control H H

IGCT High power/easy H H

driver

GTO High power H M

H= High

M=Medium

L=Low

• IGCT BASED ASD SYSTEM

1. DEVELOPMENT OF POWER ELECTRONICS

The rating of power semiconductor device is important for power system

applications due to the need of high voltage and high power level. Hence, there is a
need for selection of appropriate power converter topology for the medium and high
voltage applications. Figure shows development of power semiconductor from
1980’s to present by representing their highest operating voltage and current.
Power semiconductor devices based on switching operation can be classified as
Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), Gate Turn-off Thyristor (GTO), Insulated
Gate Commutated Turn-off (IGCT), MOS Turn-off (MTO) and MOS Controlled
Thyristor (MCT). In custom power applications, only three types of semiconductor
can be used, namely IGBT, GTO, and GCT. GTO is the most popular device used in
custom power devices, whereas IGCT is emerging due to its lower losses capability
comparing to others.
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 Figure3: Development of power semiconductor devices since 1980

2. APPLICATIONS OF IGCTs

• MVD (Medium Voltage Drives)

• Marine Drives
• Traction
• Co-generation
• Wind Power Converters
• STATCOMs
• DVRs (Dynamic Voltage Restorers)
• VAR SPEED (AC excitation systems)
• BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems)
• SSB (Solid State Breakers)
• DC Traction Line Boosters
• Traction Power Compensators
• Induction Heating

3. APPLICATION CONSIDERATION FOR ASD

Most ASD installations achieve their objectives of improved process control,

energy savings and reduced maintenance. Their proper selection is dependent on
many considerations that are unique to each application.
• Control Options
Each turbo machine type will have a somewhat different relationship of flow
to power for various flow-control devices. Available power savings are
contingent upon the degree of flow reduction. For example, for a fan requiring
a small flow reduction from 100% to 85%, the power saving is nearly identical
for ASD control or variable inlet vanes, which may be much cheaper. At less
than 85% flow, ASD control becomes increasingly more efficient than other
methods.
• Constant Head Systems

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 Not all systems with widely varying flow requirements are good candidates
for ASDs. Many systems require constant pressure over a wide range of flows
or have a minimum head requirement. Even though flow may be substantially
reduced, it may be necessary to keep the turbo machine near full speed to
meet the system’s pressure requirements.
• System Suitability
Knowledge of all points of operation of a system is crucial in establishing
whether there is an appropriate match of turbo machine performance and
variable speeds selected. Operation of a system at unstable speeds may
cause damage to the equipment, the system or possibly both.

• Surge Conditions
Surge is characterized by strong pulsations that can be quite violent and
destructive. For this reason, the surge region of the performance curve is to
be avoided. Systems that have a constant static head may have operating
points in a surge region when operated under speed control.
• Pump Run-Out Conditions
Installation of an ASD on a pumping system frequently involves the
elimination of a throttling valve. When the valve is removed and the pump is
correspondingly slowed down it may see very little system resistance. This
condition is called run-out and is signified by high vibrations, impeller and
seal damage, and piping pulsations.
• Shaft Natural Frequencies
Most turbo machines are designed to operate at a speed that is below the
first natural frequency of the shaft. In certain cases, high-speed turbo
machines are designed to operate between the first and second natural
frequencies. A speed reduction for a machine of this type could result in
operation at the first critical speed. This would result in high vibration levels
and possible failure.
• Bearing Problems
Large fans are frequently built with shafts that use sleeve or journal bearings.
These fans may have very high breakaway torque requirements, particularly
when they have been at rest for an extended period. Selection of the drive
and motor should take into consideration this torque requirement to ensure
that the necessary requirements can be met.

4. POWER ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT

The IGCT is a snubberless gate-controlled turn-off switch which turns off like
an IGBT but conducts like a thyristor with the lowest conduction losses.
GCTs are the only high power semiconductors to be supplied integrated into
their gate-units. The user thus only needs to connect the device to a 28 – 40
V power supply and an optical fiber for on/off control. Because of the
topology in which it is used, the IGCT produces negligible turn-on losses.
This, together with its low conduction losses, enables high frequency
operation formerly unobtainable by high power semiconductors.

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 Figure4: POWER ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT

THE figure above illustrates the power electronic circuit of the adjustable-speed AC
motor drive system, which comprises following parts:

• The input isolation transformer, which is connected to the AC transmission

through the main breaker.
• A conventional diode rectifier in a 24-pulse series arrangement, which can
keep the harmonics of the line side below the IEEE 519-1992 limits.
• Electronic switches (SD1 and SD2), each consisting of two protection IGCTs in
series connection. They are used to disconnect the rectifier from the DC link
immediately in case of inverter failures.
• The common mode circuit to protect the motor against common mode
voltages.
• DC-Link with the di/dt-choke.

• The voltage-sourced inverter, which is based on the three-level, also known

as the Neutral-Point Clamped (NPC) configuration. A total of 24 IGCTs
(5SHX08F4502, 4500V/630A) are employed to build up the inverter. In rated
operation condition, the voltage of the DC link is as high as 10 kV. With short
time over-voltage considered, the value may be even higher. Therefore, two
IGCTs with the rated voltage of 4500V are used in series connection to
function as one switching device.
• The output LC filter, for the purpose of supplying the motor with sinusoidal
voltage
MULTI-LEVEL INVERTERS
• INTRODUCTION
RECENTLY the “multilevel converter” has drawn tremendous interest in the
power industry. The general structure of the multilevel converter is to synthesize a
sinusoidal voltage from several levels of voltages, typically obtained from capacitor
voltage sources. The so-called “multilevel” starts from three levels, A three-level
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converter, also known as a “neutral-clamped” converter, consists of two capacitor
voltages in series and uses the center tap as the neutral. Each phase leg of the
three-level converter has two pairs of switching devices in series. The center of each
device pair is clamped to the neutral through clamping diodes. The waveform
obtained from a three-level converter is a Quasi-square wave output.

The diode-clamp method can be applied to higher level converters. As the

number of levels increases, the synthesized output waveform adds more steps,
producing a staircase wave which approaches the sinusoidal wave with minimum
harmonic distortion. Ultimately, a zero harmonic distortion of the output wave can
be obtained by an infinite number of levels. More levels also mean higher voltages
can be spanned by series devices without device voltage sharing problems.
Unfortunately, the number of the achievable voltage levels is quite limited not only
due to voltage unbalance problems but also due to voltage clamping requirement,
circuit layout, and packaging constraints. To date, hardware implementation has
only been reported up to six levels for a back-to-back intertie application, in which
the voltage unbalance problem has been successfully overcome.

• THE MULTILEVEL CONCEPT

Let us consider a three phase inverter system (figure a) with a dc voltage
source Vdc .Series connected capacitors constitute the energy tank for the inverter,
providing some nodes to which the multilevel inverter can be connected. Each
capacitor has the same voltage E m which is given by
Vdc
Em = ………………. (1)
m −1
In the above equation m denotes the number of levels. The term “level” is
referred to as the number of nodes to which the inverter can be accessible. An m-
level inverter needs (m-1) capacitors.

Figure5: Three phase multi-level power processing system

Output phase voltages can be defined as voltage across output terminals of
the inverter and the ground point denoted by o (as shown in figure a). Moreover the
input node voltages and currents can be referred to as input terminals voltages of
the inverter with reference to the ground point and the corresponding currents from
each node of the capacitors to the inverter, respectively. For example input node
(dc) voltages are I 1 , I 2 etc. (as in figure a). Va , Vb and Vc are the root-mean-
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square (rms) values of the line load voltages. I a , I b and I c are the rms values of
the line load currents.

The figure 2 shows the schematic of a pole in a multilevel inverter where v a

indicates an output phase voltage that can assume any voltage level depending on
the selection of the node (dc) voltage V1 , V2 etc. Thus a pole in a multilevel
inverter can be regarded as a single pole, multiple-throw switch. By connecting the
switch to one node at a time, one can obtain the desired output.

Figure6: Schematic of single pole of multilevel inverter by a switch

The figure 3 below shows the typical output voltage of a five level inverter.
The actual realization of the switches requires bidirectional switching devices for
each node.

Figure7: Typical output voltage of a five-level multilevel inverter

The topological structure of multilevel inverter must (1) have less switching
devices as far as possible, (2) be capable of withstanding very high input voltages
for high power applications, and (3) have lower switching frequency for each
switching device.
• TYPES OF MULTILEVEL INVERTERS

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 Traditional magnetic coupled multipulse converters typically synthesize
the staircase voltage wave by varying transformer turns ratio with
complicated zigzag connections. Problems of the magnetic transformer
coupling method are bulky, heavy, and lossy. The capacitor voltage synthesis
method is thus preferred to the magnetic coupling method. There are three
reported capacitor voltage synthesis-based multilevel converters: 1) diode-
clamp, 2) flying-capacitors, and 3) cascaded-inverters with separated dc
sources.

• DIODE CLAMPED MULTILEVEL INVERTER

An m-level diode-clamp converter typically consists of (m – 1) capacitors on
the dc bus and produce m levels of the phase voltage. Fig. 1 shows a single-phase
full bridge five level diode-clamp converter in which the dc bus consists of four
capacitors c1 , c2 , c3 and c4 . For a dc bus voltage Vdc , the voltage across each
capacitor is Vdc /4, and each device voltage stress will be limited to one capacitor
voltage level, Vdc /4, through clamping diodes.

FIGURE8: diode clamped five-level inverter

To explain how the staircase voltage is synthesized, the negative dc rail, 0, is

considered as the output phase voltage reference point. Using the 5-level converter
shown in Figure as an example, there are five switch combinations to synthesize
five level voltages across a and 0.
1) For voltage level Va 0 =Vdc turn on all upper switches S a1 through S a 4
2) For voltage level Va 0 = 3Vdc / 4 turn on three upper switches S a 2 through S a 4
and one lower switch S a ' 1
3) For voltage level Va 0 = Vdc / 2 turn on two upper switches S a 3 and S a 4 and two
lower switches S a ' 1 and S a ' 2
4) For voltage level Va 0 = Vdc / 4 turn on one upper switch S a 4 and three lower
switches S a ' 1 through S a ' 3
5) For voltage level Va 0 = 0 , turn on all lower half switches S a ' 1 through S a ' 4
Table I lists the voltage levels and their corresponding switch states. State
condition 1 means the switch is on, and 0 means the switch is off. Notice that each
switch is only switched once per cycle. There exist four complimentary switch pairs
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in each phase. The complimentary switch pair is defined such that turning on one of
the pair switches will exclude the other from being turned on. Using phase leg a as
the example, the four complementary pairs are ( S a1 , S a ' 1 ), ( S a 2 , S a ' 2 ), ( S a 3 , S a ' 3
) and ( S a 4 , S a ' 4 ).

TABLE 1: CONVERTER VOLTAGE LEVELS AND THEIR SWITCH STATES

OUTPUT S a1 S a2 S a3 S a4 S a'1 S a' 2 S a' 3 S a' 4
Va 0
Va 0 =Vdc 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
Va 0 = 3Vdc / 4 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
Va 0 = Vdc / 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0
Va 0 = Vdc / 4 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0
Va 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1

Figure 2 shows phase and line voltage waveforms of the example 5-level
converter. The line voltage consists of a positive phase-leg a voltage and a negative
phase-leg b voltage. Each phase voltage tracks one-half of the sinusoidal waves.
The resulting line voltage is a 9-level staircase wave. This implies that an m-level
converter has an m-level output phase voltage and a (2m - 1)-level output line
voltage.

FIGURE9: phase and line voltage waveform of the five-level inverter

• FEATURES OF DIODE CLAMPED MULTILEVEL INVERTER

1. High-Voltage Rating Required for Blocking Diodes
Although each active switching device is only required to block a
voltage level of Vdc / (m - l), the clamping diodes need to have different
voltage ratings for reverse voltage blocking. Using D a ' 1 of Figure 1 as an
example, when all lower devices, S a ' 1 through S a ' 4 are turned on, D a ' 1
needs to block three capacitor voltages, or 3 Vdc /4. Similarly, D a 2 and D a ' 2
need to block 2 Vdc /4, and D a 3 needs to block 3 Vdc /4. Assuming that each
blocking diode voltage rating is the same as the active device voltage rating,
the number of diodes required for each phase will be (m - 1) x (m - 2). This
number represents a quadratic increase in m. When m is sufficiently high, the
number of diodes required will make the system impractical to implement.

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 2. Unequal Device Rating
From Table I, it can be seen that S a1 switch conducts only during
Va 0 =Vdc , while S a 4 switch conducts over the entire cycle except during
Va 0 = 0 . Such an unequal conduction duty requires different current ratings
for switching devices. When the inverter design is to use the average duty for
all devices, the outer switches may be oversized, and the inner switches may
be undersized. If the design is to suit the worst case, then each phase will
have 2 x (m - 2) outer devices oversized. In comparison with the traditional
transformer coupling multi-pulse converters using six-step operation for each
converter, such unequal conduction duty is indeed an advantageous feature
because the six-step operation needs maximum duty in each device and
circulating currents between converters through transformers.

3. Capacitor Voltage Unbalance

In most applications, a power converter needs to transfer real power
from ac to dc (rectifier operation) or dc to ac (inverter operation). When
operating at unity power factor, the charging time for rectifier operation (or
discharging time for inverter operation) for each capacitor is different, such a
capacitor charging profile repeats every half cycle, and the result is
unbalanced capacitor voltages between different levels. The voltage
unbalance problem in a multilevel converter can be solved by several
approaches, such as replacing capacitors by a controlled constant dc voltage
source such as pulse-width modulation (PWM) voltage regulators or batteries.
The use of a controlled dc voltage will result in system complexity and cost
penalties. With the high power nature of utility power systems, the converter
switching frequency must be kept to a minimum to avoid switching losses
and electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems.

• ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A DIODE

CLAMPED MULTILEVEL CONVERTER
THE advantages and disadvantages of a diode-clamp multilevel voltage
source converter are as follows:
ADVANTAGES
• When the number of levels is high enough, harmonic content will be low
enough to avoid the need for filters.
• Efficiency is high because all devices are switched at the fundamental
frequency.
• Reactive power flow can be controlled.
• The control method is simple for a back-to-back intertie

DISADVANTAGES
• Excessive clamping diodes are required when the number of levels is high.
• It is difficult to do real power flow control for the individual converter.

• DESIGN OF SIMULATION SYSTEM

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 The simulation system is based on the well-known MATLAB, which is selected
as the underlying environment because of its various unique advantages: high
programming efficiency, strong numerical algorithm support, convenient Simulink
CAD environment, Power System Blockset (PSB) offering models of many power
electronic devices, elegant graphical user interface, and most of all, it’s open
architecture making it possible to customize, expand and integrate complicated
system model and control scheme to meet special requirements.

Figure10: Hierarchical structure of the simulation system

The hierarchical structure of the simulation system is illustrated in Figure. The

base module is the "Simulink Model" of the ASD system. Upon that is the
"Simulation Control Block", which comprises two parallel components: the "Control
Data", which serves as the container of various data in the simulation, and the
"Control Program", which is a set of routine implementing the simulation predefined
by the "Control Data". The top layer is the Graphic User Interface (GUI), with which
the user can fulfill the whole process of simulation, including creating or editing
control data, starting or stopping simulation and viewing or print simulation results.

• CONCLUSION
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 1. The need for energy savings and introduction of new high power devices
like IGCTs accelerate the broad use of medium and high voltage
adjustable speed drives (ASD) in industrial and traction applications.

2. The use of a Variable Speed Drive for a speed control application usually
offers an energy efficient and environmentally friendly solution. The best
opportunities for energy savings, with subsequent economic savings,
arise through the laws which govern the operation of centrifugal fans and
pumps. Simple and straightforward VSD’s, such as the PWM inverter
drives, are available for applications where the speed control accuracy is
not critical.

3. Computer simulation plays very important roles in research and

development of power electronic devices because of its high
maneuverability, low cost and ability to speed up system implementation.

• REFERENCE

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1. Xiaorong Xie, Qiang Song, Gangui Yan, and Wenhua Liu. Matlab-based
simulation of three-level pwm inverter-fed motor speed control system.
In Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 2003. APEC '03.
Eighteenth Annual IEEE, volume 2, pages 1105-1110 vol.2, 2003.

2. J. Lai and F. Peng, ‘‘Multilevel converters—A new breed of power

converters,’’ IEEE Trans. Industry Applications 32(3), 509–517 (1997).

3. N. Schibli, T. Nguyen, and A. Rufer, ‘‘A three-phase multilevel converter for

high-power induction motors,’’ IEEE Trans. Power Electronics 13(5), 978–
986 (1998).

4. Simulation, Test and Analysis of Three-phase Short-Circuit Braking in IGCT-

based MV Adjustable Speed Drive Systems ; Zhang Haitao; Zhao
Zhengming; Yuan Liqiang; Bai Hua
Page(s): 1437-1441.

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