Study of overcurrent protection for modular multilevel converter

Author

Grinberg, R. ; Bjornstad, E. ; Steimer, Peter ; Korn, A. ; Winkelnkemper, M. ; Gerardi, D. ; Senturk, Osman ; Apeldoorn, O. ; Li, Jie

Author_Institution

ABB Corp. Res., ABB Switzerland Ltd., Baden-Dättwil, Switzerland

fYear

2014

fDate

14-18 Sept. 2014

Firstpage

3401

Lastpage

3407

Abstract

In this paper, protection of modular multilevel converter with half-bridge cells against overcurrent faults, which cannot be cleared by the converter, is investigated. Converter design with cell redundancy and a coupled branch reactor is considered. Special consideration is given to a separation of protection and permanent bypass functionality. Critical overcurrent protection design aspects are shown and supported by experimental data. Impact of reactor inductance mismatch in the branches on overcurrent protection design is investigated. This work was carried out within the frame of European FP7 program and its support is gratefully acknowledged.

Keywords

overcurrent protection; power convertors; redundancy; European FP7 program; cell redundancy; coupled branch reactor; half-bridge cells; modular multilevel converter; overcurrent protection; permanent bypass functionality; reactor inductance mismatch; Circuit faults; Inductors; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Semiconductor diodes; Short-circuit currents; Thyristors; Topology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 2014 IEEE

Conference_Location

Pittsburgh, PA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ECCE.2014.6953862

Filename

6953862