Control/protection architecture for power electronic converters

Most marine applications, from ships to drilling platforms, are increasingly using power electronics for motor drives and HVDC power conversion for shore to platform transmission. IEEE Working group i8 is well along in developing a standard for control/protection architecture for power electronics converters. In this digital age control/protection technology is advancing rapidly and substantial improvements can be attained through cost effective upgrades. with potential benefits from upgrading and adding new features of control/protection from time to time. Key to this upgrade process would be well defined control partitions which will allow an individual layer to be removed and upgraded without impacting adjacent layers and hardware. This paper describes the IEEE recommended architecture which will ease the technical and financial burden of upgrading a power electronics system.