Development of MATLAB® simulation platform for three-level PWM inverter-fed motor speed control system

As part of the mission to design a medium-voltage (6 kV) large-capability (1600 kVA) variable-speed drive system, a general simulation platform is developed in the MATLAB environment to be used to verify the feasibility of the practical system and to speed up R&D. The platform is of three layers in configuration. The power electronic circuit and digital controller are represented by the bottom Simulink model, where the 24-pulse rectifier and the IGCT-based three-level voltage source inverter (VSI) are built with models of Power System Block (PSB). The simulation control block, in the middle layer, contains structurized data and flexible routines to accomplish accurate simulation efficiently. The graphical user interface (GUI), as the top layer of the simulation platform, provides an integrated environment for accomplishing data management, system simulation and result analysis. The general process of using the platform is outlined and a simple case study is carried out to verify its effectiveness.