Operating and Loading Conditions of a Three-Level Neutral-Point-Clamped Wind Power Converter Under Various Grid Faults

In order to fulfill the growing demands from the grid side, full-scale power converters are becoming popular in the wind turbine system. The low-voltage ride-through (LVRT) requirements may not only cause control problems but also result in overstressed components for the power converter. However, the thermal loading of the wind power converter under various grid faults is still not yet clarified, particularly at megawatt power level. In this paper, the impacts by three types of grid faults to a three-level neutral-point-clamped (3L-NPC) wind power converter in terms of operating and loading conditions are analytically solved and simulated. It has been found that the operating and loading conditions of the converter under LVRT strongly depend on the types/severity values of grid voltage dips and also the chosen control algorithms. The thermal distribution among the three phases of the converter may be quite uneven, and some devices are much more stressed than the normal operating condition.