MW-rated power electronics for sustainable and low carbon industrial revolution

The paper introduces the very high-capacity, megawatt-rated (MW-rated), power electronics (PE) technology trends for the renewable energy (RE) and for the energy greening in industrial area. The PE is indispensable for energy conversion from the RE to the AC power network. In order to expand RE supply capacity, RE generation facilities are now scaled up above megawatt (MW) range. The paper introduces the power conditioning system (PCS) for photo-voltaic (PV) generation, the back to back (BTB) converter for wind power (WP) and PCS for the battery energy storage system (BESS) developed to catch up such demands. Owing to the recent development of the power semiconductor and control devices, even in the high power range, the conversion efficiency and the operation flexibility have been remarkably improved compared with the old generation. The paper also introduces the high efficiency uninterruptible power systems (UPS) technology contributing to the Green IT facilities. The extra large PE technology rated at several tens of MW is also introduced for the Green Factory.