Comparison of voltage source and current source based Converter in 5MW PMSG wind turbine systems

This paper provides a comparison of power converter loss and thermal description for voltage source and current source type 5MW-class medium voltage topologies of wind turbines. Neutral-point clamped three-level converter is adopted for voltage source type topology while two-level converter is employed for current source type topology considering the popularity in the industry. In order to match the required voltage level of 4160V with the same switching device of IGCT as in voltage source converter, two active switches are connected in series for the case of current source converter. Transient thermal modeling of a four-layer Foster network for heat transfer is done to better estimate the transient junction and case temperature of power semiconductors during various operating conditions in wind turbines. The loss analysis is confirmed through PLECS simulations. The comparison result shows that VSC-based wind turbine system has a higher efficiency than that of CSC under the rated operating conditions.