Extended Voltage Swell Ride-Through Capability for PWM Voltage-Source Rectifiers

Voltage swells are one of the most harmful disturbances present in industrial power systems, being capable of severely damaging, breaking, or tripping converters. In the case of pulsewidth-modulation voltage-source rectifiers (PWM-VSRs), swells first saturate their control system and then force them into six-pulse operation if no precautions are taken. This paper presents an extended ride-through strategy enabling these converters to deal and cope with swells of up to 1.8 p.u. (IEEE Std. 1159 swell definition). The proposed strategy first fully exploits the dc-link voltage capacity by dynamically entering the overmodulation region, and secondly by drawing inductive current in case the former action does not suffice. Dynamic overmodulation makes possible the straight ride-through of 15% and 42% three-phase and single-phase swells, whereas the modulation index supervisor/control loop drawing inductive current enables the ride-through for greater magnitude disturbances, all the while avoiding saturation of the converter control system. This is realized using decision-making space vector modulation, and a control system built over a nonlinear control law directly obtained from the converter complex state variable model. In this way, linear and decoupled – axes dynamics are attained, ensuring a constant dynamic response throughout the whole operating range. Finally, experimental results from a TMS320C32 digital-signal-processor-based 5-kVA laboratory prototype subjected to typical industry single- and three-phase swells ranging from 5% to 50% are presented. These confirm the predicted performance and feasibility of the proposed voltage swell ride-through strategy for PWM-VSRs.