Design and testing of a 320 MW pulsed power supply

For a 60 Tesla, 100 millisecond long pulse magnet five 64 MW (87.6 MVA) power converter modules have been installed. Each module provides a no-load voltage of 4.18 kV and a full load voltage of 3.20 kV at the rated current of 20 kA. The modules are connected to a 1430 MVA/650 MJ inertial energy storage generator set, which is operated at 21 kV and frequencies between 60 and 42 Hz. They are designed to provide the rated power output for 2 seconds once every hour. Each module consists of two 21 kV/3.1 kV cast coil transformers and two 6-pulse rectifiers connected in parallel without an interphase reactor, forming a 12-pulse converter module. As far as possible standard high power industrial converter components were used, operated closer to their allowable limits. The converters are controlled by three programmable high speed controllers. In this paper the design of the pulsed converters, including control and special considerations for protection schemes with the converters supplying a mutually coupled magnet system, is detailed. Test results of the converters driving an ohmic-inductive load for 2 seconds at 20 kA and 3.2 kV are presented