A Synchronized Grid Integrated Three-Phase Inverter with a Renewable Source for Power Sharing

In this paper, a three-phase inverter with renewable source input is integrated into a grid in synchronization for power sharing by load. In previous topologies, the DC source connected inverter is not synchronized to the grid which causes harmonics and voltage distortions damaging the load and the source. In order to ensure power sharing by the load from the inverter and the grid, the inverter needs to be operated in synchronization to the grid with the same voltage mag-nitude, frequency and phase as that of the grid voltage. In this paper, the com-plete power from the load is shared by the three-phase grid and the three-phase inverter module reducing the consumption from the conventional grid. This is achieved using the PLL for the reference angular frequency generation with feedback from grid voltage and is connected to the sinusoidal PWM generator. The PLL is used to generate unit vector template reference signals for the signal generator operating the six-switch inverter. The inverter and grid are inter-connected through LC filter for the reduction of harmonics. The power sharing, voltage, and current graphs with THD analysis are analyzed with the help of the MATLAB software.

Synthesis of Nonlinear Control of Switching Topologies of Buck-Boost Converter Using Fuzzy Logic on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)

An intelligent fuzzy logic inference pipeline for the control of a dc-dc buck-boost converter was designed and built using a semi-custom VLSI chip. The fuzzy linguistics describing the switching topologies of the converter was mapped into a look-up table that was synthesized into a set of Boolean equations. A VLSI chip–a field programmable gate array (FPGA) was used to implement the Boolean equations. Features include the size of RAM chip independent of number of rules in the knowledge base, on-chip fuzzification and defuzzification, faster response with speeds over giga fuzzy logic inferences per sec (FLIPS), and an inexpensive VLSI chip. The key application areas are: 1) on-chip integrated controllers;and 2) on-chip co-integration for entire system of sensors, circuits, controllers, and detectors for building complete instrument systems.

Wind-Solar Hybrid Electrical Power Production to Support National Grid: Case Study - Jordan

The paper presents the next generation of power energy systems using solar- and wind-energy systems for the country of Jordan. Presently with the oil prices are on the rise, the cost of electrical power production is very high. The opportunity of a large wind and solar hybrid power production is being explored. Sights are chosen to produce electricity using the wind in the Mountains in Northern Jordan and the sun in the Eastern Desert. It is found that the cost of windmill farm to produce 100 - 150 MW is US$290 million while solar power station to produce 100 MW costs US$560 million. The electrical power costs US$0.02/kWh for the wind power and US$0.077 for the solar power. The feasibility for using wind and solar energies is now when the price oil reaches US$ 100.00 per barrel. The paper also discusses different power electronics circuits and control methods to link the renewable energy to the national grid. This paper also looks at some of the modern power electronics converters and electrical generators, which have improved significantly solar and wind energy technologies.

Static and Dynamic Characterization of High-Speed Silicon Carbide (SiC) Power Transistors

This paper describes the operating characteristics of NPN 4H-SiC (a polytype of silicon carbide) bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and 4H-SiC Darlington Pairs. A large amount of experimental data was collected. The wafer BJTs were able to block over the rated 600 V in the common-emitter configuration and the TO-220 BJTs were able to block over the 1200 V rated voltage. In the thermal analysis, it is found out that at higher temperatures the forward and reverse (blocking) characteristics were stable at 100°C and 200°C. The transistors show positive temperature coefficients of forward voltage (Vf). In general the current gain (β) characteristics obtained (with VCE = 6 V) were approximately as expected for the BJTs. The β‘s were very low (2 to 5 for wafer BJTs, 5 to 20 for the wafer Darlington Pairs, and 5 to 30 for TO-220 BJTs). The large amount of experimental data collected confirms some of the superior properties of the Silicon carbide material when used to fabricate power semiconductor devices, namely high thermal conductivity and high temperature operability. The data presented here will establish the trends and the performance of silicon carbide devices. The silicon carbide BJT has fast switching and recovery characteristics. From the analysis, silicon carbide power devices will be smaller (about 20 times) than a similar silicon power device and with reduced power losses. Silicon carbide will also be very useful for device integration in high densities, as found in integrated chips for current handling capabilities, for applications in instrumentation and measurements. Presently, most of the research is on improving the basic silicon carbide material quality, power device optimization, and applications engineering using devices that have been developed to date.