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a b s t r a c tIt is anticipated that with the thrust towards use of clean energy resources such as electric vehicles, future distribution grids will face a steep increase in power demand, forcing the utility operators to invest in enhancing the power delivering capacity of the grid infrastructure. It is identified that the critical 5-20 km medium voltage (MV) underground ac distribution cable link, responsible for bulk power delivery to the inner urban city substation, can benefit the most with capacity and efficiency enhancement, if the existing infrastructure is reused and operated under dc. Quantification of the same is offered in this paper by incorporating all influencing factors like voltage regulation, dc voltage rating enhancement, capacitive leakage currents, skin and magnetic proximity effect, thermal proximity effect and load power factor. Results are presented for three different ac and dc system topologies for varying cable lengths and conductor cross-sections. The computed system efficiency is enhanced with use of modular multilevel converters that have lower losses due to lower switching frequency. A justified expectation of 50-60% capacity gains is proved along with a generalized insight on its variations that can be extrapolated for different network parameters and configurations. Conditions for achieving payback time of 5 years or lower due to energy savings are identified, while the socio-economic benefits of avoiding digging and installing new cable infrastructure are highlighted. The technical implications of refurbishing cables designed for ac to operate under dc conditions is discussed in terms of imposed electric fields, thermal profile and lifetime. A novel opportunity of temperature dependent dynamic dc voltage rating to achieve additional capacity and efficiency gains is presented.

015-2781182 † This paper is an extended version of our paper published in Shekhar, A.; Prasanth, V.; Bauer, P.; Bolech, M.Generic methodology for driving range estimation of electric vehicle with on-road charging. Abstract: The economic viability of on-road wireless charging of electric vehicles (EVs) strongly depends on the choice of the inductive power transfer (IPT) system configuration (static or dynamic charging), charging power level and the percentage of road coverage of dynamic charging. In this paper, a case study is carried out to determine the expected investment costs involved in installing the on-road charging infrastructure for an electric bus fleet. Firstly, a generic methodology is described to determine the driving range of any EV (including electric buses) with any gross mass and frontal area. A dynamic power consumption model is developed for the EV, taking into account the rolling friction, acceleration, deceleration, aerodynamic drag, regenerative braking and Li-ion battery behavior. Based on the simulation results, the linear dependence of the battery state of charge (SoC) on the distance traveled is proven. Further, the impact of different IPT system parameters on driving range is incorporated. Economic implications of a combination of different IPT system parameters are explored for achieving the required driving range of 400 km, and the cost optimized solution is presented for the case study of an electric bus fleet. It is shown that the choice of charging power level and road coverage are interrelated in the economic context. The economic viability of reducing the capacity of the on-board battery as a trade-off between higher transport efficiency and larger on-road charging infrastructure is presented. Finally, important considerations, like the number of average running buses, scheduled stoppage time and on-board battery size, that make on-road charging an attractive option are explored. The cost break-up of various system components of the on-road charging scheme is estimated, and the final project cost and parameters are summarized. The specific cost of the wireless on-road charging system is found to be more expensive than the conventional trolley system at this point in time. With decreasing battery costs and a higher number of running buses, a more economically-viable system can be realized.

Parallel ac-dc reconfigurable link technology can find interesting applications in medium voltage power distribution. A given system can operate in different configurations while maintaining equivalent capacity during (n-1) contingencies. It is proved that within the defined operating boundaries, a parallel ac-dc configuration has higher efficiency as compared to pure ac or pure dc power delivery. Using sensitivity analysis, the variations in these efficiency boundaries with power demand, power factor, grid voltages, link lengths, conductor areas and converter efficiency is described. It is shown that parallel ac-dc system can have smaller payback time as compared to a purely dc power transmission for the same capacity due to lower investment cost in converter station and superior efficiency. As compared to a purely ac system, the payback of a refurbished parallel acdc configuration can be less than 5 years for a 10 km, 10 kV distribution link within the specified assumptions and operating conditions.

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An important step in Voltage-Source Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) design is the selection of adequate semiconductor blocking voltage class. This paper highlights that particularly for grid connected medium voltage applications, the choice of suitable switch blocking voltage class is not so straightforward. The market available switch voltage ratings results in a discrete integer relationship for the number of sub-modules (N) with a fixed dc link voltage. This is shown to introduce interesting design trade-offs in consideration to investment costs, required capacitance for reasonable ripple voltage, sub-module redundancy requirements, conduction & switching losses. Using the example of a 10 MVA half bridge MMC connected to a 10 kV grid, it is shown that 1.7 kV and 3.3 kV insulated gate bipolar transitors (IGBTs) can be possible choices as compared to 1.2 kV, 4.5 kV and 6.5 kV blocking voltage.

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A practical issue faced by today's ac grid is the rapidly growing power demand on its aging infrastructure. One possibility to maximize the capacity of the existing infrastructure is to refurbish the ac links to operate under dc conditions using modular multilevel converters. In this paper, the idea is applied to restructure an actual medium voltage distribution system. Further, a systematic reconfiguration strategy is proposed to maintain high power delivery capacity even during (n-1) contingency. Contingency analysis is carried out for faults in different system components of the distribution grid. Towards this goal, novel concepts such as reconfigurable switch, dc link converter bypass and flexible dc to ac operational transition are proposed.