Predictive control of a permanent magnet synchronous generator connected to an MMC converter in an oscillating water column based power plant

Abstract

Modular Multilevel Converters (MMC) are traditionally used in high-power applications although their field of application has lately widened to lower powers. In medium and low-power applications such as electric drives, a fast control system is usually required and model-based predictive control approaches (MPC) are highly suitable to obtain superior performance. Unfortunately, although MPC is widely used with two-level three-phase power converters, typically in motor and generator control applications, it has been barely developed for MMC. Recent studies discuss MPC approaches for MMC but they are primarily focused on improving the internal operation of MMC. In contrast, this paper presents an MPC which is designed to control the torque and the magnetic field of a surface permanent magnet synchronous generator (SPMSG) by means of an MMC. The proposed approach features a new and fast method to find the location of the reference voltage vector among the large number of multilevel vectors present in typical MMCs. The performance of the new control system has been demonstrated for an oscillating water column (OWC) based power plant simulation. The control system stands out for its fast response, low THD currents and reasonably low computing time which enables its easy implementation in microcontrollers (MCU).

Two‐stage deadbeat‐based predictive torque control strategy for modular multilevel converter‐fed three‐phase induction motors

“…In Equation (22), α is the weighting factor of the torque control term, which could be tuned in a way that different degrees of importance are allocated to torque control performance compared to the stator flux regulation. The value of the above cost function is calculated for all the three primary admissible voltage vectors, and the one that minimises this cost function is chosen as optimum.…”

“…This is realised by considering the common mode voltage and dynamics of the MMC DC‐side in the corresponding equations of the model. However, the three‐phase induction motor and its exact model have not been considered in these two papers, and to the best of the authors' knowledge only a single paper has been published on the topic of controlling MMC‐fed AC machines with MPC scheme [22]. The synchronous machine that is considered in this work, operates in the generator mode and it is intended to be used in the application of oscillating water column‐based power plant.…”

Fuzzy PID control of permanent magnet synchronous motor electric steering engine by improved beetle antennae search algorithm

“…The development of electric steering engine has experienced the process from brushless DC motor to brushless DC motor, from analog control to digital control, from traditional reduction gear to planetary gear, harmonic gear and other new reduction gears. At present, research on electric steering engine mainly focuses on reducing volume, improving control accuracy and reliability 3 – 5 . In terms of control algorithm, proportional-integral-derivative control is the most commonly used method, which makes the system stable and able to respond quickly by adjusting system error.…”

Analysis of Gaussian fuzzy logic‐sliding model control and flexible AC transmission systems controllers for automatic generation control of hybrid power system under chaotic‐water cycle algorithm approach

“…The power plant has the responsibility to convert above forms of energy to the electrical energy 2 . In most of the conventional power plants, synchronous generator (SG) is the basic machinery equipment to produce electrical energy 3 . The power plants are of the many types and named as per the available input energy 4 .…”

“…2 In most of the conventional power plants, synchronous generator (SG) is the basic machinery equipment to produce electrical energy. 3 The power plants are of the many types and named as per the available input energy. 4 The most popular power plants like thermal power plant, hydro power plant, nuclear power plant, and gas power plant have been installed to produce bulk electrical energy through appropriate energy conversion systems.…”