ENGINEERING ARTICLES

Sr# Bi-Polar Junction Transistor (BJT) Metal Oxide Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) 1 It is a Bipolar Device It is majority carrier Device 2 Current control Device Voltage control Device. 3 Output is controlled by controlling base current Output is controlled by controlling gate voltage 4 Negative temperature coefficient Positive temperature coefficient 5 So, paralleling of BJT is difficult. So, paralleling of this device is easy. 6 Dive circuit is complex. It should provide Dive circuit is simple. It should provide 7 constant current (Base current) constant voltage (gate voltage) 8 Losses are low. Losses are higher than BJTs. 9 So used in high power applications. ...

There are several types of the electronic circuitry used within battery chargers for the marine market. FERRO-RESONANT (or CVT) These use a low-frequency MAGNETIC control system, which makes them very HEAVY, very BULKY and is also only available with a poor FLOAT charge characteristic, therefore very SLOW recharging. They can also generate a large magnetic field which can upset other equipment on board. On the plus side, they are CHEAP and RELIABLE due to the low number of components used and they tend to appeal to boat-builders who put the price at the top of their list of priorities.  LINEAR CHARGERS These also use a low-frequency transformer to reduce the input voltage to a lower level but then use transistors to control the current and voltage fed to the battery. This technique can be used for either FLOAT or 3-STAGE chargers but is very IN-EFFICIENT and therefore HOT, HEAVY and BULKY. The biggest drawback is a LIMITED INPUT VOLTAGE range - not ideal for running from a...

Basically, the DSTATCOM system is comprised of three main parts: a Voltage Source Converter (VSC), a set of coupling reactors and a controller. The basic principle of a DSTATCOM installed in a power system is the generation of a controllable ac voltage source by a voltage source inverter (VSI) connected to a dc capacitor (energy storage device). The ac voltage source, in general, appears behind a transformer leakage reactance. The active and reactive power transfer between the power system and the DSTATCOM is caused by the voltage difference across this reactance. The DSTATCOM is connected to the power networks where the voltage-quality problem is a concern. All required voltages and currents are measured and are fed into the controller to be compared with the commands. The controller then performs feedback control and outputs a set of switching signals to drive the main semiconductor switches (IGBT’s, which are used at the distribution level) of the power converter accordingly. Fi...

Switching techniques of pulse width modulation (PWM) have been popular in the area of power electronics and drive systems. PWM is commonly used in applications like motor speed control, converters audio amplifiers etc. PWM is used to adjust voltage applied to the motor. There is no single PWM method which can suite for all applications. As per the advanced technology in solid state power electronic devices and microprocessors, various pulse-width modulation (PWM) techniques have been developed for different industrial applications. For the above reasons, the PWM techniques have been the subject of intensive research since 1970s. The main objective of the PWM is to control the inverter output voltage and to reduce the harmonic content in the output voltage. The pulse width modulation (PWM) techniques are mainly used for voltage control. These techniques are most efficient and they control the drives of the switching devices. The different PWM techniques are Single pulse width modulatio...

Solid-state Controls systems differ from off-line designs in the following ways: 1. Solid-state Controls offers an on-line, double conversion UPS system. Therefore, the client’s critical load is being powered continuously from the inverter. The battery is always being floated by the fully-rated rectifier/charger and is always connected to the inverter input. As result, all components used in the Solid-state Controls design are fully rated to carry 120% of the load on a continuous basis over a 20-year life. 2. Solid-state Controls’ Ferro resonant design has a built in capacity to supply nonlinear (crest factor) loads of up to 3:1 without oversizing. 3. Solid-state Controls’ on-line UPS design is provided with a make-before-break static switch to aid in downstream fault clearing and to protect against possible system failures. 4. Solid-state Controls’ on-line UPS system is a double conversion type, converts AC to DC and then reconverts DC back to AC. It is also insensit...

The following is an outline of some of the major problems associated with off-line (stand by) UPS designs. INPUT FREQUENCY/ VOLTAGE PASS THROUGH The off-line unit is designed to pass through the input line voltage and frequency to the load. (Note: the power passed through is non-conditioned utility power.) While this may be fine for office environments, it is not acceptable for industrial settings with periodic voltage and frequency deviations. Due to the design of off-line systems, some of the deviations will be passed directly to the loads, causing loads to drop and/or loss of data. Off-line UPS suppliers could tighten input parameters so these levels of voltage and frequency are not passed through. However, this would require the systems’ batteries to assume the load more frequently. BATTERY PICKUP If the input voltage and frequency deviate outside of acceptable limits, the systems’ batteries will automatically assume the supply of the charger/inverter. While this m...

The D-STATCOM is basically one of the custom power devices. It is nothing but a STATCOM but used at the Distribution level. The D-STATCOM is a voltage or current source inverter based custom power device connected in shunt with the power system. It is connected near the load at the distribution systems. The key component of the D-STATCOM is a power VSC that is based on high power electronics technologies. Basically, the D-STATCOM system is comprised of three main parts: a VSC, a set of coupling reactors and a controller. The basic principle of a D-STATCOM installed in a power system is the generation of a controllable ac voltage source by a voltage source converter (VSC) connected to a dc capacitor (energy storage device). The ac voltage source, in general, appears behind a transformer leakage reactance. The active and reactive power transfer between the power system and the D-STATCOM is caused by the voltage difference across this reactance. The D-STATCOM is connected in shunt w...

The advantages of using FACTS devices in electrical transmission systems are described below. 1. MORE UTILIZATION OF EXISTING TRANSMISSION SYSTEM In all the countries, the power demand is increasing day by day to transfer the electrical power and controlling the load flow of the transmission system is very necessary this can be achieved by more load centers which can change frequently. Addition of new transmission line is very costly to take the increased load on the system; in that case FACTS devices are much economical to meet the increased load on the same transmission lines. 2. MORE INCREASED TRANSIENT AND DYNAMIC STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM The Long transmission lines are inter-connected with grids to absorb the changing the loading of the transmission line and it is also seen that there should be no line fault creates in the line / transmission system. By doing this the power flow is reduced and transmission line can be trip. By the use of FACTS devices high power t...

The basic Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor scheme was proposed in 1986 by Vithayathil with others as a method of "rapid adjustment of network impedance". A TCSC can be defined as a capacitive reactance compensator which consists of a series capacitor bank shunted by a thyristor-controlled reactor in order to provide a smoothly variable series capacitive reactance. In a practical TCSC implementation, several such basic compensators may be connected in series to obtain the desired voltage rating and operating characteristics. However, the basic idea behind the TCSC scheme is to provide a continuously variable capacitor by means of partially canceling the effective compensating capacitance by the TCR. The basic conceptual TCSC module comprises a series capacitor, C, in parallel with a thyristor controlled reactor. Figure: Structure of TCSC PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION: A TCSC is a series-controlled capacitive reactance that can provide continuous control of power on t...

STATCOM is a Static synchronous generator operated as a shunt-connected static VAR compensator whose capacitive or inductive output current can be controlled independent of the ac system voltage. STATCOM is one of the key FACTS Controllers. A STATCOM is a controlled reactive power source. It provides voltage support by generating or absorbing capacitors banks. It regulates the voltage at its terminals by compensating the amount of reactive power in or out from the power system. When the system voltage is low the STATCOM injects the reactive power to and when the voltage is high it absorbs the reactive power. The reactive power is fed from the Voltage Source Converter (VSC) which is connecting on the secondary side of a coupling transformer as shown in the Figure 1. By varying the magnitude of the output voltage the reactive power exchange can be regulated between the convertor and AC system. STATCOM is such a device in which the modern power electronic converters have been employe...

The shunt component is responsible for mitigating the power quality (PQ) problems caused by the consumer: poor power factor, load harmonic currents, load unbalance, DC offset, etc. The shunt active filter is responsible for power factor correction, compensation of load current harmonics and unbalances. It maintains constant average voltage across the dc storage capacitor C dc . The shunt part of UPQC consists of a VSI connected to the common dc storage capacitor C dc  on the dc side and on the ac side it is connected in parallel with the load through the shunt interface inductors L SH  and a star-connected three-phase shunt coupling auto-transformer T SH . The shunt interface inductors L SH  together with the shunt filter capacitors C SH  are used to filter out the switching frequency harmonics produced by the shunt VSI. T SH  is used for matching the network and VSI voltages. The series component of UPQC is responsible for mitigation of supply side distur...

Figure: A schematic of a bipolar HVDC system identifying main components

1) CONNECTING REMOTE GENERATION Some energy sources, such as hydro and solar power, are often located hundreds or thousands kilometers away from the load centers. HVDC will reliably deliver electricity generated from mountain tops, deserts and seas across vast distances with low losses. 2) INTERCONNECTING GRIDS Connecting AC grids is done for stabilization purposes and to allow energy trading. During some specific circumstances, the connection has to be done using HVDC, for example when the grids have different frequencies or when the connection has to go long distances over water and AC cables cannot be used because of the high losses. 3) CONNECTING OFFSHORE WIND Wind parks are often placed far out at sea, because the wind conditions are more advantageous there. If the distance to the grid on land exceeds a certain stretch, the only possible solution is HVDC - due to the technology’s low losses. 4) POWER FROM SHORE Traditionally, oil and gas p...

Recent developments of FACTS research have led to a new device: the Interline Power Flow Controller (IPFC) . This element consists of two (or more) series voltage source converter-based devices (SSSCs) installed in two (or more) lines and connected at their DC terminals. Thus, in addition to serially compensating the reactive power , each SSSC can provide real power to the common DC link from its own line. The IPFC gives them the possibility to solve the problem of controlling different transmission lines at a determined substation . In fact, the under-utilized lines make available a surplus power which can be used by other lines for real power control. This capability makes it possible to equalize both real and reactive power flow between the lines, to transfer power demand from overloaded to underloaded lines, to compensate against resistive line voltage drops and the corresponding reactive line power, and to increase the effectiveness of a compensating system for dynamic disturbanc...

The FACTS technology is not represented by a single high-power controlling device, but it is a collection of all the controllers, these individually or in coordination with the others give the possibility to fast control one or more of the interdependent parameters that influence the operation of transmission networks. These parameters include e.g. the line series impedance, the nodal voltage amplitude, the nodal voltage angular difference, then the shunt impedance and the line current. The design of the different schemes and configurations of FACTS devices is based on the combination of traditional power system components (such as transformers, reactors, switches, and capacitors) with power electronics elements (such as various types of transistors and Thyristors). The development of FACTS controllers is strictly related to the progress made by the power electronics. Over the last years, the current rating of thyristors has evolved into higher nominal values making power electronics ...