There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Electric energy security is essential, yet the high cost and limited sources of fossil fuels, in addition to the need to reduce greenhouse gasses emission, have made renewable resources attractive in world energy-based economies. The potential for renewable energy resources is enormous because they can, in principle, exponentially exceed the world׳s energy demand; therefore, these types of resources will have a significant share in the future global energy portfolio, much of which is now concentrating on advancing their pool of renewable energy resources. Accordingly, this paper presents how renewable energy resources are currently being used, scientific developments to improve their use, their future prospects, and their deployment. Additionally, the paper represents the impact of power electronics and smart grid technologies that can enable the proportionate share of renewable energy resources.

Renewable energy resources: Current status, future prospects and their enabling technology

Predictive control is a very wide class of controllers that have found rather recent application in the control of power converters. Research on this topic has been increased in the last years due to the possibilities of today's microprocessors used for the control. This paper presents the application of different predictive control methods to power electronics and drives. A simple classification of the most important types of predictive control is introduced, and each one of them is explained including some application examples. Predictive control presents several advantages that make it suitable for the control of power converters and drives. The different control schemes and applications presented in this paper illustrate the effectiveness and flexibility of predictive control.

Predictive Control in Power Electronics and Drives

This paper addresses to some of the latest contributions on the application of Finite Control Set Model Predictive Control (FCS-MPC) in Power Electronics. In FCS-MPC , the switching states are directly applied to the power converter, without the need of an additional modulation stage. The paper shows how the use of FCS-MPC provides a simple and efficient computational realization for different control objectives in Power Electronics. Some applications of this technology in drives, active filters, power conditioning, distributed generation and renewable energy are covered. Finally, attention is paid to the discussion of new trends in this technology and to the identification of open questions and future research topics.

State of the Art of Finite Control Set Model Predictive Control in Power Electronics

Model predictive control (MPC) is a very attractive solution for controlling power electronic converters. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the latest developments in MPC for power converters and drives, describing the current state of this control strategy and analyzing the new trends and challenges it presents when applied to power electronic systems. The paper revisits the operating principle of MPC and identifies three key elements in the MPC strategies, namely the prediction model, the cost function, and the optimization algorithm. This paper summarizes the most recent research concerning these elements, providing details about the different solutions proposed by the academic and industrial communities.

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Model Predictive Control for Power Converters and Drives: Advances and Trends

This work develops a comprehensive approach to the control of inverter-fed synchronous reluctance machines (SYNCREL), based on the machine's ideal model. From the theory a control simulation is designed. Simulation and experimental results are presented. The effects of saturation and iron losses are briefly considered. >

Control of synchronous reluctance machines

Brushless doubly fed reluctance machines (BDFRMs) are a class of machines that may be controlled using a power converter that has a rating lower than the total power rating of the machine. The attractive properties of these machines have, in the past, been offset by low power density and efficiency when compared to other types of machines. Recent advances have shown that, when well designed, these machines are, in fact, capable of operation at high torque density and efficiency. However, little guidance on how to design these machines is available in the literature. This paper presents analytical approaches to design a BDFRM with desirable qualities and the use of time-stepped finite-element analysis to validate the results of the design process.

Design and Analysis of Brushless Doubly Fed Reluctance Machines

Brushless doubly fed induction machines (BDFIMs) have been extensively researched over because of the possibility of using a partially rated inverter in many applications with limited speed variations. However, the special cage rotor construction and substantial rotor losses is one of the key deficiencies of these machines. A similar and extremely interesting machine, the brushless doubly fed reluctance machine (BDFRM), has been largely ignored in comparison. This was mainly due to the fact that reluctance rotor designs were not capable of generating saliency ratios large enough to make the BDFRM competitive with other machines. However, developments in reluctance rotors, spurred on by research into synchronous reluctance machines, have resulted in high-saliency-ratio cageless rotors that are economical to build. This, together with the promise of higher efficiency and simpler control compared to the BDFIM, means that further investigation of the BDFRM is warranted. This paper presents a comparative theoretical analysis and aspects of practical implementation of the important control strategies and associated machine performance/inverter size tradeoffs for the BDFRM in the light of its most likely applications-large-pump-type adjustable-speed drives and variable-speed constant-frequency wind power generation systems.

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The use of doubly fed reluctance machines for large pumps and wind turbines

The term microgrid is usually reserved for a modest sized, local distributed generation network that will largely operate standalone (i.e., without a grid connection.) The most common power flow control method utilized in a standalone microgrid is a technique known as power-frequency droop. This paper introduces the concept of utilizing an arctan function for the power-frequency droop profile. The use of this arctan function improves the small signal stability of the two-inverter microgrid, provides natural frequency bounding, and is flexible in its application. SABER simulations are performed to obtain the operating points about which the system is linearized for the stability analysis. Experimental results obtained from a dSPACE-controlled, low-voltage, two-inverter hardware system are presented to verify the theoretical and simulation results.

Arctan Power–Frequency Droop for Improved Microgrid Stability

This paper further develops a model predictive control (MPC) scheme which is able to exploit the large number of redundant switching states available in a multilevel H-bridge StatCom (H-StatCom). The new sections of the scheme provide optimized methods to tradeoff the harmonic performance with converter switching losses and capacitor voltage ripple. Varying the pulse placement within the modulation scheme and modifying the heuristic model of the voltage balancing characteristics allows the MPC scheme to achieve superior performance to that of the industry standard phase shifted carrier modulation technique. The effects of capacitor voltage ripple on the lifetime of the capacitors are also investigated. It is shown that the MPC scheme can reduce capacitor voltage ripple and increase capacitor lifetime. Simulation and experimental results are presented that confirm the correct operation of the control and modulation strategies.

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Robert E. Betz

Papers

Control of synchronous reluctance machines

Design and Analysis of Brushless Doubly Fed Reluctance Machines

The use of doubly fed reluctance machines for large pumps and wind turbines

Arctan Power–Frequency Droop for Improved Microgrid Stability

Optimization of Switching Losses and Capacitor Voltage Ripple Using Model Predictive Control of a Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel StatCom