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Different modular technologies are being evaluated in high-voltage direct current (HVdc) substations, medium-voltage dc (MVdc) substations, and/or for renewables integration at higher voltages. This invention is an evaluation platform through power electronics hardware-in-the-loop to evaluate modular technologies. For example, to get energy from photovoltaic arrays and battery energy storage systems, Multiport Autonomous Reconfigurable Solar (MARS) Power Plants use a new technology of integrated modular multilevel converters to convert AC transmission grid and High Voltage DC. Understanding the performance of submodules on which MARS is built is key to their function and reliability. But there is no platform or system to evaluate submodules. As a building block, the reliability of photovoltaics integrated with submodules is crucial for the MARS system. However, building a full-scale MARS system or testing even one converter arm is time-consuming and costly. This technology is necessary to evaluate performance of a MARS power plant.
Description
Multi-port Autonomous Reconfigurable Solar (MARS) Power Plant is a new technology where photovoltaic and energy storage systems are integrated into modular multilevel converters (MMC) between AC transmission grid and High Voltage DC (HVdc). This invention is an evaluation platform for submodules (SMs) required to analyze MARS architecture’s functionality and reliability. By extension, this type of evaluation platform can also be used to evaluate other modular topologies relevant in electric vehicle charger industry, HVdc/MVdc industry, high-voltage integration of renewables (e.g., solar and offshore wind). Currently there are no such platforms. This evaluation capability is provided based on the Power Electronics HIL (PE-HIL). The PE-HIL concept is based on the evaluation of a few power electronic sub-modules as equipment and with the rest of the system being evaluated in a real-time simulation capability. The photovoltaic submodules or energy storage system submodules are identified as the device under the test and can be assessed with the MARS system being evaluated in a real-time simulation capability. Real-time simulation through HIL plays a significant role in the testing of power electronic converters, control devices, design, planning, and operation of HVdc systems. An evaluation capability for components in MARS is required as it provides an avenue to innovate SM architectures or implement state-of-the-art/in-research semiconductor devices and control strategies. However, there is no platform available for real-time HIL based evaluation of submodule components in MARS, until now.
Applications and Industries
- Data centers and high performance computing centers
- Electric vehicle charging companies
- Power grid substation designers and operators
- HVdc or MVdc companies
- Power electronics developers
- Energy storage companies
- Power plant designers and developers
- Solar and wind power generation companies
Benefits
- Saves costs by providing a solution prior to evaluating the complete plant composed of thousands of submodules
- Know if a module works before building it
- Reduces time required to develop
- Help makes better decisions
- Design reliability, control, protection of the module before stacking them into larger system in research or development stage
- Supports design, rapid prototyping, and development of new submodules that can integrate many energy sources
- Enables evaluation of new control architectures
- Allows rapid evaluation of condition of plant
