Power converter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10498251-B2
Application number	US-201615769111-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2016
Priority date	Nov 4, 2015
Publication date	Dec 3, 2019
Grant date	Dec 3, 2019

Abstract

Since a power converter including a modular multilevel converter uses a large number of cells each combining a plurality of switching elements and a DC capacitor, there is a problem of conduction loss due to the switching elements. The conduction loss is reduced by connecting a bypass circuit between terminals of each of the cells, controlling to open and close the switching element, and controlling to short-circuit the bypass circuit connected to the cell controlled to output zero voltage.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A power converter comprising:
a modular multilevel converter in which a plurality of cells, each cell having at least one pair of switching elements connected in series and a capacitor connected in parallel to end terminals of the at least one pair of switching elements;
a plurality of bypass circuits respectively corresponding to the plurality of the cells; and
a controller that controls each of the plurality of bypass circuits, wherein the controller controls a bypass circuit based on whether a failure of a cell corresponding to the bypass circuit is detected or not; and wherein
each of the plurality of bypass circuits is connected between terminals of a corresponding cell of the plurality of cells, and
the controller is configured to control the bypass circuit corresponding to a normal cell, in which a failure is not detected, among the plurality of cells, so that the bypass circuit corresponding to the normal cell is opened when the switching element of the nominal cell is in a first state in which voltage of the capacitor of the normal cell is output and the bypass circuit corresponding to the normal cell is closed when the switching element of the normal cell is in a second state in which the voltage of the capacitor of the first cell is not output.

2. The power converter according to claim 1 , wherein
the bypass circuit comprises a switching element and the switching element of the bypass circuit is made of a semiconductor element.

3. The power converter according to claim 1 , wherein
a cell of the plurality of cells operates normally when it has zero voltage output.

4. A power converter comprising:
a modular multilevel converter in which a plurality of cells, each cell having at least one pair of switching elements connected in series and a capacitor connected in parallel to end terminals of the at least one pair of switching elements;
a bypass circuit connected between terminals of each of the plurality of cells; and
a controller configured to control opening and closing of the bypass circuit in synchronization with an open/closed state of the switching element of each of the plurality of cells, wherein
each of the plurality of cells comprises a break circuit different than the components of the cell, and the controller is configured to break the break circuit when the bypass circuit is short-circuited.

5. The power converter according to claim 1 , wherein
the first state includes a positive output state of outputting the voltage of the capacitor as a positive voltage and a negative output state of outputting the voltage of the capacitor as a negative voltage,
the second state includes a zero voltage output state in which a zero voltage is outputted, and wherein
the controller has a first mode for controlling the switching element of the normal cell to the positive voltage output state, a second mode for controlling the switching element of the normal cell to the negative voltage output state, and a third mode for controlling the switching element of the normal cell to the zero voltage output state, and in each of the first mode and the second mode, the bypass circuit corresponding to the normal cell is opened, and in the third mode, the bypass circuit corresponding to the normal cell is closed.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Electric Corp
• Toshiba Mitsubishi Elec Ind

Inventors

• Mori Osamu
• Fujii Toshiyuki
• MUKUNOKI Kaho
• Uda Ryosuke
• Tsuchiya Taichiro
• Matsuda Akihiro
• Taguchi Hisanori

Classifications

• H02M7/17

  arranged for operation in parallel · CPC title

• H02M7/12

  using discharge tubes with control electrode or semiconductor devices with control electrode · CPC title

• H02M1/084

  using a control circuit common to several phases of a multi-phase system · CPC title

• H02M7/219

  in a bridge configuration · CPC title

• H02M7/1557

  with automatic control of the output voltage or current · CPC title