Power conversion systems and associated methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10715065-B2
Application number	US-201715835531-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 8, 2017
Priority date	Dec 15, 2016
Publication date	Jul 14, 2020
Grant date	Jul 14, 2020

Abstract

A wind power generation system including a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) of a wind turbine is presented. The DFIG includes a rotor and a stator, a rotor-side conversion unit coupled to the rotor, a direct current (DC) link, and at least one line-side conversion unit coupled to the rotor-side conversion unit via the DC link and coupled to the stator of the DFIG. The at least one line-side conversion unit includes exactly one first converter, high frequency transformers, and second converters, where each of the second converters is coupled to the first converter via a respective high frequency transformer, and inverters, where each of the inverters is coupled to a respective second converter and includes an alternative current (AC) phase terminal.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A wind power generation system comprising:
a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) of a wind turbine, wherein the DFIG comprises a rotor and a stator;
a rotor-side conversion unit coupled to the rotor of the DFIG;
a direct current (DC) link; and
at least one line-side conversion unit coupled to the rotor-side conversion unit via the D link and coupled to the stator of the DFIG, wherein the at least one line-side conversion unit comprises:
exactly one first converter;
high frequency transformers;
second converters, wherein each of the second converters is coupled to the first converter via a respective high frequency transformer of the high frequency transformers;
inverters, wherein each of the inverters is coupled to a respective second converter of the second converters and comprises an alternative current (AC) phase terminal, each of the first converter, second converters, and the inverters comprising semiconductor switches; and
a controller unit configured to synchronize switching of the semiconductor switches of at least one of the first converter, second converters, or the inverters of the at least one line-side conversion unit with respective semiconductor switches of a first converter, second converters, or inverters of another line-side conversion unit.

2. The wind power generation system of claim 1 , wherein the first converter, the second converters, and the inverters comprise semiconductor switches.

3. The wind power generation system of claim 2 , wherein the first converter and the second converters comprise silicon carbide switches and the inverters comprise silicon switches.

4. The wind power generation system of claim 1 , wherein a combination of the first converter and the second converters forms a DC-DC converter stage.

5. The wind power generation system of claim 1 , wherein the second converters of the at least one line-side conversion unit are galvanically isolated from one another.

6. The wind power generation system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the inverters comprise a neutral terminal.

7. A wind power generation system comprising:
a generator of a wind turbine, wherein the generator comprises a rotor and a stator;
a rotor-side conversion unit coupled to the rotor of the generator;
a DC link; and
a plurality of line-side conversion units coupled to each other and coupled to the rotor-side conversion unit via the DC link and coupled to the stator of the generator, wherein each of the plurality of line-side conversion units comprises:
exactly one first converter;
high frequency transformers;
second converters, wherein each of the second converters is coupled to the first converter via a respective high frequency transformer of the high frequency transformers;
inverters, wherein each of the inverters is coupled to a respective second converter of the second converters and comprises an AC phase terminal, wherein each of the first converter, second converters, and the inverters comprises semiconductor switches; and
a controller unit is configured to synchronize switching of the semiconductor switches of at least one of the first converter, second converters, or the inverters of one line-side conversion unit with respective semiconductor switches of the first converter, second converters, or the inverters of another line-side conversion unit of the plurality of line-side conversion units.

8. The wind power generation system of claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of line-side conversion units is a modular unit.

9. The wind power generation system of claim 7 , wherein each inverter of a line-side conversion unit of the plurality of line-side conversion units comprises a neutral terminal.

10. The wind power generation system of claim 7 , wherein first converters of the plurality of line-side conversion units are electrically coupled in parallel to the DC link.

11. The wind power generation system of claim 7 , wherein each of the high frequency transformers comprises a primary winding and a secondary winding, wherein the primary winding of each of the high frequency transformers of each of the plurality of line-side conversion units are coupled in parallel with one another.

12. The wind power generation system of claim 7 , wherein an inverter of the inverters of a line-side conversion unit of the plurality of line-side conversion units is operatively coupled in series with a respective inverter of the inverters of other line-side conversion unit of the plurality of line-side conversion units.

13. The wind power generation system of claim 7 , wherein the generator is a DFIG.

14. The wind power generation system of claim 7 , wherein the rotor comprises a rotor winding and the stator comprises a stator winding, wherein the rotor-side conversion unit is coupled to the rotor winding, and wherein the stator winding and inverters are coupled to a grid.

15. The wind power generation system of claim 7 , wherein the controller unit is further configured to control operation of the rotor-side conversion unit.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Jha Kapil
• Tiwari Arvind Kumar
• Shukla Saurabh
• Ray Olive

Classifications

• H02M5/4585 Primary

  having a rectifier with controlled elements · CPC title

• H02M7/4815

  Resonant converters (H02M7/4811 and H02M7/4826 take precedence) · CPC title

• Y02B70/10

  Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes · CPC title

• H02M5/225

  comprising two stages of AC-AC conversion, e.g. having a high frequency intermediate link · CPC title

• H02M7/49

  Combination of the output voltage waveforms of a plurality of converters · CPC title