Operating method for an inverter and grid fault tolerant inverter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9667170-B2
Application number	US-201314144783-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 31, 2013
Priority date	Jul 4, 2011
Publication date	May 30, 2017
Grant date	May 30, 2017

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a method for operating an inverter that includes at least one bridge assembly that is actuated in a modulated manner for supplying electrical power to an energy supply network. Initially, the inverter is operated by the unipolar actuation of the at least one bridge assembly and the energy supply network is monitored for the presence of a network fault. If a network fault is detected, the inverter is operated at least at intervals by the bipolar actuation of the at least one bridge assembly. The disclosure further relates to a network fault-tolerant inverter which is equipped for carrying out the method.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for operating an inverter having a bootstrap circuit comprising at least one bootstrap capacitor and at least one bridge arrangement that is actuated in a modulated manner for feeding electrical power into a power supply grid, comprising:
operating the inverter by unipolar actuation of the at least one bridge arrangement;
monitoring the power supply grid for the presence of a grid fault; and
at least temporarily operating the inverter by bipolar actuation of the at least one bridge arrangement in a continuous switching manner for sufficiently long times for charging the at least one bootstrap capacitor such that recharging of the bootstrap capacitor is ensured if a grid fault is detected.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the inverter is operated by bipolar actuation of the at least one bridge arrangement for a period of time during which the presence of the grid fault is detected.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the inverter is alternately operated by unipolar and bipolar actuation of the at least one bridge arrangement for a period of time during which the presence of the grid fault is detected.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the unipolar actuation results from a three-level modulation.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the presence of the grid fault is detected as a function of a level of an rms value of a grid voltage of the power supply grid.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein a grid fault is detected as soon as the rms value is below a first threshold voltage.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein a grid fault is detected as long as the rms value is below a second threshold voltage, wherein the second threshold voltage is greater than the first threshold voltage.

8. A grid fault tolerant inverter for feeding electrical power into a power supply grid, comprising:
at least one bridge arrangement with bridge switches;
a bootstrap circuit comprising at least one bootstrap capacitor;
a pulse-width modulation circuit configured to selectively actuate the at least one bridge arrangement in one of a unipolar or bipolar fashion; and
a monitoring device configured to detect grid faults,
wherein the pulse-width modulation circuit is configured to operate the at least one bridge arrangement at least temporarily by bipolar actuation for sufficiently long times for charging the at least one bootstrap capacitor such that recharging of the bootstrap capacitors is ensured in case a grid fault is detected, and to operate the at least one bridge arrangement by unipolar actuation in case no grid fault is detected.

9. The inverter of claim 8 , wherein the pulse-width modulation circuit is configured to switch from a unipolar actuation of the at least one bridge arrangement to a bipolar actuation of the at least one bridge arrangement if an rms value of a grid voltage of the power supply grid is less than a first threshold value.

10. The inverter of claim 9 , wherein the pulse-width modulation circuit is configured to switch from the bipolar actuation back to the unipolar actuation if the rms value of the grid voltage of the power supply grid is greater than a second threshold value, wherein the second threshold value is greater than the first threshold value and a difference between the first and second threshold values represents a changeover hysteresis of the inverter.

11. The inverter of claim 8 , wherein the pulse-width modulation circuit is configured to alternately switch between a unipolar actuation of the at least one bridge arrangement and a bipolar actuation of the at least one bridge arrangement if an rms value of a grid voltage of the power supply grid is less than a first threshold value.

12. An inverter, comprising:
a bridge arrangement configured to operate in a unipolar drive mode or a bipolar drive mode;
a bootstrap circuit comprising at least one bootstrap capacitor;
a grid monitor circuit configured to evaluate a status of a power supply grid at an output of the bridge arrangement and output an evaluation signal based thereon; and
a pulse-width modulation circuit configured to generate mode control signals to the bridge arrangement to dictate one of the unipolar drive mode or the bipolar drive mode for at least a duration of a period of a grid frequency based on the evaluation signal such that the bridge arrangement is operated in bipolar drive mode for sufficiently long times for charging the at least one bootstrap capacitor and recharging of the bootstrap capacitors is ensured if the grid monitor indicates a grid fault.

13. The inverter of claim 12 , wherein the pulse-width modulation circuit is configured to generate mode control signals that dictate the unipolar drive mode upon an initialization of the inverter.

14. The inverter of claim 12 , wherein the evaluation signal comprises an rms value of a grid voltage of the power supply grid.

15. The inverter of claim 14 , wherein the pulse-width modulation circuit is configured to generate control signals that change over the unipolar drive mode to the bipolar drive mode if the rms value of the grid voltage of the power supply grid is less than a first threshold value.

16. The inverter of claim 15 , wherein the pulse-width modulation circuit is further configured to generate control signals that change over the bipolar drive mode back to the unipolar drive mode if the rms value of the grid voltage of the power supply grid is greater than a second threshold value, wherein the second threshold value is greater than the first threshold value.

17. The inverter of claim 16 , wherein a difference between the first and second threshold values represents a changeover hysteresis of the inverter.

18. The inverter of claim 14 , wherein the pulse-width modulation circuit is configured to generate control signals that change over between the unipolar drive mode and an alternating mode including both the unipolar drive mode and the bipolar drive mode if the rms value of the grid voltage of the power supply grid is less than a first threshold value.

19. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the bipolar actuation of the inverter further comprises operating by bipolar actuation for at least a duration of a period of a grid frequency.

Assignees

• Sma Solar Technology Ag

Inventors

• Correa Vasquez Pablo
• Mueller Tobias
• Wolf Henrik

Classifications

• H02M7/5395

  by pulse-width modulation · CPC title

• H02M2007/4835

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H02J3/24

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H02M7/487 Primary

  Neutral point clamped inverters · CPC title

• H02M2001/325

  Electricity · mapped topic