Electric power system interconnection device

• US 6,657,319 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2002
• Issued: 12/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Sanada, Kazunori
• Primary Examiner(s): Toatley, Jr., Gregory J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Polk, Sharon A.
• Application Number:
  US10/152,685
• Publication Number:
  US 20030090155A1
• Time in Patent Office: 558 Days
• Field of Search: 307/43-45, 307/51, 307/52, 307/64, 307/85, 361/2
• US Class Current: 307/45
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/12 Parallel operation of dc generators with converters, e.g. with mercury-arc rectifier
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/38 Arrangements for parallely feeding a single network by two or more generators, converters or transformers
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 9/00 Circuit arrangements for emergency or stand-by power supply, e.g. for emergency lighting
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 9/068 Electronic means for switching from one power supply to another power supply, e.g. to avoid parallel connection

Abstract

In an electric power system interconnection device, a primary power supply is connected to a load via a switch and a secondary power supply is connected to a load side of the load via a power converter to establish coordinated interconnection of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply. When the switch is opened in the event of a failure of the primary power supply, the electric power system interconnection device extinguishes an arc current flowing through the switch, at a high speed, by controlling an output current of the power converter using the load current flowing into the load as an output current command for the power converter so that uninterrupted electric power is supplied to the load.

Claims

1. An electric power system interconnection device for providing uninterrupted electric power to a load by establishing coordinated interconnection of a primary power supply and a secondary power supply, in which the primary power supply is connected to the load via a switch and the secondary power supply is connected to a load side of the switch via a power converter, said electric power system interconnection device comprising:

an interrupt control circuit which outputs an interrupt control signal for opening the switch upon detecting an abnormal voltage fed from the primary power supply;

a switch current interrupter for accelerating interruption of a current flowing through the switch by controlling an output current of the power converter with an output current command using the interrupt control signal as an input; and

a constant voltage controller for maintaining a constant voltage applied to the load by controlling the power converter to output the constant voltage upon detecting the interruption of the current flowing through the switch.

2. The electric power system interconnection device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said switch current interrupter for accelerating interruption of the current flowing through the switch detects a load current flowing into the load and uses the load current detected as the output current command for the power converter.

3. The electric power system interconnection device as claimed in claim 2, wherein said switch current interrupter for accelerating interruption of the current flowing through the switch adds an AC current command to the output current command for the power converter when the primary power supply is a DC power supply, said switch current interrupter for accelerating interruption of the current flowing through the switch adding the AC current command to produce an AC current having a frequency higher than that of the current flowing through the switch to the output current command for the power converter when the primary power supply is an AC power supply.

4. The electric power system interconnection device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said switch current interrupter for accelerating interruption of the current flowing through the switch detects a load current flowing into the load and the current flowing through the switch, adds the load current and the current flowing through the switch, to produce a sum and uses the sum as the output current command for the power converter.

5. The electric power system interconnection device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising:

a phase difference detector for detecting a phase difference between phase of a voltage fed from the primary power supply and phase of a voltage applied to the load; and

a phase synchronization controller for correcting the output current command for the power converter so that phase of the output voltage of the power converter synchronizes with the phase of the voltage fed from the primary power supply wherein, if the voltage fed from the primary power supply is normal when the switch is open, the output voltage of the power converter is controlled by the output current command corrected by the phase synchronization controller, and, when the phase difference detector detects that the phase difference has become no larger than a specified value, the switch is closed and the output current command for the power converter is switched to a current command for normal operating conditions of the primary power supply.

6. An electric power system interconnection device for providing uninterrupted electric power to a load by establishing coordinated interconnection of a primary power supply and a secondary power supply, in which the primary power supply is connected to the load via a switch and the secondary power supply is connected to a load side of the switch via a power converter, said electric power system interconnection device comprising:

an interrupt control circuit which outputs an interrupt control signal for opening the switch upon detecting an abnormal voltage fed from the primary power supply; and

a constant voltage controller for maintaining a constant voltage to be applied to the load by controllably operating the power converter with an output current command calculated so that an output voltage of the power converter becomes the constant voltage, using the interrupt control signal as an input, and the power converter feeds a current flowing in a reverse direction to the switch to interrupt current flowing through the switch.

7. The electric power system interconnection device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the output current command used for controlling the power converter to output the constant voltage is obtained by detecting a load current flowing into the load and adding the load current to a current command calculated from deviation of the output voltage of the power converter from a voltage command for the power converter.

8. The electric power system interconnection device as claimed in claim 6, in the output current command used for controlling the power converter to output the constant voltage is obtained by detecting a load current flowing into the load and the current flowing through the switch and adding the load current and the current flowing through the switch to a current command calculated from deviation of the output voltage of the power converter from a voltage command for the power converter.