Method of operating an inverter and inverter control arrangement

• US 8,902,618 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2010
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Innomotics GmbH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Godridge, Paul, Jones, Rodney
• Primary Examiner(s): Berhane, Adolf
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE III, HENRY E
• Application Number:
  US12/938,460
• Publication Number:
  US 20110103110A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,490 Days
• Field of Search: 363/74, 363/95, 363/97, 363/98, 363/131, 363/132, 363/120
• US Class Current: 363/74
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/28 The renewable source being wind energy
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/381 Dispersed generators
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/53875 with analogue control of three-phase output
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/72 Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/76 Power conversion electric or electronic aspects

Abstract

A method of operating an inverter for converting a DC power into AC power by use of a pulse width modulation switching scheme is provided is disclosed. The inverter is controlled by use of the pulse width modulation switching scheme to provide an alternating current based on a current demand signal defining an alternating current provided by the inverter. An upper current threshold and a lower current threshold are provided. An instantaneous value of the alternating current is measured. When the instantaneous value of the alternating current overshoots the upper current threshold or undershoots the lower current threshold, the pulse width modulation switching scheme is replaced by an amended switching scheme which controls the instantaneous value of the alternating current to be between the upper current threshold and the lower current threshold. The upper current threshold and the lower current threshold oscillate with at least one alternating phase.

Claims

1. A method of operating an inverter for converting a DC power into AC power via a pulse width modulation switching scheme, comprising:

controlling the inverter via the pulse width modulation switching scheme to provide an alternating current at least based on a current demand signal defining an alternating current to be provided by the inverter to a power grid;

providing a sinusoidal upper current threshold which must not be overshot by the alternating current;

providing a sinusoidal lower current threshold which must not be undershot by the alternating current; and

measuring the instantaneous value of the alternating current, and

when the instantaneous value of the alternating current overshoots the sinusoidal upper current threshold or undershoots the sinusoidal lower current threshold, the pulse width modulation switching scheme is replaced by an amended switching scheme which controls the instantaneous value of the alternating current to be between the sinusoidal upper current threshold and the sinusoidal lower current threshold,

wherein the sinusoidal upper current threshold and the sinusoidal lower current threshold oscillate with an alternating phase,

wherein the sinusoidal upper current threshold and the sinusoidal lower current threshold are derived from the current demand signal by multiplying the current demand signal by gain factors.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sinusoidal upper current threshold and the sinusoidal lower current threshold are derived from the current demand signal by adding offsets.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the inverter control is performed in time steps at a first rate with the current demand signal being updated every time step and being constant during a time step, and

wherein the sinusoidal upper and lower current thresholds are calculated from the current demand signal every time step and recalculated at least once during a time step by extrapolating an angle of the current demand signal over the time step.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a frequency of the modulation pulses is limited in the amended switching scheme.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein when the instantaneous value of the alternating current overshoots the sinusoidal upper current threshold or undershoots the sinusoidal lower current threshold the pulse width modulation switching scheme is replaced by a sliding mode control scheme.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising returned to the regular pulse width modulation switching scheme if the sinusoidal upper current threshold is not overshot and the sinusoidal lower current threshold is not undershot by the instantaneous value of the at least one alternating current for a given period of time.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

providing an additional threshold below the sinusoidal upper current threshold and an additional threshold above the sinusoidal lower current threshold; and

returning to the regular pulse width modulation scheme if the instantaneous value of the alternating current is between the additional thresholds.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the alternating current is a three phase alternating current,

wherein each of the phase currents is provided a sinusoidal upper current threshold,

wherein each of the phase currents is provided a sinusoidal lower current threshold,

wherein an instantaneous value is measured for each of the phase currents, and

wherein when at least one of the phase currents overshoots the sinusoidal upper current threshold for the at least one of the phase currents or when at least one of the phase currents undershoots the sinusoidal lower current threshold for the at least one of the phase currents, the pulse width modulation switching scheme is replaced by an amended switching scheme which controls the instantaneous value of the at least one of the phase currents to be between the sinusoidal upper current threshold and the sinusoidal lower current threshold of the at least one of the phase currents.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, when the instantaneous value of the alternating current overshoots the sinusoidal upper current threshold or undershoots the sinusoidal lower current threshold, the pulse width modulation switching scheme is replaced by an amended switching scheme comprising switching off at least one power switching device in a phase of the inverter, or by turning on a power switching device that was previously turned off.

9. An inverter control arrangement for controlling conversion of DC power to AC power by an inverter using a pulse width modulation switching scheme, the inverter control arrangement, comprising:

a current controller establishes a voltage demand signal at least based on a current demand signal and includes a current demand signal input which receives the current demand signal and a voltage signal output which outputs the voltage signal;

a pulse width modulation generator includes a voltage signal input connected to the voltage signal output in order to receive the voltage demand signal, and a gate drive command signal calculator establishes gate drive command signals at least based on the voltage demand signal according to a regular pulse width modulation switching scheme for generating an alternating current to be provided by the inverter to a power grid;

a current limiter limits the alternating current, the current limiter comprises a sinusoidal upper current threshold signal input for receiving a sinusoidal upper current threshold signal, a sinusoidal lower current threshold signal input receives a sinusoidal lower current threshold signal, a current feedback signal input receives a current feedback signal from the alternating current, a first comparator compares the current feedback signal with the sinusoidal upper current threshold signal, a second comparator compares the current feedback signal with the sinusoidal lower current threshold signal, the modulation switching scheme is amended when the alternating current overshoots the sinusoidal upper current threshold or undershoots the sinusoidal lower current threshold; and

a threshold calculator calculates, at least based on the current demand signal, an oscillating upper current threshold value and an oscillating lower current threshold value both oscillating in phase with the alternating current and establishes a sinusoidal upper current threshold signal representing the oscillating upper current threshold value and a sinusoidal lower current threshold signal representing the oscillating lower current threshold value, a sinusoidal upper current threshold signal output connected to the sinusoidal upper current threshold signal input of the current limiter, and a sinusoidal lower current threshold signal output connected to the sinusoidal lower current threshold signal input of the current limiter,

wherein the sinusoidal upper current threshold and the sinusoidal lower current threshold are derived from the current demand signal by multiplying the current demand signal by gain factors.

10. The inverter control arrangement as claimed in claim 9, wherein the threshold calculator comprises a first adder for deriving the oscillating upper current threshold value by adding a first value to a current demand signal and a second adder for deriving the oscillating lower current threshold value by adding a second value to a current demand signal.

11. The inverter control arrangement as claimed in claim 9, wherein the threshold calculator comprises a first multiplier for deriving the oscillating upper current threshold value by multiplying a current demand signal by a first gain factor and a second multiplier for deriving the oscillating lower current threshold value by multiplying a current demand signal by a second gain factor.

12. The inverter control arrangement as claimed in claim 9, further comprising a minimum pulse timer and/or a hysteresis comparator.

15. The inverter control arrangement as claimed in claim 9, wherein the inverter comprises a multi-level inverter and when the instantaneous value of the alternating current overshoots the sinusoidal upper current threshold or undershoots the sinusoidal current threshold, the pulse width modulation switching scheme is replaced by an amended switching scheme adapted to switch off at least one power switching device in a phase of the inverter, or turn on a power switching device that was previously turned off.

13. An inverter control arrangement for controlling conversion of DC power to a three phase AC power by an inverter using a pulse width modulation switching scheme,

a current controller establishes a plurality of voltage demand signals at least based on a plurality of current demand signals and includes a plurality current demand signal inputs which receives the plurality of current demand signals and a plurality of voltage signal outputs which outputs the plurality of voltage signals;

a pulse width modulation generator includes a plurality of voltage signal inputs connected to the plurality of voltage signal outputs in order to receive the plurality of voltage demand signals, and a gate drive command signal calculator establishes gate drive command signals at least based on the plurality of voltage demand signals according to a pulse width modulation switching scheme; and

a current limiter limits each of the phase currents of a three phase alternating current to be provided by the inverter to a power grid, the current limiter comprises;

a plurality of current feedback signal inputs receive a plurality of current feedback signals from the phase currents of the three phase alternating current,

a plurality of sinusoidal upper current threshold signal inputs receive a plurality of sinusoidal upper current threshold signals,

a plurality of sinusoidal lower current threshold signal inputs receive a plurality of sinusoidal lower current threshold signals, and

a first and second comparator, for each of the plurality of current feedback signals, the first comparator compares the current feedback signal with an associated sinusoidal upper current threshold signal, the second comparator compares the current feedback signal with an associated sinusoidal lower current threshold signal, the modulation switching scheme is amended when the alternating current overshoots the sinusoidal upper current threshold or undershoots the sinusoidal lower current threshold; and

for each of the phase currents, a threshold calculator calculates, at least based on the current demand signal, an oscillating upper current threshold value and an oscillating lower current threshold value and establishes a sinusoidal upper current threshold signal representing the oscillating upper current threshold value and a sinusoidal lower current threshold signal representing the oscillating lower current threshold value for each of the plurality of phase currents, an upper current threshold signal output connected to the sinusoidal upper current threshold signal input of the current limiter, and a sinusoidal lower current threshold signal output connected to the sinusoidal lower current threshold signal input of the current limiter,

wherein the sinusoidal upper current threshold and the sinusoidal lower current threshold are derived from the current demand signal by multiplying the current demand signal by gain factors.