Redundant control systems, methods, and devices for parallel inverter installations

• US 9,054,553 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2012
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ABB Schweiz AG (ABB Limited)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Colombi, Silvio, Giuntini, Lorenzo, Delmu, Andrea, Saporiti, Ivan
• Primary Examiner(s): Barnie, Rexford
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHIAO, DAVID A
• Application Number:
  US13/351,195
• Publication Number:
  US 20130181528A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 9/062 for AC powered loads

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices are provided for redundant control of parallel inverter installations. In one example, a parallel uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system may include several inverter feed paths and several UPS controllers. The inverter feed paths may supply double-conversion power to a load. The UPS controllers may be communicatively coupled to one another via at least two redundant data busses. The UPS controllers may operate in conjunction with one another to control the plurality of feed paths.

Claims

1. A parallel uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system comprising:

a plurality of inverter feed paths to supply double-conversion power to a load; and

a plurality of UPS controllers communicatively coupled to one another via at least two redundant data busses, wherein each of the plurality of UPS controllers is configured to operate in conjunction with one another to control the plurality of feed paths by communicating with one another via the redundant data busses using respective communication circuitry of each of the plurality of UPS controllers, wherein the communication circuitry comprises a hardware programmable logic device or an application-specific integrated circuit, or both, configured to use an arbitration scheme based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access Bit Arbitration (CSMA-BA) over a communication scheme based on time division multiple access (TDMA) to select a first master controller from among the plurality of UPS controllers, wherein the first master controller is configured to control the other of the plurality of UPS controllers, and wherein, when the selected first master controller loses communication with the other of the plurality of UPS controllers, the communication circuitry of the other of the plurality of UPS controllers is configured to use the arbitration scheme to select a second master controller from among the other of the plurality of UPS controllers, wherein the second master controller is configured to control remaining controllers of the other of the plurality of UPS controllers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of UPS controllers is configured to control a respective one of the plurality of inverter feed paths.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of UPS controllers is configured to use a different timeslot in the communication scheme based on TDMA and wherein an additional timeslot in the communication scheme based on TDMA is configured to be used for the arbitration scheme based on CSMA-BA.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of UPS controllers is configured to receive electrical measurements associated with at least one of the plurality of inverter feed paths and wherein each of the plurality of UPS controllers other than the first master controller is configured to provide the electrical measurements to the first master controller.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein first master controller is configured to command the other of the plurality of UPS controllers to control inverter modules associated with respective ones of the plurality of inverter feed paths to be switched on-line or switched to stand-by.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication circuitry is configured to determine when one of the at least two redundant data busses has failed and to communicate using a remaining functional one of the at least two redundant data busses.

7. The system of claim 1, comprising at least one bypass feed path controlled by at least one of the plurality of UPS controllers.

8. An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) controller comprising:

communication circuitry configured to communicate with other UPS controllers in a parallel UPS system via at least two redundant communication busses, wherein the communication circuitry comprises hardware logic in a programmable logic device or an application-specific integrated circuit, or both, configured to identify when one of the redundant data busses has failed and to communicate using the remaining one of the two redundant data busses that has not failed, and configured to use an arbitration scheme based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access Bit Arbitration (CSMA-BA) over a communication scheme based on time division multiple access (TDMA) to select a master controller from among the controller and the other UPS controllers in the parallel UPS system that are in communication with the controller, and wherein, when the selected master controller loses communication with the communication circuitry, the communication circuitry is configured to use the arbitration scheme to select a different master controller from among the controller and the UPS controllers that remain in communication with the controller; and

data processing circuitry configured to control at least one of a plurality of double-conversion feed paths of the parallel UPS system based at least in part on data received from the other UPS controllers in the parallel UPS system.

9. The controller of claim 8, wherein the communication circuitry is configured to communicate with the other controllers via the at least two redundant data busses according to the scheme based on time division multiple access (TDMA), wherein the controller and the other controllers are each assigned a respective timeslot.

10. The controller of claim 9, wherein at least one timeslot of the TDMA scheme is used for the arbitration scheme based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access Bit Arbitration (CSMA-BA).

11. The controller of claim 8, wherein the data processing circuitry is configured to determine whether the controller itself or one of the other controllers in the parallel UPS system is a master controller over all of the controllers in the parallel UPS system.

12. The controller of claim 11, wherein the communication circuitry is configured, when the controller is determined not to be the master controller, to transmit an indication of electrical measurements associated with the at least one of the plurality of the double-conversion feed paths to the master controller.

13. The controller of claim 11, wherein the communication circuitry is configured, when the controller is determined not to be the master controller, to receive from the master controller a control signal providing instructions to the controller to control the at least one of the plurality of double-conversion feed paths.

14. The controller of claim 11, wherein the communication circuitry is configured, when the controller is determined to be the master controller, to receive from the other controllers indications of electrical measurements associated with all but the at least one of the plurality of double-conversion feed paths.

15. The controller of claim 14, wherein the data processing circuitry is configured, when the controller is determined to be the master controller, to implement adaptive capacity control and to issue control signals instructing the other controllers to control feed paths of the plurality of double-conversion feed paths other than the at least one feed path.

16. An article of manufacture comprising:

one or more non-transitory, tangible, machine-readable media at least collectively comprising machine-executable instructions configured to run on an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) controller in a parallel UPS system and in communication with other UPS controllers in the parallel UPS system, the instructions comprising;

instructions to receive first electrical measurements associated with at least one of a plurality of inverter feed paths of the parallel UPS system;

instructions to determine whether the controller itself or one of the other controllers is a master controller over all of the controllers in the parallel UPS system using an arbitration scheme based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access Bit Arbitration (CSMA-BA) over a communication scheme based on time division multiple access (TDMA) to select the master controller from among the controller and the other UPS controllers in the parallel UPS system that are in communication with the controller, and wherein, when the selected master controller loses communication with the communication circuitry, the communication circuitry is configured to use the arbitration scheme to select a different master controller from among the controller and the UPS controllers that remain in communication with the controller;

instructions to, when the controller is determined to be the master controller, receive from the other controllers indications of other electrical measurements associated with all but the at least one of the plurality of inverter feed paths; and

instructions to, when the controller is determined to be the master controller, control the at least one of the plurality of inverter feed paths based at least in part on the first electrical measurements and the other electrical measurements.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, comprising instructions to, when the controller is determined not to be the master controller, transmit an indication of the first electrical measurements to the master controller and receive from the master controller a control signal providing instructions to the controller to control the at least one of the plurality of double-conversion feed paths based at least in part on the first electrical measurements.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 16, comprising instructions to, when the controller is determined not to be the master controller, determine whether the controller itself or one of the other controllers in the parallel UPS system should serve as a new master controller when the controller is unable to communicate with the master controller.