High voltage modular arbitrary waveform generator for testing power components to increase reliability of an inverter rich flexible power grid

Project description

The HV devices installed in the power system is currently experiencing more intensive electric field stresses owing to the fast rise of power-electronic based converters to connect the distributed renewable generation systems to the power grid. Thus, the HV devices (i.e. transformers, circuit breakers, disconnectors) have to endure higher dV/dt stress because of the existence of sharp transients, ripples and harmonics induced by the power-electronic based components (i.e. MOSFETs and IGBTs), which influences the HV devices lifetime through the acceleration of their insulation system degradation.

It is commonly known that the elimination of transients, ripples and ringings is quite complicated because of the presence of the unavoidable stray capacitance and inductance on the power switches and their auxiliary circuits. The aforementioned stray parameters rapidly charge or discharge owing to the solid-state switching and high-frequency circulating current harmonics and then generate the oscillations and spikes. The most effective solution is to increase the (insulation) quality of the HV devices. Before their installation in power system, these HV devices should be tested under the HV and HF field strength which is similar to that in real grid. Thus, a reliable HV arbitrary waveform generator (HV-AWG) that is feasible to generate the required field strength signals is needed.

Supervisor:
Dr.ir. Mohamad Ghaffarian Niasar: M.GhaffarianNiasar@tudelft.nl 

Promotors:
Prof. Ir. Peter Vaessen: P.T.M.Vaessen@tudelft.nl 
Prof. Dr. Ir. Pavol Bauer: P.Bauer@tudelft.nl