SPEC - Semiconductor Power Electronics Center
Tuesday November 24, 2009

Utility Power Electronics Research Focus

Energy Storage Systems

  • Transmission UltraCapacitor (TUCAP)

Power Devices

  • 4.5 kV/4 kA class emitter turn-off thyristor

Power converter

  • Modular ETO Based Voltage Source Converter

  • Cascade multilevel converter topolog

  • Novel multi-level current source converters

Control

  • Advanced control for cascade multilevel converter
    STATCOM/TUCAP control for flicker mitigation

System Integration

  • ETO Based Shunt Controller (STATCOM and UPS)
  • ETO Based Series Controller (SSSC and DVR)
  • ETO Based DC and AC Circuit Breaker
  • ETO Based Sub-Cycle Transfer Switch

System demonstration

  • 4.5 MVA ETO STATCOM/TUCAP System
  • 30 MVA ETO/TUCAP System For Flicker Mitigation


1MW Ultracapacitor energy storage system


1.5 MVA Water Cooled ETO Converter


4.5 MVA ETO STATCOM system based on Cascade Multilevel Converter (CMC)


5 kA Solid-State Circuit Breaker

NC State University