Power Router for Meshed Systems Based on a Fractionally Rated Back-to-Back Converter

Increasing energy demand and growth of wind generation have significantly increased the stress on the electric grid. The low investment in transmission infrastructure necessitates adoption of methods for efficient use of existing resources. Power converter-based FACTS devices, capable of dynamic power-flow control, have been the preferred solution to maximize utilization of existing infrastructure, but implementation of traditional FACTS solutions at transmission level voltages is complex and cost prohibitive. This paper proposes a power router (PR) for dynamic power-flow control in a meshed network. The proposed PR is realized by augmenting a transformer with a fractionally rated back-to-back converter. The main advantages of the proposed converter are the fractional converter rating and reduced low-frequency transformer requirement compared to the traditional FACTS solutions. This paper outlines the proposed PR topology, control range, controller design and demonstrates the functionality through simulation and experimental results.