Complete performance test of MV drive with modular multilevel topology for high power oil & gas applications

More than ever Oil & Gas companies are looking for ways to increase their productivity and energy efficiency. To realize these goals electrification of the drive trains is essential. These solutions make use of variable speed drives to control speed and torque of the gas compressors and pumps which leads to a higher degree of process optimization. For loads with power requirements higher than 1 MW, Medium Voltage (MV) drives become the most utilized drive solution. Depending on the output power, several different topologies of MV drives are available on the market. The modular multilevel converter (M2C) topology is the latest topology to enter the high power medium voltage drive market. To ensure that the performance of the whole drive system meets the performance data as specified by the customer, a system tests with a 12 MW motor in a back to back arrangement has been executed. The measurements of the output performance, the start-up behavior and more will be presented.