DC voltage control and stability analysis of PWM-voltage-type reversible rectifiers

A PWM voltage rectifier has useful characteristics on its DC and AC sides. On its DC side, a DC-link unidirectional voltage is obtained and bidirectional power transfer capability is possible by reversing the flow direction of the DC-link current. On its AC side, near sinusoidal current waveforms and AC four-quadrant operation can be obtained, leading to high-quality power being exchanged between the power converter and the mains. The use of AC filters becomes unnecessary. The rectifier DC voltage must be regulated to a constant value. In this paper, three solutions for the DC voltage control are presented. In the first solution, the DC voltage is controlled by acting upon the quadrature component of the power converter fundamental Park's voltages with relation to the mains voltages. Slow responses are necessary because of stability reasons. Also, load power variations produce both active and reactive power variations in the power converter AC side. To improve the DC voltage response, a second control solution is presented. The power converter currents in Park's coordinates must be controlled. The DC voltage is controlled by controlling the direct Park's current component and, thus, acting only on the active power of the converter AC side. Faster responses are achieved. In this case, load power variations do not produce reactive power variations in the converter AC side. The third control solution is a simplified version of this last one. Experimental results from a 2 kVA IGBT-based prototype showing good system dynamic performance are presented.