A performance analysis of three potential control network for monitoring and control in Power Electronics converter

A simple and fast internal communication system is highly demanded for future complex Power Electronics (PE) converters such as multilevel converters. To increase the reliability, more data/information will be required for local/internal monitoring and control. Therefore, a high speed control network is essential for the future PE converter system. This paper will first present the basic communication requirements for future advanced control in PE converters. Three potential high speed (100 Mbps) control networks (MACRO, PROFINET IRT, and EtherCAT) are being reviewed and analyzed. Finally, a case study is presented on a 3 phase Modular Multilevel Converter.