Five-level back to back E-Type converter for high speed gen-set applications

Nowadays, high-speed turbines for electric power generation represent a good idea for commercial, industrial and military applications, where small size and lightweight, low maintenance, reliability in a wide range of environments and good efficiency are required. However, the main equipment in such power generating units are the electrical generator systems, the AC-DC power electronic converter and the output inverter, when AC output load is unavoidable. Multi-level power electronic topologies have been under research and development for more than one decade and have been found successful in variable-speed drive applications. The new power converter topology, called Five-Level E Type Inverter (5L E-Type Inverter), is presented and analyzed in this paper with reference to the back-to-back configuration with a multi-level rectifier. The thermal models of the IGBTs and diodes have been created taking into account the parameters provided by the manufactures and employing multi-dimensional look-up tables in Plexim/PLECS environment. Simulation results are performed through Matlab/Simulink in order to evaluate efficiency and losses distribution for switches and diodes of the proposed 5L E-Type inverter configuration.