A Three-Phase PV-Grid-Interfaced SRM Irrigation Pump with a Voltage Balancer Circuit

This paper presents a three-phase grid-integrated switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive solar pump with a voltage balancer circuit. SRMs are known for their fault-tolerant behavior, that they continue to run even during phase fault conditions even for longer period. Even though they can be allowed to run during fault conditions, it creates greater unbalance in the DC link capacitors of the mid-point SRM converter and increases the phase current of the corresponding windings of the faulty phase. The unbalanced voltages across the capacitor due to phase fault may even exceed the designed safety factor of the capacitor. Therefore, this paper focuses on the voltage regulation of the DC link capacitors ensuring stable and balanced voltages even during phase fault conditions. To achieve this, a dual-output voltage balancing circuit is employed to feed the mid-point converter of SRM. Simulation studies are done in MATLAB/Simulink environment and observations are made during both the conditions of with and without employing a voltage balancer circuit and are presented.