Publikationen

This paper shows the possibility of using standardized communication system components to shorten the development time of complex power electronics converter control. It can be seen that the combination of MATLAB/Simulink with EtherCAT fieldbus is an excellent alternative to classical microcontroller-based solutions. Investigations were carried out on a modular multilevel converter topology (MMC), which was described in [1]. The elementary demands on the communication and control system, as well as the development process from simulation to implementation, are briefly reported. Finally, the performance of the overall system will be examined and the impacts of discrete signals and propagation delay on the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the output voltage are discussed.

The Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) is a proven topology in HVDC, but it is also a suitable solution for medium voltage applications such as wind turbines. To increase the modularity and the scalability of this topology for medium voltage applications, a real-time communication bus between the submodules and the central control unit is implemented as an efficient way of control. This real-time communication is realized using EtherCAT communication. To verify the advantages of this control strategy a 3-kV 350-kVA demonstrator of a medium voltage MMC topology with EtherCAT communication is constructed and set up. The description and the analysis of this demonstrator with focus on the EtherCAT communication are presented in this paper. The communication path, the synchronization and the control including the modulation method are discussed, investigated and validated within this paper.