Evaluation and Design Tools for the Reliability of Wind Power Converter System

Abstract

As a key part in the wind turbine system, the power electronic converter is proven to have high failure rates. At the same time, the failure of the wind power converter is becoming more unacceptable because of the quick growth in capacity, remote locations to reach, and strong impact to the power grid. As a result, the correct assessment of reliable performance for power electronics is a crucial and emerging need; the assessment is essential for design improvement, as well as for the extension of converter lifetime and reduction of energy cost. Unfortunately, there still exists a lack of suitable physic-of-failure based evaluation tools for a reliability assessment in power electronics. In this paper, an advanced tool structure which can acquire various reliability metrics of wind power converter is proposed. The tool is based on failure mechanisms in critical components of the system and mission profiles in wind turbines. Potential methodologies, challenges, and technology trends involved in this tool structure are also discussed. Finally, a simplified version of the tool is demonstrated on a wind power converter based on Double Fed Induction Generator system. With the proposed tool structure, more detailed information of reliability performances in a wind power converter can be obtained before the converter can actually fail in the field and many potential research topics can also be initiated.

Deployment of onshore wind turbine generator topologies: Opportunities and challenges

“…The PMSG, SCIG, and EESG are connected to the electric grid by the FPC, making them completely decoupled from the grid and allowing a wider variable speed operational range, therefore they offer higher AEP when compared with the capability of DFIG of similar power rating utilizing the PC. But, the FPC is less reliable than the PC, it has higher failure rates 10,37 : a drawback for applications in remote and difficult terrains. However, despite the demerit, using multiphase converter technology which intrinsically offers redundancy, the availability of power in the FPC may be enhanced, consequently improving the AEP in the EESG and PMSG topologies with multiphase windings.…”

Prediction and Validation of Wear-Out Reliability Metrics for Power Semiconductor Devices With Mission Profiles in Motor Drive Application

“…One important step of the reliability prediction is to translate the mission profile of converter to the corresponding stress in the interested components, in the case of this paper, the thermal cycles in power semiconductor devices. This step can be done either by direct thermal measurement or monitoring during the operation of converter, or by multidisciplinary modelling of the converter from system level to device level [4]. Due to the limitations for the accessibility of device as well as the flexibility of design improvement, the modelling approach is preferred compared to the monitoring method.…”

Impact of Long-Term Mission Profile Sampling Rate on the Reliability Evaluation of Power Electronics in Photovoltaic Applications

“…1) Power Semiconductor Devices: The current flowing through the devices will be fed into the power loss model [11], where the conduction losses of the transistor/diode are determined based on the conduction voltage (transistor) and forward voltage (diode) characteristics. Similarly, the switching losses are calculated as a function of the switching energy (transistor), and reverse recovery energy (diode) characteristics.…”