Three phase unity power factor (UPF) rectifier for wind power applications

• Main Author: Ramkumar, Selvaraj
• Other Authors: Ali Iftekhar Maswood
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/70986
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Technology advancement has reached its peak. Everything we use now is heavily dependent on electricity. As the population is also increasing, it puts a greater demand in producing electricity. The dependent on nature source such as fossil fuel will not last for very long. Thus, the need for tapping into renewable resources becomes necessary. One the renewable energy discussed in this report is Wind turbine. Wind energy is used a source. The wind energy is converted into electrical energy with the help of generators. There are different types of generators are being used. One of the main problem in the wind turbine generation is that the speed of the wind varies. Due to that, we are unable to get a constant power to tap into the grid. Therefore, variable speed generator is discussed in this report. The use of variable speed generator requires the use of power electronics such as power converters. Mainly on the conversion of AC to DC. Normally bridge type rectifiers are used to convert the ac to dc. However, it results in injection of unwanted current harmonics at the input side. Thus, the power factor is reduced. Reduced power factor means less active power will be generated. The efficiency drops. There are standards imposed by IEEE 519 1992 which recommends the limit of harmonic to be present in the rectifier circuit. This will result in a greater advantage. This project is based on implementation of a hardware of a rectifier circuit named Vienna rectifier. It is a 3 phase, UPF rectifier which improves the power quality. This rectifier’s input current is very close to sinusoidal with reduced input ripple current and UPF operation. In this work, the necessary hardware for the 3 phase UPF rectifier has been developed, assembled and tested for power level of 1kW. Hysteresis Current Control strategy has been proposed for the control of the rectifier’s bidirectional switches. The operation is validated on the MatLab simulation and hardware setup. Overall the project work involves the building of the three phase UPF rectifier setup with HCC current control strategy.