Adaptive Modularity for Power Electronics Based Electrolysis Systems for Green Hydrogen

Electrolysis holds tremendous potential in reducing the carbon footprint and providing energy dense fuels such as methane. Such systems can be integrated with renewable energy systems with the aid of power electronics interfaces. However, this integration is not straight-forward and imposes various converter design challenges. This paper...

Optimal Power Flow Control in Parallel Operating AC and DC Distribution Links

DC links with back to back voltage source converters are usually built alongside the existing medium voltage ac distribution grids for infrastructure reinforcement. The distribution network operators need to run multiple of such parallel ac and dc links between two substations at optimal efficiency. This article shows that the active power...

Restructuring medium voltage distribution grids: Parallel AC-DC reconfigurable links

Energy transition will inevitably lead to greater electrification. For example, it is anticipated that electrical energy demand will rise by at least 2-3 times by 2050 with increasing share of electric vehicles and heat pumps. This will translate to significant increase in power demand on the existing medium voltage distribution grid, resulting...

Boundaries of Operation for Refurbished Parallel AC–DC Reconfigurable Links in Distribution Grids

Hybrid ac–dc reconfigurable link technology can find interesting applications in medium-voltage power distribution. These are networks having dc links operating in parallel alongside ac links with post-fault reconfiguration capability. A given system can operate in different configurations while maintaining equivalent capacity during (n−1)...

Offline Reconfigurability Based Substation Converter Sizing for Hybrid AC-DC Distribution Links

Hybrid ac-dc distribution systems with multiple parallel operating ac and dc links are being developed to maximize system capacity during (n-1) contingencies. This paper shows that offline reconfigurability between such ac and dc links post-fault clearance allows an additional design flexibility of reducing the required substation converter...

AC Distribution Grid Reconfiguration using Flexible DC Link Architecture for Increasing Power Delivery Capacity during (n-1) Contingency

A practical issue faced by today's ac grid is the rapidly growing power demand on its aging infrastructure. One possibility to maximize the capacity of the existing infrastructure is to refurbish the ac links to operate under dc conditions using modular multilevel converters. In this paper, the idea is applied to restructure an actual medium...

Reliability, Efficiency and Cost Trade-offs for Medium Voltage Distribution Network Expansion using Refurbished AC-DC Reconfigurable Links

The role of MVDC links for distribution network expansion is important. The distribution network operators (DNOs) can maximize the power transfer capacity of existing grid infrastructure during (n-1] contingencies using reconfigurable parallel ac-dc architecture. In addition this concept involves a range of efficiency, reliability and...

Reconfigurable DC Links for Restructuring Existing Medium Voltage AC Distribution Grids

While the scientific community recognizes the benefits of DC power transfer, the distribution network operators point out the practical and economic constraints in refurbishing the existing AC network at a medium-voltage level. Some apprehensions like reliability, cost of ownership, and safety in adopting a universal DC distribution may merit...