Installation and Control of Cycloconverter

to Low Frequency AC Power Cable Transmission

Ryosuke Nakagawa*, Tsuyoshi Funaki* and Kenji Matsuura*
Osaka Univ. *
Yamada-oka 2-1, Suita, Osaka
565-0871 Japan
Phone: +81-6-6879-7691, Fax: $81-6-6879-7724
E-Mail: [Link]

Abstract factor at input side.

The bulk and long distance power transmission However, it is difficult to apply the non-circulating
with power cable is impossible an utility ac frequency. current mode cycloconverter to the LFAC system[4].
T h e authors proposed the Low Frequency AC (LFAC) This is due to the output current of cycloconverters
cable transmission to meet with that requirement. present discontinuous current conduction, because of
A cycloconverter can be applied to convert f r o m the capacitive characteristics in the cable transmis-
utility ac frequency to low frequency for L F A C sion line.
system. However, the output of the cycloconverter This paper proposes the novel cycloconverter con-
presents discontinuous current conduction because of trol system, which enables stable operation of non-
the capacitive characteristics of the cable transmission circulating mode cycloconverter to the capacitive
line. This paper proposes the novel cycloconverter output circuit, and proposes the three-phase output
control system, which enables stable operation of balancing control. The power flow control of the
the non-circulating current control to the capacitive LFAC system by the cycloconverter is also confirmed
output circuit, and proposes the three-phase output through the computer simulations. This paper shows
balancing control. T h e power flow control of the the possibility of applying cycloconverters to the
L F A C system by the cycloconverter is also confirmed LFAC system.
through computer simulations.
2 The Operate Unit Switching of Cy-
Key words: low frequency, cycloconverter, XLPE cloconverter
cable, power flow control
2.1 Its Necessity
1 Introduction The 6-pulse non-circulating mode cycloconverter
Recently, it becomes hard to establish new over-
studied in this paper is shown in Figure 2. It
is cosisted from a positive current unit and a
head transmission lines for many reasons. This
problem shows a marked tendency at the arban negative current unit to AC. According to output
area where a large amount of electric power is con- current polarity, the operating unit must be switched
sumed. Therefore, the under ground power cable adequately. When current polarity is positive, the
transmission will be adopted more in the future. positive unit is chosen, and when negative, the
negative unit is chosen.
The authors propose Low Frequency AC (LFAC)
system which removes defects of utility AC frequency In this paper, we call to produce reference for
switching the operating unit "the operate unit
AC and DC transmission system[l]. The schematic
of the LFAC transmission system is shown in Figure switching control".
1. LFAC power cable transmission realizes long The output of a cycloconverter presents discon-
distance bulk power transmission with XLPE cable. tinuous current condition because of the capacitive
The LFAC can reduce charging current of AC cable characteristics in the cable transmission line. And
and can neutralize the accumulated space electric the hunting of operation occurs around current
charge[2] in XLPE which has been the difficulty zero-point, when the reference according to polarity
of DC cable transmission with XLPE cable. In of output current is used for selecting the active
order to convert from utility AC frequency to low
frequency, cycloconverters or self-commutating con-
verters which have back-to-back (BTB) configuration cable transmissionline
can be applied.
It has the advantage of conversion loss, since
cycloconverter changes utility AC frequency into AC 50(60) Hz LFAC thereunderSO(60) Hz AC 50(60) Hz
low frequency directly. Therefore cycloconverter is
suitable for LFAC system.
The cycloconverter operation can be categorized in
circulating current type and non-circulating current Figure 1. Configureuration of LFAC system
type. The non-circulating current type is applicable
because of high conversion efficiency and high power

0-7803-7156-9/02/$10.000 2002 IEEE - 1417 - PCC-Osaka 2002

 Positive group unit Negative group unit Cycloconverter

VL
Low frequency ou1put

--_--_---------
__________ __________ Reference production part

(a) fundamental current detection

Figure 2. 6-pulse non-circulating current mode
cycloconverter
-Voltage -Current Cycloconverter

output
current

-500 1 ______-__-__-_---_---~
Referenceproduction part

Figure 3. Hunting of output voltage and current at (b) positive-phase current detection
zero current point

unit. For this reason, the operate unit switching is

necessary for stable operation of a cycloconverter.
The output voltage and current in accordance with 3utput
the polarity of output current t o a capacitive circuit is current
shown in Figure 3. The hunting of operation occurs
around the current zero cross point. Here, when
fi is input side frequency and pi is pulse number,
the theoretical harmonics component of pifi disturbs
current zero-cross. This way induces positive and
(c) Three-phase balancing current detection
negative unit simultaneous operation, and may flows
huge disastrous short-circuit current in the worst
case. It is essential to apply the adequate operate 1 7 1 :polarity determination
unit switching control of cycloconverter to capacitive
circuit.
Figure 4. The block diagram of the active unit
2.2 The Method of The Adequate Operate selection
Unit Control
Here, we show the method of preferable operating Henceforth, the operate unit switching control by
unit switch for stable operation of cycloconverter to the current component polarity mentioned above
a capacitive circuit. will be called the fundamental current control, the
By selecting a unit of cycloconverter based on a positive-phase sequence current control, and the
output current which does not contain a harmonics current balancing control, respectively.
component, stable operation of cycloconverters is
attained to a capacitive circuit. In this paper, we 2.2.1 The Fundamental Component Control
propose control three methods of the operate unit The block diagram of the fundamental furequency
swiching as shown below. current control is shown in Figure 4(a). The
second order BPF (Band Pass Filter) is applied to
use the fundamental component of output extract the fundamental component (ia, ib, ic) from
current the output current. The reference calculating block
e use the positive-phase sequence component of is consisted from BPF and polarity detected part.
output fundamental current The transfer function H ( s ) of BPF for detecting
fundamental component is shown in eq. (1).
use the artificial balancing current
In this section, the method of calculating these
current reference is explained in detail.

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 -Amplitude ....... .. Phase 2.2.3 The Current Balancing control
0 90
-15 60 The block diagram of the current balancing control
a_ -30 30 is shown in Figure 4(c). In this control method,
8 output current is followed with the balancing current
.-3 -45 O F
-60 -30 1 reference, and the current phase of a cycloconverter
-75 -60 - output can be controlled from the starting point and
kept three-phase balanced.
-90 -90
0.1 1 10 100 1000 In general, output current phases are fixed by the
Frequency [HZ1 load power factor and so cannot be controlled. In
this method, we put the two sets of cycloconverter
output terminal face to face. By fixing the power
Figure 5. The bode diagram of second order BPF factor of the one side of cycloconverter, we can set
the current phase of the other side of cycloconverter.
In this method, we need only the balancing current
where, wo = 2nfo phases. When we fixed the amplitude of current
The second order BPF reduces effectively the pCfi reference at 1, we can calculate the balancing current
order component which is the largest harmonics reference(iar,f, i b r e f , as eq. (4).
component in the studied system. There are no

i +
variation of phase and amplitude a t the tuned iaref(t) = s i n ( ~ o t 'P)
frequency.
In this paper, fo = 1[Hz], Q f = 2 is used. The
ibref(t) +
= sin(w0t - $n 'p) (4)
bode diagram of second order BPF applying this i C r e f ( t= + +
) sin(w0t $n 'p)

parameter can be obtained as Figure 5. At lHz, where, 'p: the phase difference between output
the amplitude is O[dB] and the phase lag is O[deg]. voltage and current
Hence fundamental component of output current can
be extracted exactly, furthermore the attenuation Power factor is determined by phase difference
coefficient (-55dB) can be obtained at 300Hz. between the voltage and current references.

2.2.2 The Positive-phase Sequence Current 3 Studied LFAC System Model

Control
The studied schematic diagram of LFAC system
The block diagram of the positive-phase sequence circuit which adopt 6-pulse non-circulating current
current control is shown in Figure 4 (b). In this con- mode cycloconverter is shown in Figure 6.
trol method, reference for the operate unit switching A transformer is required a t input side of a
is obtained from the polarity of positive-phase se- cycloconverter for the purpose of insulation and
quence current of output current. By setting voltage adjustment. And it is necessary to take into
positive-phase sequence component which is balanc- account the influence of the leakage reactance in this
ing component of output current, it becomes possible transformer.
to transfer from unbalanced to balanced. The low frequency side equivalent circuit of LFAC
According to method of symmetrical coordinates, system is shown in Figure 7. r s , and L, are leakage
the positive-phase sequence component of the respec- resistance and inductance respectively. L and C are
tive phase current (ila, i l b , ilc) is calculated from inductance and capacitance in the cable transmission
eq. (2) with vector rotation a and the fundamental line. Since resistance of the cable transmission line is
component of output current (ia, i b , ic). small enough, it is disregarded.
ila(t) = i {ia(t) aib(t) + a2 ic(t)} In the usual AC power transmission, power flow
P and Q are calculated in eq. (5) from following
ilb(t) = f {ib(t) + a i c ( t )+ a2 i a ( t ) } (2) parameters, voltage amplitude V,, V, at sending and

{ ilc(t)

where, a = e J g r
5
= {ic(t)
.2
+ a i a ( t ) f a2
Here it becomes possible to simplify the calculation
ib(t)} receiving end, voltage phase difference 6 of sending
and receiving end, line inductance X, when 6 is too
small.

by calculating only the real part of eq. (2). And only

the polarity of output current is required for operate (5)
unit switching, then the imaginary part calculation
is not necessary. At Figure 7, leakage inductance of transformer is
In eq. (2), term of time parameter ( t ) with a is too large compared with line inductance. Therefore,
put into (t - G)
and with a2 is put into (t - $). In the output voltage drop which occur commutating
reactance is almost based on L,, and actually,
this way, eq. (3) which is the real part of eq. (2) is
obtained. the phase difference between the output voltage at
sending and receiving end does not change, when
ila(t) = 3 { i a ( t ) fi b ( t - y)+ ic(t - $)} its phase difference command is large. For this
ilb(t) = 4 { i b ( t ) + ic(t - 9)+ i a ( t - z)} (3) reason, it is difficult to control of P by direct control
of the voltage phase difference 6 of sending and
ilc(t) = 5 {ic(t) + ia(t- $) + i b ( t - $)}
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Utility grid Sending end Recieving end frequency of the LFAC system is set t o 1Hz.
The three-phase cycloconverter which is used three
single-phase cycloconverters is shown in Figure 2.
Their output connected in A. This connection is
effective for 3nth order harmonic suppression. ( n is
positive integer)
This cable treated as a lumped pi circuit is
to L = 0.5mH. C = 40pF. This is equivalent
to 2000mm2 conductor size and 52" insulating
thickness of XLPE cable.
If a transformer is applied to the low frequency
side, this size beconies large and the efficiency
becomes low. Therefore, install a transformer to the
utility AC frequency side. The leakage reactance and
resistance of the transformer are 0.2pu and [Link]
, ! I 1 1 1 respectively.
To the simulation tool, Electromagnetic Transients
Converter msfonner Three-phase cycloconverter Cable transmissionline Program (EMTP) is used, and computation time
interval is 50psec.

Figure 6. Circuit of LFAC system 4.2 Power Flow Control by Applying The
Active Unit Control
Sending end Receiving end
In this section, we show the response of the power
L , LS r,
flow control about the method of three active unit
selection controls. Reference of the active power is
lpu.
In this paper, instantaneous real power p and
I , imaginary power q is used as power flow quantity.
Cable transmission line p is instantaneous power, and q is instantaneous
reactive power which circulates phase to phase.
4.2.1 The Fundamental Current Control
Figure 7. Equivalent circuit of LFAC system
The response of LFAC model which is applying
the fundamental current control is shown in Figure
receiving end in LFAC cable power transmission 9. Figure 9(a) is output voltage and current, (b) is
using cycloconverters. current waveform after second order BPF processing,
and (c) is p , q at sending end. In steady state, q is
4 Power Flow Control Simulation average value 1.6pu, and is small as compared with
commercial frequency of 50Hz ( 6 . 3 ~ ~By
) . operating
The simulation model of the proposed LFAC in low frequency, the effect of the charging current
system is shown in this chapter. And power flow reduction to the cable capacitance appears.
control simulation results which adopted the operate The active unit selection can make possible stable
unit switching control is shown. operation of cycloconverters and the output with the
4.1 Simulation Model balancing currents in a steady state. However, for
transient period (0-3 [sec]), the output current is
As the simulation model of Figure 6, operating unbalanced. In this control method, it is quite likely
voltage is 500kV, and the capacity is set to 1000 that the output currents get out of unbalanced state.
MW(1pu). The length of transmission line is set to
100km. This length cannot be transmitted rated the 4.2.2 The Positive-phase Sequence Current
active power in utility AC frequency. Transmission Control
The response of LFAC model by applying the
positive-phase sequence current control is shown in
Figure 10. The unbalanced state period is improved
to 0-1.5 [sec], when this control method compares
with the fundamental current control. And the
stabilization from beginning is enabled.
where, KO, &:the output voltage of fundamental 4.2.3 The current balancing control
component, I c l , Ic2:charging current, I:the
circulation current of cycloconverters Figure 8 is the simplified equivalent circuit of
Figure 6. In order to simplify a model more, cable
inductance is disregarded, since it is sufficient small.
Figure 8. Simplified circuit of Figure 7

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 -v ............ i
750
500
250
y o
15-250
-500
-750

(a) Phase voltage and current (a) Phase voltage and current

L
(b) Phase current after filtering (b) Phasc current after filtering

2500 I -P 2500 - ............

-
9
2000
1500
A
1000
500
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 -0 1 2 3 4 5
I [sec] r [sec]
(c) p , q at sending end (c) p, q at sending end

Figure 9. fundamental current Figure 10. positive-sequence sequence current

The reactive power Q generated from cable capac- Power factor of cycloconverters are settled t o 0. -
itance is determined by frequency f and voltage V 0.992, 0.992 by current balancing control, which is
in low frequency side. Therefore, it becomes possible given an indication of its output voltage phase. We
t o control transmission power by changing output can see from Figure 12 that the active power response
power factor of cycloconverters. of cycloconverter is conformed to its reference quickly.
The reactive power Q in low frequency side is This is because the current balancing control is
expressed as eq. ( 6 ) . feedforward control. The current balancing control
is a excellent control method for power flow control
which required fast response.
Q = 2rfClV2 (6)
where, f [Hz]: transmission frequency, C [F/km]: 5 Conclusions
cable capacitance, 1 [km]: cable length, V [VI: line t o
line voltage In this paper, we have applied cycloconverters
In this model, Q is 125.6[MVar] a t rated voltage to LFAC cable transmission system. And we have
500kV from eq. ( 6 ) , and power factor is 0.992(lead) proposed three method of the operate unit switching
in low frequency side at rated operation. Power flow controls which are called the fundamental current
control becomes possible by controlling power factor control, the positive-phase sequence current control,
with the current balancing control. and the current balancing control, respectively. The
method of calculating these current reference has
The response of LFAC model by applying the been explained in detail. The operate unit switch-
current balancing control is shown in Figure 11. ing makes stable operation of cycloconverters in
Figure l l ( b ) is current waveform after second order capacitive circuit.
BPF processing, which is to compare with the
above-mentioned control current waveforms. By The simulation model of the proposed LFAC
current balancing control, the output currents keep system have been shown. And power flow control
three-phase balancing from the starting point. simulation results which adopted the operate unit
Next, the step change of active power command is switching control have been shown. By applying
the current balancing control t o the operate unit
given at t = 0.5 [sec] from 0 .+ -1pu and t = 1[sec] switching control, we acquire ability t o achieve stable
from -1 * lpu. This simulation result is shown in and quick responce at power flow control.
Figure 12.
The unsettled problem remains about large har-

- 1421 -
 2 750

250 1 - 500
250
- 0 0 y 2 -2500
k -250 -500
(a) line to line voltage
J -3
(a) Phase voltage and current
0.8 1.o 1.2
-1000 (b) current of phase u [secl

-2 t (b) Phase current after filtering

L
(c) current of phase b
t [sec]

1500r -P 4
-
4
d
1000
500
0
-500
-1000
(d) current of phase c

>W
E o
-1oooL -500
-1000
(c) p. q at sending end
-1500 L
(e) sending end p
1500

Figure 11. balance current 1000 E

500
z o
-500
monics component. From now on, to put in filters -1000
will be needed to solve this issue. -1500 k- (f) sending end q

References
Figure 12. Simulation results to power flow change
Tsuyoshi Funaki, Kenji Matsuura Proposition
of a Novel Low Frequency AC Power Cable
Transmission System, 1.E.E Japan B, V01.120
N0.8/9 pp.1077-1083, 2000.
[Link] et. al. :"New Direct Observation Tech-
nique for Electric Charge Behavior in Insulating
Materials and Its Application to Power Ca-
bles" ,Proc. CIGRE, 15-303(1998)
Hirohumi Akagi, Yoshihira Kanazawa, Koetsu
Fujita, Akira Nabae, Theory of Instantaneous
Reactive Power and its Application, 1.E.E Japan
B, Vo1.103 No.7 pp.483-490, 1983.
Ryosuke Nakagawa, Tsuyoshi Funaki, Kenji
Matsuura, Installation and Control of Cyclo-
converter to Low Frequency A C Power Cable
Transmission, 1.E.E Japan, Proceedings of the
2001 Japan Industry Applications Society Con-
ference Vol.1 pp.423-428, 2001.

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