Seminarium

Title: Functional Modeling of Modular Multilevel Converters

Speaker: Dr. Nicolas Cherix, Imperix SA, Sion, Switzerland

Date and time: Friday 27 March, 15:15 - 17:00

Venue: Seminarierummet, Teknikringen 33

Abstract: The security of supply is becoming an important concern of the energy delivery in 16.7 Hz railway networks. This situation calls for the improvement of the interconnection with the 50 Hz grid and creates a demand for ancillary services, especially with respect to power quality issues. In a first step, this talk develops the case of Switzerland and presents two prospective approaches which have been proposed during recent research projects, making use of the rolling stock and/or power electronics-based substations to address mainly the issue of low system voltage. In a second step, the talk will focus on the second approach, considering Modular Multilevel Converters (MMC) with embedded energy storage as the means to supply the proposed services. In this context, the talk will present an approach to re-think the control design of MMCs, based on a functional modelling formalism and allowing to develop the control in a systematic manner. The outcomes of such an approach will be developed and exemplified with laboratory test results.