A comparison of low voltage IGBTs vs. medium voltage IGCTs for hydraulic turbine generator applications
- EBARA International Corp., Sparks, NV (United States)
Variable speed hydraulic turbine power generation has become a useful tool in the chemical processing industry. The technology that preceded and led to the use of variable speed hydraulic turbines was Variable Speed Constant Frequency (VSCF) drives for power generation. The current state of the art in the VSCF technology is the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), voltage source, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) drive. A new PWM switch has been created. The new switch is the Integrated Gate-Commutated Thyristor (IGCT), PWM device. The drives produced with this technology are current source therefore the operational voltages of the drives are easily configured for medium voltage range. Medium voltage power makes the new drives desirable because of the size of the generators. A common power range for variable speed Hydraulic Power Generation is 1MW and applications for the chemical processing industry have a trend toward higher powers. For this type generator: if the operational voltage falls below 2300V the size of the generator becomes too large, bulky and expensive. Windings are no longer wires; they become bussbars. The current solution to the voltage problem is to include a transformer in the generator/drive connection.
- Research Organization:
- Illinois Inst. of Tech., Chicago, IL (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 697179
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-990410--PROC.-Vol.2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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