Harmonic Modeling of Voltage Source Converters using Basic Numerical Methods

2Power Electronics Basics

“Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man.”

– Thomas Tredgold

Power electronics is the technology of converting electric power from one form to another using electronic power devices. Several types of solid state power semiconductor devices have been developed over the past 60 years, making it possible to build efficient power converters with excellent facility for the control of output parameters, such as voltage, current, or frequency. In a static power converter, the power semiconductor devices function as switches, which operate statically, that is, without moving contacts. The time durations of the turn‐on and turn‐off of these switches are controlled by the controllers to achieve power conversions, voltage and current transformations, power flow regulation, etc. The history of power electronics began with the introduction of the mercury arc rectifier, which was invented by Peter Cooper Hewitt in 1902. Then the metal tank rectifier, grid‐controlled vacuum‐tube rectifier, ignitron, phanotron, and thyratron were introduced gradually. These devices were applied for power control until the 1950s, when the first silicon‐controlled rectifier (SCR) was developed by GE [24]. SCR was referred to by many names; the present‐day name “thyristor” is a portmanteau word of Thyr‐atron and trans‐istor, which was adopted in 1962 [25]. Since the first SCR was developed, there have been tremendous ...