High Performance Control of AC Drives with Matlab / Simulink Models

1.3 Challenges and Requirements for Electric Drives for Industrial Applications

Industrial automation requires precisely controlled electric drive systems. The challenges and requirements for electric drive systems depend upon the specific applications being used. Among different classes of electric drives, medium voltage drives (0.2–40 MW at the voltage level of 2.3–13.8 kV) are more popular for use in industry, such as in the oil and gas sector, rolling and milling operations, production and process plants, petrochemical industry, cement industry, metal industry, marine drive, and traction drive. However, only 3% of the existing medium voltage (MV) motors are variable-speed drives, with the rest of these running at a fixed speed [45]. The installation of properly speed controlled MV drives will significantly reduce losses and total drive costs, as well as improve power quality in any industrial set-up. There are several challenges associated with the controlled MV drives that are related to the line/source side (e.g. power quality, resonance, and power factor), motor side (e.g. dv/dt, torsional vibration, and traveling wave reflections), and power semiconductor switching devices (e.g. switching losses and voltage and current handling capability). The power rectifier at the source side produces distorted currents at the source, in addition to poor power factors, thus posing a challenge to the designer of the controlled electric drive system. The Pulse Width Modulation of inverter ...