Computationally-efficient direct model predictive control of power electronic devices

Direct model predictive control (DMPC) of a three-level neutral point clamped back-to-back power converter for wind turbine systems with permanent-magnet synchronous generators (PMSG) [Courtesy of Z. Zhang.]

This project is in collaboration with the Institute for Electrical Drives and Power Electronics (Prof. R. Kennel) and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It aims at making direct model predictive control real-time applicable for power electronic devices.

Project description

During this research project, computationally-efficient direct model predictive control (CE-DMPC) schemes for current/torque and power control of three-level neutral-point (diode) clamped (3L-NPC) back-to-back converters for wind turbine systems with permanent-magnet synchronous generators (PMSG) will be developed, implemented, optimized and validated on a hardware-in-the-loop system (emulating the whole wind turbine system). The developed algorithms will be implemented, tested and compared with convential DMPC on a FPGA/processor-based real-time system to measure and evaluate the computational load. Finally, the CE-DMPC schemes shall be combined with (existing) virtual flux estimation methods to overcome the need of voltage sensors on the grid side.