A Case Study of Power Electronics in Wind Energy

Conversion
Ruizhu Wu1, Jose A Ortiz-Gonzalez1, Olayiwola Alatise1*
1
School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
*[email protected]

Keywords: Silicon Carbide MOSFETs, IGBTs, Wind Energy System

Abstract
This study presents the performance review of power electronic devices in wind energy conversion systems. The case study is
a 3-level Neutral-Point-Clamped (NPC) Voltage Source Converter in a back-to-back configuration used in a wind energy
conversion system with fully rated converters. Three case studies have been investigated namely (i) a full silicon system
comprised of 1.2kV silicon IGBT/PiN diodes (ii) a hybrid system comprised of 1.2 kV Si IGBT/SiC Schottky diodes and (iii) a
full SiC system comprising of 1.2kV SiC MOSFETs and Schottky diodes. Switching and conduction loss measurements have
been performed on the devices using laboratory test rigs and the results have been input into a simulation of the wind turbine
back-to-back NPC system. The full electrothermal simulations represent an accurate emulation of the system since the losses
used are experimentally measured at different currents and temperatures, hence, mission profiles with different power levels
corresponding to different wind speeds can be simulated accurately. A 700 kW 3-level NPC converter is simulated with the
devices PWM controlled at a switching frequency of 1.5 kHz. The results show that SiC devices have higher losses under heavy
loading (high wind speeds) and perform better under light loading conditions.

1 Introduction NPC converter used in a wind energy conversion system. A

simulation model was created to emulate the operating
SiC power devices are increasingly commercially available conditions of the converter, namely switching frequency of
with more device manufacturers releasing discrete devices as 1.5 kHz, case temperature of 100°C and a DC link with a
well as power modules with increasing higher voltage and maximum bus voltage of 1.1 kV, under different wind speed
current ratings. Within the 650V to 1.2kV voltage class, SiC situations. The model is fully electrothermal and based on
devices have often been presented as alternatives to silicon experimental results. Section 2 presents the experimental
bipolar devices. Due to the smaller parasitic capacitances measurements of conduction and switching losses for the
(Miller capacitance, output and input capacitances), SiC different devices. Section 3 introduces the electrothermal
devices are capable of significantly higher switching rates and simulation method and how the experimental measurements of
reduced switching losses. The shorter delay times means that device losses are used with the control system and thermal
they can be used at higher switching frequencies with shorter models to determine junction temperatures. Section 4
deadtimes. This all translates into more compact energy discusses the results while section 5 concludes the paper.
conversion systems that operate at higher switching
frequencies [1]. This is an advantage in applications like motor 2 Experimental Measurements of Switching
drive systems where high-power density is needed and high Losses
switching frequencies are desirable. Studies have been carried
out showing that the benefits of using SiC devices for electric The transistors evaluated in this paper are, at 100 °C, a
vehicle motor drive inverters [2, 3]. However, in other 1.2kV/22A SiC Trench MOSFET from ROHM with datasheet
applications like wind energy conversion systems using 3- reference SCT3080KL and a 1.2kV/25A Silicon IGBT from
level converters, where switching frequencies are not as high, Infineon with datasheet reference IKW25T120. The diodes
the advantages of SiC is not as clear. Studies on 2-level back- under test are a 1.2kV/21.4A SiC Schottky diode with
to-back converter for wind energy show that the SiC can datasheet reference C4D10120A and a co-packaged 1.2kV
improve the system’s efficiency [4, 5] but the story can be very silicon PiN diode of the IGBT DuoPack with datasheet
different for 3-level converters. reference IKW25T120. Three combinations are considered
namely a full SiC MOSFET/SBD solution, an IGBT/SBD
Different 650 V SiC and Si devices were studied in [6], hybrid solution and a full silicon IGBT/PiN diode solution.
focusing on switching energies, body diode performance and The switching energies have been measured for these three
reliability. However, in [6] the performance of the devices in combinations. The classic double pulse test circuit is used to
the application was not evaluated. The study presented in this extract the turn-ON and turn-OFF switching energies as
paper evaluates the performance of the latest generation 1.2 kV presented in [6].
SiC MOSFETs and Schottky diodes benchmarking them
against new generation silicon IGBTs/PIN diodes. The Fig. 1(a) shows the picture of the test rig while Fig. 1(b) shows
performance of these devices was evaluated using a 700 kW the circuit diagram. Fig. 2(a) shows the turn-ON current

Authorized licensed use limited to: Teesside University. Downloaded on May 03,2024 at 13:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
transients for the 3 combinations while Fig. 2(b) shows the The measured switching energies are shown in Fig. 3(a) for
turn-OFF voltage transients. turn-ON and Fig. 3(b) for turn-OFF for different gate
resistances. The SiC/SBD combination is clearly the best
The high dI/dt and dV/dt of the SiC MOSFET is evident. The performing at turn-ON and turn-OFF followed by the
current overshoot in the turn-ON transient of the IGBT/PiN IGBT/SBD combination and lastly, the IGBT/PiN
combination in Fig. 2(a) is due to the reverse recovery of the combination. Fig. 4 shows the switching energies measured
PiN diode since turn-ON of the IGBT corresponds to turn-OFF with 33Ω gate resistance at different temperatures where it can
of the diode from which it commutates current. Here the be seen that the SiC/SBD combination is the best performing
advantage of the SiC SBD is evident since the IGBT/SBD over a wide temperature range. The advantage of the SiC SBD
combination does not show any current overshoot. SiC SBDs over the PiN diodes is clear only during IGBT turn-ON since
do not have stored charge and hence, do not exhibit reverse the turn-OFF energies of the IGBTs is independent of the
recovery. diode used.

(a)
(a)

(b)
Fig. 1 (a) Experimental test rig for measuring switching loss,
(b) Circuit diagram of switching circuit (b)
Fig. 3(a) Measurements of turn-ON Energy (b) Measurements
of turn-OFF Energy at different RG.

(a)
(a)

(b) (b)
Fig. 2(a) Measurements of turn-ON current (b) Measurements Fig. 4 (a) Measurements of turn-ON Energy (b) Measurements
of turn-OFF voltage of turn-OFF Energy at different temperatures

Authorized licensed use limited to: Teesside University. Downloaded on May 03,2024 at 13:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
3 System and Electrothermal Network Table 1 Device Data
Modelling
SiC IGBT/PIN SBD
The 700kW wind system is modelled using Matlab/Simulink
as shown in Fig. 5. Two three-phase three-level NPC voltage Datasheet SCT3080K IKW25T1 C4D101
source converters, connected back to back sharing a common Reference L 20 20A
DC link, are used as the interface between the wind turbine Voltage Rating
(WT) and grid which is a common configuration for WTs 1200 1200 1200
(V)
using permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs). Current Rating at
Associated controllers and electrothermal model are also 22 25 21.4
Tcase=100°C (A)
briefly demonstrated in this section. On-resistance at 108(VGS=1
N/A N/A
100°C (mΩ) 8V)
The number of parallel devices required for implementing Number of
each switching cell in the converter has been calculated 38 33 39
devices in parallel
according to rated current stated on the datasheet as shown in
Table 1. It is important to find out the correct current rating at
a defined case temperature, especially for Si devices which are Electrothermal model is built for estimating the power loss and
temperature sensitive. If the current rating at the selected case device junction temperature. Look-up tables, with device
temperature is not given, interpolation can be used to make current and junction temperature as inputs and power loss as
estimation [2]. output, are generated using datasheet (for conduction loss) and
experimental results (for switching loss). Power loss calculator
In the simulation, simplifications are made to the PMSM as the are built to ensure that each loss is calculated at the correct
focus of this paper is on the converter. The PMSM is moment. As shown in Fig. 6 (a), the block diagrams for the
represented by controlled voltage source which establishes transistor conduction and turn-ON loss calculations are
given voltage and frequency that are obtained from a wind demonstrated as examples where the current direction and gate
turbine model profile. The WT side converter is controlled to signals are used as logical condition to help locate each type
extract desired power from the controlled voltage source. of loss [2]. The thermal networks (Cauer or Foster) are built
Meanwhile, the grid side converter is controlled to maintain for each device using manufacturers’ data or deduced from the
the DC link voltage. Because of the law of conservation of transient thermal impedance characteristics in the datasheets.
energy, the electric power fed into the grid should be almost as The input of the thermal networks is the power loss and the
the same as that generated by the wind turbine. By this mean, output is the junction-to-case temperature which is then fed
the operating condition of the converters is simulated. back into the power loss calculator as one of the inputs.

Fig.5 Schematic diagram of the whole system in simulation

Authorized licensed use limited to: Teesside University. Downloaded on May 03,2024 at 13:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Tj Because the WT side converter works as a rectifier, the current
2-D v Pcon
i mostly flows through the diodes. For “WTout”, there is almost
i(>0) LUT no current flowing through the transistor; and for “WTin”,
current flows through the transistor but the conducting time is
>0
1(if >0) less than diode. On the other hand, the grid side converter
works as an inverter with unity power factor where current
Gate almost only flows through the transistor. For “Gout”, the
pulse Turn-on pulse
Ts Tj transistor conducts almost all the current and switches at 1.5
2-D Eon Pon kHz; for “Gin”, it is constantly ON for the first half cycle
i i(>0) 1/Ts
LUT therefore no switching loss will be generated.
isamp
>0
1(if >0)
Fig. 6 Power loss calculator for calculating conduction loss
and turn-ON loss [2]

It is important to mention that the diode of the inner switch, i.e.

“WTin”, should have no reverse recovery loss even if it is a
PIN diode. As shown in Fig. 7, this is because the voltage
across the diode is always zero when the diode is switching
current, namely a “soft-switching”.

(a)

Fig. 7 The voltage, current and amplified gate signal of “WTin”

when the diode is switching.

The output power of the wind turbine is greatly affected by the

wind condition. The electric power parameters of the wind
turbine at the wind speed of 12 meter per second (mps), which
is the peak power condition, are as following: rms line voltage (b)
710 V, rms phase current 600 A, fundamental frequency 12 Hz Fig. 8 (a) Currents flowing through the outer and inner switch
and power factor 0.9. The parameters at a medium wind speed at WT side; (b) current flowing through the outer and inner
of 9 mps are: rms line voltage 710 V, rms phase current 385 A, switch at grid side.
fundamental frequency 11 Hz and power factor 0.93. For a low
wind speed of only 6 mps, the parameters are: rms line voltage 4 Results
470 V, rms phase current 164 A, fundamental frequency
7.3 Hz and power factor 0.98. The simulation results of the converters under the wind speeds
of 12, 9 and 6 mps when using different technologies are
These three wind speeds are used for analysis in this study. The shown in this section.
frequency and rms line voltage at the grid side are 50Hz and
690V constantly. The unity power factor is adopted for the grid The results of the converter losses for peak power operation
side. The switching frequency of both converters is set at are shown in Fig. 9. As shown in Fig. 9 (a), at the WT side, the
1.5 kHz. diode conduction loss is the majority for both the outer and
inner devices. The PIN diode greatly outperforms the SBD due
It is important to mention that, in a 3-level NPC converter, the to the better conduction capability. In terms of transistor loss,
stress level of the outer and inner transistors is different. Fig. as previously explained devices are stressed differently. The
8(a) shows the current flowing through the WT side converter inner transistor is stressed more than the outer one because of
while Fig. 8(b) shows the current flowing through the grid side the current flowing in the transistor. The SiC outperforms the
converter. The outer/inner switching units at the WT and grid IGBT thanks to its lower switching loss due to the higher
sides are marked as “WTout/WTin” and “Gout/Gin” in Fig. 5. switching speed but the advantage is not significant. While at

Authorized licensed use limited to: Teesside University. Downloaded on May 03,2024 at 13:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
the grid side, in general, the three groups have very close through each device is smaller the disadvantage of the poor
performance. The SiC MOSFET has slightly higher conducting performance of SBD compared to PIN diode is
conduction loss and lower switching loss compared to the Si reduced. And the portion of the PIN diode’s reverse recovery
IGBT. On the aspect of junction temperature, simulated loss in the total loss is increased. Meanwhile, because of the
junction temperature of the diodes in “WTout” is shown in Fig. smaller ON-state resistance at low current level, SiC MOSFET
10. The SBD has a larger temperature swing (ΔT) which is 8°C now has lower average conduction loss than Si IGBT in this
higher than that of the PIN diode. The larger ΔT usually case. The switching loss of SiC/SBD is still 3~4 times smaller
indicates a shorter lifetime of devices [7]. From the result of than the other two IGBT groups. At the WT side, IGBT/PIN
peak power operation, it is clear that PIN diode greatly group still has the smallest total loss in “WTout”, but the
outperforms SBD and there is no clear advantage using SiC advantage has shrunk. For “WTin”, SiC/SBD has the lowest
transistor. total converter loss of 1.85 kW, followed by IGBT/PIN of 2.08
kW marginally outperforming IGBT/SBD of 2.10 kW. At the
grid side, as the current only flows through the transistor,
SiC/SBD outperforms the IGBT groups with a noticeable
advantage, about 27% less loss in “Gout” and 18% less loss in
“Gin”.

(a)

(a)

(b)
Fig. 9 Converter power losses when using different
technologies at the wind speed of 12mps: (a) WT side; (b) Grid
side.

(b)
Fig. 11 Converter power losses when using different
technologies at the wind speed of 9 mps: (a) WT side; (b) Grid
side.

The results of the low wind speed condition, namely 6 mps, is

shown in Fig. 12. Under low current condition, the advantages
of current conducting and high switching speed of SiC
MOSFET become prominent. Not only at the grid side, “Gout”
and “Gin”, but also at the inner WT side, “WTin”, on the
aspect of power efficiency, the SiC/SBD group greatly
Fig. 10 The junction temperature of SBD and PIN diode of outperforms the IGBT groups. In terms of “WTout”, the loss
“WTout” at the wind speed of 12 mps. of the SBD is approximately equal to that of the PIN diode. In
terms of junction temperature, for “Gout” in this scenario, the
The results of medium wind speed condition (9 mps) are SiC MOSFET has a lower junction temperature than Si IGBT
shown in Fig. 11. In this case, because of the current flowing and the its ΔT is less than half of the latter.

Authorized licensed use limited to: Teesside University. Downloaded on May 03,2024 at 13:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 On the grid side, the SiC/SBD combination starts to
outperform the other combinations at 9 mps. The benefit of
using a full SiC solution becomes more apparent as the wind
speed further reduces. For example, at the wind speed of 6 mps,
the losses are about 1/3 of the other solutions.

In conclusion, for 3-level NPC converters in the studied wind

energy system, the relative performance of the technology
used depends on the loading condition of the system. Under
peak power condition, the PIN diode is still the best option at
the WT side converter due to its better conducting performance
at high current levels. The SiC transistor does not show a clear
(a) advantage under peak power operation, however its
advantages become apparent under light loading conditions.
Another possible way to improve the SiC solution is to operate
at reduced current densities which means adding more parallel
devices to reduce the current burden in each device, however
with significant cost implications. IGBTs are limited by the
collector junction voltage, hence, there are limits as to how
many IGBTs can be paralleled to deliver low conduction losses.

6 Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the UK Engineering and Physical
Science Research Council (EPSRC) through the grant
(b)
reference EP/R004366/1.
Fig. 12 Converter power losses when using different
technologies at the wind speed of 6 mps: (a) WT side; (b) Grid
7 References
side.
[1] J. Millán, P. Godignon, X. Perpiñà, et al, "A Survey of
Wide Bandgap Power Semiconductor Devices," IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 2155-
2163, 2014
[2] R. Wu, J. O. Gonzalez, Z. Davletzhanova, et al, "The
Potential of SiC Cascode JFETs in Electric Vehicle Traction
Inverters," IEEE Transactions on Transportation
Electrification, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 1349-1359, 2019
Fig. 13 The junction temperature of SiC MOSFET and Si [3] H. Zhang, L. M. Tolbert, and B. Ozpineci, "Impact of SiC
IGBT in IGBT/PIN group of “Gout” at 6 mps wind speed. Devices on Hybrid Electric and Plug-In Hybrid Electric
Vehicles," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol.
5 Conclusion 47, no. 2, pp. 912-921, 2011
This study compares the power loss of different technologies [4] H. Zhang and L. M. Tolbert, "Efficiency Impact of Silicon
in 3-level NPC converters in a wind power system. Full silicon Carbide Power Electronics for Modern Wind Turbine Full
(IGBT/PIN), hybrid (IGBT/SBD) and full SiC Scale Frequency Converter," IEEE Transactions on Industrial
(MOSFET/SBD) solutions have been compared in terms of Electronics, vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 21-28, 2011
converter efficiency. Using power losses obtained from [5] X. Guo, L. Ran, P. Mawby, et al, "Feasibility study of SiC
experimental measurements, the simulations show that there is
devices for low voltage converter in a wind power generation
no clear advantage to use SiC devices under heavy loading
conditions. On the WT side converter, which operates as a system," in 2018 IEEE Int. Power Electronics and Application
rectifier, the PIN diodes exhibit lower losses compared to the Conference and Exposition (PEAC), 4-7 Nov. 2018, pp. 1-6
SiC SBDs. On the generator side converter, which operates as [6] J. O. Gonzalez, R. Wu, S. Jahdi, et al, "Performance and
an inverter, there is no apparent benefit in adopting a full SiC Reliability Review of 650V and 900V Silicon and SiC
solution. The fast switching advantage of SiC MOSFETs and Devices: MOSFETs, Cascode JFETs and IGBTs," IEEE
SBDs do not compensate for the higher conduction losses Transactions on Industrial Electronics, pp. 1-1, 2019
when used at manufacturer defined rating conditions.
[7] W. Lai, M. Chen, L. Ran, O. Alatise, S. Xu, and P. Mawby,
However, under medium and light loading conditions, SiC "Low ΔTj Stress Cycle Effect in IGBT Power Module Die-
devices are competitive. On the WT side, the PIN diode still Attach Lifetime Modeling," IEEE Transactions on Power
shows slightly lower loss than the SBD at the wind speed of Electronics, vol. 31, no. 9, pp. 6575-6585, 2016
9 mps, and their losses become approximately equal at 6 mps.

Authorized licensed use limited to: Teesside University. Downloaded on May 03,2024 at 13:35:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.