Power Quality Improvement of Cycloconverter Output

Utility power is delivered at a specified voltage and frequency (50 Hz). For proper functioning of electrical appliances electric power is delivered from the source to load under normal operating conditions. But due to the non availability of a universal single source of power, power conversion from one form to another is inevitable. Four basic power conversions carried out are AC to DC conversion, DC to DC conversion, DC to AC conversion and AC to AC conversion. AC to AC conversion is carried out mainly by two methods DC link converters and cycloconverters. In DC link converters AC voltage at constant magnitude & frequency is converted to DC by rectification. Later the DC voltage is converted to AC which has some different voltage & frequency as compared to the input. A cycloconverter is a power electronic device used to convert constant voltage constant frequency AC power to adjustable voltage adjustable frequency AC power without a DC link. With the invention of large rating thyristors and the development of microprocessorbased control, thyristor-controlled cycloconverters today are widely used in heavy industries such as electric traction, rolling mills, cement industry applications, static Scherbius drives and ship propellers. Quality of electric power refers to maintaining the near sinusoidal waveform of power distribution bus voltages and currents at rated magnitude and frequency. However, with the advent of modern power system techniques and equipments based on non linear technology and their increasing use has demanded a special attention under the aspect of the electrical power quality. It is estimated that as many as 60% of all electrical devices operate with non-linear current draw. Electric Power Pollution has increased due to the use of power converters, non linear loads and phase controlled rectifiers in distribution and transmission networks. Other contributors to poor power quality are transients harmonics. Solid state control of ac power using high speed switches is the main source of transient whereas different non linear loads contribute to excessive drawl of reactive power from supply. Cycloconverters can deliver a nearly sinusoidal waveform resulting in minimum torque pulsations for the case of rotating loads. However, cycloconverters have the disadvantage of highly distorted input currents. Highly distorted input currents significantly decrease electric power quality. Cycloconverters inject significant harmonics and nonstandard frequency components (i.e., non integer multiples of the fundamental power frequency) into power systems. The cycloconverter output voltage waveforms have complex harmonics. Higher order harmonics are usually filtered by the machine inductance, therefore the machine current has less harmonics. The remaining harmonics cause harmonic losses and torque pulsations. In this paper an attempt has been made to study the variable operating conditions and power quality parameters for a three-phase to single-phase cycloconverter and to discuss the methods of power quality improvement along with its limitations. Variable operating conditions include input frequency, output frequency, and load size. The power quality parameters of interest are power factor, input current total harmonic distortion (THD), output voltage THD and efficiency.