Variable Frequency Drives - a Comparison of VSI versus LCI Systems - TMEIC

Variable Frequency Drives - a Comparison of VSI versus LCI Systems

Introduction

TMEIC is a leader in the innovative design and manufacture of large ac variable f requency drive systems. TMEIC has been very active in developing the most advanced high capacity Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) drives, large enough to compete with Load Commutated Inverter (LCI) drives. This study compares the strengths and weaknesses of TMEIC's VSI drives with competitive LCI drives.

LCI & VSI Comparison Summary

The LCI drive has a long history and its advantages and limitations are well understood. It is simple and reliable, but requires careful attention to ac power system issues related to harmonic currents and reactive power. It also demands specially designed motors with low reactance, and must work with harmonic heating and air gap torque harmonics.

Figure 1. Simplified Block Diagram of LCI and VSI Drives Medium voltage VSI drives have progressed significantly in the past 15 years, and are now the standard practice in such demanding applications as main drives in metal processing, which require high overload with very high performance up to about 20 MW. The development of high power, controllable semiconductor devices a n d p u l s e w i d t h m o d u l a t e d ( P W M ) c o n t r o l has made VSI drives both possible and suitable for broader applications such as high power drives for large compressors and blowers. The resulting VSI designs now provide many advantages over their LCI predecessors, including low power system harmonics, low reactive power demand, and low torque pulsations in the motor air gap and shaft.

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1. Summary Comparison of VSI versus LCI Technology & Systems

The following table summarizes the differences between VSI drives and LCI drives. These will be discussed in later sections.

VSI System

LCI System

Line Current Total Harmonic Distortion

Air gap torque ripple

Input Power Factor

Power system stability AC power disturbance

Reliability, MTBF

Repair time, MTTR

Equipment size

Motor

Motor types

Motor power and Drive Drive output voltage

2 % THD Harmonic filter is not required 0.5 ? 1 % Standard mechanical system design is possible Greater than 0.95 PF correction equipment is not necessary

Stable

Ride through or Automatic restart 28 years Proven technology

About 0.5 hours

Standard VSI drive lineup

Independent from converter

Induction or Synchronous motor 100 MW, 4 banks TMdrive-XL85 XL type VSI up to 7.2 kV; MVG type VSI up to 11 kV

Up to 12 % THD Harmonic filter is required

Up to 7 % Special mechanical system design required for torque pulsations 0.5 ? 0.92 Power factor equipment (capacitor) is necessary

Delicate

Can ride through

Greater than 10 year MTBF Proven technology

About 2 hours

Much more space required for LCI lineup, Harmonic Filter, PF correction, and Reactor Special design. Strongly affected by converter and harmonic heating

Synchronous motor only

120 MW

Up to 11 kV

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2. Supplier Capability

Recent semiconductor and VSI developments have produced high power VSI drives, with a single channel power level up to 30 MVA, as shown in Figure 2. Multiple parallel channels can be employed as described in the table.

Figure 2. Typical large VSI TMEIC TMdrive-XL85

TMEIC VSI Capability

VSI output power range for single channel

Voltage of maximum motor size

Power Semiconductor type

TMdrive70 8/10

MVA

3.3 kV

IEGT

Maximum number of parallel VSI channels

4

Maximum system power 40 MVA

Length of single channel lineup

126 inch

TMdriveXL55 8 MVA 6.6 kV

IGBT

2 16 MVA 221 inch

TMdriveXL75

20 MVA 6.0 kV

IEGT

4 80 MVA 370 inch

TMdriveXL85

30 MVA 7.2 kV

GCT

4 120 MVA 319 inch

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LCIs have been used for many years for their high power and variable speed. A typical large LCI is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Typical large LCI

Capability of Competitive LCIs

LCI output range for synchronous motors

Motor voltage of maximum size synchronous motor

Power Semiconductor switching device type

Maximum MW rating of single LCI channel

Maximum system power

Length of single channel lineup, not including power factor correction and harmonic filter

Brand A LCI Standard 72 MW

10.2 kV SCR 36

Special, 101 MW NA

Brand B LCI Standard 74 MW

11 kV SCR 37 (120 max) Special, 120 MW 433 inch

LCIs are usually larger than the comparative power VSI. This is illustrated in Figure 4.

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Figure 4. Size Comparison of VSI System with LCI System

3. Design Considerations

VSI Drive Design

a. The only limitations in the designs are the power converter ratings. These ratings are based on the capacities of the power semiconductor devices (IEGT and GCT) and the cooling systems. The nominal ratings are based on 40? C maximum ambient temperature and altitudes less than 1OOOm. Applications outside these conditions require de-rating.

b. There are no limitations on input voltage because the input transformer is separate from the drive. The maximum motor voltage is inherent in the converter design depending on the voltage margin in the devices and power circuit topology. TMEIC has used the highest motor voltage possible consistent with adequate device voltage margin.

c. The TMdrive-XL55, XL75, and XL85 drives have 36-pulse diode rectifier source converters. The likelihood of beat frequencies and inter-harmonics is very low. For compressor applications, the loading required to maintain continuous current in the source converter occurs well below the minimum continuous speed.

d. The 36-pulse source connection requires six sets of 3-phase cables. To minimize cost, the distance between the input transformer and the drive is made as small as possible. However, there is no electrical limit to the distance except for voltage drop in very long cables.

e. The only limitation in cable length between the drive and motor is the voltage drop in the cables.

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