A 500 Hz POWER

SYSTEM
-

Power Converter aiid Transmission Lines

I. Takahashi
G.J. Su
Nagaoka University of Technology
Kaiiiit oiiiioka 1G O 3- 1, Nagaoka, 940-2 1 Japan

Abstract
A 500 Hz power system is proposed in this paper for industrial zones, intelligent buildings and commercial areas. The
systeiii has not only many applications but also high efficiency. fast systeni colitrol response aiid high reliability.
An experiuiental syste1u coiiiposed of two lOKVA power
coiiverters, a power transiiiission line siiiiulator and voltage
compensators shows high speed and good system voltage regulation by coinbinirig t h e reactive power control of the voltage
compensators and dc link voltage control of the power converters. Reactive power control is also able to compensate
for asyinmetrically voltage due t o unbalanced loading or voltage drop of the transmission line. A naturally commutated
thyristor inverter snitable for high applications and a forced
commutated transistor inverter suitable for medium power
applications are exiiniiiied. Tlir control circuit is full digitalized and siiiiplified by iisiiig 8 bit oiie-chip iiiicroprocessors.
Some typical faults on the trunsniission line are discussed
and the experimental results obtained by the simulator are
also presented.

frequency from utilities but also the liniits of power elements.

This is discussed in detail in another paper which will he presented a t the conference. The conclusion drawn is that frequencies ranging from 400 Hz to 1 KHz can be found most
interesting applications both today and in the n e a r fiiture.
In other words, the frequency should vary for different 1o;tds.
and is selected so as t o satisfy mostly load's rcquireiiiriits.
Among those a typical one is 500 Hz which is ahoat 10 tiniw
the conventional 5 0 / 6 0 Hz and is snitable for todays' applications.
This paper presents a 500 Hz power system to supply for
small areas. Because of the effect of tlie higher freqiicncy
on the line impedance the length of tlie power transinission
lines is limited, and therefore it is desirable t o locate tlie
500 Hz power source close t o the loads. In ;idclition. tlie
proposed system should be utilized together with tlio (:onveiitional coiiiniercial power system.
The research aims to explore tlie p r ~ ~ b l c ma isi d dc:vclop essential techniques in tlie higher frcqiicncy 1iower systoiii. Tlic
power converter, high frequency power trai~miission lints,
system voltage regulator and voltage unbalance coinpensator
are discussed in this paper.

Introduction

With the advent of power semiconductors many different

frequency power supplies, namely static frequency changers,
have increasingly being employed in most industry, and recently in offices and homes. Especially high frequency power
can be found widespread applications in such as motor drives,
induction heating, fluorescent lighting. Most of them are employing forced commutation inverters such as using GTO's
or transistors. This, however, is not economical, and becomes difficult and impractical when so large capacity as
above 1OOMW is required because of their technical problems and lack of reliability. I t is apparent that a centralized
high frequency power contribution system based on a naturally commutated power converter supplying for particular
areas such a s chemical and iron plants can provide economical
advantages and result in decrease of cost and saving space by
replacing those numerous inverters used in dispersed manners.
On the other hand, the need for intertying of dc transmission power systems, cogeneration systems, wind and solar
energy generation systems has been increasing.[l] The dispersed small high frequency power system might b e one of
the most interesting approaches.
By operating the power system a t high frequency, the system can be made compact because of the large reduction in
the size and weight of the transformers, reactors, capacitors
and circuit breakers. Use of high frequency also speeds u p
system response and offers high quality power. Moreover
newly developed materials such as amorphous metal and low
dielectric loss materials can be used much effectively than in
the conventional 5 0 / 6 0 H z power system.
It is important t o select a proper frequency, which must
take into account not only the requirements for much higher

Proposed System

Fig.1 shows the proposed 500 Hz pow6:r systcmi in block

schematic form. A power coiivcrter or fr(xliic:nc.y changer.
which basically composed of a convertcr ; i d invetor. is ntilized to interface the 5 0 0 Hz power systeiii to otlior power
sources. Amorphous metal core triinsforinors. w1iic.h has
higher efficiency and reduced size inid weight tliitn silicon
steel ones, can be effectively employed.
I t is important to note that dc power systeiii aiid natural energy sources can be used easily for the energy sonrce
of the system, besides the 5 0 / 6 0 Hz coiiiiuercial power system. In particular, 500 Hz power can be obt;tiiicd directly
from cogeneration systems which have bccii iiicreasingly e m ployed. Moreover the frequency changer (:tin ciisily c:onihinc:
the uninterruptable ability by connecting soiiie energy storage units to the power converter, and tliereforc: tlie powcr

Power cable

'*'-T'9'&

Natural
energy

Amo:prz

cogeneration&
system
500Hz

89CH2792-0/89/0000-0988$01.00 O 1989 IEEE

I 1I
Load

Fig.1 A 500 Hz power system.

T
J,

systeiii becoiiies highly reliable.

111 the design of the higher frequency power system, it is
i~ecessary to consider for tlie power converter, the power
traiiziiiission line alid the systeiii voltage regulation as follows:

2.1

Collverter

Thyristor coiivcrtexs are usually employed with current

soiirce inverters. By cascade and multiphase connection of
tho c:onverters the input line current waveform can be fairly
iiiiprov(x1. aiid by iisiiig asyiiiiiietricd phiise control tecliniqiicz tho power fiictor ciiii be also corrected. If necessary
to fiirtlicr iiripr.ovc the power factor, power converters can
bc parallel coiiiiectod and by using asymmetrical phase control strategy. This also reduces tlie harmonic contents in the
linc, current and therefore makes the passive filters used in
tho input side iiiiich sinaller. On the other hand, diode rectificvs tire successfully employed in the voltage source inverters,
and by using iiiiiltiply phase rectifiers tlie input line current
waveforms can be compensntcd.[2]

2.3

2b

Inverter

The kind of switching devices used in tlie inverter is different according to tlie capacity needed. High speed thyristors
are suitable for tlie capacity ranging from 5MW to 200MW in
current source inverters. GTO's suit to the voltage source inverters with capacity ranging from 1MW to 20MW. Another
populiir switching dcvicc:. i.e. power transistors, are generally
oiiiployed iii voltago s011rc(~iiiverters with the capacity below
2MW. Thr: switcliiiig froqiic:ncies of those switching devices
arc also different; ranging froiii hundreds Hz to thousands
Hz.[2]
In the case very large capacity is needed for the power system with it is better to use natural comiiiutatioii techniques
wliicli have becii eiiiployed very successfully in dc power
triuisiiiissioii systems. In tlie other hand, for the medium and
smaller systems supplying to intelligent buildings and coniiiicbrcial areas, forced coiiiiiiiitiition inverters such as GTO
iiivortc.rs iiiiiy be ;ilzo utilized.
To iiiiprove tlie oatpiit voltagc: waveforiii of the inverter
c;isc;tdr coiuicrtod ii1vcrtws inlist be eiiiployed owing to tlie
liiiiitiitioii of tlic switdiing frequency.[?,]

2.2

Phase conductor

Powcr Traiisiiiissioii

Liiici

One of tho iiiost pronounced differences betweeii tlie 50/60

Hz and tho 500 Hz power system is in traiismission lines.
At the higher frequency, line inipedance increase due to
the higher inductive inductance and ac-effective resistance.
Therefore power cables should be used for the transmission
line because they liave lower inductance than over head lines.
The ac-effcctive resistance of tlie cables are increased due to
thc additional losses resulted from skin effect, proximity effect. aiid tlie circiiliiting and eddy currents in the shield or
conduit. The increase of tlie line impedance reduces the capabilities of the cable.
There are two kinds of cables for choice shown in Fig.2, one
is tlie three phase coaxial power cables with six conductors
which has less indiictance but lack of economy, the another is
tlie nornial three phase cables with three conductors which
has about twice indiictance but advantages of economy. If
necessary, the inductance of the cable can be further reduced
by using parallel circuit conductors where the individual conductors of the same phase are separated as much as possible.
It is clear that the power transmission line is one of the most
significant factors to restrict tlie frequency.
989

Neutral conductor
(CU)
( a ) Coaxial cable

(b)3 core cable

Fig.2 Power cables.

Circuit breakers used in the higher frequency system ninst
have high speed interrupting characteristic to prevent its
reignitioii. VCB(Vacunni Circuit Breaker) seems to bc the
most proper choice a t present.

2.4

TSC - Systeiii Voltage Compensator

With the significant voltage drops of tlic transinission line at

500 Hz. some line voltage drop compensation techniques are
necessary to improve tlie system voltage regulation. It can
be accomplished by controlling tlie system reactive power
just likc. that employed in tlie coniiiierci;tl power systems.
TCR( shortened for thyristor controlled reactor) was the initial choice for the system voltage compensator. However because it creates acoustic noise and has lower efficiency. TSC(
Thyristor Switched Capacitors) is utilizing and provides good
performance which is discussed later. Forced coninintation
of tlie switching thyristors is not required. TSC can be also
used to compensate for unbalance voltage due to unbalanced
loading.

3
3.1

Experimental System
System Configuration

An experiniental system has been built in laboratory to verify the feasibility of tlie proposed system and to develop the
essential techniques for the higher frequency power system.
It is coiiiposed of two lOKVA power converters, two TSC's. a
three phase high frequency power transmission line simulator
for a 20Km power cable and loads. As mentioned above, in
the case that capacity of the systeiii is larger than 20MVA,
forced-coiiiiiiutatioii based inverters can not be used for tlie
power converter due to their difficulties in control techniques
and to lack of reliability. For this reason a naturally conimutated thyristor inverter for high power applications and
a forced coiiiniiitated transistor inverter for medium power
application are examined in the experiment.
Fig.3 shows the overall system configuration using naturally
commutated thyristor inverter. The power converter is constructed by a Graetz bridge thyristor rectifier and a thyristor
bridge current source inverter employing load comniutation
techniques. The inverter simply operates a s a three phase
rectangle current source with 120 electrical degree conducting duration on each half cycle. A overcurrent protection
logic circuit is implemented to prevent the thyristors in the
power converter from damaging when faults occur. Passive
filters of 5th, 7th and 13th are used to improve the output voltage waveforms. The filters are particularly effective
to the harmonics attenuation in tlie current source inverter.
TSCl located near the inverter is used to adjust the output voltage of the inverter by changing tlie reactive current,
and TSC2 connected to the transmission line simulator at

Corresponding
t o 2Km cable

_----

urrent Protection Unit

U
\
Power converter
TSCl

Transmission line simulator

Fig.3 The experimental system I using naturally commutated inverter.

---

-----

Fig.4 The experimental system 11 using forced commutated inverter.

the point which is equivalent t o 12Km a t the cable from the
power source is used t o compensate for the voltage drop of
the transmission line. Both of them are also used t o compensate for unbalance voltage due t o asymmetrical current
components of the loads.[3]
Fig.4 shows another experimental system which consists of
a thyristor rectifier and a transistor inverter. The inverter
composed of three full bridge inverters is controlled so as t o
eliminate the 5th harmonics in t h e output voltage.[4] This is
achieved by using a Bbit ROM which is programmed so a s t o
generate a a/S-shifted three phase square wave. The higher
order harmonics are reduced by the 7th, l l t h , 13th tuned
L-c
instal1ed at the secondary
and a high pass
windings of t h e transform. P W M techniques are not employed in the inverter due t o the low efficiency and the use of
GTO's. Therefor the switching frequency of the transistors
is kept a t 500 Hz.[5]
Fig.5 shows each phase configuration of the TSC. For ease
t o implementation of microprocessor based control for t h e
990

TSC's, capacitors a r e arranged t o be 5 bit binary switched

capacitor array. The switches a r e designed to be controlled in
one direction and each switch consists of a thyristor in parallel
with a diode. The effect of the diodes is to keep the capacitors
charged to the negative peek value of the line voltages. The
capacitors should b e switched on a t the negative pcek point
of the associated line voltage in order t o prevent creating
large current surges in the TSC. Therefore the thyristors act
essentially a s diodes. The switching function of the TSC is
defined as
SUJ = [so

(1)

$1 s2 s3 s4IT

where SO . . . s4 equals t o 1, when the associated switch is on,

or to 0 , when the switch is off. Thlls the adl,littance of tile
TSC is represented as

Y = w e . (so ' 20

+SI .21

'

.'

+ s4

'

24)

(2)

where we is the admittance of t h e least significant bit of the

TSC. The term in the parentheses represents a binary nnmber. If the admittance is given, the switching function S,, can

. .
I1 I?

v a

Ill

1/2

V b

---

v c

-9

-~

Load

ikl I k 2

Fig.5 Each phase coiifiguration of the TSC.

be determined by dividing I by w c and decoding it, which
can be easily performed by using microprocessor.

3.2

Systciii voltage regulation

(a) Equivalent circuit of TSC.

Wlicii eiiiployiiig tlic: forced coiniiiutated inverter, the systoiii voltage regulatioii caii be accoiiiplished siiiiply by control tlie reactive power of the thyristor rectifier,[5] and will
not be further discussed. The following discussions are concentratcd on the first experimental system and the results
are also obtained on the same system unless stated.
The systeiii voltage regulation is achieved by controlling
tlie reactive power of the TSCs and directly adjusting the
dc link current of the power converter by means of phase
control for the thyristor rectifier. Since the dc link current
citii not bo cliaiiged so quickly because of the dc liiik reactor,
tlic pluisc coiitrol iiivtliocl by rectifiers suits to snppress large
voltage vziriaitioii with slow respoiisc. In the otlier hand, tlic
capacitors in the TSC can be switched on or off in one cycle
at lonst. Tlierefore TSC can dyiiainically compensate for the
rapid voltage fluctuation. However its coiiipciisation ability
is limited by the number of the capacitor banks and their
capcicitancc. By combining the two methods, it can be accoiiiplislicd good voltage compensation characteristic either
iii tlic stoiidy state or in tlic trailsiclit state. It is sliown that
f i l)iilik*
~ ~ ~ I Y C kit lcttst I I C ~ C S S ~ I ~t oY iiitikc? the volttige regdat i o i l Illidc!r 0 1 1 0 p l > r ~ : ( ~ n t .
3.3

Iriiiciplc

0 Sampling point

(b) Sampling method of currents

for detecting negative phase sequence current
Fk.6 C O l l l l i e l ~ s ~ tfor
i o ~unbalanced
~
voltages by the TSC.

ik2 =

1
jg(l - a 2 ) { Y a b ( v o

ib)

.I

L ( ~-~v,c )

+ a . yCa(Cc- Ca)}

where

of Ullbiilallc:c Voltage Coinpelisation by

I
2

Tho most si~liificillitweek point of the power systeiii used

cllrlC!llt SOlllCC illVrCtCr iS that the fine Voltage depends
tlic load coiiiiccted 011 tlie line and thereby unbalance
loadiiig results iii serious iinbalancc in tlie system voltages.
It. is ~iocc:ssitryto coiiipoiisiite for nitbitlance voltage because
iiiiiiiy siiiglo p l i i t s e loads ~iiiiycxit in tlic power system. Tliis
is wliicvcvl ~ ) y
,iryiiiiiic!triciilly coiitrolling tlic TSCS so as to
iibsorli tlic iicgiitivc. pli*ise s c c ~ ~ ~ c icurrciit
i c : ~ ~ created by the
unbitlaiiccd load.[G]
The TSC acts aii continuously variable capacitor, and its
equivalent circllit is givexi ill Fig.G(a), where jyab,jy, and
jll.,, represent tlic t h e e phase adiiiittances of the TSC, respcctivcly.
Dcsignntc tlie positive and negative phase sequence currciits as ill and i12 Rowing to tlie load, ik,and I,, flowing
to tlic TSC, rcspcctively, tlien the positive and negative currciits flowing froin tlie inverter. I 1 and 1 2 , are given by
N

&
2

= -- +j-.

TSC

Assuiiiing the riiis value of tlie line voltage is 1, and taking

the reference pliasor. Wlien tile voltages
pllasc voltage 0,
are balanced, Eqs. 5 and can be silllplified as

011

i,
i2

=
=

= j(1

(3)
(4)

U.){Y,b(va - v b ) + U Y,(Cb -

+ a ? . 1&(Vc

&kl
+ Yk + Yc, = =A
JV

I;*

- lie)}

vc)
(5)
991

(7)

and
U

. ~k

+ a ? a.:I

From Equations 7 and 8 ,

Yab

-A3 + - 2B3

A
B
yb, = - 3

,
Y

i,, + i,,
i,, + i,,

when I = 0. tlie system voltage will become balanced. By

applying tlie method of syinnietrical components in Fig.G(a)
yields

i,]

Yob

&ir2~3n16 -

-~

l.

Y o b , Ybc

-B
-

+jC

(8)

and Y,, call be obtained as

(9)

3+3

&

(10)
(11)

Equations 9, 10 and 11 show clearly that A/3 represents the

and Ya which
mean value of three phase admittances l b b , Yblbc
can adjust the positive phase sequence colnponent Of the
tem voltage, and the remained terms arc needed to coinpensate for the negative phase sequence voltage.
In order to determine the admittance of the TSC, it is necessary to detect the negative phase sequence current flowing
t o the load. A novel technique developed is as follows;

Assuming the three phase load currents, denoted by i f a , if6

and ilc, are sinusoidal, the instantaneous current vector if is
defined a s

where I;, is the conjugate of ilz. By sampling the three phase

currents a t every 7r/3 in the waveforms, for example, a t w t = 0
and 7r/3 as shown in Fig.G(b), yields
(a) Output voltage of the inverter.

360V
and
2
3

ir( T) = -{ ir,(
3

3) + a

'

ilb(

T)
+ a2
3

'

if,( ;))
0

Eliminating i l l from Eqs. 13 and 14, and using the equation

ofiia+iibSifc= 0, the negative phase sequence current is given

( b ) The voltage after filtered.

Keeping in mind I,, = obtained a s

Fig.7 Output voltage waveforms

in the experimental system 11.
Zk2,

from equation 8 B and C are

40 A

Load increased

where Re and I m represent the real part and the imaginary

part of if2eJf, respectively.

3.4

Microprocessor Based C o n t r o l circuit

The control circuit is implemented by using two single chip

microprocessors ( 8031); one is for phase control of the rectifier, the other is for the TSC1, a s shown in Fig.3. Consequently it makes the hardware very simple and compact.
As stated previously, the thyristor converter with phase control suits t o compensate for the slow variation voltage, and
TSC can suppress the very fast fluctuating voltage. For this
reason the time constant of the low pass filter L P F l needed
for filtering the voltage error signal for microprocessor S C M l
is set much larger than t h a t of low pass filter LPF2 for microprocessor SCM2. The low pass filter LPF3, LPF4 and
LPF5 used t o detect the line current must have good filtering performance, and the identical characteristic owing t o t h e
calculation of the equations 9
11.
The microprocessor S C M l used for phase control of t h e
rectifier performs PI control strategy. The microprocessorbased phase control method for a thyristor converter is given
in detail in [7] and will not b e discussed further in this paper.
One of t h e two on-chip timers in t h e S C M l is set t o generate
an interrupt signal t o CPU a t the period of about 104usec.
Whenever interrupt occurs the processor inputs t h e voltage
error signal IV'I - V and calculates the phase angle CY by PI
control routine. Therefore by calculating and decoding CY -ut,
can the on instant of t h e switching pattern be determined.
The switching patterns a r e pre-stored in t h e off-chip ROM.
The calculation time of S C M l is about 85psec.[8]
The calculation of Yab, Yk and Y, is carried out in microprocessor SCM2 according t o equations 9, 10 and 11. To speed
up the calculation some table techniques are utilized. The
calculation time of the processor SCM2 is obtained about
loopsec, which is much shorter t h a n t h e sampling period for
detecting the currents; 1/6 period of the power source, i.e.
333psec.[3][6]

Fig.8 Response of the line voltage t o increase of load.

3.5

Experimental Results

The system line voltage regulation in the steady state obtained is under one percent.
Fig.7 shows the output voltage waveforms in the experimental system 11. T h e 5th harmonics in Fig.7(a) is reduced
to about 0.5 percent, and after filtered the harmonic content
in Fig.7(b) is significantly decreased as less than 0.2 percent.
Fig.8 illustrates system line voltage response when load
is suddenly increased. I t can be seen that the line voltage
reaches the stable s t a t e by about 41nsec after the load increased.
Fig.9 shows typical line voltage waveforms demonstrated
the unbalance voltage compensation by TSC. It is apparent
t h a t voltage unbalance is improved very well by TSC.

4
4.1

Power Transmission Line Siniulator

Design of t h e Transmission Line S i m u l a t o r

As stated earlier, t o reduce the line inductance power cables

should be utilized for t h e transmission line. A three-phase

? [ < I I Lx IO stages

Siiniila tor

(a)Uncompensated.

0.0262 0.221nH

Line

(b)Compensated by TSC.

Fig.9 Line voltage waveforms a t unbalanced l a d .

Equivalent circuit
for the cable of 2Km.

three-core cable with each conductor separately screened is

eniployed because of economy, as shown in Fig.2. A transiilissiori line simulator is built to simulate the cable circuit
with tlie length of 2 0 K m and electrical ratings of 4 0 K V and
1.5KA. In order to design the simulator, it is necessary to
deteriiiine tlie parameters of the cable.
The line inductance Lo and the capacitance COof the every
1 K m cable are generally given by
2b

Lo = O . ? { l i z ( - )

+ 0.25}

(tnH/Ii71~)

R = 2400
L. = IOOrnH
Load

Fig. 1 0 Transmission line siiiiiilat or.

(18)

and

where U and 6 are tlie ixuwr arid outer radii of tlie dielectric,
and E, is tlie relative periiiittivity of the dielectric, 2.3 for
polyethylene. The dc resistance of tlie cable is given by

The ac-effective resistance of tlie cable is the dc resistance

modified by the following factors: tlic skin effcct of the conductor; the eddy currents induced by adjacent condlictors
(the proximity effect); the equivalent resistance to account
for I'R losses in the sheath. The ac-effective inductance is
also influenced by the skin and proxiidty effects. Tlie dctcrniination of these effects is complicated and omitted licre. In
this case tlie total factor is about 1.01 for the resistance. and
0.90 for the reactance. Therefore the ac-effective rcsist;ince
and inductance of the transmission line beconie
R'

L'
where: C; condiictance,
S0;norinal cross-sectional area ( 7 n m 2 ) ,
y:lay ratio coefficient of conductors,
Ii:conductivity of I t , a i n 2 x in.
Let tlie current density is 2 0.4/7n7n2, and tlie potential gradient in polyethylene is designed to be 1.OKV/mm. Therefore
tlie cross-sectional area of the conductor can be obtained as
787.5m7n3 and the radius of the condiictor is a = 15.8(?nnz).
Since the niaximuiii potential gradient occurs on the surface of the conductor, and is given by

E,, =

V
~

oln(b/a)

hence. the outer radius of the dielectric is obtained as b =

GS.1( I ) ? i n ).
Substitiiting a, 6 in the eqiiations 18, 19 and 20, the parameters of the cable are given as follows:
the dc resistance : & = 0.02(n/1i?n)
the inductance : Lo = 0 . 4 8 ( r n H / I i m )
the capacitance : CO= O.OS(pF/Km)
993

= 1.91 x
= 0.04 ( f i / I i m )
= 0.90 x LO = 0.13 ( ? ? L H / ~ ~ I I ~ )

The transniission line simulator with tlie rating of 200V and

30A is employed as shown in Fig.10. I t consists of 10 stages
of lumped L-C circiiits. each stage corresponds to 2Kni cable:
the percent impedance of the aimtilator is ret as snme as that
of the cable. In addition. in each stage indiictivr loads are
connected to tlie line through switches needed to vary loads.

4.2

Voltage Drop of t h e Traiisniissioii Liiie

With increase of frequency, the voltage drop on the inductance increases and thereby results in reduction of the
receiving-end voltage. In other hand tlie charging current
t o line capacitors also increases and the receiving-terminal
voltage may increase on light loads known as Ferraxiti phexioinena. In addition it also results in the increase of tlie
line copper loss due t o the skin effect. Therefore tlie voltage
drop of tlie transiiiission line is one of tlie principal reasons
that the frequency can not be raised too high. F i g . l l shows
the typical voltage distribution along tlie transiiiission line
without compensation obtained by theoretical analysis and
experiment. Notice that tlie terminal voltage of the cable

will risc by 15 per ccwt a t no load, and will reduce by 2 0 per

w i i t ;it fill1 load witli litggiiig power factor.

4.3

Volt,;igcb Dr01) ~ o i i i i ) ~ t i i s i l t i (by

~ i iTSC

Siiicc line voltage distribution tll0lig the transinission line is

itffitcted by the loading conditions, it is necessary t o conipensitto tlie voltage drop of tlic cable a t inductive loads. This
is ztcliicved by injectiiig leading reactive power t o the line
by tlict TSC2. Selection of the point to install the TSCs is
vcry iliilJOl.titllt in c:oiiipciisation performance for wliole voltitgv distri1)iition. 111 tho cxperinient the TSC is installed a t
12Kiii ;twity fIOlii the. lJ(JWC!IS O I I ~ C L . where the capacitance is
h s t . t < J oi)taiii tlir sitiiie c:oiiiI)(tiisittioii cli,cracteristics.[0]
Fig.12 shows tlic c*onfigiuritioii of tho TSC and associated
cont,xol circiiits. Tlio effect of tlie reactor L in parallel witli
tliv TSC is to liiiiit thc voltage not risc to excessive levels
a t 110 l ~ i i d . Tlio saiiio single chip microprocessor 8031 and
control tlictories iirc ciiiploycd for tlic controller. By detecting the voltages a t tliroc points, i.e. GKm. 12Km and 18Km
froiii the power soiirce. By controlling tlw mean value of
the Vdt;tgeS fit t1lC till('(! IJOilitS Call Obtaill good Voltage distril)iit,ion. ulibd;tlic~!volt itgo coliipc!ns;ltioli function is also
< X ~ l l l ~ J i l l ~t.(JgC!tllCl
d
i l l t,ll( IY~llt~lJl
StrittCgy.
Fig.13 illilst,riit(:s the. liiio voltitgc. v;tri;itious arcti itlong tlio
line obtained in Fig.12 by rmidoiiily switching on/off the
loads. The volttigo regulation ciin be decreased by about
2 per ccnt. A typical voltagc distribution along the cablo is
nlso shown by dasliccl line in the szinic figure.

No load

36

full loaded
by resistance

t\

I,

\
Experimental results

, , .

. , .

Theoretical calculation
10

. .

,
20

0
Position of the loads a t t h e cable (Km)

Typical voltage distribution along the cable

wi tliout volt age drop conipcnsation.

Soiiie Typical Faults of tlie Traiisiiiissioii

Line
Tlict itiiitlysis of tlic fitiilts is ;I ossoiitird part of the desigu of ti
syst,oiii. Tlicty iirc cixiiiiiiiiotl by usiiig the siniulntor for
s ~ i i i (typic;tl
?
cascs. Fig.14 illnstriitcs typical line voltage and
current waveforms of tlic power converter when faults occur
at the line 4Kni froiii the power soiircc.
Fig.l4(a) shows the waveforms when two lines short circuit
fault occurs. The rush current due to the fault is not so
large as about 2 times of normal one. The power converter,
of course. was shutdown by the overcurrent protection logic
unit after fault occurred.
Fig.l4(b) denionstrates tlic tra1isient wavefornis a t line to
ground short-circ:iiitc!cl fault. I t shows that the line voltage
did not clianged but tlio current increased due to the chargiiig
current of the cable.
Fig.l4(c) shows the line voltage and current waveforms of
the powcr converter when one line is opened. The line voltage
reaches the stable s t a t e by 3nasac after the occurrence of the
fault.
IJOWCX

Coiiclusioii

This paper lias prescnted a high frequency power system for

supply to particular areas such as industrial zones, commercial areas, intelligent buildings and etc. in which high efficiency, low weight and space saving are required. The reasonable frequency would b e t o range from 400 H z to 1 KHz.
In this paper, a 500 Hz power system which is suitable
for 20 x 2011771~industrial zones or 1Km by l K n i comniercial
areas is investigated by an experimental model system, and
the following conclusions are reached:

Fig.12 Line voltage drop compensation circuit.

(3) Passive filters can be made fiirtlier anialler due to the

increase of the harmonics frequency.
(4) Dramatic reduction in the size and weight of circuit
breakers having extinction chamber such as vacuum
circuit breaker is also possible.

Power electrical equipment such as transformers, reactors and etc. can be reduced in size from 1 / 3 t o 1/4.

( 5 ) Thyristors can b e in more widespread usc a t tlie higher

Capacitors can be reduced in size t o about 1/8.

(6) The power distortion in the commercial power system

994

frequency.

(7)

(8)

(9)
(10)

resulted from the 500 Hz system can been reduced because of the filtering effect of the 500 Hz power converter.
It is easily to connect some energy storage units to the
power converter, therefore the proposed system has
high reliability.
A conventional type of three phase cables ran be employed for the transmission of 500 Hz power in about
20 Km at voltage level of 40 to 50KV. However the
length of the cable varies with several factors such as
the voltage levels and frequency.
Good system voltage regulation can be achieved by
controlling the reactive power of the TSCs.
Unbalanced voltage can be also conipenaatcd by TSC.

42

Line voltage regulation area

An example of the voltage distribution.

0 Experimental results

- - - Theoretical calculation

In addition, the proposed high frequency power can find

many applications both in industrial and commercial utilizations such as ultra-speed motors, induction heating and flnorescent lighting, which will be discussed in detail in another
paper.
In summary, the considerations in design of the higher frequency power system are discussed. Techniques such as voltage regulation and unbalanced voltage compensation are developed. The commercial viability of the proposed higher
frequency power system is shown.

0
4
8
12
20
16
Position of loads from the power source (Km)

Fig.13 Line voltage distribution

with voltage drop compensation

L 5ms
250

Faul t occur red.

(v)

Acknowledgiiieiit
The authors would like to express their appreciation to Mr.
Ikeshita, Mr. Tukahata, and Mr. Sedoguti. Thanks are due
to Ms. Nakamura and the members of the Power Electronics
Laboratory.

References

(a) Two lines short circuit fault.

Fault occurred.

S. Sigeta and 0. Tukamoto, Introduction and Interconnection of Dispersed Power Systems, The Joiirnal of
JIEE, Vo1.107, No.9 Sept.. 1987.

400 (V)

Semiconductor Power Convert Circiiit. JIEE. March.

1987.
Tukahata and I. Takahashi, A 500 Hz Powcr System.
Tech. Commit. of Power Eng., JIEE, PE-84-97, 1984.

B. D. Bedford and R. G. Hoft, Principles of Inverter

Circuits, Jon Wiley Ak Sons, Inc. 1964.
G.J. Su and I. Takahashi, A 500 Hz Power System - A
500Hz voltage source frequency changer, 1989 National
Conv. Record I.E.E. Japan, No.5.

of the power converter.

(b) Line to ground fault.
lOms

Setoguti, Nakano and I. Takahashi, A 500Hz Power System - Line Voltage Compensation by TSC, Tech. Commit. of Power Eng., JIEE, PE-87-51, 1987.

Fault occurred.

I. Takahashi and M. Yamane, Multiparallel Asymmetrical Cycloconverter Having Iiiiproved Power Factor and Waveforms, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl. Vol.lA-22.
Nov./Dec. 1986.
T. Nakamura, G.J. Su and I. Takahashi, A 500 Hz
Power System - Microprocessor Control of the Power
Converter, Record of the 1988 KANSAI-section Joint
Conv. of I.E.E., Japan, Nov. 1988..
Ikeshita and I. Takahashi, A 500 Hz Power System Transmission Line Simulators, Tech. Commit. of Power
Eng., JIEE, PE-86-73, 1986.

(c) One line opened fault.

Fig.14 Transient waveforms a t typical faults.
995