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Abstract - This paper describes a 6.6-kV battery en- in [5] and [6] would be expensive, bulky, lossy, and prone to
ergy storage system based on a multilevel cascade PWM failure. Modern multilevel converters such as diode-clamped,
(pulse-width-modulation) converter with star configura- flying capacitor, and cascade converters are preferable to tra-
tion. It discusses design concepts with and without a line- ditional transformer-based multipulse converters [7]– [12].
frequency transformer for grid connection. The control Although multilevel cascade converters have been primar-
system consists of SOC(state-of-charge)-balancing control ily investigated for STATCOMs (static synchronous compen-
and fault-tolerant control. The former is indispensable sators) and motor drives [13]– [18], their prominent struc-
for effective utilization of battery energy while the latter ture makes them suitable for energy storage systems using
is required for maintaining continuous operation during a EDLCs (electric double-layer capacitors) and batteries [19]–
converter-cell or battery-unit fault. A 200-V, 10-kW, 3.6- [21]. However, when the cascade converters are used for bat-
kWh laboratory system combining a three-phase cascade tery energy storage systems, SOC (state-of-charge) balancing
PWM converter with nine NiMH (Nickel-metal-hydride) of multiple battery units would be indispensable for achieving
battery units is designed, constructed, and tested to verify stable operation. Besides, fault tolerance would be desirable
the validity and effectiveness of the proposed control sys- for maintaining continuous operation during the occurrence of
tem. a converter-cell or battery-unit fault.
Keywords – BESS (battery energy storage system), cas- B. SOC Balancing of Battery Units
cade converters, fault-tolerant control, SOC (state-of- The SOC of a battery unit is defined by its available capacity
charge) balancing. expressed as a percentage of the maximum available capacity.
A BMS (battery management system) plays an important part
I. INTRODUCTION in estimating the SOC, which is often called the “fuel gauge”
A. Background function. Due to asymmetric battery units, unequal converter-
cell losses, and so on, SOC imbalance may occur among mul-
The use of renewable energy resources such as wind power
tiple battery units in a battery energy storage system based on
and solar power is penetrating more quickly than ever [1]. For
a cascade converter. This may result in the reduction of to-
example, over the past ten years, the global wind power ca-
tal available capacity of the battery units, and may also cause
pacity has grown by an average rate of over 30% annually,
overcharge/overdischarge of a particular battery unit. There-
reaching more than 120 GW by the end of 2008 [2]. How-
fore, SOC balancing is essential.
ever, renewable energy resources are “intermittent” in nature.
Tolbert et al. [22] described a multilevel cascade converter
Their power varies minute by minute under the influence of
using battery units for a motor drive. They discussed a
meteorological fluctuations. Therefore, a large amount of re-
switching-pattern-swapping scheme for achieving SOC bal-
newable energy may produce a bad effect on power system
ancing of the multiple battery units, but did not provide exper-
stability in terms of voltage and frequency [3]. Energy stor-
imental verification. The scheme may be confined to a multi-
age systems [4] are indispensable for successfully integrating
level cascade converter based on SCM (stair-case modulation).
renewable energy sources into power systems.
Moreover, it assumed that the battery units were identical and
Significant advances in battery technologies have spurred
that their initial SOC values were balanced.
interests in energy storage systems based on batteries. Walker
described a 10-MW 40-MWh battery energy storage system C. Fault Tolerance
combining an 18-pulse voltage-source converter with lead-
Fault tolerance is desirable so as to improve both reliability
acid batteries [5]. The dc voltage ranged from 1750 to 2860 V.
and availability [23], [24] of an energy storage system. For-
It used complicated zigzag transformers in order to synthe-
tunately, an energy storage system based on a cascade con-
size a staircase voltage waveform. Miller et al. [6] presented
verter has the potential of maintaining continuous operation at
a 5-MVA 2.5-MWh battery energy storage system using lead-
a reduced or the rated voltage and power during a converter-
acid batteries with a dc-voltage range from 660 to 900 V. It
cell or battery-unit fault. The fault-tolerant operation can be
was based on a pair of six-pulse converters, forming a 12-
achieved;
pulse converter, and three 12-pulse converters were paralleled
to achieve the required power rating. The transformers used 1. by providing a redundant converter cell in each phase,
current. vu3
6 Cell 3 C 6
v DCu3
B. Transformerless System M
A transformer-based system seems more practical at Fig. 3. Experimental system configuration of the 200-V, 10-kW,
present. Nevertheless, a transformerless system may also be 3.6-kWh down-scaled energy storage system based on combination
viable in the next 5-10 years, in which the cascade number of a three-phase cascade PWM converter with a cascade number
and the dc-link voltage would be higher than those in the N = 3, and nine NiMH battery units with a nominal voltage of 72 V.
transformer-based system. Their optimization would be re-
quired to address communication [34] and reliability issues as TABLE I
well as cost and life issues of battery units. It has been shown Circuit parameters of the experimental battery energy
that battery life tends to degrade almost exponentially as the storage system
number of series-connected cells in a battery unit increases.
Although cell balancing [35]– [37] can enhance its life, it is Nominal line-to-line rms voltage VS 200 V
accompanied by an additional cost of cell-balancing hardware. Power rating P 10 kW
Cascade number N 3
Note that this paper does not address cell balancing in a battery
AC inductor LAC 1.2 mH (10%)
unit whereas it discusses SOC balancing among the multiple Background system inductance LS 48 μH (0.4%)
battery units. Starting Resistors R1 , R 2 10 Ω, 20 Ω
Fig. 2 shows a feasible circuit configuration of the 6.6-kV Nominal DC voltage VDC 72 V
transformerless battery energy storage system based on a com- DC capacitor C 16.4 mF
bination of a three-phase cascade PWM converter with a cas- Unit capacitance constant H 38 ms at 72 V
cade number N = 10 and 30 NiMH battery units. The nomi- NiMH battery unit 72 V and 5.5 Ah
nal voltage of a battery unit is 660 V (= 1.2 V×550 cells). An PWM carrier frequency 800 Hz
operating voltage of the battery unit may range from 605 V to Equivalent carrier frequency 4.8 kHz
770 V. With nominal cell voltage at 3.6 V, Li-ion battery unit
on a three-phase, 200-V, 10-kW, 50-Hz base
can reach the same dc voltage with relatively lower number of
battery cells in series and therefore, may be more suitable for
the 6.6-kV transformerless system. General-purpose IGBTs teries would be needed in order to realize the transformerless
rated at 1.2-kV and 200-A may be used as power switching system.
devices. Using phase-shifted unipolar sinusoidal PWM with
a carrier frequency of 1 kHz, the equivalent carrier frequency III. THE 200-V, 10-KW, 3.6-KWH EXPERIMENTAL
would be 20 kHz and the ac voltage results in a 21-level wave- SYSTEM
form in line-to-neutral.
The major advantage of the transformerless system over the A. System Configuration
transformer-based one may be elimination of bulky and heavy Fig. 3 shows the system configuration of an experimen-
line-frequency transformer. This, however, is at the cost of tal battery energy storage system rated at 200 V, 10 kW and
losing electrical isolation. An energy density of the latest bat- 3.6 kWh. Table I summarizes the circuit parameters. The ex-
teries is so high that the consequences of failure can be very perimental system is star-configured and has a cascade num-
dangerous. Adequate measures should be taken to isolate the ber N = 3. Each of the nine converter cells is equipped
battery system from the grid in the event of a grounding fault. with a NiMH battery unit at its dc side. Each battery unit is
Further research and development especially in the field of bat- rated at 72 V and 5.5 Ah, consisting of series connection of
converter cells
Eq. (3) 3 (Fig. 7)
Fiber optics
DCCTs
Nine
200 V BMS
50 Hz Averaging
PT
Eq. (2)
BMS SOC
vBwn
Clustered
vBun
vBvn
∗
2 3 3 id SOC-balancing v0 1
36 iq control N
PWM (Fig. 6)
PLL A/D FPGA p∗
(FPGAs)
q∗
6 v ∗ 18
vSuO v∗
vun
Control
(DSP) vSvO Active- uM Fault- vun ∗
vun
∗
vSwO power vvM 1 vvn tolerant vvn ∗
vvn
p∗ iu ∗
control vwM N vwn
control vwn ∗
vwn
iv Ref. [39] (Fig. 8)
Fig. 4. Control system for the battery energy storage system. iw (n = 1, 2, and 3)
Fig. 5. Control block diagram for the 200-V system with a cascade
60 battery cells, where the dc voltage ranges from 66 V to number N = 3.
84 V. The total rated energy capacity is 13 MJ or 3.6 kWh
(= 72 V × 5.5 Ah × 9). ⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤
Fig. 4 shows the control system of the 200-V system. This SOCu SOCu1 + SOCu2 + SOCu3
⎣ SOCv ⎦ = 1⎣
is based on a fully-digital controller using a DSP (digital sig- SOCv1 + SOCv2 + SOCv3 ⎦ .(3)
3
SOCw SOCw1 + SOCw2 + SOCw3
nal processor) and multiple FPGAs (field programmable gate
arrays). Each battery unit is equipped with the BMS that pro- Similarly, the aim of the individual SOC-balancing control is
vides the functions of monitoring and controlling the respec- to keep each of the three SOC values in a cluster equal to the
tive battery unit to protect it against abnormal conditions. The mean SOC value of the corresponding cluster. That means,
BMS also provides the function of SOC estimation [38], the taking u-phase as an example,
detail of which is beyond the scope of this paper.
The nine H-bridge converter cells are controlled by phase- ΔSOCun = SOCu − SOCun ≈ 0. (4)
shifted unipolar sinusoidal PWM with a carrier frequency of
800 Hz. The resulting line-to-neutral voltage is a seven-level Both the clustered and individual balancing controls are based
waveform with an equivalent carrier frequency of 4.8 kHz (= on feedback control.
2 × 3 cells × 800 Hz). The active-power command is denoted The fault-tolerant control is based on feedforward control
as p∗ in Fig. 4. and achieves the following two functions during a converter-
cell or battery-unit fault;
B. Overview of the Control System
• one is to maintain continuous operation at the rated volt-
Fig. 5 shows the control block diagram of the energy storage age and power, producing a three-phase balanced line-to-
system. The whole control system is divided into the following line ac voltage, and
three sub-controls: • the other is to achieve SOC balancing of all the 3N − 1
1. active-power control healthy battery units.
2. SOC-balancing control Both SOC-balancing control and fault-tolerant control are ex-
3. fault-tolerant control. plained in the following sections.
The active-power control is based on decoupled current con-
trol, which is the same in control method and parameters as IV. SOC-BALANCING CONTROL
that presented in [39]. A. Clustered SOC-Balancing Control
The SOC-balancing control is divided into;
The basic idea of clustered SOC-balancing control is to
• clustered SOC-balancing control, and achieve neutral shift by adding a line-frequency zero-sequence
• individual SOC-balancing control. voltage v0 to the three-phase ac voltages vuM , vvM , and vwM
The aim of the clustered SOC-balancing control is to keep the of the cascade converter. This allows each of the three clus-
mean SOC value of a cluster or phase equal to the mean SOC ters to draw or release an unequal active power without draw-
value of the three clusters. This means, ing negative-sequence current. Note that the idea of zero-
⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤ sequence voltage injection itself is not new. For example,
ΔSOCu SOC − SOCu
⎣ ΔSOCv ⎦ = ⎣ SOC − SOCv ⎦ ≈ 0, Betz et al. [40] investigated the injection of zero-sequence
(1)
voltage/current for capacitor-voltage balancing in a cascade-
ΔSOCw SOC − SOCw
converter-based STATCOM, intended for negative-sequence
where compensation of three-phase line currents.
1 Fig. 6 shows the block diagram of clustered SOC-balancing
SOC = (SOCu + SOCv + SOCw ) (2) control. The SOC differences (ΔSOCu , ΔSOCv , ΔSOCw )
3
Fig. 6. Clustered SOC-balancing control based on zero-sequence Fig. 7. Individual SOC-balancing control between three converter
voltage injection. cells inside each cluster, paying attention to the nth -converter cells.
300 300
(a) (a)
20 ms
300 - 300 Five-level waveform
vuM [V] 0 vuM [V] 0
AA
K
300 A 300 20 ms-
A
vvM [V] 0 A vvM [V] 0
}
Z A
ZA Seven-level waveforms @
I
@ Seven-level waveforms
300 300
vwM [V] 0 vwM [V] 0
(b) (b)
600 600
600 600
(c) (c)
Fig. 15. Experimental voltage waveforms at the ac side of the Fig. 16. Experimental voltage waveforms at the ac side of the
cascade converter during normal operation at 10 kW in discharging. cascade converter during fault-tolerant operation at 10 kW in
(a) four converter-cell ac voltages, (b) three line-to-neutral voltages, discharging. (a) four converter-cell ac voltages, (b) three
and (c) three line-to-line voltages. line-to-neutral voltages, and (c) three line-to-line voltages.