Open modular power electronics building blocks for utility power system controller applications

This paper explores using modular power electronics building blocks (PEBBs) in building power electronics based controllers for utility systems applications. The analysis of the existing and proposed controller functions identifies three basic PEBB converter functions for power system controllers: bidirectional AC switch, bidirectional AC/DC voltage source converter, and DC/DC converter. An open system hierarchical architecture is proposed to standardize the analysis, characterization and construction of applications based on PEBBs. Case study results on PEBB based STATCOM are presented. This work will allow us to focus on optimizing only limited number of standard PEBB converters to reduce the system cost and improve reliability.