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This paper illustrates a formulation of a continuous state space model in dq frame of the Thyristor Controlled Reactor (TCR), which can be used for stability studies by eigenvalue analysis. Differently from the previous approaches, this model is just addressed to reproduce the operation of the non-linear part of the TCR system, without considering shunted capacitor or control system, thus obtaining a characterization of the TCR independent from the application. A typical problem of the continuous models in dq frame of the TCR system is the presence of an un-damped homogenous current component in the solution, which is inconsistent with the real operation; the proposed model solves this problem improving the accuracy. The model performance has been also evaluated in the frequency domain comparing the obtained results with a numerical simulation of the TCR implemented by PSIM program.

The ITER large power supplies of the superconducting magnets and heating and current drive systems, fed by the Pulsed Power Electrical Network, can absorb from the grid active and reactive power up to 500 MW and 950 Mvar respectively. In this paper, a new analytical approach based on the state space formulation is proposed to investigate the dynamic stability of such complex system, including the main power components and their control, with the aim of identifying possible instability phenomena due to interactions among the ac/dc converters, reactive power compensation systems and related controllers. This model describes the dynamics of the main components of the ITER pulsed power supply systems and it is based on small signal approach to tackle the non linearity of the ac/dc conversion and reactive power compensation systems; the discrete phenomena have been approximated by continuous transfer functions, so the linear control theory can be applied for the stability analysis, making this method very effective and fast. Moreover a modular approach is adopted; thus this analytical model can be also easily adapted to other similar electrical power systems.

The ITER pulsed power electrical network (PPEN) supplies the superconducting magnets and the heating and current drive systems. During the experimental pulses, about several hundreds of seconds long, active power consumption of 500 MW and reactive one of 950 Mvar are expected. The ITER power supply system is very large and complex, and a careful design is required to assure a safe operation. Stability of ITER PPEN has been already investigated in recent studies by numerical simulation and analytical methods. Now, a new dynamic analytical model of the ITER power supply system is being developed, based on the state-space theoretical approach, which allows the application of the linear control theory to study the stability of the whole system. For each subsystem of the ITER power supply, a state-space model was developed, and in this paper, the ac/dc converter model is presented and validated for six and twelve pulse operation, and circulating current mode.

The ITER experiment is an international project that aims to prove the viability of energy production by a nuclear fusion reactor. The fusion reactions are achieved by heating a plasma up to million of Celsius degree and confining it by means of appropriate magnetic fields, which interact with the charged particles of the plasma. In ITER the magnetic fields will be produced by the currents flowing in the superconducting coils supplied by ac/dc converters based on thyristor technology. The ITER power supply system may consume a total active and reactive power respectively up to 500 MW and 950 Mvar; a Static Var Compensation system with nominal power of 750 Mvar based on Thyristor Controlled Reactor + Tuned Filter (as fixed capacitor) was selected to reduce the reactive power demand from the grid. In this paper an analytical approach has been considered to study the interactions between the ITER power supply system and the grid, taking the starting points from the methods developed for the HVDC applications, which is a large scale thyristor based converter system usually installed with reactive power compensation equipment. This model aims to evaluate the strength of the electrical network feeding the ITER power supply system by sensitivity analysis allowing the calculation of some index as the Critical Short Circuit Ratio and the Voltage Sensitivity Factor.

This paper describes the development and validation of an innovative protection system based on medium-voltage fuses for a high-power switching conversion system. This special conversion system, rated to deliver about 56 MW to the load, is based on neutral-point clamped IGCT inverters, connected to the same dc link through a set of distributed busbars, with a dc-link voltage of 6.5 kV and a capacitive stored energy up to 837 kJ. The sudden release of this energy in case of a switch failure in one inverter and the subsequent short circuit of one leg can lead to destructive consequences. From the analysis of different protection strategies, performed by numerical simulations of the fault evolutions, the developed solution based on medium-voltage fuses was found the only provision able to cope with such high stored energy and uncommon circuit topology. Custom fuses were developed for this application, and a specially tailored test was designed for validating the fuse selection. The paper, after summarizing the work carried out to simulate the fault evolution and select the protection, presents the analyses carried out to set up the validation test, and describes and discusses the results of the test and the complementing numerical simulations, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the protection system.