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CONVERTERS AT HINDALCO
These two types of semiconductor converter technologies have been competing with
each other over the last three decades. This research is also based on two types of
converters i.e. diode converter and thyristor converter. In diode based AC/DC
converter system where on load tap changers and saturable Transductors are used for
DC output current regulation and control. While in thyristor converter a firing angle
control is used to regulate the DC output [27].
The pot line 7 is having thyristor based converter system and potline#9 is equipped
with diode based converter system. To carry out a comparative study of practical
aspects of mixed use of diode and thyristor convertor technologies in Aluminium
Smelter the case study was taken at HINDALCO Renukoot Smelters. In India,
HINDALCO Industries Ltd is the only Aluminium producer where both types of
converters are being used at HINDALCO Renukoot and HINDALCO Hirakud
Smelters.
In HINDALCO Smelters, pot lines 7 and 8 are having thyristor convertor system and
remaining 9 pot lines are operating with diode converter technology. The details of all
the convertors of 11 pot lines with their ratings are shown in Table 3.1.
The reason behind the selection of pot line 7 and 9 for this research was that both the
converters are having same current and voltage ratings and procured from the same
supplier i.e. M/S ABB. Pot line 7 is equipped with thyristor converter system while
pot line 9 is having diode converter system.
The pot line 7 has two Rectifier transformers (ABB make), each of 74.3MVA rating
were commissioned in 1995 along with two converter units of 900 V/70KA [28].
The pot line 9 was commissioned in 2001 has two Regulating Transformers of
81.52MVA rating, two Rectifier Transformer of 73.56MVA and two Converter units
of 900V/70KA [29].
A Power diode has two terminals i.e. Anode and Cathode. It is a two layer “p” and
“n” junction device. Basic schematic diagram and symbol is shown in Fig. 3.1.
When an AC wave is supplied to a diode it conducts the current provided the anode is
made positive with respect to cathode then power diode is said to be forward biased.
In this condition the power diode behaves as a closed switch. As the diode voltage is
increased the current will initially be zero until the voltage is less than its threshold
voltage. Threshold voltage is the minimum anode voltage beyond which the diode
current increases rapidly and diode starts conducting. The forward resistance of the
conducting diode is very small. Therefore the forward voltage drop is also very less.
When cathode of power diode is made positive with respect to anode, the diode is said
to be reversed and it behaves as an open circuit.
Diode converters are the simpler form of converters and used as front end converters
in DC power supplies. A simple elementary circuit diagram of a diode converter
system is shown in Fig. 3.2.
Diode Converter System
Diode Converters are the simplest of all converter technologies. There are three basic
types of converters as follows:
The Half wave Converter
The full wave Converter
The bridge Converter
But in Aluminium Smelters bridge converter’s circuits are very popular. Three phase
diode bridge rectification with wave forms of output voltage is explained below in
figure 3.3a & 3.3b.
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Assumptions
(1) Ideal diodes: Von=0
(2) L is very large id is constant
Fig 3.3 (b): Output voltage wave form of three phase diode bridge converter
Diode convertors are the simple form of the converters and used as front end
convertors in DC power supply. The circuit diagram of pot line 9 which is having
diode convertor system is shown in Fig. 3.4.
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As shown in Fig. no. 3.4, there are two number of units i.e. 9A & 9B of 70kA 900V
DC converter systems for pot line 9. Regulating and Rectified Transformers are
designed for total 24 pulse with ±7.5 degree phase shift for each unit. Normally pot
line 9 runs in 24 pulse configuration, in case of the tripping of a converter unit or
being stopped for maintenance then the remaining converter unit can feed 100% load
with 12 pulse configuration only. The harmonic filters are designed by keeping in
view all the operating conditions i.e. 12 pulse and 24 pulse. The case study has been
carried out for 12 pulse configuration keeping 70KA load on unit 9A in this
configuration the fifth and seventh harmonic currents are supressed [6,30].
In pot line #9 two units of 70KA and 900V DC considered for a converter system. At
emergency each of these converter systems can supply 950V DC at 60kA [29].
The description of the major equipment of pot line 9 (diode converter system) is as
follows:
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Voltage control for a Diode converter is achieved by changing the input voltage of the
Regulating Transformer by following means as follows.
1. By using On Load Tap Changer (OLTC) on the primary side of the Regulating
Transformers, by which a rough voltage control can be achieved.
2. The saturable core Transductors control method by introducing variable
impedance into the circuit, ahead of the diode converter. The saturable core
Transductor consists of two windings i.e. DC windings on the centre leg and
AC windings on the outer legs. By varying the control current in the DC
winding the impedance of AC winding can be varied. An increase of DC
control current increases the DC flux and causes the Transductor to operate
with a high level of saturation and correspondingly lower impedance.
Similarly a decrease of control current reduces the DC saturation and increases
the impedance. In this way the effective impedance is controlled to cause
smooth control of output voltage. In pot line 9, OLTC and saturable
Transductor are being used together to have smooth voltage control.
In diode converter system, the tap changer operates in accordance with the upper and
lower limit of a control current for Transductor. A coordinated approach for
Transductors and tap changer is used to control Rectiformer output current.
The tap changing transformer has multiple taps in order to adjust the DC side output
voltage. Each Rectiformer has a unit reference current, which is compared with the
measured current in a closed loop current control. The output measured current of
twelve pulse converter is compared with the reference current and a proportional-
integral (P-I) controller adjusts the control current of the respective Transductor,
thereby maintaining the output current at the desired value. The OLTC operates
outside the controlled current range of Transductors. The Transductor control is used
for smooth control of DC voltage between two OLTC positions so that the frequency
of operation of the tap changer is reduced. The Transductor is designed for 80V for
offering smooth control of the Current and having an overlapping Voltage of 15 V, so
that it avoids spurious changing of taps [33].
As explained by the Fig. 3.5. The voltage control is a mixture of step and linear
regulation. Whenever the regulation is done through Transductors then regulation is
linear. But it is step wise when it is done through OLTC. Some operational problem is
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observed when Transductor reaches its saturation point. Here the linearity of the load
control is not achieved, due to this there are current variations and anode effects.
Whenever there is some disturbance in Smelter the load varies because the combined
philosophy of Transductors and OLTC and it takes some time to maintain a stable
load.
Since the Smelter set point is normally fixed, saturable Transductors are used for fine
control and tap changers for coarse control to operate continuously in closed loop
mode in order to achieve automatic current control [22].
Regardless of their rating, the feature which singles out Rectifier Transformers for
special attention is the problem of harmonic currents created by the Diode and
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Thyristor converters and fed back into the supply system. The problem is taken care
of by using appropriate rating harmonic filter banks.
The Rectifier Transformers differ from normal Power Transformers in many respects,
though they look the same outwardly. A power transformer’s basic role is to either
step up or step down the voltage and transmit power. On the other hand Rectifier
Transformer steps down the voltage and is used with rectifier cubicles to convert AC
power into DC power.
The general expression for direct current Id with the resistive load ‘R’ connected to
Rectifier Transformer with m secondary phases and phase connected to a Diode,
assuming negligible Diode drop and transformer impedance, can be written as:
? JA/? C?DEFGH
B
@A KA/?
dwt
I
C? ? A
=
I
. L
. 6-+ ?
Where Em is peak phase to neutral voltage of the transformer. This is because each
Diode conducts for an interval of 360/m degree [33].
To explain the 12 pulse delta/wye parallel full wave rectifier fed by three phase
winding, six phase transformer with a delta primary along with a delta secondary and
a wye secondary (Ddoyn11). The purpose of this star delta transformer connection is
to introduce a 30° phase shift between the source and bridge [31-32]. This results in
inputs to the two bridges which are 30° apart. The two bridge outputs are similar, but
shifted by 30°. Hence each three phase secondary feeds a six pulse full wave bridge
rectifier and each rectifier is connected in parallel with the load. This configuration is
called a 12 pulse converter [18-19,34]. The purpose of multi-phase rectifiers is to
reduce the magnitude of current THD and improve the power factor.
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Fig. 3.7: 12-pulse output voltage waveform
P total 1.01 P do
PUF 0.99
SUF 0.95
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From the Table 3.2, it is concluded that three phase twelve-pulse-wave bridge rectifier
is the most commonly used rectifier, because it provides a high transformer utility
factor and low ripple factor because the out pulse frequency is twelve times the supply
frequency [35].
For protection, special current limiting Semiconductor fuses are being connected in
series with the semiconductor elements to ensure protection against internal short
circuits by isolating faulty element. The semiconductor fuse will open in the event
when the diode fails and will ensure no interruption of service.
Protection relays are also installed in the local control cubicle to allow safe and
reliable operation. The protective relays release the primary breaker in case of a
serious fault. The converter system is cooled by deionized water.
3.1.2.5 DCCT
DCCT is used to measure the direct current in Aluminium Smelters. DCCT works on
the principle of Hall-Effect. The Hall Effect says –“When electrical current passes
through a sample placed in a magnetic field, a potential proportional to the current
and magnetic field is developed across the material in a direction perpendicular to
both current and to the magnetic field [36]. The DCCTs installed at HINDALCO
Smelter are having high accuracy and works on the closed loop system to measure the
DC bus currents up to 100KA. The DC current measurement system used in Pot line 7
and Pot line 9 is placed on the Main DC bus bar and it consists of two piece
measuring head, a metering unit and two multi-conductor cables. The actual value of
delivered by D.C. metering system is compared with a pre-set (set point) value. The
difference between these two values is used to control an electronic regulator in a
change of the responsible actuator and processed at PHSC to perform current
regulation. The comparison of the DCCTs of pot lines 7 and 9 is shown below in
Table 3.3.
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Table 3.3: Comparison of DC measuring systems of pot line 7 and 9
S.No. Pot Line 7 Pot Line 9
1 Type CM7038 LKP80
2 Measuring Range 100 kA 80kA
3 Voltage Output Signal 1mV/kA, +/- 0.1% 1mV/kA, +/- 0.1%
full scale full scale
4 Current Output signal 1A/5kA, +/- 0.2% 1A/5kA, +/- 0.1%
full scale full scale
This digital regulation offers very accurate and fast responsive control, extensive
converter monitoring, overall system supervision and a most flexible and reliable
operation [9].
All the signals coming from the converter equipment, process sensors and push-
buttons are processed at PHSC (Programmable High Speed Controller) to perform
current regulation, converter equipment control as well as alarm/event indication.
In HINDALCO Aluminium Smelters, the intelligent load management system with
SCADA has been also implemented to provide integration of switchgear, Rectifier
equipment, load management and protection systems in normal as well as in
emergency to avoid interruptions [14].
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and saturable core Transductors. When thyristor converter is fired at a very small
firing angle then it performs similar to a diode using saturable core Transductor
control [1].
It has three terminals namely anode, cathode and gate. It has three junctions viz. J1, J2
and J3 as shown in fig 3.8. As diode, thyristor is also unidirectional device i.e. current
flows from anode to cathode and blocks the current flow from cathode to anode but
thyristor also blocks the current flow from anode to cathode until gate signal is
provided between gate and cathode terminals i.e. gate terminal is controlling terminal
of thyristor.
It is known that diode automatically turns ON at the instant when it becomes forward
biased and turns OFF when it is reverse biased but this is not the case with thyristor,
in spite of being forward biased it conducts only when a gate pulse is impressed on its
gate terminal.
For thyristor a control circuit block is used which generates and supply the gate firing
pulse to each thyristor at the right time in every cycle. The control of the DC output
voltage is obtained by adjusting the “phase” of the gate firing pulse with respect to a
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reference instant. The dc output voltage can be continuously varied from maximum
positive to zero through a delay angle from zero to 90°. At α = 90°, the average load
voltage is zero, the in phase component of input current is zero and the reactive
component of current becomes maximum [31]. This type of control is described as
“phase control.” This phase angle delay is called firing angle. In case of diodes this
firing angle is always is zero.
When anode is made positive with respect to cathode, a thyristor can be turned ON by
any of the following methods.
1. Forward Voltage Triggering.
2. Gate Triggering
3. dv/dt Triggering
4. Temperature Triggering.
5. Light Triggering.
Gate Triggering is the most reliable and efficient method therefore it is most usual
method to turn on the thyristor. In this method, a voltage is applied between gate and
cathode terminals due to which charges are injected into the inner p region. As
charges are injected into the inner p region, magnitude of forward break over voltage
is reduced because depletion layer at junction J2 is reduced. Even when the current
into the gate stops the thyristor continues to allow the current to flow from anode to
cathode.
The voltage regulation is carried out by means of gate control in thyristor converters
which is controlled electronically [7]. For a thyristor converter, the fundamental
component of current lags the respective phase voltage by triggering angle “α” with a
displacement factor of cos (α) [37, 38]. The firing angle delays the start of the
conducting of the current. This affects the active and reactive power taken from the
supply, i.e. the power factor [25]. In pot line 7 thyristor converter also having 12 pulse
converter system as in port line 9. In Fig no. 3.9, the elementary circuit diagram of
fully controlled converter has been shown
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Fig. 3.9: Elementary Circuit diagram of a fully controlled converter
3.2.2 Commutation
The gate has no control over the thyristor once it turns ON, it can be turned OFF only
by reducing its forward anode current to a level below the holding current value.
Switching from the ON-state to the OFF-state is called turn OFF and this technique is
called commutation. A conducting Thyristor gets automatically commuted when a
reverse bias voltage appears across it.
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3) Load commutation
4) Self commutation.
When the line voltage has correct polarity then each thyristor gets commuted
sequentially and this does not require any special force to commutation circuit. The
incoming thyristor gets the incoming supply voltage and outgoing thyristor gets
reverse voltage and gets naturally commuted. The term natural commutation and line
commutation are the same. In industrial applications the line commutation is more
popular. Line commutation is possible when converters are connected to an AC
voltage bus as the alternating voltage is essential to serve the commutating voltage.
Secondly it is also essential that the voltage, which is being used for commutating
voltage, must have polarities that will reverse - bias the outgoing thyristor.
The forced commutation methods are not being used in Aluminium Smelters.
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Fig. 3.10: Single Line Diagram of pot line 7 converter system.
As shown in the figure 3.11 the secondary of the rectifier transformer has wye and
delta group windings. The reason behind this is that when a 12 pulse system is
produced operating two groups of 6 pulse converters having a 30° phase difference in
parallel, the difference of instantaneous output voltage between the 6 pulse converters
causes a cross current to flow. The cross current is determined by the DC output
voltage, magnitude of control delay angle and impedance of the circuit through which
cross current flows [6].
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Fig. 3.11: The Thyristor bridge connection for 12 pulses.
Aluminium Smelters are always rated with the full voltage and full current rating. At
the time of start-up process the numbers of pots are very less and the requirement of
DC output voltage becomes less and the value of firing angle increases as the need of
active power is less and reactive power is quite high and the cross current also
becomes fairly large due to large firing angle [31]. Due to this high cross current,
losses increases and control becomes unstable and local heating increases near the DC
conductors. To avoid this delta group and wye group transformers are separated from
each other in the common tank and in one enclosure to make the impedance large
enough to suppress the cross current. In Thyristor Converters, the firing angle helps to
control the voltage and current. When a thyristor converter is controlled through a
small delay firing angle it performs like a diode converter using saturable Transductor
control. It has fast and smooth output control to the order of milliseconds [6].
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cable designated for each arm to the LTC cards connected on each arm. Each arm of
converter cubicle has four LTC cards in all and the top of them is the master card to which
the firing pulse comes. This firing pulse signal is then communicated to down the line
LTC cards. In the card there are two pulse transformers one for a thyristor and another one
for the firing pulse which are given to the thyristors through these LTC Cards. The ultimate
change in the delay angle is proportional to the control signal. This scheme has an
inherent characteristic, as the rate of change of the firing angle rather than the firing
angle itself is controlled [9]. This system is very much reliable if main controller fails then
second control is available in hot standby.
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