Thyristor-based current-fed drive with direct power control for permanent magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance generator

This paper proposes a robust and simple direct power control (DPC) of a thyristor-based current-fed drive for generator applications. A current-fed drive and permanent magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance generator (PMa-SynRG) are investigated to deliver 3kW power using a combustion engine. The current-fed drive utilises a thyristor-based three-phase rectifier to convert generator power to DC-link power and a single-phase current-fed inverter to supply a single-phase inductive load. In addition, a new control algorithm is developed based on DPC for the current-fed drive. The DC-link voltage-based DPC is proposed in order to directly control the output power. The goal of the DPC is to maintain the DC-link voltage at the required output power operating point. The DPC has advantages such as a simple algorithm for constant speed operation. Another feature of the developed current-fed drive is its inherent capability to provide generating action by making the PMa-SynRG operates as a generator, rectifying the phase voltages by means of the three-phase rectifier and feeding the power into the load. These features make the current-fed drive a good candidate for driving any type of synchronous generators including the proposed PMa-SynRG.