SiC-based Power Supply System for Smart Building Application (ART/299CP)

SiC-based Power Supply System for Smart Building Application (ART/299CP)

SiC-based Power Supply System for Smart Building Application (ART/299CP)
ART/299CP
Platform
15 / 01 / 2020 - 14 / 01 / 2022
10,120

Dr Tin Ho LI

1. Design, simulation (in PLECS simulation software), and control method for SiC-based power supply system (SPS), comprising: a) Electrical, thermal, digital control, and structure design and simulation model in PLECS of AC 220Vin/DC 400Vout Adaptive Multilevel converter (AMC) with multiple modules topology; b) Electrical, thermal, digital control, and structure design and simulation model in PLECS of Solid-state DC circuit breaker (SDB); c) Protocol definition and simulation results of communication module; d) Algorithm and operation flowchart of intelligent module for online capacitor monitoring. 2. SPS engineering sample. 3. Performance evaluation & testing results of the sample, comprising: a) Electrical and thermal evaluation, including steady-state and dynamic performances on the AMC and protection logic and speed on the solid-state DC circuit breaker, on the sample and test results; b) Final technical report. 4. For contract service: A design and evaluation report of integrated DC power supply system with engineering samples, for example, AC/DC converter stage and control, DC/DC converter stage and control, communication module, metering module, intelligence module, and system enclosure. SPS Technical Specification: Input voltage: AC220V/50Hz; Input wiring: 1-phaes 3-wire (Live/Neutral/Earth); Output voltage: 400V; Maximum output voltage: 410V; Rated input current: 22.7A; Output voltage deviation: ~5%; Rated output power: 5kW; Rated output current: 12.5A; Efficiency @ rated load: ~97%; Power flow direction: uni-directional; Insolation: non-electrical isolation; Protection: (input side) over current protection, over power protection; over voltage protection; under voltage protection, (output side) over voltage protection; under voltage protection.

Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD)
FEED CO LIMITED [Sponsor]
Shandong Taikai High Voltage Switchgear Co., Ltd. (Contract service) [Sponsor]


This project aims to develop power system platform, namely Power Supply System for smart building application. The key idea is to power a home / building by Direct Current (DC) instead of nowadays Alternating Current (AC). It is because most of the loads / appliances in a building are already driven by DC power with smart city development. The energy source and storage are also changed to DC, such as photovoltaic and battery. Since the buildings are yet powered by AC in general, the conversion process by internal or plug-in power supplies that convert power from AC to DC results in an incremental loss of power due to inherent inefficiencies. However, DC power systems rely on centralized, higher efficiency devices to convert AC to DC power and then distribute to various loads, which can reduce the energy loss dramatically.

ASTRI will build up the SiC-based SPS platform with the key features: i) Adaptive Multilevel Converter (AMC) structure to achieve 97%±0.3% efficiency without fan; ii) Solid-state DC Circuit Breaker (SDB) with fault identification in microsecond µs; iii) preventative maintenance via Online Capacitor Diagnosis (OCD). During the project, theoretical analysis with the assistance of computer simulation and iterative prototyping will be conducted.

With the success of the project, it is anticipated that the DC building power infrastructure technologies will reduce 25% - 67% of electricity loss and ~40% cable cost as compared to nowadays AC building power infrastructure. For commercial buildings with 50,000m2, such as Hong Kong Science Park Phase 2, it can be expected to save 355,000 kWh annually, equivalent to HKD~390K and ~125Tonnes CO2e. Prototypes of this project will be built to verify the mentioned advantages. Demonstration is going to be performed in Hong Kong as well as China, e.g. E&M InnoPortal and Shenzhen.