State-of-the-art verification of the hard driven GTO inverter development for a 100 MVA intertie

Abstract

The 100 MVA intertie described is mainly characterised by the following innovations: a hard driven GTO (HD-GTO) with a new housing; series connection of hard driven GTOs; low-inductive high power HD-GTO inverter valves, and fuseless high power HD-GTO inverters. The presented HD-GTO technology allows the robust, reliable and cost-efficient series connection of GTOs. The concept of the 100 MVA intertie, which is based on the HD-GTO technology, is reviewed. The development of the high power HD-GTO inverter module according to a state-of-the-art development process is presented. With the use of a circuit simulator with accurate physical models of the power semiconductors, especially the concept phase, the development phase and the verification phase have been supported.