POWER CONVERTER WITH DUAL RING NETWORK CONTROL

• Main Authors: FLANNERY, PATRICK S, TILSTRA, MATTHEW W, OTEMAN, DAVID G, PARNES, GARY STEVEN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 12.10.2016
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; CONTROL OR REGULATION OF ELECTRIC MOTORS, ELECTRIC GENERATORSOR DYNAMO-ELECTRIC CONVERTERS; CONTROLLING TRANSFORMERS, REACTORS OR CHOKE COILS; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; COUNTING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRICITY; GENERATION; MULTIPLEX COMMUNICATION; PHYSICS; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

A method for providing electric power to a power system includes receiving, at a slave node of a power converter having a plurality of slave nodes, a first synchronization signal via a first communication channel, the first synchronization signal purporting to represent a master timing characteristic of a master control node of the converter; receiving, at the slave node of the converter, a second synchronization signal via a second communication channel, the second synchronization signal purporting to represent a master timing characteristic of the master control node of the converter; synchronizing an internal timing characteristic of the slave control node with the master timing characteristic of the master control node using the first synchronization signal; determining that the first synchronization signal is invalid; and synchronizing an internal timing characteristic of the slave control node with the master timing characteristic of the master control node using the second synchronization signal.