This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been

fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/TPEL.2015.2397172, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
1

Multiport DC-DC Autotransformer for Interconnecting

Multiple High Voltage DC Systems at low Cost
Weixing Lin, Member IEEE, Jinyu Wen*, Member IEEE and Shijie Cheng, Fellow, IEEE

 Commutated Converters (LCC) HVDC lines in operation. By

Abstract—This paper proposes a multiport dc-dc using DC-DC transformers, it may be possible to interconnect
autotransformer (multiport dc auto) that is used to interconnect these existing DC schemes with new Voltage Source
multiple HVDC systems with different voltage levels. The Converter (VSC) HVDC converters to form hybrid
multiport dc auto is able to reduce 50%-80% the converter cost multi-terminal HVDC systems [9].
compared with conventional dc-ac-dc technology. Different from A number of dc-dc converters dedicated for HVDC
the conventional dc-ac-dc technology using magnetic coupling at
application have been studied in the literature [10]-[20].
the ac sides of the converters, there is direct electrical connection
between the interconnected dc systems in the multiport dc auto.
Reference [10] compares the cost and performance of the
Such direct electrical interconnection significantly reduces the multilevel modular dc converter [11] and the modular dc-dc
used power converters in the multiport dc auto. Taking converter constructed by serial connection of multiple
interconnecting a ±250kV, ±320kV and ±400kV dc system with dual-active bridge units (DAB) [12]. Results show that the
the rated exporting/importing dc power at each of the dc system modular dc-dc converter based on DAB employs lower
being 500MW, 1000MW and 1500MW as an example, the amount of semiconductors than the multilevel modular dc
conventional multiport dc-ac-dc technology requires a total of converter of [11]. The DAB is a conventional dc-ac-dc
3000MW power converters while only 775MW power converter technology that all the transferred power requires a two stage
is required in the multiport dc-dc autotransformer. The required
ac/dc converting.
power converter in the multiport dc-dc autotransformer is only
26% of the converter used in the conventional multiport dc-ac-dc
High power high voltage DC/DC converter based on
technology. Cost and operating power loss is therefore inductor-capacitor-inductor (LCL) resonant circuit were
significantly reduced. proposed in [13]-[15]. The LCL DC/DC converter is able to
achieve high voltage stepping ratio without the need of AC
Index Terms— DC power systems, DC power transmission, transformers. Because of the removal of AC transformers, the
DC-DC power conversion, HVDC converters, HVDC LCL DC/DC converter can be built by constructing two
transmission modular multilevel converters (MMC) and link the AC
I. INTRODUCTION terminals of these two MMC using the LCL circuit. The LCL
DC/DC converter is able to achieve high operating frequency
With the increasing size of offshore power parks and the
around kHz without the capacity limit of AC transformer.
need for new interconnectors, there has be growing interest in
While for the modular dc-dc converter based of DAB, a
developing DC grids in the Europe [1]-[5]. The Future
modularized structure is required as there is an upper power
European Super Grid will be developed using DC
rating limit of each single high frequency AC transformer.
transmission as the AC transmission is already highly
Despite the above advantages, the LCL DC/DC converter is
congested and incapable of integrating the intermittent nature
still a conventional dc/ac/dc technology that all of the
of renewable energy sources [1]- [5]. In other countries such
transferred dc power will subject to a two stage ac/dc
as China, large numbers of HVDC lines are now operating as
converting.
point-to-point links. There would be significant operational
The dc/dc converter presented in [16] using medium
and cost benefit if these lines could be interconnected or
frequency AC transformer is also a conventional dc-ac-dc
tapped on DC side [6].
technology. In the conventional dc-ac-dc technology, the total
A DC grid requires significant investment and will likely be
required power converter is twice the amount of the
completed in steps over many years [1]-[4]. A possible
interchanged power. As all the transferred power needs a two
scenario is to first build point-to-point HVDC and regional
stage ac/dc converting, power loss of the conventional
multi-terminal HVDC systems which later may be connected
technology is high. Total power rating of the AC link is also
and integrated to form a large DC grid [1]-[4].
high.
As technology progresses, the planned HVDC links will be
A recent progress of the dc-dc transformer without full
operating at different DC voltages from the existing ones [7]-
dc-ac-dc converting has been developed in [17]-[20]. They are
[9]. DC-DC transformers are required to interconnect different
mainly developed from the idea of using the lower voltage dc
DC voltage levels. There are also many conventional Line
system to share part of the converter arms of a higher voltage
MMC. The technologies presented in [17]-[20] are
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science economically competitive to interconnect two dc systems of
Foundation of China 51377067
The authors are with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
different voltage ratings.
Huazhong University of Science and China, Wuhan, 430074, China To interconnect multiple dc systems of different voltage
(weixinglin@[Link]; [Link]@[Link] (corresponding); sjcheng ratings, one way is to interconnect each of the two dc systems
@[Link]). by use of dc-dc converters. Such method requires large

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number of dc-dc converters and the interchanging power B. Topology of the multiport dc-dc autotransformer
between different dc systems are not flexible. Another way is Fig. 2 shows the circuit diagram of the proposed multiport
to use multiport dc-dc transformer. dc-dc autotransformer (multiport dc auto). A 3-port dc
A number of multiport dc-dc transformer have been autotransformer is illustrated. It is used to interconnect three
proposed in the literature [21]-[27], but they are not dedicated dc systems with voltage levels E1, E2 and E3, E1<E2<E3.
for use at the HVDC level but mainly dedicated to be use at The 3-port dc auto is mainly composed by serial connection
distribution level for integration of distributed renewable of 5 VSC converters VSC1- VSC5. DC terminals of VSC3 are
sources, electric vehicles, energy storage or PV panels. connected to the dc terminals of E1. The positive terminal of
The multiport dc-dc transformer based on multiport AC VSC2 and negative terminal of VSC4 are respectively
transformer of [27] can be extended to be used at HVDC level connected to the positive and negative terminal of E2. The
if high power high voltage ratings multiport AC transformers positive terminal of VSC1 and negative terminal of VSC5 are
are used. Though, it is still conventional multiport dc-ac-dc respectively connected to the positive and negative terminal of
technology. E3. Depending on the application field, the VSC converters
The multiport LCL DC hub proposed in [28] is able to be can employ the conventional 2-level/3-level VSC topology or
used at the HVDC level. It employs an inductor-capacitor MMC topology.
-inductor (LCL) circuit to interconnect AC terminals of AC terminals of VSC1-VSC5 are connected to a common
multiple voltage source converters (VSC) of the same or AC bus Bus through certain AC components such as
different voltage levels. Power transfer between the transformer or phase reactor. Since VSC1, VSC2, VSC4 and
interconnected dc systems requires a full dc-ac-dc converting VSC5 employ asymmetrical monopole topology, a Y/Δ
(two-stage ac/dc). connected transformer is used to interface AC terminals of
In order to provide link between multiple dc systems of these converters to eliminate the dc bias at the dc side.
different voltage levels at relatively low cost, a multiport dc-dc Comparing Fig. 2 with Fig. 1, we can see that there is direct
autotransformer technology that can significantly reduce the electrical connection between E1, E2 and E3 through the dc
used power converter is proposed in this paper. sides of the VSC converters, while there is only magnetic
II. BASIC TOPOLOGIES coupling in the conventional dc-ac-dc technology.
A. Topology of the conventional multiport dc-ac-dc converter idc3
VSC1
Fig. 1 shows the topology of a conventional multiport dc-dc
converter employing the dc-ac-dc converting technology. It is iac1 k :1
used to interconnect four dc systems with voltages E1 -E4. The 1 idc2
four dc systems are simply represented by dc voltage sources. VSC2 ivsc2
Four converters (preferably VSC converters) are used to
respectively link the dc side of the 4 dc systems. AC sides of iac2
the VSC converters are connected through AC link. Depends idc1
Bus VSC3 ivsc3
on the employed technology, the AC link could employ a k:1
multiport LCL circuit[28], multiple port AC transformer[27] Vdc1 E1 Vdc2 E2 Vdc3 E3
or multiple two-port AC transformers connected at the AC iac3
sides[16]. VSC4
u
Taking E1 and E2 transferring power to E3 and E4 as an
example, the transferred power will be firstly converted from
dc to ac by VSC1 and VSC2, transferred to AC side of VSC3 iac4
and VSC4 through ‘AC Link’ and then rectified from ac to dc VSC5
by VSC3 and VSC4. All the transferred power needs a
two-stage ac/dc converting. The total required power iac5
converters and the power loss of such technology are high.
The linking through AC transformer is known as magnetic Fig. 2. Circuit diagram of a 3-port dc-dc autotransformer
coupling, there is no direct electrical connection between the
dc systems. In practical application, MMC is preferred to be used at
each of the VSC converters. Detailed circuit diagram of a
E1 E3 3-port dc autotransformer employing MMC is shown in Fig. 3.
In Fig. 3, each arm of the MMC is represented by a half bridge
VSC1 VSC3
sub-module. Positive terminal and negative terminal of the 5
AC Link
VSC converters are successively connected in series. AC
E4 output of the MMC converters are connected to a 3-phase
E2
common AC Bus through AC transformer or phasor inductors.
VSC2 VSC4 Fig. 4 further illustrates the circuit diagram of a 4-port dc-dc
Fig. 1. Circuit diagram of conventional multiport dc-dc converter autotransformer. In total 7 VSC converters are used. The
circuit diagram appears more complex than the conventional

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4-port dc-ac-dc technology shown in Fig. 1. It will be

demonstrated later in the paper that the total used power idc4
VSC1
converters in the multiport dc auto is only around 30% the
used power converters in the conventional multiport dc-ac-dc iac1
technology.
idc3
C. DC voltage rating of each of the VSC converters in the VSC2
multiport dc auto
From the topology of the 3-port dc-dc autotransformer iac2
shown in Fig. 2, dc voltage ratings of the 5 VSC converters VSC3 idc2
can be respectively dimensioned as
E  E2 iac3
EVSC1  EVSC 5  3 VSC4
idc1
2 Bus
k:1
E  E1 Vdc1 E1 Vdc2 E2 Vdc3 E3 Vdc4 E4
EVSC 2  EVSC 4  2 (1) iac4
2 u VSC5
EVSC 3  E1
iac5
VSC6

iac6
VSC1 VSC7

iac7

Fig. 4. Circuit diagram of a 4-port dc-dc autotransformer

D. Power flow conclusion of two-port dc-dc autotransformer

Power flow conclusion of two-port dc-dc autotransformer
will firstly be summarized to derive the power flow in a
VSC2 multiport dc auto. Fig. 5 shows the topology of a two-port
dc-dc autotransformer. For better elaboration, the three
converters are labeled as CON1, CON2 and CON3 in the
two-port dc-dc autotransformer. Suppose E1 transfers PN
power to E2, output dc current of E1 is therefore idc1=PN/E1.
The dc current injecting into E2 is idc2=PN/E2. From the
Kirchhoff’s Current Law, the dc current flowing into CON2 is
VSC3 (idc1-idc2).The power inverted by CON2 is therefore:
E1 E2 E3
E
Bus Pcon 2  E1 (idc1  idc 2 )  PN (1  1 ) (2)
E2
CON1 idc2

iac1
VSC4
idc2 idc1
Bus CON2 idc1-idc2
k:1
E1 E2
iac2
u CON3

VSC5 iac3

Fig. 5. Circuit diagram of two-port dc autotransformer

Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of a 3-port dc-dc autotransformer employing 3-phase

modular multilevel converter

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As the power flows into the AC Bus equals the power flows The inverted power of VSC 1 and VSC5 for Pdc2 are
out of Bus, the power rectified by CON1 and CON3 is half the P E
value of the power inverted by CON2. Therefore, P12 to 3  P52 to 3  dc 2 (1  2 ) (12)
2 E3
P E
Pcon1,3  N (1  1 ) (3) Adding up (4), (6)-(7), (9)-(11) and (12) for each individual
2 E2 VSC converter, the net inverted power of each VSC converter
are
P P E
III. DECOMPOSED POWER FLOW ANALYSIS OF MULTIPORT Pac1  Pac 5   dc1 dc 2 (1  2 ) (13)
DC AUTO 2 E3
A. Decomposition of the dc power transferred from E1 to E3 Pdc1 E2  E1 Pdc 2 ( E2  E1 )( E3  E2 )
From the power flow conclusion of two port dc-dc Pac 2  Pac 4    (14)
2 E3 2 E2 E3
autotransformer, a decomposed power flow analysis for the
multiport dc auto will be firstly proposed in this section. E1 E P E
Pac 3  Pdc1 (1 
)  1 dc 2 (1  2 ) (15)
Denote the power transferred from E1 to E3 as Pdc1. For this E3 E 2 2 E3
component of dc power, the 3-port dc auto shown in Fig. 2 can C. Demonstration of decomposed power flow analysis
be viewed as a 2-port dc auto. The serial connection of VSC1 For the test 3-port dc auto with its rated dc voltage and dc
and VSC2 functions as CON1 in the 2-port dc auto. The serial power of each port listed in Table 2 of the appendix, there are
connection of VSC4 and VSC5 in Fig. 2 functions as CON3. 4 rated operating scenarios.
VSC3 functions as a CON2. (a) E1 exports 500MW power, E2 exports 1000MW power
According to (2), for Pdc1, the power inverted by VSC3 is (b) E1 exports 500MW power, E2 imports 1000MW power
E1 (c) E1 imports 500MW power, E2 exports 1000MW power
P31to3  Pdc1 (1  ) (4)
E3 (d) E1 imports 500MW power, E2 imports 1000MW power
Where the superscript ‘1to3’ indicates E1 transferring dc power Case (a) and case (d) are duality cases while case (b) and (c)
to E3, the subscript ‘3’ denotes VSC3. are also duality cases.
The power inverted by VSC1, VSC2 and VSC4, VSC5 Fig. 6 shows the decomposed power flow analyzing result
because of Pdc1 are the same and expressed as of the 3-port dc auto. Each VSC converter is denoted as a
1 E numbered box. The solid lines denote the power flow due to E1
P121to 3  P451to 3   Pdc1 (1  1 ) (5) exporting/importing 500MW dc power while the dashed lines
2 E3 denote the power flow due to E2 exporting/importing
In (5), the negative sign means that direction of the AC power 1000MW dc power.
is actually rectifying not inverting. The share of VSC1, VSC2, In Fig. 6(a), for the 500MW dc power transferred from E1 to
VSC4 and VSC5 for the power of (5) is proportional to the dc E3, 312.5MW will be transferred by the direct electrical
voltage ratings of each VSC converter illustrated in (1), connection. The remaining 187.5MW will firstly be inverted
therefore, by VSC3 and then rectified by VSC1, VSC2 and VSC4,
E  E2 1 E VSC5.
P11to 3  P51to 3   3 Pdc1 (1  1 ) (6)
E3  E1 2 E3 In Fig. 6(a), for the 1000MW dc power transferred from E2
to E3, 800MW will be transferred from E2 to E3 by the direct
E2  E1 1 E
P21to3  P41to3   Pdc1 (1  1 ) (7) electrical connection while the remaining 200MW will firstly
E3  E1 2 E3 be inverted by VSC2-VSC4 and then rectified by VSC1 and
B. Decomposition of the dc power transferred from E2 to E3 VSC5.
Denote the dc power transferred from E2 to E3 as Pdc2. For We can see from the above analysis that the majority of the
Pdc2, the serial connection of VSC2 – VSC4 of Fig. 2 functions power transfer in a multiport dc-dc autotransformer is
as CON2 of Fig. 5 while VSC1 and VSC5 respectively achieved by the direct electrical connection.
functions as CON1 and CON3 of Fig. 5. The total inverted Fig. 6(b) and (c) shows the decomposed power flow
power of the serial connection of VSC2-VSC4 for the Pdc2 analyzing result of operating case(b) and case(c) for the 3-port
component is dc autotransformer.
E D. Dimensioning of the power rating of VSC converters from
2 to 3
P234  Pdc 2 (1  2 ) (8) the decomposed power flow analysis
E3
For case (a), the two AC power components for VSC1,
The share of VSC2, VSC3 and VSC4 for (8) is
VSC3 and VSC5 are in the same direction, therefore, power of
E  E1 E
P22to3  2 Pdc 2 (1  2 ) (9) VSC1, VSC3 and VSC5 in this case reach the maximum
2E2 E3 values. Power rating of VSC1, VSC3 and VSC5 can therefore
E E be dimensioned as 150MW, 343.75MW and 150MW.
P32to3  1 Pdc 2 (1  2 ) (10) For case(b) and (c), the two AC power components for
2E2 E3
VSC2 and VSC4 are in the same direction, therefore, power
E  E1 E
P42to3  2 Pdc 2 (1  2 ) (11) ofVSC2 and VSC4 in these operating cases reach the
2E2 E3 maximum values. Power ratings of VSC2 and VSC4 are the

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same and dimensioned as 65.625MW. Results of P1  P2  P3

dimensioning the power and voltage rating of each of the VSC iVSC1  (16)
E4
converter in the test 3-port dc auto are listed in Table 2 in the
appendix. P1  P2  P3 P3
iVSC 2   (17)
E4 E3
100 1500 P1  P2  P3 P3 P2
iVSC 3    (18)
50 1 80kV E4 E3 E2
21.875 1000 P1  P2  P3 P3 P2 P1
2
iVSC 4     (19)
43.75 70kV E4 E3 E2 E1
156.25 500 The power rectified by VSC1-VSC4 are therefore
187.5 3 500kV 312.5 800 calculated as,
E  E3 E4  E3
21.875 PVSC1  iVSC1 4  ( P1  P2  P3 ) (20)
4 70kV 2 2 E4
43.75
E3  E2 E3  E2 P1  P2  P3 P3
100 PVSC 2  iVSC 2  (  )
5 80kV 2 2 E4 E3
50 (21)
E  E2 E  E2 E  E2 E3  E2
 3 P1  3 P2  ( 3  ) P3
(a) 2 E4 2 E4 2 E3 2 E4
500 500 E2  E1 E2  E1 P1  P2  P3 P3 P2
100 100 PVSC 3  iVSC 3  (   )
1 1 2 2 E4 E3 E2
50 50 (22)
E  E1 E  E1 E2  E1 E  E1 E2  E1
21.875 1000 21.875 1000  2 P1  ( 2  ) P2  ( 2  ) P3
2 2 E4 2 E2 2 E4 2 E3 2 E4
43.75 43.75 2
P1  P2  P3 P3 P2 P1
156.25 500 156.25 500  PVSC 4  iVSC 4 E1   E1 (    )
3 E4 E3 E2 E1
187.5 187.5 3 (23)
E1 E E E E
21.875 21.875  (1 ) P1  ( 1  1 ) P2  ( 1  1 ) P3
4 E4 E2 E4 E3 E4
43.75 4
43.75 B. Dimensioning Power Rating Using Direct Power Flow
100 100 Analysis
50 5 5 Equations (20)-(23) subject to the following conditions,
50
P1  P1N
(b) (c)
Fig. 6. Decomposed power flow analyzing result of a 3-port dc auto P2  P2 N (24)
P3  P3 N
IV. DIRECT POWER FLOW ANALYSIS OF MULTIPORT DC-DC
P1  P2  P3  P4N (25)
AUTOTRANSFORMER
Where P1N, P2N, P3N and P4N are respectively the maximum
A. Direct power flow analysis
exported/imported power of E1, E2, E3 and E4.
The decomposed power flow analysis is able to indicate the
For (20), the coefficients before P1, P2 and P3 are all
flow of each component of the dc power. However, it is not
positive values. Therefore, when |P1+P2+P3|=P4N, PVSC1
mathematically rigorous. For a 4-port test dc autotransformer
with its rated dc power and dc voltages listed in Table 4, there
reaches the maximum value.
exist lots of operating cases. It is complex to get intuitive For (21), if P1 and P2 are in the same direction, P3 of the
decomposed power flow diagram as shown in Fig. 6 to opposite direction, and in the meantime (25) is satisfied,
dimension power rating of each VSC converter. A direct PVSC2 reaches its maximum value.
power flow analysis is therefore proposed in this section. For (22), if P2 and P3 are in the same direction, P1 of the
Fig. 7 shows the general diagram for direct power flow opposite direction and (25) is satisfied, PVSC3 reaches its
analysis of a 4-port dc autotransformer. Denote the exported maximum value.
dc power from E1, E2 and E3 as P1, P2 and P3. The output dc For (23), if P1, P2 and P3 are of the same direction and the
currents of E1, E2 and E3 are therefore P1/E1, P2/E2 and P3/E3. larger the coefficient, the higher the values of P1, P2 or P3,
The dc current injecting into E4 is therefore (P1+P2+P3)/E4. PVSC4 reaches its maximum value.
From the Kirchhoff’s Current Law, DC current flowing
through VSC1-VSC4 are

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P1  P2  P3 D. Cost and Loss Comparison with Conventional multiport

E4 DC-AC-DC system
P1ac 1 (E4-E3)/2 Power loss in the multiport dc-ac-dc and multiport dc-dc
P1  P2  P3 P autotransformer are mainly composed by the losses at the
 3 P3 / E3
E4 E3 MMC and losses at the transformer/phase reactor. Losses of
P2ac 2 (E3-E2)/2 MMC are mainly composed by valve conduction loss, valve
switching loss and arm inductor conduction. Losses of the
P1  P2  P3 P P
 3  2 P2 / E2 transformer are mainly composed by the winding conduction
E4 E3 E2
loss and core loss. Losses of the phasor reactor are mainly
P3ac 3 (E2-E1)/2 composed by winding conduction loss as air core instead of
P1  P2  P3 P P P iron core inductor will be used. According to the research
 3  2  1 P1 / E1
E4 E3 E2 E1 results of [16], power loss ratio of a MMC converter, the
4 E1 E1 E2 E3 E4 transformer loss and the phasor reactor loss are typically
P4ac
0.48%, 0.48% and 0.41% at 50Hz.
For the test 3-port dc auto with its power flow shown in Fig.
5, the rightmost third and fourth column of Table 1 compares
5 (E2-E1)/2 the power loss ratio of the multiport dc-dc autotransformer and
the conventional multiport dc-ac-dc technology. Only the
operating case (a) and case (b) are analyzed as case(c) and case
(d) are duality cases of case (a) and case (b). For the 3-port
6 (E3-E2)/2
dc-dc autotransformer, the VSC3 has highest power rating. To
reduce the cost of AC transformers, VSC3 is connected to the
AC common bus through phasor reactor while the other VSC
7 (E4-E3)/2 converters are connected to the AC common bus through AC
transformers.
Fig. 7. General diagram for power flow analysis of 4-port dc auto For the 3-port dc-ac-dc system, the VSC converter
interfacing the ±400kV dc grid has the highest power rating. It
C. Case Study of Dimensioning power rating using direct is connected to the AC common bus through phasor reactor
power flow analysis while VSC converters interfacing the ±250kV and ±320kV dc
Substitute the rated dc voltages of Table 4 into (20)-(23), we grids are connected to the AC common bus through AC
have transformers.
PVSC1  0.1( P1  P2  P3 ) (26) In Table 1, Pdc1, Pdc2 and Pdc3 are respectively the output dc
power of E1, E2 and E3, which are rectified/inverted by the
PVSC 2  0.08( P1  P2 )  0.02P3 (27) VSC converters in the multiport dc-ac-dc. PVSC1-PVSC5 are the
PVSC 3  0.07 P1  0.039375P2  0.0175P3 (28) inverted power of VSC1-VSC5 in the dc autotransformer.
 PVSC 4  0.5P1  0.28125P2  0.125P3 (29) We can see from the rightmost third and fourth column of
Table 1 that power loss ratio of the multiport dc auto is
significantly lower than multiport dc-ac-dc, typically only
For (26), if P1+P2+P3=2000MW, PVSC1 reaches its
20% of the conventional dc-ac-dc technology for the 3-port
maximum value of 200MW.
test dc-auto with its parameters shown in Table 2.
For (27), if P1=700MW, P2=1000MW and P3=-1300MW,
Power loss ratio of the multiport dc autotransformer and
PVSC2 reaches its maximum value of 162MW.
dc-ac-dc are respectively calculated by (30) and (31) Where
For (28), if P1=700MW, P2=-1000MW and P3=-1300MW,
1500 is the rated transferred power of the multiport dc-dc
PVSC3 reaches its maximum value of 132.125MW.
converter.:
For (29), if P1=700MW, P2=1000MW and P3=300MW,
For a test 3-port conventional dc-ac-dc with rated dc power
PVSC4 reaches its maximum value of 668.75MW.
of each port shown in Table 2, a total of 3000MW power
The design results of the 4-port test dc auto are listed in
Table 5 in the appendix. A total of 5000MW power converter converters are required to enable each port freely interchange
is required for a 4-port conventional dc-ac-dc technology power with each other port. While as listed in Table 3, the
while only 1657MW power converter is required for the overall required power converters in the 3-port dc auto is only
multiport dc-dc autotransformer technology. The total 775MW.
required power converter for the multiport dc auto is only 33%
of the conventional dc-ac-dc technology.
( P  PVSC 2  PVSC 4  PVSC 5 )(0.48  0.48)  ( PVSC 3 )(0.48  0.41)
 auto  VSC1 (30)
1500
( Pdc1  Pdc 2 )(0.48  0.48)  ( Pdc3 )(0.48  0.41)
dc ac dc  (31)
1500

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Table 1 Comparison of the power loss ratio and cost

Power loss ratio Converter cost

Pdc1 Pdc2 Pdc3 PVSC1 PVSC2 PVSC3 PVSC4 PVSC5
Case
(MW) (MW) (MW) (MW) (MW) (MW) (MW) (MW)
DC-AC-DC DC Auto DC-AC-DC DC Auto

(a) 500 1000 -1500 -150 -21.875 343.75 -21.875 -150 0.42% 1.85%
330 M€ 85.3 M€
(b) 500 -1000 500 50 -65.625 31.25 -65.625 50 0.17% 1.26%

According to the estimated price disclosed in [31]-[33], ensure secure operating of the VSC converters, inner current
price of each 1GW AC/DC VSC converter is 110M€. control loop is also added in Fig. 8.
Therefore, a total of 330 M€ is required for the conventional Udpu
Idref1
dc-ac-dc technology while only 85.3 M€ is required for the Udref
PI PI
Md1
3-port dc autotransformer technology. Firing
Udpu Idpu1
It should be noted that the above cost comparison is a rough Lpu1 Firing Pulses
comparison, as it does not consider the number of VSC
Lpu1 Logic
converters but only consider the power rating of the VSC
converters. Nevertheless, the rough cost comparison indicates Uqref Iqpu1 Mq1
PI PI
that the multiport dc auto technology is promising to Iqref1
Uqpu Uqpu1
significantly reduce the cost of conventional multiport θ
dc-ac-dc. 50Hz VCO
V. CONTROL OF THE MULTIPORT DC-DC AUTOTRANSFORMER Fig. 8. Control diagram of VSC1

A. Control of the common bus AC voltage

B. Control of the dc power
AC voltage of the AC common bus of the multiport dc auto
Taking the 3-port dc auto shown in Fig. 2 as an example, if
needs to be controlled to enable stable operating of the
the d component of iac2 is kept constant, iVSC2 is kept constant.
multiport dc auto. For the 3-port dc-dc autotransformer shown
Since idc1=iVSC3-iVSC2, if iVSC3 is increased, idc1 can be increased
in Fig. 2, VSC1 and VSC5 are used to control the common AC
therefore dc output power of E1 can be increased. Since
bus voltage since they are interfacing E3 which has the highest
E1iVSC3=1.5UdId3, by increasing Id3, idc1 can be increased, the
voltage and power ratings. VSC3 is used to control the dc
output dc power of E1 can therefore be increased.
output power of E1 while VSC2 and VSC4 are used to control
Fig. 9 shows the control diagram of VSC3. VSC3 is used to
the dc output power of E2.
control the dc output power of E1.
Alternatively, other control modes can be used, such as
In Fig. 9, Pdcpu1 is the output dc power of E1 in per unit
using VSC3 to control the AC voltage u or using VSC2 and
values. Id3 and Iq3 are the dq components of the AC current iac3.
VSC4 to control u.
Iqref3 is set to zero to reduce the reactive power circulating of
With the dc voltage drop on the dc lines neglected,
VSC3. VSC2 and VSC4 are installed with similar dc power
dynamics of the AC link of VSC1 is
controller as Fig. 9.
E3  E2 d Pdcpu1 Idref3 Udpu
Md3
M d1 k1  U cd 1  ( R1  L1 ) I d 1  o LI q1  U d PI PI
2 dt
(32) Firing
E3  E2 d Pdcref1 Idpu3
M q1 k1  U cq1  ( R1  L1 ) I q1  o LI d 1  U q Lpu3 Firing Pulses
2 dt Iqpu3 Logic
Lpu3
Where Ud and Uq are the d and q components of the AC Bus Mq3
PI
voltage u. Ucd1 and Ucq1 are the output AC voltage of VSC1 in Iqref3 =0
the dq frame when reflected to the Bus side of the transformer. Uqpu θ
Id1 and Iq1 are the dq components of the AC current iac1, k1 is Fig. 9. Diagram of dc power controller
the turn ratio of the transformer, Md1 and Mq1 are the dq
modulation indexes of VSC1. R1 and L1 are respectively the C. System Reliability during Failure of a Converter
resistance and leakage inductor of the AC transformer when Since all the converters are connected in series in the
reflecting to the common AC bus side. Measuring points of the multiport dc auto, reliability issues arises if any of the
currents and voltages are shown in Fig. 2. converter fails. This section takes the 3-port dc auto shown in
Equation (32) indicates Ud can be increased by increasing Fig. 2 as an example to analyze the impact of tripping one
Md1 while Uq can be increased by increasing Mq1. Fig. 8 shows converter on the operation of the remaining converters. The
the control diagram of VSC1. The subscript ‘pu’ denotes analysis will be confirmed by simulation in section VI.D.
variables are in per unit, the subscript ‘1’ denotes VSC1. A If VSC1 or VSC5 fail, the remaining converters
voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is used to provide VSC2-VSC4 form a two-port dc-dc autotransformer (as
reference angle for generating firing pulses of VSC1. To shown in Fig. 5) that interconnects the dc grid E1 and the dc

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grid E2. VSC3 can be used to control the AC voltage of the according to [36].
common AC bus while VSC2 and VSC4 can be used to A. E1 power flow reverse of the 3-port test system
control the transferred dc power between E1 and E2 Fig. 10 shows the simulation result of the 3-port dc-dc
(alternatively, VSC2 and VSC4 control the voltage of the autotransformer. E1 and E2 are used to control their respective
common AC bus and VSC3 control the transferred dc power). dc power while E3 acts as the power balance port. From
Operation of the remaining converters in case of failure at 0.2s-0.6s, output dc power orders of E1 and E2 are respectively
VSC1 and VSC5 will not be affected. increased from 0MW to 500MW and from 0MW to 1000MW.
If VSC2 or VSC4 fail, VSC2 need to be bypassed from the From 1.0s to 1.4s, output dc power order of E1 is reversed from
multiport dc auto to provide dc current path between E1 and E3. 500MW to -500MW, power order of E2 remains unchanged.
The dc grid E2 should also be disconnected from the multiport Fig. 10(a) shows the measured exported dc power of E1, E2
dc auto. After bypassing VSC2 and VSC4, the dc voltage and imported dc power of E3, we can see that the measured dc
difference between E3 and E1 are applied at VSC1 and VSC5 power follow their power orders.
which exceeds the voltage rating of VSC1 and VSC5. Fig. 10(b) shows the inverted AC power of the 5 VSC
Therefore, to enable VSC1 and VSC5 remain operation in case converters in the 3-port dc auto. With E1 and E2 exporting
that VSC2 and VSC4 are unavailable, more sub-modules 500MW and 1000MW and E3 importing 1500MW dc power,
should be added in VSC1 and VSC5 to increase the voltage the measured inverted AC power of the VSC converters are
ratings of VSC1 and VSC5 from (E3-E2)/2 to (E3-E1)/2. Those PVSC3=368MW, PVSC2=PVSC4=-18.9MW, PVSC1=PVSC5=
additional sub-modules operate in bypass state in normal -166MW. The theoretical values shown in Fig. 6(a) are
2  PVSC 4 =-21.875MW, PVSC1
operation and are switched in when VSC2 and VSC4 are at theory
PVSC 3 =343.75MW, PVSCtheory theory theory
=
fault. The additional sub-modules will increase the cost of the theory
multiport dc auto but the overall cost of the multiport dc auto
PVSC 5 =-150MW.

will still be competitive compared with conventional multiport The measured values are very close to the theoretical
dc-ac-dc. As in the conventional multiport dc-ac-dc, dc values. The difference is mainly caused by the inconsistency
voltage ratings of VSC1 andVSC5 should be as high as E3/2 of the dc voltages. In the theoretical analysis, Vdc1, Vdc2 and
while it is only (E3-E1)/2 in the multiport dc auto. Vdc3 are assumed to be equal to their rated values. While as
If VSC3 fails, the VSC1 and VSC5 can be viewed as CON1 shown in Fig. 10(c), the dc terminal voltages of the VSC
and CON3 in the two-port dc auto shown in Fig. 5. The serial converters deviate from their rated values.
connection of VSC2, E1 and VSC4 can be viewed as CON2 in We can also see from Fig. 10(a) and Fig. 10(b) that when
Fig. 5. VSC1 and VSC5 can be used to maintain the AC the total dc power is 3000MW, the total AC power of the 5
voltage of the common AC bus while VSC2 and VSC4 are VSC converters is 740MW (368+18.9*2+166*2). Only 25%
used to control the transferred dc power between E2 and E1. of the transferred dc power needs ac/dc converting. Power loss
Alternatively, control functions of these VSC converters can of the multiport dc-dc autotransformer is therefore
be swapped. significantly lower than the conventional multiport dc-ac-dc
From the above analysis, we can see that the most severe technology.
condition is that VSC2 and VSC4 are at fault which requires There are oscillations at the dc power and dc voltages
the voltage ratings of VSC1 and VSC5 to be increased in the shown Fig. 10(a) and Fig. 10(c). Fig. 10(d)-(g) shows the
design stage. Fault at VSC1, VSC5 or VSC3 will not waveform of the common bus AC voltage and the output
significantly affect the normal operation of the remaining current of VSC1-VSC3 at steady state during 0.8s-0.9s.
converters of the multiport dc auto. Currents of VSC4 and VSC5 are not shown as they are almost
In practical operation, modular multilevel converter (MMC) the same as the currents of VSC1 and VSC2. Measuring points
will be preferred to construct the VSC converters in the of these signals are shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 10(d)-(g) show that
multiport dc auto. The MMC could be designed with high the voltages and currents are very close to sinusoidal
reliability by use of redundant power modules [30] so as to waveforms. Fig. 10(f) summarizes the total harmonic
reduce the failure rate of the multiport dc auto. distortion (THD) of the common AC bus voltage and the AC
currents. We can see that the THD of u, iac2 and iac3 are well
VI. SIMULATION VERIFICATIONS below 1% and the THD of iac1 is below 3%. Overall harmonic
Simulations are carried in PSCAD/EMTDC to verify the distortion at the AC line of the multiport dc-dc
technical feasibility of the multiport dc-dc autotransformer. autotransformer is low. The oscillations shown in Fig. 10(a)
Both the 3-port test system and the 4-port test system are and Fig. 10(c) might be caused by dc side interactions and will
simulated. DC power rating and dc voltage rating of the 3-port be addressed in future work.
and 4-port systems are respectively listed in Table 2 and Table 2000
1500 Pdc2
4 where typical power and voltage ratings for dc system at Pdc3
1000
Pdc(MW)

HVDC levels are selected [29]. Each of the VSC converter is

500
modelled using detailed equivalent models of MMC presented 0
in [34]-[35]. Number of voltage levels of the 3-port test dc -500
Pdc1
auto for VSC1, VSC2 and VSC3 are respectively 51, 45 and -1000
313 to make the rated submodule voltage close to 1.6kV. 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
Time(s)
Submodule capacitors and arm inductors are dimensioned (a) dc power

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400 3
300 368 iac1
Pac3 2.5
200 2
Pac(MW)
Pac2,4

THD(%)
100 62.6 iac3
1.5 u
0 -18.9 -21
1
-100 Pac1,5 -166 -52.3 0.5 iac2
-200
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 0
Time(s) 0.8 0.825 0.85 0.875 0.9
(b) AC power Time(s)
1.02 (h) THD of the common bus AC voltage and the currents i1-i3
Fig. 10. Simulation result of E1 reverses its power flow in the 3-port dc auto
1.01 Vdc3
Vdc(pu)

B. E2 power flow reverse of the 3-port test system

Vdc1 Fig. 11 shows the simulation result with E2 reverses its dc
1 Vdc2
power order during 1.0-1.4s. We can see from Fig. 11(a) and
0.99
Fig. 11(b) that the 3-port dc-dc auto operates stably during E2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 reversing its dc power. With E1 exporting 500MW dc power,
Time(s) E2 importing 1000MW dc power and E3 exporting 500MW dc
(c) dc voltages
250 power, the total transferred dc power is 2000MW while the
200 total power of the 5 VSC converters is only
150
100 (47.8*2+41+68.5*2)=274MW. Only 14% of the transferred
50 dc power needs ac/dc converting.
u(kV)

0
-50 2000
-100 1500
-150 Pdc3
-200 1000 Pdc1
-250
Pdc(MW)
500
0.8 0.825 0.85 0.875 0.9 0
Time(s)
(d) Common bus AC voltage (u) -500
Pdc2
0.6 -1000
-1500
0.4
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
0.2 Time(s)
iac1(kA)

0 (a) dc power
400
-0.2
300 Pac3 368
-0.4
200
Pac(MW)

-0.6 Pac2,4 47.8

0.8 0.825 0.85 0.875 0.9 100
Time(s) 0 -18.9
41
(e) Waveform of iac1 -100
0.06 Pac1,5 -166 -68.5
-200
0.04
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
0.02 Time(s)
iac2(kA)

0 (b) AC power
Fig. 11. Simulation result of E2 reverses its power flow in the 3-port dc auto
-0.02
-0.04
C. E3 power flow reverse of the 3-port test system
-0.06
0.8 0.825 0.85 0.875 0.9 Fig. 12 shows simulation result with both E1 and E2 reverse
Time(s) their dc power orders during 1.0-1.4s. We can see from Fig.
(f) Waveform of iac2 12(a) and Fig. 12(b) that the 3-port dc-dc autotransformer
1.2
1
0.8
operates stably during such large power transfer reversal.
0.6
0.4 2000
iac3(kA)

0.2 Pdc3
0 1500
-0.2 1000
-0.4 Pdc2
Pdc(MW)

-0.6 500
-0.8 0
-1 Pdc1
-1.2 -500
0.8 0.825 0.85 0.875 0.9 -1000
Time(s) -1500
(g) Waveform of iac3 -2000
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
Time(s)
(a) Output dc power of each of the dc systems

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400 common bus AC voltage while VSC 2 and VSC4 are used to
300 368
Pac3 control the transferred dc power of E2.
200 134
Pac2,4 Fig. 14 indicates that E2 is able to restore pre-fault power
Pac(MW)

100
0 -18.9
-100 25 transfer capability after tripping VSC3. The dc power
-200 exported by E2 flows into both E1 and E3. In such condition,
Pac1,5 -166 -318
-300 one portion of the dc power exported by E2 is firstly inverted
-400
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
by VSC2 and VSC4 and then rectified by VSC1 and VSC5
Time(s) which is then injected into E3, a second portion of the dc power
(b) Inverted AC power of each of the VSC converter of E2 is also transferred to E3 through the direct electrical
Fig. 12. Simulation result of both E1 and E2 reverses their power flow in the
3-port dc auto connection formed by the dc voltage E2 and the dc current of
VSC1 and VSC5, a third portion of dc power of E2 is
D. Response to failure of a converter transferred to E1 through the direct electrical connection
Fig. 13 shows system response to tripping VSC1 and VSC5 formed by the dc voltage E1 and the dc current of VSC2 and
in the test 3-port dc auto. Assume VSC1 and VSC5 are at fault VSC4. Fig. 14(b) validates that VSC1 and VSC5 operate in
at 1.0s, firing pulses of all the IGBTs of VSC1 and VSC5 are rectifier mode after 1s, VSC2 and VSC4 operate in inverter
blocked at 1.0s. Fig. 13(a) and (b) respectively shows the mode.
1500
exported/imported dc power of each dc grid and the inverted 1000
power of each of the VSC converter. Before VSC1 and VSC5 500
Pdc2

Pdc(MW)
subject to fault, both E1 and E2 are exporting 500MW dc 0
Pdc1
power while E3 is importing 1000MW dc power. VSC3 is used -500
to control the common bus AC voltage. -1000
-1500 Pdc3
Fig. 13(a) shows that the dc power imported by E3 drops to
-2000
zero when VSC1 and VSC5 are tripped. E2 is able restore 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
pre-fault power transfer capability within 100ms after tripping Time(s)
(a) dc power
VSC1 and VSC5. DC power of E1 automatically changes its 400
direction to keep power balance of the dc auto. 300 Pac3
Fig. 13(b) shows the inverted power by each VSC converter. Pac2,4
Pac(MW)

200
The power inverted by VSC1 and VSC5 (Pac1,5) drops to zero
100
once VSC1 and VSC5 are tripped. Theoretical value of the
0
power inverted by VSC3 after 1s is 500*(1-250/320)=109MW,
-100
which matches the simulation result of Fig. 13(b). Pac1,5
-200
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
600
400 Time(s)
200 (b) AC power
0 Pdc2 Fig. 14. System response to tripping of VSC3 in the 3-port dc auto
Pdc(MW)

-200 Pdc3
-400
The simulation result of Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 validate that the
-600 multiport is able to achieve high reliability. Fault at a single
-800 converter will not take down the entire system. The response
-1000 Pdc1
-1200 to tripping of VSC2 and VSC4 are similar to the response of
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 VSC1 and VSC5 except that it requires the bypassing of the
Time(s)
(a) dc power additional sub-modules in normal operation and inserting the
300 additional sub-modules once VSC2 and VSC4 are tripped to
Pac3 improve the voltage rating of VSC1 and VSC5. Bypassing and
200 Pac2,4
inserting additional sub-modules can be achieved using the
Pac(MW)

100
existing technologies in the literature [30].
0
E. Simulation of 4-port test system
-100 Pac1,5 Fig. 15 and Fig. 16 show the simulation result of the 4-port
-200 test dc-dc autotransformer. Parameters of the 4-port dc auto
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 are listed in Table 4 and Table 5.
Time(s)
(b) AC power Fig. 15 shows the output dc power of each of the dc systems.
Fig. 13. System response to tripping of VSC1 and VSC5 in the test 3-port dc E1, E2 and E3 are exporting 700MW, 1000MW and -1300MW
auto dc power in steady state during the period of 0.5s-1.5s, E4 acts
Fig. 14 shows system response to tripping of VSC3 at 1.0s. as the power balancing port. During 1.5s-1.9s, dc power order
Assume VSC3 is at fault at 1.0s; all the firing pulses of VSC3 of E2 is reversed.
are then blocked at 1.001s. E1 and E2 are respectively We can see from Fig. 15(a) and (c) that dc power of E1 and
exporting 500MW and 1000MW dc power before tripping E3 remain unchanged during the power reversal of E2. Fig.
VSC3 while E3 is importing 1500MW dc power before 1.0s. 15(b) shows that dc power order of E2 follows its power order.
After tripping VSC3, VSC1 and VSC5 are used to control the

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700 Operational power loss of the multiport dc-dc autotransformer

is in the order of 10% of the conventional multiport dc-ac-dc
Pdc1(MW)
500
technology.
300

100
VII. CONCLUSION
-100
0 0.5 1 1.5
Time(s)
2 2.5 3 This paper proposes a multiport dc-dc autotransformer
(a) Output dc power of E1 technology that is able to interconnect multiple dc systems at
1500 low cost. In the test 3-port dc-dc autotransformer, a total of
1000 775MW power converters are required to enable any mode of
Pdc2(MW)

500
power transfer between the interconnected dc systems while a
0
total of 3000MW power converters are required for the
-500
conventional multiport dc-ac-dc technology. In the test 4-port
-1000
-1500
dc-dc autotransformer, a total of 1657MW power converters
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 are required to enable any mode of power transfer between the
Time(s)
(b) Output dc power of E2 four interconnected dc systems while a total of 5000MW
100 power converter are required for the conventional dc-ac-dc
-100 technology. The multiport dc-dc autotransformer is able to
-300
Pdc3(MW)

-500 reduce the total used power converters to approximately 30%

-700 of the conventional dc-ac-dc technology. Cost and operational
-900
-1100 power loss of the multiport dc-dc autotransformer are
-1300 therefore significantly lower than the conventional dc-ac-dc
-1500
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 technology. The multiport dc-dc autotransformer shows
Time(s)
(c) Output dc power of E3 promising prospects for interconnecting multiple HVDC
2000 systems in the future dc power grid.
1500 APPENDIX
Pdc4(MW)

1000 Table 2 Rated dc voltages and dc power of a 3-port test system

500 E1 E2 E3 P1dc P2dc P3dc
0 ±250 ±320 ±400 500 1000 -1500

-500
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 Table 3 Rated dc voltages and dc power of each of the VSC converter in the
Time(s) 3-port test system
(d) Output dc power of E4 VSC Edc(kV) Pdc(MW)
Fig. 15. DC power of the 4-port dc auto VSC1 80 150
VSC2 70 65.625
5000 VSC3 500 343.75
VSC4 70 65.625
4500 VSC5 80 150
4660 MW
Total / 775
4000

3500 3366 MW
Table 4 Rated dc voltages and dc power of a 4-port test system
Total Power(MW)

E1 E2 E3 E3 P1dc P2dc P3dc P4dc

3000
±250 ±320 ±400 ±500 700 1000 1300 2000
2500
Total DC power
Table 5 Rated dc voltages and dc power of each of the VSC converter in the
2000 4-port test system
1500 Total AC power VSC Edc(kV) Pdc(MW)
VSC1 100 200
1000 VSC2 80 162
970MW 590 MW VSC3 70 132.125
500 VSC4 500 668.75
VSC5 70 132.125
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 VSC6 80 162
Time(s) VSC7 100 200
Fig. 16. Total absolute dc power and ac power of the 4-port dc auto Total(dc auto) / 1657
Total(Coventional) / 5000
Fig. 16 shows the total dc power and the total AC power of
the 7 VSC converters. It is interesting to note from Fig. 16 that REFERENCES
during 0.5s-1.5s, the total dc power is 3366MW while the total [1] D. Van Hertem and M. Ghandhari, “Multi-terminal VSC HVDC for the
AC power of the 7 VSC converters is 970MW. With power European Supergrid: obstacles,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy
reversal of E2, the total dc power increases up to 4660MW Reviews, vol. 14, no. 9, pp. 3156-3163, Dec. 2010.
while the total absolute AC power even reduces to 590MW.

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10.1109/TPEL.2015.2397172, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
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“High-frequency operation of a DC/AC/DC system for HVDC Weixing Lin (S’11-M’13) obtained the BEng. and
applications,” IEEE Trans. Power Electro., vol. 29, no. 8, pp. PhD degree in electrical engineering in 2008 and
4107-4115. 2014 from Huazhong University of Science and
[17] A. Schӧn and M.M Bakran, “A new HVDC-DC converter for the Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China. He was a
efficient connection of HVDC networks”. PCIM Europe, Nurnberg, visiting PhD student at the Cardiff University, UK,
2013. from Dec.2011 to Jun. 2012. He is currently a
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fault clearing capability,” in Proc. 15th Eur. Conf. Power Electron. Aberdeen, UK and a research fellow at the HUST.
Appl., 2013, pp. 1–10. His research interests lie in HVDC, high power
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Trans. Power Electron., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 148-162, Jan. 2015. Jinyu Wen (M’ 10) received the BEng. and
[21] J. Zeng, W. Qiao, L. Qu and Y. Jiao, “An isolated multiport dc-dc Ph.D. degrees all in electrical engineering from
converter for simultaneous power management of multiple different HUST, Wuhan, China, in 1992 and 1998,
renewable energy sources,” IEEE Journal of Emerged and Selected respectively. He was a visiting scholar from 1996
Topics in Power Electronics, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 70-78, Mar. 2014. to 1997 and from 2002 to 2003 at the University
[22] S. Rezaee and E. Farjah, “A dc-dc multiport module for integrating of Liverpool UK. In 2003 he joined the HUST
plug-in electric vehicles in a parking lot: topology and operation,” IEEE and now is a professor at HUST. His current
Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 5688-5695, NOV. 2014. research interests include smart grid, renewable
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on integration of full-bridge and bidirectional dc-dc topologies for power system operation and control.
renewable generation systems,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 61,
no. 2, pp. 856-869, Feb. 2014.
Shijie Cheng (M’86–SM’87–F’11) received the BEng. degree from Xi’an

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/TPEL.2015.2397172, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
13

Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 1967, the

MSc. degree from Huazhong University of
Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan,
China, in 1981, and the Ph.D. degree from the
University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, in
1986, all in electrical engineering. He has been a
Professor at HUST since 1991. His research
interests are power system control, stability
analysis, application of artificial intelligence, and
energy storage. Prof. Cheng has been a Fellow of
the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2007.

0885-8993 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
[Link] for more information.