This paper presents and discusses the performance of a new cascaded modular power electronic converter for Wave Energy Conversion (WEC) systems. The proposed electrical power converter employs submodule units to replace the central conventional power converter aiming to bring additional benefits of scalability, lower voltage and current stresses, better efficiency, and better fault-ride-through. Because the voltages across the semiconductor switches are lower, fast devices such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) or Gallium Nitride (GaN) can be used to improve the efficiency. The proposed converter still operates at low voltage (LV) at the generator side while the outputs are connected in series to match the medium voltage (MV) grid. The paper discusses the control schemes for the power converter and presents the operational results using MATLAB/SIMULINK software.
Reducing the dependency on fossil fuel-based energy sources and replacing thin with renewable energy sources (RESs) is a global economic and environmental challenge (von Jouanne and Brekeken, 2017; Tousif and Taslim, 2011; Burhanudin et al. 2020). RESs can provide more sustainability to the energy sector as well as more security and dependency. For the European countries, the RESs will help in reaching the target of net-zero carbon emission by 2030. Examples for RESs are wind energy, solar photovoltaic, geothermal, marine, and others. The RESs technological progress will have massive economic, environmental, and social impacts and hence they are playing a major part in forming the policies which decide the governmental plans for aiding the research and industry.
In this context, Marine Energy Conversion Systems (MECSs) are considered as a promising example for RESs due to their high energy density and global availability (Darwish and Aggidis, 2022). The global annual marine energy available for extraction is estimated to be more than 100,000 TWh which is higher than the full global energy demand (IEA, 2021). Thus, understanding and improving the MECSs are essential to achieve the environmental, economical, and social goals.
