High-reliability extra-large motor drives for oil and gas industry

Abstract

Oil and gas are the most important energy resources on the globe. They need to be transported to feed the energy to remote cities and towns. For efficient use of energy, variable frequency drives (VFD) are used in domestic and industrial appliances. In Industrial applications such as the gas industry, capacity of driven compressors is extraordinary large and rated up to 100MW. Then, different VFD technology is required from those for general machines. This paper introduces advanced Megawatt inverter technology for extra-large compressor drive use. The description includes performance evaluation, quality control and field experiences of the extra-large inverters. High reliability, which is critical in oil and gas industry application, is achieved. This paper addresses also issues related to AC grid connection of the extra-large inverters. © 2013 IEEE.