Advanced Conversion has over a decade of experience in successful grid-tied systems facilitating major improvements for customers. As the requirements on the power grid around the globe intensify for clean energy capacity at the highest efficiency and reliability, new designs and technologies are the key to success. Our unique capacitor solutions provide higher current and voltage ratings along with improved system integration for lower inductance to enable faster switching.

See: 2024 presentation on Grid-Tied DC Link Applications. 

The Advanced Conversion Power Ring Film Capacitor provides a high-performance building block for the large capacitor banks (e.g. box caps) required in high voltage direct current (HVDC) and static var compensation (SVC) systems. Such systems are penalized for losses and the capacitor elements in each stage of the high voltage stack are an important part of the overall performance. The annular form factor winding has an aspect ratio such that the height is much less than the diameter. This provides for reduced electrode losses even while using lighter metallization schemes to safely increase the operating voltage stress. The lower losses of the capacitor (ESR) combined with a shorter thermal path to the winding end faces also translates into a lower temperature rise for a given ripple current. These optimized winding elements can be deployed in parallel arrays to realize high-performance capacitor bank solutions. Advanced Conversion technology provides both higher ripple current rating and higher voltage rating per stage, which enables fewer stages in the high-voltage stack with significant cost savings.

Advanced Conversion has more than 5000 capacitors deployed in both HVDC and SVC systems on the power grid. The field experience has been excellent with a failure rate of less than 1000 ppm and ongoing customer development programs also continuing. We can provide both conventional stud terminal configurations along with customer specific connections. Furthermore, our technology can be readily integrated with both internal and external bus structures to improve thermal performance and provide a lower inductance (ESL) to the switching elements in each stage. This capability will become increasingly important with the transition to higher switching frequencies and higher voltage modules to enable further system level efficiency improvements. We have significant expertise working with a wide variety of switching modules to achieve optimal topologies with integrated capacitor solutions.

Our experienced technical team can engage at the “pre-study” level to evaluate specifications and conceptual implementation options using Advanced Conversion technology. This provides a low risk starting point ultimately leading to a formal design where our engineering team can work through mechanical and electrical details and finalize a CAD design. We have a variety of simulation and analysis tools available along with testing capabilities to support custom designs up to 6kV using single-section capacitors which eliminate the need for voltage balancing using external resistors.

Please contact our applications’ center in Loveland, CO for further assistance – [email protected]