This industrially-supported (by EA Technology®) research case explores the benefits afforded by the application of recently emerged wide-bandgap power semiconductor devices in Low Frequency AC (LFAC) transmission systems of offshore windfarm platforms. These benefits enable system level reductions in size, weight and overall cost when compared with High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) installations. The step change in converter performance resulting from application of high voltage fast switching wide-bandgap (WBG) power semiconductor devices facilitates the use of converter topologies that would not be realisable with traditional Silicon IGBTs in LFAC transmission systems. However reliability concerns related to the use of WBG devices have yet to be fully investigated.
An entry-level lab-scale converter will be constructed using WBG devices and a reliability criteria under LFAC operation stress-levels will be identified and reported to the Supergen ORE Hub.
