Irreversible instability in three-phase voltage-source converter connected to non-ideal power grid with interacting load

Three-phase voltage source converters (VSC) are commonly used to convert ac power from a three-phase grid to a regulated dc voltage with unity input power factor. The control of the VSC is normally achieved by an outer voltage feedback loop and a sinusoidal pulse-width-modulated (SPWM) inner current loop. However, the non-ideal power grid and the presence of other interacting loads give rise to nonlinear operation and drive the VSC to enter an irreversible instability region. In this paper, the irreversible instability phenomenon in three-phase voltage-source converters is reported. The converter can also be regarded as exhibiting a catastrophic bifurcation in which the input current expands to cause undesirable component stress. A large-signal analysis is adopted to identify the physical origin of the phenomenon and to locate the boundary of the instability. The computed boundaries of the irreversible instability in the parameter space are verified though simulations. The phenomenon has been verified experimentally.