BriPower™ High Power Contactor test (With an AC/DC source and an AC/DC Load)
(With an AC/DC source and an AC/DC Load)
Contactors in the field such as installed in solar farms can be high from several hundreds’ kW to MW ranges. Manufactures want to make sure these contactors are reliable and need a test equipment to perform the aging test.
The test will require to run very high number of switch cycle, up to millions of cycles. The contactor might be made of different materials so a test equipment to test such contactors fast and efficient is required.
Figure 1 shows the block diagram of such a setup with a Source and Load and in-between the Device under test the contactor.
When the contactor is closed, the AC load working under current regulation can quickly absorb the current required by users; When the contactor is opened, the AC load will indeed lose synchronization with the voltage. For this application, BriPower™ propose a solution: add a communication connection between the AC Source and the AC Load to keep the phase synchronization of the Source voltage and the Load current.
In this solution, when the contactor is closed, the AC load working under current regulation can quickly absorb the current required by the user. When the contactor is opened, the voltage applied to the AC load disappears, so the current of the AC load disappears, but the load will not power off or fail, but continue to working and wait for the voltage. When the voltage reapplies, the increased communication will keep the phase of the source voltage and load current synchronized, so as to realize the continuous and stable progress of user test.
