| Summary: | Clamped-single submodule (CSSM) has DC short circuit current protection function to improve the safety and stability of high voltage, direct current (HVDC) system. In order to carry out the protection, it needs an additional number of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and diodes compared to the conventional half-bridge submodule (HBSM). In general, the failure rate tends to increase in proportion to the number of circuit components. Also, complex operation of the submodule may increase the failure rate, so accurate reliability analysis considering these points is required to apply CSSM in a practical HVDC system. We estimate the failure rate and the mean time between failures (MTBF) of CSSM using a fault tree. Fault-tree analysis (FTA) is possible to analyze the failure rate more accurately than the prior part count failure analysis (PCA) that considers only the number of parts, the type of parts, and the connection status of each circuit component. To provide guidelines for submodule selection under various conditions, we compare the economic cost of a CSSM with HBSM, FBSM, and clamped-double submodule (CDSM), and analyze the failure rate according to the voltage margin of the parts.
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