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Abstract

An increasing integration of photovoltaic units, electric vehicle chargers, heat pumps, and energy storage systems challenges low-voltage power grids and can cause voltage range violation, loss of stability, (local) overload of lines, and power management problems. Research suggested universal power-flow control (UPFC) to solve power management problems. In contrast to bulky, slow, and costly conventional UPFCs with their shunt and series transformers, this paper presents a highly compact and current-dense power-flow controller, which can serve between different feeders in the low-voltage power grids. The enabler is a systematic combination of silicon car-bide (SiC) with silicon (Si) transistors and a strict partial-power topology built around a multi-active bridge. The circuit links an active-front-end converter as a shunt stage through a multi-active-bridge converter bidirectionally with low-voltage series-injection modules floating with their respective phases. The topology can use small power to control high currents through the low-voltage series-injection modules. The multi-active bridge serves as a multi-input-output power router that exchanges energy between all elements. We assess the design as well as the implementation considerations of the proposed power-flow controller mathematically and verify its performance in simulation and real systems.