Undersea MVDC Distribution System

Reliability Society

Dr. Marcel P.J. Gaudreau Diversified Technologies, Inc. (DTI) has developed and fielded a significant advance in remote (undersea) power network technology using high-voltage, solid-state DC-to-DC power conversion. The Region Scale Nodes (RSN) project, part of the National Science Foundation Ocean Observatories Initiative, is an ambitious effort to provide unprecedented power (10 kW at 10 kVDC) and bandwidth (10 Gbps) to several scientific hubs on the seafloor off the coast of Oregon. Seven independently-controllable 10 kW medium-voltage power converter (MVPC) nodes, designed to last for 25 years, have been in operation for the past six years undersea at depths up to 3,500 m (2.2 miles). Two on-shore DTI 100 kW power supplies provide redundant DC power to an undersea power cable hundreds of kilometers-long operating at 10 kV and up to 100 kW. At each undersea node, DTI’s high-voltage solid-state switching technology is used to produce a MVPC which steps the network’s 10 kVDC backbone voltage to 375 VDC in order to power each node locally. Power delivered at this low voltage is available to support a wide range of sensors, electronics, repeaters, motors, or remotely operated vehicles. Beyond pure functionality, the most important specification of the converter is reliability. Repair requires not only bringing the converter to the surface, but also lifting several miles of cable off the seafloor (reconnection must be done dry). Accordingly, the nodes were designed for extreme longevity and resilience, with 90% probability of failure-free operation for 25 years (or a mean time between failures (MTBF) of approximately 2.2 million hours). DTI systems achieve such long lifetimes due to careful engineering, including minimizing component count, derating components, and using proper construction techniques and controls.

AUTHOR BIO: Dr. Marcel P.J. Gaudreau, P.E. is President and Chief Technical Officer of Diversified Technologies, Inc. (DTI), which he founded in 1987. Dr. Gaudreau is the principal inventor of DTI’s solid-state PowerMod™ technology, awarded R&D 100 Awards in 1997 and 1999 as one of the most significant new technology products of the year. He has been responsible for advancing the state-of-the-art in solid-state high-power electronics across a variety of applications, including high-power switching power supplies and high-power amplifiers.

Dr. Gaudreau earned his B.S. in physics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) while building a high precision charge monitoring system for the Bates Linear Accelerator. Dr. Gaudreau acquired his M.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at the Charles Stark Draper Instrumentation Laboratory; and Sc.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the MIT Plasma Fusion Center in 1981. Dr. Gaudreau is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a registered Massachusetts Professional Electrical Engineer.

Meeting Location: MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 3 Forbes Rd, Lexington, Massachusetts, 02421

Registration: click here

Directions to 3 Forbes Road, Lexington, MA

• Take Route 128/I-95 to Exit 30B, Route 2A Westbound.
• At the first traffic light, turn left onto Forbes Road.
• Go to the end of the street.
• At the traffic circle, turn right.
• Go halfway around the traffic circle and turn into the parking lot for MIT Lincoln Laboratory
• The main entrance is straight ahead, shared with “agenus”.