Electric drives (AC and DC) are of fundamental importance to the oil and gas industry.

Indeed, without them the industry, whether on land, on the sea or under the sea, could not effectively functions without them.

However, electric drives produce harmonic voltage distortion and other unwanted effects including EMI (electromagnetic interference). Common mode voltage, due to the hard switching of AC variable frequency drives (VFDs), can be very disruptive to susceptible and sensible equipment, topside or subsea.

Conventional drives, such as multi-pulse VFDs utilized in FPSOs for electrical submersible pumps (ESP) applications, can be very large and often determine the number of ESPs installed onboard, limiting production.

Resonant Link technology has the ability and the capability to resolve all these problems. It is a unique soft switching power conversion technology, which has very high-density of around 5.5MW per cu.m. It is around 15-20% the physical size of PWM converters.

This technology does not require conventional transformers. Instead a uses 12-20kHz integral nanocrystalline transformers which can transform both AC and DC voltages.

Resonant Link has virtually no harmonics (<2% THDi) on input or put of the converters and for AC outputs, the dt/dt (rate if rise of voltage) is 1000th of that found in PWM converters.

Short circuit protection, AC or DC, is provided with the converters and operates within 1ms of a fault occurring. As can be appreciated in the oil and gas applications section, Resonant Link is a real 21st Century technology.