Impact of frequency modulation ratio on capacitor cells balancing in phase-shifted PWM based chain-link STATCOM

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of switching harmonics on the instantaneous power that flows in the cells of a chain-link based STATCOM when using Phase-Shifted PWM. Two different cases are investigated for the converter cells: low, and high switching frequency. It is shown that any deviation from the ideal conditions lead to undesired harmonics, which will impact the charge of the dc capacitors. It is also shown that for low switching frequencies, cells voltage sideband harmonics interact with baseband harmonics of the current and causes extra source of unbalance. In order to provide more uniform power distribution among the cells, two different methods called, a) carrier swapping and b) non-integer frequency modulation ratio are studied. In particular, it is shown that the selection of a non-integer frequency modulation ratio helps in providing a more uniform power distribution among cells of the same phase leg, thus contributing to the capacitors balancing. Theoretical conclusions are validated through PSCAD simulation results.