An improved DC-link voltage equalization for Three-Level Neutral-Point Clamped converters

Author

Porru, Mario ; Serpi, Alessandro ; Marongiu, Ignazio ; Damiano, Alfonso

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Univ. of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

fYear

2014

fDate

June 30 2014-July 3 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

A DC-link voltage equalization algorithm (DCL-E) for Three-Level Neutral-Point Clamped converters (NPCs) is proposed in this paper. It consists of appropriately regulating DC-link currents with the aim of equalizing DC-link voltages as fast as possible, minimizing capacitor voltage and current ripple and prioritizing NPC load requirements at the same time. This goal is achieved by means of suitable PWM patterns, which also guarantee an appropriate DC-link capacitor exploitation over both transient and steady state operation. The effectiveness of the proposed DCL-E is verified through a simulation study, which refers to the case of a three-phase NPC that feeds a Surface-Mounted Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine.

Keywords

PWM power convertors; permanent magnet machines; power capacitors; synchronous machines; DCL-E; NPC load requirements; PWM patterns; capacitor voltage minimization; current ripple minimization; dc-link capacitor exploitation; dc-link currents; dc-link voltage equalization algorithm; steady state operation; surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous machine; three-level neutral-point clamped converters; transient state operation; Capacitors; Inverters; Permanent magnet machines; Pulse width modulation; Steady-state; Switches; Voltage control; Current control; Neutral-point clamped converter; Pulse width modulation; Three-level converter;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Ph.D. Research in Microelectronics and Electronics (PRIME), 2014 10th Conference on

Conference_Location

Grenoble

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PRIME.2014.6872676

Filename

6872676