Voltage balancing characteristics for a cascaded H-bridge multi-level StatCom employing space vector modulation

Employing space vector modulation in a multi-level H-bridge StatCom (H-StatCom) can provide an excellent trade-off between harmonic performance and switching frequency. However the nature of the techniques used to balance the capacitor voltages in this modulation strategy are heuristic in nature, with their stability and balancing characteristics being difficult to quantify. This paper develops a method to investigate the likelihood that the capacitor voltages remain balanced for the operating modes and system parameters typical in H-StatCom applications.