Modular Multilevel Converter With an Adaptive Observer of Capacitor Voltages

A modular multilevel converter (MMC) is an attractive solution for power conversion without transformers. The MMC consists of cascade connections of floating dc capacitors. In this paper, an adaptive observer design has been proposed to estimate the capacitor voltages from the measurement of arm currents. This work introduces the capacitance value of the cell capacitors as a parameter uncertainty for making the system performance robust with unknown constant parameters. It may be used for predictive control, condition monitoring for capacitors, and diagnosis check for capacitor health. In addition, a pulsewidth modulation (PWM) technique for MMC has been explored. The PWM technique is performed using a carrier-based level-shifted PWM strategy. It does not necessitate the calculation of duty cycles, and can be easily implemented in a DSP. By using the PWM technique, harmonics in the phase voltage is shifted to twice the switching frequency. Theoretical analysis is included in this paper for showing stability and convergence of the proposed observer. Analytical expressions are verified by simulation and experimental results.