Experimental Verification of a Modular Multilevel Cascade Inverter Based on Double-Star Bridge Cells

Author

Thitichaiworakorn, Nuntawat ; Hagiwara, Manabu ; Akagi, Hirofumi

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Tokyo Inst. of Technol., Tokyo, Japan

Volume

50

Issue

1

fYear

2014

fDate

Jan.-Feb. 2014

Firstpage

509

Lastpage

519

Abstract

A modular multilevel cascade inverter based on double-star bridge cells (MMCI-DSBC) is expected to be one of the next-generation medium-voltage pulsewidth modulation (PWM) inverters intended for grid connections. This inverter is formed by six modular arms, each of which consists of a cascaded stack of multiple full-bridge converters. The DSBC is different from the traditional two-level PWM inverter in that the ac voltages are independent of the dc link voltage. Hence, the DSBC is suitable for a grid-connected inverter with a time-varying dc link voltage. This paper describes the DSBC with a focus on its operating principles and performance. The validity of the inverter is confirmed by experiments using a three-phase, 200-V, and 10-kW downscaled system.

Keywords

PWM invertors; bridge circuits; MMCI-DSBC; PWM inverters; double-star bridge cells; medium-voltage inverters; modular arms; modular multilevel cascade inverter; multiple full-bridge converters; next-generation inverters; power 10 kW; pulsewidth modulation inverters; time-varying dc link voltage; voltage 200 V; Bridge circuits; Capacitors; Choppers (circuits); Field programmable gate arrays; Inverters; Pulse width modulation; Voltage control; Grid connections; modular multilevel cascade inverters (MMCIs); phase-shifted pulsewidth modulation (PWM); renewable energy;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-9994

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TIA.2013.2269896

Filename

6544269