A Control Method for Voltage Balancing in Modular Multilevel Converters

Author

Fujin Deng ; Zhe Chen

Author_Institution

Dept. of Energy Technol., Aalborg Univ., Aalborg, Denmark

Volume

29

Issue

1

fYear

2014

fDate

Jan. 2014

Firstpage

66

Lastpage

76

Abstract

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is attractive for medium- or high-power applications because of the advantages of its high modularity, availability, and high power quality. The voltage balancing of the floating capacitors in the cascaded submodules of the MMC is a key issue. In this paper, a voltage-balancing control method is proposed. This method uses the phase-shifted carrier-based pulsewidth modulation scheme to control high-frequency current components for capacitor voltage balancing in the MMC without measuring the arm currents. Simulations and experimental studies of the MMC were conducted, and the results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed capacitor voltage-balancing control method.

Keywords

PWM power convertors; electric current control; power supply quality; voltage control; MMC cascaded submodules; capacitor voltage-balancing control method; floating capacitors; high-frequency current component control; high-power application; medium-power application; modular multilevel converter; phase-shifted carrier-based pulsewidth modulation scheme; power quality; Capacitors; Educational institutions; Frequency control; Pulse width modulation; Switches; Voltage control; Voltage measurement; Capacitor voltage balancing; control method; modular multilevel converter (MMC);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8993

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPEL.2013.2251426

Filename

6473896