Submodule fault-tolerant control based adaptive carrier-PDPWM for modular multilevel converters

Abstract

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is considered a very promising candidate for medium-voltage and/or high-power grids. One of the major concerns in half-bridge MMCs, especially with large number of levels, is the fault occurs at the converter submodule (SM). Hence, an appropriate control with an SM fault tolerance of the MMC is required to enhance its reliability. This paper addresses the issue and proposes a fault tolerant control-based adaptive carrier phase disposition pulse width modulation (AC-PDPWM) technique for MMCs with superior symmetrical and asymmetrical fault-tolerant capabilities. The proposed control-based AC-PDPWM acts to regulate the flow of energy between arms, rebalance the SM capacitors, and redistribute the pulses to the SM switches. In this study, a single-phase grid connected MMC having both symmetrical and asymmetrical fault conditions is investigated. Compared with other control methods, the proposed control can tolerate the SM fault conditions without requiring redundant SMs or additional computational burden, which decreases the cost and volume of the MMC design and simplifies its control. Simulation and experimental results are included to verify the fault-tolerant capability of the proposed control.