Topology, Modeling and Control Scheme for a new Seven-Level Inverter With Reduced DC-Link Voltage

Abstract

This paper presents a novel single-source three-phase multilevel converter with voltage boosting capability for medium-voltage photovoltaic applications. This converter consists of different switched-capacitor networks, formed by 1 capacitor and 3 active switches, as a basic switching cell to generate variable dc-link voltage that boosts the input dc-source voltage, producing 2n+1 (n2) voltage levels at the output. It can reduce the dc-link voltage requirements by 50% in comparison to the traditional neutral point clamped (NPC), flying capacitors, active NPC (ANPC), hybrid and hybrid clamped ANPC and cascaded H-bridge topologies, and 75% to advanced ANPC topologies. It can also reduce the number of required switches and capacitors as well as their voltage stresses compared to these state-of-the-art topologies reported in the literature so far. A finite control set model predictive control algorithm is derived to control the converter, which has the capability to control the active and reactive power without distorting the generated grid current quality. The capacitor voltage balancing is inherent in the proposed topology, and thus, there is no need for any additional voltage balancing circuit, which reduces the control complexity. As an example, a 7-level version of the proposed topology is compared to other existing 7-level inverter topologies.