Application Of Modular Multilevel Converter Research Articles

Comparative analysis of submodules and design of seventeen-level modular multilevel converter using a five-level submodule block

Abstract Multilevel inverters and various modulation techniques have been proven to be the best solutions to overcome all the limitations of conventional two- or three-level voltage source inverters. In recent years, among all topologies, modular multilevel converter (MMC) has advantages like low total harmonic distortion (THD), reduced filter requirement, fault-tolerant operation, scalability, modularity, transformerless operation, etc. The main application of MMC is found in high-voltage DC transmission (HVDC). This study describes and analyses the performance of two distinct MMC submodule (SM) topologies: the Half Bridge submodule (HBSM) and the Full Bridge submodule (FBSM). Switching pattern is simpler in HBSM topology but it has the disadvantage that it does not have DC fault current blocking capability. Whereas FBSM not only inherently can block the DC fault current but also has advantages like reduced volume of MMC and better performance. Further, having the capability to produce three voltage levels, it can be operated in boost mode. Also, by using a proper switching pattern, MMC can be designed to generate a various number of output levels by using the same five-level submodule block. Out of which 17 level MMC gives the best output. The MATLAB-Simulink model is used to simulate the circuit, and the findings are confirmed for a 17-level output voltage.

Multicarrier PWM techniques for three phase modular multilevel converter application in MRI systems

This research paper presents about the performance analysis of three phase modular multilevel converter with level shifted (phase disposition pulse width modulation) and phase shifted pulse width modulation (PWM) method. This research not only discusses the significance of different modulation procedures in the context of modular multilevel converters but also carefully evaluates each of their unique performance characteristics. This research is based on the fundamental creation of pulses and patterns that can only be acquired by comparing sinusoidal reference signals with triangular carrier signal. Both levels shifted (phase disposition) and phase shifted PWM procedures are used to calculate the phase output voltage of a converter at 2N+1 level. The output waveform is crucially shaped by these modulation techniques, which also ensure effective energy conversion and lower harmonic content. On the basis of the output voltage waveform's quality, the comparative research is conducted and simulated results were presented.

Comprehensive Analysis on Topological Structure of Modular Multilevel Converters

This paper discusses the importance and application of modular multilevel converter (MMC) in the field of power conversion. Firstly, the article starts with the basic concept of MMC and introduces its key role in high-power electrical energy conversion. Subsequently, to address the complexity of MMC, the article describes in detail the common topologies of MMC, including diode-clamped multilevel topology, flyover capacitor topology, H-bridge cascade topology, and switched-capacitor multilevel topology, and also emphasizes the different scenarios in which they are applied to power systems. The last section describes the capacitor voltage balancing strategy in MMC. Several common capacitor voltage balancing strategies, including hardware clamping method, capacitor voltage closed-loop method, and capacitor voltage sequencing method, are comprehensively discussed in this paper, and the principles, advantages, disadvantages, and applicability of each strategy are thoroughly analyzed. Ultimately, this article offers academics and engineers a thorough review of MMC and offers valuable references for further study and real-world applications in the areas of power system conversion and energy management.

Control tuning methodology for modular multilevel converter‐based STATCOM

SummaryThe application of modular multilevel converters (MMC) in medium voltage static synchronous compensators (STATCOMs) has been investigated in recent years. A huge challenge for MMC‐STATCOM is to compute the gain of the controllers. Therefore, the contribution of this paper is the proposal of a control tuning methodology for MMC‐STATCOM. For this purpose, the control and tuning strategies are presented. Since MMC‐STATCOM can employ different modulation strategies, two distinct modulation strategies are considered: nearest‐level control, with variable switching frequency; and phase‐shifted carrier pulse‐width modulation, with fixed switching frequency. Moreover, the proposal was validated through simulation and an experimental platform. The results indicate that the power response follows the reference, besides supplying the internal losses of the converter. The 10% ripple tolerance of the submodule voltages is respected in steady state for both modulation strategies. Moreover, the 5% total demand distortion (TDD) limit recommended by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard is attended. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the controls employed.

Low-frequency operation control method for medium-voltage high-capacity FC-MMC type frequency converter

The application of modular multilevel converters (MMCs) to large drive systems is subject to severe low-frequency operation restrictions. The fluctuation of capacitor voltage and the high amplitude of common mode voltage in sub-modules is a thorny problem. In this paper, a novel fly-across capacitor modular multilevel converter topology is adopted to eliminate low-frequency voltage ripples by using the fly-across capacitor as a power transfer channel between the upper and lower bridge arms of the MMC. A novel finite compensation method is proposed—instead of the traditional full compensation method—that introduces a real-time variable limiting factor to change the amplitude of the mixed injected high-frequency differential-mode voltage and high-frequency differential-mode current and reduce the amplitude of the common-mode voltage on the AC side while lowering the current stress of the power devices. Finally, a complete system simulation model is constructed, and the topology with the proposed control strategy are verified to have good output characteristics under different operating conditions; good results are achieved in suppressing the sub-module fluctuation and common-mode voltage.

An open-set fault diagnosis framework for MMCs based on optimized temporal convolutional network

Reliability of the modular multilevel converters (MMCs) provides a vital guarantee for the uninterrupted operation of a system. Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) open circuit fault diagnosis is a common challenge in MMCs applications. In this paper, a novel open-set fault diagnosis framework called Multiscale-AAM-OTCN is proposed to solve both the known and unknown fault diagnosis problems of MMCs by outputting current signals. First, batch normalization and layer normalization are introduced into the original Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) model to accelerate convergence and promote the generalization ability of the model for different tasks. Second, to strengthen the feature extraction ability of the model, the multiscale coordinate residual attention (MCRA) mechanism is designed for the one-dimensional (1D) current signal to improve the performance and stability of the method. Compared with recently developed attention mechanisms such as convolutional block attention module (CBAM), efficient channel attention (ECA), simple, parameter-free attention module (SimAM) and coordinate attention (CA), the proposed MCRA exhibits better performance in MMCs fault diagnosis tasks. Finally, the additive angular margin (AAM) loss and local outlier factor (LOF) algorithm are integrated into the Multiscale-OTCN framework to identify the density difference between known and unknown fault clusters by controlling the intra-class similarity and inter-class variance of the samples. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed fault diagnosis framework for known and unknown fault diagnoses.

Submodule Fault-Tolerant Strategy for Modular Multilevel Converter with Scalable Control Structure

Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) topology is considered a good candidate for high-voltage applications. One of the reasons is that an MMC can quickly generate a higher voltage with an excellent sine wave with the series connection of many power blocks, called Sub-Modules (SMs). In such applications, the control system of an MMC can be challenging, and the possibility of an SM failure increases. As a result, the reliability and availability of the application reduce over time. To reduce the effects of SM failure, an MMC is usually equipped with Redundant SMs (RSMs). The RSMs are added into MMC arms as regular SMs to increase the application’s reliability and reduce downtime. This paper proposes a unique decentralized SM fault-tolerant control model for RSMs to participate in any SM sets. In an MMC arm, a dedicated controller is assigned to RSMs, while the group of SMs has their local controllers. The controller of the RSMs continually monitors the voltage of all the SM sets in the arm. If there is any failure, the controller of the RSMs activates a requested number of SMs to help local controllers to generate the desired voltage level. The proposed control system significantly reduces local controllers’ computational and communication requirements compared to conventional redundant controllers. The proposed control system is based on a distributed structure, so it does not limit hardware flexibility, such as the scalability and modularity of an MMC system. Besides, the separate controller for the RSMs significantly helps increase the reliability of an MMC application.

Research on Sliding Mode Observer of MMC Capacitor Voltage

In the practical application of modular multilevel converters (MMC), with the improvement of voltage level and power, more submodules (SMs) need to be cascaded in order to obtain more levels with different amplitudes to approximate the sinusoidal output voltage. The acquisition of submodule capacitor voltage is the premise of MMC capacitor voltage control, which makes the MMC system need many sensors to monitor sub-module capacitor voltage. In order to reduce the number of sensors and weaken the system jitter, this paper collects the current signal of the MMC bridge arm combined with the switching signal of the submodule and uses the saturation function set as the switching function of the sliding mode observer (SMO) to estimate the capacitor voltage. The simulation results show that the sliding mode observer has good robustness and accuracy.

Modeling, Controlling Approaches, Modulation Schemes, and Applications of Modular Multilevel Converter: Review

Modeling, Controlling Approaches, Modulation Schemes, and Applications of Modular Multilevel Converter: Review

Обзор методов модуляции ближайшего уровня на основе MMC

In view of the relevant situation of offshore wind power research, development and construction at home and abroad, as well as the energy crisis facing the world, we have ushered in a new opportunity and outbreak period for the development of new energy. Therefore, higher requirements are placed on the power supply, and the key technology for the design of offshore wind power flexible DC transmission high-power converters is proposed. The Modular Multi-level Converter (MMC) topology can only use a lower switching frequency to obtain higher power Waveform quality. The output voltage waveform can effectively reduce the switching loss and filter capacity and improve the efficiency and economy of the converter. Among them, the method based on Level Modulation (NLM) is usually the preferred method. This paper introduces the topology and working principle of the modular multilevel converter (MMC) in detail and describes the improved modulation method for NLM in detail. The advantages, disadvantages and application occasions of different improved modulation techniques are summarized, which provides a reference for the engineering application of MMC.

Power Ripple Control Method for Modular Multilevel Converter under Grid Imbalances

Modular multilevel converters (MMCs) are primarily adopted for high-voltage applications, and are highly desired to be operated even under fault conditions. Researchers focused on improving current controllers to reduce the adverse effects of faults. Vector control in the DQ reference domain is generally adopted to control the MMC applications. Under unstable grid conditions, it is challenging to control double-line frequency oscillations in the DQ reference frame. Therefore, active power fluctuations are observed in the active power due to the uncontrolled AC component’s double line frequency component. This paper proposes removing the active power’s double-line frequency under unbalanced grid conditions during DQ transformation. Feedforward and feedback control methods are proposed to eliminate ripple in active power under fault conditions. An extraction method for AC components is also proposed for the power ripple control to eliminate the phase error occurring with the conventional high-pass filters. The system’s stability with the proposed controller is tested and compared with a traditional MMC controller using the Nyquist stability criterion. A real-time digital simulator (RTDS) and Xilinx Virtex 7-based FPGA were used to verify the proposed control methods under single-line-to-ground (SLG) faults.

Electromechanical transient modelling and application of modular multilevel converter with embedded energy storage

This paper studies the electromechanical transient modelling techniques of the modified modular multilevel converter (MMC), named active MMC, which is equipped with embedded energy storage in submodules. Firstly, the mathematical model of the active MMC and its equivalent circuits at the AC and DC sides are established. Then, the control scheme of active MMC that focus on the cooperation of the MMC converter and the energy storage submodules is illustrated. The proposed electromechanical transient model are implemented on PSS/E and compared with the electromagnetic transient model on PSCAD in a two terminal active MMC sytem; the results of the active MMC system under AC and DC fault prove the validity of the proposed model. Lastly, stability studies of the practical system are carried out, and the simulation results prove the improvement by the application of the active MMC on the rotor angle stability and frequency stability.

An Optimized Circulating Current Control Method Based on PR and PI Controller for MMC Applications

Modular multilevel converter (MMC) is an excellent topology for medium- and high-voltage applications due to its advantages over other multilevel converters. However, the control algorithm design needs meticulous attention as each submodule (SM) capacitor voltage is balanced around their reference. Any voltage inequality between the SM voltage causes the second harmonic-dominated circulating current inside the MMC. The circulating current increases the rms value of the arm currents, component ratings, and the ripple in the capacitor voltages unless it is appropriately controlled. This article proposes an optimized closed-loop circulating current control method based on PR and PI controllers in abc reference frame to prevent high circulating current inside an MMC. The proposed method suppresses the magnitude of circulating current while reducing the ripple in capacitor voltages. The ripple in the dc link voltage is also reduced without any supplementary controller under balanced and unbalanced ac grid conditions. Thus, the proposed circulating current control method reduces the conduction losses and component ratings, while the converter's efficiency and reliability increase. The method's verification is tested on a point-to-point connected MMC-based high voltage direct current system in a real-time simulator with Xilinx FPGA-based MMC emulator and arm controller.

Air-Cooling System Optimization for IGBT Modules in MMC Using Embedded O-Shaped Heat Pipes

Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules are the most critical components of modular multilevel converters (MMCs). However, they are subjected to repetitive thermo-mechanical stress caused by thermal cycles on different materials, which can easily lead to failures in the solder layers. Moreover, when MMCs work at high power factor, the IGBT modules have severely uneven temperature distribution due to the inherent dc-bias in arm currents. Some chips are much hotter than others. These hot spots significantly reduce the lifetime of the whole module. This article proposes an optimized and low-cost air-cooling system dedicated to the application of MMC. Uniquely designed O-shaped heat pipes are embedded on the heatsink to add another thermal path without extra fans and fins. The unique shape and layout of heat pipes can minimize the hot spots temperature. The operating principle and power loss of MMC are analyzed first. Then, 3-D finite element (FE) simulation is performed in ANSYS 19.2. Nine modified air-cooling heatsinks with embedded heat pipes are proposed and compared. Finally, the optimal one and a conventional air-cooling heatsink are fabricated for experimental evaluation. The comparative experiment results show that the optimized cooling system is superior over the conventional one by 20% lower in the hot spot temperature.

Robust and Intelligent Control for Single-stage Grid-Connected Modular Multilevel Converter in PV Applications

Renewable Energy Resources (RESs) are frequently interfaced to the loads/grid via the standard two/three-level inverters. These inverter circuits to comply with the utility regulations must use volumetric and cumbersome filtering arrangements. Therefore, this article advises the application of Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) for interfacing RESs in stand-alone and/or grid-connected operating modes. The MMC offers high quality voltage/current/power waveforms without additional filtering requirements, which possibly reduce the size/cost of the interfacing circuits. A simple and innovative active and reactive power control is proposed to drive the proposed MMC such that PV arrays operate at Maximum Power Point (MPP) under different climatological operating conditions. The proposed active-reactive control is implemented via Proportional Integral (PI) controllers; their parameters are defined via constraint optimization. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used in this research to configure the PIs of the main controller. The objective function was designed to increase the stability margins of the system while reducing the overshoot. The proposed MMC has an extra freedom degree of generating/absorbing reactive power. The static and dynamic performances of MMC are analyzed via MATLAB and its dynamic platform, Simulink. The results showed that the proposed MMC produced significantly lower Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) than the three-level inverters. The static performance of the MMC showed that the THD decreases significantly with the increase of the converter level/sub-module number. The results raveled the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed controller, such that the PV generator operates at MPP while introducing high quality power/voltage to the loads/grid.

Analysis on Displacement Angle of Phase-Shifted Carrier PWM for Modular Multilevel Converter

This paper provides theoretical and experimental discussions on the characteristics of the modular multilevel converter (MMC) when phase-shifted carrier sinusoidal pulse-width modulation (PSC-SPWM) is applied. Harmonic-cancellation characteristics of output voltage and circulating current are analyzed on the basis of a general implementation of PSC-SPWM with two freedom displacement angles. Five available PSC-SPWM schemes with different carrier displacement angles were obtained, and a detailed performance comparison about output voltage and circulating current harmonic characteristics is presented. On the basis of the equivalent circuit with ideal transformer representation of the SMs, capacitor voltages affected by PSC-SPWM schemes are also briefly analyzed. The proposed PSC-SPWM schemes can unify two different cases of odd and even SM situations for output voltage and circulating current harmonic minimization, respectively. Lastly, the optimal schemes for practical MMC application were verified by simulation and experiments on an MMC prototype.

Current Oscillation Phenomenon of MMC Based on IGCT and Fast Recovery Diode With High Surge Current Capability for HVDC Application

Integrated gate commutated thyristor (IGCT) has low loss, low cost, and high reliability in the application of modular multilevel converter (MMC). However, due to the special turn-off process of IGCT, the commutation transient is very different for IGCT in MMC. This letter reveals a current oscillation phenomenon of MMC based on IGCT and fast recovery diode (FRD). Especially, this oscillation effect becomes apparent when the FRD with high surge current capability is employed in MMC because of high junction capacitance and high stray inductance, which will threaten the safe operation of the system. This letter analyzes the current oscillation mechanism and gives the current oscillation modeling. In addition, through detailed tests under various stray inductances, the specific stray inductance range that can cause large current oscillation is obtained and an optimized inductance parameter of IGCT-MMC is proposed. The experiments show that the safe operation area of IGCT in MMC can be guaranteed maximally with the optimized parameter.

Improved Comprehensive Control of Modular Multilevel Converter under AC/DC Grid Faults and Harmonic Operation Conditions

Recent applications of modular multilevel converter (MMC) have posed various problems such as ac/dc grid faults, asymmetric operation conditions, ac grid voltage excessive harmonics, and ac circulating currents, which deteriorate the system's performance and also threaten the safe operation. In this article, an improved comprehensive control architecture of MMC is proposed to maintain a stable voltage control, eliminate harmonics in ac-side and circulating currents, and dc-bus voltage ripple under ac/dc grid faults and harmonic operation conditions. The proposed comprehensive control consists of improved hierarchical voltage control and repetitive controller-based arm current control. The improved hierarchical voltage control, including a novel negative-sequence current injection and dc-circulating current injection-based leg-averaging control and their seamlessly switching handling, enables the MMC to operate under various operating conditions, thereby producing the arm current reference for inner-loop control. The proposed repetitive controller-based arm current control can recognize the control of multifrequency components of arm current without separating positive-, negative- and zero-sequence current components of ac-side currents and circulating currents. Finally, the simulation and experimental studies of the three-phase MMC were carried out in detail, and the findings demonstrate the efficiency and merits of the proposed control method.

A Review of Modular Multilevel Converters for Stationary Applications

A modular multilevel converter (MMC) is an advanced voltage source converter applicable to a wide range of medium and high-voltage applications. It has competitive advantages such as quality output performance, high modularity, simple scalability, and low voltage and current rating demand for the power switches. Remarkable studies have been carried out regarding its topology, control, and operation. The main purpose of this review is to present the current state of the art of the MMC technology and to offer a better understanding of its operation and control for stationary applications. In this study, the MMC configuration is presented regarding its conventional and advanced submodule (SM) and overall topologies. The mathematical modeling, output voltage, and current control under different grid conditions, submodule balancing control, circulating current control, and modulation methods are discussed to provide the state of the MMC technology. The challenges linked to the MMC are associated with submodule balancing control, circulating current control, control complexity, and transient performance. Advanced nonlinear and predictable control strategies are expected to improve the MMC control and performance in comparison with conventional control methods. Finally, the power losses associated with the advanced wide bandgap (WBG) power devices (such as SiC, GaN) are explored by using different modulation schemes and switching frequencies. The results indicate that although the phase-shifted carrier-based pulse width modulation (PSC-PWM) has higher power losses, it outputs a better quality voltage with lower total harmonic distortion (THD) in comparison with phase-disposition pulse width modulation (PD-PWM) and sampled average modulation pulse width modulation (SAM-PWM). In addition, WBG switches such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) devices have lower power losses and higher efficiency, especially at high switching frequency in the MMC applications.

Optimal Multivariable MMC Energy-Based Control for DC Voltage Regulation in HVDC Applications

The penetration of renewable energy resources is changing the way the power system is understood and operated. With an increasing number of power electronics devices integrated into the power system, the modular multilevel converter (MMC) is arising as one of the key technologies for HVDC applications. While several control strategies for MMCs have been proposed in the last years, designing controls for MMCs remains a challenging and non-trivial problem due to its large number of degrees of freedom. In this paper, a general multivariable control structure is proposed that generalizes and improves upon previously reported approaches. Moreover, to fully exploit the degrees of freedom offered by this control, a model-based tuning methodology is presented that extends results from optimal $\mathcal {H}_2$ structured control design to MMC applications. A case study using an HVDC link is used to illustrate and analyze the performance of the MMC using the proposed approach in different scenarios.