Current Of Modular Multilevel Converter Research Articles

Impact of System Inherent Characteristics on Initial-Stage Short-Circuit Current of MMC-Based MTDC Transmission Systems

This paper studies the impact of the inherent characteristics on the initial-stage short-circuit current of modular multilevel converter based multi-terminal direct current (MMC-based MTDC) transmission system. A short-circuit current calculation method based on input-output characteristics is proposed. The MMC’s input-output characteristics are factorized into a series combination of a linear and a nonlinear part through the operator approach. The inherent characteristics of the system represent the inherent properties of the MMC-based MTDC system, which are unrelated to the short-circuit fault. Therefore, short-circuit currents are decoupled and quantitative indices are proposed to measure the impact of the system inherent characteristics on the initial-stage short-circuit current. The proposed decoupled short-circuit current calculation method and the quantitative indices are verified in a typical MMC-based MTDC transmission system under different system parameters and structures. The proposed quantitative indices can effectively evaluate the short-circuit current of the MMC-based MTDC system without calculating the short-circuit current, which indicates that they can provide guidance for the planning of DC system structure, determination of operational modes, and selection of system parameters from the perspective of short-circuit current.

Control Strategy Based on Arm-Level Control for Output and Circulating Current of MMC in Stationary Reference Frame

This paper proposed a control method for output and circulating currents of modular multilevel converter (MMC). The output and circulating current are controlled with the help of arm currents, which contain DC, fundamental frequency, and double frequency components. The arm current is transformed into a stationary reference frame (SRF) to isolate the DC and AC components. The AC component is controlled with a conventional proportional resonant (PR) controller, while the DC component is controlled by a proportional controller. The effective control of the upper arm and lower arm ultimately controls the output current so that it delivers the required power to the grid and circulating current in such a way that the second harmonic component is completely vanished leaving behind only the DC component. Comparative results of leg-level control based on PR controller are included in the paper to show the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. A three-phase, five-level MMC is developed in MATLAB/Simulink to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

Interaction between damping characteristics and the initial‐stage short‐circuit current of MMC‐HVDC transmission systems

This paper studies the interaction between the damping characteristics and the initial-stage short-circuit current of modular multilevel converter based high voltage direct current (MMC-HVDC) transmission system. First, the MMCs' input–output characteristics are obtained through the operator approach, and the influences of both linear part and nonlinear part are analysed. Second, an input–output characteristics based short-circuit current calculation method is proposed. Third, an eigenvalue-based comprehensive index is proposed to evaluate the damping characteristics of the MMC-HVDC transmission system. Finally, the interaction between the damping characteristics and the initial-stage DC short-circuit current is analysed under different system parameters and DC system structures. The analysis results show that there is a negative correlation between the system damping characteristics and the average rising rate of the short-circuit current. The proposed index G can effectively evaluate the short-circuit current of MMC-HVDC and can provide guidance for the planning of DC system structure, the selection of operation mode and system parameters.

Harmonic Analysis and Suppression Method of Output Current Distortion for Medium-Voltage Motor Drives With Modular Multilevel Converter

The main technical challenge of the medium-voltage motor drives with modular multilevel converter (MMC) is the serious low-frequency fluctuation on the capacitor voltages, and the existing suppression methods inevitably inject high-frequency circulating currents in MMC. However, the output currents are evidently distorted by the large injected components, while little research has been done to study and solve this problem. This paper analyzes and proves the essential interactions between the output current distortion and the injected components, and the specific dominant output harmonic groups are derived and summarized, revealing the nature of the problem, and it can be taken as a favorable reference for the controller designing. Based on the derivations, this paper proposes a novel suppression method for the greatly improved harmonic characteristics of the output currents during the low-frequency operation. The output harmonics can be accurately measured by the proposed control and effectively suppressed for much lower current total harmonic distortion, benefiting for the superior output control performances with improved efficiency. The simulation results on PSCAD/EMTDC and experimental verifications on a 2.2 kW MMC-based motor drive prototype prove the validity of the presented harmonic analysis and suppression method.

Analysis and Injection Control of Circulating Current for Modular Multilevel Converters

The circulating current of modular multilevel converter (MMC) has a great impact on the power losses, the submodule (SM) capacitor voltage ripples, and the rating of power devices. Existing analysis of circulating current has considered the capacitor voltage and the modulation signal. In this paper, the effect of semiconductor devices on the circulating current is further presented. In order to realize the different circulating current injection targets under different conditions, a unified online calculation scheme by using the instantaneous information of MMC is proposed in this paper to generate the circulating current injection references. It avoids detecting the amplitude and phase of the output current or using an extensive lookup table. Besides, a mathematical analysis model is built and it reveals the impact on the capacitor voltage ripple and the rms value of arm current with different injection references, thus guide the determination of the injection ratio. Experimental results based on a three-phase MMC prototype with six SMs per arm are presented to demonstrate the analysis of circulating current and the proposed circulating current injection references generating method is verified by different circulating current control targets with different loads.

Modular Multilevel Converters (MMCs) Controlled by Model Predictive Control With Reduced Calculation Burden

Model predictive control (MPC) for modular multilevel converter (MMC) systems has drawn attention among researchers in recent years due to its straightforward implementation, ability to control multiple objectives in a single cost function, and excellent dynamic response. Even though MPC seems promising for the MMC, it suffers from an excessive increase in computational complexity when the number of submodules (SMs) per arm (N) is increased. The computational load can be reduced by decoupling the SM capacitor voltage control from the cost function and balancing them in an external voltage sorting algorithm. In this paper, a further reduction of computations in the MPC is achieved by the preselection of control options that can satisfy the control objectives in the next sampling time. The preselection algorithm generates a greatly reduced number of control options to be computed by a straightforward MPC loop at each sampling time. In addition, the MPC together with the preselection algorithm can generate 2N + 1 output voltage levels in the MMC while maintaining a low dv/dt in the output voltage and suppressing the circulating currents in MMCs with considerable number of SMs. The steady-state and dynamic performance of the MMC operating with the proposed method is verified by simulation and experimental results.

불평형 전원 조건에서 MMC 기반 HVDC 시스템 순환전류에 관한 연구

This paper presents a study of circulating current of modular multi-level converter (MMC) based a high voltage direct current (HVDC) system under unbalanced grid conditions. Due to the connection of a dependent DC source in each phase, the MMC system inherently generates the power ripple of double-line-frequency components in the AC-side and as a result, the additional sinusoidal current named circulating current flows through the each arm. Reliability improvement of HVDC system under an unbalanced grid condition is one of the important criteria. Generally, the modeling of the circulating current is based on the power relation between DC-side and AC-side. However, the method is not perfectly matched in the MMC system due to the difference of the structural characteristic. In this paper, improved modeling method of circulating current is proposed, which is based on the inner arm power. The proposed method is verified by several simulations to have good agreement of the circulating current components.

Circulating Current Control in MMC Under the Unbalanced Voltage

This paper proposes a control method for circulating currents in modular multilevel converters (MMCs) under unbalanced voltage conditions. Under balanced voltage conditions, only negative-sequence circulating currents exist. Consequently, the conventional method has considered only negative-sequence circulating currents in MMC. However, under unbalanced voltage conditions, there are positive-sequence circulating currents, zero-sequence circulating currents, and negative-sequence circulating currents in MMC. Thus, under unbalanced voltage conditions, a control method should consider all of these components. This study adopts a dual vector current controller as an ac-side current controller to reduce the ac-side active power ripple under unbalanced voltage. It analyzes the effect of the unbalanced voltage on circulating currents in MMC and then proposes a control method considering each component of circulating currents under the unbalanced voltage. The effectiveness of the proposed controlling method is verified through simulation results using PSCAD/EMTDC.

불평형 전압 조건에서 스위칭 소자의 전류 용량과 순환전류를 고려한 HVDC-MMC 제어기법

This paper proposes a control method for high voltage direct current(HVDC) with modular multilevel converter (MMC) under unbalanced voltage conditions considering the submodule(SM)'s current capacity and circulating current. It is aimed to propose a control method in which the current peak value does not exceed the maximum value of HVDC-MMC by considering the current capacity of the SM under unbalance voltage conditions. And it analyzes the effect of the unbalanced voltage on circulating currents in MMC and then proposes a control method considering each component of circulating currents under unbalanced voltages. The effectiveness of the proposed controlling method is verified through simulation results using PSCAD/EMTDC.