Neutral Point Clamped Inverter Research Articles

Smooth Switching Method for Multi-Mode Synchronous Space Vector Modulation of NPC Three-Level Inverter

To meet the requirements of output harmonic distortion of neutral point clamped (NPC) three-level inverter under low switching frequency conditions, multi-mode synchronous space vector modulation is usually adopted. When switching between different pulse patterns, there will be oscillation in the output current. This paper proposes a smooth switching method for synchronous space vector modulation. This method compensates the phase angle of the reference voltage vector, in order to make the flux trajectories continuous before and after switching. Multi-position smooth switching can be realized in the fundamental period, and there is no delay in switching. Compared with direct switching, the total harmonic distortion rate of current during switching is reduced. The calculation of the phase angle compensation value of the reference voltage vector is not affected by the specific parameters and operating conditions of the motor, and can be carried out offline. Finally, experiments are carried out on a 7.5 kW induction motor fed by NPC three level inverter to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Long-Horizon Robust Direct Model Predictive Control for Medium-Voltage Induction Motor Drives With Reduced Computational Complexity

This paper proposes a long-horizon direct model predictive control (MPC) with reference tracking for medium-voltage (MV) drives that achieves favorable steady-state and transient behavior. However, as MPC is a model-based method, it is susceptible to parameter mismatches and variations of the machine. Moreover, even though a long prediction horizon significantly improves the steady-state behavior of the drive, it significantly increases the computational complexity of the direct MPC problem, rendering its real-time implementation a challenging—if not impossible—task. Motivated by these shortcomings of long-horizon direct MPC, this paper also aims to address them by enhancing the robustness of the developed control strategy, while keeping its computational complexity modest. To achieve the former, a prediction model suitable for MV drive systems is adopted that facilitates the effective estimation of the total leakage inductance of the machine. For the latter, the objective function of the MPC problem is formulated such that, even though the drive behavior is computed over a long prediction interval, only a few changes in the candidate switch positions are considered. The effectiveness of the proposed modeling, control, and estimation approaches is validated with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) tests for an MV drive consisting of a three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter and an induction machine (IM).

Enhanced Predictive Torque Control for Three-Level NPC Inverter-Fed PMSM Drives Based on Optimal Voltage Magnitude Control Method

The major drawback of conventional predictive torque control (PTC) is that it fixes the magnitude of the reference voltage vector (VV) to 70%. This limitation results in large torque and flux ripples and slow dynamic response, especially when the permanent magnet synchronous motor operates in low-speed regions. A promising approach for reducing torque and flux ripples is by replacing the two-level inverter with a three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter. Nevertheless, because of the elimination of zero VV during torque decrement in a conventional PTC, a large torque ripple appears in the low-speed region. In addition, high-speed operation is not applicable unless more dc-link is injected. To solve these problems, an effective, creative, and low-complex PTC based on a reference voltage vector magnitude control method (RVVCM) is proposed in this article. The proposed PTC effectively minimizes torque and flux ripples by utilizing only the required magnitude of reference VV of the three-level NPC inverter based on the variable voltage control concept. Furthermore, the dynamic response of the torque is improved by applying the full magnitude of applied VV. Simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed RVVCM-based PTC algorithm.

System Identification–Based Adaptive Real-Time Simulators for Power Electronic Converters—Application to Three-Phase and NPC Inverters

This paper deals with the real-time simulation of power electronic converters. It discusses a new approach for designing embedded real-time simulators (eRTSs) that approximate the static and dynamic behavior of a power converter at the switching scale. The main concept is to approximate the voltage/current experimental characteristics of each switch using dedicated transfer functions obtained after a system identification process. The adaptive feature of such eRTS consists of developing varying and online reconfigurable coefficients transfer functions. The main potential of doing so is the possibility of reconfiguring the model according to the actual electrical/thermal environment where the power converter is used. Then, the latter is subdivided into independent switching cells, represented by dedicated RT models that are fully parallelized. Furthermore, using FPGA devices makes it possible to achieve very low latencies and, consequently, a short simulation time step. Previous work was published in this context, where this approach was deeply described and tested with half-bridge DC–DC, full-bridge DC–AC, and multi-level cascaded H-bridge (five-level and nine-level) power converters. This paper recalls the main basics and, more importantly, discusses additional case studies, namely a three-phase voltage source inverter, a half-bridge NPC (neutral-point clamped) inverter, and a three-phase NPC inverter.

An Improved Carrier-Based PWM Strategy with Reduced Common-Mode Voltage for a Three-Level NPC Inverter

Double modulation wave carrier-based pulse width modulation (CBPWM) is a solution for eliminating the deviations of the neutral-point voltage (NPV) in three-level neutral-point clamped inverters. In this paper, a new hybrid CBPWM strategy is proposed that not only eliminates the neutral-point voltage oscillations but also reduces the common-mode voltage (CMV) by half. Furthermore, the harmonic content is also reduced compared with the available reduced CMV modulation by adjusting the modulation waves based on the location of the reference vector in the space vector diagram. An active neutral-point voltage controller is also realized in order to maintain the performance of the modulation strategy under the NPV perturbations. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared to the available CBPWM-based techniques in the literature. The effectiveness of the proposed method is also verified by experimental results.

Load Voltage Control of a Wind Turbine-driven Three-phase Squirrel-Cage Induction Generator in an Islanded Microgrid

The intermittent nature of the wind resources and reactive power consumptions are major issues associated with squirrel cage induction generator wind power system when operated in an island microgrid mode. The resultant effect of these two issues are continuous fluctuations of load voltage which has adverse effects on electrical devices. This paper proposes a voltage regulation technique based on proportional controller and phase deposition sine pulse width modulation (PDSPWM) for the control of 5-level neutral point clamped multilevel inverter. The instantaneous voltage tracking strategy based on root mean square value of microgrid voltage was adopted to regulate and maintain the output load voltage at 400 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠 despite rotor fluctuations with wind speeds. The simulation was carried out in a MATLAB/SIMULINK environment and the performance of the control scheme was found to be excellent.

Simple Control Method for Unified Power Quality based on Five-level Inverter Topologies Operating under all Voltage Disturbances

This paper proposes a simple control scheme for UPQC (Unified Power Quality Conditioner) system based on five-level NPC (Neutral Point Clamped) inverter capable to compensate all disturbances under all voltage conditions. The proposed UPQC is designed by the integration of shunt and series APFs (Active Power Filters) sharing a common dc bus capacitor. The dc voltage is maintained constant using proportional integral voltage controller. To get the reference signals for shunt and series APFs, synchronous current detection method (SCD) and instantaneous reactive power (PQ) strategies are adopted. These reference signals are derived from the control algorithm and injected in LS-SPWM (Level Shifted-Sin Pulse Width Modulation) controllers to generate the switching signals. The performance of proposed UPQC system is evaluated using MATLAB-Simulink software and SimPowerSystem Toolbox for all voltage disturbances compensation. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed UPQC system to improve the power quality at the common connection point of the non-linear load in steady and transient conditions operation.

Real-Time Switching Number Reduction SVM for a Two-Phase Motor Powered by Three-Level NPC Inverter

A three-level neutral point clamped inverter with three phase legs is often used to power three-phase electrical motors. This type of multilevel inverter has its advantages over two-level inverters. The main advantages are lower harmonic distortion and less stress on motor windings. This three-level inverter can be also used as a power source for a two-phase induction motor. A one-phase induction motor with a starting capacitor and auxiliary windings is in fact a two-phase induction motor. In this article, we show that the switching number reduction method, previously presented for use with three-phase induction motors, can be used with two-phase motors as well, after some crucial modifications. The reduction of switching decreases the switching losses. The switching number reduction is obtained with modified space vector modulation using redundant voltage vectors. The method was simulated and then implemented on a prototype 3L-NPC inverter powering a one-phase induction motor with auxiliary windings. A switching number reduction of about 19% to 29% was obtained, depending on modulation parameters.

Analysis and Control for Wind Energy Conversion System with Five-Level Neutral-Point Clamped Inverter

Multi-level neutral point clamped inverters allow for higher resolution AC outputs and increase the overall efficiency, but higher-level inverters also increase cost exponentially with level and control of the neutral point voltage becomes more difficult through processor capability. The method used within this paper seeks to reduce algorithm complexity by using a two-level space-vector pulse width modulation algorithm-based method while simultaneously implementing a neutral point voltage control embedded within to ensure signal integrity to drive a five-level neutral-point clamped inverter. The increased level of the neutral-point clamped inverter will allow for higher switching efficiency by reducing voltage stress on the switching devices and more stability through reduction of harmonics in the AC output waveform. Results from simulation show the increase in resolution of the AC outputs to both the utility grid and the permanent magnet synchronous generator when compared to a three-level neutral-point clamped inverter using a standard space-vector pulse width modulation switching scheme.

A Simultaneous Diagnosis Method for Power Switch and Current Sensor Faults in Grid-Connected Three-Level NPC Inverters

A simultaneous diagnosis method for power switch open-circuit faults and current sensor faults of grid-connected three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) inverters is proposed herein. First, by designing the adaptive reaching law and reducing the steady-state resonance, a novel interval sliding model observer is developed to track and estimate the three-phase currents accurately and rapidly. Next, a faulty phase detection scheme using an adaptive threshold is proposed to achieve sensitive and robust detection results. Also, the measured three-phase currents sum and estimated three-phase currents sum are used to distinguish power switch open-circuit faults and current sensor faults. Subsequently, a faulty switch location method and the current sensor fault type identification method are proposed, using some of the same identification variables. Finally, combining the faulty phase detection variables with the identification methods ensures the feasibility of the detection and identification of 12 open-circuit faults and 9 current sensor faults. The hardware-in-the-loop test results are performed to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.

Power Sharing in Three-Level NPC Inverter Based Three-Phase Four-Wire Islanding Microgrids With Unbalanced Loads

The droop-based control schemes are widely used for power-sharing and control of the isolated microgrids. The conventional droop control scheme with inner current and voltage controllers can work effectively under ideal voltage. However, the existence of unbalance tends its performance to worsen. This paper aims to propose an enhanced droop control method to improve the power-sharing, and maintain the distributed generators’ (DGs) terminal voltages and the system frequency under the balanced as well as unbalanced loads. The enhancements of the proposed control scheme include the droop controller, inner current and voltage controller, and virtual impedance loop. The proposed virtual impedance deals with the accurate sharing of powers in the case of unequal line impedance and the control of zero sequence current. Moreover, to enable the proposed control to compensate for the unbalance, three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) inverters are used to form a three-phase four-wire microgrid. With this control scheme, the voltage unbalance factors (VUFs) of the DGs’ terminal voltages are reduced from 4% to less than 1%, negative sequence reactive powers, which are also an indication of unbalance, have been reduced significantly, and the system frequency is maintained within the standard permissible limit of 2.5%. Furthermore, a local load controller is also proposed to control the reactive loading of the DGs when they have local loads supplied from their terminals. The investigations have been carried out under simulation as well as lab-based environments to validate the efficacy of the proposed control method.

An intelligent technique for fault detection and localization of three-level ANPC inverter with NP connection for electric vehicles

An intelligent technique for detecting and localizing an inverter switch fault or phase fault of a Three-Level Active Neutral Point Clamped (ANPC) inverter is proposed in this research. Moreover, a 3L-ANPC inverter can gain the controllability of EV's power train and not need to be stalled even after the occurrence of the fault. Hence, an efficient fault diagnosis methodology is required to identify the type of phase fault by a Support Vector Machine (SVM), a machine learning model consisting of sets of labeled training data with regression and classification challenges. Finally, when the fault occurs, the location of the switch fault can be identified by a Deep Neural Network (DNN), which consists of layers of neurons between the input and output layers which fuses the feature extraction process with increased accuracy. Thus, the detection and localization of the open-circuit fault of the switches in the ANPC inverter help overcome all single faults, hence gaining its current controllability without stopping the vehicle. The accuracy of fault detection is improved in a precise manner. Finally, the performance of the proposed work is evaluated over other conventional models concerning varied metrics like the accuracy of identification and localization.

Research on the Coordination Suppression Strategy of Neutral Point Potential and Common Mode Voltage for NPC Three-Level Inverter

A Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) type three-level inverter has the advantages of a low switch voltage and a high-quality output waveform. However, there are inherent problems, such as neutral point potential asymmetry and common mode interferences, which easily affect the symmetry of the three-phase output voltage and the safe operation of the inverter. Firstly, according to the different modulation degrees, the fluctuation of midpoint potential can be suppressed by adding an action time correction factor to the traditional space vector pulse-width (SVPWM) modulation strategy and virtual space vector pulse-width (VSVPWM) modulation strategy, respectively. Secondly, considering the suppression of common mode voltage, a new virtual space vector pulse-width (NVSVPWM) modulation strategy is proposed, which uses a set of new vector synthesis methods. Finally, the simulation and experiment prove that the NVSVPWM strategy with an action time correction factor can suppress the fluctuation of the neutral point potential and common mode voltage at the same time, and the effect is significant.

Computationally efficient model predictive power control with self-balancing capacitor voltages for grid-tied nested neutral point clamped inverter

ABSTRACT This study outlines an effective power control strategy based on a finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) of grid-tie four-level Nested Neutral Point Clamped Inverter. A mathematical model is employed to predict the behavior of grid current and power that is used to evaluate the cost function. In contrast to the traditional FCS-MPC, the suggested method only evaluates the optimization loop with the feasible candidate switching states, resulting in a reduced computational burden. The main contribution of our study is to incorporate the selection of distribution of inverter voltage vectors and self-balance of flying capacitor voltage without weighting factor. The computational load of the optimization processes is not only greatly decreased by selecting the appropriate switching states among redundant voltage vectors but also remaining the balance of flying capacitor voltages. Moreover, the difficulty of selecting the optimal weighting factor is avoided with our research. A simulation study of a 4 MW power system with various operational statuses is performed using Matlab software. The comparison results of the suggested method, traditional FCS-MPC, and previous FCS-MPC have verified the significance and validity of the offered technique with regard to steady-state, transient-state operational conditions, and computational burden.

Assessment of a High-Order Stationary Frame Controller for Two-Level and Three-Level NPC Grid-Connected Inverters

Most grid-connected DC/AC inverters use traditional proportional–integral (PI) controllers in a synchronous frame. In addition to poor disturbance rejection capabilities, these PI controllers also exhibit steady-state errors for sinusoidal reference signals. To address these drawbacks, this article investigates the use of a high-order controller in the stationary frame and then compares it with the standard PI controller. The effectiveness of the high-order controller in the stationary frame has been examined by providing an infinite gain at a resonance frequency. In this work, the design of high-order and PI controllers and tuning instructions are given. Furthermore, both high-order and PI current-controlled two-level and three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) inverters are compared. Various operational conditions are used for the comparison. The high-order controller reduced the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the injected current by 1.15% for the two-level inverter in normal conditions as compared to the PI controller and 0.9% for the three-level NPC inverters. Furthermore, it reduced the THD in balanced abnormal conditions by 0.5% for the two-level inverter and 0.18% for the three-level NPC inverters. However, the dq controller has a lower THD during unbalance and short circuit conditions.

Gradient-Based Predictive Pulse Pattern Control of Medium-Voltage Drives—Part I: Control, Concept, and Analysis

This article proposes a control and modulation strategy for medium-voltage (MV) drives that exhibits excellent steady-state and transient behavior. Specifically, optimized pulse patterns (OPPs) and direct model predictive control are employed so that the associated advantages of both, such as minimum stator current total demand distortion (TDD) and fast transients, respectively, are fully exploited. To do so, the current reference trajectory tracking and modulation problems are addressed in a coordinated manner in the form of a constrained optimization problem that utilizes the knowledge of the stator current evolution—as described by its gradient—within the prediction horizon. Solving this problem yields the optimal real-time modification of the offline-computed OPP, which guarantees that very low—and close to its theoretical minimum value—stator current TDD is produced at steady state, and very short settling times during transients. To highlight the effectiveness of the proposed strategy, a variable speed drive system consisting of a three-level neutral point clamped inverter and an MV induction machine serves as a case study.

A Grid Connected Solar Photovoltaic System with Multilevel Shunt Active Power Filter for Power Quality Enhancement

This paper presents a shunt active power filter based on a three-phase 3-level Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) inverter for grid-connected Photovoltaic (PV) systems. The main objectives to be met are: i) Ensuring maximum power extraction from the PV panels, by forcing the voltage across the PV panel to track a suitable reference provided by P&O algorithm; ii) Assuring Power Factor Correction (PFC) by forcing grid currents to be sinusoidal and in phase (or opposite phase) with grid voltages. In order to achieve these objectives, a cascade control strategy with two imbricated loops is designed. Lyapunov approach and sliding mode control are used in the inner loop to meet the PFC requirement. As for the outer loop, it is designed using the PI regulator and P&O algorithm to satisfy the voltage regulation objective. Lastly, simulation results are performed in the MATLAB/SimPowerSystems environment to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

A new design of active NPC converter topology with higher voltage gain for solar PV applications

In the low voltage applications, the high gain multilevel inverters has seen more visibility due to the improved harmonic profile with multilevel voltage as well as boosting feature. A boost active neutral point clamped (ANPC) multilevel inverter (MLI) configuration with reduced resource count has been proposed in this paper. The proposed MLI produces 11 levels (11L) voltage with the help of 12 switches of blocking voltage ratings lesser than the peak value of output voltages. For attaining the boosting of 2.5 in output voltage, 4 capacitors are used in the proposed MLI which are inherently self-balanced. The capacitors charging as well as discharging are done by implementing the simple logic of parallel/series connection with the active power DC source. The proposed MLI is implemented and tested in the laboratory at various operating conditions, and the corresponding results and discussion are presented.

A control design for a photovoltaic transformerless HB-NPC inverter with leakage-ground current reduction

A control design for an HB-NPC transformerless inverter is presented in this paper, the proposal includes a modified LCL passive output filter which is aimed to attenuate leakage-ground currents in a transformerless photovoltaic generation system. This modification consists of a simple connection of the filter capacitors to the positive and negative nodes of the DC-link. A theoretical analysis of the differential-mode and common-mode models is performed. Thus, the proposed control law is designed in these new variables of the system. Therefore, the proposed control law consists of two main loops, an inner control loop which is based on the differential-mode model, and a DC-link voltage balance control loop based on the common-mode model. The current tracking loop features a proportional gain plus a bank of resonant filters to enhance the tracking on the differential-mode current reference. The common-mode voltage loop features a PI controller aimed to guarantee the DC-link common-mode voltage regulation objective. To assess the performance of the proposed solution a 1 kW experimental setup of the H-bridge neutral-point clamped transformerless inverter is used with the proposed LCL filter and controller.

The switching decomposition pulse width modulation with reduced common mode voltage for reduced switch counts neutral point clamped inverter

Compared with a conventional three-levelconverter, a reduced switch counts three-level neutral point clamped (RSC-3LNPC) inverter uses only 10 switching devices to achieve three-leveloutput at a lower cost. However, in the RSC-3LNPC inverter, the common modevoltage (CMV) reduction and neutral point voltage (NPV) balance are mutuallycoupled, and the buck switching module eliminates medium vectors, making conventional modulation methods no longer applicable. To address this problem, this paperdevelops a generation mechanism of the voltage and switching vectors for RSC-3LNPC inverter and proposes a switching decomposition pulse width modulation (SDPWM) scheme. First, a virtual medium vector with two large vectors having the samedwell time is introduced. Then, the small and zero vectors with low CMV, along with the large and virtual medium vectors, are adopted, and by adjusting their dwell time, the NPV is balanced while reducing CMV. In addition, to reduce computational burden, the switching vector isdecomposed into a buck switching vector and a two-level switching vector. Both switching vector sequences with transformed duty cycles are carefully designed to achieve only three switching transactions per switching period. Finally, validation and correctness of the proposed SDPWM scheme for RSC-3LNPC inverterare verified by simulation and experiments.