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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2016.2536585, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications
1
Optimal Pulsewidth Modulation of Medium-Voltage
Modular Multilevel Converter
Amarendra Edpuganti, Member, IEEE and Akshay K. Rathore, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—Modular multilevel converter (MMC) is now the
state-of-the-art converter topology for high-voltage dc transmission (HVDC) systems. Another potential application for MMC
is medium-voltage (MV) high power industrial AC drives. In
high power applications, thermal constraints of power semiconductor devices limit device switching frequency to a few
hundred Hertz. However, there exists a trade-off between device switching frequency and harmonic distortion of converter
output currents. Synchronous optimal pulsewidth modulation
(SOP) is an emerging low device switching frequency modulation technique for high power converters, which maintains the
quality of converter output currents. SOP technique has been
successfully demonstrated for classical multilevel topologies and
it has been proved that maximum device switching frequency
can be limited to rated fundamental frequency for seven or
higher-level inverters without compromising on the quality of
output currents. However, implementation of SOP technique for
MMC topology is still pending. One of the main challenges
for control of MMC is to maintain floating capacitor voltages
around their nominal value. The goal of our study is to propose,
analyze and implement enhanced SOP technique for MMCs to
achieve low device switching frequency operation, better quality
of converter output currents and maintain capacitor voltages
around their nominal value. The proposed technique has been
validated using low power prototype of five-level MMC feeding
an 1.5-kW induction motor.
Index Terms—Induction motors, medium-voltage drives, modular multilevel converters, synchronous optimal pulsewidth modulation (SOP), variable speed drives.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Multilevel converters (MLCs) have emerged as standard
power electronic interface for medium-voltage (MV) and highvoltage (HV) high power applications. The main reason is
excellent quality of output voltage/current waveforms and
feasibility of utilizing low voltage (LV) and MV power semiconductor devices. Several MLC topologies have been proposed in the literature after the advent of three-level neutralpoint-clamped (3L-NPC) converter in 1980s [1]. Due to modularity and scalability, the cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) topology
has become industrial standard in high power and high quality
demanding applications. However, the main disadvantage with
CHB topology is requirement of bulky and expensive phaseshifting multi-winding isolation transformers to provide isolated dc sources [2]. In applications such as traction, marine
propulsion and wind power conversion, CHB topology may
not be preferred due to space and weight restrictions. One
feasible option is modular multilevel converter (MMC) that
has been originally proposed for high-voltage dc transmission
(HVDC) systems [3]–[5]. This topology overcomes the drawback of CHB topology by eliminating the need of isolated dc
sources by means of floating capacitors that acts as voltage
sources. Due to modularity and scalability, MMC is suitable
for any voltage/current level requirements and offers faulttolerant operation. Recently, MMC has been commercially
introduced for MV drives both as an active-front-end (AFE)
rectifier and also as an inverter [6].
In literature, several control and modulation techniques have
been proposed based on the requirements of MMC. The major
challenge in control of MMC is to maintain capacitor voltages
around their nominal value. The original publications proposed
a simple and novel method to obtain voltage balancing of
capacitors. The idea is to use modulation stage to determine
the number of submodules to be inserted in each arm at any
given time instance. The selection of submodule to be inserted/bypassed is based on a sorting algorithm, which requires
measurement of all capacitor voltages at each sampling instant.
Depending on the direction of arm current, higher ones are
selected to discharge them or lower ones are selected to charge
them [7]. The well-known sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation
(PWM) technique for MLCs such as level-shifted PWM and
phase-shifted PWM have been implemented for MMCs in
combination with sorting algorithm [8]. Similarly, space vector
modulation (SVM) technique has been adapted for MMCs [9],
[10]. Later, an open-loop control approach has been developed
to determine the number of submodules to be inserted in each
arm based on the estimation of energy stored in each arm
[11]. Another idea has been proposed by utilizing averaging
and balancing control loops to modify the modulation index
of each submodule based on the voltage error and direction of
arm current [12].
Thermal constraints of semiconductor device technology
set limitation on the overall device losses in high power
applications. Usually, low device switching frequency operation is preferred in order to limit the dominating switching
losses so that power converter can be operated at rated
fundamental current with feasible cooling requirements [13].
On the contrary, reducing the device switching frequency
increases the harmonic distortion of converter output currents.
Therefore, the challenge is to maintain quality of converter
output currents while operating at low device switching frequency. Classical modulation techniques such as sinusoidal
PWM and SVM techniques require higher device switching
frequency to achieve better quality of converter output currents [14]. Another popular classical technique to operate
MV converter at low device switching frequency is selective harmonic elimination modulation (SHEM), which utilizes
numerical techniques to determine switching angles off-line
in order to eliminate lower order harmonic components [15].
0093-9994 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2016.2536585, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications
2
However, some demerits of SHEM are limited operating region
due to unachievable numerical solutions and poor dynamic
performance [2]. Another classical method, which is gaining
popularity in the field of high power converters to achieve
low device switching frequency operation is model predictive
control (MPC) [16]. However, higher computational burden
to solve underlying optimization problem as number of levels
increase heavily restricts its practical implementation [17].
Synchronous optimal pulsewidth modulation (SOP) is an
emerging modulation technique to operate high power converters at low device switching frequency, while maintaining the quality of output currents. It has been successfully
implemented for several classical MLC topologies [18]–[22].
Also, it has been recently introduced in commercial MV
drives [23]. SOP utilizes off-line optimization technique to
pre-determine switching angles that minimize the harmonic
distortion of converter output currents for each steady-state
operating point. These optimal switching patterns are derived
for constant v/f control of induction motor drive. However,
these optimal switching patterns are suitable only for low
performance MV drives due to assumption of steady-state
operating conditions [24]. For high performance drives, which
are subjected to frequent transient conditions, SOP technique
should be combined with optimal stator current trajectory
tracking method or stator flux trajectory tracking method or
model predictive control [25]–[27]. On the other hand, SOP
technique for MMC topology has been not explored yet. The
major challenge will be to maintain floating capacitor voltages
around their nominal value, which conduct fundamental frequency load current. The objective of this study is to propose
enhanced SOP technique for MMC to achieve low device
switching frequency operation, minimized harmonic distortion
of converter output currents and minimal capacitor voltage
ripple [28].
The paper contents are organized as follows: Circuit topology and operation of MMC is discussed in Section II, basics
of SOP technique are presented in Section III, implementation
of SOP for MMC topology is presented in Section IV. The
experimental results are demonstrated in Section V to validate
the performance of proposed technique.
II. C IRCUIT T OPOLOGY AND O PERATION
The circuit configuration of MMC is shown in Fig. 1. Each
phase leg of MMC consists of two arms connected in series
via arm inductors. The arm connected to positive rail is called
upper arm and the arm connected to negative rail is called
lower arm. Each arm consists of several submodules connected
in series. The submodule consists of a half-bridge cell with
a dc capacitor. Each submodule can be either inserted or
bypassed by turning on top switch S1 or bottom switch S2,
respectively. When a submodule is inserted, its output voltage
is equal to capacitor voltage that gets charged or discharged
depending on the direction of arm current. When a submodule
is bypassed, its output voltage will be zero and its capacitor
voltage remains constant.
The ac-side output voltage is controlled by varying the
number of submodules that are inserted in the upper and lower
Fig. 1. MMC topology
TABLE I
S YNTHESIS OF OUTPUT VOLTAGE LEVELS OF 5L-MMC
Nu
Nl
viu
vil
vphO
0
1
2
3
4
4
3
2
1
0
0
Vnom
2Vnom
3Vnom
4Vnom
4Vnom
3Vnom
2Vnom
Vnom
0
2Vnom
Vnom
0
-Vnom
-2Vnom
arms. Consider a single phase leg, let the instantaneous inserted voltages in upper arm and lower arm are denoted as viu
and vil , respectively. By neglecting the arm inductor voltage
drop, it can be shown that ac-side output voltage is equal to
1
2 (vil − viu ) [11]. Let the number of submodules in each arm
are denoted as Nsm . Then, nominal value of submodule capacitor voltage Vnom should be equal to Vdc /Nsm . In general,
MMC is operated such that Nsm submodules are inserted in
one phase leg, which lead to Nsm +1 voltage levels in output
phase voltage. Thus, MMC with n-1 submodules in one arm is
referred as nL-MMC in this paper. For example, MMC with
four submodules in each arm is referred as 5L-MMC. The
operation of 5L-MMC for one of three phase legs is shown
in TABLE I, where Nu , Nl denote the number of submodules
inserted in upper arm and lower arm, respectively. It should
be observed that phase output voltage vphO (ph ∈ A, B, C)
of MMC with four submodules consists of five voltage levels.
III. BASICS OF SOP
SOP is a combination of synchronous PWM and optimal
PWM. Synchronous PWM is usually used in low device
switching frequency applications, where frequency of carrier
signal fc is always made an integer multiple of fundamental
frequency f1 . This is done in order to eliminate inter-harmonic
components. Synchronous PWM results in a fewer number
of switching commutations in a fundamental period and thus
optimization methods are suggested for off-line determination
of switching angles with goal to minimize the harmonic
distortion of converter output currents [29].
0093-9994 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2016.2536585, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications
3
The SOP technique has been implemented for v/f control
of variable speed induction motor drives. In variable speed
drives, the fundamental frequency f1 varies from 0 to rated
fundamental frequency f1R . The typical value of f1R is 50/60
Hz, however, it might go up to a few hundred Hertz in
some high-speed applications. Therefore, the standard practice
1
,
in SOP is to utilize normalized fundamental frequency ff1R
which is defined as modulation index m. The value of m
varies from 0 to 1 and the entire range of m is usually
divided into small intervals to obtain the discrete values of m.
SOP technique determines switching angles for all possible
discrete values of m. In general, half-wave and quarter-wave
symmetries are introduced in the switching pattern to eliminate
all odd order harmonics and then, it is sufficient to determine
the switching angles in a quarter period. The number of
switching angles in a quarter period is denoted as pulse number
N . Each steady-state operating point is denoted as (m,N ).
The implementation of SOP technique for any power electronic converter involves three steps [28]:
1) Determine value of N such that the device switching
frequency fs is limited to fs,max for each m.
2) Perform optimization to pre-determine switching angles
for each steady-state operating point (m,N ) that minimize the harmonic distortion of output current.
3) Assign switching angles to each power semiconductor
device based on optimal switching patterns.
The first step in SOP technique is dependent on converter
topology. However, some classical topologies such as neutralpoint-clamped (NPC), flying-capacitor (FC), CHB or hybrid
topologies such as 3L-NPC leg based CHB topology, share a
common feature that an nL-MLC consists of 0.5*(n-1) subconverters (H-Bridge or 3L-NPC) in each phase. Therefore,
a generalized expression has been developed to calculate
pulse number N for entire range of m [18]. However, this
generalized expression is not valid for MMC topology that
will be explained in Section IV. The last step of SOP deals
with assigning switching angles to each power semiconductor
device to realize optimal voltage waveforms. One of the important factor to be considered while assigning switching angles
is to achieve identical device switching frequency. There might
be additional requirements unique to each topology such
as capacitor voltage balancing, minimizing capacitor voltage
ripple, elimination/minimization of common-mode voltages
or currents and so on. Therefore, the overall procedure to
allocate switching angles is unique to each topology and its
implementation becomes more complex as number of voltage
levels increases, which is due to higher number of redundant
switching states. The topology of MMC poses further challenges due to presence of floating capacitors which conduct
fundamental frequency load current. More details about first
and last steps of SOP technique for MMC topology will be
dealt in Section IV.
In the second step, optimization is performed for each
steady state operating point (m, N ) to pre-determine the N
switching angles, which minimize the harmonic distortion of
converter output currents. The objective function for optimization is distortion factor d, which is independent of any
Fig. 2. Possible structures of 3L, and 5L waveforms with N =5
machine parameters. For a nL-MLC, the final expression for
d is obtained as [30],
qP
PN
1
2
2
ih
k ( k4 )(
i=1 s(i)cos(kαi ))
q
=
, (1)
d=
P 1
ih,six−step
(n − 1)
( )
k k4
where, ih and ih,six−step represents the harmonic rms current during normal operation and six step operation (m=1)
of converter, respectively, k represents k th order harmonic
(k=5,7,11,13,. . . ), and the term s(i) represents switching transition at switching angle αi . The value of s(i) = 1 when
switching leads to higher output potential and s(i)=-1 if
switching leads to lower output potential. For constant v/f
control of induction motor drive, the following non-linear
constraint is obtained,
f1
u1
=
f1R
u1,six−step
N
(n − 1)m X
=
s(i) cos(αi ),
(2)
2
i=1
where, u1 and u1,six−step represents the fundamental component of converter output voltage for normal operation and
six-step operation, respectively. The goal of optimization is
to determine switching angles correspond to minimum d for
each steady-state operating points (m,N ), while satisfying the
non-linear constraint given by (2).
The expression for d has two variables: switching transitions
s(i) and switching angles αi (i=1 to N ). To simplify the
optimization calculations, it is important to obtain all possible set of switching transitions s(i) (i=1 to N ) known as
structures, which correspond to an nL waveform for a given
pulse number N . The structure represents a unique sequence
of output voltage levels. As number of levels increase, the
possible structures increase due to an additional degree of
freedom in choosing next voltage level. Another obvious fact
is that the number of structures also increases at higher values
of pulse number N . The different possible structures for 3L,
and 5L waveforms with N =5 are shown in Fig. 2. The more
details about structures can be read in [18].
After determining all possible structures for a given pulse
number N , the next step is to perform optimization to determine switching angles αi (i=1 to N ) for each structure
0093-9994 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2016.2536585, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications
4
corresponding to each steady-state operating point (m,N ).
In addition to non-linear constraint (2), the switching angles
should satisfy the following constraints: (1) sufficient gap
(10µs) between consecutive switching angles to allow for
minimum on times and off times of the power semiconductor
devices, (2) continuity of switching angles for a given pulse
number N over its associated modulation index range in
order to avoid transients in output currents. The structure
which exhibits minimum d for a particular pulse number N
over its associated modulation index range is selected. The
switching transitions of best possible structure along with
optimal switching angles are stored in look-up tables for each
steady-state operating point (m,N ). Complete details about
optimization algorithm can be seen in [18].
IV. SOP OF MMC T OPOLOGY
The details of first and last steps in SOP technique for MMC
topology are given in this Section. In the first step, the pulse
number N has to be estimated for each discrete value of m
such that device switching frequency fs is limited to fs,max .
In the second step, optimization algorithm generates optimal
switching angles for each steady-state operating point (m,N ),
as explained in Section III. In the last step, switching angles
are assigned to each power semiconductor device based on
the following criteria: identical device switching frequency,
and maintaining capacitor voltages around their nominal value.
More details of implementation are given next.
A. Determination of N
Consider an nL-MMC that has to be operated with device
switching frequency fs limited to fs,max . Let the ratio between
fs and f1 be denoted as Rf . As the SOP technique demands
N
AND fs FOR A GIVEN
m
0.801
0.668
0.572
0.501
0.445
0.401
0.365
0.334
0.309
0.287
-
TABLE II
m WITH fs,max = 200 H Z FOR 5L-MMC
f1 (Hz)
1.000
0.800
0.667
0.571
0.500
0.444
0.400
0.364
0.333
0.308
40.05
33.40
28.60
25.05
22.25
20.05
18.25
16.70
15.45
14.35
-
50.00
40.00
33.35
28.55
25.00
22.20
20.00
18.20
16.65
15.40
N
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
fs (Hz)
160.20
167.00
171.60
175.35
178.00
180.45
182.50
183.70
185.40
186.55
-
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
Fig. 4. Results of optimization for operating 5L-MMC at fs,max =200 Hz :
d versus m
that Rf should be an integer, the following relationship is
obtained for each m,
fs,max
Rf = f loor
,
(3)
mf1R
where, the function ‘floor’ returns largest previous integer.
Then, the total number of commutations in one arm which
contains (n-1) submodules should be equal to (n-1)*2*Rf .
Finally, the value of N for the nL-MMC is obtained as,
(n − 1) ∗ 2Rf
4
(n − 1)
fs,max
=
∗ f loor
.
2
mf1R
N=
(4)
The goal of our study is to implement SOP for a 5L-MMC
with fs,max set at 200 Hz. The selected value for fs,max
is based on the experimental results from classical 5L-MLC
topologies [18]. Based on (4), the estimated value of N for
different values of m with fs,max set at 200 Hz is shown in
TABLE II. From estimated values of N , the device switching
frequency fs for different values of m is shown in Fig. III. It
should be observed from TABLE II and Fig. III that device
switching frequency is limited to 200 Hz for each value of
m. Next, optimization is performed to determine N switching
angles for a given operating point (m,N ) that minimize the
harmonic distortion of converter output currents.
B. Optimization of switching angles
The optimization algorithm given in Section III is implemented using MATLAB programming. The MATLAB gradient method ‘FMINCON’ with active-set algorithm searches for
switching angles αi (i=1 to N ), which minimize the objective
function d for each steady-state operating point (m,N ). The
optimization results of proposed SOP technique for 5L-MMC
with fs,max = 200 Hz is shown in Fig. IV-A. It should be
noticed that harmonic distortion has been reduced significantly
when m < 0.93. At higher modulation index values m >0.93,
harmonic distortion increases as MMC approaches six-step
operation.
C. Allocation of Optimal Switching Angles
Fig. 3. N and fs for different values of m to operate 5L-MMC at fs,max =
200 Hz
After determining the optimal switching angles, the next
step is to allocate switching angles to each power semiconductor device. Two main factors to be considered while assigning
switching angles are identical device switching frequency and
maintaining capacitor voltages around their nominal value.
0093-9994 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2016.2536585, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications
5
TABLE III
L IST OF COMPONENTS AND THEIR PARAMETERS IN EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Fig. 5. Submodule capacitor voltages (p.u.) of one phase leg with pre-assigned
switching angles for insertion/bypass of submodules
An algorithm has been developed to predetermine switching
angles of each submodule based on the optimal switching
patterns, while achieving identical device switching frequency.
However, the submodule capacitor voltages get diverged as
shown in Fig. 5. The reason is that net transfer of energy to
each submodule capacitor is either positive or negative in each
fundamental cycle. The conclusion is that it is not possible to
maintain capacitor voltages around their nominal value with
predetermined switching angles to insert/bypass submodules.
In this paper, angle swapping technique has been proposed to
maintain capacitor voltages around their nominal value.
Angle Swapping Technique: At any given time instant, each
submodule of MMC is operated either in insertion mode or
bypass mode. In bypass mode, arm current does not flow via
submodule capacitor and thus its voltage remains constant.
In insertion mode, the submodule capacitor gets charged or
discharged depending on the direction of arm current and
total amount of energy transferred to each submodule capacitor
depends on the magnitude of arm current and duration of submodule insertion. During one fundamental cycle, the capacitor
voltage increases if the net energy transfer is positive, whereas
capacitor voltage decreases if net energy transfer is negative.
With pre-assigned switching angles, the submodule capacitor
voltages either continuously increase or decrease over a period
of time as shown in Fig. 5.
The basic idea behind angle swapping technique is to ensure
that net transfer of energy to each submodule capacitor is zero
over a few fundamental cycles. This is done by swapping the
gating signals among the submodules of each arm after every
fundamental cycle. For example, predetermined gating signals
G1, G2, G3 and G4 for one arm of 5L-MMC will drive the
submodules as follows: 1st cycle: SM1, SM2, SM3 and SM4,
2nd cycle: SM2, SM3, SM4 and SM1, 3rd cycle: SM3, SM4,
SM1, SM2, and 4th cycle: SM4, SM1, SM2, SM3. In this way
it is possible to maintain submodule capacitor voltages around
their nominal value.
DC-link voltage Vdc
Number of submodules per arm Nsm
Nominal capacitor voltage Vnom
Arm inductance
Submodule capacitance
Half-bridge modules
Six-pack driver
Induction motor
300 V
4
75 V
1.35 mH
1.33 mF
SK30GBB066T
VCE =600 V, ICnom =30 A
SKHI 61R
400 V, 3.5 A, 50 Hz
1.5 kW, 0.79 PF, 1500 rpm
Fig. 6. Prototype of 5L-MMC phase leg
(a)
V. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
The proposed technique has been implemented for modulating 5L-MMC feeding an 1.5-kW induction motor with
fs,max set at 200 Hz. A low power prototype of 5L-MMC
phase leg has been developed with half-bridge modules from
Semikron (SK30GBB066T) and six-pack IGBT driver SKHI
61R, as shown in Fig. 6. The list of components and their
rated parameters of experimental set-up are shown in TABLE
III. The output of 5L-MMC is connected directly to induction
motor without using any LC filter to get better understanding
of significant harmonics in stator currents.
(b)
Fig. 7. Experimental results for operating point (m=0.9216, N =8). X-axis: 5
ms/div. (a) Output phase and line-to-line voltage (Y-axis: 50 V/div, 100 V/div)
(b) three-phase stator currents (Y-axis: 1 A/div)
0093-9994 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2016.2536585, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications
6
The optimal switching angles have been generated for
three different operating points (m=0.9216, N =8), (m=0.6667,
N =12), and (m=0.4431, N =18). The output phase voltage
with five levels, line-to-line voltage, and stator currents for
these three different operating points are shown in Figs. 7 (a)(b) to Figs. 9 (a)-(b), respectively. It should be observed that
the machine stator currents are sinusoidal, although the device
switching frequency has been limited to 200 Hz, as shown in
Figs. 7 (b) to Figs. 9 (b). Thus, it can be concluded that SOP
technique permits reduction in device switching frequency up
to 200 Hz for 5L-MMC, while maintaining the quality of
machine stator currents.
The space vector trajectories of stator currents for these
three operating points are shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(c), respectively. The circular trajectories demonstrate low harmonic
distortion of machine stator currents, although the device
switching frequency has been limited to 200 Hz. In addition,
FFT analysis has been performed on recorded stator currents
to get better understanding of the harmonic spectrum with
calculated optimal switching angles. The harmonic spectrum
of stator currents for three operating points are shown in Fig.
12 (a)-(c), respectively. The THD of stator currents for three
operating points are obtained as 2.09%, 3.09% and 3.81%,
respectively. Also, the enlarged view of harmonic spectrum
shows that all dominant harmonic components are limited to
1% of fundamental component.
The SM capacitor voltages of upper arm of phase leg A
for the three operating points (m=0.9294, N =8), (m=0.6667,
N =11), and (m=0.5020, N =15) are shown in Fig. 11 (a)(c), respectively. The SM capacitor voltages are well balanced
with low voltage ripple owing to angle swapping technique. It
should be noticed that voltage ripple increases as the value of
m decreases. From all the experimental results, it should be
concluded that proposed technique modulates the 5L-MMC
with fs,max set at 200 Hz, while minimizing the harmonic
distortion of machine stator currents, and maintaining floating
capacitor voltages around their nominal value.
(a)
(a)
VI. S UMMARY AND C ONCLUSION
Modular multilevel converters (MMCs) have recently found
industrial relevance in medium voltage drives. In medium
voltage drives, thermal constraints of semiconductor devices
restrict device switching frequency to a few hundred Hertz.
However, low device switching frequency operation leads to
higher harmonic distortion of machine stator currents. An
emerging low device switching frequency modulation technique for medium voltage converters that does not compromise
on the quality of output currents is synchronous optimal
pulsewidth modulation (SOP). The implementation of SOP for
MMC topology requires following modifications: method to
estimate pulse number N at each modulation index value, and
allocation of switching angles to each power semiconductor
(b)
(b)
Fig. 8. Experimental results for operating point (m=0.6667, N =12). X-axis:
10 ms/div. (a) Output phase and line-to-line voltage (Y-axis: 50 V/div, 100
V/div) (b) three-phase stator currents (Y-axis: 1 A/div)
Fig. 9. Experimental results for operating point (m=0.4431, N =18). X-axis:
20 ms/div. (a) Output phase and line-to-line voltage (Y-axis: 50 V/div) (b)
three-phase stator currents (Y-axis: 1 A/div)
0093-9994 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TIA.2016.2536585, IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications
7
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 10. Space vector trajectories of machine stator currents. X,Y-axis: 1 A/div (a) (m=0.9216, N =8). (b) (m=0.6667, N =12). (c) (m=0.4431, N =18)
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 11. Submodule capacitor voltages of upper arm of phase A leg. X-axis: 20 ms/div. Y-axis: 20 V/div (a) (m=0.9216, N =8). (b) (m=0.6667, N =12). (c)
(m=0.4431, N =18)
(a)
device. The optimal switching angles should be allocated to
each power semiconductor device based on following criteria:
identical device switching frequency and maintaining capacitor
voltages around their nominal value. An angle swapping
scheme has been utilized to maintain submodule capacitor
voltages around their nominal value. The experimental results
from 5L-MMC fed 1.5-kW induction motor drive validated
the proposed method and demonstrated its performance.
R EFERENCES
(b)
(c)
Fig. 12. Harmonic spectrum of stator currents (enlarged view to show the
dominant harmonic components). X-axis: Harmonic Order. Y-axis: IIh . (a)
1
(m=0.9216, N =8). (b) (m=0.6667, N =12). (c) (m=0.4431, N =18)
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Transactions on Industry Applications
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Amarendra Edpuganti (S’14, M’16) received the
B.Tech. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from National Institute of Technology, Warangal,
India, in 2007, the M.Tech degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur,
India, in 2012, and the Ph.D. degree in the area of
power electronics in the Department of Electrical
and Computer engineering, National University of
Singapore, Singapore, in 2016.
He was a Software Engineer with Adobe Systems
Inc., Bangalore, India from August 2007 to December 2009. Currently, he is a Scientist with the ABB Grid Systems Research
and Development Center, Chennai, India. His research interests include multilevel converters, high-voltage dc transmission systems, low device switching
frequency modulation techniques, and medium-voltage drives.
Akshay Kumar Rathore (M’05, SM’12) received
his Masters degree from Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India in 2003. He was
awarded Gold Medal for securing highest academic
standing among all electrical engineering specializations. He obtained PhD from University of Victoria,
Victoria, BC, Canada in 2008. He was a recipient of
University PhD Fellowship and Thouvenelle Graduate Scholarship. He had two subsequent postdoctoral
research appointments with University of Wuppertal,
Germany, and University of Illinois at Chicago,
USA. From November 2010-Feb 2016, he was an Assistant Professor in
Department of Electrical and ComputerEngineering, National University of
Singapore, Singapore. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal,
Canada.
Dr. Rathore has published above 130 research papers in international
journals and conferences including 45 IEEE Transactions. He is an Associate
Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification,
IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, and IEEE Journal of Emerging
Selected Topics in Power Electronics. He is a winner and recipient of 2013
IEEE IAS Andrew W Smith Outstanding Young Member Award and 2014
Isao Takahashi Power Electronics Award.
0093-9994 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.