Journal of Power Electronics

The Korean Institute of Power Electronics (전력전자학회)
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Proper flying capacitor selection for performance enhancement of five-level hybrid active neutral-point-clamped inverters

  • Hakami, Samer Saleh (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ajou University) ;
  • Lee, Kyo-Beum (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ajou University)
  • Received : 2022.05.18
  • Accepted : 2022.08.11
  • Published : 2022.10.20
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Abstract

Flying capacitors (FCs) are very important in multilevel inverter systems when it comes to synthesizing additional voltage levels for various medium-voltage industrial applications, including renewable energy, motor drives, and power transmission. In particular, they are responsible for forming the five-level output pole voltages in five-level hybrid active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) topologies. This is only possible when the FCs reach their reference values (i.e., 25% of the DC-link value). When a five-level hybrid ANPC inverter operates in the high-frequency (HF) range, the output three-phase current waveforms are less distorted when compared to the low-frequency (LF) performance. Instantaneously achieving a five-level output pole voltage during HF operation is a challenging task. This is due to the large capacitance of some existing types of FCs. In this study, a novel analysis of the effects of a FC on the performance of a five-level hybrid ANPC inverter is presented with simulation and experimental validations. Film capacitors significantly enhanced system performance when compared to electrolytic capacitors due to their many advantageous features, including the ability to charge and discharge quickly during HF operation. In addition, the total harmonic distortion of the output pole voltage is significantly suppressed. Consequently, the size of the required filter can be reduced. Therefore, the proposed system is highly desirable for various industrial applications.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by Korea Electric Power Corporation, the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea (No. R21XO01-11 and No. 20206910100160).

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