A Study of the SPWM High-Frequency Harmonic Circulating Currents in Modular Inverters

Due to detection and control errors, some high-frequency harmonics with voltage-source characteristics cause circulating currents in modular inverters. Moreover, the circulating currents are usually affected by the output filters (OF) of each module due to their filter and resonance properties. The interaction among the circulating currents in the modules increase the power loss and reduce system stability and control precision. Therefore, this paper reports the results of a study on the SPWM high-frequency harmonics circulating currents for a double-module VSI. In the paper, an analysis of the circulating-current circuits is briefly described. Next, a mathematic model of the single-module output voltage based on the carrier frequency of SPWM is built. On this basis, through mathematic modeling of high-frequency harmonic circulating currents, the formation mechanism and distribution characteristics of circular currents and their influences are studied in detail. Finally, the influences of the OF on the circulating currents are studied by mainly taking an LC-type filter as an example. A theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate some important characteristics. First, the carrier phase shifting of the SPWM for each module is the major cause of the SPWM harmonic circulating currents, and the circulating currents are in an odd distribution around n-times the carrier frequency $n{\omega}_s$, where n = 1, 2, 3, ${\ldots}$. Second, the harmonic circular currents do not flow into the parallel system. Third, the OF can effectively suppress the non-circulating part of the high-frequency harmonic currents but is ineffective for the circulation part, and actually reduces system stability.