• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.545-551
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• 2010

A new family of DC to AC converters, referred to as multilevel inverter, has received much attention from industries and researchers for its high power and voltage applications. One of the conventional techniques for implementing the switching algorithm in these inverters is optimized harmonic stepped waveform (OHSW). However, the major problem in using this technique is eliminating low order harmonics by solving the nonlinear and complex equations. In this paper, a new approach called the "bacterial foraging algorithm" (BFA) is employed. This algorithm eliminates and optimizes the harmonics in a multilevel inverter. This method has higher speed, precision, and convergence power compared with the genetic algorithm (GA), a famous evolutionary algorithm. The proposed technique can be expanded in any number of levels. The purpose of optimization is to remove some low order harmonics, as well as to ensure the fundamental harmonic retained at the desired value. As a case study, a 13-level inverter is chosen. The comparison results by MATLAB software between the two optimization methods (BFA and GA) have shown the effectiveness and superiority of BFA over GA where convergence is desired to achieve global optimum.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.419-428
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• 2013

The modular multilevel cascade converter (MMCC) is a new family of multilevel power converters with modular realization and a cascaded pattern for submodules. The MMCC family can be classified by basic configurations and submodule types. One member of this family, the Hexverter, is configured as Double-Delta Full-Bridge (DDFB). It is a novel multilevel AC/AC converter with direct power conversion and comparatively fewer required components. It is appropriate for connecting two three-phase systems with different frequencies and driving an AC motor directly from a utility grid. This paper presents the dq model of a Hexverter with both of its AC systems by state-space representation, which then simplifies the continuous time-varying model into a periodic discrete time-invariant one. Then a generalized multivariable optimal control strategy for regulating the Hexverter's independent currents is developed. The resulting control structure can be adapted to other MMCCs and is flexible enough to include other control criterion while guaranteeing the original controller performance. The modeling method and control design are verified by simulation results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.136-148
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• 2017

In recent years, voltage source multilevel converters are very popular in medium/high-voltage industrial applications, among which the NPC/H-Bridge converter is a popular solution to the medium/high-voltage drive systems. The conventional finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) strategy is not practical for multilevel converters due to their substantial calculation requirements, especially under high number of voltage levels. To solve this problem, a hierarchical model predictive voltage control (HMPVC) strategy with referring to the implementation of g-h coordinate space vector modulation (SVM) is proposed. By the hierarchical structure of different cost functions, load currents can be controlled well and common mode voltage can be maintained at low values. The proposed strategy could be easily expanded to the systems with high number of voltage levels while the amount of required calculation is significantly reduced and the advantages of the conventional FCS-MPC strategy are reserved. In addition, a HMPVC-based field oriented control scheme is applied to a drive system with the NPC/H-Bridge converter. Both steady-state and transient performances are evaluated by simulations and experiments with a down-scaled NPC/H-Bridge converter prototype under various conditions, which validate the proposed HMPVC strategy.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제18권5호
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• pp.1608-1617
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• 2018

The rapid and correct isolation of faulty submodules (SMs) is of great importance for improving the reliability of modular multilevel converters (MMCs). Therefore, a fast diagnosis method containing fault detection and fault location determination was presented in this paper. An improved incremental predictive model of arm current was proposed to detect failures, and the multi-step prediction method was used to eliminate the negative impact of disturbances. Moreover, a control method was proposed to strengthen the fault characteristics to rapidly locate faulty arms and faulty SMs by detecting the variation rate of the SM capacitor voltage. The proposed method can rapidly and easily locate faulty SMs under different load conditions without the need for additional sensors. The experimental results have validated the effectiveness of the proposed method by using a single-phase MMC with four SMs per arm.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.473-479
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• 2016

In this paper, the PSC PWM method is chosen as the optimal modulation method for a 20MW VSC HVDC, with consideration of the harmonic distortion of the output voltage, the switching frequency, and the control implementation difficulty. In addition, a new PSC PWM method is proposed in order to achieve an easy application and to solve the redundant control problems encountered in the previous PSC PWM method. To verify the proposed PSC PWM method, PSCAD/EMTDC simulations for an 11-level MMC RTDS HILS test and an 11-level MMC prototype converter test were performed. As can be seen from the results of these tests, the proposed PSC PWM method shows good results in an 11-level MMC with redundant sub-modules.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 2005년도 전력전자학술대회 논문집
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• pp.408-410
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• 2005

Multilevel converters have emerged like a new strategy for energy conversion from medium power to high power. The main characteristic of the topologies classified as multilevel, is the use of commutation devices connected in series, allowing the distribution of the voltage and reducing stress in the commutation switches. Stacked Multicell Converter (SMC), is classified as single-phase voltage source inverter(VSI). Due to the fact, the SMC generates a signal of alternating current of several levels of voltage of direct current. The following work will demonstrate the flexibility of the above mentioned topology using a low cost control circuit architecture.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.788-797
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• 2017

The power quality of AC electric railways has become an issue worthy of more and more concern. Many active compensators based on power converters have been proposed, but with complex transformers or coupled branches. This paper presents a single-phase cascaded H-bridge multilevel active power filter (APF), which can directly connect to the 27.5-kV power supplies to deal with power quality problems. According to field measured data, the load characteristics are analyzed, and the system configuration and control system are designed based on the load characteristic analysis. Finally, simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed APF system, considering some problems such as the supply voltage fluctuations and transient inrush currents in AC electric railway systems.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 2014년도 전력전자학술대회 논문집
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• pp.341-342
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• 2014

VSC-HVDC system based on Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) is an emerging technology since compared to the conventional VSC-HVDC system an MMC presents several advantages such as modularity, low dv/dt, low harmonics, and low switching losses. In this paper, a comprehensive control strategy of an MMC-based VSC-HVDC system is proposed. In contrast to the conventional system control strategy, the DC side of the MMC operates as a controlled voltage source by the proposed method, and the dynamics of the transmission line voltage and current can be actively controlled. Validity of the proposed strategy was verified by 201-level full-scale computer simulation.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제16권6호
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• pp.2294-2305
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• 2016

The introduction of a high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) system based on a modular multilevel converter (MMC) for wind farm integration has stimulated studies on methods to control this type of converter. This research article focuses on the control of the AC voltage and circulating current for a wind-farm-side MMC (WFS-MMC). After theoretical analysis, emotional learning (EL) controllers are proposed for the controls. The EL controllers are derived from the learning mechanisms of the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex which make the WFS-MMC insensitive to variance in system parameters, power change, and fault in the grid. The d-axis and q-axis currents are respectively considered for the d-axis and q-axis voltage controls to improve the performance of AC voltage control. The practicability of the proposed control is verified under various conditions with a point-to-point MMC-HVDC system. Simulation results show that the proposed method is superior to the traditional proportional-integral controller.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.829-838
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• 2016

This paper focuses on the engineering trade-offs in designing capacitor voltage balancing schemes for modular multilevel converters (MMC) HVDC: regulation performance and switching loss. MMC is driven by the on/off switch operation of numerous submodules and the key design concern is balancing submodule capacitor voltages minimizing switching transition among submodules because it represents the voltage regulation performance and system loss. This paper first introduces the state-of-the-art MMC-HVDC submodule capacitor voltage balancing methods reported in the literatures and discusses the trade-offs in designing these methods for HVDC application. This paper further proposes a submodule capacitor balancing scheme exploiting a control signal to flexibly interchange between the on-state and the off-state submodules. The proposed scheme enables desired performance-based voltage regulation and avoids unnecessary switching transitions among submodules, consequently reducing the switching loss. The flexibility and controllability particularly fit in high-level MMC HVDC applications where the aforementioned design trade-offs become more crucial. Simulation studies for MMC HVDC are performed to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed capacitor voltage balancing algorithm.