• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1147-1156
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• 2014

This study proposes a quasi-fixed-frequency hysteresis current tracking control strategy for modular multilevel converters (MMCs) on the basis of voltage partition principle. First, by monitoring the grid voltage and the deviation between the output and reference currents, the output voltage is determined, thus prompting the output current to quickly and efficiently track the given current. Second, the voltages of the upper/lower capacitor of the arm and the voltages between the upper and lower arms are balanced by combining these arms with virtual loop mapping and arm voltage balance control, respectively. In particular, the proposed method is designed for any level and number of sub-modules. The validity of the proposed method is verified by simulations and experimental results of a five-level MMC prototype.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1683-1696
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• 2018

Under the conventional control strategy, the asymmetry of arm impedances may result in the poor operating performance of modular multilevel converters (MMCs). For example, fundamental frequency oscillation and double frequency components may occur in the dc and ac sides, respectively; and submodule (SM) capacitor voltages among the arms may not be balanced. This study presents an enhanced control strategy to deal with these problems. A mathematical model of an MMC with asymmetric arm impedance is first established. The causes for the above phenomena are analyzed on the basis of the model. Subsequently, an enhanced current control with five integrated proportional integral resonant regulators is designed to protect the ac and dc terminal behavior of converters from asymmetric arm impedances. Furthermore, an enhanced capacitor voltage control is designed to balance the capacitor voltage among the arms with high efficiency and to decouple the ac side control, dc side control, and capacitor voltage balance control among the arms. The accuracy of the theoretical analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed enhanced control strategy are verified through simulation and experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1496-1504
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• 2019

This paper proposes a new THD reduction algorithm for modular multilevel converters (MMCs) with offset voltage injection operated in nearest level modulation (NLM). High voltage direct current (HVDC) is actively introduced to the grid connection of offshore wind powers, and this paper deals with a voltage generation technique with an MMC for wind power generation. In the proposed method, third harmonic voltage is added for reducing the THD. The third harmonic voltage is adjusted so that each of the pole voltage magnitudes maintains a constant value with a maximum number of (N+1) levels, where N is the number of sub-modules per arm. By using the proposed method, the THD of the output voltage is mitigated without increasing the switching frequency. In addition, the proposed method has advantageous characteristics such as simple implementation. As a part of this study, this paper compares the THD results of the conventional method and the proposed method with offset voltage injection to reduce the THD. In this paper, simulations have been carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, and the proposed method is implemented by a HILS (Hardware in the Loop Simulation) system. The obtained results show agreement with the simulation results. It is confirmed that the new scheme achieved the maximum level output voltage and improved the THD quality.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2020.08a
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• pp.395-396
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• 2020

HVDC(High Voltage Direct Current) 시스템은 무효전력의 독립적인 제어가 가능하여 계통의 안정적인 연계가 가능하다. 또한, 멀티 터미널 DC grid 구성이 가능해 다수의 계통을 통합 연계할 수 있는 장점이 있다. HVDC 시스템은 단위 유닛인 서브모듈로 구성된 MMC(Modular Multi-level Converter) 구조를 갖으며 밸브 단위로 시스템이 구성된다. VSC(Voltage Source Converter) 밸브는 IEC 62501 기반의 규격을 바탕으로 하드웨어 설계의 건전성과 성능을 확인할 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 (주)효성이 개발중인 200MW 모듈형 멀티레벨 컨버터 밸브 단위의 성능과 설계의 건전성을 확인하기 위해 밸브단위 운전시험 회로를 구성하였으며, 운전 시험 결과를 분석하였다.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.346-357
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• 2017

The Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) is particularly attractive for medium and high power applications such as High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) systems. In order to reach a high voltage, the number of cascaded submodules (SMs) is generally very large. Thus, in the applications with hundreds or even thousands of SMs such as MMC-HVDCs, the sorting algorithm of the conventional voltage balancing strategy is extremely slow. This complicates the controller design and increases the hardware cost tremendously. This paper presents a Two-Way Merge Sort (TWMS) strategy based on the prediction of the capacitor voltages under ideal conditions. It also proposes an innovative Insertion Sort Correction for the TWMS (ISC-TWMS) to solve issues in practical engineering under non-ideal conditions. The proposed sorting methods are combined with the features of the MMC-HVDC control strategy, which significantly accelerates the sorting process and reduces the implementation efforts. In comparison with the commonly used quicksort algorithm, it saves at least two-thirds of the sorting execution time in one arm with 100 SMs, and saves more with a higher number of SMs. A 501-level MMC-HVDC simulation model in PSCAD/EMTDC has been built to verify the validity of the proposed strategies. The fast speed and high efficiency of the algorithms are demonstrated by experiments with a DSP controller (TMS320F28335).

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.5
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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.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2014.07a
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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.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.270-278
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• 2013

This paper proposes a control method for high voltage direct current(HVDC) with modular multilevel converter (MMC) under unbalanced voltage conditions considering the submodule(SM)'s current capacity and circulating current. It is aimed to propose a control method in which the current peak value does not exceed the maximum value of HVDC-MMC by considering the current capacity of the SM under unbalance voltage conditions. And it analyzes the effect of the unbalanced voltage on circulating currents in MMC and then proposes a control method considering each component of circulating currents under unbalanced voltages. The effectiveness of the proposed controlling method is verified through simulation results using PSCAD/EMTDC.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.319-328
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• 2016

In this study, we first briefly introduce the effect of circulating current control on the modulation signal of a modular multilevel converter (MMC). The maximum modulation index is also theoretically derived. According to the optimal modulation index analysis and the model in the continuous domain, different DC-side output impedance equivalent models of MMC with/without compensating component are derived. The DC-side impedance of MMC inverter station can be regarded as a series xR + yL + zC branch in both cases. The compensating component of the maximum modulation index is also related to the DC equivalent impedance with circulating current control. The frequency characteristic of impedance for MMC, which is observed from its DC side, is analyzed. Finally, this study investigates the prediction of the DC voltage ripple transfer between two-terminal MMC high-voltage direct current systems under unbalanced conditions. The rationality and accuracy of the impedance model are verified through MATLAB/Simulink simulations and experimental results.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.526-534
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• 2022

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) has been widely applied to various industrial areas because of its various advantages and structural characteristics. Therefore, many methods for synthesizing the output voltage of MMC have been studied. Among these methods, phase-shifted pulse width modulation (PSPWM) is frequently used in MMC systems because it has diverse merits, such as excellent output qualities even with a small number of cells and uniform power distribution among cells. In this study, the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the output voltage is analyzed in accordance with the number of cells in one arm of a single-delta bridge cell MMC in order to compare PSPWM methods in terms of the THD of the output voltage. The physical characteristics of the triangle and sawtooth carrier waves used for the PSPWM and the mathematical modeling of output voltage are introduced. Then, the obtained results are verified through real-time simulation of a 1 MW single-delta bridge cell MMC system.