Capacitor monitoring for modular multilevel converters

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is attractive for medium-or high-power applications because of the advantages of its high modularity, availability, and high power quality. Reliability is one of the most important challenges for the MMC consisting of a large number of submodules (SMs). The capacitor monitoring in each SM of the MMC is an important issue, which would affect the performance of the MMC. This paper proposed an effective monitoring method for the capacitance in each SM of the MMC. The proposed method reveals the relationship between the arm average capacitance and the capacitance in each SM of the arm, which can be used for capacitance estimation with a simple algorithm. The simulation studies with the professional tool PSCAD/EMTDC are conducted with the proposed method. The study results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

[1]  Lie Xu,et al.  Reduced switching-frequency modulation and circulating current suppression for modular multilevel converters , 2012, PES T&D 2012.

[2]  A. Amaral,et al.  An Experimental Technique for Estimating the ESR and Reactance Intrinsic Values of Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors , 2006, 2006 IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference Proceedings.

[3]  Gonzalo Abad,et al.  Modular Multilevel Converter With Different Submodule Concepts—Part II: Experimental Validation and Comparison for HVDC Application , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[4]  Marc Hiller,et al.  A new highly modular medium voltage converter topology for industrial drive applications , 2009, 2009 13th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications.

[5]  Samir Kouro,et al.  Circuit Topologies, Modeling, Control Schemes, and Applications of Modular Multilevel Converters , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[6]  Staffan Norrga,et al.  On Energy Storage Requirements in Modular Multilevel Converters , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[7]  Maryam Saeedifard,et al.  Operation, Control, and Applications of the Modular Multilevel Converter: A Review , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[8]  Reza Iravani,et al.  Dynamic performance of a modular multilevel back-to-back HVDC system , 2010, 2011 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting.

[9]  Makoto Hagiwara,et al.  A Medium-Voltage Motor Drive With a Modular Multilevel PWM Inverter , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[10]  Vijay B. Borghate,et al.  A Simplified Nearest Level Control (NLC) Voltage Balancing Method for Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[11]  Zhe Chen,et al.  A Control Method for Voltage Balancing in Modular Multilevel Converters , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[12]  Yanjun Tian,et al.  Fault-Tolerant Approach for Modular Multilevel Converters Under Submodule Faults , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[13]  Yantao Song,et al.  Survey on Reliability of Power Electronic Systems , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[14]  Staffan Norrga,et al.  Tolerance Band Modulation Methods for Modular Multilevel Converters , 2015 .

[15]  Andrea Zanobini,et al.  Automatic-test equipment for the characterization of aluminum electrolytic capacitors , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[16]  Ji-Yoon Yoo,et al.  Condition Monitoring of DC-Link Electrolytic Capacitors in Adjustable-Speed Drives , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.

[17]  A. Rufer,et al.  Analysis and Control of Modular Multilevel Converters With Integrated Battery Energy Storage , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[18]  Bin Wu,et al.  A Flying-Capacitor Modular Multilevel Converter for Medium-Voltage Motor Drive , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[19]  Staffan Norrga,et al.  Dynamic Analysis of Modular Multilevel Converters , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[20]  Marta Molinas,et al.  An Energy-Based Controller for HVDC Modular Multilevel Converter in Decoupled Double Synchronous Reference Frame for Voltage Oscillation Reduction , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[21]  Mariusz Malinowski,et al.  A Survey on Cascaded Multilevel Inverters , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[22]  Drazen Dujic,et al.  Isolated DC/DC Structure Based on Modular Multilevel Converter , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[23]  Leon M. Tolbert,et al.  Modular Multilevel Inverter with New Modulation Method and Its Application to Photovoltaic Grid-Connected Generator , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.