Analysis of some design choices in model based predictive control of flying‐capacitor inverters

Purpose – Flying‐capacitor multilevel converters (FCC) need a passive or active regulation of the capacitor voltages. Recently the trend is towards active control, often implemented separately from the current control. The advantages of a true multi‐variable control sparked the interest to apply Model Based Predictive Control (MBPC) for FCC. In this paper an objective analysis method to evaluate the effects of several design choices is presented. The effects of the weight factor selection, model simplification, and prediction horizon expansion for MBPC of a 3‐level FCC are analyzed in a systematical way.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is mainly based on the mean square error (MSE) of current and capacitor voltage. The results are analysed for different lengths of the prediction horizon and for a wide range of weight factor values. Similarly the effect of a model simplification, neglecting the neutral point voltage, is studied when implementing MBPC for FCCs while considering the computational a...

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