The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is very attractive in a high-voltage dc (HVdc) transmission system due to its high modularity and scalability. It is also a promising candidate for medium-voltage applications. An MMC has many power devices that lead to a relatively low reliability based only on a direct failure rate calculation. The reliability of an MMC can be improved by redundant designs. Lots of redundant designs and strategies have been proposed in recent years, while their reliability improvements are hardly quantified in existing literature. In practice, reliability improvement with constraint costs is a challenge. In view of these, this paper proposes a reliability and cost assessment scheme for MMC redundant designs and strategies. Reliability and cost are quantified for comparison purposes. A medium-voltage application is used to demonstrate the reliability and cost assessment scheme. The reliability analysis is based on a combinatorial model and the Poisson process model. The cost analysis focuses on capital cost and power loss cost. The proposed reliability and cost analysis scheme provides a guideline for MMC redundant design and redundant strategy selection.

Reliability- and Cost-Based Redundancy Design for Modular Multilevel Converter

More than 170 countries have already established renewable energy targets to meet their national increasing energy demand and also to keep their environment sustainable. Due to a number of features, the use of the multi-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants is becoming the preferred choice for escalating and updating the power systems all over the world. Moreover, the solar PV power plant is also the first choice for meeting rapidly growing demands; as it can be installed relatively quickly, say in 6–12 months, compared to that of the fossil-fuel-based plants that may require more than 4–5 years. The traditional low-voltage (288–690 V) converter-based system requires a step-up transformer and a line filter to interconnect a solar PV power plant with medium-voltage grids. Recently, the use of medium-voltage converters without a step-up transformer and a line filter has become more attractive for direct medium-voltage grid integration of solar PV power plants. This paper aims to review the necessity and the technical challenges in developing medium-voltage power electronic converters, including the converter circuit topologies and control techniques used in the development of medium-voltage converters to interconnect solar PV power plants to medium-voltage grids directly. In this paper, a comprehensive review of the current research activities and the possible future directions of research to develop medium-voltage converter technologies to provide for a cost-effective grid integration of solar PV power plants are presented.

State-of-the-Art of the Medium-Voltage Power Converter Technologies for Grid Integration of Solar Photovoltaic Power Plants

The high-frequency common magnetic-link made of amorphous material, as a replacement for common dc-link, has been gaining considerable interest for the development of solar photovoltaic medium-voltage converters. Even though the common magnetic-link can almost maintain identical voltages at the secondary terminals, the power conversion system loses its modularity. Moreover, the development of high-capacity high-frequency inverter and power limit of the common magnetic-link due to leakage inductance are the main challenging issues. In this regard, a new concept of identical modular magnetic-links is proposed for high-power transmission and isolation between the low and the high voltage sides. Third harmonic injected sixty degree bus clamping pulse width modulation and third harmonic injected thirty degree bus clamping pulse width modulation techniques are proposed which show better frequency spectra as well as reduced switching loss. In this paper, precise loss estimation method is used to calculate switching and conduction losses of a modular multilevel cascaded converter. To ensure the feasibility of the new concepts, a reduced size of 5 kVA rating, three-phase, five-level, 1.2 kV converter is designed with two 2.5 kVA identical high-frequency magnetic-links using Metglas magnetic alloy-based cores.

/pdf/modular-medium-voltage-grid-connected-converter-with-ymn0kqjx2y.pdf

Modular Medium-Voltage Grid-Connected Converter With Improved Switching Techniques for Solar Photovoltaic Systems

With the rapid development of modern electrified railway, negative-sequence current minimization is one of the most important considerations in the high-speed railway traction system. In the past, many multiple or multilevel topologies with high compensation capacity have been introduced for railway power conditioner (RPC). This paper presents a simplified quantitative comparison of five previous modular RPC topologies for negative sequence compensation in V/V and SCOTT traction systems, aiming for an optimal selection of the compensators. Performance criteria such as transformer requirement, voltage stress and current stress of a power switch, numbers of the power switches and capacitor are derived by analytical methods. Moreover, the numerical comparison of operating controllers is completed for modular RPCs. In addition, power losses of five modular RPCs are obtained by theoretical analysis, IPOSIM calculation as well as PSIM simulation. These calculations are validated via simulations results in PSIM. The main conclusion is that presented modular RPCs can be divided into general purpose RPC and special purpose RPC in terms of the behavior and efficiency. It is helpful to choose the appropriate topology for specific applications.

/pdf/analysis-and-comparison-of-modular-railway-power-conditioner-3py5temeu5.pdf

Analysis and Comparison of Modular Railway Power Conditioner for High-Speed Railway Traction System

For high power voltage source converter based high voltage direct current transmission systems, modular multilevel converter (MMC) is the most popular circuit topology nowadays. It is known that the existence of the second-order harmonic circulating current (SHCC) component in the arm current of MMC increases the loss of the converter. Conventionally, the SHCC component eliminating methods are usually adopted to reduce the loss. The relationship between the loss of MMC and the SHCC component is analyzed first in this paper. The analysis shows that the conventional eliminating methods are not optimal in terms of the minimum loss of MMC. A loss optimization control scheme is also proposed by injecting the optimal SHCC component into the arm current of MMC, rather than eliminating the SHCC component of the arm current. The simulation and experimental results of the ±350 kV/1000 MW MMC and the down-scaled MMC setup verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed loss optimization method under different operation conditions.

Loss Optimization of MMC by Second-Order Harmonic Circulating Current Injection

Lesnicar and Marquardt introduced a modular multilevel converter (MMC) topology back in 2003. Although this topology has received a great deal of attention in recent years by both the research community and industry, hitherto no steady-state model has been developed which accurately captured all the relevant power losses while being computationally light. Hence, the aim of this paper is to introduce a fast MMC loss model which captures the key sources of power losses in steady-state operation. The proposed model was compared to a loss model developed by Marquardt. Both models presented similar results under the same assumptions. However, the proposed model captures the switching losses more realistically and considers the temperature of operation of the electronics, as well as the losses of the inductors and cooling system, in the overall efficiency of the MMC. To validate these new additions, the proposed steady-state model was compared to a dynamic model. Once again, the proposed model was able to capture the different sources of power losses. Nonetheless, results demonstrated that the balancing strategy greatly influences the efficiency of the MMC. Therefore, information regarding the envisioned control strategy is necessary to accurately calculate the efficiency curve of the MMC.

Steady-State Loss Model of Half-Bridge Modular Multilevel Converters

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Steady-State Loss Model of Half-Bridge Modular Multilevel Converters