A Sliding-Mode Observer for MMC-HVDC Systems: Fault-Tolerant Scheme With Reduced Number of Sensors

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) has been widely adopted in different applications, such as high-voltage direct current (HVDC), electric drives and static synchronous compensators. Despite the application, MMC realization requires a high number of power electronic components, sensors, and communication cables. This paper proposes a sliding-mode observer for capacitor voltages of the MMC, using the measurements of arm currents and arm voltages. A linear corrector within the hysteresis band is proposed to reduce the chattering in the observer dynamics. Moreover, guidelines for tuning the observer gain are presented. The SM capacitance value is included as a parameter uncertainty of the observer. The proposal reduces the requirements of voltage sensors and optical links in MMC and allows fault-tolerant operation. The proposed observer performance is evaluated through a simulation of 100 MVA three-phase MMC-HVDC during initialization, steady-state, and submodule failures. The effect of the switching and sampling frequencies on the observer performance is also evaluated. Finally, experimental results validate the proposal in a downscale 3 kVA single-phase MMC prototype.