Dynamic Voltage Balancing Algorithm for Modular Multilevel Converter: A Unique Solution

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) has several submodules in cascade. To control the submodule capacitors voltage, a new generalized dynamic voltage balancing algorithm along with a simple pulse width modulator structure is proposed in this paper. With proposed pulse width modulator structure, the dynamic voltage balancing algorithm can be easily implemented with any type of carrier based pulse width modulation (including level-shifted and phase-shifted pulse width modulation) scheme without any modifications. This method does not require the sorting technique for selection of submodule capacitors voltage. The performance of the proposed voltage balancing algorithm is presented for MMC with three-level flying capacitor submodules (MMC-3L-FC). The proposed method is also applicable to the conventional two-level half bridge submodules as well. The effectiveness of the proposed voltage balancing algorithm is verified with the phase-shifted carrier-based pulse with modulation scheme. The results obtained from the MATLAB/SIMULINK simulations on 6-kV/2.5-MW system and the dSPACE DS1103-based laboratory prototype of 208-V/3-kVA MMC-3L-FC system are in close relationship, and thus, the proposed methodology is validated.