Deadbeat Predictive Current Control for Circulating Currents Reduction in a Modular Multilevel Converter Based Rail Power Conditioner

This paper presents a deadbeat predictive current control methodology to reduce the circulating currents in a modular multilevel converter (MMC) when it operates as a rail power conditioner (RPC) in a conventional railway system-based V/V connection. For this purpose, a half-bridge MMC based on half-bridge submodules, operating as an RPC is explained, and the total system is denominated as a simplified rail power conditioner (SRPC). The SRPC in this study is used to compensate harmonics, reactive power, and the negative sequence component of currents. This paper explains the SRPC system architecture, the key control algorithms, and the deadbeat predictive current control methodology. Mathematical analysis, based on the MMC equivalent circuit, is described and the reference equations are presented. Moreover, simulation results of the deadbeat predictive current control methodology are compared with the results of the conventional proportional-integral (PI) controller. This comparison is to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. Simulation results of the SRPC show reduced circulating currents in the MMC phases when using the predictive control approach, besides accomplishing power quality improvement at the three-phase power grid side.