Weighting Factor Free Model Predictive Control for a Flying Capacitor Converter in a DC Microgrid

This paper presents a single-objective model predictive control for a bidirectional DC-DC flying capacitor (FC) converter, which integrates a battery to the microgrid. The presence of multiple FCs facilitates the converter to interface a low-voltage battery to a high-voltage DC bus at reduced voltage stress on its power switches. However, such converter requires a controller that fulfils multiple objectives, namely DC bus and FC voltage regulations, and bidirectional power flow. The key feature of the proposed controller is that it utilizes a model predictive control with a single-objective cost function based on battery current and a redundant state selection scheme to attain these multiple objectives. Adopting such a strategy not only reduces computational burden but also eliminates the need for weighting factors and requirement of complex numerical models for its estimation. Another notable aspect is that the controller employs an improved dynamic reference model to generate appropriate battery current reference for the DC bus voltage regulation, without necessitating a secondary control loop and additional current sensors. Finally, experimental results of the proposed system for a step-response of the DC bus voltage, varying PV power, and loads are validated and compared against finite control set model predictive control.