Voltage Sensor Reduction Method for Modular Multilevel Converters Based on a Simple Voltage Reconstruction Approach

Modular multilevel converter (MMC) has been a promising topology in high and medium-voltage applications over the past decades. Conventional control schemes for MMCs need a voltage measurement from each submodule (SM) to achieve energy balancing. Consequently, a significant amount of sensors are required for the control system, which increases the circuit complexity and the hardware cost. This paper presents a voltage sensor reduction method for medium-voltage MMCs based on a simple voltage reconstruction approach. In this approach, the capacitor voltage of each SM is reconstructed based on the measured arm voltage and the switching patterns. As a result, the proposed method reduces the number of required voltage sensors from one per SM to one per arm. The effectiveness of the method is verified with simulations in closed-loop during transients and steady-state operation.     «

Modular multilevel converter (MMC) has been a promising topology in high and medium-voltage applications over the past decades. Conventional control schemes for MMCs need a voltage measurement from each submodule (SM) to achieve energy balancing. Consequently, a significant amount of sensors are required for the control system, which increases the circuit complexity and the hardware cost. This paper presents a voltage sensor reduction method for medium-voltage MMCs based on a simple voltage reco...     »