• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.1928-1938
• /
• 2016

The three-phase four-wire shunt active power filter (APF) is an effective method to solve the harmonic problem in three-phase four-wire power systems. In addition, it has two possible topologies, a four-leg inverter and a three-leg inverter with a split-capacitor. There are some studies investigating DC-link voltage control in three-phase four-wire APFs. However, when compared to the four-leg inverter topology, maintaining the balance between the DC-link upper and lower capacitor voltages becomes a unique problem in the three-leg inverter with a split-capacitor topology, and previous studies seldom pay attention to this fact. In this paper, the influence of the balance between the two DC-link voltages on the compensation performance, and the influence of the voltage balance controller on the compensation performance, are analyzed. To achieve the balance between the two DC-link capacitor voltages, and to avoid the adverse effect the voltage balance controller has on the APF compensation performance, a new DC-link voltage balance control strategy for the three-phase four-wire split-capacitor APF is proposed. Representative simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the analysis and the proposed DC-link voltage balance control strategy.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.108-118
• /
• 2019

This paper proposes a DC-link voltage balance controller using the fourth-phase of a three-level neutral-point clamped (NPC) PWM converter with medium vector selection (MVS) PWM for common-mode voltage reduction. MVS PWM makes the voltage reference by synthesizing the voltage vectors that cannot generate common-mode voltage. This PWM method is effective for reducing the EMI noise emitted from converter systems. However, the DC-link voltage imbalance problem is caused by the use of limited voltage vectors. Therefore, in this paper, the effect of MVS PWM on the DC-link voltage of a three-level NPC converter is analyzed. Then a proportional-derivative (PD) controller for the DC-link voltage balance is designed from the DC-link modeling. In addition, feedforward compensation of the neutral point current is included in the proposed PD controller. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is verified by experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.12 no.5
• /
• pp.739-747
• /
• 2012

This paper applies carrier phase shifted pulse-width modulation (CPS-PWM) to transformerless modular multilevel converters (MMC) to improve the output spectrum. Because the MMC topology is characterized by the double-star connection of six legs consisting of cascaded modular chopper cells with floating capacitors, the balance control of the DC-link capacitor voltage is essential for safe operation. This paper presents a leg-balancing control strategy to achieve DC-link voltage balance under all operating conditions. This strategy based on circulating current decoupling control focused on DC-link balancing between the upper and lower legs in each phase pair by considering the six legs as three independent phase-pairs. Experiments are implemented on a 100-V 3-kVA downscaled prototype. The experimental results show that the proposed leg-balancing control is both effective and practical.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.560-568
• /
• 2019

This paper studies the inherent relationship between currents and zero-sequence components. Then a precise algorithm is proposed to calculate the injected zero-sequence component to control the DC-Link neutral-point voltage balance, which can result in a more efficient and flexible neutral point voltage balance with a desirable performance. In addition, it is shown that carried-based PWM with the calculated zero-sequence component scheme can be equivalent to space-vector pulse-width modulation (SVPWM). Based on the proposed method, the optimal zero-sequence component of the feasible modulation indices is analyzed. In addition, the unbalanced load limitation of the DC-Link neutral-point voltage balance control is also revealed. Simulation and experimental results are shown to verify the validity and practicality of the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.205-214
• /
• 2003

This paper proposes a simple control strategy based on the discontinuous PWM (DPWM) to balance the DC-link voltage of three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter at low modulation index. It introduces new DPWM methods in multi-level inverter and one of them is used for balancing the DC-link voltage. The current flowing in the neutral point of the DC-link causes the fluctuation of the DC-link voltage of the NPC inverter. The proposed DPWM method changes the path and duration time of the neutral point current, which makes the overall fluctuation of the DC-link voltage zero during a sampling time of the reference voltage vector. Therefore, by using the proposed strategy, the voltage of the DC-link can be balanced fairly well and the voltage ripple of the DC-link is also reduced significantly. Moreover, comparing with conventional methods which have to perform the complicated calculation, the proposed strategy is very simple. The validity of the proposed DPWM method is verified by the experiment.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.422-428
• /
• 2013

Recently, we use a static synchronous compensator(STATCOM) with cascaded H-bride topologies, because it is easy to increase capacity and to reduce total harmonic distortion(THD). When we use equipment for reactive power compensation, dc-link voltage unbalances occur from several reasons although loads are balanced. In the past, switching pattern change of single phase inverter and reference voltage magnitude change of inverter equipped with power sensor have been used for dc-link voltage balance. But previous methods are more complicated and expensive because of additional component costs. Therefore, this paper explains reasons of dc-link voltage unbalance and proposes solution. This solution is complex method that is composed of reference voltage magnitude change of inverter without additional hardware and shifted phase angle of inverter reference voltages change. It proves possibility through 1000[KVA] system simulation.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.695-703
• /
• 2014

In this paper, a fault detection scheme for DC-link voltage sensor and its fault tolerant control strategy for three-phase AC/DC/AC PWM converters are proposed, where the Luenberger observer is applied to estimate the DC-link voltage. The Luenberger observer is based on a converter model, which is derived from the voltage equations of a grid-side converter and the power balance on a DC link. A fault of the voltage sensor is detected by comparing the measured value of the DC-link voltage with the estimated one. When a sensor fault is detected, a fault tolerant control strategy is performed, where the estimated DC-link voltage is used for the feedback control. The estimation error from the observer is about 1.5 V, which is sufficiently accurate for feedback control. In addition, it is shown that the observer performance is robust to parameter variations of the converter. The validity of the proposed method has been verified by simulation and experimental results.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
• /
• 2018.07a
• /
• pp.316-317
• /
• 2018

This paper propse the DC link capacitor voltage balancing control for three level neutral point clamped converter with harmonic component injection method. The injcetion voltage consists of harmonic component and DC link capacitor voltage difference. Theoretical analysis is provided to balance the DC link voltage, and it shows that harmonic component compensates the unbalanced condition between the capacitors. Both simulations and experiments are carried out to show that the voltage unbalance have been decreased by the proposed method.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
• /
• 2008.06a
• /
• pp.277-279
• /
• 2008

In this paper, a novel active boost converter for SR drive is proposed. An active capacitor circuit is added in the front-end. Based on this active capacitor network, when boost switch turns off, this network seems as passive capacitor network. And the voltage of boost capacitor can keep balance with dc-link voltage automatically. In the capacitor network, discharging voltage is general dc-link voltage in parallel-connected capacitors; charging voltage is double dc-link voltage in series-connected capacitors. When boost switch turns on, two capacitors are connected in series, and discharging voltage is up to double dc-link voltage. So the fast excitation current can be obtained from this mode. Profit from fast excitation and fast demagnetization mode, the performance and output power can be improved. Some computer simulations are done to verify the performance of proposed converter.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
• /
• 2003.07b
• /
• pp.560-564
• /
• 2003

This paper proposes a simple control strategy based on the discontinuous PWM(DPWM) to balance the DC-link voltage of three-level Neutral-Point-Clamped(WPC) inverters at low modulation index. New DPWM methods in multi-level inverter are also introduced. The proposed DPWM method changes the path and duration to flow the neutral point current out of or into neutral point of the DC-link and it makes the overall fluctuation of the DC-link voltage zero during a sampling time of reference voltage vector. Therefore, the voltage of the DC-link can be balanced fairly well and also the voltage ripple of the DC-link is reduced significantly. Moreover, comparing with conventional methods, the proposed strategy is very simple. The validity of the proposed DPWM method is verified by experiment