Multilevel inverter technology has emerged recently as a very important alternative in the area of high-power medium-voltage energy control. This paper presents the most important topologies like diode-clamped inverter (neutral-point clamped), capacitor-clamped (flying capacitor), and cascaded multicell with separate DC sources. Emerging topologies like asymmetric hybrid cells and soft-switched multilevel inverters are also discussed. This paper also presents the most relevant control and modulation methods developed for this family of converters: multilevel sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation, multilevel selective harmonic elimination, and space-vector modulation. Special attention is dedicated to the latest and more relevant applications of these converters such as laminators, conveyor belts, and unified power-flow controllers. The need of an active front end at the input side for those inverters supplying regenerative loads is also discussed, and the circuit topology options are also presented. Finally, the peripherally developing areas such as high-voltage high-power devices and optical sensors and other opportunities for future development are addressed.

Multilevel inverters: a survey of topologies, controls, and applications

This paper presents a technology review of voltage-source-converter topologies for industrial medium-voltage drives. In this highly active area, different converter topologies and circuits have found their application in the market. This paper covers the high-power voltage-source inverter and the most used multilevel-inverter topologies, including the neutral-point-clamped, cascaded H-bridge, and flying-capacitor converters. This paper presents the operating principle of each topology and a review of the most relevant modulation methods, focused mainly on those used by industry. In addition, the latest advances and future trends of the technology are discussed. It is concluded that the topology and modulation-method selection are closely related to each particular application, leaving a space on the market for all the different solutions, depending on their unique features and limitations like power or voltage level, dynamic performance, reliability, costs, and other technical specifications.

Multilevel Voltage-Source-Converter Topologies for Industrial Medium-Voltage Drives

A scheme for controlling parallel-connected inverters in a standalone AC supply system is presented. This scheme is suitable for control of inverters in distributed source environments such as in isolated AC systems, large and distributed uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, photovoltaic systems connected to AC grids, and low-voltage DC power transmission meshes. A key feature of the control scheme is that it uses feedback of only those variables that can be measured locally at the inverter and does not need communication of control signals between the inverters. This is essential for the operation of large AC systems, where distances between inverters make communication impractical. It is also important in high-reliability UPS systems where system operation can be maintained in the face of a communication breakdown. Real and reactive power sharing between inverters can be achieved by controlling two independent quantities: the power angle and the fundamental inverter voltage magnitude. Simulation results are presented. >

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Control of parallel connected inverters in stand-alone AC supply systems

Predictive control is a very wide class of controllers that have found rather recent application in the control of power converters. Research on this topic has been increased in the last years due to the possibilities of today's microprocessors used for the control. This paper presents the application of different predictive control methods to power electronics and drives. A simple classification of the most important types of predictive control is introduced, and each one of them is explained including some application examples. Predictive control presents several advantages that make it suitable for the control of power converters and drives. The different control schemes and applications presented in this paper illustrate the effectiveness and flexibility of predictive control.

Predictive Control in Power Electronics and Drives

This paper presents a review of recently used direct torque and flux control (DTC) techniques for voltage inverter-fed induction and permanent-magnet synchronous motors. A variety of techniques, different in concept, are described as follows: switching-table-based hysteresis DTC, direct self control, constant-switching-frequency DTC with space-vector modulation (DTC-SVM). Also, trends in the DTC-SVM techniques based on neuro-fuzzy logic controllers are presented. Some oscillograms that illustrate properties of the presented techniques are shown.

Direct torque control of PWM inverter-fed AC motors - a survey

The new direct self-control (DSC) is a simple method of signal processing that gives converter-fed three-phase machines an excellent dynamic performance. To control the torque of, say, an induction motor, it is sufficient to process the measured signals of the stator currents and the total flux linkages only. In the basic version of DSC, the power semiconductors of a three-phase voltage source inverter are directly switched on and off via three Schmitt triggers, comparing the time integrals of line-to-line voltages to a reference value of desired flux, if the torque has not yet reached an upper-limit value of a two-limit torque control. Optimal performance of drive systems is accomplished in steady state as well as under transient conditions by combination of several two-limit controls. >

Direct self-control (DSC) of inverter-fed induction machine

In the paper by Kim et al. (see ibid., vol.17, p.701-10, Sept. 2002), a new representation of instantaneously defined voltages, currents and powers was proposed which is based on transforming the original a-b-c quantities into a p-q-r coordinate system. If the compensating currents are determined really instantaneously, that means without preprocessing or filtering, then the results of the p-q-r theory are identical as well to those of the original p-q theory as to the results of the FBD-method. The calculation effort needed by the p-q-r theory is the highest, that of the FBD-method by far the lowest.

M. Depenbrock

Papers

Direct self-control (DSC) of inverter-fed induction machine

Concerning "Instantaneous power compensation in three-phase systems by using p-q-r theory"