Multilevel converters have been under research and development for more than three decades and have found successful industrial application. However, this is still a technology under development, and many new contributions and new commercial topologies have been reported in the last few years. The aim of this paper is to group and review these recent contributions, in order to establish the current state of the art and trends of the technology, to provide readers with a comprehensive and insightful review of where multilevel converter technology stands and is heading. This paper first presents a brief overview of well-established multilevel converters strongly oriented to their current state in industrial applications to then center the discussion on the new converters that have made their way into the industry. In addition, new promising topologies are discussed. Recent advances made in modulation and control of multilevel converters are also addressed. A great part of this paper is devoted to show nontraditional applications powered by multilevel converters and how multilevel converters are becoming an enabling technology in many industrial sectors. Finally, some future trends and challenges in the further development of this technology are discussed to motivate future contributions that address open problems and explore new possibilities.

/pdf/recent-advances-and-industrial-applications-of-multilevel-26fluutoc9.pdf

Recent Advances and Industrial Applications of Multilevel Converters

This paper proposes a step-by-step procedure for designing the LCL filter of a front-end three-phase active rectifier. The primary goal is to reduce the switching frequency ripple at a reasonable cost, while at the same time achieving a high-performance front-end rectifier (as characterized by a rapid dynamic response and good stability margin). An example LCL filter design is reported and a filter has been built and tested using the values obtained from this design. The experimental results demonstrate the performance of the design procedure both for the LCL filter and for the rectifier controller. The system is stable and the grid current harmonic content is low both in the lowand high-frequency ranges. Moreover, the good agreement that was obtained between simulation and experimental results validates the proposed approach. Hence, the design procedure and the simulation model provide a powerful tool to design an LCL-filter-based active rectifier while avoiding trial-and-error procedures that can result in having to build several filter prototypes.

Design and control of an LCL-filter-based three-phase active rectifier

Solid-state switch-mode rectification converters have reached a matured level for improving power quality in terms of power-factor correction (PFC), reduced total harmonic distortion at input AC mains and precisely regulated DC output in buck, boost, buck-boost and multilevel modes with unidirectional and bidirectional power flow. This paper deals with a comprehensive review of improved power quality converters (IPQCs) configurations, control approaches, design features, selection of components, other related considerations, and their suitability and selection for specific applications. It is targeted to provide a wide spectrum on the status of IPQC technology to researchers, designers and application engineers working on switched-mode AC-DC converters. A classified list of more than 450 research publications on the state of art of IPQC is also given for a quick reference.

/pdf/a-review-of-single-phase-improved-power-quality-ac-dc-2pm6h4zjxq.pdf

A review of single-phase improved power quality AC-DC converters

The recently introduced proportional-resonant (PR) controllers and filters, and their suitability for current/voltage control of grid-connected converters, are described. Using the PR controllers, the converter reference tracking performance can be enhanced and previously known shortcomings associated with conventional PI controllers can be alleviated. These shortcomings include steady-state errors in single-phase systems and the need for synchronous d-q transformation in three-phase systems. Based on similar control theory, PR filters can also be used for generating the harmonic command reference precisely in an active power filter, especially for single-phase systems, where d-q transformation theory is not directly applicable. Another advantage associated with the PR controllers and filters is the possibility of implementing selective harmonic compensation without requiring excessive computational resources. Given these advantages and the belief that PR control will find wide-ranging applications in grid-interfaced converters, PR control theory is revised in detail with a number of practical cases that have been implemented previously, described clearly to give a comprehensive reference on PR control and filtering.

Proportional-resonant controllers and filters for grid-connected voltage-source converters

The aim of this paper is to analyze the stability problems of grid connected inverters used in distributed generation. Complex controllers (e.g., multiple rotating dq-frames or resonant-based) are often required to compensate low frequency grid voltage background distortion and an LCL-filter is usually adopted for the high frequency one. The possible wide range of grid impedance values (distributed generation is suited for remote areas with radial distribution plants) challenge the stability and the effectiveness of the LCL-filter-based current controlled system. It has been found out and it will be demonstrated in this paper that the use of active damping helps to stabilise the system in respect to many different kinds of resonances. The use of active damping results in an easy plug-in feature of the generation system in a vast range of grid conditions and in a more flexible operation of the overall system able to manage sudden grid changes. In the paper, a vast measurement campaign made on a single-phase system and on a three-phase system used as scale prototypes for photovoltaic and wind turbines, respectively, validate the analysis.

Stability of photovoltaic and wind turbine grid-connected inverters for a large set of grid impedance values

In this paper, direct power control (DPC) of three-phase pulsewidth-modulated rectifiers without line voltage sensors is presented. The new system is based on virtual flux (VF) estimation. Theoretical principles of this method are discussed. The steady-state and dynamic behavior of VF-DPC are presented that illustrate the operation and performance of the proposed system compared to a conventional DPC method. Both strategies are also investigated under unbalance and predistorted grid. It is shown that the VF-DPC exhibits several advantages, particularly providing sinusoidal line current when the supply voltage is not ideal. Test results show the excellent performance of the proposed system.

Virtual flux based direct power control of three-phase PWM rectifiers

This paper deals with various active damping approaches for PI-based current control of grid-connected pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) converters with LCL filters, which are based on one additional feedback. Filter capacitor current, as well as voltage feedback for the purpose of resonance damping, are analyzed and compared. Basic studies in the continuous Laplace domain show that either proportional current feedback or derivative voltage feedback yields resonance damping. Detailed investigations of these two approaches in the discrete z-domain, taking into account the discrete nature of control implementation, sampling, and PWM, are carried out. Several ratios of LCL resonance frequency and control frequency are considered. At high resonance frequencies, only current feedback stabilizes the system. At medium resonance frequencies, both approaches have good performance. At low resonance frequencies, stability gets worse, even though voltage feedback offers slightly better damping properties. Measurements validate the theoretical results.

https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/etit/LEA-download/dl-open/veroeff_2010/ias_dannehl.pdf

Investigation of Active Damping Approaches for PI-Based Current Control of Grid-Connected Pulse Width Modulation Converters With LCL Filters

This article gives a survey of the commonly used methods for harmonic detection in active power filters (APFs). The work proposes a simulation setup that decouples the harmonic detection method from the active filter model and its controllers. In this way, the selected methods can be equally analyzed and compared with respect to their performance, which helps in anticipating possible implementation issues. A comparison is given that may be used to decide the future hardware setup implementation. The comparison shows that the choice of numerical filtering is a key factor for obtaining a good accuracy and dynamic performance of an active power filter.

Detection is key - Harmonic detection methods for active power filter applications

In the attempt to minimize the harmonic disturbances created by the non-linear loads the choice of the active power filters comes out to improve the filtering efficiency and to solve many issues existing with classical passive filters. One of the key points for a proper implementation of an active filter is to use a good method for current/voltage reference generation. There exist many implementations supported by different theories (either in time- or frequency-domain), which continuously debate their performances proposing ever better solutions. This paper gives a survey of the common used theories. Then, the work here proposes a simulation setup that decouples the harmonic reference generator from the active filter model and its controller. In this way the selected methods can be equally analyzed and compared with respect to their performance, which helps anticipating possible implementation issues. The conclusions are collected and a comparison is given at the end, which is useful in deciding the future hardware setup implementation. The comparison shows that the choice of numerical filtering is a key factor for obtaining good accuracies and dynamics for an active filter.

Steffan Hansen

Papers

Design and control of an LCL-filter-based three-phase active rectifier

Virtual flux based direct power control of three-phase PWM rectifiers

Investigation of Active Damping Approaches for PI-Based Current Control of Grid-Connected Pulse Width Modulation Converters With LCL Filters

Detection is key - Harmonic detection methods for active power filter applications

Evaluation of harmonic detection methods for active power filter applications