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© 1986-2012 IEEE. This article considers fault detection in the case of a three-phase three-wire (3P3W) inverter, when only two current sensors are used to save cost or due to a faulty current sensor. With two current sensors, there is no current method addressing the diagnosis of both IGBT open-circuit (OC) faults and current sensor faults. In order to solve this problem, this article proposes a method which innovatively combines two kinds of diagnosis variables, line voltage deviations and phase voltage deviations. The unique faulty characteristics of diagnosis variables for each fault are extracted and utilized to distinguish the fault. Using an average model, the method only needs the signals already available in the controller. Both IGBT OC faults and current sensor faults can be detected quickly in inverter mode and rectifier mode, so that the converter can be protected in a timely way to avoid further damages. In addition, error-adaptive thresholds are adopted to make the method robust. Effects such as system unbalance are analyzed to ensure that the method is robust and feasible. Simulation and experimental results are used to verify and validate the effectiveness of the method.

The circulating current of modular multilevel converter (MMC) has a great impact on the power losses, the submodule (SM) capacitor voltage ripples, and the rating of power devices. Existing analysis of circulating current has considered the capacitor voltage and the modulation signal. In this paper, the effect of semiconductor devices on the circulating current is further presented. In order to realize the different circulating current injection targets under different conditions, a unified online calculation scheme by using the instantaneous information of MMC is proposed in this paper to generate the circulating current injection references. It avoids detecting the amplitude and phase of the output current or using an extensive lookup table. Besides, a mathematical analysis model is built and it reveals the impact on the capacitor voltage ripple and the rms value of arm current with different injection references, thus guide the determination of the injection ratio. Experimental results based on a three-phase MMC prototype with six SMs per arm are presented to demonstrate the analysis of circulating current and the proposed circulating current injection references generating method is verified by different circulating current control targets with different loads.

This paper presents a model-based method to diagnose single- and multiple-transistor open-circuit (OC) faults in grid-tied three-phase voltage-source inverters (VSIs). The method is based on calculated average bridge arm pole-to-pole (PTP) voltages and error-adaptive thresholds. Only existing signals for closed-loop control are needed; thus, this method can be easily embedded in the system without extra sampling and circuits. Average PTP voltage deviations are chosen as diagnosis variables, which show considerable distinction quickly after fault. Consequently, fast fault diagnosis speed can be achieved. The fault diagnosis time for single fault can be as short as two switching periods. Besides, diagnosis variables show the same faulty characteristics in inverter mode and rectifier mode; thus, this method is effective in both modes. Moreover, for the first time, the variation of inductance caused by conducted current is considered to obtain a more accurate variable-inductance model, and the thresholds are updated according to mathematically estimated diagnosis variable calculation errors from sampling error, inductance error, dead time, and delay time, which maintains high robustness as well as fast speed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated with experiments.

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) with nearest level modulation (NLM) is widely used in the high voltage applications for low switching frequency and easy implementation. Existing literature has not provided a complete submodule (SM) fault ride-through scheme for MMC with NLM. In this paper, a strategy including fault detection, localization, redundancy, and recovery is proposed to ensure continuous operation of MMC under IGBT open-circuit faults conditions. It only requires a few hardware and software resources. The features of MMC and SMs with three types of failures are studied, respectively. Based on these, the fault detection method is proposed by using a simple hardware circuit, thus high computation complexity is avoided. Since current fault localization schemes are limited to MMC with carrier phase shifted pulse width modulation, this paper further proposes a strategy for MMC with NLM to locate the faulty SM and identify the fault type. After this, the fault redundancy and the proposed fault recovery method are applied to eliminate the fault and then exit the failure state. Therefore, the ability of SM fault ride-through can be realized. Analysis of failure characteristics are verified in simulation. Experimental results based on a single-phase MMC prototype with 11 SMs per arm are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed fault ride-through strategy.

In some cases, only two current sensors are available in three-phase three-wire (3P3W) inverters. This occurs when one of three sensors is faulty, or the inverter is equipped with only two sensors to save cost. There has been no method addressing the diagnosis of both IGBT open-circuit faults and current sensor faults in the 3P3W inverter with only two current sensors. In order to solve this problem, a nonintrusive method based on average output voltage deviations is proposed. The deviations between the measured and estimated output line and phase voltages are utilized to detect and locate the fault. With average model, this method can diagnose the fault fast with only signals available in the controller. Therefore, no extra sampling or diagnosing circuits are needed. Besides, the error-adaptive thresholds are adopted to ensure the robustness. Finally, experimental results verified the effectiveness.

Modular multilevel converters (MMC) can be used in many applications such as medium voltage multimegawatt drives and HVDC power transmission. Modulation strategy plays an important role for the good performance of MMC. In this paper, a submodule (SM) regrouping method of MMC is presented and based on this, a sampling time staggered space vector pulse width modulation (STS-SVM) technique is proposed for MMC. Each group has three SMs, which is irrespectively from three phases. Thus, the SVM scheme for the two-level converter can be applied in each group. For an MMC with n-SMs per arm, the two-level SVM for each group is staggered evenly over the sampling time, so as to achieve an equivalent switching frequency at the output. Therefore, the STS-SVM can be very easily expanded with the increasing of the SMs number, and also, the off-line or on-line effort/tasks about generating the SVM switching sequences are simplified significantly. Besides, the capacitor voltages of SMs can be balanced by rotating the gate signals of different SMs even without any capacitor voltage detecting or sorting because the even power distribution among SMs is realized. A three-phase MMC is simulated at both steady and dynamic states in MATLAB/Simulink and validate the performance of the proposition.

Owing to mismatched feeder impedances in an islanded microgrid, the conventional droop control method typically results in errors in reactive power sharing among distributed generation (DG) units. In this study, an improved droop control strategy based on secondary voltage control is proposed to enhance the reactive power sharing accuracy in an islanded microgrid. In a DG local controller, an integral term is introduced into the voltage droop function, in which the voltage compensation signal from the secondary voltage control is utilized as the common reactive power reference for each DG unit. Therefore, accurate reactive power sharing can be realized without any power information exchange among DG units or between DG units and the central controller. Meanwhile, the voltage deviation in the microgrid common bus is removed. Communication in the proposed strategy is simple to implement because the information of the voltage compensation signal is broadcasted from the central controller to each DG unit. The reactive power sharing accuracy is also not sensitive to time-delay mismatch in the communication channels. Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper presents an average model-based transistor open-circuit fault diagnosis method for grid-tied single-phase inverters which transfer power bi-directionally. It is easy to detect whereas tricky to identify the faulty transistor, for two different faults may show the same characteristics. In order to solve this problem, the inverter is changed to boost mode after fault is detected, so that the diagnosis variable can show distinguishable characteristics to locate the faulty transistor. The main advantage of this method is that the fault can be diagnosed fast without adding extra circuits. Additionally, it is featured with strong robustness against power change and sampling error. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by experiments.

Due to the inductor-capacitor (LC) filter, a pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) current-source converter may experience LC resonance. The resonance can be excited by system harmonics either from the PWM process or from the grid voltage distortions and hence results in the line current distorted. In this paper, feedback controls using different variables in the LC filter are first investigated and comprehensively analyzed. It is shown that the inductor-voltage feedback or the capacitor-voltage feedback can damp the current oscillations by increasing the damping ratio, while the inductor-current feedback or the capacitor-current feedback is able to suppress low-order harmonics by raising the resonance frequency. On this basis, a group of combined variable feedback control methods is presented by combining the feedbacks of the inductor/capacitor current and the inductor/capacitor voltage. Thus, not only the current oscillations can be damped, but also the low-order harmonics can be suppressed. Therefore, the line current waveform is improved, and the system performance can be flexibly optimized. A practical design method for feedback gains is also presented in this paper. Finally, the simulation and experimental results verify the feasibility and validity of the proposition.

Higher power applications require a multilevel converter to meet high power ratings. A multimodule current-source converter (CSC) can provide a multilevel current waveforms and at the same time eliminate the bulky transformer at the ac side. However, it is required for the multimodule CSC to use multiple dc-link inductors for the purpose of power balance among different modules. Thus, one key issue in the design of the multimodule CSC is to balance the current through different dc-link inductors. This paper focuses on studying the control strategy of the multimodule CSC and a generalized current balancing method is presented. As presented, zero vectors are distributed based on the deviation of the dc-link inductor currents and the comparison of the capacitor voltages. Therefore, the current imbalance problems, not only those among the upper inductors but also those among the lower inductors are solved. Moreover, since the current balancing algorithm is not dependent on module numbers, the presented control strategy is very suitable for modularization. Especially, with the feedback of the capacitor voltages, the resonance arising from the inductor-capacitor (LC) filter is damped. In addition, a design method of the dc-link inductors is also derived. Finally, simulation and experimental results show the validity of the propositions.

In this paper, a zero-current switching (ZCS) current source converter (CSC) topology is proposed by adding an auxiliary circuit between the dc side. During each commutating process, the auxiliary circuit is activated, so that the outgoing switches can be turned off with zero current switching. As a result, all active switches can reach ZCS operations. This feature makes it possible to increase the switching frequency to improve the line current quality where a small size of ac filter is required. That means the presented ZCS CSC topology is very suitable for some applications with high PWM frequency. Simulation gives the verification.

This paper presents a current soft-commutation pulsewidth modulation (PWM) scheme for three-phase current source converter. With the presented PWM scheme, the incoming switch has a positive collector-to-emitter voltage while the outgoing switch has a negative collector-to-emitter voltage during current commutations. Therefore, natural soft commutations for switching transitions are achieved, while current-commutating durations are also lessened. Moreover, some particular advantages can also be obtained such as reduced switching frequency, high dc current utilization ratio, and in-phase transfer between line currents and their references. For more efficient control, this paper then designs logic equations for mapping out the assignments from references to gating signals, allowing a simple implementation using a digital signal processor or a programmable logic device. The theoretical analysis is verified by experimental results.

Three-phase inverter has been widely applied in various applications, and lots of control schemes are investigated for the inverter powering nonlinear load, aiming to achieve favorable performance. However, the model currently proposed for inverter is based on linear load, which is not suitable for condition with nonlinear load. In this paper, a novel modeling method for three-phase inverter powering nonlinear load is proposed. Then, the mathematical derivation and performance analysis of the proposed model are presented in detail. Based on the proposed model, a control scheme is further presented, incorporating PI control and capacitor current feedback. In addtion, the second-order system damping theory and phase-plane analysis method are well developed to describe the steady-state and dynamic performance of the proposed model and control scheme. Compared with conventional dual-loop control, low THD of the ouput voltage could be acheived by means of the proposed scheme, which is perfectly validated by the simulation results.

LCL filter presents a significant attenuation of switching harmonics, however its resonance peak influences the system stability. Passive damping reduces the switching current harmonics attenuation and increases the extra losses. Nevertheless, traditional active damping method often needs additional sensors or increases the complexity of algorithm. According the Nyquist stability criterion, a novel active damping method is proposed in this paper based on the grid current feedback compensation which adds no more sensors and easy to control. Two kinds of current compensation transfer function are presented. Moreover, the design principles and the range of stable system with active damping are derived step by step. Finally, it compares the damping effect of the different compensation methods through experiment and verifies the theoretical analysis at the same time.

The grid-connected VSC system with LCL filter has resonance problems which will magnify the harmonics near the resonant frequency and result in a low stability margin and complex design of current regulators. In this paper, a novel control strategy is proposed by introducing the feedforward compensatory controls of state variables and grid voltage, which can not only lessen the system order from the third-order to the first-order but also reject the current distortions arising from grid voltage disturbances, such as surge, sag or harmonics. Therefore, with the proposed strategy, the system stability margin is enlarged and the design of current regulators is simplified greatly. Besides, a sensorless solution is also proposed to lower the cost of the system. Especially, with the sensorless solution, the system can also avoid disturbances from the local load. Theoretical analysis simulation and experimental results verified the proposition.

A resonant current-fed push-pull converter with active clamping is investigated for vehicle inverter application in this paper. A communal clamping capacitor and a voltage doubler topology are employed. Moreover, two kinds of resonances to realize ZVS ON of MOSFETs or to remove reverse-recovery problem of secondary diodes are analyzed and an optimized resonance is utilized for volume restriction. At last, a 150W prototype with 10V to 16V input voltage, 360V output voltage is implemented to verify the design.

In this paper, a three-phase high power factor Multilevel Current-Source Rectifier (MCSR) is developed. The structure of the given MCSR consists of three modules of current-source, three-phase six-valve converters and some sharing-current inductors. The operation characteristics of the MCSR are investigated. In the MCSR, Carrier Phase-Shifted SPWM is used. Harmonic characteristics of the ac input current and the dc output voltage and current are analyzed in detail. It is shown that, many good features can be achieved such as equivalent higher carrier frequency at the ac side of the MCSR even with lower switching frequency. Furthermore, dc output voltage has no low harmonic components, and the power factor of the ac side is easy to control to be unit. A fully digital solution of tri-logic SPWM gating signals for the MCSR is studied based on the DSP and FPGA platform. At last, simulated and experimental results are given to demonstrate the proposition.

Three-phase current source PWM converters require tri-logic PWM control technique. From the point of view of digital control, implementation of tri-logic PWM, especially for multi-module current source converters (CSCpsilas), is much more complex than that for a single CSC. Aiming at digital controls of multi-module CSCpsilas, the digital solution of tri-logic SPWM scheme is investigated in this paper. A tri-logic carrier phase-shifted SPWM control system is presented based on DSP and FPGA hardware platform. The fully digital control of the multi-module CSCpsilas is realized. The experiment on a three-module current source inverter (CSI) with carrier phase-shifted SPWM gives the verification.

A Generalized three-phase multilevel current source inverter (CSI) structure is proposed in this paper. The novel multilevel CSI topology consists of n modules of current-source, three-phase six-valve converters and 2(n-1) sharing-current inductors. These inductors divide the dc link current into n-l different current ratings, and these current ratings are used to make up of 2n+1 current levels at the output of the CSI. In this structure, the bulky transformers in the ac side of the conventional CSI are eliminated, and current equilibrium problem of sharing-current inductors can be solved by redundant switching combination states. The operation principle and control strategy of the five-level inverter are analyzed in detail. The implementation of carrier phase-shifted SPWM scheme is investigated for digital control of the novel multi-module CSI structure. Simulated and experimental results demonstrate the proposition.

Multilevel converters offer benefits of reduced harmonics and increased power ratings compared to their two level counterparts, but to date most of the research in this area has been directed towards voltage source inverters rather than current source inverters. Partly, this is because DC link capacitors are a more effective energy storage medium than link inductors, with less losses and easier operating requirements. However, for higher power applications, and with improvements in inductors using superconducting magnetic energy storage systems (SMES), current source inverters can have particular advantages in some circumstances. Hence it is useful to explore how a multilevel CSI system might be managed. This paper presents a 6-switch single-phase 5-level current source inverter, and compares its topology to a previously reported 8-switch system. For both converter topologies, it is identified that control of the intermediate 1/2-level DC link current is a major challenge, and a closed loop strategy is proposed to control this current under varying load conditions. Simulation and experimental results are presented to confirm the operation of the new 6-switch topology under PWM control, and to verify that the 1/2-level link current can be maintained at half of the total DC current with very little current ripple under differing load conditions.