Five-level active NPC converter topology: SHE-PWM control and operation principles

The neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter topology has been the centre of research and development effort for numerous applications, including medium- and high-voltage electric motor drives, static compensators (STATCOMs) and other utility type of power electronic systems for almost three decades now. Pulse-width modulation (PWM) control methods have been developed for such topology for respective three-level and multilevel versions. The issue of voltage balancing between the DC bus capacitors is a drawback that requires attention and the problem becomes more serious as the number of levels increases. Selective harmonic elimination PWM can be applied to control the topology as a method to reduce the switching transitions to the lowest possible number. The active NPC (ANPC) topology is derived from the NPC topology by adding an active switch in anti-parallel to each clamping diode. Hybrid configurations combining flying capacitors are also possible. The five-level topology discussed in this paper is derived through different connections of active clamping paths. A novel recently proposed five-level symmetrically defined SHE-PWM method is applied. The simulation results presented in the paper confirm the suitability of the new method

Harmonic elimination control of a five-level DC-AC cascaded H-bridge hybrid inverter

A five-level hybrid cascaded inverter operating under selective harmonic elimination (SHE) pulse-width modulation (PWM) control is discussed in this paper. The topology is a cascaded connection of a conventional three-phase, two-level inverter and an H-bridge module for each phase with a single DC-source. The topology boosts the output voltage within limits and with no additional DC-DC converters. However, such boosting feature depends on the control of the floating capacitor voltage and the load power factor. The regulation of the floating capacitor for the given modulation strategy is also analyzed. Experimental results taken from a single-phase laboratory prototype are presented to confirm the operational characteristics of the converter

The seven-level flying capacitor based ANPC converter for grid intergration of utility-scale PV systems

The installed capacity of grid connected PV plants has increased significantly over the past few years and is expected to continue its growth over the next decade due to the continuous demand for renewable energy and distributed generation systems. This paper presents a seven-level flying capacitor (FC) based active neutral point clamped (ANPC) converter for the connection of utility-scale PV system to the electricity grid. The multilevel voltage output of the topology provides high quality waveforms while maintaining the operational characteristics of NPC based converters for PV systems. The converter topology together with a method to regulate the FC voltages to their reference values and an optimal third harmonic injection for utilization of the DC-link voltage are presented. Simulation results for the operation of the grid connected converter under steady state and transient operation are provided in order to demonstrate the operation and performance of the topology in grid connected applications. © 2012 IEEE

Harmonic elimination control of a five-level DC-AC cascaded H-bridge hybrid inverter

A five-level hybrid cascaded inverter operating under selective harmonic elimination (SHE) pulse-width modulation (PWM) control is discussed in this paper. The topology is a cascaded connection of a conventional three-phase, two-level inverter and an H-bridge module for each phase with a single DC-source. The topology boosts the output voltage within limits and with no additional DC-DC converters. However, such boosting feature depends on the control of the floating capacitor voltage and the load power factor. The regulation of the floating capacitor for the given modulation strategy is also analyzed. Experimental results taken from a single-phase laboratory prototype are presented to confirm the operational characteristics of the converter

Uncertainty management in multiobjective hydro-thermal self-scheduling under emission considerations

In this paper, a stochastic multiobjective framework is proposed for a day-ahead short-term Hydro Thermal Self-Scheduling (HTSS) problem for joint energy and reserve markets. An efficient linear formulations are introduced in this paper to deal with the nonlinearity of original problem due to the dynamic ramp rate limits, prohibited operating zones, operating services of thermal plants, multi-head power discharge characteristics of hydro generating units and spillage of reservoirs. Besides, system uncertainties including the generating units\u27 contingencies and price uncertainty are explicitly considered in the stochastic market clearing scheme. For the stochastic modeling of probable multiobjective optimization scenarios, a lattice Monte Carlo simulation has been adopted to have a better coverage of the system uncertainty spectrum. Consequently, the resulting multiobjective optimization scenarios should concurrently optimize competing objective functions including GENeration COmpany\u27s (GENCO\u27s) profit maximization and thermal units\u27 emission minimization. Accordingly, the ε-constraint method is used to solve the multiobjective optimization problem and generate the Pareto set. Then, a fuzzy satisfying method is employed to choose the most preferred solution among all Pareto optimal solutions. The performance of the presented method is verified in different case studies. The results obtained from ε-constraint method is compared with those reported by weighted sum method, evolutionary programming-based interactive Fuzzy satisfying method, differential evolution, quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization and hybrid multi-objective cultural algorithm, verifying the superiority of the proposed approach