The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is attractive for medium- or high-power applications because of the advantages of its high modularity, availability, and high power quality. The voltage balancing of the floating capacitors in the cascaded submodules of the MMC is a key issue. In this paper, a voltage-balancing control method is proposed. This method uses the phase-shifted carrier-based pulsewidth modulation scheme to control high-frequency current components for capacitor voltage balancing in the MMC without measuring the arm currents. Simulations and experimental studies of the MMC were conducted, and the results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed capacitor voltage-balancing control method.

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is attractive for medium- or high-power applications because of the advantages of its high modularity, availability, and high power quality. However, reliability is one of the most important issues for MMCs which are made of large number of power electronic submodules (SMs). This paper proposed an effective fault detection and localization method for MMCs. An MMC fault can be detected by comparing the measured state variables and the estimated state variables with a Kalman filter. The fault localization is based on the failure characteristics of the SM in the MMC. The proposed method can be implemented with less computational intensity and complexity, even in case that multiple SM faults occur in a short time interval. The proposed method is not only implemented in simulations with professional tool PSCAD/EMTDC, but also verified with a down-scale MMC prototype controlled by a real-time digital signal controller in the laboratory. The results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper proposes a novel wireless power transfer (WPT) system with switch-controlled capacitor (SCC) where variable capacitance and efficiency optimization are realized. The optimum asymmetrical voltage cancellation (OAVC) control is applied to realize wide-ranging soft-switching operation for the active bridge converters. The pulse width of the active bridge inverter regulates the output voltage, and the pulse width of the active bridge rectifier optimizes power delivery efficiency. The SCCs in the transmitter and the receiver side are regulated for the zero-voltage switching (ZVS) operation and the resonant condition, respectively. The online estimation of mutual inductance is carried out to adapt the coupling deviations of the WPT system in real time. A 650 W prototype is built to verify the feasibility of the proposed WPT system and the effectiveness of the OAVC control. The experiment results show quite good performance and efficiency improvement for the WPT system at various loads.

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is attractive for medium- or high-power applications because of the advantages of its high modularity, availability, and high power quality. The fault-tolerant operation is one of the important issues for the MMC. This paper proposed a fault-tolerant approach for the MMC under submodule (SM) faults. The characteristic of the MMC with arms containing different number of healthy SMs under faults is analyzed. Based on the characteristic, the proposed approach can effectively keep the MMC operation as normal under SM faults. It can effectively improve the MMC performance under SM faults but without the knowledge of the number of faulty SMs in the arm, without extra demand on communication systems, which potentially increases the reliability. The time-domain simulation studies with the PSCAD/EMTDC are conducted and a down-scale MMC prototype is also tested with the proposed approach. The study results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

This paper presents an improved full-bridge three-level (IFBTL) dc/dc converter for a wind turbine in a dc grid by inserting a passive filter into the dc/dc converter to improve the performance of the converter. The passive filter can effectively reduce the voltage stress of the medium frequency transformer in the IFBTL dc/dc converter. A modulation strategy, including two operation modes, is proposed for the IFBTL dc/dc converter. Then, a voltage balancing control strategy is proposed for the IFBTL dc/dc converter. Furthermore, the control of the wind turbine based on the IFBTL dc/dc converter in a dc-grid system is presented. Finally, a small-scale IFBTL dc/dc converter prototype was built and tested in the laboratory, and the results verify the theoretical analysis.

This paper proposes a virtual damping flux-based low-voltage ride through (LVRT) control strategy for a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind turbine. During the transient states of grid voltage drop and recovery, the proposed virtual damping flux-based strategy can suppress rotor current with a smooth electromagnetic torque. During steady-state faults, a negative sequence current compensation strategy is adopted to smooth the electromagnetic torque and reactive power for asymmetrical grid faults, while the conventional vector control is used to inject reactive power into the grid to support grid voltage for symmetrical grid faults. The effectiveness of the proposed strategies is examined by the simulation with a 2-MW DFIG in MATLAB/Simulink and verified by the experimental results from a scaled-down 7.5-kW DFIG controlled by a DSPACE1006. In addition, the impacts of the magnetic nonlinearity characteristics of a practical DFIG are investigated under asymmetrical grid faults. Although the magnetic nonlinearity characteristics degrade the control effects, the proposed strategies can still improve the DFIG performances during asymmetrical grid faults. The results clearly demonstrate that the proposed strategies can effectively improve the DFIG transient behavior and achieve LVRT performances.