Current Balancing Control for Interleaved Half-Bridge Submodules in Modular Multilevel Converters

Abstract

This paper presents a closed-loop current balancing control for Modular Multilevel Converters with Interleaved half-bridge Sub-Modules (ISM-MMC). The new control loop solves the well-known problem of proper current balancing among interleaved half-bridge legs in each ISM-MMC submodule while preserving a simple and reliable structure. In addition to that, a novel capacitor voltage balancing strategy for MMCs is developed. The new algorithm contains main advantages of the classical capacitor voltage balancing methods while provides an opportunity to decouple two balancing tasks of ISM-MMC, namely capacitor voltage and interleaved legs current balancing. The proposed control methods feature good dynamic performance and are compliant with a digital processor's operational constraints. The effectiveness of the new balancing methods was verified during extensive numerical simulations and experimental tests on a laboratory prototype by the corresponding system response under the input/output characteristics variation and interleaved current control perturbation.