A modified one-cycle-control method for modular multilevel converters

Abstract

In this paper, a new One-Cycle-Control (OCC) method is designed for a modular multilevel converter (MMC) based on the principle of the equivalent resistance constant. The proposed controller has a simple structure and a small amount of calculation by cancelling the current inner loop proportional integral (PI) controller and the inverse transform in the traditional direct-quadrature (DQ) control. Compared to the traditional OCC controller, the new one separates the control method from the modulation strategy, making it possible to use not only carrier-based pulse-width modulation (PWM), but also nearest level modulation PWM to generate drive signals. Besides, the independent control of the active and the reactive power is implemented by injecting a reference current with the same phase of the supply voltage or a reference current which lags the supply voltage by π/2 into the controller, so the converter can operate in four quadrants and it can work in either a grid-connect or off-grid environment. The feasibility and the performance of the proposed OCC method have been validated by both the simulation under the MATLAB/SIMULINK (R2012a) environment and experimental results.