Finite control set model predictive current control for a cascaded multilevel inverter

Abstract

In this paper, a Finite Control Set Model Predictive Control (FCS-MPC) for a five level cascaded multilevel inverter (CMLI) with reduced switch topology is proposed. Five switches are used here instead of conventionally used eight switches. The main contribution of this paper is to make the MPC controller work for the reduced switch topology using only 19 voltage vectors in place of conventional 61 voltage vectors for a five level CMLI. This simplifies the execution of the MPC algorithm, paving a way for the significant reduction in the computational time. The controller makes use of the excellent ability of MPC to multitask, by adding one more objective which is to reduce the average switching frequency in addition to controlling the load current. This is especially important, since switching losses and therefore switching frequency is significant for high-power applications. The trade-off of this MPC is that the current is not as smooth as the 61 vector scheme, but well within the limits of IEEE standards. The results shown prove that this MPC works well in steady state and dynamic conditions too.