Voltage Balancing Method on Expert System for 51-Level MMC in High Voltage Direct Current Transmission

Abstract

The Modular Multilevel Converters (MMC) have been a spotlight for the high voltage and high power transmission systems. In the VSC-HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current based on Voltage Source Converter) transmission system, the energy of DC link is stored in the distributed capacitors, and the difference of capacitors in parameters and charge rates causes capacitor voltage balance which affects the safety and stability of HVDC system. A method of MMC based on the expert system for reducing the frequency of the submodules (SMs) of the IGBT switching frequency is proposed. Firstly, MMC with 51 levels for HVDC is designed. Secondly, the nearest level control (NLC) for 51-level MMC is introduced. Thirdly, a modified capacitor voltage balancing method based on expert system for MMC-based HVDC transmission system is proposed. Finally, a simulation platform for 51-level Modular Multilevel Converter is constructed by using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The results indicate that the strategy proposed reduces the switching frequency on the premise of keeping submodule voltage basically identical, which greatly reduces the power losses for MMC-HVDC system.