access icon free Master–slave structure-based capacitor voltage measuring technique for hybrid modular multilevel converters

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology
Received 17/01/2018, Accepted 01/08/2018, Revised 06/07/2018, Published 24/08/2018

The measurement of the capacitor voltage of each sub-module (SM) is a crucial part of achieving robust control of modular multilevel converters (MMCs). This study proposes a master–slave structure-based capacitor voltage measuring technique (MS-MT) for hybrid MMCs, in which the SM capacitor voltages are calculated using nine processes at the corresponding sampling instants according to the changing rule of the arm AC-side voltage and SM operation states. In MS-MT, the master sensor is used to measure the overall arm voltage while the slave sensor, which measures the full bridge, is used additionally to improve accuracy. Furthermore, MS-MT performs well even under pre-charging and DC short-circuit fault conditions, for the reason that a single SM short-circuit fault can be detected during above two conditions by comparing the voltages measured by the two sensors. Compared with the direct measuring technique, which has low measurement errors, and the overall measuring technique, which requires less hardware cost, MS-MT inherits both advantages. Finally, extensive simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed MS-MT.

Inspec keywords: power capacitors; voltage measurement; voltage-source convertors; measurement errors

Other keywords: single SM short-circuit fault; direct measuring technique; arm voltage; SM capacitor voltages; DC short-circuit fault conditions; slave sensor; SM operation states; arm AC-side voltage; hybrid MMC; low measurement errors; MS-MT; master sensor; hybrid modular multilevel converters; overall measuring technique; master–slave structure-based capacitor voltage measuring technique

Subjects: Measurement theory; Other power apparatus and electric machines; Voltage measurement; Power convertors and power supplies to apparatus

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