Browsing by Author "Agelidis, Vassilios G."
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Item Control of Circulating Currents in Modular Multilevel Converters Through Redundant Voltage Levels(2016-11) Konstantinou, Georgios; Pou, Josep; Ceballos, Salvador; Picas, Ricard; Zaragoza, Jordi; Agelidis, Vassilios G.; POWER ELECTRONICS AND SYSTEM EQUIPMENTAmong the main control targets in a modular multilevel converter (MMC) is the control of the circulating currents within the phase legs of the topology. This paper presents a controller for the circulating current of the MMC that utilizes the available redundancies of the multilevel waveform in 2N+1 modulated MMCs in order to regulate the circulating current to its reference. The main advantages of the approach are the elimination of control loops that generate the reference voltages for the control of the circulating current, simple implementation and very fast dynamic performance. The controller is implemented at the modulation stage and its operation is independent of the circulating current reference. An extension of the controller to track large deviations in the circulating current is also demonstrated. The simplicity and effectiveness of the proposed controller is illustrated through detailed simulations and experimental results from a single-phase laboratory prototype.Item Elimination of Low-Frequency Ripples and Regulation of Neutral-Point Voltage in Stacked Multicell Converters(2017-01) Ghias, Amer M.Y.M.; Pou, Josep; Acuna, Pablo; Ceballos, Salvador; Heidari, Alireza; Agelidis, Vassilios G.; Merabet, Adel; POWER ELECTRONICS AND SYSTEM EQUIPMENTThis paper introduces a modulation method for the stacked multicell converters (SMCs). The proposed method is implemented using phase-disposition pulse width modulation and is capable of balancing and regulating the voltages of all the capacitors in the topology, i.e., the flying capacitors and the dc-link capacitors. The proposed method is also able to eliminate the low-frequency voltage ripples that may appear in the neutral point (NP) of SMCs. In SMCs with two stacks, the NP voltage level can be generated by direct connection of the output to the dc-link NP, but also using two extra states available. This redundancy is used to regulate the NP voltage. Furthermore, since the proposed method can eliminate the low-frequency voltage ripples in the capacitors, the capacitances of all the capacitors of the SMCs can be reduced, while maintaining high quality of the output voltages and currents. This enables the use of film capacitors. Simulation and experimental results are presented from a three-phase five-level 2× 2 SMC to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.Item Interleaved Operation of Three-Level Neutral Point Clamped Converter Legs and Reduction of Circulating Currents under SHE-PWM(2016-06) Konstantinou, Georgios; Pou, Josep; Capella, Gabriel J.; Song, Kejian; Ceballos, Salvador; Agelidis, Vassilios G.; POWER ELECTRONICS AND SYSTEM EQUIPMENTInterleaving of voltage-source converter (VSC) legs enables higher output currents per phase, effectively increasing the power rating without increasing semiconductor ratings. However, the interleaved operation results in circulating currents between each phase converter legs as well as a zero-sequence circulating current (ZSCC), which become quite prominent when the converters operate with low switching frequencies. This paper demonstrates the interleaved operation of three-level converters under selective harmonic elimination pulsewidth modulation (SHE-PWM). A controller for the circulating current within the legs of each phase is also proposed. The controller is used in combination with optimally selected SHE-PWM patterns to generate the maximum number of voltage levels and minimize the peak value of the circulating current. Simulation and experimental results show the interleaved operation and the effect of SHE-PWM pattern selection in the overall system.Item Low-frequency voltage ripples in the flying capacitors of the nested neutral-point-clamped converter(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2016-05-10) Ghias, Amer M.Y.M.; Pou, Josep; Ceballos, Salvador; Agelidis, Vassilios G.; POWER ELECTRONICS AND SYSTEM EQUIPMENTThe flying capacitors (FCs) of the nested neutral-point-clamped (NNPC) converter show an inherent voltage ripple at fundamental frequency. This ripple can be significantly large under some operating conditions of the converter. In this paper, the amplitudes of the low-frequency voltage ripples in the FCs are determined. An averaged model of the NNPC converter is introduced and used in the analysis. The amplitudes of the capacitor voltage ripples are provided using normalized variables so that this information can be used to size the FCs of the converter in different applications. The results of the analysis are validated experimentally in a laboratory prototype.