Picas, RicardCeballos, SalvadorPou, JosepZaragoza, JordiKonstantinou, GeorgiosAgelidis, Vassilios G.2024-07-242024-07-242015-09-01Picas , R , Ceballos , S , Pou , J , Zaragoza , J , Konstantinou , G & Agelidis , V G 2015 , ' Closed-loop discontinuous modulation technique for capacitor voltage ripples and switching losses reduction in modular multilevel converters ' , IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics , vol. 30 , no. 9 , 6948374 , pp. 4714-4725 . https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2014.23680550885-8993https://hdl.handle.net/11556/4514Publisher Copyright: © 2015 IEEE.In this paper, a new discontinuous modulation technique is presented for the operation of the modular multilevel converter (MMC). The modulation technique is based on adding a zero sequence to the original modulation signals so that the MMC arms are clamped to the upper or lower terminals of the dc-link bus. The clamping intervals are controlled according to the absolute value of the output current to minimize the switching losses of the MMC. A significant reduction in the capacitor voltage ripples is achieved, especially when operating with low modulation indices. Furthermore, a circulating current control strategy suitable for this modulation technique is also proposed. Simulation and experimental results under various operating points are reported along with evaluation and comparison results against a conventional carrier-based pulse width modulation method.12enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessjournal article10.1109/TPEL.2014.2368055Capacitor voltage ripplesCirculating current controlDiscontinuous modulationModular multilevel converterElectrical and Electronic Engineeringhttp://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84928405670&partnerID=8YFLogxK