Performance analysis of a hybrid asymmetric multilevel inverter for high voltage active power filter applications

An active power filter implemented with multiples single-phase full bridge voltage-source inverters connected in series (known as cascaded hybrid asymmetric multilevel inverter or binary multilevel VSI) is presented and analyzed in this paper. The proposed active power filter is aimed to compensate current harmonic components in medium and high voltage power distribution systems. A control scheme is developed to allow the operation of the inverter modules at different voltages and switching frequencies. Also, a simple method to calculate the reference signal for each inverter is proposed. Simulated waveforms for steady-state and transient operating conditions prove the viability of the proposed topology.