Observer for DC voltages in a cascaded H-bridge multilevel STATCOM

Using an instantaneous model of a cascade H-bridge multilevel-based STATCOM, an observer for estimating the DC capacitor voltages of the multilevel inverter is presented. This design can be used to eliminate the voltage sensors in each H-bridge of this device. Simulation results are presented in order to validate the performance of the proposed observer applied to a cascade H-bridge multilevel-based STATCOM.