Small-Signal Model-Based Control Strategy for Balancing Individual DC Capacitor Voltages in Cascade Multilevel Inverter-Based STATCOM

This paper presents a new feedback control strategy for balancing individual DC capacitor voltages in a three-phase cascade multilevel inverter-based static synchronous compensator. The design of the control strategy is based on the detailed small-signal model. The key part of the proposed controller is a compensator to cancel the variation parts in the model. The controller can balance individual DC capacitor voltages when H-bridges run with different switching patterns and have parameter variations. It has two advantages: 1) the controller can work well in all operation modes (the capacitive mode, the inductive mode, and the standby mode) and 2) the impact of the individual DC voltage controller on the voltage quality is small. Simulation results and experimental results verify the performance of the controller.