Application of parallel connected NPC-PWM inverters with multilevel modulation for AC motor drive

The neutral point clamped (NPC)-PWM inverters have been put into practical use for large capacity AC motor drives, because of their many advantages. With the increase in use, still larger capacity inverters are also expected. In this paper, a parallel connected NPC-PWM inverter is applied for AC motor drive. The conventional modulation techniques are extended to improve the inverter characteristics. To determine an optimum modulation for controlling the parallel connected NPC-PWM inverter, various modulation techniques are devised and discussed, whose results are verified by experiment