Performance of the modular multilevel converter with redundant submodules

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is the state-of-the-art voltage-source converter (VSC) topology used for various power-conversion applications. In the MMC, submodule failures can occur due to various reasons. Therefore, additional submodules called the redundant submodules are included in the arms of the MMC to fulfill the fault-safe operation requirement. The performance of the MMC with redundant submodules has not been widely covered in the published literature. This paper investigates the performance of the MMC with redundant submodules in the arms. Two different control strategies are used and compared for integrating redundant submodules. The response of the MMC to a submodule failure for the two strategies is also studied. Moreover, the operation of the MMC with redundant submodules is validated experimentally using the converter prototype in the laboratory.