A Pi-based control scheme for primary cascaded H-bridge rectifier in transformerless traction converters

Cascaded H-Bridge rectifier (CHBR) is a more attractive solution in traction application for its transformerless structure. Because of the currents of different cells are exactly the same one, it is a challenge job to regulate the voltages of cells with only one current controller. In this paper, a PI-based control scheme is presented to deal with the voltages balance issue in CHBR. To satisfy the demand of rectifier such as unity power factor and regulated output DC voltages, the proposed control scheme consists of two parts. One is for shaping the grid current waveform and regulating the sum of DC-link voltages of all the cells; the other one is for balancing DC-link voltages. The latter is more concerned in this paper and is discussed in detail especially. Simulations and experiments are carried on. The results verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.