Capacitor voltage estimation in modular multilevel converters using a Kalman filter algorithm

Author

Abushafa, Osama ; Gadoue, Shady ; Dhaidah, Mohamed ; Aktinson, David

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Newcastle Univ., Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

fYear

2015

fDate

17-19 March 2015

Firstpage

3016

Lastpage

3021

Abstract

This paper proposes an adaptive observer based on Kalman filter (KF) to estimate the capacitor voltages of Modular Multilevel Converters (MMC). The proposed method offers a considerable reduction in sensors count, hence the system cost and also increases the converter reliability. The paper also investigates several approaches linked to MMC; voltage balancing control issue, the effect of circulating current on the arm capacitors voltages in addition to sensors cost issues. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through simulation studies of a single-phase five-level MMC using MATLAB/SIMULINK.

Keywords

Kalman filters; capacitive sensors; cost reduction; electric current control; observers; power capacitors; power convertors; reliability; voltage control; Kalman filter algorithm; MATLAB; SIMULINK; adaptive observer; capacitor voltage estimation; circulating current effect; increase converter reliability; modular multilevel converters; sensors count reduction; single-phase five-level MMC; system cost reduction; voltage balancing control issue; Bridge circuits; Capacitors; Observers; Sensors; Switches; Voltage control; Kalman filter; Modular Multilevel Converter; PWM; Voltage balancing control;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Industrial Technology (ICIT), 2015 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Seville

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICIT.2015.7125543

Filename

7125543