Control of Circulating Currents in Modular Multilevel Converters Through Redundant Voltage Levels

Among the main control targets in a modular multilevel converter (MMC) is the control of the circulating currents within the phase legs of the topology. This paper presents a controller for the circulating current of the MMC that utilizes the available redundancies of the multilevel waveform in 2N+1 modulated MMCs in order to regulate the circulating current to its reference. The main advantages of the approach are the elimination of control loops that generate the reference voltages for the control of the circulating current, simple implementation and very fast dynamic performance. The controller is implemented at the modulation stage and its operation is independent of the circulating current reference. An extension of the controller to track large deviations in the circulating current is also demonstrated. The simplicity and effectiveness of the proposed controller is illustrated through detailed simulations and experimental results from a single-phase laboratory prototype.