A Simplified SVM-Based Fault-Tolerant Strategy for Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Converters

The cascaded H-bridge multilevel converter (CHMC) is a promising topology for medium- and high-voltage applications, as it features modularity and scalability. In this letter, a simplified space vector modulation (SVM)-based reconfiguration strategy is proposed to enable fault-tolerant operation of a CHMC. Assuming that the faulty power cells are bypassed, the proposed strategy decomposes the asymmetric CHMC into two parts, i.e., healthy part with healthy modules and unhealthy part with faulty modules. Consequently, the basic reference vector (BRV) and the remainder reference vector (RRV) are generated from the reference vector (RV) to achieve balanced line-to-line voltages and currents with optimized harmonic performance. The proposed strategy can be easily implemented online. Performance and effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified by experimental results.