Model predictive direct power control for modular multilevel converter under unbalanced conditions with power compensation and circulating current reduction

In this paper, a model predictive direct power control (MP-DPC) with power compensation and circulating current reduction is proposed for modular multilevel converter under unbalanced grid conditions. The main objectives of this paper are to achieve the circulating currents reduction and the power ripples elimination under unbalanced grid-side voltage conditions. In order to realize the aforementioned objectives, a triple-stage MP-DPC method based on a decoupled mathematical model of circulating current and DC-link current components is presented, which results in the elimination of weighting factors. Meanwhile, a power compensation term is embedded in the proposed design so as to eliminate the power ripples. In this sense, the power compensation terms are expressed by grid voltages and their quadrature signals without the complex positive/negative sequences extraction of grid voltage/currents and phase-locked loop. The proposed methodology can not only relieve the effect of circulating currents but also eliminate the active and reactive power ripples while remaining computationally feasible under unbalanced grid conditions. Additionally, a reduced switching frequency approach is introduced to decrease the power loss. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed MP-DPC method is validated by both simulation and experimental results. (C) 2020 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.