Arm Power Control of the Modular Multilevel Converter in Photovoltaic Applications

Anirudh Budnar Acharya, Mattia Ricco, Dezso Sera, Remus Teodorescu and Lars Einar Norum
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Anirudh Budnar Acharya: Department of Electric Power Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Mattia Ricco: Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering, University of Bologna, Viale Risorgimento 2, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Dezso Sera: Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Remus Teodorescu: Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Lars Einar Norum: Department of Electric Power Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-23

Abstract: In this paper, a control method is proposed that allows the extraction of maximum power from each individual photovoltaic string connected to the Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) and inject balanced power to the AC grid. The MMC solution used does not need additional DC–DC converters for the maximum power point tracking. In the MMC, the photovoltaic strings are connected directly to the sub-modules. It is shown that the proposed inverter solution can provide balanced three-phase output power despite an unbalanced power generation. The maximum power of the photovoltaic string is effectively harnessed due to the increased granularity of the maximum power point tracking. An algorithm that tracks the sub-module capacitor voltages to their respective voltage references is proposed. A detailed modeling and control method for balanced operation of the proposed topology is discussed. The operation of the MMC under unbalanced power generation is discussed. Simulation results are provided that show the effectiveness of the proposed control under unequal irradiance.

Keywords: modular multilevel converter; photovoltaic power system; grid integration; control system; distributed control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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