Novel Converter Topology with Reduced Cost, Size and Weight for High-Power Medium-Voltage Machine Drives: 3x3 Modular Multilevel Series Converter

The modular multilevel converter is considered the state-of-the-art power electronic solution for high-power high-voltage applications that require a DC stage and that operate with fixed frequency at their AC terminals. However, in high-power AC-AC variable-frequency applications, it has been proved that this converter topology presents an unnecessarily large number of components and an intolerably high submodule-capacitor voltage ripple at low frequencies. The modular multilevel matrix converter was proposed as a promising alternative for high-power medium-voltage electrical-machine drives since it presented improved performance at low frequencies and a reduced number of components in comparison to the modular multilevel converter resulting in reduced costs and improved efficiency. Even though, the modular multilevel matrix converter is one of the converter solutions that stands out the most for high-power machine drives, it presents some operational drawbacks such the unstable behavior under unbalanced grid conditions and the extremely complex internal control and modulation. Recently, a new converter topology named modular multilevel series converter was proposed presenting attractive operational characteristics such as the high performance at low frequencies, high performance under unbalanced grid conditions, and straightforward control and modulation, which are important advantages compared to the modular multilevel converter and the modular multilevel matrix converter. Nonetheless, as demonstrated in this paper, the modular multilevel series converter presents large component count and poor efficiency. Thus, in this paper, a new converter solution is proposed, which is an enhanced version of the modular multilevel series converter that preserves the previously mentioned advantageous operational characteristics and that presents an improved efficiency and a considerably reduced number of components in comparison to the other three converter topologies, resulting in reduced cost, size and weight.