Balancing Control of DC-Link Capacitor Voltages for Five-Level Hybrid Diode-Clamped Inverters With Passive Front-Ends

The paper presents a control strategy for balancing DC-link capacitor voltages in a five-level hybrid diode-clamped (5L-HDC) inverter, consisting of two half-bridges and diode-clamped cells. The inverter experiences capacitor voltage imbalance, particularly in the middle capacitors, which naturally...

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Main Authors: Min-Seok Kim, Dinh Du To, Dong-Choon Lee
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10918991/
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author Min-Seok Kim
Dinh Du To
Dong-Choon Lee
author_facet Min-Seok Kim
Dinh Du To
Dong-Choon Lee
author_sort Min-Seok Kim
collection DOAJ
description The paper presents a control strategy for balancing DC-link capacitor voltages in a five-level hybrid diode-clamped (5L-HDC) inverter, consisting of two half-bridges and diode-clamped cells. The inverter experiences capacitor voltage imbalance, particularly in the middle capacitors, which naturally discharge due to voltage drift under the level-shifted (LS) PWM scheme, especially with passive front-end elements like diode rectifiers. To mitigate this issue, a capacitor voltage balancing strategy using the carrier-overlapped PWM (COPWM) technique is proposed. This approach generates multiple voltage levels per carrier period, ensuring effective voltage regulation without requiring an auxiliary circuit. The proposed method is compared with two other balancing strategies: LSPWM scheme with an auxiliary circuit and the finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) technique, in terms of THD and power losses. In addition, a comprehensive evaluation is conducted on a 5-kV/1-MVA three-phase system, comparing the 5L-HDC inverter with balancing controls against other five-level inverter topologies. The assessment includes component count, cost, THD, and power losses, highlighting performance and economic trade-offs. The 5L-HDC inverter achieves cost reductions of 14.2%, 15%, 25.4%, and 4.3% compared to the 5L-NPC, 5L-ANPC, 5L-DFC, and 5L-HFC inverters, respectively. The effectiveness of the proposed method in regulating DC-link capacitor voltages is validated through experimental results under various operating conditions.
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spelling doaj-art-ee38111c3de44b079dc43d487b4aa8852025-08-20T02:06:46ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113455774559310.1109/ACCESS.2025.354976010918991Balancing Control of DC-Link Capacitor Voltages for Five-Level Hybrid Diode-Clamped Inverters With Passive Front-EndsMin-Seok Kim0Dinh Du To1https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3915-5655Dong-Choon Lee2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0618-7630Inverter Engineering Design Team, Hyundai Motor Company, Hwaseong-si, South KoreaDepartment of Electrical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South KoreaDepartment of Electrical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South KoreaThe paper presents a control strategy for balancing DC-link capacitor voltages in a five-level hybrid diode-clamped (5L-HDC) inverter, consisting of two half-bridges and diode-clamped cells. The inverter experiences capacitor voltage imbalance, particularly in the middle capacitors, which naturally discharge due to voltage drift under the level-shifted (LS) PWM scheme, especially with passive front-end elements like diode rectifiers. To mitigate this issue, a capacitor voltage balancing strategy using the carrier-overlapped PWM (COPWM) technique is proposed. This approach generates multiple voltage levels per carrier period, ensuring effective voltage regulation without requiring an auxiliary circuit. The proposed method is compared with two other balancing strategies: LSPWM scheme with an auxiliary circuit and the finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) technique, in terms of THD and power losses. In addition, a comprehensive evaluation is conducted on a 5-kV/1-MVA three-phase system, comparing the 5L-HDC inverter with balancing controls against other five-level inverter topologies. The assessment includes component count, cost, THD, and power losses, highlighting performance and economic trade-offs. The 5L-HDC inverter achieves cost reductions of 14.2%, 15%, 25.4%, and 4.3% compared to the 5L-NPC, 5L-ANPC, 5L-DFC, and 5L-HFC inverters, respectively. The effectiveness of the proposed method in regulating DC-link capacitor voltages is validated through experimental results under various operating conditions.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10918991/Capacitor voltage balancing controlcarrier-overlapped PWMlevel-shifted PWMmodel predictive controlmedium voltage applicationmultilevel inverter
spellingShingle Min-Seok Kim
Dinh Du To
Dong-Choon Lee
Balancing Control of DC-Link Capacitor Voltages for Five-Level Hybrid Diode-Clamped Inverters With Passive Front-Ends
IEEE Access
Capacitor voltage balancing control
carrier-overlapped PWM
level-shifted PWM
model predictive control
medium voltage application
multilevel inverter
title Balancing Control of DC-Link Capacitor Voltages for Five-Level Hybrid Diode-Clamped Inverters With Passive Front-Ends
title_full Balancing Control of DC-Link Capacitor Voltages for Five-Level Hybrid Diode-Clamped Inverters With Passive Front-Ends
title_fullStr Balancing Control of DC-Link Capacitor Voltages for Five-Level Hybrid Diode-Clamped Inverters With Passive Front-Ends
title_full_unstemmed Balancing Control of DC-Link Capacitor Voltages for Five-Level Hybrid Diode-Clamped Inverters With Passive Front-Ends
title_short Balancing Control of DC-Link Capacitor Voltages for Five-Level Hybrid Diode-Clamped Inverters With Passive Front-Ends
title_sort balancing control of dc link capacitor voltages for five level hybrid diode clamped inverters with passive front ends
topic Capacitor voltage balancing control
carrier-overlapped PWM
level-shifted PWM
model predictive control
medium voltage application
multilevel inverter
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10918991/
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