A Flying-Capacitor Modular Multilevel Converter for Medium-Voltage Motor Drive

This paper presents a flying-capacitor modular multilevel converter (FC-MMC) based on series-connected submodules. It is intended for completely improving the performance of a medium-voltage motor drive system in the entire speed range especially at zero/low speed under rated torque condition. The proposed FC-MMC circuit is characterized by the cross connection of upper and lower arm middle taps through a flying capacitor in per phase leg. By properly controlling the ac current flowing through the flying capacitor, the power balance between upper and lower arms is achieved, leading to very small voltage ripples on submodule dc capacitors in the entire speed range from standstill to rated speed even under the rated torque condition. Meanwhile, no common-mode voltage is injected. Simulation results obtained from a 4160-V 1-MW model show that the proposed FC-MMC along with the proposed control method performances satisfactorily in dynamic and static state even when operated at zero/low speed. Experiments on a downscaled prototype also prove the effectiveness of the proposal.