Control and Derived Topologies of Parallel Hybrid Converter

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is the most preferred voltage source converter high voltage direct current (VSC-HVdc) topology. However, its limitations such as, large energy storage requirements and a large number of devices and capacitors required in its chain-links (CLs), have led to the development of some hybrid multilevel converter topologies. These topologies aim to address the major technical constraints of MMC. The parallel hybrid converter (PHC) is such a hybrid topology, which has evolved as a promising alternative for high power applications because its CLs are not subjected to the fundamental component of ac current and hence the size of its submodule capacitors is substantially lower. Furthermore, for the same power rating, the device count in PHC is only a fraction of that in MMC. However, the PHC suffers from some operational constraints. The dc and ac sides of PHC are strongly coupled, which leads to a single stable operating point resulting in a fixed output voltage if a dedicated controller is not used to tackle this issue. Moreover, the PHC loses control during dc-side faults and it also necessitates a bulky dc filter inductor to filter the dc-side harmonics. Various advanced control methods and derived PHC topologies have been proposed in literature to eradicate these shortcomings of the PHC. This article presents a detailed analysis and review of these state-of-art control strategies and derived PHC topologies. The capability of the PHC and the derived topologies to ride through ac and dc faults are also discussed. This article contributes in summarizing key benefits and limitations of various existing control methods through extensive analyses, simulation, and experimental studies.