A Hybrid Five-Level Modular Multilevel Converter With High Efficiency and Small Energy Storage Requirements for HVDC Transmission

This article presents a hybrid five-level converter (H5LC) with cascaded full-bridge submodules (FBSMs) for high voltage direct current (HVdc) transmission. A five-level converter operates at a fundamental switching frequency to generate symmetric five-level square wave output voltages which are shaped into smooth sinusoidal voltages by the ac-side FBSMs. Using a proposed third-order harmonic voltage injection scheme, the FBSMs’ total blocking voltage is limited to one-eighth of the dc-side voltage, reducing the H5LC's losses, footprint, and capital costs. dc pole-to-pole fault blocking is enabled using a bypass branch consisting of bidirectional thyristor valves and fast mechanical switches to suppress the ac-side fault contribution within half a fundamental cycle. Full-scale HVdc simulation studies show the H5LC's ability to control real and reactive powers and additionally, its dc fault resilience. A lab-scale hardware implementation of an H5LC with 30 FBSMs is presented to verify its operating principle. In contrast to the half-bridge submodule based modular multilevel converter, the H5LC has improved efficiency, fewer semiconductor devices, and significantly reduced energy storage requirements.