Switch Voltage Rating Selection Considering Cost- Oriented Redundancy and Modularity-Based Trade-Offs in Modular Multilevel Converter

Modular Multilevel Converters (MMCs) find increasing applications in medium to high-voltage systems. In such systems, reliability-oriented selection of power electronic switches becomes essential because higher modularity implies an increased number of components. The trade-off between the impact of higher modularity on converter reliability is quantitatively established, corresponding to redundancy costs for the given lifetime requirements. Therefore, this paper proposes a method for an optimal choice among available market switch voltage rating for the MMC. It is shown that the sub-modules (SMs) based on 1.7 kV switches are the most suitable (instead of 1.2 kV and 3.3 kV switches) for two case studies adapting data from the medium voltage grid in The Netherlands. Moreover, the insights from these case studies are generalized to DC link voltage in the range of 10–220 kV and average loading of 1–100%. The sensitivity analysis is performed for the different failure rates (FRs), required lifetime, components cost, and energy price. Sensitivity analysis is also performed to identify the impact of FIDES and Military Handbook (MIL-HDBK) methods. The impact of converter power capacity is studied under the variable current rating. Finally, a generalized form of the proposed method is presented and applied in the published works.