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This paper presents a single-objective model predictive control for a bidirectional DC-DC flying capacitor (FC) converter, which integrates a battery to the microgrid. The presence of multiple FCs facilitates the converter to interface a low-voltage battery to a high-voltage DC bus at reduced voltage stress on its power switches. However, such converter requires a controller that fulfils multiple objectives, namely DC bus and FC voltage regulations, and bidirectional power flow. The key feature of the proposed controller is that it utilizes a model predictive control with a single-objective cost function based on battery current and a redundant state selection scheme to attain these multiple objectives. Adopting such a strategy not only reduces computational burden but also eliminates the need for weighting factors and requirement of complex numerical models for its estimation. Another notable aspect is that the controller employs an improved dynamic reference model to generate appropriate battery current reference for the DC bus voltage regulation, without necessitating a secondary control loop and additional current sensors. Finally, experimental results of the proposed system for a step-response of the DC bus voltage, varying PV power, and loads are validated and compared against finite control set model predictive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the modulation and operating limits of the modified cascaded multioutput multilevel converter. A phase-disposition pulsewidth modulation strategy is developed to apply the optimal state that leads to a minimized device switching. A Hamming distance-based cost function is adopted to evaluate the number of device transitions. The cost function is further modified to identify the optimal state from a number of feasible states. Moreover, the operating limits of the converter are analyzed for the safe and valid operation of the converter. Simulation and experiment results validate the theoretical analysis, and the converter is operational under a wide range of operation points. The proposed optimal state modulation strategy is shown to be effective in reducing the average device switching frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a modulation method for the stacked multicell converters (SMCs). The proposed method is implemented using phase-disposition pulse width modulation and is capable of balancing and regulating the voltages of all the capacitors in the topology, i.e., the flying capacitors and the dc-link capacitors. The proposed method is also able to eliminate the low-frequency voltage ripples that may appear in the neutral point (NP) of SMCs. In SMCs with two stacks, the NP voltage level can be generated by direct connection of the output to the dc-link NP, but also using two extra states available. This redundancy is used to regulate the NP voltage. Furthermore, since the proposed method can eliminate the low-frequency voltage ripples in the capacitors, the capacitances of all the capacitors of the SMCs can be reduced, while maintaining high quality of the output voltages and currents. This enables the use of film capacitors. Simulation and experimental results are presented from a three-phase five-level $2\times 2$ SMC to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a conventional finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) formulation, active and reactive power control loops rely on the predictive controller, whereas the dc-bus voltage is usually governed by a PI-based control loop. This originates from fact that the dynamic equations for describing the predictions of these variables are heavily coupled. In this paper, a cascade-free FCS-MPC for single-phase grid-connected power converters is presented. The proposed control algorithm is formulated in terms of established dynamic references design, which was originally proposed to directly govern active and reactive power, and dc-voltage in three-phase power converters. In this paper, the dynamic reference design concept is extended to control single-phase grid-connected power converters. The proposed control algorithm does not use instantaneous ac-power calculations; instead, it directly formulates the optimal control problem on the grid-current in the original stationary reference frame. The experimental results obtained with a single-phase grid-connected neutral point clamped (NPC) converter confirm a successful design, where system constraints, e.g., maximum power and weighted switching frequency, are easily taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a voltage balancing method for stacked multicell converters (SMCs) based on phase-disposition pulse-width modulation (PD-PWM). In order to reduce the switching transitions of the power devices, only optimal transitions between consecutive voltage levels are used. Selection of the optimal transition sequence is performed by evaluating a cost function. Significant reductions in the switching transitions and power losses of the power devices are achieved as compared to the optimal-state voltage balancing method where nonoptimal transitions are allowed. Simulation and experimental results from a seven-level $3\times 2$ SMC verifies that the proposed PD-PWM voltage balancing method is robust under linear/nonlinear loads and transients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a voltage-balancing method for stacked multicell converters (SMCs) based on phase disposition pulsewidth modulation. A cost function is evaluated to select the optimum state from a pool of redundant possible ones at each voltage level. It is demonstrated that, if sawtooth carriers are used for modulation instead of standard triangular ones, significant reduction in the switching frequency and the associated power losses of the power devices can be achieved without affecting the voltage-balancing capability. Experimental results from a seven-level SMC laboratory prototype are provided to verify the proposed voltage-balancing method against linear and nonlinear loads, as well as under transient conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a voltage balancing method for flying capacitor multilevel converters based on phase-disposition pulse width modulation (PD-PWM) using optimal transitions between converter switching states. The optimal transitions between converter switching states are possible due to the converter states' redundancy and are decided with the continuous evaluation and minimization of a cost function. Simulation and experimental results verify the robustness of the proposed voltage balancing method against different load conditions. A significant reduction of the average switching frequency is achieved, when compared to the use of the optimal state voltage balancing method, where the optimal states are decided independently for each voltage level ignoring how transitions impact on the converter switching frequency. Moreover, the line-to-line output voltages are compared with the ones obtained with other modulation techniques in terms of total harmonic distortion values, and PD-PWM with the proposed voltage balancing method produces the best results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a voltage balancing method for a flying capacitor multilevel converter based on the phase-disposition sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation (PD-SPWM). This voltage balancing method uses redundant switching states, which are determined by the minimization of a cost function. The implementation of the PD-SPWM using standard triangular carriers leads to additional switching events that are due to the transitions within the same voltage level, thus increasing the switching frequency of the power devices. Such drawback can be avoided by using sawtooth carrier waveforms. Another characteristic of the proposed voltage balancing method is that it does not require the tuning of parameters to achieve optimal performance. Simulation and experimental results confirm the robustness of the proposed method operating with different loads and transient conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]