Circulating Current Generating Mechanism and Suppression Control of HMMC

Hexagonal modular multilevel converter (HMMC) is a full-bridge ac/ac converter, and it can achieve the interconnection between the ac grid and the low frequency system. However, the coupling of input and output on the branches causes the large fluctuation both in dc voltage of submodules (SMs) and branch currents. Moreover, the internal circulating current in branch current comprises large dc component and ac components, which causes an increase in current stress. The traditional circulating current control of HMMC adopts circulating current injection for dc voltage stability, which cannot decrease the current stress. Therefore, basing on dc voltage fluctuation analysis, the circulating current generating mechanism is analyzed. According to the influence mechanism of circulating current, a circulating current suppression control (CCSC) is proposed to decrease the current stress. Eventually, the CCSC is verified in the real-time (RT)-lab platform.