Model predictive control of a modular multilevel converter combined with sorting methods

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) has been a subject of increasing interest for power electronics researchers, especially in HVDC applications. However, this paper proposes to use a model predictive control (MPC) which considers a reduced number of states, as a control strategy to regulate the ac-side and circulating currents of a medium voltage distribution grid-connected MMC. Also, a sorting algorithm is used to implement the task of maintaining the submodules capacitor voltages regulated. These control strategies are applied to a five-level MMC, and its performance is analyzed based on simulation results conducted in the environment of circuit simulations PSIM.