Benchmarking of real-time simulation model of modular multilevel converter

Modular multilevel converters (MMC) have been at the heart of numerous research projects and publications over the last decade. This topology is particularly challenging when it comes to real-time simulation; it has thousands of power-switching devices, control signals, and differential equations to solve. This has led to various models with different levels of detail. Although, all models are equally accurate, to some extent, it might not be required to use a fully detailed model depending on the objectives of the analysis. In this paper, five different MMC modelling techniques are studied for different number of submodules. Converter behaviour during initialization, normal operations and faulty conditions are investigated. The impact of the detail level of each model is reviewed for the different control loop of the converter, and also different faults applied to the converter.