A DC Link Sensor-Less Voltage Balancing Technique for Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Converters With Asymmetric Selective Harmonic Current Mitigation-PWM

A grid-tied cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter with low frequency modulation techniques needs to meet power quality standards. At the same time, the effects of grid voltage harmonics on CHB converter's current harmonics must be considered in the modulation techniques. Furthermore, the dc link voltages of grid-tied converters need to be regulated. In this paper, an asymmetric selective harmonic current mitigation-pulse width modulation (PWM) (ASHCM-PWM) technique is used to meet the current harmonic limits of a power quality standard with the effects of grid voltage harmonics considered in the equation set of its optimization process. A voltage balancing technique based on the average power of each cell is derived to regulate the dc link voltages of the CHB converters without using dc voltage sensors. By using the proposed voltage balancing technique, the CHB converters do not need complicated dc link voltage controllers. As a result, the cost and complexity of the grid-tied converters can be significantly reduced. Simulations and experiments were conducted on a 7-level grid-tied CHB converter to validate the proposed voltage balancing technique with ASHCM-PWM modulation technique.