Simultaneous DC Current Balance and Common-Mode Voltage Control With Multilevel Current Source Inverters

The current source converter (CSC) has been popular in high-power medium-voltage applications. To increase the system power capacity and reduce the output harmonics, parallel connection of CSCs with multilevel current output is a practical approach. There are mainly two types of parallel based configurations. The structure with an independent dc link for each paralleled CSC can be regarded as the first configuration, where the dc current flowing into each CSC can be controlled from the rectifier side independently. The second type is constructed with only one current source rectifier (CSR) on the grid side and paralleled current source inverters (CSIs) on the load side, which could potentially reduce the cost and size of the system. However, with a common dc source, the dc current for each CSC should be carefully controlled with proper modulation design. At the same time, the common-mode voltage (CMV), which increases the motor line-to-ground voltage and causes additional stress to the insulation system, should also be suppressed. In this paper, with a focus on the shared dc-link structure, we thoroughly analyze the dc-link current flow and common-mode loop circuit. We propose a multilevel modulation strategy of the parallel CSI system considering the requirement of dc current balancing and CMV reduction to improve the overall system performance. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by both simulation and experiment in a transformerless parallel CSC system.