Investigation and Compensation of Circulating Current Errors in Low Frequency Operation of Modular Multilevel Converters

The errors between the reference and actual injected circulating currents are investigated for modular multilevel converters (MMCs) in low frequency operation. These errors cause low frequency oscillatory power components in the MMC arms and large voltage fluctuations in the submodule capacitors. By adjusting the circulating current reference with a single parameter, it is possible to compensate the errors and suppress the undesired voltage fluctuations. Computer simulations and experimental results are provided to verify the theoretical derivations.