Extendable Multisource Multilevel Inverter for Marine Electric Power System

The decarbonization efforts being made in the marine industry has resulted in a rising number of ships being replaced from conventional internal combustion engine-based ships to electric ships. These large electric ships require variable frequency inverters for their operation. Owing to the numerous advantages such as increased efficiency and reduced size offered by medium voltage AC system, this paper proposes a reduced switch multisource multilevel inverter for marine electric power system. The presented configuration can produce a 13-Level output voltage waveform by utilizing only 8 power electronic switches. The proposed configuration also utilizes 2 power diodes, 2 capacitors and 2 asymmetric DC voltages sources. The output voltage levels can be enhanced further by cascading an extended unit comprising of a DC voltage sources and a power electronic switch. A level shifted pulse width modulation technique is employed for the generation of switching signals. The proposed configuration performance is verified using simulation studies utilizing MATLAB Simulink. The test results are observed for inverter performance under variable loading conditions. Comparative analysis is presented to ascertain competitive advantage of the proposed inverter.