Experimental evaluation of the impact of harmonics on induction motors fed by modular multilevel converters

Inverter-based electrical-machine drives suffer from significantly higher losses compared to sinusoidal-supply-based alternatives, fed directly from the grid. Using multilevel inverters it becomes possible to partially mitigate the effects of the switched supply waveform, while keeping the advantages of variable-speed operation. This paper aims to evaluate the increase of the losses occurring in an induction motor (IM) fed by a modular multilevel converter (M2C), when compared to grid-connected operation, in order to evaluate the impact of the inverter-generated harmonics in the machine. It is confirmed that the losses created in the motor due to the harmonic content of the inverter-generated waveforms are very low, and almost equivalent to a purely sinusoidal supply. The investigation includes an analysis of the harmonic content from experimental waveforms obtained by an 11-kW IM laboratory setup, and it is further supported by measurements of the temperature rise in the IM-stator windings. It is concluded that the M2C could create the conditions even for high-power motors to be operated without any derating.