Losses and cost comparison of DS-HB and SD-FB MMC based large utility grade STATCOM

Among the various multilevel converter topologies used in medium and high voltage grid applications, the Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) has been the most promising since it combines good harmonic performance with low switching frequency and high reliability. A major concern however for inverter designers has been the associated cost due to the need for a large number of power devices and capacitors. This paper focuses on the application of MMC in transformer-less STATic synchronous COMpensators (STATCOMs). Initially, the double-star half bridge (DS-HB) and the single-delta full bridge (SD-FB) configurations are presented. Their specific components are designed in an analytical way followed by loss estimation. Finally, a comparison of the necessary components gives an insight of the total cost associated with each configuration.