Active harmonic current elimination and reactive power compensation using modular multilevel cascaded converter

This paper presents a new application of modular multilevel cascaded converters (MMCC) for combined active harmonic current elimination and reactive power compensation in a power distribution line. A technique for simultaneous extracting harmonic components and reactive element in the load current is presented. A novel voltage control scheme for balancing the module intra-cluster capacitor voltages under distorted load current is incorporated. Simulation studies show the desired performance of the MMCC-based active power conditioning operating under PCC current distortion and varying load conditions.