Generalized Model Predictive Control Method for Single-Phase N-Level Flying Capacitor Multilevel Rectifiers for Solid State Transformer

This paper introduces a generalized control method based on the finite control set-model predictive control for a single-phase N-level flying capacitor multilevel rectifier used for solid state transformers. Unlike the conventional finite control set-model predictive control, the proposed method does not use the switching function to calculate the predicted value of the grid current. The proposed method also predicts the dc-link voltage without switching function so that it enables each leg voltages to be controlled stably and independently. Therefore, the number of states to be considered is significantly reduced, in addition to the computational time; and the level expansion of the flying capacitor multilevel rectifier is facilitated. In addition, since the cost function for controlling the grid current and that for controlling the voltage of the flying capacitor is separated, weighting factors are not required. The validity of the proposed method was verified by a simulation of a single-phase 11-level flying capacitor multilevel rectifier using Powersim software, and an experiment on a single-phase 5-level flying capacitor multilevel rectifier prototype.