Quantitative Analysis of AC/DC Side Harmonic Transfer Characteristics for Modular Multilevel Converter and Suppression Measures

MMC (Modular Multilevel Converter) is the preferred topology for renewable energy delivery, but renewable energy resources, such as wind farms, contains much harmonic components. Compared with two-level VSC (Voltage Source Converter), the internal dynamic characteristics of MMC have great impact on the harmonic transmission. This paper quantitatively analyzes the harmonic transferring mechanism from one side to the other side of MMC, and deduces the time-domain analytical expression of the harmonic response on the MMC's other side. Firstly, the influence of background harmonic on MMC's control system and electrical system are quantitatively analyzed. On this basis, the equivalent circuit of MMC's electrical system considering its internal dynamics is established to accurately calculate the effect of background harmonic on the MMC's other side. In addition, the harmonic transferring impedance in frequency-domain is also defined in this paper, based on that the influence of background harmonic on the MMC's other side can be calculated quickly. According to the harmonic transferring characteristics analyzed above, a zero-sequence virtual damping strategy is proposed for the first time to suppress the background harmonic transferring. Finally, a 232-level 500kV MMC simulated model is built in MATLAB/Simulink to verify the accuracy of the harmonic transferring calculation method and the effectiveness of the virtual damping suppression strategy.