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New Control Strategy of Three-Phase Five-Level NPC Rectifier -Inverter
System for Induction Machine Drive
Article in Energy Procedia · December 2012
DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2012.05.154
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Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 1382 – 1391
New Control Strategy of Three-Phase Five-Level NPC
Rectifier - Inverter System for Induction Machine Drive
Rabia GUEDOUANIa,*,Bachir FIALAa,E.M BERKOUKb,M.S. BOUCHERITb
a
Laboratoire des Systèmes Electriques et Industriel, University of Sciences an Technology ‘Houari Boumediene’B.O. Box 32 El
Alia Bab-Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria.
b
Laboratoire de commande des Processus Ecole Nationale Polytechnique BP182, 10 avenue Hassen badi. El harrach, Algiers,
Algeria.
Abstract
This paper proposes a control strategy of a three –phase five-level double converter for induction motor
drives. The converter consists of the five-level NPC rectifier, DC link, and the five-level NPC inverter. In this
control strategy, the DC link voltages are controlled by using a closed loop with an optimized stabilization
system called clamping bridge. It provides a fast and flexible control of the converter capacitor voltage. This
method will redress the imbalance of DC link voltage. This control strategy is completely independent from the
load control, leading to a simpler implementation. The three-phase five-level NPC rectifier-inverter system is
an ideal interface between a utility and renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic or wind generator.
Keywords: Five-level NPC converter, PWM strategy, DC link voltage, regulation voltage, unity power factor, stabilization system,
induction machine, renewable energy.
1. Introduction
In recent years, multilevel power converters for high power applications have been actively
investigated [1-3]. In particular, three-level drive systems have been put to practical uses [1-2-3].
__________
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +213 559 29 47 52.
E-mail address: guedouanirabea@yahoo.fr (R.GUEDOUANI)
1876-6102 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of The TerraGreen Society.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2012.05.154
Rabia Guedouani et al. / Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 1382 – 1391
The general function of the multilevel inverter is to synthesize a desired AC voltage from several
levels of DC voltages. For this reason, multilevel inverters are ideal for connecting either in series or in
parallel an AC grid with renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic or fuel cells or wind generator.
Additional applications of multilevel converters include such uses as medium voltage adjustable speed
motor drives, static var compensation, dynamic voltage restoration [3]…..
Several topologies under serious consideration from industry are developed [3], however the Neutral
Point Clamped (NPC) structure, proposed by Nabea and al [2], remains the popular circuit due to its
similarity to a conventional two-level voltage source inverter, and its ease of control [1-2-3].
The five-level inverter appears to offer interesting options for higher power drives without need for
simultaneous device switching [2-3-4]. The output voltage waveform of the five-level NPC inverter is
composed of intermediary voltage levels, which are typically obtained from capacitor voltage sources.
However, the major problems with this configuration are in achieving four balanced voltage within the
DC voltage source.
Different solutions have been proposed to overcome this problem [1-2-4-5-8]. A first approach [3] is to
provide a single DC link voltage (from a three phase rectifier), and subdivide it into four equal voltage
levels by using a split bank of capacitors [7]. The problem with the split capacitor arrangement is that
during normal operation a net mean current is drawn from nodes 2 and 4 of the DC input voltage source
by the load, and this will cause the link capacitors to charge or discharge, causing an imbalance in the DC
input voltage source levels. During transient state, or if the PWM scheme and device switching
characteristics are slightly unbalanced between the output phases, a net mean current may be drawn from
the neutral point, node 3, again leading to a capacitor voltage imbalance[3-5-6].
The easiest approach is to simply supply the DC link voltage with three-phase five-level NPC rectifier.
We have proposed in [8] three-phase PWM five-level NPC rectifier as input stage of the three-phase fivelevel NPC voltage source inverter. We have shown in [8] that this first solution is not enough to maintain
the equal voltage division mainly when a large load torque is applied.
In this paper, we propose a feed-back control, in dq rotating frame, of DC link voltage for five-level
NPC rectifier-inverter system. The proposed control strategy uses closed loop with an optimized
stabilization system called clamping bridge. It permits to have the capacitor voltage balancing with
network unity power factor. In the first section, we elaborate the knowledge and control models of threephase five-level NPC rectifier-inverter system. The second section presents the triangular-sinusoidal
control strategy using four carriers. In the third section, we propose a control strategy of a three –phase
five-level double converter for induction motor drives by using a closed loop with an optimized
stabilization system called clamping bridge. The last section shows some important results of the
proposed control strategy. As an application, we study the speed performances drive of the three-phase
high power induction machine fed by this system.
2. Analysis of Five-level NPC Rectifier/Inverter System
2.1. Topology
Fig.1 shows the main circuit configuration of the three-phase five-level double converter. It consists of
the five-level rectifier, the DC link, and the five-level inverter feeding the induction motor. The rectifier
and inverter employ the neutral point clamping (NPC) structure. Each converter composed of three arms
[6]. Each leg of this structure has six pairs of switching sis devices in series and two in parallel. The diodes
let to have zero voltage for ViM (ViM is the voltage of the phase relatively to the middle point M).
1383
Rabia Guedouani et al. / Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 1382 – 1391
1384
The DC link consists of four capacitors in series. For a DC link voltage of Vdc, if the voltage across
each capacitor is Vdc/4, the voltage stress across each switching device will be limited to Vdc/4. Thus
this topology would be suited to high voltage and high power applications.
i’d2 p id2
1
sa3
VS1
Uc1
sa7
i’d1
Uc2
sa2
2
id1
ia
sa1
VS2
a
n
b
ib
M
c
VS3
i’d0
ic
A
id0
C
B
sa4
sa5
Uc3
i’d3
sa8
id3
3
sa6
Uc4
Phase a
Phase b
Phase c
Rectifier
4
Phase A
i’d4 N id4
DC Link
Phase B
Phase C
Inverter
iB
iC
iA
IM
Fig 1. Schematic of a three-phase five-level rectifier/inverter system
The topology analysis of such structure shows that seven different configurations En (n is the number
of the configuration) possible [6] and are illustrated in Table 1.
Table .1 Different configurations of Five-Level NPC converter
Configurations
Electrical quantity
E0 = {ø}
Ii = 0 A
E1={si1 si2 si3}
ViM = UC1+UC2
E2={si1 si2 si7}
ViM = UC1
E3={si1 Di1}
ViM = 0
E4={si4 si5 si8}
ViM = -UC3
E5={si4 si5 si6}
ViM = -UC3- UC4
E6={si4 Di0}
ViM = 0
Five complementary laws are possible for five-level NPC converter. The optimal one is [6-7-8]:
Rabia Guedouani et al. / Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 1382 – 1391
Si 4
Si 2
Si5
S i1
Si6
S i3
1385
(1)
Sis : control signal of the semi-conductor sis;
i = (a,b,c) for the rectifier and =( A,B & C) number the phase of the inverter;
s: number of switching.
Uck : capacitor voltage of the DC link (k=1, 2, 3 & 4).
2.1. Knowledge model
In controllable mode, we define for each semi-conductor sis of the converter the connection function
Fis as follows [6-8]:
Fi S
1
if s iS is turned on
0
if s iS is turned off
By using the proposed complementary law, the output voltage of the rectifier/inverter VkM relatively to
the middle point M, is given by the following system [8-11]:
ViM
F i1 F i2 Fi3 U C 1 F i1 F i2 F i3 U C 1 U C 2
F i 4 F i5 F i6 U C 3 F i4 Fi5 F i6 U C 3 U C 4
(2)
(3)
The system (3) shows that the five-level NPC converter is equivalent to four two-level or two threelevel NPC converter in series.
The DC input currents (id1, id2, id3, id4, id0) of the three-phase five-level NPC inverter expressions, using
the load currents (iA, iB, iC), are given as:
id 1
F37 iC
id 3
F17 i A F27 i B
b
b
F11
i A F21
iB
F18 i A F28 i B
id 4
b
F10
iA
b
F30
iC
id 0
iA
id 2
iB
b
F31
iC
(4)
F38 iC
b
F20
iB
iC
id 1 id 2 id 3 id 4
’
The rectified currents (i d1, i'd2, i'd3, i'd4, i'd0) of the three-phase five-level NPC rectifier expressions,
using the input network currents (ia, ib, ic), are given as follow:
i ' d1
F '17 ia
i 'd 2
b'
b'
F11
ia F21
ib
'
'
F 18 ia F 28 ib
b'
b'
F10
ia F20
ib
i 'd 3
'
i d4
i 'd 0
ia
ib
F ' 27 ib
ic
F '37 ic
b'
F31
ic
F '38 ic
b'
F30
ic
i ' d1 i ' d 2
(5)
i 'd 3 i 'd 4
Where F’is is switching control of the switches rectifier.
Rabia Guedouani et al. / Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 1382 – 1391
1386
The systems (3), (4) and (5) are used to establish the model of the five-level NCP rectifier/inverter system
in matlab-simulink environment.
3. Multilevel Control Strategy
Different triangulo-sinusoidal strategies are developed for multilevel converter [1-7-8]. These
strategies are extended from two-level carrier-based PWM techniques to multilevel inverters by making
the use of several triangular carriers and one reference signal by phase. For N-level inverter, (N-1) carriers
with the same frequency fc and same peak to peak amplitude Ac are shifted by Tc N 1 with Tc is the
period of the carrier. The reference wave form has peak to peak amplitude Am and frequency fm, it is
centred in the middle of the carriers signal. This reference is continuously compared with each carrier.
In this paper, we develop triangulo-sinusoidal strategy using four carriers. This strategy uses the property
that the three-phase five-level NPC rectifier/inverter is equivalent to four two –level converters in
series[1-7-8]. This strategy is characterised by the amplitude modulation index ma and the frequency ratio
mf, which are defined as:
Am
fc
,mf
ma
Ac
fm
The algorithm of this strategy can be summarized as follow:
Step 1: Compute of the intermediate voltages
if Vrefi
if Vrefi
if Vrefi
if Vrefi
if Vrefi
if Vrefi
if Vrefi
if Vrefi
U p1 then ViM 1 U C
U p1 then ViM 1 0
U p 2 then ViM 2 2U C
U p 2 then ViM 2 U C
U p3 then ViM 3
U p 3 then ViM 3
0
UC
U p 4 then ViM 4 U C
U p 4 then ViM 4 2U C
Step 2: Compute of the out put voltage
Vrefi
(6)
ViM 1 ViM 2 ViM 3 ViM 4
4. Control Process
4.1. DC voltage control
The control flow of five-level rectifier/inverter system is as follows. Fig. 2 shows the control circuit
structure of DC voltage of five-level converter. First, the DC link voltage Vdc, which is the potential
difference between the P and N level, is detected. The error between Vdc and its command value V*dc
passes the PI controller, after which this value is multiplied to the gain K (K=Vdc/Vds). This later is
determined by using the instantaneous power conservation principle, with neglecting the rectifier losses,
in dq frame. This value then become the direct input line current command I*d.
(7)
Rabia Guedouani et al. / Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 1382 – 1391
1387
4.2 Input current control
The errors between the line current references (i*d, i*q), in rotating dq frame, and detected line currents
(id, iq) are inputted into PI controllers. Then, we obtain the commands (V*a, V*b, V*c) which are used as
references signals of PWM control strategy. Thus, The PWM control strategy determines switching levels
to control switches in the main circuit of the five-level rectifier. In this paper, we use the triangulosinusoidal strategies with four bipolar carriers. The network power factor is controlled by imposing the
quadrature line current i*q=0A.
n
Vs1
RL
isa
Vs2
RL
isb
Vs3
RL
isc
isa
i’d
N id
ic
Three
phase five
level
NPC
rectifier
P
isc
isb
Three
phase five
level
NPC
inverter
Vdc
’
Va
i*q=0
V’b
V*q
IM
Vdc
V*dc
V’c
V*d
id
i*c
iq
i*d
id
K
i’*d
Fig. 2. Control circuit of five-level NPC rectifier
4.3 DC link voltage stabilisation
In order to remedy the problem of fluctuation due to the inverter input DC voltages drift, an optimized
DC link voltage stabilization system, shown in Fig. 3, is proposed. We suggest a solution which consists
in establish a balancing bridge between the rectifier and the intermediate filter. Capacitor voltage
equalization control should be implemented to restrict the charge-discharge current to the allowable cell
limitations in the capacitor string.
Fig. 3 shows another variant of the balancing circuits called mixed optimized clamping bridge. This
circuit is capable of transferring the electric load from the capacitor which has high voltage towards
neighbour capacitor that has low voltage. This circuit is placed in parallel with every condenser of the DC
link. It consists of a bidirectional semiconductor Tk and an inductance Lck with a resistor in series Rck,
which serves to stabilize the DC voltages. This circuit was suggested in a concern reducing the losses by
effect Joule even to cancel them. If the voltage Uck gets higher then an imposed reference U*ck, the switch
Tk is opened to slow down the charging of capacitor Ck. The model of the intermediate filter with the
stabilization bridge is defined as follow:
C1U c1
ic1dt
(i'd 2 id 2 iL1S1 )dt
C2U c 2
ic 2 dt
C3U c3
ic3dt
(id' 1 i'd 2 id 2 id1 iL2 S 2 )dt
(id' 4 i'd 4 id 4 id 3 iL3 S3 )dt
C4U c 4
ic 4 dt
(i'd 4 id 4 iL4 S 4 )dt
(8)
Rabia Guedouani et al. / Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 1382 – 1391
1388
i’d2
U’c1
U’c2
The rectifier
side
U’c3
U’c4
i’d1
i’d0
The inverter
side
i’d3
i’d4
Fig. 3. Optimized DC link voltage stabilization system
With:
iLk
1 Lk . (S kU ck
(9)
Rck iLk ) dt
The switches are controlled as follow:
U ck U *c
if
xk
with k=1, 2, 3 & 4
xk
0 then S xk
1
iLk
0 else
(10)
S xk
0
iLk
(11)
0
5. Simulation Results
DC Voltage Ucx(V)
Output voltage of five-level VA(V)
In the following simulations, the machine works without load, then at the moment t =17s a load torque,
equal to 80 % of its nominal torque ( n=130 N.m), is applied. For these essays, we use the triangulosinusoidal with four carriers as command strategy for both multi level converters. We show perfectly the
instability of the DC input voltages (Fig.4.a) without using voltage stabilization system. This instability
increases when a load torque of the induction machine is applied. However, these voltages are practically
equal by pair (Uc1 = Uc4, Uc2 = Uc3)(Fig.4.a), then their differences are not very large (Fig.4.a). This
property permits to eliminate the homopolar component of the output voltage of the five-level NPC VSI
and let it symmetrical (Fig. 4.b). The cascade two three-level PWM five-level NPC rectifier/inverter loads
an induction motor. Using vector control (with flux constant), the speed control performances are shown
in Fig. 5. The speed and the electromagnetic torque follow their references. However the electromagnetic
torque has very important undulations (Fig.5.b). The results show the importance of the stability of DC
input voltages of the rectifier-inverter system to have good performances for the induction machine speed
control.
Time t(s)
Time t(s)
Fig. 4. a) DC Link voltage without stabilization system, b) Output voltage of five-level VSI without use voltage stabilization system
Induction Machine Torque (N.m)
(rp/mn)
Rabia Guedouani et al. / Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 1382 – 1391
Induction Machine Speed
(rp/mn)
(rp/mn)
*
1389
(N.m)
(N.m)
*
Fig. 5. a) Representation of the induction machine speed, b) Representation of the induction machine Torque
DC Voltage UcK(V)
DC Voltage Vdc& V*dc(V)
In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed control method, the closed loop with the voltage
stabilization system has been tested by simulations. The Fig. 6, 7, and 8 show the performances of the
feedback control of the three-phase five-level NPC rectifier/inverter with voltage stabilization system. In
the following simulations, the machine works without load, then at the moment t =15s a load torque,
equal to 80 % of its nominal torque ( n=130 N.m), is applied. We note that, the controlled voltage Vdc
(Fig. 6.a.) follow perfectly its reference (V*dc=20000 V). Therefore, the different input DC voltages of the
five-level NPC inverter become constant as it is shown in Fig.6.b, and practically equal. Their differences
are very small (Fig.7). In consequence, the output voltage of the five-level NPC VSI is symmetrical and
stable as depicted in Fig. 8.
The Fig. 9 show direct id and quadrature iq line input current and their references (i*d , i*q ). We note
that the direct current id follow its reference around 2000 A (Fig 9.a). Although, the quadrature line
current iq oscillates around zero (Fig 9.b). Thus, the phase voltage and its corresponding line network
current are shown in Fig.10.a. The two waves are practically in phase.
Finally, the speed control of the induction machine, fed by this system, is represented on the Fig.10-b.
We remark that the undulations on the performances (torque , currents id & iq) of the machine disappear
and those performances are improved by using the mixed optimized clamping bridge.
Time t(s)
Time t(s)
Fig. 6. a) Controlled DC voltage with closed loop, b) DC Link voltages with the stabilization bridge
6. Conclusion
In this paper, a control theory for DC link voltage balancing of three-phase five-level rectifier-inverter
system has been presented. Simulations results were shown to verify the analysis and to demonstrate the
following advantages of the proposed control:
Rabia Guedouani et al. / Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 1382 – 1391
1390
The DC voltage error
The DC voltage error (V)
- While it can generate a five level staircase waveform without the use of transformers, the five-level
converter generates almost sinusoidal voltage and current waveforms even at fundamental switching
frequency.
- The voltages on the DC link capacitor are well balanced with very small ripple.
- The system has low harmonic in the line network current and also this current is in phase with the
corresponding phase voltage.
- In this system, the switching stress is low.
- The use of the voltage stabilization system permits a economic and simple electronic implementation,
whereas in the space vector modulation control the computational burden, the complexity of the
algorithms and the number of instructions are drastic.
- They are an ideal interface between a utility and renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic or wind
energies.
Time t(s)
Time t(s)
Output voltage of five-level NPC
Line current of the induction machine
Fig. 7. a) Error Uc1-Uc2 & Uc3-Uc4, b) Error Uc1-Uc4 & Uc2-Uc3
Time t(s)
Time t(s)
The quadrature input line
iq& i*q(A)
The direct input line id &
i*d(A)
Fig. 8. a) Output voltage of five-level VSI voltage stabilization system, b) Line current of the induction machine
Time t(s)
Time t(s)
*
d
Fig. 9. a) Direct line input current id and its reference i , b) Quadrature line input current iq and its reference i*q
Rabia Guedouani et al. / Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 1382 – 1391
Input line current(A) & the phase
voltage (V)
,
Vs1(V)
isa(A)
(
)
(N.m)
(N.m)
Torque of the induction machine
gy
1391
*
Time t(s)
Time t(s)
Fig. 10. a) Line input current isa and the corresponding phase voltage Vsa, b) Representation of the induction machine torque (for
r=100KN.m at 15s)
References
[1] N.Kimura, T. Morizane, K.Taniguchi, T.Oono, “Multi-modulation signal PWM control for multi-level converter”, The 11th
International Power Electronics and Motion control conference, EPE-PEMC 2004, Riga, Latvia, 2-4 September 2004.
[2] Z. Pan, F. Zheng Peng and all, “Voltage Balancing Control of Diode-Clamped Multilevel Rectifier/Inverter Systems”, IEEE
transactions On Industry Applications, Vol -41. N° 6, November/December 2005, pp. 1668-1706.
[3]L. M Tolbert, F.. Zheng Peng, “Multilevel converters as utility Interface for Renewable Energy Systems”, Power Engineering
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[4] T. Ishida, K. Matususe, “Fundamental Characteristic of Five-Level Double Converters With Adjustable DC voltages for
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[5] O. Bouhali, B. Francois, E.M. Berkouk, C. Saudemont , “DC Link Capacitor Voltage Balancing in a Three-Phase Diode
Clamped Inverter Controlled by a Direct Space Vector of Line-to-Line Voltages”, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.
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[6] R.Guedouani, B. Fiala, E. Berkouk, M. Boucherit , “A New Control Algorithm for Four Three-Phase AC/DC PWM Voltage
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[7] R.Guedouani, B.Fiala, E.M. Berkouk, M.S. Boucherit “Modeling and Control of MultileveL Three - Phase Current Source
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[8]R.Guedouani, B.Fiala, E.M. Berkouk, M.S. Boucherit, " Feedback Control of Two PWM VS Rectifiers – Five-level NPC
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Appendix A. The input and output filters parameters are given in the following table.
Input filters parameters
L = 1 mH
R = 0.25
View publication stats
Output filters parameters
C1= C2= C3= C4=80 mF
Clamping bridge parameters
Lc=80 mH
Rc=1