Condition Health Monitoring of Modular Multilevel Converter Submodule Capacitors

With a large deployment of power electronic converters in various critical applications, condition health monitoring is increasingly becoming important. In modular multilevel converter, submodule capacitors represent one the components having strong impact on overall converter cost and performance. This article proposes simple method for capacitance monitoring, deployed directly low-cost controller operating without disturbing or impacting normal operation. Offline real-time simulations, as well experimental results, demonstrate effectiveness proposed identifying changes capacitance, which high importance reliable