Pareto Frontier of the Arm Energy Ripple and the Conduction Losses of a Modular Multilevel Converter

Modular multilevel converters can achieve high power quality and voltage ratings, becoming a good alternative for high-voltage direct-current applications. However, the circulating current capacitor ripple remain significant drawbacks, mainly due to impact on efficiency density. In this work, stationary operation of modular converter is optimized by calculating Pareto frontier arm energy conduction losses different operating conditions. From set optimal solutions, best trade-off between be chosen depending application requirements. Therefore, an point regarding was found, optimizing allowing reduction capacitance, hence size cost. The theoretical analysis results are validated experimentally prototype test-bench.