IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO.

1, JANUARY 2014 77

On Energy Storage Requirements in Modular

Multilevel Converters
Kalle Ilves, Student Member, IEEE, Staffan Norrga, Member, IEEE, Lennart Harnefors, Senior Member, IEEE,
and Hans-Peter Nee, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—The modular multilevel converter is a promising ecap Instantaneous value of the stored energy in each sub-
topology for high-voltage and high-power applications. By using module capacitor.
submodules equipped with dc-capacitors excellent output voltage Em ax Maximum energy storage capability of one converter
waveforms can be obtained at low switching frequencies. The rated
energy storage of the submodule capacitors is a driving factor of arm.
the size, cost, and weight of the submodules. Although the modular em ax Maximum energy storage capability of each submod-
multilevel converter has been thoroughly investigated in the liter- ule capacitor.
ature, a more detailed analysis of the energy-storage requirements Enom Nominal energy stored in each arm (reference value).
will provide an important contribution for dimensioning and anal- Esub Nominal energy stored in each submodule capacitor
ysis of modular multilevel converters. Such an analysis is presented
in this paper. The analysis relates the power transfer capability to (reference value).
the stored energy in the converter and the findings are validated eu ,l Instantaneous value of the energy stored in the upper
by both simulations and experimental results. The required size of and lower arms.
the submodule capacitors in a 4.5 MW grid-connected converter ic Instantaneous value of the circulating current.
is first calculated and the calculated operating range is then com- idc Time average of the circulating current.
pared with simulation results. The experimental results show that
if the average capacitor voltage is allowed to increase 10% above ich hth-order harmonic in the circulating current.
the nominal value an energy storage to power transfer ratio of is Instantaneous value of ac-side current.
21 J/kW can be achieved. It is concluded that the presented theory iu ,l Instantanous value of the upper and lower arm
can relate the power transfer capability to the energy storage in currents.
the converter and is thus a valuable tool in the design and analysis kdc Compensating factor for the time average of the stored
of modular multilevel converters.
energy in the submodules.
Index Terms—AC–DC power converters, energy storage, HVDC km ax Relative upper limit for the capacitor voltage ripple.
transmission. m Modulation index.
N Number of submodules per arm.
NOMENCLATURE nu ,l Insertion index for the upper and lower arms.
ΔEm ax Maximum excess energy that can be stored in one pu ,l Instantaneous value of the input power to the upper
converter arm. and lower arms.
Iˆs Peak value of the ac-side current. S Apparent three-phase power transfer.
V̂s Peak value of the alternating voltage imposed by the t Time.
converter. Vg Complex representation of the grid line-to-neutral
ω1 Fundamental angular frequency. voltage.
ϕ Power angle. vcap Instantaneous value across the submodule capacitors.
Σ
C Capacitance of the submodule capacitors. vcap Sum of all capacitor voltages in one converter arm.
Cm in Minimum capacitance per submodule required to Vsub Nominal voltage across each submodule capacitor
comply with given voltage limitations. (reference value).
∗
Earm Time average of the energy stored in each arm. Vsub Controlled value of the nominal voltage across each
earm Instantaneous value of the stored energy in one con- submodule capacitor (reference value).
verter arm. Vd DC-link voltage.
Vs Complex representation of the line-to-neutral voltage
imposed by the converter.
Manuscript received October 19, 2012; revised January 10, 2013; accepted vs Instantaneous value of the alternating voltage imposed
March 13, 2013. Date of current version July 18, 2013. Recommended for pub- by the converter.
lication by Associate Editor P. Barbosa.
K. Ilves, S. Norrga, and H.-P. Nee are with the Royal Institute of Tech- Wconv Normalized value of the nominal energy storage in
nology, Stockholm 100 44, Sweden (e-mail: ilves@kth.se; norrga@kth.se; the converter.
hansi@kth.se). Wrated Normalized value of the rated energy storage capabil-
L. Harnefors is with the ABB Power Systems, Västerås 771 80, Sweden
(e-mail: lennart.harnefors@se.abb.com). ity of the converter.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online ZT Complex representation of the combined impedance
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. of the arm and line-side reactors.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2013.2254129

0885-8993/$31.00 © 2013 IEEE

78 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014

Subscripts
u Upper arm quantity.
l Lower arm quantity.
Superscripts
th Third-order harmonic injection.

I. INTRODUCTION
HE MODULAR multilevel converter (M2C) was first pre-
T sented in [1]–[4] and combines excellent output voltage
waveforms with very high efficiencies [5]. As such, it is ideal
for high-voltage high-power applications such as high-voltage
direct current transmission [5], high-power motor drives [6]–[9],
and electric railway supplies [10], [11]. Since the introduction
of the M2C, its basic operation [1]–[3], [12] and the internal
dynamics [13], [14] have been described. The capacitor volt-
age ripple has been investigated [15] and compensating con-
trollers have been presented [13], [16], [17]. Several modula-
tion methods have been presented and analyzed [1], [18], [19].
The circulating currents have been investigated [20]–[22]. Sev-
eral circulating-current controllers have also been derived [17],
[20], [23] and even various model predictive control methods
have been proposed [24], [25]. Another important aspect that
must be considered is the energy storage requirements. In fact,
the size of the submodule capacitors is a driving factor for the
size and weight of the converter [26]. The energy variations in Fig. 1. Schematic of one phase-leg of the modular multilevel converter.
the M2C and the resulting capacitor voltage ripple was ana-
lyzed in [27] and [28]. A similar analysis is presented in [29] of this paper and is a subject for future work. The presented
which also covers full-bridge submodules and modulation in- analysis is, however, a valuable tool for future evaluation of
dices above unity. The energy variations in M2Cs connected in a different operating region extension methods.
back-to-back configuration for ac–ac conversion tasks have also The outline of this paper is as follows. In Section II, the
been analyzed in [30] and [31] and a similar analysis for direct basic operating principles and terminology are explained. The
ac–ac converters is presented in [32]. The minimum required relation between the power transfer, total energy storage, and
energy storage capability of the converter is, however, not only capacitor voltage ripple are analyzed in Section III. Section IV
decided by the peak-to-peak value of the energy variations. In or- provides a description of how the derived relations in Section III
der to avoid overmodulation it is important to consider the shape can be used to determine the minimum requirements of the
of the capacitor voltage ripple and the dc-offset in the capacitor energy storage in the converter for given constraints on the
voltages. Such an analysis is presented in this paper. The analysis voltage ripple and the power transfer capability. The calculated
is based on analytical equations which are solved numerically operating range is compared to simulation results with good
in order to determine the absolute minimum requirements for agreement in Section V where the theoretical findings are also
the submodule capacitors during nominal operation. The aim of validated by experimental results. Finally, the conclusions are
the aforementioned analysis is to provide a more comprehen- presented in Section VI.
sive understanding of how the size of the submodule capacitors
will limit the operating region of the converter. Such an analysis
will be valuable for dimensioning the submodule capacitors and II. OPERATING PRINCIPLES AND TERMINOLOGY
also for evaluating different methods for extending the operat- The M2C consists of series connected half-bridges with dc
ing region. These operating region extension methods affect the capacitors. These half-bridges are referred to as submodules and
capacitor voltages by injecting harmonic components in the arm the converter is controlled in such a way that the voltages across
currents [8], [33], [34]. This will, however, increase the losses the submodule capacitors are kept close to their nominal values.
in the converter and can also increase the required current rating In this way, the submodules capacitors act as voltage sources
of the semiconductors. Therefore, the analysis in this paper only that can be either inserted or bypassed in the chain of series
considers nominal steady-state operation of the converter. This connected submodules.
means that it is assumed that the circulating current is controlled In each phase, the submodules are divided into two arms with
such that it equals a direct current which exactly corresponds N series connected submodules per arm. Each arm also has an
to the required power exchange between the converter and the arm inductor with the inductance L and resistance R as shown in
dc-link. Evaluating and quantifying the tradeoffs when injecting Fig. 1. The arm that is connecting the ac terminal to the positive
harmonic components in the arm currents is outside the scope dc terminal is referred to as the upper arm. Similarly, the arm
ILVES et al.: ON ENERGY STORAGE REQUIREMENTS IN MODULAR MULTILEVEL CONVERTERS 79

that is connected between the ac terminal and the negative dc variables such as the capacitor voltages of the individual sub-
terminal is referred to as the lower arm. The voltage at the modules. Many control methods also consider the circulating
ac terminal can then be controlled by varying the number of current that is flowing between the dc-terminals of each phase
inserted submodules in each arm. leg. For the analysis in this paper, it is assumed that the circulat-
ing current is controlled. This means that there are no harmonic
A. Voltages and Currents components in the circulating current implying that ic is equal to
the direct component idc corresponding to the power exchange
The upper arm carries the current iu , and the lower arm carries
between the converter and the dc link. It is also assumed that the
the current il . These currents are defined such that a positive
capacitor voltages are well balanced within the arms. In reality,
current is charging the inserted capacitors. This means that the
however, there may be small variations between the individual
line current at the ac-side, is , must be equal to the difference
capacitor voltages in each arm due to the limited switching fre-
between iu and il . Accordingly
quency. Therefore, the voltage limit should be chosen such that
is = iu − il . (1) small deviations from the average value can be tolerated.
The mean value of the upper and lower arm currents is referred
III. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON ENERGY STORAGE
to as the circulating current and is denoted by ic , that is
iu + il The nominal energy that is stored in one submodule capacitor
ic = . (2) is given by
2
Solving (1)–(2) for iu and il gives 1
Esub =CV 2 (8)
2 sub
1
iu = ic + is (3a) where C is the submodule capacitance and Vsub is given by
2
1 Vd
il = ic − is (3b) Vsub = . (9)
2 N
meaning that the arm currents can be expressed as the sum of the The voltage Vsub represents the nominal voltage across each
circulating current and an alternating component that is directly submodule capacitor and is mainly used as a reference value.
related to the ac-side current. In the steady state, the circulating Since there are N submodules per arm, this means that the
current ic can be described by the general expression nominal energy storage per arm is
∞
 N 2
Enom = CVsub . (10)
ic = idc + icn (4) 2
h=1
The time average of the submodule voltages is typically close
where ich is the hth-order harmonic in the circulating current, to Vsub . It is, however, possible to control the time average
and idc is the time average of the circulating current, corre- of the submodule voltages by controlling the stored energy in
sponding to the energy exchange between the phase leg and the the converter [17]. In order to take this into account, the factor
dc link. kdc is introduced. The factor kdc indicates the relation between
The ac-side voltages and currents are defined as for inverter the nominal submodule voltage and the direct voltage that is
operation and are given by associated with the time-average of the stored energy in the
submodules. Accordingly
vs = V̂s cos (ω1 t) (5)
∗ Vd
is = Iˆs cos (ω1 t − ϕ) . (6) Vsub = kdc (11)
N
The relation between the amplitude of the alternating voltage where the nominal value of kdc is 1.0. By substituting Vsub in
and the dc-link voltage is given by the modulation index m as (10) with (11) the time average of the stored energy in each arm
V̂s can be expressed as
m=2 . (7)
Vd 1C 2 2
Earm = k V . (12)
2 N dc d
B. Modulation and Control By controlling the converter in such a way that the value
Numerous control strategies have been proposed since the of kdc is greater or less than unity, the time average of the
M2C was introduced in [1]. These control strategies may be stored energy in the submodules is affected. Fig. 2 illustrate
based on phase-shifted carriers as presented in [18], or based the relation between the inserted voltages, capacitor voltages,
on the sorting algorithm that was presented in [1], such as the and the controlled voltage kdc Vd . In the example shown in
controllers in [17] and [13]. It is also possible to use programmed Fig. 2, the value of kdc is 0.87 and the converter is operat-
modulation as presented in [19] and [20] or model predictive ing in inverter mode with a 40 degree inductive power angle and
control as presented in [24] and [25]. the modulation index 0.9. It is observed that even if the time
Any control method for the M2C must not only consider the average of the available voltage has been reduced the converter
alternating and direct voltages, but also certain internal state can still operate without enetering the region of overmodulation.
80 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014

Multiplying the energy per submodule with the number of sub-

modules per arm gives the limits for the stored energy in each
arm. That is
Vd2 2
Em ax = k C (17)
2N m ax
where Em ax is the maximum energy that can be stored in
each converter arm without exceeding the voltage rating of the
submodules.
The maximum amount of excess energy that can be stored in
each arm is defined as ΔEm ax . Accordingly

Fig. 2. Graph showing the relation between the inserted voltage v u , the avail-
ΔEm ax = Em ax − Earm . (18)
able voltage v cΣa p , the dc-link voltage V d , and the factor k d c .
Substituting Earm with (10) and Em ax with (17) gives
1C 2 2 
In Section IV it will be shown that this can be used to extend ΔEm ax = V k − kdc
2
. (19)
2 N d m ax
the operating region of the converter.
For a given value of ΔEm ax , there exists a minimum value
A. Peak Voltage and Energy Storage Capability Cm in for the capacitance of the submodule capacitors. This
minimum value can be obtained by solving (19) for C which
The voltage in each submodule will vary with time as the ca- gives
pacitors are charged and discharged due to the arm currents. The
maximum voltage must, however, not exceed the rated voltage 2N ΔEm ax
Cm in = 2 . (20)
Vd2 ax − kdc )
2
(km
of the submodules. In order to take this into consideration, the
factor km ax is introduced. This factor defines the upper limit of That is, if the capacitance C of the submodule capacitors is equal
the capacitor voltages and is defined such that the instantaneous to or greater than Cm in the inequality (13) is satisfied. As it will
value of the capacitor voltages is never greater than km ax times be shown in Section III-B, the excess energy ΔEm ax that must
Vd over N . Accordingly be stored in the converter arms depends on the specifications of
Vd the converter. This means that ΔEm ax can be calculated from
vcap ≤ km ax . (13) the requested power transfer capability, dc-link voltage, and ac-
N
side voltage. Thus, ΔEm ax does not depend on the size of the
In this analysis, it is assumed that the capacitor voltages are
submodule capacitors or number of submodules.
well balanced within each arm. However, in most applications
The minimum value of the nominal energy storage per arm
the individual capacitor voltages in each arm will deviate from
can be found by substituting the capacitance C into (10) with
the average value due to the limited switching frequency. The
(20)
spread in the capacitor voltages in each arm depends on the
switching frequency, the capacitor voltage balancing strategy, ΔEm ax
Enom ≥ 2 . (21)
ax − kdc
and even the number of submodules [35]. Therefore, the spread 2
km
in the capacitor voltages is not included in the analysis. This
It is observed that the nominal energy that should be stored in the
means that the voltage limit km ax defines the minimum possible
converter arms in order to satisfy (13) only depends on ΔEm ax ,
peak voltage which is achieved when the capacitor voltages
the constant km ax , and kdc .
in each arm are well balanced. Consequently, the voltage limit
Substituting C in (17) with (20) gives the minimum value of
km ax must be chosen such that individual variations in capacitor
the energy storage capability for each arm. Accordingly
voltages can be allowed.
2
The limit km ax is directly related to the the maximum amount km
Em ax ≥ ax
2 ΔEm ax . (22)
ax − kdc
of energy that can be stored in each arm. The instantaneous value 2
km
of the stored energy in one submodule can be expressed as
It is observed that the minimum requirements of the energy stor-
1 2 age capability only depends on ΔEm ax , the constant km ax , and
ecap = Cvcap . (14)
2 kdc . The size and cost of the submodule capacitors are propor-
Combining (14) and (13) gives that tional to the rated energy storage capability of the capacitors.
 2 This means that all converters, regardless of the number of sub-
1 Vd modules per arm, will have the same limitations for the overall
ecap ≤ C km ax . (15)
2 N size and cost of the submodule capacitors.
Consequently, the maximum allowed stored energy in each sub-
module is given by B. Variations in the Stored Energy
Vd2 2 In order to calculate the minimum energy storage require-
em ax = k C. (16) ments, the excess energy storage ΔEm ax must be known. The
2N 2 m ax
ILVES et al.: ON ENERGY STORAGE REQUIREMENTS IN MODULAR MULTILEVEL CONVERTERS 81

excess energy storage can, however, be affected by third-order where S is the total apparent power transfer, that is
harmonic injection. For this reason, the required excess energy 3 ˆ
storage is calculated both for a sinusoidal voltage reference and S= V̂s Is . (29)
2
for the case when the third-order harmonic injection is used.
1) Energy Variations With a Sinusoidal Voltage Reference: The excess energy storage capability ΔEm ax is given by the
Assuming a sinusoidal voltage reference, the inserted voltages peak value of the energy variations eu and el in (28). Due to
in the upper and lower arms vu and vl can be expressed as symmetry, the peak value of eu is equal to the peak value of el
and it is, therefore, sufficient to consider only one of the two
Vd Vd
vu = − m cos(ω1 t) (23a) arms. This means that the excess energy storage capability can
2 2 be expressed as
Vd Vd
vl = + m cos(ω1 t). (23b) ΔEm ax = max (eu ) . (30)
2 2
If the converter is controlled in such a way that there are no 2) Impact of the Third-Order Harmonic Injection: In grid
harmonics in the circulating current, the arm currents can be connected applications, the operating range of the M2C can
expressed as [20] be extended by injecting a third-order harmonic in the phase
voltages [36]. The inserted voltage in the upper and lower arms
Iˆs Iˆs
iu = m cos(ϕ) + cos(ω1 t − ϕ) (24a) are then given by
4 2
Vd Vd Vd
Iˆs Iˆs vuth = − m cos(ω1 t) + m cos(3ω1 t) (31a)
il = m cos(ϕ) − cos(ω1 t − ϕ). (24b) 2 2 12
4 2
Vd Vd Vd
The instantaneous power flowing into each arm is given by vlth = + m cos(ω1 t) − m cos(3ω1 t). (31b)
2 2 12
the product of the inserted voltage in (23) and the arm currents
in (24), that is The additional term in the inserted voltages will lead to an
additional term in the expressions describing the instantaneous
Vd Iˆs power flow into the converter arms. Multiplying the voltages in
pu = [2 cos(ω1 t − ϕ) − m cos(2ω1 t − ϕ)
8 (31) with the currents in (24) gives
− m2 cos(ω1 t) cos(ϕ)] (25a) Vd Iˆs 2
pth
u = pu + m cos(3ω1 t) cos(ϕ)
Vd Iˆs 48
pl = − [2 cos(ω1 t − ϕ) + m cos(2ω1 t − ϕ)
8 Vd Iˆs
+ m cos(3ω1 t) cos(ω1 t − ϕ) (32a)
− m2 cos(ω1 t) cos(ϕ)] (25b) 24
where pu is the power flowing into the upper arm submodules Vd Iˆs 2
l = pl −
pth m cos(3ω1 t) cos(ϕ)
and pl is the power flowing into the lower arm submodules. 48
Integrating the instantaneous power in (25) gives the energy Vd Iˆs
variations eu and el in the upper and lower arms. That is + m cos(3ω1 t) cos(ω1 t − ϕ). (32b)
24
Vd Iˆs where pu and pl are given by (25). Integrating the expressions
eu = [4 sin(ω1 t − ϕ) − m sin(2ω1 t − ϕ)
16ω1 and substituting Vd with (27) yields

− 2m2 sin(ω1 t) cos(ϕ)] (26a) S m
th
eu = eu + sin(3ω1 t) cos(ϕ)
Vd Iˆs 12ω1 9
el = − [4 sin(ω1 t − ϕ) + m sin(2ω1 t − ϕ)
16ω1 
1 1
− 2m2 sin(ω1 t) cos(ϕ)]. (26b) + sin(4ω1 t − ϕ) + sin(2ω1 t + ϕ) (33a)
12 6
Solving (7) for Vd gives 
S m
2V̂s l = el −
eth sin(3ω1 t) cos(ϕ)
Vd = . (27) 12ω1 9
m

Then, substituting Vd into (26) with (27) yields 1 1
− sin(4ω1 t − ϕ) − sin(2ω1 t + ϕ) (33b)
S 12 6
eu = [4 sin(ω1 t − ϕ) − m sin(2ω1 t − ϕ)
12mω1
where el and eu are given by (28). The excess energy that must
− 2m2 sin(ω1 t) cos(ϕ)] (28a) be stored in each converter arm when the third-order harmonic
S injection is used is then given by the peak value of eth th
u and el .
el = − [4 sin(ω1 t − ϕ) + m sin(2ω1 t − ϕ) Accordingly
12mω1
th
 th 
− 2m2 sin(ω1 t) cos(ϕ)] (28b) ΔEm ax = max eu . (34)
82 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014

IV. ENERGY STORAGE REQUIREMENTS Solving for kdc yields


The energy storage requirements in (21) and (22) do not only n2u − e2v ,u km2
ax
depend on the voltage limit defined by km ax and the excess kdc ≥ , ev ,u = 1 (38a)
1 − ev ,u
energy ΔEm ax , but also on the constant kdc . The value of kdc

can be changed by controlling the time average of the stored
n2l − e2v ,l km2
ax
energy in the converter. There are, however, certain limitations kdc ≥ , ev ,l = 1. (38b)
for how the value of kdc can be chosen. The reason for this is 1 − ev ,l
that when the voltage vu or vl is to be inserted in the upper where
or lower arm, the requested voltage must be available in the vu vl
submodule capacitors of the corresponding arm. If the sum of all nu = , nl = (39a)
Vd Vd
capacitor voltages in the arm is lower than the requested voltage
eu el
that should be inserted, then this will result in overmodulation. ev ,u = , ev ,l = . (39b)
ΔEm ax ΔEm ax
Consequently, the value of kdc must be chosen such that the
requested voltage is available in the submodule capacitors at all Due to the symmetry of the system it can be concluded that
times. if (38a) is satisfied, then (38b) is satisfied as well. It is therefore
As the limit for overmodulation is determined by the instanta- sufficieint to consider only one of the arms when calculating the
neous values of the requested and available voltages, the shape energy storage requirements.
of the capacitor voltage ripple will have an impact on the energy In order to avoid overmodulation, the value of kdc should be
storage requirements. By injecting harmonic components in the chosen large enough such that (38) is satisfied at all times. The
circulating current, it is possible to shape the capacitor voltage operating range can be maximized by chosing kdc equal to the
ripple in such a way that kdc can be reduced even further [34]. minimum value that satisfies (38). This will allow the highest
Injecting harmonic components in the circulating current will, possible voltage ripple in the submodule capacitors without en-
however, increase the losses in the converter which means that tering the region of overmodulation or exceeding the allowed
such methods should not be used unless necessary. As this paper peak voltage.
investigates the minimum energy requirements during nominal The nominal energy storage that is required can be calculated
steady-state operation, these kind of operating region extension for any given operating point and voltage ripple limit using
methods are not included in the analysis. (21). This is done by first calculating the value of ΔEm ax for
the given operating point by using (28) for a sinusoidal voltage
A. Calculating the Required Energy Storage reference, or (33) if the third-order harmonic injection is used.
The minimum value of kdc for the considered operating point
The maximum voltage that can be inserted in each arm is is then given by (38). Substituting kdc in (21) and (22) with the
the sum of all capacitor voltages in the arm. This voltage is minimum value of (38a) gives
Σ
referred to as the available voltage and is denoted as vcap . As
ΔEm ax
it is assumed that the capacitor voltages are well balanced, the Enom =  2 2 2 (40a)
n −e v , u k m a x
relation between the available voltage and the energy that is 2
km ax − max u 1−e v ,u
stored in the arm can be expressed as
2

2 km ax ΔEm ax
Em ax =  2 2 2 . (40b)
Σ
vcap n −e v , u k m a x
earm = C
N
. (35)
2
km ax − max u 1−e v ,u
2 N
Since ev ,u represents the normalized value of eu , it does not
The instantaneous value of the stored energy in each arm can be depend on the power transfer S. Thus, the only term in (40)
expressed as the sum of its time average Earm and its alternating that depends on the power transfer is ΔEm ax . From the results
components in (28) or (33). In this way, the energy that must in Section III, it is clear that ΔEm ax is proportional to the ap-
be stored in the arm can be related to the voltages in (23). parent power transfer S. As a consequence, Enom and Em ax
Consequently are proportional to the apparent power transfer as well. There-
fore, it is possible to express the energy storage requirements in
C 2 terms of total energy storage per transferred VA. Accordingly,
Earm + eu ≥ v (36a)
2N u for a three-phase converter with six arms the energy storage
C 2 requirements can be expressed as
Earm + el ≥ v . (36b)
2N l 6
Wconv = Enom (41a)
Substituting Earm with (12) and C with (20) yields S
2
6
kdc ΔEm ax ΔEm ax vu2 Wrated = Em ax (41b)
+ eu ≥ (37a) S
ax − kdc ax − kdc )
2
km 2 Vd2 (km
2 2
where Wconv is the required nominal energy storage in the
2
kdc ΔEm ax ΔEm ax vl2 converter per transferred VA, and Wrated is the rated energy
+ el ≥ 2 . (37b)
ax − kdc ax − kdc )
2
km 2 2 2
Vd (km storage capability of the converter. It should also be made clear
ILVES et al.: ON ENERGY STORAGE REQUIREMENTS IN MODULAR MULTILEVEL CONVERTERS 83

th
Fig. 3. Required energy storage capability (W ra te d and W ra te d ) per trans-
ferred MW of active power for different values of k m a x .

that Wconv and Wrated indicate the energy storage requirements

for a sinusoidal voltage reference, when the third-order har-
monic injection is used, the energy storage requirements are
th th
instead denoted as Wconv and Wrated . Fig. 4. Required energy storage capability (W ra te d and W ra th
te d ) in kJ/MW
for active power transfer. The white areas indicate that W ra te d is larger than
45 kJ/MW.
B. Dependence on the Modulation Index and Power Angle
The energy storage requirements in (41) depend on the volt-
age limit defined by km ax , the modulation index m, the line
frequency ω1 , and the power angle ϕ. However, as the energy
variations eu are inversely proportional to the line frequency
this means that ΔEm ax and thus also the energy storage re-
quirements are inversely proportional to the line frequency.
Consequently, the energy storage requirements for different line
frequencies can easily be compared and no further analysis is
required. Therefore, it will, hereafter, be assumed that the line
frequency is always 50 Hz.
The relation between the required energy storage capability
and and the modulation index at active power transfer is illus-
trated in Fig. 3 for different values of km ax . As expected, the
energy storage requirements are reduced as km ax is increased.
As a rough estimation it can be concluded that the minimum en-
ergy storage capability that is required for active power transfer
th
Fig. 5. Required energy storage capability (W ra te d and W ra
is in the range of 2030 kJ/MVA. te d ) for different
values of k m a x with the modulation index 1.0.
Fig. 4 provides a more complete illustration of the relation
between the required energy storage capability and the mod-
ulation index at active power transfer. It is observed that the The energy storage capability that is required to transfer
third-order harmonic injection leads to a reduction of the en- 1 MVA at different power angles with the modulation index
ergy storage requirements at high modulation indices and low 1.0 is shown in Fig. 5. It is observed that the third-order har-
values of km ax . This has important implications for the semi- monic injection results in a significant reduction of the energy
conductor requirements as well since higher values of km ax storage requirements when the converter is consuming reactive
also require higher voltage ratings of the semiconductors and power. For reactive power generation the relation is the opposite
lower modulation indices require a higher current rating for the but less significant.
same power transfer. Consequently, in order to minimize the The required energy storage capability in Fig. 5 indicate that
total amount of installed silicon in the converter the modulation a significantly lower energy storage capability is required when
index should be high and km ax should be low, which are the reactive power is generated compared to active power transfer
very same conditions at which the difference between Wrated and reactive power consumption. This is verified by the contour
th
and Wrated is the most significant. plot in Fig. 6. It is observed that for modulation indices close to
84
th
Fig. 6. Required energy storage capability (W ra te d and W ra te d ) in kJ/MW
with k m a x = 1.10. The white areas indicate that W ra te d is larger than
45 kJ/MW.
unity the required energy storage capability is rapidly reducing
when the power angle is increased. This means that the reac-
tive power generation will typically not be limited by the size
of the capacitors in a converter that is dimensioned for active
power transfer. Instead the reactive power generation is more
likely to be limited by other factors such as the current rating of
the submodules or the maximum voltage that can be imposed
at the ac terminals. The large difference in the energy storage
requirements for reactive power generation and reactive power
consumption can be explained by the angular displacement of
the current. In both cases, the current waveform is displaced by
90◦ with respect to the alternating voltage. For reactive power
generation this means that when the requested voltage is in-
creasing, the submodule capacitors will be charged and thus the
available voltage will reach its peak value at the same time as
the requested voltage reaches its maximum. In the case of reac-
tive power consumption, the relation is the opposite. This means
that when the requested voltage reaches its maximum value, the
available voltage is at its minimum value as illustrated in Fig. 7.
Consequently, the voltage variations that can be tolerated when
reactive power is consumed are much smaller which leads to a
dramatic increase in the energy storage requirements.
The required energy storage capabilities Wrated and Wrated th
only consider the power that is transferred by the submodules.
This means that the reactive power that is consumed by the
arm inductors is not included in the aforementioned energy
storage requirements. The parasitic currents in the M2C can be
limited by small arm inductors [12] that would not consume
any considerable amounts of reactive power. The purpose of
the arm inductors is, however, also to limit fault currents [37].
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014
Fig. 7. Available voltage and requested voltage in the upper arm for reactive
power generation (upper) and reactive power consumption (lower).
Therefore, in grid-connected applications, the arm inductors are
typically much larger than what is necessary to limit the current
ripple resulting from the switching of the submodules. In fact, in
grid-connected applications, suitable values of the arm inductors
could very well be in the range of 0.1 p.u [38]. Therefore, in grid
connected applications, the reactive power consumption of the
arm inductors must be taken into consideration. An example of
how this is done is presented in Section IV-C.
C. Energy Storage in a 4.5 MW Grid-Connected Converter
As an example of how the theoretical findings can be applied,
the required size of the submodule capacitors in a 4.5 MW grid-
connected converter is calculated here. The converter is con-
nected to a 17-kV dc link and a 10 kV, 50-Hz grid through a
three-phase transformer with the inductance 10 mH and resis-
tance 0.05 Ω. The inductance of the arm inductors is 20 mH and
the losses in the converter are modeled with a 0.4 Ω resistor in
series with the arm inductors. The capacitance of the submod-
ules should be large enough such that the maximum voltage
across each submodule capacitor is not more than 10% above
the nominal voltage (i.e, km ax = 1.1).
In order to transfer 4.5 MW active power to the grid, the power
transferred by the submodules must also cover the losses and the
reactive power consumption of the inductors and transformer.
By using complex representation, the power that is transferred
to the grid can be expressed as
 ∗
Vs − Vg
S=3 Vg (42)
ZT
where the star indicate the complex conjugate, Vs is the alter-
nating voltage imposed by the series connected submodules, Vg
is the grid voltage, and ZT is the combined impedance of the
transformer and the converter. The impedance ZT is calculated
as the sum of the transformer impdedance and half of the arm
impedance. The reason for this is that the alternating current
is divided equally between the upper and lower arms, which
ILVES et al.: ON ENERGY STORAGE REQUIREMENTS IN MODULAR MULTILEVEL CONVERTERS 85

TABLE I
SPECIFICATIONS OF THE SIMULATED SYSTEM

means that the arm impedances appear as connected in parallel

to the grid.
In order to calculate the value of ΔEm ax , the modulation
index m must be known. Solving (42) for Vs gives Fig. 8. Available voltage and requested voltage in the upper and lower arms
 ∗ at 4.5 MW active power transfer.
S
Vs = Z + Vg . (43)
3Vg
The modulation index can then be calculated as
√
2 2|Vs |
m= . (44)
Vd
For the considered system, the modulation index at 4.5 MW
active power transfer is calculated to 1.0.
The line current at rated power transfer is 260 A (rms), which
means that the impedance ZT will consume 0.04 -MW active
power and 1.27-MVA reactive power. Consequently, at the given
operating point, the submodules must deliver 4.54 MW active
power and 1.27 MVA reactive power. This corresponds to a
total power transfer of 4.72 MVA at a 15.6◦ inductive power
angle. Accroding to the calculated values in Fig. 5, the required
nominal energy storage at this power angle is 19.0 kJ/MVA. Ac- Fig. 9. Available voltage and requested voltage in the upper and lower arms
cordingly, in order to transfer 4.72 MVA, a total energy storage while transferring 3.18 MVA reactive power to the grid.
of 89.7 kJ is required. This corresponds to 15.0 kJ per arm. The
capacitance of the submodule capacitors can then be calculated
In order to control kdc and the circulating current, an open-
for a converter with any number of submodules per arm by
loop approach is used as presented in [17]. For every power
solving (10) for C. Accordingly
angle, the value of kdc was adjusted such that the capacitor
2N Enom voltages were kept below the given voltage limit. The maximum
C= . (45) power transfer can then be determined by increasing the power
Vd2
transfer until the boundary of overmodulation is reached.
For the considered 4.5 MW converter, Enom was calculated to The sum of the simulated capacitor voltages at active power
15.0 kJ and the dc-link voltage Vd was given as 17 kV. This transfer are shown in Fig. 8. The simulated maximum active
means that the required submodule capacitance for this 4.5 MW power transfer was found to be 4.50 MW, which is equal to
converter can be calculated using (45) for the desired number the calculated value in Section IV. When the converter is set to
of submodules per arm. supply the grid with reactive power it is found that the maximum
power transfer is limited by the dc-link voltage and not by the
V. SIMULATIONS AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS capacitor voltage ripple. The simulated available voltages when
the converter is transferring reactive power to the grid are shown
A. Simulation Results in Fig. 9. It is observed that the available voltage is always
The theoretical findings are validated by simulating the grid- greater than the requested voltage. The modulation index is,
connected converter that was considered in Section IV. The however, equal to its maximum value which limits the reactive
specifications of the simulated converter are listed in Table I. power transfer capability to 3.18 MVAr .
The capacitance of the submodule capacitors was calculated The simulated power transfer capability is shown in Fig. 10
using (45), which for a system with five submodules per arm for different power angles. The simulated operating range is
gives 0.52 mF per submodule capacitor. compared to the operating range that is calculated using the
86
Fig. 10. Comparison of the calculated and simulated operating range of the
considered converter.
TABLE II
SPECIFICATIONS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
theory presented in Section IV. It is concluded that the simulated
operating range is in agreement with calculated values.
B. Experimental Verification
In order to validate the theoretical model, the power trans-
fer capability of a laboratory prototype is calculated and then
compared with experimental data. The laboratory prototype is
a single-phase modular multilevel converter with five submod-
ules per arm. The full specifications of the experimental setup
are listed in Table II. The upper limit for the capacitor voltages
during nominal operation is set to be 10% above their nominal
values. That is, km ax is equal to 1.1. According to Fig. 3, for this
value of km ax active power transfer requires an energy storage
capability of 25.0 J/kW at the modulation index 0.85. Dividing
2
this value by km ax gives the required nominal energy storage,
that is, 20.7 J/kW. The laboratory prototype has a nominal en-
ergy storage of 36.7 J per phase, which means that it should be
able to transfer 1.77 kW at the modulation index 0.85. At this
power level, the reactive power consumed by the arm inductors
do not have a significant impact on the power angle. Therefore,
the arm inductors do not have to be considered when the active
power transfer capability is calculated.
The actual power transfer capability of the converter was
measured by first controlling the inserted voltages using the
open-loop controller that is described in [17] and balancing the
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014
Fig. 11. Experimental results showing the measured power transfer capability
compared with the calculated values.
Fig. 12. Experimentally obtained waveforms of the inserted voltage in the
upper arm (upper), the available voltage, and the fundamental frequency com-
ponent of the inserted voltage (lower).
capacitor voltages with the sorting algorithm described in [1].
As the measurements are made in steady-state operation, this
ensures that the correct voltage is inserted in each arm and that
the capacitor voltages are well balanced. For any given modula-
tion index, the power transfer capability was then measured by
manually increasing the load and adjusting the value of kdc such
that the peak value of the available voltage was kept below the
given voltage limit. The load was then increased until the border
to overmodulation was reached. The currents and voltages were
then recorded at this operating point such that the power transfer
could be calculated.
The maximum power transfer was measured at five different
modulation indices evenly distributed between 0.75 and 0.95.
The results are shown in Fig. 11 together with the calculated
power transfer capability. It is observed that the measured power
transfer is slightly lower than the calculated values. The differ-
ences between the calculated values and the measured values
are approximately 2–3%. Such a small discrepancy could very
well be explained by the fact that kdc and the load were adjusted
manually.
The highest power transfer was at the modulation index 0.85
where 1.74 kW of active power was transferred by the sub-
modules. This corresponds to a total nominal energy storage
of 21.0 J/kW in the converter. The measured upper arm voltage
and the available voltage in the upper arm at this operating point
are shown in Fig. 12. It is observed that there are significant
ILVES et al.: ON ENERGY STORAGE REQUIREMENTS IN MODULAR MULTILEVEL CONVERTERS
Fig. 13. Experimentally obtained waveforms of the arm currents (upper), the
load current, and the circulating current (lower).
variations in the available voltage as the inserted voltage is
high. These variations are, however, compensated for by the
open-loop controller. The solid line in the lower graph of Fig. 12
indicates that the fundamental frequency component of the arm
voltage and the dashed line is the measured available voltage. It
is observed that the available voltage is always greater than the
desired voltage that should be inserted which means that over-
modulation is avoided. The recorded arm currents, load current,
and the circulating current are shown in Fig. 13. It is observed
that the circulating current is a direct current and that that all
alternating currents are sinusoidal. Consequently, it can be con-
cluded that the capacitor votlage ripple is, in fact, sucessfully
compensated for by the open-loop controller at the considered
operating point.
VI. CONCLUSION
The theoretical analysis indicates that there is a direct relation
between the amount of energy that can be stored in the converter
and the power transfer capability. This means that for a given
power rating, the overall size and cost of the submodule capac-
itors are not affected by the number of submodules per arm.
The presented analysis also provides a straightforward proce-
dure for relating the energy storage requirements to the power
transfer capability for different power angles. It was found that
the highest energy storage is required when the converter is con-
suming reactive power and the lowest energy storage is required
when the converter is generating reactive power. This means
that the rated reactive power generation of a converter that is
dimensioned for active power transfer will, typically, be limited
by other factors than the capacitor voltage ripple, such as the
current rating of the submodules.
The theoretical findings were validated by both simulations
and experimental results. By simulating a 4.5-MW grid con-
nected converter, it was found that the simulated operating range
agreed with the calculated operating range of the considered
converter. For active power transfer, the theoretical analysis in-
dicates that the minimum energy storage to power transfer ratio
of a modular multilevel converter with a 50 Hz sinusoidal volt-
87
age reference is 20.6 J/kW, assuming that the capacitor voltages
are allowed to increase by 10% above their nominal values. This
was verified experimentally on a laboratory prototype where an
energy storage to power transfer ratio of 21.0 J/kW was demon-
strated. It is concluded that the presented theory can sucessfully
determine the operating region with respect to the energy stor-
age and is thus a valuable tool in the design and analysis of
modular multilevel converters.
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Kalle Ilves (S’10) received the M.Sc and Licentiate
degrees in electrical enginering from the Royal In-
stitute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden, in
2009 and 2012, respectively. He is working toward
the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical
Mahcines and Power Electronics, the Royal Institute
of Technology .
His research interest includes high power convert-
ers for grid applications.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014
Staffan Norrga (M’00) was born in Lidingö, Swe-
den, in 1968. He received the M.Sc. degree in ap-
plied physics from Linköping Institute of Technol-
ogy, Linköping, in 1993, and the Ph.D. degree in elec-
trical engineering from the Royal Institute of Tech-
nology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2005.
Between 1994 and 2000, he was a Development
Engineer at ABB in Västerȧ s, Sweden, in various
powerelectronics- related areas such as railway trac-
tion systems and converters for HVdc power trans-
mission systems. In 2000, he returned to academia to
engage in research on new power electronic converters employing soft switch-
ing and medium frequency transformers at the Department of Electric Machines
and Power Electronics (currently Electrical Energy Conversion), Royal Institute
of Technology. He currently holds a position as an Associate Professor with the
same institution. He is the inventor or coinventor of 14 patent filings and has
authored or coauthored more than 30 scientific papers published at interna-
tional conferences or in-journals. His research interests include new converter
topologies for power transmission applications and grid integration of renew-
able energy sources.
Lennart Harnefors (S’93–M’97–SM’07) was born
in 1968 in Eskilstuna, Sweden. He received the M.Sc.,
Licentiate, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineer-
ing from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH),
Stockholm, Sweden, and the Docent (D.Sc.) degree
in industrial automation from Lund University, Lund,
Sweden, in 1993, 1995, 1997, and 2000, respectively.
From 1994 to 2005, he was with Mälardalen Uni-
versity, Västerås, Sweden, where hewas a Professor
of electrical engineering in 2001. Between 2001 and
2005, he was, in addition, a part-time Visiting Pro-
fessor of electrical drives with Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg,
Sweden. Since 2005, he has been with ABB, currently as a Principal Scientist
at Corporate Research, Västerås, Sweden. He is also part-time with KTH, as an
Adjunct Professor of power electronics. His research interests include analysis
and control of power electronic systems, particularly grid-connected converters
and ac drives.
Dr. Harnefors received the 2000 ABB Gunnar Engström Energy Award and
the 2002 IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics Best Paper Award. He is
an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS,
a member of the Editorial Board of IET Electric Power Applications, and a
member of the Executive Council and the International Scientific Committee of
the European Power Electronics and Drives Association (EPE).
Hans-Peter Nee (S’91–M’96–SM’04) was born in
1963 in Västerȧ , Sweden. He received the M.Sc.,
Licentiate, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engi-
neering from the Royal Institute of Technology
(KTH), Stockholm, Sweden, in 1987, 1992, and 1996,
respectively.
In 1999, he was a Professor of power electronics
at KTH, where he currently serves as the Head of the
Electrical Energy Conversion Laboratory. His current
research interests include power electronic convert-
ers, semiconductor components, and control aspects
of utility applications, such as flexible ac transmission systems and high-voltage
dc transmission, and variable-speed drives.
Dr. Nee received the Energy Prize by the Swedish State Power Board in
1991, the ICEM94 (Paris) Verbal Prize in 1994, the Torsten Lindstrm Electric
Power Scholarship in 1996, and the Elforsk Scholarship in 1997. He is a mem-
ber of the European Power Electronics and Drives Association involved with
the Executive Council and the International Scientific Committee. He is also
an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS and
was on the board of the IEEE Sweden Section for several years, serving as its
Chairman during 2002–2003.