IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO.

3, MARCH 2011 961

A New Nine-Level Active NPC (ANPC) Converter

for Grid Connection of Large Wind Turbines for
Distributed Generation
Jun Li, Student Member, IEEE, Subhashish Bhattacharya, Member, IEEE, and Alex Q. Huang, Fellow, IEEE

AbstractWind power is one of the most promising emerging

renewable energy technologies for distributed generation (DG).
In this paper, a new nine-level active neutral-point-clamped (9L
ANPC) converter is proposed for the grid connection of large wind
turbines (WTs) to improve the waveform quality of the converter
output voltage and current. Therefore, the bulky passive grid fil-
ters can be reduced or even removed. The topology, operating
principles, control schemes, and main features, as well as semicon-
ductor device selection of the proposed converter are presented in
detail. The floating capacitor voltage control based on redundant
switching states and capacitor prioritization is detailed. A compar-
ison between the new topology and other existing 9L topologies is Fig. 1. Circuit diagram of the back-to-back NPC3L wind power converter [13].
presented to illustrate the characteristics and performance of the
new converter. The proposed 9L ANPC converter is studied in the
case of the grid connection of a 6-MW WT without using passive
grid filters in DG systems. Simulation and experiment results are losses of the system components and decrease the cable cost
presented to validate the proposed converter topology and control by increasing the voltage and thus reducing the current [7].
schemes. The proper operation and the compliance to the har- Multilevel converters, which are one of the most popular MV
monic limit standards of the filterless grid-connected WT system
converter topologies, are very attractive for large WT applica-
are verified by simulation results.
tions [8], [9]. Besides the capability to handle higher voltage
Index TermsActive neutral-point clamped (ANPC), dis- with lower voltage-rating devices, other features of multilevel
tributed generation (DG), filterless grid connection, harmonic limit
converters are more advantageous, such as lower harmonic dis-
requirement, large wind turbine (WT), multilevel converter, power
quality. tortion of the output voltage, lower switching losses, as well as
reduced electromagnetic interference (EMI) [10], [11]. Among
various multilevel converters, the most well-known topologies
I. INTRODUCTION are the neutral-point-clamped (NPC), flying capacitor (FC), and
cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converters. Recently, the active NPC
T PRESENT, a large number of distributed generation
A (DG) units based on renewable energy sources (wind,
photovoltaic, geothermal, and hydro) are being developed and
(ANPC) converter was shown to overcome the drawback of un-
balanced loss distribution among the devices in conventional
NPC converters [12], providing a substantial increase in output
installed, increasing energy conversion efficiencies, reducing
power or switching frequency. In [13], a full-scale back-to-back
dependence on fossil fuels, and reducing CO2 emission [1][5].
three-level (3L) NPC converter is used between the grid side
Wind power is one of the most promising renewable energy
and the permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) side
technologies for DG. Over the past few decades, the capacity
to support up to 5-MW WTs. The circuit diagram of the WT
of wind turbine (WT) units has increased from a few tens of
system is shown in Fig. 1.
kilowatts to todays multi-megawatt level [6]. For high-power
Power quality is one of the main concerns for the wind
WTs, medium voltage (MV) technology can be effectively ap-
power conversion in DG systems. A successful operation of
plied in the electrical energy conversion to reduce the copper
grid-connected WT systems is required to meet the harmonic
limit mandated by utility standards. Therefore, passive grid fil-
ters are usually required. But for high power ranges, they are
Manuscript received July 5, 2010; revised September 14, 2010, and bulky, heavy, and costly, and have potential resonant risk.
October 23, 2010; accepted October 23, 2010. Date of current version May
13, 2011. Recommended for publication by Associate Editor J. M. Guerrero. In this paper, a new nine-level ANPC (9L ANPC) converter
J. Li is with the ABB U.S. Corporate Research Center, Raleigh, NC 27606 is proposed for the grid-side converter of large WTs in DG
USA (e-mail: jun.li@us.abb.com). systems. The purpose of this new topology is to improve the
S. Bhattacharya and A. Q. Huang are with the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Man- waveform and power quality, and thus reduce or even com-
agement Systems Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 pletely remove the passive grid filters to achieve a filterless grid
USA (e-mail: sbhatta4@ncsu.edu; aqhuang@ncsu.edu). connection, which enables to reduce the cost, and increase the
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. efficiency, power density, and reliability of the WT system in
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2010.2093154 DG. The topology, operating principles, control strategies, and
0885-8993/$26.00 2010 IEEE
962
Fig. 2. Circuit of the 5L ANPC converter.
characteristics of the proposed converter are analyzed in de-
tail. The method of floating capacitor voltage balance, which
is based on redundant switching states and capacitor prioritiza-
tion information, is presented. The hybrid converter concept and
consideration of semiconductor device selection are discussed.
The comparison between the proposed topology and other ex-
isting conventional and ANPC 9L topologies are summarized
to illustrate the feature and performance of the new 9L ANPC
converter. The proposed converter is studied in the case of the
grid connection for a 6-MW WT system without using passive
grid filters in DG. Simulation and experiment results are pre-
sented to validate the proposed converter concept and control
schemes. The proper operation and fulfillment of harmonic limit
standards of the filterless grid-connected large WT system are
verified by simulation results.
II. REVIEW OF THE 9L ANPC CONVERTERS
A five-level ANPC (ANPC5L) converter, shown in Fig. 2,
can generate five voltage levels at the output [14]. In [15], it
was applied on the grid side for a 56 MW WT system, which
allows a filterless grid connection to meet the harmonic limits of
the IEEE519 Standard. However, it still requires a tuned passive
filter for the compliance with the more stringent VDEW stan-
dard. Further improvement in the converter output waveform
quality is necessary for the reduction or even complete removal
of the passive grid filter. Optimizing converter topologies and
generating more number of voltage levels are more reasonable
and practical solutions for MW WT applications. Previous work
implied that 9L voltage waveform shows a global compliance on
almost the whole range with VDEW Standard [16]. It is obvious
that, along with a higher number of voltage levels, the multi-
level converters can generate better output waveform quality.
However, this upgrade requires additional components, such as
semiconductor devices and capacitors, which increase the com-
plexity, cost, and reliability of the wind power converters and
the DG systems. Therefore, in this paper, we mainly focus on
9L converter topologies. In this section, the existing 9L ANPC
converters are reviewed and their characteristics are discussed
and summarized.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011
Fig. 3. Circuit of the standard 9L ANPC converter.
Fig. 4. Circuit of the ANPC3L plus HBBBs 9L converter.
A. Standard 9L ANPC Converter
Fig. 3 shows the circuit of a standard 9L ANPC converter [14].
It is derived from the generalized ANPC topology and is able
to generate a 9L output voltage waveform by cascading two
additional stages of a 2L converter cell (half-bridge topology)
to each phase of a similar standard ANPC5L converter. In each
phase of the converter, there are three floating capacitors, and
the relation of their voltages and half dc-link voltage is 1:2:3:4.
A special control scheme is required to keep the voltage balance
of the floating capacitors. The blocking voltages of the power
device in the converter are: Vdc for S9 S12 and Vdc /4 for S1 S8 .
B. ANPC3L Plus H-Bridge Building Blocks (HBBBs) 9L
Converter
The circuit of an ANPC3L plus HBBBs 9L converter is shown
Fig. 4. It generates a 9L output voltage waveform by cascading
two HBBBs to each phase of a standard ANPC3L converter.
Each phase has two floating capacitors and their voltages are 12
and 14 of half dc-link voltage, respectively. The device blocking
voltages are: Vdc for S9 S14 , Vdc /2 for S5 S8 and Vdc /4 for
S1 S4 .
In [17], a similar topology is studied for MV motor drive
applications, which connects only one HBBB to each phase of
a conventional NPC3L converter to achieve 9L output. The cir-
cuit of an ANPC3L plus single HBBB 9L converter is shown
LI et al.: NEW NINE-LEVEL ACTIVE NPC (ANPC) CONVERTER FOR GRID CONNECTION OF LARGE WTs FOR DISTRIBUTED GENERATION
Fig. 5. Circuit of the ANPC3L plus single HBBB 9L converter.
Fig. 6. Circuit of the CCIL 9L converter.
in Fig. 5. Model-predictive control (MPC) is used to stabilize
the floating capacitor voltages because there are no redundant
switching states in the converter, therefore, the controller de-
sign is very complicated compared to those using redundant
switching states. Another drawback of the converter is that the
maximum modulation index is limited to 0.95 under full ac-
tive power. Therefore, in this paper, we mainly focus on the
ANPC3L plus two HBBBs converter in Fig. 4.
C. Cross-Connected Intermediate Level (CCIL) 9L Converter
Fig. 6 shows the circuit of the CCIL 9L converter [18]. Differ-
ent from the two aforementioned topologies, it can be viewed as
inserting a CCIL power electronics building block (PEBB) into
each phase of a similar standard ANPC5L converter. The CCIL
PEBB consists of six devices and one floating capacitor. There
are two floating capacitors in each phase of the converter, and
their voltages are 12 and 14 of half dc-link voltage, respectively.
The device blocking voltages are: Vdc for S11 S14 , Vdc /2 for
S7 S10 , and Vdc /4 for S1 S6 .
This topology is a double capacitor 9L redundant nonboosting
structure. In [19], another topology, referred to as single capac-
itor 9L nonredundant boosting converter, which can save two
devices and one capacitor for each phase, is also introduced,
as shown in Fig. 7. However, in order to balance the floating
capacitor voltage in this converter, the control scheme is very
complicated (using fuzzy logic control), and the maximum mod-
ulation index is only 0.91 under full active power. Therefore, in
this paper, we only focus on the first CCIL converter in Fig. 6.
963
Fig. 7. Circuit of the single capacitor CCIL 9L converter.
Fig. 8. Circuit of the C3 S 9L converter.
D. Common Cross-Connected Stage (C3 S) 9L Converter
The circuit of the C3 S 9L converter is shown in Fig. 8 [20],
[21]. It connects a C3 S PEBB to a similar standard ANPC5L
converter for a 9L output voltage waveform. The C3 S PEBB
consists of six devices and one floating capacitor, and this PEBB
is common to all the three phases of the converter. Besides the
capacitor in the C3 S PEBB, each phase of the converter has
only one floating capacitor, and their voltages are 12 and 14 of
half dc-link voltage, respectively. Since the C3 S PEBB is simul-
taneously influenced by all three phases, the device blocking
voltages are more complicated: 5 Vdc /4 for S5 S8 , 3 Vdc /4 for
S3 S4 , Vdc /2 for S1 S2 , and Vdc /4 for S9 S14 . To stabilize the
floating capacitor voltages, the maximum modulation index is
limited to 0.925 at full active power, which indicates the unfully
utilized dc bus voltage.
III. PROPOSED 9L ANPC CONVERTER
The main purpose of this paper is to upgrade the ANPC5L
converter to a 9L converter to improve waveform quality, and
thus to achieve filterless grid connection for large WT systems. A
new 9L ANPC topology, named ANPC5L plus HBBB converter,
is proposed and discussed in detail in this section.
A. Topology of the New 9L ANPC Converter
The circuit of the proposed new 9L ANPC converter is shown
in Fig. 9. Different from the other aforementioned 9L ANPC
converters, in this proposed topology, an HBBB is directly con-
nected to each phase of a standard ANPC5L converter. Each
964 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011

the potential technical risk associated with the converter

innovations is reduced.
2) Few mechanical structure modifications are needed for
upgrading the ANPC5L converter to the new 9L ANPC
converter, since it only requires connecting the ac output
terminals of the two PEBBs together with cables. Be-
cause these terminals are usually reserved on the PEBB
products, the converter and system installation is more
straightforward and the implementation is much easier.
3) It is easy to maintain the floating capacitor voltage bal-
ance by using redundant switching states (which will be
explained later). Such method allows the voltage balance
control in one phase totally independent from the other
two phases. Therefore, the controller implementation is
Fig. 9. Proposed 9L ANPC converter.
much simpler. Moreover, the maximum modulation index
is not impacted, and can reach up to 1.15 under full active
phase of the converter has two floating capacitors, and their power transfer.
voltages are 12 and 14 of half dc-link voltage, respectively. The 4) The dc-link structure of the new 9L converter is the same
device blocking voltages are: Vdc for S5 S8 , Vdc /2 for S1 S4 , as that in the NPC3L and ANPC3L converters. This is
and Vdc /4 for S11 S22 . beneficial for a direct-drive PMSG based large WT sys-
Regarding the floating capacitors, their capacitance needs tem with full-rated converters, because the generator-side
to limit the voltage ripple seen by the capacitors for a given converter is usually an NPC3L or ANPC3L converter, and
switching frequency, which can be calculated by the following: it needs minor modification when the grid converter is
Ipk 1 upgraded to the new 9L converter.
C= (1) 5) The dc-link voltage and neutral-point voltage balance of
VC fc
the proposed 9L ANPC grid-side converter can be con-
where Ipk is the peak phase current, VC is the peak-to-peak trolled by the generator-side converter. Therefore, the
voltage ripple across the floating capacitors, and fc is the switch- control of the proposed new converter can be further
ing frequency. simplified.
If we assume that the two floating capacitors in each phase
have the same peak-to-peak per unit voltage ripple based on
B. Operating Principle and Control of the New 9L ANPC
their rated voltage, and the phase peak current and the equivalent
Converter
switching frequency are the same for the two capacitors, then,
the relation for the capacitance of the two capacitors is shown In the proposed topology, the ANPC5L and HBBB can gener-
as follows: ate 5L and 3L output voltage waveforms, respectively. Through
the proper switching state combinations of the two building
C2 = 2 C1 . (2) blocks, a 9L output voltage waveform is obtainable.
For one phase leg of the new 9L ANPC converter, the energy Fig. 10 shows the possible switching states and current flow
stored in the floating capacitor C1 and C2 is expressed by (3) path associated with the output voltage level 3Vdc /4 of the pro-
and (4), respectively posed 9L ANPC converter. It can be found that the output volt-
 2 age is synthesized by adding or subtracting the dc-link capacitor
1 Vdc 1 voltages and the floating capacitor voltages. There are three op-
EC 1 = C1 = C1 Vdc 2
(3)
2 2 8 tions to generate the output voltage 3Vdc /4. The expressions for
the output voltage synthesization are provided in (6), (7), and
 2 (8), which correspond to Fig. 10 (a), (b), and (c), respectively.
1 Vdc 1
EC 2 = C2 = C2 Vdc
2
. (4) These redundant switching states can be used to balance the
2 4 32
floating capacitor voltage, which is explained later. The com-
Therefore, the total stored energy in each phase of the con- plete switching states, switching sequence, and the effect on
verter is given by the following: the floating capacitor voltages of the new 9L ANPC converter
1 are summarized in Table I. The positive direction of the phase
Etotal = EC 1 + EC 2 = (4 C1 + C2 ) Vdc
2
. (5) current is defined as flowing out of the ac terminal. For the
32
The proposed topology is considered to be an effective and switching state, 1 and 0 represent the On state and off state
practical solution to expand an existing ANPC5L converter in of the device, respectively. For the effect on floating capacitor
the WT system to a 9L converter because it has the following voltage, +,,and 0 represent charging, discharging, and
features. no impact, respectively.
1) Both ANPC5L and HBBB are standard PEBBs, and have Vdc 3Vdc
been commercialized in the market [22], [23]. Therefore, Vout = Vdc VC 2 = Vdc = (6)
4 4
LI et al.: NEW NINE-LEVEL ACTIVE NPC (ANPC) CONVERTER FOR GRID CONNECTION OF LARGE WTs FOR DISTRIBUTED GENERATION 965

ing states are switched and the 9L output voltage waveform is

generated.

C. Redundant Switching States and Floating Capacitor

Voltage Control
To ensure the proper operation of the proposed converter, the
voltage of the two floating capacitors in each phase must be kept
balanced around their reference voltage level. Typically, there
are two types of solutions for the floating capacitor voltage con-
trol in multilevel converters. One method is based on common-
mode voltage control. This solution does not need the redundant
switching states to balance the capacitor voltage, therefore, the
converter requires less power devices and capacitors to generate
the same number of voltage levels. However, the implementa-
tion of this method is very complicated since advanced control
algorithms are needed, such as MPC and fuzzy control. Another
drawback is the limitation of the maximum modulation index
under full active power transfer operation of the converter. The
other solution, which is widely used in industrial applications,
is to use redundant switching states to balance the floating ca-
pacitor voltages. This method is easy to implement in the digital
controller and has little impact on the limitation of the maxi-
mum modulation index under full active power transfer. In this
paper, the redundant switching states-based solution is used for
the proposed 9L ANPC converter.
From Table I, it is observed that the two floating capacitors
will be charged or discharged at certain output voltage level de-
pending on the selected switching state and the direction of the
converter output current. We also notice that when a switching
state is selected to balance the floating capacitor voltage, it may
only impact one of the two phase capacitor voltages (e.g., V2),
or may have effect on both of them (e.g., V21 and V22 ). The con-
troller needs to prioritize the capacitors first in order to choose
the proper switching state for each switching cycle. The more
deviated capacitor should be given a higher priority, so that even
the chosen switching state for the current switching cycle is not
Fig. 10. Switching states and current flow path for Vo u t = 3Vd c /4 of the optimal for the inferior capacitor, the overall corrective action
new 9L ANPC converter: (a) switching state V2; (b) switching state V21 ; (c)
switching state V22 .
is still applied to the converter to assure its proper operation.
For example, when the phase output voltage is 3Vdc /4, the
control scheme for the floating capacitor voltage balance is ex-
plained below.
Vdc Vdc 3Vdc
Vout = Vdc VC 1 + VC 2 = Vdc + = (7) If the voltage deviation of C1 is larger than C2 , then C1 has
2 4 4 higher priority: 1) when C1 needs to be charged and if I > 0,
Vdc Vdc 3Vdc then V21 is selected. Otherwise, if I < 0, then V22 should be
Vout = 0 + VC 1 + VC 2 = + = . (8)
2 4 4 selected; 2) when C1 needs to be discharged and if I > 0, then
V22 is selected. Otherwise, if I < 0, V21 should be selected.
The pulse-width-modulation (PWM) scheme for the new 9L For both cases, while the selected switching state is working
ANPC converter is shown in Fig. 11. Carrier-based sinusoidal on balancing the voltage of C1 , the correct voltage balance
PWM (SPWM) with third harmonic injection is used in this action may not occur on the capacitor C2 because the impact on
PWM method. Eight carriers and one reference signal are used C2 is to discharge when I > 0 and charge when I < 0 without
for each phase of the converter. The eight triangle carriers with considering the actual voltage state of C2 . The voltage deviation
the same frequency and peak-to-peak amplitude are placed such on C2 may become larger in the current switching cycle. But in
that the voltage bands they occupy are continuous. The refer- the next switching cycle, if its voltage deviation exceeds that of
ence signal is centered in the middle of the carrier. By comparing C1 , it will obtain the higher priority, then the proper control for
each of the carriers with the reference, the corresponding switch- capacitor C2 will be chosen.
966
TABLE I
SWITCHING STATES AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE FLOATING CAPACITOR VOLTAGE OF THE NEW 9L ANPC CONVERTER
Fig. 11. PWM signals and the output voltage of the proposed 9L ANPC
converter.
If the voltage deviation of C2 is larger than C1 , then C2
has higher priority: 1) when C2 needs to be charged, then V2 is
selected in the case when I > 0. The voltage status of C1 will not
be affected during this period; 2) when C2 needs to be charged
and I < 0, if C1 needs to be charged, then V22 is selected; or
if C1 needs to be discharged, V21 will be used. In this case,
the voltages of C1 and C2 will be simultaneously regulated; 3)
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011
when C2 needs to be discharged, then V2 is selected in the case
when I < 0. The voltage status of C1 will not be affected during
this period; 4) when C2 needs to be discharged and I > 0, if C1
needs to be charged, then V21 is selected; or if C1 needs to be
discharged, V22 is chosen. In this case, the voltages of C1 and
C2 can be simultaneously regulated.
Some switching states generate the same voltage level, and
have the same impact on the floating capacitor voltage (e. g., V5
and V53 ). Then, these switching states can be optimally selected
to balance the device power losses in the converter.
D. Semiconductor Device Selection
The tradeoffs of selecting semiconductor devices for specific
applications are within the device switching frequency and volt-
age rating. Equipped with different power devices, the converter
is able to exploit their individual advantages [24]. The proposed
9L ANPC converter is targeted at 56 MW WTs. The dc-link
voltage is 6.4 kVdc . The reference voltage frequency is 60 Hz
and the carrier frequency is 2 kHz. Integrated gate commu-
tated thyristors (IGCTs)/emitter turn-off (ETO) thyristors [25]
and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are used for this
converter: 5.5 /6.5 kV IGCT/ETO for S5 S8 , 3.3-kV IGBT for
S1 S4 , and 1.7-kV IGBT for S11 S22 . To utilize IGCT/ETOs
strength of high voltage/current rating and low conduction loss,
LI et al.: NEW NINE-LEVEL ACTIVE NPC (ANPC) CONVERTER FOR GRID CONNECTION OF LARGE WTs FOR DISTRIBUTED GENERATION 967

Fig. 12. Test circuit diagram of the new 9L ANPC PEBB.

cell 3 (S5 S8 ) is switched at fundamental frequency. The IGBTs

(cells 1 and 2) are switched at (or below) the carrier frequency.
To do this, minor modifications are made to Table I: first, the
switching states V42 and V6 will not be used; second, to gener-
ate 0 phase voltage, the switching states V5 and V51 are used
when the reference voltage is positive, while V52 and V53 are
selected when the reference voltage is negative.

IV. VERIFICATION OF THE PROPOSED 9L ANPC CONVERTER

To verify the proposed 9L ANPC converter topology and
control scheme, simulation and experiment are employed. The
test circuit diagram is shown in Fig. 12. Since we use redundant
switching states to control the floating capacitor voltage, there
is no interference between different phases of the converter. Fig. 13. Simulation waveform of the new 9L ANPC PEBB.
Therefore, one phase of the new 9L ANPC PEBB is sufficient to
prove the correctness of the proposed topology and the capacitor
voltage control scheme. In this paper, the dc-link neutral-point
voltage control is not addressed in the controller design because
this control target is much easier to be implemented in the front-
end converter in the back-to-back converter configuration. Two
constant dc voltage sources are connected to the dc link. For
both simulation and experiment, the main parameters are: half
dc-link voltage Vdc = 60 V; fundamental frequency f = 60
Fig. 14. Experimental prototype of the new 9L ANPC PEBB.
Hz; carrier frequency fc = 2 kHz; and floating capacitors C1 =
2.7 mF and C2 = 5.4 mF. Load is 12- resistor in series with
2.5-mH inductor. and the IPM (Mitsubishi PM50RSA120) is used for the HBBB.
The controller is a TI TMS320F2812 DSP. The power stage and
A. Simulation Results the digital controller platform are connected through optical
fibers.
In simulation, the modulation index is 0.96. Fig. 13, from
Figs. 15 and 16 show the steady-state waveforms under a
top to bottom, shows the phase output voltage, the gate drive
modulation index of 0.96. The load current, the phase voltage
signals for cells 13 (S5 , S1 , and S21 ), and the two floating
of ANPC5L PEBB, the phase voltage of HBBB, and the phase
capacitor voltages. The results show that with the proposed
voltage of the new 9L ANPC converter are shown from top
control scheme, the new 9L ANPC converter can generate 9L
to bottom in Fig. 15. The two floating capacitor voltages, load
voltage waveform, and the two floating capacitor voltages can be
current, and phase voltage of the 9L ANPC converter are shown
controlled around their reference value. The gate drive signals
from top to bottom in Fig. 16.
imply that the devices in cell 3 switch at fundamental frequency,
Figs. 17 and 18 show the dynamic-state waveforms with the
and the devices in cell 2 switch at the frequency, which is a
change of modulation index within a certain time. In Fig. 17,
little lower than carrier frequency. The devices in cell 1 switch
the modulation index increases from 0.8 to 0.96 within 160 ms.
at carrier frequency. This indicates the possibility to employ
During this period, the output phase voltage of the 9L ANPC
different types of power devices.
converter is always a 9L waveform. In Fig. 18, the modulation
index increases from 0.7 to 0.84 within 100 ms. During this
B. Experimental Results period, the output phase voltage of the 9L ANPC converter
The laboratory prototype of the new 9L ANPC PEBB is moves from a 7L waveform to a 9L waveform. From top to
shown Fig. 14. For the power stage, the discrete IGBT mod- bottom, the floating capacitor voltages and phase voltage of the
ules (Powerex CM75DY-24H) are used for the ANPC5L PEBB 9L ANPC converter are shown, respectively.
968
Fig. 15. Load current, ANPC5L phase voltage, HBBB phase voltage, and
phase voltage of the new 9L ANPC converter (from top to bottom) at modulation
index of 0.96.
Fig. 16. C1 voltage, C2 voltage, load current, and phase voltage of the new
9L ANPC converter (from top to bottom) at modulation index of 0.96.
Fig. 17. C1 voltage, C2 voltage, and phase voltage of the new 9L ANPC
converter (from top to bottom) when modulation index changes from 0.8 to 0.96
with 160 ms.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011
Fig. 18. C1 voltage, C2 voltage, and phase voltage of the new 9L ANPC
converter (from top to bottom) when modulation index changes from 0.7 to 0.84
with 100 ms.
The experiment results show that the proposed 9L ANPC
converter is able to generate nine voltage levels by combining the
phase voltages of ANPC5L and HBBB. The presented control
scheme enables the converter to balance the floating capacitor
voltage for both steady-state and dynamic-state operations.
V. EVALUATION AND COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT 9L
CONVERTERS
In this section, the proposed 9L ANPC converter is compared
with other conventional and ANPC 9L converters to illustrate
its feature and performance.
A. Conventional 9L Converter Topologies
The conventional multilevel converters, such as NPC, FC,
and CHB topologies are mostly used in commercial products
as 3L, 4L, and 5L converters [10]. However, they have some
limitations when the output voltage level number is higher, such
as the 9L converter topologies for the filterless grid connection
of large WT systems.
1) For NPC topology, the large number of clamping diodes
and the voltage balance of the dc-link capacitors are prob-
lematic issues for the 9L converter. The unbalanced loss
distribution among the devices in the converter is another
drawback. Therefore, little research has been done for
NPC converters with more than five levels.
2) For FC topology, the number of floating capacitors, and
the total stored energy are large for 9L converters. Since
the switching frequency cannot be high in high power
applications due to the switching losses of the devices,
the size and cost of these floating capacitors become the
main disadvantage, which indicates that FC topology is
not suitable for MW WT applications.
3) For CHB topology, a large number of separate dc-sources
are required for 9L converters. In MV drives, the dc-
sources are usually provided by the 50/60-Hz multiwind-
ing transformers and rectifiers, which is apparently not
practical for wind converters. Another solution is to feed
LI et al.: NEW NINE-LEVEL ACTIVE NPC (ANPC) CONVERTER FOR GRID CONNECTION OF LARGE WTs FOR DISTRIBUTED GENERATION
TABLE II
COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT 9L ANPC CONVERTERS (THREE-PHASE CONFIGURATION)
each H-bridge with a medium/high frequency transformer
connected to a front-end rectifier. However, this will in-
crease the complexity and cost of the system, thus make
it unsuitable for wind power application.
B. 9L ANPC Converter Topologies
Compared with the conventional multilevel converters, the
characteristics of the ANPC converters, such as the improved
thermal management of the power devices, higher output power
rating and switching frequency, and easier expansion for higher
number of voltage levels, make them attractive as the power
electronics interface for the filterless grid connection in large
WT systems.
The proposed new 9L ANPC converter is compared with other
existing 9L ANPC topologies from several aspects, including the
number of individual power devices, the total switch blocking
voltage, the selection of commercial power device products,
the floating capacitor number, voltage rating, and total stored
energy, as well as the maximum modulation index at full active
power delivery. The number of semiconductor devices and their
blocking voltage ratings give an idea about the cost, reliability,
and the losses of the converter. The total device blocking voltage
indicates the total amount of silicon installed, which is linked
with the cost of the converter. The total number of capacitors
and their voltage ratings define the total stored energy, thus
representing the bulk and reliability of the converter, and the
impact on the cost and power density of the system. In [16],
the stored energy in the floating capacitor of the converter was
found to have a linear relation with the capacitor voltage. The
maximum modulation index reflects the utilization of the dc-link
voltage and the output power rating of the converter.
The comparison results are given in Table II. In the table,
Vdc is half dc-link voltage. Since the dc-link voltage of the
proposed 9L converter is selected to be 6.4 kV, Vdc equals
3.2 kV. The results show that the ANPC standard converter has
less total switch blocking voltage. However, it requires three
additional capacitors, which need to sustain the high voltage
969
Fig. 19. Filterless grid connection of large WTs with the proposed 9L ANPC
converter.
rating of 3Vdc /4. Due to the switching frequency limitations in
large WT systems, these capacitors are bulky and expensive, and
account for a faction of converter failures. Another drawback
is their high stored energy. The C3 S converter has the smallest
individual switch number and floating capacitor number because
the C3 S PEBB is common to all the three phases of the converter.
However, the total switch blocking voltage is larger. Moreover,
regarding the selection of commercial device products, the C3 S
converter has the highest switch number among all the compared
topologies. Another issue is that its maximum modulation index
is 0.925 at full active power, which limits its application.
Therefore, according to the comparison results in Table II,
the proposed 9L ANPC converter shows better overall features
compared to other conventional and ANPC 9L converters.
VI. APPLICATION OF THE PROPOSED 9L ANPC CONVERTER
FOR FILTERLESS GRID CONNECTION OF LARGE WTS
The proposed 9L ANPC converter is applied on the grid side
of a large WT without passive grid filters. The WT system
configuration is shown in Fig. 19. As seen, the 9L converter
is directly connected to the point of common coupling (PCC)
through a feeder transformer, which adjusts to higher utility volt-
ages by using a proper turns ratio. The main electrical parameters
of the proposed 9L ANPC converter are given in Table III. The
PWM carrier frequency of the 9L ANPC converter is selected
to be 2 kHz, and it is a proper value for the high power level and
meeting the harmonic limits of utility standards.
970
TABLE III
MAIN ELECTRICAL PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED 9L ANPC CONVERTER
Fig. 20. Simulation model of filterless grid-side configuration.
Fig. 21. Controller diagram of the grid-side 9L ANPC converter.
The simulation model for the grid side of a 6-MW WT system
is shown in Fig. 20. The grid side is modeled by series connec-
tion of inductance, resistance, and equivalent voltage sources.
The inductance is calculated as 0.12 p.u. of the based impedance
for the feeder transformer, plus a grid short-circuit ratio (SCR)
of 20. The transformer impedance value, 0.12 p.u., is reason-
able considering the secondary fault current for a 6-MVA power
converter. The SRC, equal to 20, is for the most stringent require-
ment of IEEE519 for meeting harmonic limit. The resistance is
calculated as 0.02 p.u. The ac voltage source amplitude and
frequency are 4.16 kVac (line-to-line) at 60 Hz. The floating
capacitors of the 9L ANPC converter are C1 = 2 mF and C2 =
4 mF.
The proposed 9L ANPC grid converter controls the active
power production of the WT and the grid-side power factor.
A standard dq decoupled vector control is used for the sys-
tem, as shown in Fig. 21 [5]. The active power reference Pref
is obtained from the maximum power point tracking (MPPT)
algorithm. In the simulation, Pref is set at 1 p.u. as full active
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011
Fig. 22. Output line-to-line voltages of the 9L ANPC converter.
Fig. 23. Floating capacitor voltages of the 9L ANPC converter: (a) C1 voltage;
(b) C2 voltage.
power transfer. The reactive power reference Qref is set to be 0
for unity power factor. The dc link is modeled by two constant
dc voltage sources assuming that the generator-side converter
keeps the dc-link voltage constant and the neutral-point voltage
balanced. The floating capacitor voltage status, the direction of
converter output current, and the reference voltage are used in
the SPWM modulator for the floating capacitor voltage control.
Simulation results of the output line-to-line voltages and float-
ing capacitor voltages of the 9L ANPC converter are shown
in Figs. 22 and 23, respectively. The line-to-line voltages and
line currents at PCC of the grid are shown in Figs. 24 and 25,
respectively. The results show that the proposed 9L ANPC con-
verter can generate a 17-level line-to-line voltage, and the line
current waveforms are almost sinusoidal even without using
passive filters. The floating capacitor voltages in the converter
can be balanced around their rated values (1.6 kVdc for C1 , and
800 Vdc for C2 ).
LI et al.: NEW NINE-LEVEL ACTIVE NPC (ANPC) CONVERTER FOR GRID CONNECTION OF LARGE WTs FOR DISTRIBUTED GENERATION
Fig. 24. Line-to-line voltages at PCC of the grid.
Fig. 25. Line currents at PCC of the grid.
To ensure the successful operation of the filterless grid con-
nection of large WT systems, the compliance to the harmonic
limits of utility standards needs to be verified. In this study,
IEEE519 and VDEW are used as the utility standards for cur-
rent harmonic limits [26], [27], while IEC 61000212 is used
as the utility standard for voltage harmonic limits [28].
Fig. 26(a) illustrates the converter compliance with IEEE519
and VDEW current limits at the PCC. Fig. 26(b) illustrates the
converter compliance with IEC 61000212 voltage harmonic
limits at the PCC. The results show that the line current to-
tal harmonic distortion (THD) up to 100th order harmonics is
0.59% and it is less than IEEE519 standard of 5%. The PCC
line-to-line voltage THD up to 50th order harmonics is 1.02%,
which is less than IEC61000212 standard of 8%. Moreover,
it is observed that the distribution of the harmonics across the
frequency spectrum also meets the standard requirements.
The results prove that the proposed 9L ANPC converter en-
ables the filterless grid connection of large WTs. By removing
the passive grid filters, the improvements in terms of cost, effi-
ciency, power density, and reliability of the wind power conver-
sion system can be obtained.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new 9L ANPC converter, named ANPC5L plus
HBBB converter, has been proposed to improve the waveform
and power quality, and thus reduce the size of the bulky passive
grid filters or even achieve filterless grid connection of large
WTs in DG systems.
971
Fig. 26. Grid-connection compliance to the harmonic limit of the standards:
(a) current harmonics at the PCC and applicable limits; (b) voltage harmonics
at the PCC and applicable limits.
The topology, operating principles, and control schemes, as
well as the characteristics of the new 9L ANPC converter are
analyzed and discussed in detail. A scheme based on redundant
switching states and capacitor prioritization is presented for the
floating capacitor voltage control. The hybrid converter concept
and selection of semiconductor devices are presented to best
exploit the individual advantages of different power devices.
Simulation and experimental results are presented to prove the
validity of the proposed converter topology and control schemes.
A comparison between the proposed 9L converter and other 9L
converters is carried out from several aspects. The results imply
that that proposed 9L ANPC converter shows better overall
performance among all the 9L converters. Finally, the proposed
converter is applied on the grid side of a 6-MW WT system
to remove the passive grid filters. Simulation results show the
proper operation of the WT system and verify the filterless grid
connection compliance to the harmonic limit requirement of
utility standards (IEEE, IEC, and VDEW). This feature indicates
972
that the cost, efficiency, power density, and reliability of the wind
power conversion in the DG systems can be improved.
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Jun Li (S07) was born in Liaoning, China, in 1981.
He received the B.S. degree in automation from
Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 2004, the M.S.
degree in power electronics from Zhejiang Univer-
sity, Hangzhou, China, in 2006, and the Ph.D. degree
in power electronics from North Carolina State Uni-
versity, Raleigh, in 2010.
He is currently a Senior R&D Engineer with ABB
U.S. Corporate Research Center, Raleigh, NC. His
research interests include topology and control of
high power multilevel converters for medium volt-
age drives and renewable energy generation.
Subhashish Bhattacharya (M85) received the B.E.
(Hons.) degree from the Indian Institute of Technol-
ogy, Roorkee, India, in 1986, the M.E. degree in elec-
trical engineering from the Indian Institute of Sci-
ence, Bangalore, India, in 1988, and the Ph.D. degree
in electrical engineering from the University of Wis-
consin, Madison, in 2003.
From 1998 to 2005, he was with the Flexible AC
Transmission Systems (FACTS) and Custom Power
Group, Westinghouse Science and Technology Cen-
ter, Pittsburgh, PA. Since August 2005, he has been
an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer En-
gineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh. He is a Faculty Member
of the National Science Foundations Engineering Research Center for Future
Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management Systems. His research
interests include FACTS, utility applications of power electronics, active filters,
high-power converters, converter control techniques, integration of energy stor-
age to the grid, and application of new power semiconductor devices.
Alex Q. Huang (S91M94SM96F05) received
the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1983, the
M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the
Chengdu Institute of Radio Engineering, Chengdu,
China, in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from Cam-
bridge University, Cambridge, U.K., in 1992.
From 1994 to 2004, he was a Professor at the Cen-
ter for Power Electronics Systems, Virginia Polytech-
nic Institute and State University, Blacksburg. Since
2004, he has been a Professor at the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University (NCSU),
Raleigh, and Director of NCSUs Semiconductor Power Electronics Center. He
is currently the Progress Energy Distinguished Professor and the Director of
the new National Science Foundations Engineering Research Center for Future
Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management Systems. His research
interests include power management, emerging applications of power electron-
ics, and power semiconductor devices.