Model based predictive current control for a three-phase cascade h-bridge multilevel STATCOM operating at fixed switching frequency

Abstract

The absence of modulator in model based predictive control technique for different converter topologies generates a variable switching frequency that produces high frequency harmonics and higher stress on the power semiconductor devices. In this paper, a novel model based predictive control strategy with a fixed switching frequency applied to a three-phase cascade H-bridge multilevel STATCOM is introduced with the aim to increase the performance of classical model predictive control. Simulation results show increased performance of the proposed control method in terms of current waveform total harmonic distortion.