Modulated Model Predictive Control of Modular Multilevel Converters Operating in a Wide Frequency Range

The finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC), which considers corresponding instantaneous power in the cost function, becomes a promising solution that allows modular multilevel converters (MMCs) to operate in a wide frequency range due to its ability to balance the internal energy. However, FCS-MPC usually suffers from a heavy computational burden. The modulated MPC, which combines modulation techniques with MPC methods, is usually employed to overcome such a challenge. In this article, we propose an exhaustive active-set method to implement the modulated MPC scheme enabling the MMC to operate over a wide frequency range. With the proposed method, the optimal solution can be obtained by enumerating all possible active sets rather than iterating, so the worst case computational burden (or calculation time) can be determined. Finally, a comparative study of our proposed method with conventional modulated MPC methods and FCS-MPC has been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.