Johannes Kolb, Felix Kammerer, Michael Braun

PCIM Europe 2012, 8-10 May 2012, Nuremberg, Germany

The Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) is an upcoming topology for high power drive applications in the medium voltage range. This paper presents an investigation on MMCs used as motor-sided converter as well as grid-sided active-front-end converter. Experimental results from a prototype system show the operating performance of the DC-coupled MMCs at steady state including the start-up procedure. The dynamic response of the system is tested to verify the cascaded and transformed control scheme of the MMC. This control ensures a balanced energy distribution inside the MMCs in every operating point.