General Impedance Modeling for Modular Multilevel Converter with Grid-forming and Grid-following Control

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive impedance modeling method for modular multilevel converters that accommodates various control strategies, providing explicit harmonic transfer functions and insights into the impact of submodule capacitance.

Contribution

It presents a unified, explicit impedance modeling procedure applicable to MMCs with different control strategies, enhancing analysis and design capabilities.

Findings

The impedance model explicitly captures harmonic transfer functions.

Submodule capacitance significantly influences MMC impedance.

Model validation confirms accuracy against electromagnetic transient simulations.

Abstract

Modular multilevel converter (MMC) has complex topology, control architecture and broadband harmonic spectrum. For this, linear-time-periodic (LTP) theory, covering multi-harmonic coupling relations, has been adopted for MMC impedance modeling recently. However, the existing MMC impedance models usually lack explicit expressions and general modeling procedure for different control strategies. To this end, this paper proposes a general impedance modeling procedure applicable to various power converters with grid-forming and grid-following control strategies. The modeling is based on a unified representation of MMC circuit as the input and output relation between the voltage or current on the AC side and the exerted modulation index, while the control part vice versa, thereby interconnected as closed-loop feedback. With each part expressed as transfer functions, the final impedance model keeps the explicit form of harmonic transfer function matrix, making it convenient to directly observe and analyze the influence of each part individually. Thereby the submodule capacitance is found as the main cause of difference between MMC impedance compared to two-level converter, which will get closer as the capacitance increases. Effectiveness and generality of the impedance modeling method is demonstrated through comprehensive comparison with impedance scanning using electromagnetic transient simulation.