Capacitor Condition Monitoring Based on the DC-Side Start-Up of Modular Multilevel Converters

Abstract

This letter proposes a new submodule capacitor condition monitoring method for modular multilevel converters (MMCs) based on the dc-side start-up procedure. During this process, the MMC can be simplified into an RC charging circuit, and the submodule capacitance can be estimated by investigating its relationship with the phase current and submodule voltage. Several practical issues related to the implementation, advantages, and limitations of the proposed method are presented as well. In order to validate the method, a series of experiments with different submodule capacitances are conducted based on a three-phase MMC platform. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.