Predictive Control of Multilevel Inverters for Improving Performance and Efficiency in Energy Distribution and Drive Control

与标准的6脉冲逆变器相比，多电平变换器产生的输出电压更类似于正弦波形。在正弦波形必不可少的应用中（例如农村定居点，农场或具有低转矩脉动要求的电力驱动的电源），这将节省大量关于输出滤波器的投资。与标准逆变器相比，多电平逆变器的主要缺点是功率半导体的数量更多，控制方案更复杂，这阻碍了它们在工业上的应用。在多电平逆变器中，每个功率器件的阻断电压可以比标准脉冲逆变器中选择的小，因为在每个逆变器分支中有几个串联的功率开关。几个低压功率器件的价格仍然高于一个高压功率器件的价格。然而，价格差距减少，即使它不会完全消失，由于上述优势，多电平变换器的应用变得更有可能。本应用程序提出的项目的主要目标是找到多电平转换器拓扑与预测控制策略的组合，以提供三相正弦输出电压的优化系统。与一些评论家的观点不同，电力电子的预测控制实际上是一个非常有趣的研究课题——因此，IEEE工业电子学报在2009年出版了一期关于“预测控制”的专刊。此外，在Technische Universität m<e:1> nchen[21]举办了一个关于这一主题的讲习班。此外，一本关于基于模型的驱动系统预测控制的基础书籍由申请人b[25]出版。以同样的方式，预测控制策略与一些评论者的观点不同，不仅对低开关频率的大功率转换器有用-特别是在MPC策略（[22],[23]）中，这些标准是几种可能性之一，仅将技术要求结合在所谓的成本函数中，以分别优化预测控制。据申请人所知，目前德国在这一领域没有活跃的研究项目。这一申请将改变这种情况，并有助于德国与国际研究发展保持密切联系。

Multilevel converters produce output voltages which are much more similar to sinusoidal waveforms than those of standard 6-pulse inverters. In applications where sinusoidal waveforms are essential (e. g. power supplies of rural settlements, farms or electrical drives with low torque ripple requirements) this would save a lot of investment concerning output filters.The main disadvantages of multilevel inverters in comparison with standard inverters - preventing them from being applied very often in industry - are the higher number of power semiconductors and a more sophisticated control scheme.The blocking voltage of each power device in a multilevel inverter can be chosen smaller than in standard pulse inverters, as there are several power switches in series within each inverter leg. The prices of several power devices for low voltages are still higher than the price for a single high voltage power device. The price gap, however, decreases and even if it will not disappear completely, the application of multilevel converters becomes more probable due to the advantages mentioned above.The main goal of the project proposed by this application is to find a combination of multilevel converter topology with a predictive control strategy to provide an optimized system for three-phase sinusoidal output voltages.In difference to the opinion of some reviewers predictive control of power electronics is actually a highly interesting research topic - therefore the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics have published a special issue on "Predictive Control" [24] in 2009. Furthermore, a workshop about this topic was conducted at Technische Universität München [21]. Additionally, a fundamental book about Model-based Predictive Control of drive systems was published by the applicant [25].In the same way predictive control strategies are in difference to the opinion of some reviewers useful not only for high power converters with low switching frequencies - especially in MPC strategies ([22], [23]) these criterions are one of several possibilities only to combine technical requirements in a so-called cost function to optimize the predictive control, respectively.According to the knowledge of the applicants there is no research project active in this area in Germany today. This application shall change the situation and contribute to Germany keeping close contact to internationalresearch developments.