The recent introduction of a new converter topology, the modular multilevel converter (MMC) is a major step forward in voltage sourced converter (VSC) technology for high voltage, high power applications. To obtain a multilevel ac output waveform, a large number of semiconductor switches has to be used in the converter. The number of switches in the MMC for HVDC transmission is typically two orders of magnitudes larger than that in a two or three level VSC used in earlier generation. This large device count creates a computational challenge for electromagnetic transients (EMT) simulation programs, as it significantly increases the simulation time. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the simulation can be speeded up. This research develops an efficient, time-varying Thévenin's equivalent model for the MMC converter based on partitioning the system’s admittance matrix. EMT simulation results show that the proposed equivalent model can drastically reduce the computational time without loss of accuracy. The use of the proposed equivalent method is demonstrated by simulating a point to point MMC based HVDC transmission system successfully with more than 100 levels. This approach enables what was hitherto not practical; the modeling of large MMC based HVDC systems on personal computers. With the assumption of ideal switch operation and using an equivalent average capacitor value based approach, an average valued model of MMC is also proposed in this thesis. The average model can be accurately used in most of the system level studies. The control algorithms and other modeling aspects of MMC applications are also presented in this thesis. One of the advantages of multilevel converters is the low operating losses as the smaller switching frequency of each individual power electronics switch and the low voltage step change during each switching. Using a recently developed, time domain simulation approach, the operating losses of the MMC converter are estimated in this thesis. When comparing the MMC operating losses against the losses of two-level VSC, the power loss for the two-level VSC is found to be significantly higher than the power loss of the MMC.

The Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) is one of the most commonly used active converters in the high-/medium-voltage sector due to its many advantages such as high scalability, high efficiency, modularity and low harmonic contents. However, in low-voltage and high-current applications, classical MMC designs are not very economical. Recently there has been interest in a new design of modular multilevel converter with interleaved submodules (ISM-MMC) capable of using lower cost, lower current switches. The aim of this study is to compare several different design configurations for a given ISM-MMC topology including classical MMC and to give the best design approach taking into account the efficiency and energy density of the system. The power loss of ISM-MMC influence the final efficiency. The loss studied in this thesis mainly consists of conduction losses and switching losses in the semiconductor devices and inductor losses. An analytical calculation method is summarized and validated by the simulation result. The simulation result is carried out in PLECS model with different system components. Power density is determined by the output power and the converter dimension. The volume of semiconductor devices and passive components determine the general dimension of the converter. This thesis discusses the selection of semiconductor devices, inductor and capacitor in the system, with semiconductor devices constraining interleaved leg current and submodule voltage, inductor constraining output current ripple and capacitor constraining capacitor voltage fluctuation. After the specific components are designed, their dimensions are evaluated, and thus the power density of different configurations can be compared. / Den modulära multinivåomvandlaren (modular multilevel converter, MMC) är en av de mest använda aktiva omvandlarna inom hög-/mellanspänningssektorn på grund av dess många fördelar som hög skalbarhet, hög verkningsgrad, modularitet och lågt övertonsinnehåll. Men i lågspännings- och högströmsapplikationer är konventionella MMC-konstruktioner inte särskilt ekonomiska. Nyligen har det funnits intresse för en ny design av modulär flernivåomvandlare med interfolierade submoduler (ISM-MMC) som kan uppnå lägre kostnad, och använda mindre halvledarelement. Syftet med denna studie är att jämföra flera olika designkonfigurationer för en given ISM-MMC-topologi inklusive konventionell MMC och att ge den bästa designmetoden med hänsyn till systemets verkningsgrad och energitäthet. Effektförlusten för ISM-MMC påverkar den slutliga verkningsgraden. Förluster som studeras i denna avhandling består huvudsakligen av ledningsförluster och kopplingsförluster i halvledarenheterna och induktorförluster. En analytisk beräkningsmetod sammanfattas och valideras av simuleringsresultatet. Simuleringsresultatet utförs men en PLECS-modell med olika systemkomponenter. Effekttätheten bestäms av uteffekten och omvandlardimensionen. Volymen av halvledarenheter och passiva komponenter bestämmer omvandlarens allmänna dimension. Denna avhandling diskuterar valet av halvledarenheter, induktor och kondensator i systemet, med halvledarenheter som begränsar interfolierad benström och submodulspänning, induktor som begränsar utströmsrippel och kondensatorbegränsande kondensatorspänningsfluktuationer. Efter att de specifika komponenterna har valts utvärderas deras storlek, och därmed kan effekttätheten för olika konfigurationer jämföras.