A novel neutral-point potential balance control method based on voltage feedback for neutral-point clamped three-level inverter

Neutral-point potential imbalance is not only an inherent problem of neutral-point clamped three-level converters, but also the key factor affecting their performance. The traditional capacitor neutral-point potential balance control methods based on space vector modulation, such as VSVPWM, have several shortcomings including the uncompensated region of neutral-point voltage and the slow dynamic response. A novel voltage feedback control method on neutral-point potential balance is proposed in this paper. A coefficient is introduced to define the degree of neutral-point potential imbalance. The composite signal composed of this coefficient and neutral point current is designed. Based on the improved reasonable sectors’ division, the suitable small vectors are selected by this composite signal to obtain the switching sequence of power devices. The voltage feedback control method is employed to realize accurate neutral-point potential balance of NPC three-level inverter. The experimental results show that this method can quickly balance the neutral-point potential fluctuation caused by disturbance. It has the advantages of low switching loss, stable output voltage and current waveform, and good dynamic performance.