Modular Multilevel Converter for Direct MVDC
Connection of Offshore Wind Farms
Joseph Carr, Debrup Das, Jun Li, Jiuping Pan
ABB Corporate Research
ABB
Raleigh, NC
Abstract—This paper introduces a new concept for offshore
wind turbine electrical architectures for wind farms with MVDC
collection grids. With the proposed pre-transformer wind turbine
drivetrain arrangement, the AC output of the wind turbine
generator is transformed to a higher voltage by a step-up
transformer and then rectified to a corresponding DC voltage by
an active ac-dc converter. A modular multilevel converter
(MMC) is used for the rectifier to achieve the variable frequency
AC to DC power conversion. The MMC has been shown to have
burdensome design constraints at low frequency. This paper
demonstrates that these design constraints are not applicable for
the wind turbine application and that the MMC is a good
candidate for the wind turbine rectifier.
Keywords—Offshore Wind, MMC, Modular Multilevel
Converter, MVDC, wind farm collection grid
I. INTRODUCTION
Offshore wind resources are predicted to be a key part of
the energy portfolio in Europe, North America, and China,
reaching a total of 153 GW by 2030 [1]. The U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE) unveiled a plan to install 54 GW of offshore
energy by 2030 [2], more than 50% of which is located within
70 km of shore [3]. This is backed by a National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL) study that showed that it is
feasible to build 54 GW of offshore wind energy in depths less
than 30 meters by 2030 [4].
Offshore wind farms present a challenging environment
for construction and maintenance, both for harsh conditions
and for remoteness. Capital expenditure (CapEx) and
operation and maintenance expenditures (OpEx) are
consequently high. Any reduction in the levelized cost of
energy (LCOE) is therefore essential, and measures which
reduce the number of offshore components are particularly
valuable. The cost of electrical infrastructure, including cables
and the offshore substation, approach about 18% of the total
CapEx of the offshore system [5]. A new direct MVDC
connection for near-to-shore (< 70 km) offshore wind farms
has been proposed which may reduce the electrical
infrastructure costs by up to 20 to 25% [6]. This is
accomplished largely by reducing the cable requirement and
eliminating the offshore substation. Additionally, for the
proposed solution, the on-shore substation components are
easier to access and maintain.
978-1-4673-7151-3/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
Stephan Ebner, Oscar Apeldoorn
ABB Power Conversion
ABB
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The proposed direct MVDC connection requires that each
turbine would produce a high enough DC voltage output, say
50-80 kVDC, suitable for transmission to shore. TABLE
illustrates two basic potential wind turbine drivetrain options
capable of doing so. The two-stage arrangement requires a dc-
dc converter, which is typically composed of three sub-stages
- an inverter, a transformer, and a rectifier, results in higher
complexity and lower efficiency. The second option is
preferred one where the AC output of the wind turbine
generator is transformed to a higher voltage by a step-up
transformer and then rectified to a corresponding DC voltage
by an active ac-dc converter. This arrangement strikes a
balance between the complexity, efficiency, and design
requirements.
TABLE I. DC DRIVETRAIN ARRANGEMENT OPTIONS
Simplified one-line arrangements Typical generator ratings
Two-stage
Voltage: 0.69…3.3 kV
~ = ~
~ = ~ = Frequency: 10…120 Hz
Pre-transformer
Voltage: 0.69…3.3 kV
~
~ = Frequency: 50…120 Hz
The generator output in the pre-transformer arrangement
falls within fairly standard ranges for wind turbine generators.
The transformer increases the voltage to a rated level of 33 to
72 kVAC for input to the rectifier. This high voltage can be
challenging for standard rectifier designs, so a modular
multilevel converter (MMC) is recommended to implement
this system. This converter will be required to adapt to a range
of voltage and frequency outputs as the wind speed changes. It
is known that the MMC has some problems operating at low
frequency [7 - 9], but it will be shown in this paper that the
MMC can be an appropriate choice for the wind turbine
generator.
II. WIND TURBINE AND PERMANENT MAGNET
SYNCHRONOUS GENERATOR
Most offshore wind farms make use of permanent magnet
synchronous generators (PMSGs) to convert the mechanical
power collected by the wind turbine to electrical power. This
assembly is shown in the top of Fig. 1. The maximum power
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Fig. 1: Wind turbine and PMSG schematic (top) and turbine power
(bottom)
produced by these turbines is proportional to the cube of the
wind speed, VW, per the relationship in (1), and shown in the
bottom of Fig. 1 [8]. The mechanical speed and fundamental
electrical frequency at maximum power, ȦM and Ȧ1
respectively, are proportional to the wind speed, as is the
voltage, EA, produced by the machine. The phase voltage, vߔ,
at the terminal of the machine is therefore also proportional to
the wind speed. The relationship of the electrical frequency and
phase voltage with the wind speed are shown in (2) and (3),
respectively. The electrical power is the product of the voltage
and current and, neglecting losses, is equal to the mechanical
power produced by the turbine. The current, iߔ, can therefore
be found from (1) and (3) to be proportional to the square of
the wind speed, as shown in (4).
PT = ½ȡACPVW3
Ȧ1 = k1VW
vĭ = k2VW
2
iĭ = k3VW
Wind turbines with PMSGs make use of a full converter to
deal with the variable frequency and voltage produced by the
generator as the wind speed varies. This converter is moved to
the high voltage side of the transformer in the pre-transformer
drivetrain shown in TABLE I, so a high voltage converter
topology is recommended for this topology. Modular
multilevel converters, MMCs, have been successfully applied
to HVDC applications, but have been shown to have
challenges during low frequency operation [7 - 9].
Fortunately, low frequency operation for wind turbine systems
corresponds to lower power operations, which reduces the
design requirements for the module capacitor and arm
inductor of the MMC. The design of these passives for
operation with variable wind speed is shown in the following
section.
III. MMC MODULE CAPACITOR AND ARM INDUCTOR DESIGN
The schematic of the MMC is shown in Fig. 2. The
converter is made up of modules on three legs, U, V, and W,
with upper (U) and lower (D) arms. This MMC uses half-
bridge modules with a capacitor, C, which is designed to
provide a portion of the DC bus voltage with a limited ripple,
often less than 5%. Each arm has an inductor, L, which
suppresses the AC components of the circulating currents,
minimizes the current ripple on the phase currents, and limits
the current in the event of a DC bus fault. These components
are designed to have minimum volume, due to the limited
space on available on the wind turbine tower. However, it has
been seen that the volume of these filter components increases
unmanageably at low frequency operation [7 - 9]. This paper
provides a step-by-step design for these components in the
variable frequency and power environment of the offshore
wind farm to show that they maintain a manageable volume.
A. Module Capacitance
The module capacitance C is selected in order to limit the
capacitor voltage ripple during normal operation. This ripple
is influenced by the arm current, iARM, and the module control
(as the current only flows through the capacitor when the
module is in the ON state). The equations for arm current,
modulation index, m, and arm voltage are given in (5) through
(7), respectively.
iARM = iCIRC + ½Iĭcos(Ȧ1t – ș) (5)
m = 2Vĭ/VDC (6)
vARM = Vĭcos(Ȧ1t) (7)
The arm current has a component from the AC phase current,
iĭ, and the internal circulating current, iCIRC. Iij is the peak AC
phase current magnitude, Ȧ1 is the fundamental frequency of
the generator, and ș is the phase shift angle between the AC
(1) phase voltage and current. The peak phase voltage is Vĭ.
Recall that both phase current magnitude and frequency vary
(2) with the wind speed. It is assumed that proper design of the
(3) arm inductor and circulating current controller will eliminate
the AC portions of the circulating current, so it does not
(4) contribute to the ripple. The arm current can therefore be
considered to be equal to one-half of the AC phase current.
The module control can be accounted for by considering
the modulation index m of the converter. The modulation
index provides a measure of the percentage of time that a
module is in the ON versus the OFF state, and is given as the
ratio between the peak AC phase voltage Vߔ and DC bus
voltage VDC.
The ripple can be calculated from the arm current and
voltage by considering the change in energy stored in the
capacitors over one cycle of the generator fundamental
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 Fig. 2 Modular Multilevel Converter Schematic
frequency [9]. This change in energy, or power, is calculated
by multiplying the arm current (5) by the voltage across the
arm (7). It can be assumed that the energy stored in the arm is
evenly divided among the N modules on the arm, such that the
capacitor energy eCAP is equal to the arm energy divided by N.
eARM = S /(12mȦ1)*[4sin(Ȧ1t – ș) – msin(2Ȧ1t – ș) (8)
– 2m2sin(Ȧ1t)cos(ș)]
ǻeARM = max(eARM) – min(eARM) (9)
ǻeCAP= (ǻeARM) /N (10)
VAVG = VDC /(2N) (11)
The term S is the power of the converter in VA, considering
both real and reactive components, and is three times the
product of the phase voltage and current magnitudes (recall
that both will vary with the wind speed and that power, S,
varies with the cube of the wind speed). The stored energy,
and hence the capacitor ripple, can be seen to depend on the
power S delivered by the generator, the ratio m of the phase
voltage to the dc bus voltage, the frequency Ȧ1 of the
generator, and time t. The dependence on frequency Ȧ1 gives
rise to the difficulty in operating at low frequencies – the
energy ripple is inversely proportional to frequency, so will
become quite large at low frequency operation. A larger
capacitance would therefore be required to limit the voltage
ripple arising from this energy.
The average voltage across the capacitor, Vavg, is equal to
the arm voltage, Vdc/2, divided by the number of capacitors,
and the capacitor ripple is defined as ǻV. The desired
capacitor voltage ripple is set by the designer, and is often on
the order of 2% to 10% of the average capacitor voltage.
Equations (11) through (15) show the relationship between the
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energy stored in the capacitor and the ripple in the capacitor’s
voltage.
eCAP = ½CVCAP2 (12)
2
eCAP,MAX = ½C(VAVG + ½ǻV) (13)
2
eCAP,MIN = ½C(VAVG – ½ǻV) (14)
ǻeCAP = ǻeARM /N = eCAP,MAX - eCAP,MIN = (15)
CǻVVAVG
C = (ǻeARM) /(NǻVVAVG) (16)
To start, it is noted that the energy stored in the capacitor
is proportional to the square of the voltage across the
capacitor, as described in (12). The maximum energy stored in
the capacitor is found then the voltage across the capacitor is
at its maximum value. This occurs when the ripple is at its
maximum value, and the voltage across the capacitor is equal
to its average value, VDC/2N as seen in (10), plus the ripple.
Similarly, the energy in the capacitor is at its minimum when
the voltage across the capacitor is at its minimum; i.e. when
the ripple is at its minimum. The maximum and minimum
energy in the capacitor can be found in (13) and (14).
The change in energy stored in the capacitor over one cycle
of the generator fundamental frequency is found by subtracting
the minimum energy in the capacitor, (14), from the maximum
energy stored in the capacitor, (13). This gives the relationship
in (15), which gives an explicit link between the energy stored
in the arm, (9), and the voltage ripple ǻV. The capacitance
required to achieve a desired ripple can be found by
substituting (11) into (15) and solving for C, resulting in the
relationship shown in (16). An example of the change in stored
energy and associated voltage ripple is shown in Fig..

Fig. 3. Example of energy storage in module capacitors (top) and module
capacitor voltage ripple (bottom)
B. Arm Inductance
The arm inductance is used to suppress the harmonic
components of the circulating current, to limit the current
ripple due to module switching, and to limit the fault current
in the event of a fault on the dc bus. Limiting the current
ripple due to module switching usually imposes the most
stringent requirements, so that is used to determine the value
of the arm inductance.
The voltage loop during module switching can be seen in
Fig. 2. The sum of the upper and lower arm voltages, VARM,U
and VARM,L, are equal to the dc bus voltage VDC during steady-
state operation, but there is a brief imbalance when one
module is switched. The voltage of that module falls across
the two arm inductances L during this imbalance. The change
in current due to this voltage can be found from the familiar
relationship in (16). The inductance L is doubled since there
are two arm inductors in series on each leg.
v = 2Ldi/dt
v = VDC /2N
di = kRIPPLE*iĭ
dt = DTSW /N = D /(fSWN)
L = DVDC /(4kRIPPLE*iĭN2fSW)
The voltage applied to the inductors during the imbalance
is equal to the average module voltage, (11). The change in
current, di, is some factor, kRIPPLE, of the peak rated phase
current. It was previously assumed that the AC portion of the
arm current was small, so the current ripple factor is selected
to ensure that this assumption is valid. Current ripples less
than 5-15% of the peak rated phase current are typically
sufficient to keep this assumption valid. The change in time,
dt, is equal to the duty cycle D of the module times the module
switching period Tsw (or the inverse of the switching frequency
fsw) divided by the number N of modules in series. The duty
cycle is continuously changing, so the worst case scenario of a
100% duty cycle is assumed. The time is impacted the number
of modules in series because the control phase shifts the pulse
of each module by Tsw/N, so the period of voltage imbalance
only lasts as long as the phase shift duration rather than the
full switching frequency. The value of the arm inductor
required to achieve the target kRIPPLE can be found by
substituting (18), (19), and (20) into (17) and solving for L.
C. Design of the MMC for Low Frequency Motor Drive
To see the impact of the operating frequency on the design
of the MMC, consider the design of an MMC drive for two
synchronous motors with identical operating characteristics
except for output frequency. For the first design, the
permanent magnet synchronous machine has a power S, a DC
bus voltage VDC, an output frequency Ȧ1, and a phase voltage
Vߔ of 1 p.u. each, with a phase shift ș of 0 degrees. Derived
values of phase current iĭ, modulation index m, energy ripple
ǻeARM, capacitor energy ripple ǻeCAP, and average capacitor
voltage VAVG would also all be 1 p.u. From these, the required
capacitance C for a target ripple ǻV would be calculated to be
1 p.u. as well. The required inductance L for a desired ripple
kRIPPLE would also be 1.0 p.u.
Now, consider that the synchronous machine were
designed to operate at the same power S of 1.0 p.u., but at one-
half of the original rated speed (for instance, a grinding
machine for mines). The machine and MMC would be
designed so that the number of modules N, DC bus voltage
VDCǡ and phase shift ș would all be the same as in the initial
design. It is important to note that the design of the machine
will be changed to ensure that the phase voltage Vĭǡ will
remain the same even at the lower speed, even though phase
voltage is usually linearly proportional to speed. The ‘—–’—–
ˆ”‡“—‡…› Ȧ1 would be 0.5 p.u. The phase current iĭ and the
modulation index m would remain 1.0 p.u. From (8), the
energy stored in the arm, eARM, would be:
(17) eARM, 0.5 = 1.0/(12*1.0*0.5)*[4sin(0.5t) – 1.0sin(2*0.5t (21)
– ș) – 2*22sin(0.5*t)]
(18)
Fig. 4 illustrates the capacitor stored energy for the designs
(19) at original and one-half speed. It can be seen that the change
in energy stored in the capacitor for 50% of the original speed
(20) is twice the energy stored at the original speed. It would
follow that the capacitor would need to be twice as large to
(21) maintain a capacitor voltage ripple at the same level, so C50% =
2.0 p.u.
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Fig. 4. Capacitor Stored Energy at Original and 50% Designed Operating
Speed for Motor Drive
Fig. 5. Capacitor Stored Energy at Rated and 50% Wind Speed
An examination of (21) reveals that the inductor for the
50% original speed design would remain the same. The duty
cycle D, DC bus voltage Vdc, desired ripple kRIPPLE, phase
current iĭ, number of modules N, and switching frequency fSW
remain the same for both designs, so the inductance will
remain the same.
D. Design of the MMC for Variable Wind Speed Generator
Now consider the design of an MMC at the output of a
wind turbine synchronous generator. Like the motor drive case,
the permanent magnet synchronous machine is designed with a
power S, a DC bus voltage VDC, an output frequency Ȧ1, and a
phase voltage Vߔ of 1 p.u. each, with derived values of phase
Fig. 6. MMC and Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator Model
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current iĭ, modulation index m, energy ripple ǻeARM, capacitor
energy ripple ǻeCAP, and average capacitor voltage VAVG would
also all be 1 p.u. Once again, the calculated capacitance and
inductance, C and L, is 1 p.u.
When the wind speed drops, the output frequency of the
permanent magnet synchronous generator will drop as with the
motor drive example. However, unlike that example, the other
parameters change as well. First, because the design of the
machine does not change, the output voltage will drop to 0.5
p.u. The current produced by a wind generator, by (4), is
quadratically related to wind speed, so it drops to 0.25 p.u.
when the wind speed is at 50% of rated value. The output
power would then be 0.125 p.u. The DC bus voltage, and the
module capacitor voltage, stay the same, however, as will the
expected duty cycle D, number of modules N, switching
frequency fSW, the desired change in capacitor voltage, and
desired current ripple will remain at their same values as for
the rated wind speed condition.
The energy stored in the module capacitors for both rated
and one-half rated wind speed are shown in Fig. 5. It may be
expected from the first term in (8) that the stored energy
would decrease as the power, S, decreases, but would increase
as both the phase voltage to DC bus voltage ratio, m, and
fundamental frequency of the generator, Ȧ1, decrease. It may
be expected that the change in power, however, would
dominate since it changes with the cube of wind speed, while
the voltage ratio and fundamental frequency both vary
linearly. This is consistent with the results in Fig. 5, which
show that the change in stored energy in the one-half rated
wind speed case are 68.8% of the change in stored energy for
the rated wind speed case. From (16), one could conclude that
the capacitors could be 2/3rd of their size at rated wind speed
and still achieve the desired voltage ripple. The design of the
module capacitors at rated wind speed can be considered
adequate, therefore, for the partial wind speed cases. As with
the motor example, the arm inductance does not change with
wind speed, since it is based on rated phase current. This
means that the passive components do not need to be larger to
account for low wind speeds for wind turbine applications of
the MMC, which is quite different than in other low speed
 Fig. 7. Voltage and Current Ripple at Rated and 0.5 p.u. Wind Speed for Wind Turbine Generator
applications of the MMC [7 - 9].
IV. RESULTS
A model of the MMC with a permanent magnet
synchronous generator on a wind turbine was built in Matlab©
to test the impact of the change in wind speed on the design of
the MMC, as shown in Fig. 6. The MMC was designed to
ensure a capacitor voltage ripple of ± 0.5% at the rated wind
speed. The wind speed was then changed to 0.5 p.u. to
demonstrate that the capacitor voltage ripple remained within
those limits. Fig. 7 illustrates the power, MMC capacitor
voltage ripple, and d-axis current at these conditions. It can be
seen that the power falls to one-eighth of its rated value when
the wind speed falls to one-half of its rated value at t = 3 s.
The current falls to one-quarter of its rated value, while the
MMC capacitor voltage maintains its rated value with a small
ripple. This ripple is about 0.5% at rated wind speed, and
(after a small transient), actually decreases at the lower wind
speed. It can be seen that the frequency of the ripple also
decreases. Both effects are predicted by the design equations
as discussed above.
V. CONCLUSIONS
It has previously been seen that the design of the MMC is
complicated for operations at low speeds, often requiring
oversized passive components and the injection of circulating
currents [7 - 9]. The design of the MMC for low wind speed
operation was explored in this paper. It was found that the
module capacitor could be designed for full wind speed and
still operate well at low wind speeds, and that the arm inductor
design does not change with wind speed. This is a contrast to
other low frequency applications, and is a result of the rapid
decrease in power as the wind speed decreases. Simulation
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results illustrated that the capacitor voltage and inductor
currents maintained their rated ripple values even at the low
wind speed, requiring no special design or control to ensure
operation at the full range of wind speeds. These results
demonstrate that the MMC can be a good fit for MVDC Wind
applications. With these results, it can be seen that the Pre-
Trafo wind turbine concept is valid for wind farms with
MVDC collection systems. This concept minimizes the total
cost of the wind turbine by eliminating several conversion
stages, enabling operation at high enough voltage to be able to
transmit power to shore without an offshore substation. This
design produces an economical and low-maintenance off-
shore wind farm with lower levelized cost of energy compared
to traditional wind turbine and AC collection and transmission
system designs.
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