AC-Side Admittance Calculation

for Modular Multilevel Converters

Luca Bessegato and Staffan Norrga Kalle Ilves and Lennart Harnefors
School of Electrical Engineering ABB Corporate Research
KTH Royal Institute of Technology Västerås, Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden Email: lennart.harnefors@se.abb.com,
Email: lucabe@kth.se, norrga@kth.se kalle.ilves@se.abb.com

Abstract—Power electronic converters may interact with the

grid, thereby influencing dynamic behavior and resonances. Zg(s)
Impedance and passivity based stability criteria are two useful
methods that allow for studying the grid-converter system as vg(s) e(s) Zac(s)
a feedback system, whose behavior is determined by the ratio
of grid and converter impedances. In this paper, the ac-side
admittance of the modular multilevel converter is calculated using
harmonic linearization and considering five specific frequency
components of the converter variables. The proposed model
features remarkable accuracy, verified through simulations, and vg(s) e(s)
insight into the influence of converter and control parameters
on the admittance frequency characteristics, which is useful
for understanding grid-converter interaction and designing the Zg(s)
system. Zac(s)
I. I NTRODUCTION
Fig. 1. Grid-converter voltage divider and its feedback system representation.
Modular multilevel converters (MMCs) [1] are an emerging
class of topologies that is progressively becoming preferred
in many high-voltage and high-power applications, e.g., high-
in the capacitor voltages. A more rigorous analysis was made
voltage dc transmission and static synchronous compensators.
in [5]; however, an analytical expression was not provided.
Similarly to other grid-connected converter topologies, MMCs
The main purpose of this paper is calculating the ac-side
may interact with the grid, leading to inadequate behavior such
admittance of the MMC, providing good accuracy and insight
as resonances, poor dynamic response, and stability issues.
on the influence of converter and control parameters on the
Hence, grid-converter interaction needs to be properly inves-
admittance frequency spectrum. Thus, the proposed model
tigated. Impedance-based stability criterion [2] and passivity-
could prove useful in analyzing grid-converter interaction and
based stability assessment [3] are two useful tools that can
designing the system.
be used for describing grid-converter interaction and stability.
These methods have been successfully applied to a variety
II. S YSTEM M ODEL
of topologies, e.g., two-level voltage-source converters, and
extending these analyses to MMCs is of great importance. Fig. 2(a) shows the MMC topology, connected to an ac-
Concisely, these methods analyze the voltage divider estab- source and to a dc-bus. The converter consists of three upper
lished by the grid and converter impedances as a feedback arms and three lower arms, one for each phase leg. Each arm
system (see Fig. 1) includes N half- or full-bridge submodules, shown in Fig.
Zac (s) 1 2(b), and an arm inductor L. By inserting or bypassing the
e(s) = vg (s) = vg (s) , (1) submodules, it is possible to obtain N+1 or 2N+1 levels in the
Zg (s) + Zac (s) Zg (s)
1+ arm-voltage waveform, depending on the type of submodule
Zac (s) used.
evaluating its stability and dynamic properties using, e.g., In real MMC applications, it is common to use tens or
Nyquist stability criterion on the loop gain Zg (s)/Zac (s). hundreds of submodules per arm, which results in high-quality
These methods require an expression for the ac-side ad- arm-voltage waveforms, with low harmonic content. Assuming
i
mittance, or impedance, of the converter, i.e., the converter N to be large, the capacitor voltages vC to be balanced within
admittance seen from the grid. MMC ac-side impedance was the arm, and the impact of the switching operations to be
calculated in [4] assuming constant capacitor voltages, which negligible, allows us to develop an averaged model of the
is not a well-justified assumption, given the substantial ripple MMC [6].

978-1-5090-5157-1/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 308

 ea + isa

eb + isb

ec + isc
+
L ila L ilb L ilc L iua L iub L iuc vCi C

+ + + + + + ‒
N submodules

vla vlb vlc vua vub vuc OR

+
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
vCi C
vd vd ‒
2 id 2 id
(a) (b)

Fig. 2. Modular multilevel converter topology (a); half- and full-bridge submodules (b).

In this study, the converter is modeled on a per-phase basis id , assuming that the phases are balanced. The arm currents
and since all equations hold for phase a, b, and c the subscript are obtained as
denoting the phase is dropped. Equations valid for both upper is is
and lower arms are denoted with the subscript u, l (when used, iu = + ic il = − ic . (6)
2 2
the symbol ± denotes positive sign for upper arm equation B. Control of the Converter
and negative sign for lower arm equation). For simplicity,
The control of the converter is done in three layers. The in-
the variables are expressed using the same notation for time
nermost layer computes the insertion indices from the voltage
domain and s-domain.
references using direct modulation:
A. Dynamics of the Converter 1 1
nu = Σ (vsref + vcref ) nl = Σ (vsref − vcref ). (7)
The core equations of the MMC model express the arm- vC0 vC0
Σ Direct modulation ensures asymptotic stability of the sum-
voltages vu,l and the sum-capacitor-voltages vCu,l as functions
of the insertion indices nu,l and the arm-currents iu,l capacitor-voltages [7], meaning that an additional controller
Σ
for vCu,l is not required. The middle layer consists in the
Σ
vu,l = nu,l vCu,l (2) current controller, which generates the voltage references from
 the source- and circulating-current references:
Σ N Σ
vCu,l = iu,l nu,l dt + vC0 , (3)
C vsref = −Fs (s)(iref
s − is )
vd
where C is the submodule capacitance and vC0 Σ
is the av- vcref = −Fc (s)(iref
c − ic ) −
, (8)
2
erage sum-capacitor-voltage, i.e., the dc component of the
where Fs (s) and Fc (s) are proportional-resonant controllers
sum-capacitor-voltage. Kirchhoff’s voltage laws are used to  
describe the arm-current dynamics, expressed using source αc L 2α1 s
Fs (s) = 1+ 2
and circulating quantities, denoted with subscript s and c 2 s + ω12
 
respectively, which allow for simpler representation of the 2α2 s
Fc (s) = αc L 1 + 2 . (9)
converter dynamics. With s + (2ω1 )2
vu + vl vu − vl The resonant term in Fs (s) allows for tracking of the sinu-
vs = vc = , (4)
2 2 soidal reference iref
s = is1 cos(ω1 t + ϕac ); the resonant term
Kirchhoff’s voltage laws yield in Fc (s) allows for suppressing the second-order harmonic
in the circulating current, with iref
c = ic0 . The outermost
L dis dic vd layer computes the amplitude of the current references from
= e − vs L = − − vc , (5)
2 dt dt 2 the active- and reactive-power references P ref and Qref in an
where e = e1 cos(ω open-loop fashion. With Qref = 0 and lossless converter
  1 t+ϕac ) is the ac-side voltage, with ϕac =
0, − 23 π, − 43 π , and vd is the dc-bus voltage. Notice that is 2P ref P ref
is the ac-side current and ic is one-third of the dc-side current is1 = ic0 = , (10)
3e1 3vd

309
where subscripts 1 and 0 correspond to fundamental and dc A. Steady-State Components
components respectively.
The values of the analyzed variables for ω = {0, ω1 } consist
Remark: the main focus of this study is modeling the ac-side of the steady-state solution of the MMC equations. In steady-
admittance of the MMC. The proposed control method allows state, arm currents match their references and arm voltages are
for pursuing such a goal without adding further complexity in agreement with (5), giving
and, therefore, it should be regarded as an example. In the
event that a specific control strategy needs to be investigated, iu,l [0] = ±ic0 (13)
the results proposed in this paper must be updated accordingly.
is1
iu,l [ω1 ] = (14)
III. AC-S IDE A DMITTANCE C ALCULATION 2
vd
In this study, periodic signals with one or more frequency vu,l [0] = ∓ (15)
components are expressed using phasors, denoted with bold 2
letters as they are complex numbers, e.g.,
L
vu,l [ω1 ] = e1 − jω1 is1 . (16)
x(t) = x0 + x1 cos(ω1 t + ϕ1 ) + x2 cos(ω2 t + ϕ2 ) 2
= x[0] + Re{x[ω1 ]ejω1 t } + Re{x[ω2 ]ejω2 t }, (11) The dc component of insertion indices and sum-capacitor-
voltages are trivial
with phasors x[0] = x0 , x[ω1 ] = x1 ejϕ1 , and x[ω2 ] = x2 ejϕ2 . vd
For the calculation of the ac-side admittance of the MMC, a nu,l [0] = ∓ Σ
(17)
2vC0
perturbation term e[ωp ] is added to the ac-side voltage. Then,
the component of the source current at perturbation frequency Σ
vCu,l Σ
[0] = vC0 . (18)
is [ωp ] is derived. Finally, the ac-side admittance is obtained
as The fundamental frequency component of insertion indices is
is [ωp ] calculated expressing (2) as
Yac (jωp ) = , (12)
e[ωp ]
Σ Σ
vu,l [ω1 ] = nu,l [0]vCu,l [ω1 ] + nu,l [ω1 ]vCu,l [0]; (19)
where Yac (jωp ) can be expressed in the s-domain using s =
Σ
jωp . with vCu,l [ω1 ] expressed as (21) and using (13)-(18), nu,l [ω1 ]
The dynamic behavior of the MMC is nonlinear due to the results
multiplications in (2) and (3). Such nonlinearity cannot be
2
overcame using linearization, because the signals are time- 1 e 1 − jω 1
L
2 i s1 − vd
Σ
2vC0
N is1
jω1 C 2
varying. Expressing the variables in the dq-frame [8] [3], nu,l [ω1 ] = Σ . (20)
vC0 1 − 2(vvΣd )2 jωN1 C ic0
which usually allows for expressing signals at ω1 as dc, C0

does not aid in this study, because the nonlinearities generate Σ

Finally, vCu,l [ω1 ] is calculated from (3)
terms at ω1 − ωp and ω1 + ωp , that cannot be neglected.
Instead, harmonic linearization [9] [10] is used for tackling Σ N
the problem. vCu,l [ω1 ] = (nu,l [0]iu,l [ω1 ] + iu,l [0]nu,l [ω1 ]) . (21)
jω1 C
Harmonic linearization is a technique that develops a small-
signal linear model for a nonlinear system along a periodically
time-varying operation trajectory. In this method, a harmonic
|v Cu,l |

perturbation is superimposed to the excitation of the system

Σ

(i.e., e[ωp ]), the resulting response of the variable of interest is

determined, and the corresponding component at perturbation
|n u,l |

frequency is extracted (i.e., is [ωp ]).

Applying the perturbation term e[ωp ] affects the frequency
|v u,l |

spectra of the converter variables; this is caused by the

nonlinear behavior of the MMC, which generates harmonics of
|i u,l |

ω1 , ωp , and combinations of these through addition and sub-

traction. Fig. 3 illustrates the frequency spectra of the variables 0 50 100
Σ f [Hz]
analyzed in this study, i.e., iu,l , vu,l , nu,l , and vCu,l . In order
to contain the complexity of the study without compromising
Fig. 3. Illustration of the frequency spectra of the converter variables: steady-
the accuracy of the results, we choose to consider only five state components (blue), perturbation terms (red), and higher order terms
frequency components, i.e., ω = {0, ω1 , ωp , ω1 −ωp , ω1 +ωp }. Σ
(green). nu,l , and vCu,l comprise also a component at 100 Hz, which is
Neglecting higher order terms is the equivalent of linearization. neglected.

310
B. Perturbation Components The perturbation components of the sum-capacitor-voltages
Before continuing, it is useful to recall the expression of are obtained from (3), expanding the multiplication using (23)
the multiplication of two cosine waves Σ N
vCu,l [ωp ] = [nu,l [ωp ]iu,l [0] + iu,l [ωp ]nu,l [0]
jωp C
z(t) = x(t)y(t) = [x1 cos(ω1 t + ϕ1 )][y2 cos(ω2 t + ϕ2 )]
+ 0.5nu,l [ω1 ](iu,l [ω1 − ωp ])∗
= 0.5x1 y2 {cos[(ω1 − ω2 )t + ϕ1 − ϕ2 ]
+ 0.5iu,l [ω1 ](nu,l [ω1 − ωp ])∗
+ cos[(ω1 + ω2 )t + ϕ1 + ϕ2 ]}, (22)
+ 0.5nu,l [ω1 + ωp ](iu,l [ω1 ])∗
which can be expressed using phasors + 0.5iu,l [ω1 + ωp ](nu,l [ω1 ])∗ ] (33)
z[ω1 − ω2 ] = 0.5x[ω1 ](y[ω2 ])∗
Σ N
z[ω1 + ω2 ] = 0.5x[ω1 ]y[ω2 ], (23) vCu,l [ω1 − ωp ] = [nu,l [ω1 − ωp ]iu,l [0]
j(ω1 − ωp )C
where ∗ denotes the complex conjugate. + iu,l [ω1 − ωp ]nu,l [0]
The perturbation components of the arm currents are ob-
+ 0.5nu,l [ω1 ](iu,l [ωp ])∗
tained from (5), expressed in u, l quantities
+ 0.5iu,l [ω1 ](nu,l [ωp ])∗ ] (34)
1
iu,l [ωp ] = (ep − vu,l [ωp ]) (24)
jωp L N
Σ
vCu,l [ω1 + ωp ] = (nu,l [ω1 + ωp ]iu,l [0]
1 j(ω1 + ωp )C
iu,l [ω1 − ωp ] = ∓ (vu,l [ω1 − ωp ]) (25)
j(ω1 − ωp )L + iu,l [ω1 + ωp ]nu,l [0]
1 + 0.5nu,l [ω1 ]iu,l [ωp ]
iu,l [ω1 + ωp ] = ∓ (vu,l [ω1 + ωp ]). (26)
j(ω1 + ωp )L + 0.5iu,l [ω1 ]nu,l [ωp ]). (35)
The perturbation components of the arm voltages are obtained Equations (24)-(35) represent a 12th order system in complex
from (2), expanding the multiplication using (23) variables (i.e., a 24th order system in real variables), which is
Σ Σ linear, since the coefficients (13)-(18) are known, i.e.,
vu,l [ωp ] =nu,l [ωp ]vCu,l [0] + vCu,l [ωp ]nu,l [0]
Σ
+ 0.5nu,l [ω1 ](vCu,l [ω1 − ωp ])∗ Ax = B. (36)
Σ
+ 0.5vCu,l [ω1 ](nu,l [ω1 − ωp ])∗ This system can be solved to find is [ωp ] = 2iu,l [ωp ] and,
Σ
+ 0.5nu,l [ω1 + ωp ](vCu,l [ω1 ])∗ finally, the ac-side admittance of the MMC using (12). Solving
Σ the system for different values of ωp allows for obtaining the
+ 0.5vCu,l [ω1 + ωp ](nu,l [ω1 ])∗ (27)
ac-side admittance in the whole frequency spectrum.
Σ IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS
vu,l [ω1 − ωp ] =nu,l [ω1 − ωp ]vCu,l [0]
Σ The validity of this study is verified through simulations
+ vCu,l [ω1 − ωp ]nu,l [0]
Σ using Matlab/Simulink. The simulation model implements the
+ 0.5nu,l [ω1 ](vCu,l [ωp ])∗ equations described in Section II, with P = 150 MW, e1 =
Σ
+ 0.5vCu,l [ω1 ](nu,l [ωp ])∗ (28) 100 kV, ω1 = 2π50 rad/s, vd = 200 kV, L = 50 mH (0.157
Σ
p.u.), N = 100, C = 4 mF, vC0 = 210 kV, αc = 2000 rad/s,
Σ α1 = 40 rad/s, and α2 = 20 rad/s.
vu,l [ω1 + ωp ] =nu,l [ω1 + ωp ]vCu,l [0]
Σ Fig. 4 shows the Bode diagram of the ac-side admittance of
+ vCu,l [ω1 + ωp ]nu,l [0]
the MMC, analytically derived with the proposed method and
Σ
+ 0.5nu,l [ω1 ]vCu,l [ωp ] obtained from the simulation model. The agreement between
Σ the two plots is remarkable in the whole frequency range.
+ 0.5vCu,l [ω1 ]nu,l [ωp ]. (29)
An approximated expression of Yac (s) can be obtained from
The perturbation components of the insertion indices are (5) and (8) assuming vs = vsref , i.e., assuming vCu,l
Σ Σ
= vC0
obtained from (7) and (8), with is [ωp ] = 2iu,l [ωp ] and   −1
ic [ω1 ± ωp ] = iu,l [ω1 ± ωp ] L αc L 2α1 s
Ỹac (s) = s+ 1+ 2 , (37)
2 2 2 s + ω12
nu,l [ωp ] = Σ
Fs (jωp )iu,l [ωp ] (30)
vC0 which is depicted in Fig. 4. Although the approximated
expression does not fit the simulation for ω < ω1 , it can be
1
nu,l [ω1 − ωp ] = ± Σ
Fc (jω1 − jωp )iu,l [ω1 − ωp ] (31) easily interpreted. We notice that for ω  ω1 the proportional
vC0 term (αc L/2)−1 dominates, for ω ≈ ω1 the resonant term
1 dominates, and for ω  ω1 the inductive term (sL/2)−1
nu,l [ω1 + ωp ] = ± Σ
Fc (jω1 + jωp )iu,l [ω1 + ωp ]. (32) dominates. If the submodule capacitance is increased, i.e.,
vC0

311
 30
20 log10 |Yac (jω)| [dB]
35
40
45
50
55
1 2
10
100
Yac (jω) [deg]
50
50

100
1 2
10
Fig. 4. Bode diagrams of Yac (jω): simulation results (blue circles), analytical method (red line), and approximated expression (37) (green-dashed line).
Σ Σ
C → ∞, then the assumption vCu,l = vC0 holds true and
the simulation fits (37). However, the value of the submodule
capacitance implemented in the simulation model produces a
10% peak-to-peak ripple in the sum-capacitor-voltages, which
is a typical value in MMC applications. Therefore, it is impor-
tant to consider the impact of a finite submodule capacitance
when analyzing the converter admittance at ω < ω1 , since
it leads to a substantial difference from the approximated
expression.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, the ac-side admittance of the MMC was
studied. In the proposed method, only five specific frequency
components of the converter variables were considered. This
approach led to a 12th order linear system in complex vari-
ables, which was solved to obtain an analytical expression of
the ac-side admittance. An averaged model of the converter
and the control method was simulated, showing remarkable
agreement with the derived analytical expression. An ap-
proximated expression of the ac-side admittance was derived
and used to easily interpret the behavior of the admittance
in the frequency domain. Results show how the admittance
frequency spectrum is affected by converter parameters (L
and C) and control parameters (αc and α1 ). Generally, the ac-
side admittance of MMCs is heavily influenced by the chosen
control strategy; the method proposed in this paper is a useful
tool that can be applied when investigating the effects of a
specific control strategy on the ac-side admittance of MMCs.
3 4
10 10 10
ω [rad/s]
3 4
10 10 10
ω [rad/s]
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