Analysis of ۲.۳kV Neutral Point Clamped, Series Connected H-Bridge and Auxiliary Series Connected H-Bridge Five-Level Converters For Railway Applications

Comparison of a Five-Level Neutral Point Clamped Voltage Source Converter (۵L-NPC VSC), a Five-Level Series Connected H-Bridge Voltage Source Converter (۵L-SCHB VSC), and a new Five-Level Auxiliary Series Connected H-Bridge Voltage Source Converter (۵L-ASCHB VSC) on the basis of the state-of-the-art ۳.۳kV, and ۱.۷kV IGBTs for a ۲.۳kV Medium Voltage Converter (MVC) has been presented in this paper. To derive specific converter characteristics of the aforementioned topologies the power semiconductors utilization, the installed switch power, the converter losses, the semiconductor loss distribution, efficiency, the harmonic spectra, and material costs are discussed in details. Matlab/Simulink is used as a simulation tool for analysis and comparison.

Keywords:

Five-level Converters , Medium Voltage Drives , Power Electronics.