A Review of Voltage Source Converters for Energy Applications

The purpose of the research is to present a brief review of voltage source converter (VSC) topologies with their operating principles for energy applications, such as high voltage dc transmission (HVDC) and flexible ac transmission system (FACTS), which can be employed in the field of electric power generation, transmission and distribution systems. In this paper, several commonly used VSC-based high-power energy consumer topologies are presented and discussed, including the neutral-point-clamped (NPC), flying-capacitor (FC), cascaded H-bridge (CHB) and modular multilevel converters (MMC). A list of available industrial VSC-based high-power energy consumers is included. The most common and relevant energy applications of these converters are provided. At last, the directions of their future development are addressed. Each selection of converter topology and control method is closely related to each specific application, so that there are many options for different energy applications, depending on their own special technical specifications like system stability, dynamic performance, and total expenditure.