Robust Model-Following control of a three-level Neutral Point Clamped shunt active filter in the medium voltage range

This paper presents a robust control technique applied to a three-phase shunt active filter based on an NPC inverter, showing the modelling procedure needed to carry out the proposed control. The transfer functions for the control of the currents injected by the active filter are derived. The modelling is based on the abc/dq Park transformation of the AC system variables. The currents injected by the active filter are controlled in the synchronous orthogonal dq reference frame. The proposed robust current control technique is compared to a conventional PI controller in the dq frame, and to a PIS controller in the dq frame, consisting of a PI and resonant controllers synchronized to the frequencies of the nonlinear load current harmonics. On one hand, it is shown that the proposed technique improves the current harmonics compensation obtained by conventional PI control. On the other hand, it is found that the PIS controller is the best suited for current harmonics compensation among the controllers under study. Nevertheless, the RMF controller results in a simpler implementation than the PIS controller. Moreover, the proposed robust control has been applied to the DC-link voltage regulation, and it has been compared to a PI controller. It is shown that the robust control technique improves the dynamic response of the inverter to load steps without the need of a high crossover frequency of the DC-link voltage loop.