Modelling and control of a power electronic cascade for the multi‐DC bus supply

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the control and regulation of input DC voltages of nine‐level neutral point clamping (NPC) voltage source inverter (VSI).Design/methodology/approach – The analysis and simulation of a cascade made up of three‐phase five‐level PWM rectifier‐nine levels NPC VSI are treated. This cascade is used to feed a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) drive. First, the five‐level PWM rectifier is presented. Then a topology of nine‐level NPC VSI and the associated PWM control strategy are described. In order to discard the problem of DC link voltage fluctuations, a clamping bridge with a PI regulation has been added to the cascade. Then a field‐oriented control strategy has been implemented in the PMSM.Findings – The obtained results are full of promise to use the inverter in high voltage and great power applications such as electric naval propulsion systems.Originality/value – The application of the proposed feedback control algorithm to the studied cascade off...