Generalized method for harmonic elimination in two and three level voltage sourced converters

Two and three level VSC inverters are the building blocks of most of inverter applications necessitating the employment of appropriate switching techniques that result in harmonic free sinusoidal output. The paper presents the generalized method for harmonic elimination in two and three level voltage sourced converter. The technique used for suppression of selective low-ordered harmonics form the inverter's output voltage waveform is Selective harmonic elimination (SHE). The inverter's output voltage waveform is mathematically modeled using Fourier series that results in the system of nonlinear equations. The non-linear equations are solved for eliminating the specific low order harmonics. The main objective in calculating appropriate switching angle is to minimize the value of Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). To solve the system of non-linear equations numerical method Newton Raphson is applied and appropriate switching angles are calculated. The remaining uneliminated higher order harmonics are eliminated by connecting appropriate value of filter at the output stage of VSC inverter. The model of two level VSC is simulated in SimPowerSystem Matlab tool bar together with the algorithm of Newton Raphson technique. The time domain plot and frequency spectrum of inverter's output waveform is presented in the results section. The results of two and three level VSC inverters are analyzed and debated together with the comparative analysis on the basis of THD. Moreover, a comparison is presented on the basis of IEEE standard Std. 519 and EN 50160.