Patent ID: 11962251
Assignee: GE ENERGY POWER CONVERSION TEHCNOLOGY LIMITED
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 6:
7. A hybrid modular multilevel converter (HMMC) based on a neutral point pilot (NPP) topology and having positive and negative direct current (DC) voltage rails, a neutral point node, and a plurality of phase legs each (i) corresponding to an alternating current (AC) phase and (ii) including an upper arm and a lower arm, each upper arm being connected between the positive rail and the neutral point node, each lower arm being connected between the negative rail and the neutral point node, at least one of the upper and lower arms comprising:
two or more series connected submodules having a first lead connected, at least indirectly, to the positive rail and a second lead connected to an output terminal of the corresponding AC phase, each of the submodules being a full-bridge or half-bridge converter with a smoothing capacitor; and
a first set of cascaded switches connected in series and having (i) one end connected to the output terminal and (ii) another end connected to the neutral point node, the first set of cascaded switches being external to the submodules.