Patent ID: 7701740

Claim:
A power converter for connecting each phase of an AC power supply to each phase on an output side through a bidirectional switch having a self-extinction capability, and controlling an ON/OFF state of the switch, thereby outputting any voltage, the power converter comprising: a vector component calculator that carries out a classification into a P phase having a maximum voltage value of the AC power supply, an M phase having an intermediate voltage value, and an N phase having a minimum voltage value based on a voltage value of each phase seen from a neutral point of the AC power supplies, and applies a voltage vector determined based on a connecting state of the phase on the output side and the AC power supply to a hexagonal space vector diagram, and selects a voltage vector equal to an instantaneous voltage vector to be output, from the hexagonal space vector diagram, and then calculates a vector component of the instantaneous voltage vector; and an output time calculator for calculating an output time of the voltage vector based on the vector component, wherein a switch of the power converter is ON/OFF controlled based on a calculation result of the time calculator.