Patent ID: 8427088

Claim:
An apparatus For driving a switching element of a power converter so that the switching member selectively establishes electrical connection and electrical disconnection between a terminal of a rotary machine and a voltage application unit for applying a plurality of different voltage levels to the terminal of the rotary machine through the power converter to thereby control a controlled variable of the rotary machine, the apparatus comprising: a predicting unit to use, as an initial value of the controlled variable, at least one of a first measured value of the controlled variable and a second measured value of a physical variable expressed as a function of the controlled variable and to predict, based on the initial value of the controlled variable, a value of the controlled variable when a driving mode of the switching element is set; and a driving unit having an integral element and configured to determine, based on an output of the integral element to which a deviation between the predicted value of the controlled variable and a command value of the controlled variable is inputted, an actual driving mode of the switching element to thereby drive the switching element in the determined driving mode.