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Sinusoidal output voltages with low harmonic distortion can be achieved using three-level converters along with LC filters, which have been proven to be suitable for energy storage systems (ESSs). Model predictive control (MPC) has been applied to such energy storage converters due to its simplicity and effectiveness. However, selecting the weighting factor of the additional neutral-point (NP) voltage balancing term in the cost function is time consuming and may also affect the main objective of MPC. To address this issue, in this paper, additional virtual space vectors (VSVs), which do not affect the NP capacitor voltages, are adopted in the proposed MPC. Both simulation and experimental results using controller hardware-in-the-loop are presented to show that NP capacitor voltages can be well controlled using a particularly small NP voltage balancing weighting factor in the cost function. In addition, the total harmonic distortion of the voltage at the point of common coupling is reduced while retaining the fast dynamic response of MPC. 

Reliability of the power grid can be improved by the use of microgrids (MGs) concept, which regulates the voltage and frequency at the point of common coupling (PCC) during normal and/or faulty conditions. Droop characteristics based hierarchical control strategies are commonly used in MGs, where power converters can operate in parallel. However, the need of multiple control loops not only adds complexity to the controller design, but also reduces the dynamic response of the system. In the future power system, grid-tied converters with fast dynamic response are desired to handle the uncertainties induced by high penetration of distributed energy resources. Therefore, this paper presents a novel model predictive control to ensure fast dynamic response of high power three-level converters in stand-alone operating mode as well as grid-tied operating mode. The proposed controller is applied to a MG which consists of a solar inverter connected in parallel with an energy storage system to the PCC, where a local load is tied. Both simulation and experimental results are presented to demonstrate robustness and the high dynamic performance of the proposed controller under rapidly changing atmospheric conditions and different grid operating modes.