On the problem of balancing the DC capacitor voltage divider in back-to-back multilevel converters

This paper presents a new generalized solution for DC bus capacitors voltage balancing in back-to-back m level diode-clamped multilevel converters connecting AC networks. The solution is based on the DC bus average power flow and exploits the switching configuration redundancies. The proposed balancing solution is particularized for the back-to-back multilevel structure with m = 5 levels. This back-to-back converter is studied working with bidirectional power flow, connecting an induction machine to the power grid.