A High Step-Up Ratio Soft-Switching DC–DC Converter for Interconnection of MVDC and HVDC Grids

DC grid technology is regarded as a promising solution for future electric networks integrating a great amount of renewable energies. It calls for high-efficiency dc-dc converters with high voltage step-up ratio to interconnect medium-voltage (MV) dc distribution grids and high-voltage (HV) dc transmission grids. This paper presents an isolated bidirectional soft-switching dc-dc converter combining two-level converters in parallel on the MV side and a modular multilevel converter (MMC) on the HV side. A dedicated control method of the proposed converter is presented. By the proposed method, a certain reactive current is injected into the MV side by the MMC to ensure soft-switching on the MV side. The proposed converter presents low power-semiconductor total device rating and low semiconductor losses over a wide power range at variable input and output voltages. Simulation of a 50 kV/400 kV, 400 MW converter is conducted to evaluate semiconductor losses and verify the validity of this work.