Design and Implementation of an Optimal Control Strategy for a Multilevel NPC Inverter for Photovoltaic Applications

High energy demand has created management and organizational problems in many countries around the world. The world is experiencing a crisis that drives us to take action and contribute to new developments and research to influence the energy transition through a combination of control strategies to improve these processes. This promotes the use of non-conventional renewable energy to sustain life and promotes sustainable and efficient processes. The importance of developing new applications, using new technologies, and designing appropriate controls to optimize processes that require energy conversion. The focus of this work is the design, simulation, and implementation testing of an optimal control in the multilevel neutral point clamped (NPC) topology. The proposed control, by using an optimal state feedback based on the linearized model of the converter, allows to optimize the use of energy in the reference variations. The results show the correct current control, following the references imposed by the power control with specific dynamic and overshoot, including the the link capacitors unbalancing compensation.