This paper proposes a mechanism of development of synchronous optimal pulse width modulation (PWM) generation for control of medium-voltage motor drives using multilevel inverters at low switching frequency is presented here. The paper investigates the implementation of the SOP scheme in a three-level inverter topology and is compared with a two-level inverter. Also, the performance of SOP and in-phase disposition (IPD) modulation schemes are evaluated on a three- level neutral point clamped inverter. The findings indicate that SOP improves the results of IPD for low switching frequencies. This demonstrates that the SOP is very useful in high power applications, resulting in a significant reduction in the use of bulky and expensive filtering elements.
