Classical model based predictive control for single-phase cascade H-bridge multilevel STATCOM generates a variable switching frequency that produces high frequency harmonics and high stress on the power semiconductor devices. To solve these issues, in this paper is proposed a predictive control strategy operating at fixed switching frequency. The method includes a modulation stage in the predictive control algorithm. Simulation results show increased performance of the proposed control method in terms of ripple amplitude and total harmonic distortion.CONACYT – Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología