Provided is a new control method that causes no time lag or hunting when a power conversion direction is reversed. The power conversion apparatus includes switching elements (S1 and S2) that alternately perform switching and are capable of reversing the power conversion direction without suspension, and an up/down counter register (RT) that has two different thresholds and selects counting up at a smaller threshold, counting down at a larger threshold, and holding of the value between the two thresholds. According to the value of the up/down counter register (RT), a gate pulse is generated to control the switching of the switching elements (S1 and S2).