Power conversion systems and methods to control a multiphase multilevel regenerative power converter with multilevel phase circuits that individually include multiple regenerative power stages with respective power stage outputs connected in series, each of the multiple regenerative power stages comprising a DC link circuit a switching rectifier coupled between a respective transformer secondary circuit and the DC link circuit, and a switching inverter coupled between the DC link circuit and the respective power stage output, including a controller that provides inverter switching control signals to control the respective switching inverters, provides rectifier switching control signals to control the respective switching rectifiers, and controls a non-zero phase relationship between the rectifier switching control signals of the respective switching rectifiers.