Multilevel Converter Topologies for Utility Scale Solar Photovoltaic Power Systems

Renewable energy technologies have been growing in their installed capacity rapidly over the past few years. This growth in solar, wind and other technologies is fueled by state incentives, renewable energy mandates, increased fossil fuel prices and environmental consciousness. Utility scale systems form a substantial portion of electricity capacity addition in modern times. This sets the stage for research activity to explore new efficient, compact and alternative power electronic topologies to integrate sources like photovoltaics (PV) to the utility grid, some of which are multilevel topologies. Multilevel topologies allow for use of lower voltage semiconductor devices than two-level converters. They also produce lower distortion output voltage waveforms. This dissertation proposes a cascaded multilevel converter with medium frequency AC link which reduces the size of DC bus capacitor and also eliminates power imbalance between the three phases. A control strategy which modulates the output voltage magnitude and phase angle of the inverter cells is proposed. This improves differential power processing amongst cells while keeping the voltage and current ratings of the devices low. A battery energy storage system for the multilevel PV converter has also been proposed. Renewable technologies such as PV and wind suffer from varying degrees of intermittency, depending on the geographical location. With increased installation of these sources, management of intermittency is critical to the stability of the grid. The proposed battery system is rated at 10% of the plant it is designed to support. Energy is stored and extracted by means of a bidirectional DC-DC converter connected to the PV DC bus. Different battery chemistries available for this application are also discussed. In this dissertation, the analyses of common mode voltages and currents in various PV topologies are detailed. The grid integration of PV power employs a combination of pulse width modulation (PWM) DC-DC converters and inverters. Due to their fast switching nature a common mode voltage is generated with respect to the ground, inducing a circulating current through the ground capacitance. Common mode voltages lead to increased voltage stress, electromagnetic interference and malfunctioning of ground fault protection systems. Common mode voltages and currents present in high and low power PV systems are analyzed and mitigation strategies such as common mode filter and transformer shielding are proposed to minimize them

Multilevel Converters: An Enabling Technology for High-Power Applications

| Multilevel converters are considered today as the state-of-the-art power-conversion systems for high-power and power-quality demanding applications. This paper presents a tutorial on this technology, covering the operating principle and the different power circuit topologies, modulation methods, technical issues and industry applications. Special attention is given to established technology already found in industry with more in-depth and self-contained information, while recent advances and state-of-the-art contributions are addressed with useful references. This paper serves as an introduction to the subject for the not-familiarized reader, as well as an update or reference for academics and practicing engineers working in the field of industrial and power electronics.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2001-3089Ministerio de Eduación y Ciencia d TEC2006-0386

Cascaded Inverters for Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems

With the extraordinary market growth in grid-connected PV systems, there is increasing interests in grid-connected PV inverters. Focus has been placed on cheap, high-efficiency, and innovative inverter solutions, leading to a high diversity within the inverters and new system configurations. This dissertation chooses cascaded multilevel inverter topologies for grid-connected PV systems to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency. First, a single-phase cascaded H-bridge multilevel PV inverter is discussed. To maximize the solar energy extraction of each PV string, an individual maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control scheme is applied, which allows independent control of each dc-link voltage. A generalized nonactive power theory is applied to generate the reactive current reference. Within the inverter’s capability, the local consumption of reactive power is provided to realize power factor correction. Then, the modular cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter is connected to a three-phase utility system and nine PV panels. Individual MPPT control is also applied to realize better utilization of PV modules. Also, mismatches between PV panels may introduce unbalanced power supplied to the three-phase grid-connected system. Thus, a modulation compensation scheme is applied to balance the three-phase grid current by injecting a zero sequence voltage. A modular cascaded multilevel inverter prototype has been built and tested in both the single-phase and three-phase PV system. Simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the proposed control schemes. The three-phase cascaded voltage source inverter (VSI), as another cascaded inverter topology, is also proposed for grid-connected PV applications. The equivalent model and average model of the three-phase cascaded VSI are established to realize the central control. In addition, the control scheme applied in the traditional three-phase two-level VSI is modified for this application. Simulation and experimental results are presented as well. The targets of reducing the cost and improving the overall efficiency of the PV inverters can be achieved by applying the cascaded PV inverters and the proposed control schemes

Harmonics Mitigation in Cascaded Multilevel PV Inverters During Power Imbalance Between Cells

This paper presents a grid connected multilevel topology for photovoltaic (PV) systems. Usually, multilevel converters for PV application suffer from a distorted output current and voltage when the submodules are not subjected to an even solar irradiance. The difference in submodules irradiance results in different submodules duty cycles when maintaining the maximum power point tracking (MPPT). The distortion of the output current is proportional with the difference of the cells duty cycles. To this regard, a multilevel topology for PV applications is proposed along with a control and modulation strategy. In this proposed topology, H6 bridge-based cell is used instead of an H-bridge one. In case of solar irradiance mismatch, the proposed converter injects power with less voltage from the shaded cells without altering the PV voltage, and hence, the MPPT. This modification allows retaining a tantamount duty cycle in all cells whatever the meteorological conditions are present. To test the effectiveness of the proposed idea, a detailed simulation model was set up. The results show that the proposed concept provides a significantly improved output current quality compared to the cascaded H-bridge topology

Cascaded Multilevel PV Inverter with Improved Harmonic Performance During Power Imbalance Between Power Cells

The difference in power cell irradiances in cascaded multilevel converters results in different duty cycles among those cells when maintaining the maximum power point tracking (MPPT). However, the difference in cell duty cycles is undesired since it is proportional to the output voltage and current distortions. To this regard, a multilevel topology for photovoltaic (PV) applications is proposed, where an H6 bridge power cell is used instead of an H-bridge one. In case of solar irradiance mismatch among the power cells, the proposed converter injects power with lower voltage from the shaded cells without altering the PV voltage; hence maintaining the MPPT operation. This modification allows us to retain an equal duty cycle in all the power cells whatever the meteorological conditions are present; consequently, maintaining good output voltage and current waveform qualities. To test the effectiveness of the proposed solution, a detailed simulation model as well as an experimental prototype is built. The obtained results show that the proposed topology provides significantly improved output voltage and current qualities compared to the cascaded H-bridge one. The performance of the proposed topology compared to one offering improved harmonics performance, according to the European efficiency, has been also compared, where an enhancement of 2.64% has been registered.</p

Delta-connected cascaded H-bridge multilevel photovoltaic converters

© 2015 IEEE. Multilevel cascaded H-bridge converters are becoming popular for next generation large-scale photovoltaic power converters. However, the power generation levels in the three phases can be significantly unequal, especially in a large plant, owing to the non-uniform irradiance levels and/or ambient temperatures. This paper proposes the delta-connected cascaded H-bridge converter for large-scale photovoltaic farms. Compared to the existing star connection, the delta connection reduces the converter overrating required. Experimental results obtained from a 430 V, 10 kW, three-phase, seven-level, delta connected cascaded H-bridge converter prototype are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the delta connection

A 43-level 33 kV 3-phase modular multilevel cascaded converter for direct grid integration of renewable generation systems

This paper proposed a 43-level 3-phase 33 kV modular multilevel cascaded (MMC) converter for direct grid integration of renewable generation systems. A high-frequency magnetic-link is considered to generate isolated and balanced multiple dc sources for all of the H-bridge inverters of the MMC converter. The proposed converter is designed and analyzed taking into account the specified system performance, control complexity, cost and market availability of the semiconductors. The simulation results demonstrate the excellent feature of the proposed medium-voltage converter. It is expected that the proposed new technology will have great potential for future renewable power plants and smart grid applications. © 2014 IEEE

Cascaded H-bridge multilevel converter multistring topology for large scale photovoltaic systems

Large scale grid connected photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion systems have reached the megawatt level. This imposes new challenges on existing grid interface converter topologies and opens new opportunities to be explored. In this paper a new medium voltage multilevel-multistring configuration is introduced based on a three-phase cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter and multiple string dc-dc converters. The proposed configuration enables a large increase of the total capacity of the PV system, while improving power quality and efficiency. The converter structure is very flexible and modular since it decouples the grid converter from the PV string converter, which allows to accomplish independent control goals. The main challenge of the proposed configuration is to handle the inherent power imbalances that occur not only between the different cells of one phase of the converter but also between the three phases. The control strategy to deal with these imbalances is also introduced in this paper. Simulation results of a 7-level CHB for a multistring PV system are presented to validate the proposed topology and control method

New Topologies and Advanced Control of Power Electronic Converters for Renewable Energy based Microgrids

Solar energy-based microgrids are increasingly promising due to their many features, such as being environmentally friendly and having low operating costs. Power electronic converters, filters, and transformers are the key components to integrate the solar photovoltaic (PV) systems with the microgrids. The power electronic converters play an important role to reduce the size of the filter circuit and eliminate the use of the bulky and heavy traditional power frequency step-up transformer. These power converters also play a vital role to integrate the energy storage systems such as batteries and the superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) unit in a solar PV power-based microgrid. However, the performance of these power converters depends upon the switching technique and the power converter configuration. The switching techniques can improve the power quality, i.e. lower total harmonic distortion at the converter output waveform, reduce the converter power loss, and can effectively utilize the dc bus voltage, which helps to improve the power conversion efficiency of the power electronic converter. The power converter configuration can reduce the size of the power converter and make the power conversion system more efficient. In addition to the advanced switching technique, a supervisory control can also be integrated with these power converters to ensure the optimal power flow within the microgrid. First, this thesis reviews different existing power converter topologies with their switching techniques and control strategies for the grid integration of solar PV systems. To eliminate the use of the bulky and heavy line frequency step-up transformer to integrate solar PV systems to medium voltage grids, the high frequency magnetic linkbased medium voltage power converter topologies are discussed and compared based on their performance parameters. Moreover, switching and conduction losses are calculated to compare the performance of the switching techniques for the magnetic-linked power converter topologies. In this thesis, a new pulse width modulation technique has been proposed to integrate the SMES system with the solar PV system-based microgrid. The pulse width modulation technique is designed to provide reactive power into the network in an effective way. The modulation technique ensures lower total harmonic distortion (THD), lower switching loss, and better utilization of dc-bus voltage. The simulation and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed pulse width modulation technique. In this thesis, an improved version of the previously proposed switching technique has been designed for a transformer-less PV inverter. The improved switching technique can ensure effective active power flow into the network. A new switching scheme has been proposed for reactive power control to avoid unnecessary switching faced by the traditional switching technique in a transformer-less PV inverter. The proposed switching technique is based on the peak point value of the grid current and ensures lower switching loss compared to other switching techniques. In this thesis, a new magnetic-linked multilevel inverter has been designed to overcome the issues faced by the two-level inverters and traditional multilevel inverters. The proposed multilevel inverter utilizes the same number of electronic switches but fewer capacitors compared to the traditional multilevel inverters. The proposed multilevel inverter solves the capacitor voltage balancing and utilizes 25% more of the dc bus voltage compared to the traditional multilevel inverter, which reduces the power rating of the dc power source components and also extends the input voltage operating range of the inverter. An improved version magnetic-linked multilevel inverter is proposed in this thesis with a model predictive control technique. This multilevel inverter reduces both the number of switches and capacitors compared to the traditional multilevel inverter. This multilevel inverter also solves the capacitor voltage balancing issue and utilizes 50% more of the dc bus voltage compared to the traditional multilevel inverter. Finally, an energy management system has been designed for the developed power converter and control to achieve energy resiliency and minimum operating cost of the microgrid. The model predictive control-based energy management system utilizes the predicted load data, PV insolation data from web service, electricity price data, and battery state of charge data to select the battery charging and discharging pattern over the day. This model predictive control-based supervisory control with the advanced power electronic converter and control makes the PV energy-based microgrid more efficient and reliable

A multilevel medium-voltage inverter for step-up-transformer-less grid connection of photovoltaic power plants

Recently, medium (0.1-5 MW) and large (>5 MW) scale photovoltaic (PV) power plants have attracted great attention, where medium-voltage grid connection (typically 6-36 kV) is essential for efficient power transmission and distribution. A power frequency transformer operated at 50 or 60 Hz is generally used to step up the traditional inverter's low output voltage (usually ≤400 V) to the medium-voltage level. Because of the heavy weight and large size of the power frequency transformer, the PV inverter system can be expensive and complex for installation and maintenance. As an alternative approach to achieve a compact and lightweight direct grid connection, this paper proposes a three-phase medium-voltage PV inverter system. The 11-kV and 33-kV PV inverter systems are designed. A scaled down three-phase 1.2-kV test rig has been constructed to validate the proposed PV inverter. The experimental results are analyzed and discussed, taking into account the switching schemes and filter circuits. The experimental results demonstrate the excellent feature of the proposed PV inverter system. © 2011-2012 IEEE