Transformerless Microinverter with Low Leakage Current Circulation and Low Input Capacitance Requirement for PV Applications

The inevitable depletion of limited fossil fuels combined with their harmful footprint on the environment led to a global pursuit for alternative energy sources that are clean and inexhaustible. Renewable energies such as wind, biomass and solar are the best alternative energy candidates, with the latter being more suitable for GCC countries. Besides, the energy generated from photovoltaic (PV) modules is one of the elegant examples of harnessing solar energy, as it is clean, pollutant-free and modular. Furthermore, recent advances in PV technology, especially grid-connected PV systems revealed the preeminence of using multiple small inverters called (Microinverters) over using the conventional single inverter configuration. Specifically, the break-even cost point can be reached faster and the system modularity increases with microinverters usage. Nonetheless, due to microinverter’s small ratings designers prefer transformerless designs because transformer removal achieves higher efficiency and power density. However, the transformer removal results in loss of galvanic isolation that leads to dangerous leakage current circulation that affects system safety. Another issue with microinverters is that since they are installed outside their bulky DC-Link electrolytic capacitor lifetime deteriorates the system reliability because electrolytic capacitor failure rate increases as temperature increases. Moreover, the DC-Link capacitor is used to decouple the 2nd order power harmonic ripples that appear in single-phase systems. Thus, the objective of this thesis is to design an efficient transformerless microinverter that has low leakage current circulation and low input capacitance requirement with a minimum number of active switches. In other words, the objective is to increase the safety and the reliability of the system while maintaining the high efficiency. Eventually, the configuration selected is the transformerless differential buck microinverter with LCL filter and it is modeled with passive resonance damping and active resonance damping control

High Gain DC-DC and Active Power Decoupling Techniques for Photovoltaic Inverters

abstract: The dissertation encompasses the transformer-less single phase PV inverters for both the string and microinverter applications. Two of the major challenge with such inverters include the presence of high-frequency common mode leakage current and double line frequency power decoupling with reliable capacitors without compromising converter power density. Two solutions are presented in this dissertation: half-bridge voltage swing (HBVS) and dynamic dc link (DDCL) inverters both of which completely eliminates the ground current through topological improvement. In addition, through active power decoupling technique, the capacitance requirement is reduced for both, thus achieving an all film-capacitor based solution with higher reliability. Also both the approaches are capable of supporting a wide range of power factor. Moreover, wide band-gap devices (both SiC and GaN) are used for implementing their hardware prototypes. It enables the switching frequency to be high without compromising on the converter efficiency. Also it allows a reduced magnetic component size, further enabling a high power density solution, with power density far beyond the state-of-the art solutions. Additionally, for the transformer-less microinverter application, another challenge is to achieve a very high gain DC-DC stage with a simultaneous high conversion efficiency. An extended duty ratio (EDR) boost converter which is a hybrid of switched capacitors and interleaved inductor technique, has been implemented for this purpose. It offers higher converter efficiency as most of the switches encounter lower voltage stress directly impacting switching loss; the input current being shared among all the interleaved converters (inherent sharing only in a limited duty ratio), the inductor conduction loss is reduced by a factor of the number of phases. Further, the EDR boost converter has been studied for both discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) operations and operations with wide input/output voltage range in continuous conduction mode (CCM). A current sharing between its interleaved input phases is studied in detail to show that inherent sharing is possible for only in a limited duty ratio span, and modification of the duty ratio scheme is proposed to ensure equal current sharing over all the operating range for 3 phase EDR boost. All the analysis are validated with experimental results.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201

Power Electronic Converters for Single-Phase Grid Connected Photovoltaic System: An Overview

The Solar photovoltaic (PV) power system have achieved meteoric rise through the years. The uptake is not difficult to explain – a drop in cost of PV systems and spiraling electricity cost, have  encouraged the end-user to lessen their bills by producing cheaper electricity and can generate revenue  by feeding excess power back to the grid. The solar PV is intermittent in nature so it dependent on irradiance and ambient temperature. Power electronics technologies plays an important part for optimizing the energy harvesting from PV system. In order to get maximum extracted power and ensure the load is supplied with a good quality voltage, different dc-dc converters topologies and inverters configurations are used. This paper provides an overview of PV inverter configurations and DC-DC topologies to offer a useful insight and reference point for the researchers working in the field of photovoltaic system

Control por histéresis para un inversor buck-dual conectado a la red

Single-phase inverters are widely used in different renewable energy applications. Although the full-bridge inverter is typically used, dual-buck inverters provide an important advantage, since they eliminate the shoot-through problems. However, solutions proposed in the literature require additional inductors, use linear controllers designed around an operation point, or cannot be used in grid-connected applications. This paper presents a hysteresis current control of a single-phase dual-buck full-bridge inverter for grid-connected active power injection. Includes the dynamical model in state variables, as well as analytical conditions to guarantee the evolution of the error dynamics in a set with boundaries defined by the designer. Moreover, the paper provides guidelines for the design of the dead band required for the transitions between the positive and negative semi-cycles (and vice-versa) of the grid voltage. Finally, simulation results validate the main features of the controller as well as the design of the dead band.Los inversores monofásicos son ampliamente usados en diferentes aplicaciones de energías renovables. Aunque típicamente se usa el inversor de puente completo, el inversor buck-dual provee una ventaja  importante porque elimina el problema de posibles cortos-circuitos. Sin embargo, las soluciones reportadas en la literatura requieren inductores adicionales, usan controladores lineales diseñados para un punto de operación, o no se pueden usar en aplicaciones de conexión a la red. En este artículo se presenta un control por histéresis para un inversor monofásico buck-dual de puente completo con conexión a la red para inyección de corriente activa. En particular, se presenta el modelo matemático en variables de estado y se obtienen condiciones analíticas para garantizar la evolución de la dinámica de error dentro de un conjunto con límites establecido por el diseñador. Además, se discuten los elementos para diseñar la banda muerta requerida en la transición entre los semi-ciclos positivos y negativos de la tensión de la red. Finalmente, los resultados de simulación validan las principales características del controlador propuesto, así como el diseño de la banda muerta

Power electronics technologies for renewable energy sources

Over the last decades, power grids are facing significant improvements mainly due to the integration of more and more technologies. In particular, renewable energy sources (RES) are contributing to moving from centralized energy production to a new paradigm of distributed energy production. Analyzing in more detail the requirements of the diverse technologies of RES, it is possible to identify a common and key point: power electronics. In fact, power electronics is the key technology to embrace the RES technologies towards controllability and the success of sustainability of power grids. In this context, this book chapter is focused on the analysis of diverse RES technologies from the point of view of power electronics, including the introduction and explanation of the operating principle of the most relevant RES, both in onshore and offshore scenarios. Additionally, are also presented the main topologies of power electronics converters used in the interface of RES.(undefined

A Direct Comparison between a Central Inverter and Microinverters in a Photovoltaic Array

Microinverters, successfully introduced to the market in 2008, have the potential to transform the PV landscape. They offer many advantages over central inverter topologies, including potentially increased power output compared to a central inverter. Many manufacturers claim up to 25% energy enhancement. The largest claimed enhancements are under conditions of partial shading. These claims have yet to be verified in peer-reviewed literature. This research effort used a total of eight Sharp NE-170U1 PV panels in conjunction with a single SMA Sunny Boy 700U central inverter and two Enphase D380 microinverters. All panels were on a pole mounted rack with a clear view of the southern sky in Boone, North Carolina. AC power output and POA irradiance (direct and diffuse) were logged for over two months. The experiment was conducted under both unobstructed and partial shade conditions. Conclusions from the experiment are similar to a 2011 Enphase study. Preliminary results suggest that when irradiance is greater than 650 W/m2, microinverters outperform central inverters by 20% and 26% in unshaded and shaded conditions, respectively

Quasi-switched inverter using space vector pulse width modulation with triangular comparison for photovoltaic applications

Este trabajo analiza un prototipo para un inversor elevador cuasi-conmutado (qSBI) alimentando una carga resistiva aislada desde una fuente de CC. Se propone el uso de una modulación de ancho de pulso de vectores espaciales (SPWM) con comparación triangular que genera un incremento en el factor de ganancia del qSBI, y se contrasta su desempeño con otro tipo de modulaciones de vectores espaciales, tales como las modulaciones discontinuas. Para verificar la validez de la extensión de rango de tensión en el convertidor qSBI, se desarrolló una plataforma de pruebas semi-personalizada. Esta plataforma utiliza una tarjeta DSP de punto flotante (Analog Devices ADSP-21369) para el procesamiento de las estrategias de control, y una tarjeta de interfaz que incluye un arreglo lógico programable (FPGA) de Xilinx (Spartan-3), que permite desarrollar la modulación sincronizada que el qSBI necesita. Los resultados experimentales demuestran mejoras en el desempeño del convertidor qSBI en cuanto al factor de ganancia, reducción del estrés de voltaje en el capacitor y los perfiles de corriente de entrada. Las estrategias discontinuas de modulación del vector espacial no presentan un buen desempeño cuando se compara con las modulaciones continuas SVPWM o SPWM, ya que los niveles de rizado en las corrientes tomadas del módulo PV son de aproximadamente el doble que en el caso de las técnicas de modulación continuas. Finalmente, el uso del convertidor qSBI como microinversor es puesto en evidencia por dos casos experimentales prácticos de un sistema fotovoltaico PV con un algoritmo de ajuste del máximo punto de potencia (MPPT).This work analyzes a prototype of a quasi-switched boost inverter (qSBI) feeding an isolated resistive load from a DC source. The use of spatial vector pulse width modulation (SPWM) with triangular comparison is proposed to increase the qSBI gain factor, and its performance is contrasted with other types of spatial vector modulations, such as discontinuous modulations. To verify the validity of the method for voltage range extension in the qSBI converter, a semi-customized test platform was developed. This platform uses a DSP floating point card (Analog Devices ADSP-21369) for processing and control strategies and an interface card that includes a programmable logic array (FPGA) from Xilinx (Spartan-3), which allows to develop the synchronized modulation qSBI needs. The experimental results show improvements in the performance of the qSBI converter in terms of gain factor, voltage reduction in the capacitor, and input current profiles. Discontinuous space vector modulation strategies do not perform well when compared to continuous SVPWM or SPWM modulations, because the ripple levels in the currents taken from the PV module are approximately twice as great as in continuous modulation techniques. Finally, the usefulness of a qSBI as PV microinverter is confirmed by two practical experimental cases of a PV photovoltaic system with a maximum power point adjustment algorithm (MPPT)