A New Grid-Connected PV System Based On Cascaded H-Bridge Quasi-Z Source Inverter
A New Grid-Connected PV System Based On Cascaded H-Bridge Quasi-Z Source Inverter
A New Grid-Connected PV System Based On Cascaded H-Bridge Quasi-Z Source Inverter
Abstract- A new scheme for grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) under the equal DC-link voltages through neglecting the PV
interface by combination of a quasi-Z source inverter (qZSI) string voltage differences. References [7]-[10] introduce a
into cascaded H-bridge (CHB) is proposed in this paper. The
proposed scheme enables PV string voltage boost to a higher factor to express the different voltage and power of each PV
level, and solves the imbalance problem of DC-link voltage in string, but it cannot solve the DC-link imbalance problem. In
traditional CHB inverters. A multilevel voltage waveform of [11] an additional DC/DC converter is added to compensate
inverter output is generated by an improved phase shifted the imbalance of the DC-link voltage, but causing the whole
sinusoidal pulse width modulation (PS-SPWM) algorithm, which system complex and expensive.
introduces shoot-through states into the conventional zero states
to control qZS-CHB module. The effective control schemes are Nowadays, the Z-source inverter (ZSI) and the quasi-Z
proposed to regulate the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) source inverter (qZSI) have been widely applied for
of each string, and control the DC-link voltage of each H-bridge, renewable energy power generation system due to some
respectively. Grid injected power is controlled corresponding to unique features [12]-[16]. They can implement voltage boost
the proportionality factors of each PV string output power. A and power conversion simultaneously in a single stage, and
1.5 kW system is built in MATLAB/SIMULINK, and the
simulation results verify the proposed novel multilevel PV improve the reliability due to the shoot-through cases no
interface inverter and its control principles. longer destroying the inverter [12]-[14]. However, PV system
based on qZS-CHB multilevel inverter has never been
I. INTRODUCTION
presented by now. Introducing a quasi-Z source (qZS)
As solar energy is one of the most promising renewable network into the CHB module, the system features several
energy, the photovoltaic (PV) systems are becoming more advantages, such as PV string voltage boost, independent
and more popular. In recent years applying multilevel tracking MPP of each PV string, and keeping an equal DC-
inverters to PV power systems is getting more and more link voltage for each H-bridge inverter module.
attention due to the large power-scale demands. Three This paper proposes a new PV system based on qZS- CHB
common multilevel inverters topologies are as follows: 1) multilevel inverter. Its whole control scheme including
diode clamped [1]-[3]; 2) capacitor clamped [4], [5]; and 3) independent MPPT control, independent DC-link voltage
cascaded H-bridge (CHB) inverter [6]–[11]. Among these control, and the grid injected power control is studied in this
topologies, the CHB inverter has unique advantages and is paper. Simulation results verify the proposed system and the
more widely used in PV system. control scheme.
Fig.1 shows a generic PV system using the CHB inverter.
The system offers some advantages such as the independent
maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of each string and
Module 1
(a) (b)
952
With the PWM shown in Fig. 4, each H-bridge module is a The independent MPPT control of each module is shown in
3-level inverter. We take the H-bridge module 1 as an Fig. 6. The output voltage and current of each PV string are
example, S1 and S2 (dashed line) are carriers for two legs detected and inputted to the MPPT controller. The controller
(left leg and right leg of H-bridge), respectively, which have a outputs a reference to the PV voltage close-loop regulator.
phase shift in 180° each other. The output voltage va1 of H- The PV voltage reference is refreshed every 0.0002 s by
bridge module 1 is a 3-level PWM signal. The carriers of using MPPT algorithm. By regulating the shoot-through duty
different H-bridge modules are shifted in 60° each other to ratio Dn the output voltage of each PV string will be
produce the multilevel stepped voltage waveform. By controlled at different values according to the environment
applying this method, 7-level PWM signal are generated as conditions.
shown in the Fig. 4.
III. CONTROL SCHEME B. Independent DC-link Voltage Control
PV1
PV2 To ensure unity power factor operation, the phase locked
200 PV3
loop (PLL) is performed to measure the phase of grid voltage.
The grid current is measured and fed back to the current
0 control loop regulator. The qZS-CHB multilevel inverter
0 20 40 60 80 100
vpv (V) output voltage vtotal is given by the current loop to produce the
(a) modulation index mn for each module.
10 As each qZS H-bridge module provides different power,
the proportionality factors can be calculated as follows [6],
[11]
ipv (A)
5 PV1 P*n
PV2 an = . (5)
PV3 P*total
Using SPWM modulation method, the modulation index mn
0 for each module can be calculated by
0 20 40 60 80 100
vpv (V) a v
mn = n total . (6)
(b) vˆPNn
Fig. 5. Characteristics of PV strings in different temperature. (a) P-V With the modulation index mn and the shoot-through duty
characteristics of three PV strings. (b) I-V characteristics of three PV strings. ratio Dn, the gate signals for three qZS H-bridge modules are
953
produced in PS-SPWM controller. The block diagram that inductor currents of three qZS H-bridge modules, which
performs the system power control is shown in Fig. 7. illustrate the operating principle in (1) and (2).
The DC-link voltage of each module is shown in Fig. 11.
With the independent DC-link voltage control, all their peak
values are kept at the reference 145 V. The output voltage of
qZS-CHB multilevel inverter is shown in Fig. 12. The 7-level
voltage verifies the correct operation of the improved PS-
SPWM techniques. Fig. 13 shows that the grid voltage vgrid
and the grid current igrid are in phase, which ensures unity
power factor operation. The modulation index of each module
is shown in Fig. 14. Module 1 has a higher modulation index
because it provides the most power. While module 2 and
vˆPNn module 3 have a lower modulation index, corresponding to
vˆPNn their lower output power.
80
PV1
vpv (V)
Fig. 6. Control scheme of qZS H-bridge module.
70 PV2
PV3
60
50
2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5
3
∑ Pn
n =1 2 600
v̂grid PV1
Ppv (W)
PV2
vˆPNn 500
PV3
1
Ptotal 400
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5
t (s)
Fig. 7. Power control of the whole system.
Fig. 8. PV voltages and output powers of three modules.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
In order to verify the proposed system and its control
vC1 and vC2 (V) vC1 and vC2 (V) vC1 and vC2 (V)
954
iL1 and iL2 (A) 20 400
200
vgrid (V)
Module 1
10 0
-200
0 -400
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5 2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5
20
iL1 and iL2 (A)
Module 2 20
igrid (A)
10 0
0 -20
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5 2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5
20 t (s)
iL1 and iL2 (A)
Module 3
0 1
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5
t (s)
0
m1
Fig. 10. Inductor currents of three qZS H-bridge modules.
200 -1
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5
vPN1 (V)
1
100
0
m2
0
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5
200 -1
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5
vPN2 (V)
1
100
0
m3
0
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5
200 -1
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5
vPN3 (V)
t (s)
100
Fig. 14. Modulation index of each module.
0
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5
t (s) V. CONCLUSION
955
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Annual Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, APEC
2009, Washington DC, USA, pp. 918-924, 15-19 Feb. 2009.
Parts of this work, specifically Sections III and IV were [15] U. Supatti, F.Z. Peng, “Z-source inverter with grid connected for wind
supported by Education Development Program of Delta power system,” IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition,
ECCE 2009, San Jose, USA, pp. 398 – 403, 20-24 Sep. 2010.
Environmental & Educational Foundation under grant No. [16] Y. Li, F.Z. Peng, J.G. Cintron-Rivera, and S. Jiang, “Controller design
DREG2010001 and the State Key Laboratory of Control and for Quasi-Z-Source inverter in photovoltaic systems,” IEEE Energy
Simulation of Power System and Generation Equipments Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE2010, Atlanta, USA, pp.
3187-3194, 12-16 Sep. 2010.
under grant No. SKLD11KM01, Tsinghua University, [17] N. Femia, D. Granozio, G. Petrone, G. Spagnuolo, and M. Vitelli,
Beijing 100084, China. In addition, we also acknowledge “Predictive & adaptive mppt perturb and observe method,” IEEE Trans.
support from NPRP grant No. 09-233-2-096 from the Qatar on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 934–950, Jul.
2007.
National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation) for
Section II, and from the Beijing Jiaotong University
Foundation under grant No. 2009JBM093 for Section IV. The
statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the
authors.
REFERENCES
[1] J. Pou, R. Pindado, and D. Boroyevich, “Voltage-balance limits in four-
level diode-clamped converters with passive front ends,” IEEE Trans.
Ind.Electron., vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 190–196, Feb. 2005.
[2] S. Alepuz, S. Busquets-Monge, J. Bordonau, J. Gago, D. Gonzalez,
andJ. Balcells, “Interfacing renewable energy sources to the utility grid
using a three-level inverter,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 5,
pp. 1504–1511, Oct. 2006.
[3] L. Ma, X. Jin, T. Kerekes, M. Liserre, R. Teodorescu, and P. Rodriguez,
“The PWM strategies of grid-connected distributed generation active
NPC inverters,” IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition,
ECCE2009, San Jose, USA, pp. 920–927, 20–24 Sep., 2009.
[4] D.-W. Kang, B.-K. Lee, J.-H. Jeon, T.-J. Kim, and D.-S. Hyun, “A
symmetric carrier technique of CRPWM for voltage balance method of
flying capacitor multilevel inverter,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol.
52, no. 3, pp. 879–888, Jun. 2005.
[5] B.-R. Lin and C.-H. Huang, “Implementation of a three-phase
capacitor-clamped active power filter under unbalanced condition,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 1621–1630, Oct. 2006.
[6] O. Alonso, P. Sanchis, E. Gubia, L. Marroyo, “Cascaded H-bridge
multilevel converter for grid connected photovoltaic generators with
independent maximum power point tracking of each solar array,” IEEE
34th Annual Power Electronics Specialist Conference, PESC ’03,
Acapulco, Mexico, vol. 2,pp. 731–735, 15-19 June, 2003.
[7] E. Villanueva, P. Correa, J. Rodriguez, and M. Pacas, “Control of a
single-phase cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter for grid-connected
photovoltaic systems,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 56, no. 11, pp.
4399–4406, Nov. 2009.
[8] J.J. Negroni, F. Guinjoan, C. Meza, D. Biel, and P. Sanchis, “Energy-
sampled data modeling of a cascade H-bridge multilevel converter
forgrid-connected PV systems,” IEEE 10th International Power
Electronics Congress, CIEP 2006, Cholula, Puebla Mexico, pp. 1–6,
16-18 Oct, 2006.
[9] S. Khajehoddin, A. Bakhshai, and P. Jain, “The application of the
cascaded multilevel converters in grid connected photovoltaic systems,”
IEEE Electrical Power Conference, EPC 2007, Montreal, Quebec,
Canada, pp. 296–301, 25-26 Oct, 2007.
[10] S. Kouro, A. Moya, E. Villanueva, P. Correa, B. Wu, and J. Rodriguez,
“Control of a cascaded h-bridge multilevel converter for grid
connection of photovoltaic systems,” IEEE 35th Annual Conference of
the Industrial Electronics Society, IECON09, pp. 1–7, 3-5 Nov., 2009.
[11] S. Rivera, S. Kouro, B. Wu, J.I. Leon, J. Rodriguez, L.G. Franquelo,
“Cascaded H-bridge multilevel converter multistring topology for large
scale photovoltaic systems,” IEEE International Symposium on
Industrial Electronics, ISIE 2011, Gdansk, Poland, pp. 1837–1844, 27-
30 Jun., 2011.
[12] Y. Huang, M.S. Shen, F.Z. Peng, J. Wang, “Z-Source inverter for
residential photovoltaic systems,” IEEE Trans on Power Electron., vol.
21, no. 6, pp. 1776-1782, Nov. 2006.
[13] R. Badin, Y. Huang, F.Z. Peng, H.G. Kim, “Grid Interconnected Z-
Source PV System,” IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference,
PESC 2007, Orlando, USA, pp. 2328-2333, 8-12 Jul. 2007.
[14] Y. Li, J. Anderson, F.Z. Peng, and D.C. Liu, “Quasi-Z-source inverter
for photovoltaic power generation systems,” IEEE Twenty-Fourth
956