Five-Level T-type Cascade Converter for Rooftop Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems

Cristian Verdugo, Samir Kouro, Christian A. Rojas, Marcelo A. Perez, Thierry Meynard and Mariusz Malinowski
Additional contact information
Cristian Verdugo: Electrical Engineering Department, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 08222 Barcelona, Spain
Samir Kouro: Electronics Engineering Department, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaiso 2390123, Chile
Christian A. Rojas: Electronics Engineering Department, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaiso 2390123, Chile
Marcelo A. Perez: Electronics Engineering Department, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaiso 2390123, Chile
Thierry Meynard: Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, 31071 Toulouse, France
Mariusz Malinowski: Institute of Control & Industrial Electronics, Warsaw University of Technology, 00-662 Warsaw, Poland

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: Multilevel converters are widely considered to be the most suitable configurations for renewable energy sources. Their high-power quality, efficiency and performance make them interesting for PV applications. In low-power applications such as rooftop grid-connected PV systems, power converters with high efficiency and reliability are required. For this reason, multilevel converters based on parallel and cascaded configurations have been proposed and commercialized in the industry. Motivated by the features of multilevel converters based on cascaded configurations, this work presents the modulation and control of a rooftop single-phase grid-connected photovoltaic multilevel system. The configuration has a symmetrical cascade connection of two three-level T-type neutral point clamped power legs, which creates a five-level converter with two independent string connections. The proposed topology merges the benefits of multi-string PV and symmetrical cascade multilevel inverters. The switching operation principle, modulation technique and control scheme under an unbalanced power operation among the cell are addressed. Simulation and experimental validation results in a reduced-scale power single-phase converter prototype under variable conditions at different set points for both PV strings are presented. Finally, a comparative numerical analysis between other T-type configurations to highlight the advantages of the studied configuration is included.

Keywords: grid-connected photovoltaic systems; cascade multilevel converters; multistring converters; T-type converters (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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