This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal.
Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
Efficient Single Phase Transformerless Inverter for
Grid-Tied PVG System With Reactive Power Control
Monirul Islam, Nadia Afrin, and Saad Mekhilef, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractThere has been an increasing interest in transformer-
less inverter for grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) system due to low cost,
high efficiency, light weight, etc. Therefore, many transformer-
less topologies have been proposed and verified with real power
injection only. Recently, almost every international regulation has
imposed that a definite amount of reactive power should be han-
dled by the grid-tied PV inverter. According to the standard VDE-
AR-N 4105, grid-tied PV inverter of power rating below 3.68KVA,
should attain power factor (PF) from 0.95 leading to 0.95 lag-
ging. In this paper, a new high efficiency transformerless topology
is proposed for grid-tied PV system with reactive power control.
The new topology structure and detail operation principle with
reactive power flow is described. The high frequency common-
mode (CM) model and the control of the proposed topology are
analyzed. The inherent circuit structure of the proposed topology
does not lead itself to the reverse recovery issues even when inject
reactive power which allow utilizing MOSFET switches to boost
the overall efficiency. The CM voltage is kept constant at mid-
point of dc input voltage, results low leakage current. Finally, to
validate the proposed topology, a 1 kW laboratory prototype is
built and tested. The experimental results show that the proposed
topology can inject reactive power into the utility grid without any
additional current distortion and leakage current. The maximum
efficiency and European efficiency of the proposed topology are
measured and found to be 98.54% and 98.29%, respectively.
Index TermsCommon mode, converter, high efficiency, leak-
age current, reactive power, transformerless.
I. I NTRODUCTION
R ECENTLY, the photovoltaic power generation system
has been focused as one of the most significant energy
sources due to the rising concern about global warming, and
the increase of electrical power consumption [1], [2]. In addi-
tion, the PV module has no moving parts, which have made it
very robust, long lifetime and low maintenance device. Though
the PV module is still expensive, but due to the large-scale
manufacturing it has become increasingly cheaper in the last
few years. It has been reported in [3] that the milestone of
100GW installed PV power all over the world was achieved
Manuscript received October 19, 2015; revised January 15, 2016; accepted
February 21, 2016. This work was supported in part by the Ministry of Higher
Education (MoHE), Malaysia under Grant UM.C/HIR/MOHE/ENG/24 and
in part by the University of Malaya under Grant RP015D-13AET. Paper no.
TSTE-00861-2015.
M. Islam and S. Mekhilef are with Power Electronics and Renewable
Energy Research Laboratory (PEARL), Department of Electrical
Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia (e-mail:
monir04eee@yahoo.com; saad@um.edu.my).
N. Afrin is with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Pabna University of Science and Technology, Pabna 6600, Bangladesh (e-mail:
nadia.afrin89@gmail.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSTE.2016.2537365
1949-3029 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1
at the end of 2012 and increased to 140GW at the end of 2013,
and the majority were grid connected as shown in Fig. 1 [3].
Therefore, a prediction has been made in [4] that the future grid-
tied PV system will play an important role in the regulation of
the conventional power system.
In general, PV power generation system includes solar arrays
and power conversion unit [5], [6]. In most countries and areas,
a line-frequency transformer or a high-frequency transformer
has been utilized in the grid-tied PV system to create a galvanic
isolation between the PV module and the grid. However, the
use of line-frequency or high-frequency transformer makes the
entire system bulky, costly, and less efficient. In contrast, trans-
formerless PV inverter system has been drawing more attention
for its low cost, high efficiency, small size and light weight
[7][9]. The exclusion of transformer, and hence its isolation
capability, has to be considered carefully due to the issues raised
from no galvanic isolation between the PV module and the grid.
In this case, because of the parasitic capacitance between the
PV module and the ground, the fluctuating CM voltage that
depends on the topology structure and switching scheme can
cause of a capacitive leakage current [10]. The existence of
leakage current increases grid current harmonics and system
losses, deteriorates the electromagnetic compatibility and, more
significantly, lead to a safety threat [6], [11].
Another important issue of grid-tied transformerless PV
inverter is the ability of injecting reactive power into the util-
ity grid. Recently almost every international regulation has
imposed that a definite amount of reactive power should be han-
dled by the grid-tied PV inverter. This is due to the problems of
grid voltage instability. According to the standard VDE-AR-
N 4105, grid-tied PV inverter of power rating below 3.68kVA,
should attain PF from 0.95 leading to 0.95 lagging [12].
In order to solve the problem of leakage current, many
dc-ac transformerless topologies have been proposed based
on the full-bridge (FB) inverter [7], [8], [11], [13][15] and
verified with real power injection only. Most of the inverter
topologies described in literature and commercially available
show the European efficiency in the range of 96%98% [16].
Therefore, to boost the efficiency, some of the transformer-
less topologies have been implemented with MOSFET switches
because of its low switching and conduction losses [7], [13],
[17][20]. However, due to the low reverse recovery issues of
MOSFETs anti-parallel diode, the risk of device failure exist
in the MOSFET based phase-leg.
The most attractive transformerless topology is the Highly
Efficient and Reliable Inverter Concept (HERIC) topology
which is shown in Fig. 2(a). Two switches and two diodes are
added in the ac side of FB topology to decouple the PV module
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
Fig. 1. Share of grid-connected and standalone PV installation [3].
from the grid during the freewheeling period [18]. As seen in
Fig. 2(b), the topology which has been proposed in [7] replaces
the two switches freewheeling branch with one bi-directional
switch and four diodes called H-bridge zero voltage rectifier
(HB-ZVR). Also another diode (D5) is added to clamp the CM
voltage at the half of dc input voltage for better eliminating the
leakage current. Yu et al. proposed H6-type topology in [13],
where two switches and two diodes are added in the dc side to
decouple the PV module from the grid which is presented in
Fig. 2(c). All of the switches of these three topologies can be
implemented using MOSFET switches when inject real power.
Fig. 2(d) shows another explicit transformerless topology
proposed in [21] called H5 topology which is made up by
adding an extra switch in the dc side of the FB inverter. An
optimized H5 (oH5) topology has been presented in [14], which
added a clamping branch consisting of a switch and a capacitor
divider with the H5 topology as depicted in Fig. 2(e). Gonzalez
et al. proposed another H6 topology in [15] called full-bridge
with dc bypass (FB-DCBP) topology. It employs two switches
in the dc side and a bi-directional clamping branch consisting
of two diodes and a capacitor divider as shown in Fig. 2(f). In
the case of real power injection, three switches (S2, S4 & S5)
of Fig. 2(d) & (e) and two switches (S5 & S6) of Fig. 2(f) can
be implemented using MOSFET switches. However, if a phase
difference is occurred between the output voltage and current,
body-diodes of the MOSFET switches of all the topologies pre-
sented in Fig. 2 will be activated. As results, reliability of the
system will be reduced.
In Fig. 3(a), Bin et al. proposed a topology with high reli-
ability and efficiency (HRE) [16]. This topology splits the ac
sides into two independent parts in the positive and negative
half cycle of the grid current if compared with HERIC topol-
ogy. The reported maximum and California energy commission
(CEC) efficiencies of the HRE inverter on a 5 kW proto-
type circuit with 20 kHz switching frequency were 99.3% and
99%, respectively. Another high efficiency inverter called dual-
parallel-buck converter is shown in Fig. 3(b), consisting of four
CoolMOS switches and four SiC diodes [17]. The indicated
peak efficiency and European efficiency of dual-parallel-buck
converter on a 4.5 kW prototype circuit with 345V input voltage
and 16 kHz operating frequency were 99% and 98.8%, respec-
tively. The main drawback of this topology is that the grid will
be short circuit if no dead time is present between the switches
S3 and S4, through which the grid is directly connected. The
main advantage of these two topologies is that when a phase
difference will be occurred between the output voltage and
current, the diodes D1 & D2 or D3 & D4 will be activated
depending on the positive or negative half cycle. As a result,
these topologies may be implemented with MOSFET switches
even when inject reactive power. However, both of these topolo-
gies have not been yet verified from the view of reactive power
control capability.
According to the above discussion, it can be seen that most of
the topologies cannot be implemented using MOSFET switches
when inject reactive power. And the topologies presented in
Fig. 3 have not been verified yet with reactive power injection.
Therefore, the main focus of this paper is to propose a new
topology that can be implemented using MOSFET switches
with high reliability, efficiency, and low leakage current even
when inject reactive power. In section II, the circuit structure
and the operating principle of the proposed topology is pre-
sented. Next the CM characteristic of the proposed topology is
presented in section III. Later the control strategy with reactive
power control is investigated in section IV. After that, the the-
oretical analysis is initially verified in the MATLAB/Simulink
software environment and the results are given in section V.
Finally, the proposed topology is validated with a laboratory
prototype of rated 1 kW/ 50 Hz for active and reactive power
injection and the experimental results is shown in section VI.
At last, the conclusion of this study is drawn in section VII.
II. P ROPOSED T OPOLOGY AND O PERATING P RINCIPLE
A. Structure of the Proposed Topology
Fig. 4 shows the proposed transformerless inverter topolo-
gies consisting of six MOSFET switches (S1-S6) and six diodes
(D1-D6). L1A , L1B , L2A , L2B , L1g , L2g and Co make up the LCL
type filter connected to the grid. VPV and Cdc represent the
input dc voltage and dc link capacitor. The proposed topology
is derived from the topology presented in Fig. 2(c) to overcome
the low reverse-recovery issues of MOSFETs body-diode when
injects reactive power into the utility grid. Therefore, the pro-
posed topology can be implemented with MOSFET switches
without reliability and efficiency penalty. The proposed topol-
ogy can also employ unipolar-SPWM with three-level output
voltage.
B. Operating Principle of the Proposed Topology
The switching pattern of the proposed topology is shown in
Fig. 5, where G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, and G6 represent the gate
drive signals of the switches S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, and S6, respec-
tively. The operation principle of the proposed topology within
a grid period is divided into four regions as shown in Fig. 5.
Due to the symmetry of the operation of the positive and neg-
ative half cycle of grid current, here only positive half cycle
explanation is given. However, the circuit diagram for negative
half cycle operation is depicted in Fig. 6.
Region I: In this region, both the grid current and voltage are
positive. During the period within this region, S2 is always on,
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

ISLAM et al.: EFFICIENT SINGLE PHASE TRANSFORMERLESS INVERTER FOR GRID-TIED PVG SYSTEM 3

Fig. 2. Some existing transformerless topologies for grid-tied PV system using MOSFETs as main power switches: (a) HERIC topology proposed in [18],
(b) topology proposed in [7] (c) topology proposed in [13] (d) H5 topology proposed in [21] (e) topology proposed in [14] (f) topology proposed in [15].

Fig. 4. (a) Circuit structure of the proposed transformerless topology for grid-
tied PV system (b) circuit structure with coupled inductor.
Fig. 3. High efficiency transformerless topology: (a) topology proposed in [16]
(b) topology proposed in [17].

while S1 & S3 synchronously and S5 complementary commu-

tate with switching frequency. There are always two states that
generate the output voltage of +VPV and 0.
State 1(t0:t1): At t = t0, the switches S1 & S3 are turned-
on and the inductor current increases through grid as shown in
Fig. 6(a). In this state, the voltages V1N and V2N can be defined
as: V1N = +VP V and V2N = 0, thus the inverter output voltage
V12 = (V1N V2N ) = +VP V .
State 2(t1:t2): When the switches S1 and S3 are turned-off,
the inductor current freewheels through S2 and D5. In this state, Fig. 5. Switching pattern of the proposed topology with reactive power flow.
V1N falls and V2N rises until their values are equal. Therefore,
the voltages V1N and V2N becomes: V1N = VP V /2 and V2N = complementary commutate with switching frequency. There are
VP V /2 and the inverter output voltage V12 = 0. also two states that generate the output voltage of VPV and 0.
Region II: In this region, the inverter output voltage is nega- State 3(t3:t4): In this state, the switches S4 and S6 are
tive, but the current remains positive. During the period of this turned-on and the filter inductors are demagnetized. Since the
region, S5 is always on, while S4 & S6 synchronously and S2 inverter output voltage is negative and the current remains
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY

Fig. 7. Equivalent CM model of the proposed topology.

Fig. 6. The operating principle of the proposed topology: (a) state 1 (b) state 2
(c) state 3 (d) state 4 (e) state 5 (f) state 6.

positive; therefore, the inductor current is forced to freewheel

through the diode D1 and D2, and decreases rapidly for endur-
ing the reverse voltage as shown in Fig. 6(c). The voltages V1N
and V2N can be defined as: V1N = 0 and V2N = +VP V , thus
the inverter output voltage V12 = (V1N V2N ) = VP V . Fig. 8. Simplified CM model at switching frequency for positive half cycle.
State 4(t4:t5): At t = t4, the switches S4 and S6 are turned-
off and S2 is turned-on. Therefore, the inductor current flows
through S2 and D5 like as state 2 (Fig. 6(b) can be referred as
equivalent circuit). This state is called as energy storage mode.
The voltages V1N and V2N could be: V1N = VP V /2 and V2N =
VP V /2, and thus the inverter output voltage, V12 = 0.

III. H IGH F REQUENCY CM M ODEL OF THE P ROPOSED

T OPOLOGY FOR L EAKAGE C URRENT A NALYSIS
The PV module generates an electrically chargeable surface
area which faces a grounded frame. In case of such configura-
tion, a capacitance is formed between the PV module and the
ground. Since this capacitance occurs as an undesirable side
effect, it is referred as parasitic capacitance. Due to the loss of
galvanic separation between the PV module and the grid, a CM
resonant circuit can be created. An alternating CM voltage that
depends on the topology structure and control scheme, can elec-
trify the resonant circuit and may lead to higher ground leakage
current [6], [16], [22]. In order to analyze the CM character-
istics, an equivalent circuit of the proposed topology as shown
in Fig. 7 can be drawn, where V1N , V2N , V3N and V4N are the
controlled voltage source connected to the negative terminal N,
LCM and CCM are the CM inductor and capacitor, CPVg is the
parasitic capacitance, and Zg is the grid impedance.
During the positive half-cycle, the switches S4 and S6 are
always off. As a result, the controlled voltage sources V3N and
V4N are zero and can be removed. According to the definition
of common-mode and differential-mode voltage:
1 VtCM = VCM +
VCM = (V1N + V2N ) (1)
2
VDM = V1N V2N (2)
Solving (1) and (2), V1N and V2N can be expressed as
follows:
Fig. 9. Simplified single loop CM model.
1
V1N = VCM + VDM (3)
2
1
V2N = VCM VDM (4)
2
In order to illustrate the CM model at switching frequency,
equation (3) and (4) could be replaced for the bridge-leg in
Fig. 7. The grid is a low frequency (5060 Hz) voltage source;
thus the impact of grid on the leakage current can be neglected
[23]. The DM capacitor Co can also be removed since it has
no effect on the leakage current. Consequently, the simplified
high frequency CM model of the proposed topology for posi-
tive half-cycle could be drawn as Fig. 8. Finally, the simplified
single loop CM model of the proposed topology for positive
half cycle is derived in Fig. 9.
From Fig. 9, the following equation of the total CM voltage
can easily be derived as:
VDM L2 L1
(5)
2 L2 + L1
where VtCM represent total CM voltage, and L1 = L1A + L1g
and L2 = L1B + L2g . In the proposed inverter if L1A = L1B
and L1g = L2g for a well-designed circuit with symmetrically
structured magnetics [16], equation (5) can be rewritten as
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

ISLAM et al.: EFFICIENT SINGLE PHASE TRANSFORMERLESS INVERTER FOR GRID-TIED PVG SYSTEM 5

follows:
1
VtCM = VCM = (V1N + V2N ) (6)
2
According to the operation principle of the proposed topol-
ogy presented in section II (B), the total CM voltages can be
calculated for each state of positive half cycle operation as
follows:
1 1 1
State 1 : VtCM = (V1N + V2N ) = (VP V + 0) = VP V
2 2 2
(7)
1
State 2 : VtCM = (V1N + V2N )
2 Fig. 10. Control diagram of the proposed topology.
1 1
= (1/2VP V + 1/2VP V ) = VP V (8)
2 2
1 1 1
State 3 : VtCM = (V1N + V2N ) = (0 + VP V ) = VP V
2 2 2
(9)
1 1
State 4 : VtCM = (V1N + V2N ) = (1/2VP V + 1/2VP V )
2 2
1
= VP V (10)
2
It is clear from equations (7)-(10) that the total CM voltage
for the proposed topology during positive half cycle operation
is kept constant at VP V /2. Likewise, the total CM voltage for Fig. 11. OSG based power calculation.
the negative half cycle operation can be calculated and found to
be constant at VP V /2 due to the symmetry of operation for the
positive and negative half cycle of grid current. The only dif- controllers has been used as shown in Fig. 10. The grid refer-
ference is the activation of different power devices. Therefore, ence current can be derived with the help of OSG system in the
it can be concluded that the total CM voltage during the whole following equation [25], [26]:
grid cycle is kept constant, reducing ground leakage current.
ig = [(Pref Pcal ) Gp (s) vg + (Qref Qcal ) Gq (s) vg ]/
 2 
IV. C ONTROL OF THE P ROPOSED T OPOLOGY v + v2 (15)

The control system for the proposed topology is illustrated in
Fig. 10, which contains an orthogonal signal generator (OSG)
unit to calculate active and reactive power, two proportional
integral (PI) controllers, a grid current controller and a SPWM
generation block. Based on the OSG system, the active power
P and reactive power Q for the proposed topology can be calcu-
lated by using the following equation which is shown in Fig. 11
[4], [24]:
Pcal = 1/2 [vg ig + vg ig ]
Qcal = 1/2 [vg ig vg ig ]
where vg , vg , ig , and ig represents the and components
of grid voltage and current. Based on equation (11) and (12), the
current in -reference frame can be derived as follows:
 2 2
 PR controller has better performance of tracking the reference
ig = 2 (Pcal vg + Qcal vg ) / vg + vg (13)
 2 2

ig = 2 (Pcal vg + Qcal vg ) / vg + vg (14)
According to the single phase P-Q theory, the grid-in current
reference can be generated by regulating the averaged active
and reactive power [25], [26]. Since the active and reactive
power are constant in steady state, so to control them two PI
where Pref and Qref are the power references, Gp (s) and Gq (s)
are the transfer function of PI based controller that can be
defined as follows:
Gp (s) = Kpp + Kpi 1 /s (16)
1
Gq (s) = Kqp + Kqi /s (17)
where Kpp , Kpi , Kqp , and Kqi are the proportional and integral
(11) gain for the active and reactive power.
(12) In order to control the grid current, several existing control
methods such as conventional PI controller, repetitive controller
(RC), proportional resonant (PR) controller, and deadbeat (DB)
controller can be adopted due to the capability of tracking ref-
erence signal without steady state error [27], [28]. Since the
signal if compared to the normal PI and RC controller, it is
selected to control the output current of the proposed topol-
ogy. The block diagram of the PR controller with harmonic
current compensator is shown in Fig. 12, where Gc (s), Gh (s),
and Gd (s) are the transfer function of fundamental current con-
troller, harmonic compensator, and inverter respectively. The
transfer functions are given below [27], [29]:
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY

Fig. 12. Block diagram of PR controller with harmonic compensator.

TABLE I
S PECIFICATION OF THE P ROTOTYPE

Fig. 13. CM characteristics of the proposed topology with pure real power flow.

s
Gc (s) = Kpi + Kii (18)
s2 + f2
 Kih s
Gh (s) = 2 (19)
h=3,5,...
s2 + (hf )
1
Gd (s) = (20)
1 + 1.5Ts s
where Kpi and Kii are the proportional and resonant gain, f is
the fundamental frequency, Kih is the resonant gain at the nth-
order harmonic, h is the harmonic order, and Ts is the sampling
period.

V. S IMULATION R ESULTS
The simulations are carried out using MTALAB/Simulink
software to analyze and initially verify the theoretical analysis.
The parameters are used in simulation are given in Table I. The
PV module is replaced with a 400V dc voltage source and the
parasitic capacitance between the PV module and the ground is
emulated using a thin film capacitor of 75nF. Fig. 14. CM characteristics of the proposed topology with real and reactive
The simulated CM characteristics of the proposed topology power flow.
with pure real power and both real and reactive power flow con-
ditions are shown Figs. 13 and 14, respectively. It can be seen the active and reactive power controller track the reference
that the CM voltage ((V1N + V2N )/2 for positive half cycle and power within four cycle of operation. As seen, the grid cur-
(V3N + V4N )/2) for negative half cycle) for both unity power rent and voltage has very low distortion and the leakage flows
factor and other than unity power operation is kept constant at through the whole system is very less. Therefore, it can be con-
the half of dc input voltage excluding a small fluctuation during cluded that the fast and effective response of the load changes
the grid zero crossing instant. However, the ground leakage cur- are achieved which validate the robustness of the proposed
rent is very small and its RMS value is only 10 mA which is far topology with the presented control scheme.
lower than the limitation requirement of the German standard
[30].
VI. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
Figs. 15 and 16 show the dynamic results under the changes
of only Pref , and both Pref and Qref . It is clear that the grid In order to experimentally verify the performance of the
current is changed according to the step load changes, and proposed topology, a 1 kW prototype is built and tested. The
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
ISLAM et al.: EFFICIENT SINGLE PHASE TRANSFORMERLESS INVERTER FOR GRID-TIED PVG SYSTEM
Fig. 15. Performance of the proposed topology under the changes of Pref : grid
voltage vg (V), grid current ig (50 A), leakage current ileakage (A), measured
active power Pm (W) and reactive power Qm (VAR), reference active power
Pref (W) and reactive power Qref (VAR).
Fig. 16. Performance of the proposed topology under the changes of Pref and
Qref : grid voltage vg (V), grid current ig (50 A), leakage current ileakage (A),
measured active power Pm (W) and reactive power Qm (VAR), reference active
power Pref (W) and reactive power Qref (VAR).
specifications of the prototype are listed in Table I. Like as
simulation, the PV module is replaced with a 400V dc voltage
source and the parasitic capacitance between the PV module
and the ground is emulated using a thin film capacitor of 75nF.
The proposed system is implemented in the dSPACE 1104
platform.
A. Verification With Real Power Injection
In this section, the proposed topology is verified with 1 kW
power injection. Fig. 17 shows the experimental gate drive sig-
nals for the proposed topology. It can be seen that the switching
7
Fig. 17. Gate drive signals.
Fig. 18. CM characteristics of the proposed topology.
signals are fully matched with the proposed PWM scheme, and
the gate drive voltages are kept constant at the desired level.
The waveforms of CM characteristics are shown in Fig. 18. It
is clear that the voltages V1N , V2N , V3N , and V4N are clamped
at 200V during the freewheeling period of positive and negative
half cycle. As a result, the CM voltage is kept constant at 200V
for the whole grid cycle except a small fluctuation during grid
zero crossing instant as witnessed in Fig. 18. Consequently, the
leakage current flows through the system are well reduced as
shown in Fig. 19. During zero crossing instant, a small spike
can be observed in Fig. 19 due to the fluctuation of CM volt-
age. However, the peak and RMS value of leakage current flows
through this topology are measured 24 mA and 13 mA, respec-
tively which is lower than the limitation requirement of the
German standard [30].
The waveforms of the grid voltage vg and grid current ig are
shown in Fig. 20. It can be seen that vg and ig are pure sinu-
soidal and achieved unity power factor. In Fig. 20, the current
flows through the inductor L1A , and L2B is also shown. It is clear
that L1A conduct for only positive half cycle and L2B conduct
only for negative half cycle. It can also be seen that no overlaps
have been occurred.
Fig. 21 shows the dynamic response of the system when it is
subject to 750W load to 1000W load step change. It can clearly
be seen that fast and effective response under the changes of
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
Fig. 19. Waveform of grid voltage vg , grid current ig , and leakage current
iLeakage .
Fig. 20. Current flows through inductor L1A and L2B .
Fig. 21. Experimental result of the system dynamic response.
active power reference are achieved with the proposed topol-
ogy. Therefore, it can be concluded that the proposed topology
can inject real power into utility grid with low leakage current
and low THD at output.
Fig. 22. Voltage stress of the switches S1, S2, and S3.
Fig. 23. CM characteristics of the proposed topology.
B. Verification With Real and Reactive Power Injection
In this section, the proposed topology is verified with real
power (1000W) and reactive power (500VAR) injection. The
voltage stress across the switches is presented in Fig. 22. It
is very clear that voltage stress of the switches S1 and S2 are
400V while S3 ensure 200V and also no spike is noticeable. In
Fig. 23, the CM characteristics are shown. It can be seen that
the voltages V1N , V2N , V3N , and V4N are clamped at 200V dur-
ing the freewheeling period of positive and negative half cycle.
As a result, the CM voltage is kept constant at 200V for the
whole grid cycle except a small fluctuation during grid zero
crossing instant similar to unity power factor operation. The
waveform of leakage current is shown in Fig. 24. The peak and
RMS values of leakage current flows through the system are
measured 13.6 mA and 26 mA respectively which are below
the requirement of the German standard VDE0126-1-1.
The waveform of grid current ig and grid voltage vg for
inductive power generation is shown in Fig. 25. It is noticeable
that no extra distortion is occurred in grid current when inject
reactive power. However, the THD of grid current is measured
1.89% for inductive power generation as shown in Fig. 26 that
can meet the requirement of IEEE Std. 1547.1TM -2005 [31]. In
Fig. 25, the current flowing through the inductor L1A and L2B
is given. Like as verification with real power, it is clear that L1A
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
ISLAM et al.: EFFICIENT SINGLE PHASE TRANSFORMERLESS INVERTER FOR GRID-TIED PVG SYSTEM
Fig. 24. Leakage current flows through the proposed topology.
Fig. 25. Current flows through inductor L1A and L2B .
Fig. 26. Total harmonic distortion of output voltage and current.
conduct only for positive half cycle and L2B conduct only for
negative half cycle.
Fig. 27 shows the dynamic response of the system when it
is subject to 750W and 250VAR load to 1000W and 500VAR
load step change. It can clearly be seen that fast and effec-
tive response under the changes of active and reactive reference
power are achieved with the proposed topology. Therefore, it
can be concluded that the proposed topology can inject reactive
9
Fig. 27. Experimental result of the system dynamic response.
Fig. 28. CM voltage and leakage current of H6-type topology.
power into utility grid with low leakage current and low THD
at output.
C. Leakage Current and Efficiency Comparison Under Unity
Power Factor Operation
The waveform of leakage current for the H6-type topology
proposed in [13] with unity power factor is shown in Fig. 28.
The RMS value of leakage current flows through this topology
is measured 24 mA. In contrast, 13 mA leakage current flows
through the proposed topology which is given in Fig. 19.
Fig. 29 presents the efficiency comparison between the pro-
posed and H6-type topologies. The YOKOGAWA WT1800
precision power analyzer has been used to measure the effi-
ciency at different output power. It may be noted that the
presented efficiency diagram covers the total devices losses
and the filter inductor losses but it does not contain the losses
for the control circuit. It can be seen that the maximum effi-
ciency with the proposed topology is 98.54%, while H6-type
topology obtain maximum efficiency of 98.60%. The European
efficiency is calculated by combining several weighted factors
at various output power, as expressed in equation (21) [15]:
EU = 0.035% + 0.0610% + 0.1320% + 0.1030%
+ 0.4850% + 0.2100% (21)
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
10
Fig. 29. Measured efficiency comparison.
TABLE II
P ERFORMANCE C OMPARISON
The calculated European efficiency for the proposed and
H6-type topologies is 98.29% and 98.32%, respectively. The
comparison among them has been summarized in Table II to
demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed topology. It can
be seen that the efficiency of these two topologies is almost
same, but the leakage current flows through the proposed topol-
ogy is lower than the H6-type topology. Therefore, the proposed
topology has better CM characteristics while both keep almost
same efficiency. In addition, the proposed topology is capable
of injecting reactive power into utility grid.
VII. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, a new high efficiency transformerless topology
for grid-tied PV system is presented. The main advantages of
the proposed topology can be summarized as:
1) The inherent circuit configuration of the proposed topol-
ogy does not lead itself to the reverse recovery issues
which allow utilizing MOSFET switches even though
when inject reactive power. Therefore, without com-
promising the overall efficiency, proposed topology can
inject reactive power into the utility grid.
2) The CM voltage is kept constant at the mid-point of dc bus
voltage; as a result, low leakage current flows through the
system which is lower than the H6-type topology.
3) PWM dead time is not required for the proposed topology
that reduces the THD at the output.
Finally, to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the
proposed topology, a 1 kW laboratory prototype is built and
tested with both real and reactive power injection. The experi-
mental results verified the above mentioned advantages. It has
shown that the proposed topology presents almost the same
characteristics for both real and reactive power injection, which
are very suitable for grid-tied PV system. Therefore, it can be
concluded that the proposed inverter is an attractive solution for
grid-tied PV system.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
R EFERENCES
[1] I. Patrao, E. Figueres, F. Gonzlez-Espn, and G. Garcer,
Transformerless topologies for grid-connected single-phase photo-
voltaic inverters, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev., vol. 15, pp. 34233431,
2011.
[2] M. Islam, S. Mekhilef, and M. Hasan, Single phase transformerless
inverter topologies for grid-tied photovoltaic system: A review, Renew.
Sustain. Energy Rev., vol. 45, pp. 6986, 2015.
[3] I. PVPS, Trends in photovoltaic applications. Survey report of selected
IEA countries between 1992 and 2013, International Energy Agency, St.
Ursen, Switzerland, Report IEA-PVPS T125, 2014.
[4] Y. Yang and F. Blaabjerg, Low-voltage ride-through capability of a
single-stage single-phase photovoltaic system connected to the low-
voltage grid, Int. J. Photoenergy, vol. 2013, pp. 19, 2013.
[5] S. B. Kjaer, J. K. Pedersen, and F. Blaabjerg, A review of single-phase
grid-connected inverters for photovoltaic modules, IEEE Trans. Ind.
Appl., vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 12921306, Sep./Oct. 2005.
[6] X. Huafeng and X. Shaojun, Leakage current analytical model and
application in single-phase transformerless photovoltaic grid-connected
inverter, IEEE Trans. Electromagn. Compat., vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 902913,
Nov. 2010.
[7] T. Kerekes, R. Teodorescu, P. Rodriguez, G. Vazquez, and E. Aldabas,
A new high-efficiency single-phase transformerless PV inverter topol-
ogy, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 184191, Jan.
2011.
[8] Y. Bo, L. Wuhua, G. Yunjie, C. Wenfeng, and H. Xiangning, Improved
transformerless inverter with common-mode leakage current elimination
for a photovoltaic grid-connected power system, IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 752762, Feb. 2012.
[9] M. Islam and S. Mekhilef, H6-type transformerless single-phase inverter
for grid-tied photovoltaic system, IET Power Electron., vol. 8, pp. 636
644, 2015.
[10] O. Lopez et al., Eliminating ground current in a transformerless pho-
tovoltaic application, IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 25, no. 1,
pp. 140147, Mar. 2010.
[11] Z. Li, S. Kai, F. Lanlan, W. Hongfei, and X. Yan, A family of
neutral point clamped full-bridge topologies for transformerless photo-
voltaic grid-tied inverters, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 28, no. 2,
pp. 730739, Feb. 2013.
[12] T. F. Wu, C. L. Kuo, K. H. Sun, and H. C. Hsieh, Combined unipolar
and bipolar PWM for current distortion improvement during power com-
pensation, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 17021709,
Apr. 2014.
[13] W. Yu, J.-S. Lai, H. Qian, and C. Hutchens, High-efficiency MOSFET
inverter with H6-type configuration for photovoltaic nonisolated AC-
module applications, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 26, no. 4,
pp. 12531260, Apr. 2011.
[14] X. Huafeng, X. Shaojun, C. Yang, and H. Ruhai, An optimized
transformerless photovoltaic grid-connected inverter, IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 18871895, May 2011.
[15] R. Gonzalez, J. Lopez, P. Sanchis, and L. Marroyo, Transformerless
inverter for single-phase photovoltaic systems, IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 693697, Mar. 2007.
[16] G. Bin, J. Dominic, L. Jih-Sheng, C. Chien-Liang, T. LaBella, and
C. Baifeng, High reliability and efficiency single-phase transformerless
inverter for grid-connected photovoltaic systems, IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 22352245, May 2013.
[17] S. V. Araujo, P. Zacharias, and R. Mallwitz, Highly efficient single-phase
transformerless inverters for grid-connected photovoltaic systems, IEEE
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 57, no. 9, pp. 31183128, Sep. 2010.
[18] D. Schmidt, D. Siedle, and J. Ketterer, Inverter for transforming a DC
voltage into an AC current or an AC voltage, EP Patent 1, 369, 985,
2009.
[19] J. Baojian, W. Jianhua, and Z. Jianfeng, High-efficiency single-phase
transformerless PV H6 inverter with hybrid modulation method, IEEE
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60, no. 5, pp. 21042115, May 2013.
[20] M. Islam and S. Mekhilef, High efficiency transformerless MOSFET
inverter for grid-tied photovoltaic system, in Proc. 29th Annu. IEEE
Appl. Power Electron. Conf. Expo. (APEC), 2014, pp. 33563361.
[21] M. Victor, F. Greizer, S. Bremicker, and U. Hbler, Method of convert-
ing a direct current voltage from a source of direct current voltage, more
specifically from a photovoltaic source of direct current voltage, into a
alternating current voltage, U.S. Patents 7 411 802 B2, 2008.
[22] M. Islam and S. Mekhilef, An improved transformerless grid connected
photovoltaic inverter with reduced leakage current, Energy Convers.
Manage., vol. 88, pp. 854862, 2014.
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

ISLAM et al.: EFFICIENT SINGLE PHASE TRANSFORMERLESS INVERTER FOR GRID-TIED PVG SYSTEM 11

[23] E. Guba, P. Sanchis, A. Ursa, J. Lpez, and L. Marroyo, Ground
currents in single-phase transformerless photovoltaic systems, Progr.
Photovoltaics Res. Appl., vol. 15, pp. 629650, 2007.
[24] S. Dasgupta, S. K. Sahoo, and S. K. Panda, Single-phase inverter control
techniques for interfacing renewable energy sources with microgrid-
part I: Parallel-connected inverter topology with active and reactive
power flow control along with grid current shaping, IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 717731, Mar. 2011.
[25] Y. Yongheng, F. Blaabjerg, and W. Huai, Low-voltage ride-through of
single-phase transformerless photovoltaic inverters, IEEE Trans. Ind.
Appl., vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 19421952, May/Jun. 2014.
[26] R. Bojoi, L. R. Limongi, D. Roiu, and A. Tenconi, Enhanced power
quality control strategy for single-phase inverters in distributed generation
systems, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 798806, Mar.
2011.
[27] M. Monfared and S. Golestan, Control strategies for single-phase grid
integration of small-scale renewable energy sources: A review, Renew.
Sustain. Energy Rev., vol. 16, pp. 49824993, 2012.
[28] F. Blaabjerg, R. Teodorescu, M. Liserre, and A. V. Timbus, Overview
of control and grid synchronization for distributed power generation sys-
tems, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 13981409, Oct.
2006.
[29] W. Yong and L. Rui, Novel high-efficiency three-level stacked-neutral-
point-clamped grid-tied inverter, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60,
no. 9, pp. 37663774, Sep. 2013.
[30] Automatic Disconnection Device Between a Generator and the Public
Low-Voltage Grid, Germany Standard DIN VDE 0126, 2010.
[31] IEEE Standard Conformance Test Procedures for Equipment
Interconnecting Distributed Resources With Electric Power Systems,
IEEE Std 1547.1-2005, pp. 0_1-54, 2005.
Nadia Afrin received the B.Sc. degree in engineering
in electrical and electronic engineering from Rajshahi
University of Engineering and Technology, Rajshahi,
Bangladesh, in 2012. Currently, she is working as an
Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering, Pabna University of
Science and Technology, Pabna, Bangladesh. Her
research interests include renewable energy and wire-
less communication.
Saad Mekhilef (M01SM12) received the B.Eng.
degree in electrical engineering from the University
of Setif, Setif, Algeria, in 1995, and the M.Eng.Sci.
and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Malaya,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1998 and 2003, respec-
tively.
He is currently a Professor with the Department of
Electrical Engineering, University of Malaya. He is
the author and coauthor of more than 200 publica-
tions in international journals and proceedings. He is
actively involved in industrial consultancy for major
corporations in the power electronics projects. His research interests include
power conversion techniques, control of power converters, renewable energy,
and energy efficiency.

Monirul Islam received the B.Sc. degree in electrical

and electronic engineering from Rajshahi University
of Engineering and Technology (RUET), Rajshahi,
Bangladesh, in 2009, and the M.Eng.Sc. degree in
electrical engineering from the University of Malaya,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2015.
He is currently working as a full-time Research
Assistant with Power Electronics and Renewable
Energy Research Laboratory (PEARL), University of
Malaya. His research interests include power con-
verter topologies and control for grid-tied photo-
voltaic application.