Dual Inverter For High Efficiency PV systems

C. Attaianese, M. Di Monaco, V. Nardi, G. Tomasso.

Università di Cassino - DAEIMI
Via Di Biasio 43, 03043 Cassino (Italy)

Abstract- In this paper, a new power converter topology for switching losses. For very high power application, a standard
photovoltaic (PV) systems is proposed. This solution, based on a inverter structure cannot be used, due to the power dissipation.
dual converter topology, allows to increase the performance of the
PV systems in terms of efficiency with respect to a classical In literature [1]-[3], several solutions have been proposed for
conversion system. high power PV generators, such as multilevel converter and
parallel connections. The proposed solution is based on the
I. INTRODUCTION
“network side active filtering” approach. In particular, the
In the last years, the need of a sustainable development has converter is achieved by means of a parallel connection of two
determined a strong interest towards all forms of alternative standard VSIs. The first VSI, called main inverter, processes
and renewable energy. In particular, the photovoltaic energy the most part of the available power at low switching
technologies are considered a way to face the growing demand frequency. The second VSI, called filtering inverter, processes
of energy, without harming the environment. The increase of the small remaining part of the available power coming from
efficiency for the photovoltaic systems is, hence, a topical the PV system, at high switching frequency, allowing the
problem. Considering high power PV plants, the main problem control of the grid current harmonics. The sum of the currents
is to respect the standard of grid connection without increasing and, hence, the network side filtering action is achieved by
power losses. means of a double primary transformer. It has to be underlined
As conversion unit, a centralized technology can be used for that this approach is not new; it has been previously proposed
this PV topology system. It consists on an inverter, which by the authors for industrial drives application [4]-[6].
interfaces the PV system to the grid. This inverter works with However, for standard drives, the main problem of such
high current value and, at the same time, high frequency in configuration comes from the circulation of the common mode
order to control the current harmonics. Obviously, this currents, due to the not isolated dc sources. This drawback
operating condition decreases the efficiency due to the vanishes in the case of PV generators, because the two portions
of PV field connected to main and filtering inverter can be
isolated.
EMC filter
dc Grid
Lf
L
II. DUAL INVERTER SCHEME FOR PV SYSTEMS
Cf Cf In a solar field the PV modules are usually divided into
Transformer
ac series connections (called strings). In the case of PV system
(a) with centralized technology, these strings are configured in
such a way as to reach a sufficient value of the output voltage
to avoid additional amplifications. Thus, strings are parallel
EMC filter main inverter connected through string diodes in order to reach the required
Lf dc power levels. In particular, as shown in figure 1(a), the
Lmain
considered PV generator is composed by five strings with the
Cf Cf Grid
same electrical characteristics. The line frequency transformer
ac is only necessary in order to obtain the galvanic isolation.
Transformer
Figure 1(b) shows the proposed power converter topology, in
Lf dc
Lfiltering which the centralized inverter is replaced by two three-phase
Cf Cf voltage source inverters: a main inverter and a filtering
ac inverter. Also in this case, a line frequency transformer with
EMC filter filtering inverter two primary windings is necessary for the galvanic isolation
(b)
and, also, to perform the filtering action. The operation is the
following: the main inverter, working with low switching
frequency and high current, processes the most part of the
Figure 1 – PV inverter topology. (a) Centralized technology. (b) Proposed maximum available power at the solar field. The filtering
technology. inverter, working with high switching frequency and low

978-1-4244-4252-2/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE 818

current, processes the small remaining part of the maximum
available power and, at the same time, reduces the current
harmonics with the aim to respect the standard of grid P
connection. As example, in the proposed configuration, as MPP dP/dV=0
depicted in figure 1(b), the main inverter is connected to four
of the five strings, while the filtering inverter is connected to P=P(Vpv)
the remaining one. For the efficiency evaluation, reference is
dP/dV>0 dP/dV<0
made to the total switching losses, carried out by using the
linear switching characteristics of the power device [6]:

Ps ≅ fVdc I c K (1) Vpv

with:
f switching frequency; Figure 2 – Output characteristic of PV panel.
Ic collector current;
Vdc switch voltage;
K constant including the number of the switches and
their electrical characteristics.

By means of the proposed converter, power losses can be

considerably reduced with respect to classical systems. As
INPUT: vpv(t), ipv(t)
regards the MPPT, the high current ripple of main inverter
generated by the low switching frequency, could make difficult
the tracking of the MPP. Thus, an EMC filter stage (fig. 1(b)) ΔP= P(t)-P(t-Δt)
has to be introduced. ΔV= vpv(t)-vpv(t-Δt)

III. DUAL INVERTER CONTROL Yes

ΔP/ ΔV <0
III.1 MPPT ALGORITHM
no
The maximum available power of the PV fields strongly
depends on the atmospheric conditions. In fact, the output INCREMENT DECREMENT
Vref Vref
characteristics of PV modules are affected by variations of
irradiation and of temperature. Thus, in order to increase the
efficiency of the whole system, it is necessary to develop a
control strategy to track of the maximum power point (MPP) of ipv(t- Δt)= ipv(t)
the PV field. In the last years, several MPP tracking (MPPT) vpv(t- Δt)= vpv(t)
techniques have been proposed [7]-[11]. The MPPT method
here adopted for main and filtering PV systems is a perturb and RETURN
observe (P&O) method. In particular, a small voltage
displacement in the operating points of the PV fields is (a)
introduced to determine the actual slope dP/dV of the P(V)
characteristic (fig. 2). As known, the sign of dP/dV allows to
detect if the operating point is located on the left or on the Vref -
*
i ac
right-side of the MPP. In fig. 3(a) the flowchart of the control PI
+
is shown, in which the Vref is the reference voltage for the PV
fields. The algorithm uses the instantaneous PV array voltage vpv
vpv(t) and current ipv(t) in order to determine the slope of the (b)
P(V) characteristic and, thus, the value of Vref. Starting from
the Vref, a PI controller (fig. 3(b)) works out the value of ac
reference current i*ac. Figure 3 – (a) Flowchart of the control; (b) Control of ac reference.

819
III.2 MODULATION STRATEGY
Reference is made to the dual PV inverter, depicted in fig. 4. main inverter
If an ideal transformer is considered, the following equations dc
can be worked out: Lm im
EMC
filter Vdc,m
ac vm
d ig
Vdc,m f c,m - Lm im - v g = 0
dt 1:1
d dc
Vdc, f f c, f - Lf i f - vg = 0
dt Lf
EMC Vdc,f
(2) filter if
im + i f = i g ac vf

filtering inverter
v m = Vdc,mf c,m
v f = Vdc, f f c, f Figure 4 – Block diagram of the proposed PV generation system.

i*m + f c,m VSI

where: main
-
f c,m main inverter commutating function; im
f c, f filtering inverter commutating function; + + Predictive f c, f VSI
i*f Control (3) SVM
filtering
im main inverter output current space vector;
if filtering inverter output current space vector; i f v g Vdc, f Vdc, f
ig grid current space vector;
Figure 5 – Block diagram of modulation strategy.
vm main inverter output voltage space vector;
vf filtering inverter output voltage space vector;
vg grid voltage space vector; 1 ⎡ Lf ⎤
Vdc,m dc bus voltage of main inverter;
f c,(n)f =
Vdc, f ⎢T if
⎣ s
(
(n+1)
− i(n)
f )
− v(n)
g ⎥
⎦
(3)

Vdc, f dc bus voltage of filtering inverter;

Lm main inverter output inductance;
Lf filtering inverter output inductance;
In the modulation strategy of the proposed converter topology
a fixed frequency hysteresis current control loop and a
predictive control have been implemented for the main inverter
and filtering inverter respectively. The structure of the control
is shown in figure 5. The MPPT algorithm carries out the value
of the current space vector modules of the both inverters. Then,
the commutating function of the main inverter fc,m is evaluated
by means of a hysteresis current control, in which the
hysteresis band is set to a relatively large value, in such a way
as to reduce the operating switching frequencies and, hence,
the power losses. In order to comply with the grid current THD
required by standards in the interconnection point, the filtering
inverter current reference is evaluated as the sum of the main
inverter current error and the MPPT reference current of the
filtering inverter. Therefore, the filtering inverter commutating
function is evaluated by means of the following equation:
where Ts the control sampling interval of Space Vector
Modulation (SVM) and the superscripts (n) and (n+1)
quantities at sampling time (n)Ts and (n+1)Ts respectively
represent. The filtering inverter working with high frequency
allows the control of the grid current harmonics.
IV. NUMERICAL VALIDATION
A numerical analysis, performed by using the Power
Toolbox of Matlab-Simulink®, has been carried out in order to
validate the proposed algorithms. In particular, a complete
simulation including the PV generator has been arranged. The
tests have been performed on a PV system, in which the solar
field is composed by five PV strings with the electrical
characteristics given in tab.1. First, PV strings have been
connected to a single VSI and the maximum total available
power has been considered under a condition of 25°C and
1000W/m2 for temperature and irradiance respectively (fig. 6).
The PV single inverter current, depicted in figure 7, has been
achieved with a total harmonic distortion (THD) equal to 3%.
In the test, the inverter output choke was equal to 2mH.

820
After this test, the performances of the proposed converter have
been evaluated by connecting four string of PV solar field to 40
the main inverter and the remaining one to the filtering
inverter. Obviously, the switching frequencies of the proposed 20

grid current [A]

dual converter have been set in such a way as to achieve the
same THD of the previous test. From figure 8 to figure 10 0
main, filtering and grid currents are shown. It is possible to see
that through the filtering action the line current, sum of the -20
main inverter current and filter one, has a THD equal to 3% as
in the previous case. -40
In the test the main inverter output choke has been set to 2mH, 1.82 1.83 1.84 1.85 1.86
while for the output choke of filtering inverter the only winding time [s]
inductance of transformer has been used. By means of EMC
filters (tab. 2) a reduction of the impact of the current ripples Figure 7 – Waveform of grid current.
on the performance of MPPT algorithms has been obtained. In
fact, as shown in fig. 11 and fig. 12 the maximum total
available power has been taken from the PV strings, with a
little deviation from PMPP. From fig. 13 to fig. 16 the current
waveforms and voltage waveforms of the sub PV generator
connected to main inverter and of the sub PV generator 40
connected to filtering main are depicted. The low value of the
waveforms ripple confirms that the deviation from the 20
maximum power points is quite negligible. main current [A]
0

-20

-40
1.82 1.83 1.84 1.85 1.86
15000 time [s]

10000 Figure 8 – Waveform of main inverter current.

P[W]

5000

40
0
filtering current [A]

0 200 400 600 800 20

voltage [V]
0
Figure 6 –Operation point on the characteristic PV generator.
-20

-40
1.82 1.83 1.84 1.85 1.86
time [s]

Figure 9 – Waveform of filtering inverter current.

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 40 20

current PV generator [A]

20 18
grid current [A]

16
0
14
-20
12

-40 10
1.82 1.83 1.84 1.85 1.86 1.82 1.83 1.84 1.85 1.86
time [s] time [s]

Figure 10 – Waveform of grid current. Figure 13 – Current ripple of PV generator that is connected to main
inverter.

12000 6

current PV generator [A]

5.5
8000
P [W]

5
4000
4.5

0
4
0 200 400 600 800
1.82 1.83 1.84 1.85 1.86
voltage [V]
time [s]

Figure 11 – Operation point on the characteristic PV generator that is Figure 14 – Current ripple of PV generator that is connected to filtering
connected to main inverter. inverter.

600
3000
voltage PV generator [V]

575
2000
P [W]

550

1000
525

0 500
0 200 400 600 800 1.82 1.83 1.84 1.85 1.86
voltage [V] time [s]

Figure 12 – Operation point on the characteristic PV generator that is Figure 15 – Voltage ripple of PV generator that is connected to main
connected to filtering inverter. inverter.

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 reduction of switching losses results to be the 40%. The
600 conduction losses for this test were equal to 6W and 9.6W for
the proposed dual converter and for the single inverter
voltage PV generator [V]

575 respectively. The reduction of conduction losses results to be

the 37%. Other tests have been performed to evaluate the
550 efficiency of the proposed converter in different operating
conditions. The achieved results, shown in figure 17 (a),
525
confirm that as bigger the ratio between the main and the filter
inverter is, as the overall conversion efficiency increases in
terms of switching losses. The reduction of conduction losses
500
is, instead, smaller with the bigger ratios (fig. 17 (b)). Finally,
1.82 1.83 1.84 1.85 1.86
in figure 18 the total losses in the single inverter case (fig. 18
time [s] (a)) and in dual converter case (fig. 18 (b)) are shown.
Figure 16 – Voltage ripple of PV generator that is connected to filtering It is possible to notice that for low values of ratio, the proposed
inverter. conversion system doesn’t allow to increase the efficiency
respect to standard solution.

IV.1 EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS

A numerical analysis has been also carried out in order to
verify the increment of efficiency achieved with the proposed
80
conversion system. In particular, the switching and conduction (a)
losses have been evaluated in the case of the single inverter and
reduction losses %
60
with the proposed dual inverter. Obviously, in the tests the
same working conditions have been considered, i.e.: 40

- same THD value of grid current; 20

- same generated power; (b)
- same value of dc bus. 0
0 10 20 30

The characteristics of a Fuji Electrical Device Technology |i * m | /|i * f |

IGBT module 2MBI100U4A-120 have been considered for the
losses evaluation. In particular, the switching losses have been Figure 17 – (a) Switching losses reduction.; (b) conduction losses
calculated through the curves of datasheet: turn-on and turn-off reduction.
energy loss versus collector current.
The conduction losses have been calculated on the strength of
the conduction resistance.
Several tests have been performed, and the achieved results 80
confirm that the proposed solution allows to improve the (a)
efficiency of the whole PV system with respect of the single 60
power losses [W]

inverter solution. A numerical example is reported, with:

40
i*m = 60A; fm=1150Hz
20
(b)
i*f = 20A; ff =18450Hz
0
0 10 20 30
where fm and ff the switching frequency of the main and |i * m | /|i * f |
filtering inverter respectively represent.
In these operating conditions, the switching losses were equal, Figure 18 – (a) Total losses of single inverter; (b) Total losses of dual
inverter;
in every period of the fundamental, to 4.4W for the main
inverter and to 21.3W for the filtering inverter.
In the case of the single inverter, with the same output choke of
the main inverter and under the same working conditions, the
switching frequency was equal to 7850Hz and the switching
losses were equal to 43.2W. In the above condition, the

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 V. EXPERIMENT VALIDATION overall reduction of the power losses is achieved keeping at the
V.1 EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP same time the required values of THD.
In order to verify the validity of the proposed dual converter
a scaled prototype has been manufactured. In particular, it
consists of two IGBT based standard voltage source inverters;
5
for both the converters, the International Rectifier®
IRG4IBC20KD power modules have been used. The control

filtering current [A]

2.5
algorithm has been implemented by means of a DSP modular
system of dspace®, while the SVM modulation unit has been
0
implemented on a Altera® Programmable Logic Devices (PLD)
MAX 9000.
-2.5

V.2 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

-5
A preliminary experimental analysis is presented in order to
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
verify the functionality of the proposed converter. In detail,
from fig. 19 to fig. 21 the main current, filtering current and time [s]
load current are reported. In the test the ac reference currents
were equal to 3.5A and 0.5A for main and filtering inverter Fig. 20 – Experiment results: waveform of filtering current.
respectively. The dc bus voltages have been imposed to 80V
for the main inverter and 120V for the filtering inverter.
The hysteric band and the control sampling interval of SVM,
that have been used in the algorithm control, ware equal to
5
0.4A and 50μs. It is possible to notice how the filtering inverter
action allows to greatly improve the load current quality. In fact
2.5
load current [A]

the THD of main current is equal to 15%, while the THD of load
current is equal to 8%.
0

-2.5

5 -5
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02

2.5 time [s]

main current [A]

0 Fig. 21 – Experiment results: waveform of load current.

-2.5

-5
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 VMPP IMPP PMPP VOC ISC
time [s]
586.8 V 4.68 A 2746.22W 725.3 V 5.0 A

Fig. 19 – Experiment results: waveform of main current.

Tab.1 Electrical characteristics of PV strings at 25°C and 1000W/m2..

VI. CONCLUSION
Cf [mF] 5
In this paper, a dual inverter for photovoltaic system is
Lf [mH] 0.04
proposed, with the aim of reducing power losses of standard
inverters. In particular, one of the inverter is used as filter; it Tab.2 – Parameters of the EMC filters.
process a low power flow with high switching frequency. The
other inverter acts as “main” converter, and it works with
higher power and lower switching frequency. In this way, an

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