IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 25, NO.
3, SEPTEMBER 2010
A Systems Approach for a Stand-Alone Residential
Fuel Cell Power Inverter Design
Ugur Savas Selamogullari, David A. Torrey, Member, IEEE, and Sheppard Salon, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—Analysis of an experimentally measured daily load
profile reveals that the residential power demand has a high per-
centage of low power duration over a day. In a stand-alone resi-
dential fuel cell power system, the power inverter designed for the
peak power requirement will be operating at light loads, where its
efficiency is lower, most of the time. Thus, improving the light-load
efficiency will provide considerable hydrogen (energy) savings for
the stand-alone residential power system. A solution to improve
the power inverter efficiency at light loads is proposed. Both sim-
ulation and experimental results are given. Results show that the
light-load efficiency can be improved by employing and uniquely
controlling a parallel IGBT–MOSFET switch combination in a
half-bridge inverter topology. It is also shown that substantial sav-
ings on hydrogen usage can be realized through the use of new
inverter design in stand-alone operations.
Index Terms—Hydrogen savings, inverter efficiency, residential
load, stand-alone fuel cell power system.
I. INTRODUCTION
HE ELECTRICAL output of a fuel cell system is dc volt-
T age and must be converted to ac voltage for residential
applications. Power electronic circuits such as dc–dc converters
and inverters are employed for this transformation. An overview
of power electronics applications in renewable energy systems
such as wind, fuel cell, and solar energy is summarized in [4]
and [5]. Various power electronic circuit topologies and control
techniques have been proposed for fuel cell power systems in
the literature. A DSP-based control is used in [8]. Ultracapaci-
tors are used in the design of the power conversion unit in [10].
A different approach is taken in [11]. Instead of having a dc
link in the intermediate stage, an ac link is used. Several 10
kW inverter designs that translate the low dc output of a solid
oxide fuel cell (SOFC) to 120/240 V 60 Hz signal for residential
use are given in [6]–[8]. A 1-kVA fuel-cell-based uninterrupt-
ible power system (UPS) design is introduced in [9]. A wide
input voltage and high efficiency dc–dc converter topology for
fuel cell applications is given in [14]. Z-source inverter topolo-
gies for a fuel cell system with ultracapacitors are discussed
in [16].
In the literature, due consideration is given to the fuel cell
system characteristics such as low fuel cell voltage level, fuel
Manuscript received May 27, 2008; accepted November 25, 2008. Date of
current version August 20, 2010. The work of U. S. Selamogullari was supported
by Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. Paper no. TEC-00182-2008.
U. S. Selamogullari is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Yildiz
Technical University, Istanbul 34349, Turkey (e-mail: selamu@alum.rpi.edu).
D. A. Torrey is with the Advanced Energy Conversion, Malta, NY 12305
USA.
S. Salon is with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180 USA.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2010.2047057
0885-8969/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
741
cell system output voltage drop with loading, and slow response
of the fuel cell system to transients. DC–DC converters are used
to overcome low fuel cell voltage level and fuel cell system
output voltage drop with loading [12]–[14]. Batteries and/or
supercapacitors are employed to compensate for slow response
of the fuel cell system to transients [7], [10], [15], [16]. What
is missing in the literature is the consideration of the demand
characteristics of a stand-alone residential house in the design
of the power inverter. The demand characteristics are important
for stand-alone power systems and can be used to have a better
inverter design.
In order to capture the load characteristics, experimental load
measurements are completed in a residential house in Troy,
NY, with high resolution [1]. Measurements revealed that the
residential power demand stays low most of the day. On the
other hand, the examination of a typical inverter efficiency curve
shows that it has low efficiencies at light loads. Thus, improve-
ment of the light-load efficiency will provide energy savings.
A novel power inverter design is introduced for this purpose.
Both simulation and experimental studies are completed for the
proposed inverter topology and is shown that substantial energy
(hydrogen) savings can be achieved with the proposed design in
the stand-alone operation.
This paper is organized as follows: In Section II, the load
characteristics and the need for the new inverter topology are ex-
plained. In Section III, simulation results are given. Cost consid-
erations are investigated through energy and hydrogen savings.
Experimental results are also given. In Section IV, conclusions
are made.
II. SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR THE DESIGN OF THE
NEW POWER INVERTER
In the stand-alone residential fuel cell power system, both
fuel cell system characteristics and demand-side characteristics
should be considered in defining an inverter design strategy. In
general, the specifications for the stand-alone residential fuel
cell power inverter can be summarized as [6] follows.
1) Generate 120/240 ± 10% V, 60 ± 0.1% Hz ac output volt-
age from the unregulated dc fuel cell voltage (typically
40–80 V) for operation in the U.S.
2) AC output voltage total harmonic distortion must be less
than 5% (IEEE 519).
3) The energy storage is needed to compensate for the slow
response of the fuel cell system.
4) A charging algorithm is needed that will keep the state of
charge of the backup source within acceptable limits (e.g,
0.75–1).
742 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 25, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2010

Fig. 1. Fuel cell polarization curve.

Fig. 2. Histogram of the measured daily load profile.

5) Overcurrent, overvoltage, short circuit, and temperature TABLE I

protection. CALCULATED PERCENTAGE VALUES FOR DIFFERENT POWER RANGES FROM
6) Communication between the fuel cell system and the in- THE MEASURED DAILY LOAD PROFILE

verter must be used for the control of the overall system.

7) High efficiency is needed.
The output voltage of the fuel cell system changes with load-
ing, as shown in the typical polarization curve in Fig. 1. As
the current increases, the output voltage decreases and vice
versa [1]. A front-end dc–dc converter is generally used to ob-
tain a constant dc-link voltage for the inverter. The dc–dc con-
verter regulates the voltage fluctuations imposed on the fuel cell
system by the load demand. Thus, it is assumed that the dc–dc
converter eliminates the effect of the fuel cell system charac-
teristics such as voltage drop with loading and low dc voltage
level. Slow response of the fuel cell system to an increase in the
load demand is addressed by using a backup power source such
as batteries or supercapacitors.
In the stand-alone residential power system, the characteris-
tics of the load power demand are important and can be used to
have a better inverter design compared to the inverter designed
for the peak power requirement (high-power inverter). An in-
verter designed and optimized for operating at a certain power
level will not be a good choice for the stand-alone residential
house since it will be operated over a wide range of power de-
mand. The histogram of the measured daily load profile in one
leg of the residential house in Troy, shows that the residential
power demand will stay low most of the time in a day (see Fig. 3. Typical efficiency curve of an inverter.
Fig. 2). Calculated percentage values for different power ranges
are summarized in Table I. Although the maximum power de-
mand is about 4 kW, the power demand that is lower than 500 W lower efficiency is the nonlinear dependency of switching losses
makes up 85.01% of the load demand. on output power [17].
Typically, inverters are designed to have the peak efficiency Since the light-load operation is frequently required in a
around the desired operating point, for example, 95% efficiency stand-alone residential house, improving the light-load effi-
at 2 kW. Therefore, the designs are optimized for/around that ciency of the power inverter will offer considerable energy sav-
specific operating condition. A typical efficiency curve of an ings over the lifetime of the unit.
inverter is shown in Fig. 3. The efficiency is lower than the peak A solution to improve light-load efficiencies of the power
efficiency both at light loads and at high loads. The reason for inverter is to employ a low-power inverter in parallel with the
SELAMOGULLARI et al.: SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR A STAND-ALONE RESIDENTIAL FUEL CELL POWER INVERTER DESIGN
Fig. 4. Block diagram for parallel connection of a high-power inverter and a
low-power inverter.
Fig. 5. Anticipated efficiency curve for the new inverter design (curve with *).
inverter designed for peak power requirements (high-power in-
verter), as shown in Fig. 4. The unique feature of this design
is that only one of the inverters will be operating at any instant
depending on the load current feedback. Since each inverter
will have a typical efficiency curve similar to the one given in
Fig. 3, the overall efficiency of the whole unit will be the com-
bined efficiency curve of both inverters. This concept is shown
in Fig. 5.
Instead of using two separate inverters, the parallel connection
of the inverters can also be achieved at semiconductor device
level. A low-power switch can be paralleled with the high-
743
Fig. 6. Proposed parallel IGBT–MOSFET switch combination.
power switch. With increased voltage ratings of MOSFETs, a
parallel IGBT–MOSFET switch combination can be used for
this purpose. Thus, the new design will employ the parallel
IGBT–MOSFET switch combination, as shown in Fig. 6. Paral-
lel and series IGBT–MOSFET combinations designed to reduce
switching losses of the IGBT are discussed in [18] and [19].
Mainly, the fast switching characteristics of a MOSFET are
used to provide soft switching for the IGBT during turn-OFF
period. Conduction-loss analysis of a parallel IGBT–MOSFET
switch combination is reported in [22]. It has been shown that
MOSFET-based configurations have lower conduction losses
at light loads. No analysis is given for switching losses. Con-
trollers for parallel IGBT–MOSFET combinations to achieve
better IGBT turn-OFF performance are given in [20] and [21].
Contrary to what is reported in the literature, the parallel combi-
nation does not mean parallel operation or using the MOSFET to
provide switching help to IGBT during turn-OFF period in this
study. The unique feature of the proposed design is that only
one of the switches will be active at any instant depending on
the load current feedback. The effect of such a control strategy
on efficiency improvement at light loads is investigated. The
advantages of the proposed design are as follows.
1) It will improve the efficiency in low-power regions, where
the residential power stays most of the time during the
day.
2) It is easy to implement since the low-power switch will be
integrated into the already designed high-power inverter.
3) It is easy to control although some consideration must
be given to switching from the low-power switch to the
high-power switch.
4) Since only one of the switches is used at any instant, gate
drive losses can be considered constant.
5) Improved efficiency offers energy savings.
The disadvantages of the proposed design is the additional
cost due to extra switch usage, and added control complexity.
The switch selection can be made within one switching cycle
in a DSP-controlled inverter. The transition from the low-power
switch to the high-power switch requires a control algorithm that
makes sure that the low-power switch is safe during transients.
Instantaneous current sampling is required for this reason. When
the current limit of the low-power switch is reached, the high-
power switch will be selected. In addition, the dead time between
switches that prevents shoot-through could offer flexibility in the
control. In reverse order, the rms value of the load current can
be used to switch from the high-power switch to the low-power
switch.
744
Fig. 7. Possible worst-case loading scenario for the considered house [3].
Fig. 8. Half-bridge voltage source inverter topology.
Although the cost of the inverter will increase, it is expected
that the energy savings through the improved efficiency would
compensate for the added cost over the lifetime of the resi-
dential fuel cell power system. The cost analysis is given in
Section III-B.
III. SIMULATION STUDY
As shown in Fig. 7, the power inverter must be designed for
approximately 9 kW peak power.
A 10-kW inverter design is chosen for the considered house.
The 10 kW power rating is also the target power in the Future
Energy Challenge [24]. The design will use two 5 kW half-
bridge inverters to obtain the desired 10 kW total output power.
With the half-bridge inverter topology (see Fig. 8), it is easy to
obtain two single phase outputs and one phase-to-phase output,
which is the standard in a residential building in the U.S.
Based on the histogram of the measured load demand in
Fig. 2, 1 kW is chosen as the low-power level. Thus, the low-
power switch is selected for 1 kW power rating. The high-power
switch is selected for a 5 kW power rating.
The switches S1, S2, S3, and S4 in Fig. 8 are parallel combi-
nations of an IGBT–MOSFET, as shown in Fig. 6.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 25, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2010
TABLE II
SWITCHES USED IN THE SIMULATIONS
Fig. 9. Efficiency curves of MOSFETs based on simulation results.
It is assumed that a front-end dc–dc converter will maintain
the dc-link voltage at 400 V level. The switches will see 400 V,
and with safety considerations, 600 V switches are needed.
Switch models available in SABER and SPICE programs are
used in simulation study. The half-bridge topology is simulated
for each switch at different power levels in an open-loop con-
figuration. Sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation (PWM) is used
to obtain gate signals for the switches. The modulation index
is 0.85. The switching frequency is 20 kHz. The efficiency is
calculated from simulation results using η = Pout /Pin for each
load condition. The switch models used in the simulations are
given in Table II. It should be noted that the results obtained
in simulations are tied to selected switch models and may vary
for different switch models due to the assumptions made while
building switch models.
A. Simulation Results
Two different MOSFET models are used and simulations are
completed for each MOSFET model under resistive loading.
Fig. 9 shows the efficiency curves based on simulation results
for each MOSFET. As seen, using both MOSFETs will give
us an even better total efficiency curve. However, our goal is
to achieve better efficiencies with least number of switches.
Therefore, only one extra switch is considered in this study.
In Fig. 10(a), SGH80N60D (IGBT) and SPW20N60S5 ef-
ficiency curves are given. In Fig. 10(b), SGH80N60D (IGBT)
and IRFPS29N60L efficiency curves are given.
In Fig. 11(a), HGTG30N60C3 (IGBT) and SPW20N60S5 ef-
ficiency curves are given. In Fig. 11(b), HGTG30N60C3 (IGBT)
and IRFPS29N60L efficiency curves are given.
SELAMOGULLARI et al.: SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR A STAND-ALONE RESIDENTIAL FUEL CELL POWER INVERTER DESIGN
Fig. 10. (a) Efficiency curves for SGH80N60D and SPW20N60S5. (b) Effi-
ciency curves for SGH80N60D and IRFPS29N60L.
Fig. 11. (a) Efficiency curves for HGTG30N60C3 and SPW20N60S5.
(b) Efficiency curves for HGTG30N60C3 and IRFPS29N60L.
TABLE III
OBTAINED ∆η FOR POWER DEMAND FROM 240 TO 900 W WITH THE
MOSFET AS THE LOW-POWER SWITCH
The efficiency gains with each IGBT–MOSFET switch com-
binations are summarized in Table III. The simulation results
show that when the MOSFET is used as the low-power switch,
considerable efficiency improvement can be achieved at light
loads. The reason for the high efficiency with the MOSFET can
be attributed to lower conduction losses at low currents and fast
switching times of the MOSFETs compared to IGBTs.
745
Fig. 12. Block diagram explaining the calculation of saved energy.
B. Cost Analysis of the New Inverter Design
Although the proposed inverter design has higher efficiencies
at light loads, the extra cost of adding low-power switches should
be investigated to see if it is economically viable as well. It is
important from a customer point of view to see the return time
for their investment.
The benefit of having higher efficiencies at light loads can
be quantified through the analysis of energy saving. To find
the saved energy, dc-side power demands for both the new in-
verter design and the conventional (high-power design) design
is calculated using
Pload
Pdc = . (1)
η
Then, the energy saving with the improved efficiency is cal-
culated by integrating the difference in dc-side power of the
inverters. The result gives us the saved energy when the new in-
verter design is compared with the conventional design. Fig. 12
shows the block diagram for the energy-saving calculation.
The measured load profile in one leg of the house is used as
the power input and daily energy saving is calculated for each
IGBT–MOSFET combination. Yearly energy saving is calcu-
lated by multiplying the daily energy saving by 365. Total sav-
ings in dollars can be calculated using the electricity supply
charge for a residential service (SC1) of the National Grid util-
ity company for Troy. The average electricity supply charge for
the SC1 from January 1, 2007 to December 30, 2007 is calcu-
lated as about 14.89 cents/kW·h using the data obtained from
the company webpage [25].
A 10-year lifetime for the fuel cell power system is assumed.
Thus, the yearly savings multipled by 10 will give us the total
savings over the lifetime of the unit.
The yearly energy savings (both in kilowatthour and in dol-
lars) and lifetime savings are summarized in Table IV for each
IGBT–MOSFET combination.
When Tables III and IV are considered together, HGTG30N–
SPW20N and SGH80N–SPW20N switch combinations show
similar performance. Although SGH80N–SPW20N combina-
tion shows better efficiency gains as power level goes up. The
HGTG30N–SPW20N switch combination has a higher effi-
ciency gain at 240 W. The percentage of load power that is
lower than 240 W makes up 71.42% of the load demand. There-
fore, the HGTG30N–SPW20N switch combination has slightly
higher energy savings during a day.
746
TABLE IV
SUMMARY OF SAVINGS FOR EACH IGBT–MOSFET COMBINATIONS BASED ON
UTILITY ENERGY COST
TABLE V
ADDITIONAL COST FOR THE NEW INVERTER DESIGN
Fig. 13. Return times for (a) HGTG30N–IRFPS29N and (b) HGTG30N–
SPW20N switch combinations are shown.
The extra cost of adding new switches are calculated based on
the prices obtained on the internet. The cost of the SPW20N60S5
MOSFET is given as $3.91 [26]. The cost of the IRFPS29N
MOSFET is given as $7.57 for 250 or more [27]. The IR2113
gate drive chip can be used to drive the MOSFETs. A single
gate drive chip can drive both high-side and the low-side switch
in the half-bridge topology. The cost of the gate driver is given
as $1.32 for orders of 50 or more [28]. The total cost of the new
design for each leg of the half-bridge topology is summarized
in Table V.
The savings over a ten-year period and the cost of addi-
tional MOSFET switches are plotted together to figure out the
return times for each MOSFET. The return time is about a
year for HGTG30N–IRFPS29N switch combination as shown
in Fig. 13(a). The return time is 0.47 years for HGTG30N–
SPW20N switch combination, as shown in Fig. 13(b). There-
fore, it is feasible to design the new inverter topology for stand-
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 25, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2010
TABLE VI
SUMMARY OF SAVINGS FOR IGBT–MOSFET COMBINATIONS BASED ON
HYDROGEN COST
Fig. 14. Total savings based on hydrogen cost and additional cost of the new
design are shown. Break-even points are shown.
alone residential fuel cell power system considered in this re-
search. Besides, when the unit is mass-produced, the switch and
gate drive costs could go down even further making the return
time shorter.
The benefit of the improved efficiencies at light loads with
the new design can also be quantified through hydrogen savings.
The improved efficiency means less hydrogen usage for the same
load power demand. Using a 39.7 kW·h per 1 kg hydrogen
ratio [2], total savings in hydrogen amount is given in Table VI.
The new hydrogen cost goal of $2–3 per kilogram independent
of the pathway used to produce and deliver the hydrogen is
given by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [23]. Using an
average cost of $2.50 per 1 kg H2 , the yearly savings and lifetime
savings in dollars are calculated. Usually, extra hydrogen is
supplied to the fuel cell, which is called the stoichiometric ratio.
A stoichiometry ratio of 1.2 is assumed here.
When hydrogen savings are considered, the return times are
found to be 1.97 years when the IRFPS29N MOSFET is used
as the low-power switch and 1.075 years when the SPW20N
MOSFET is used as low-power switch (see Fig. 14).
In a stand-alone operation, less hydrogen usage is what is
important to us. The savings are high enough to payback the
additional cost of the new design in both energy and hydrogen
cases.
SELAMOGULLARI et al.: SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR A STAND-ALONE RESIDENTIAL FUEL CELL POWER INVERTER DESIGN 747

Fig. 15. Block diagram of the experimental setup.

Fig. 17. V d c , V lo a d , and Ilo a d for 9 Ω loading case. Ilo a d is multiplied by 2.

Fig. 16. V d c , V lo a d , and Ilo a d for 50 Ω loading case. Ilo a d is multiplied by

10.

C. Experimental Study
In order to verify the simulation results, an experimental setup
is configured and the parallel IGBT–MOSFET switch combina-
tions are tested to obtain efficiency readings. A block diagram
of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 15.
The modulation index is 0.9 and the dc bus is 360 V during
the experiment. A 20 kHz switching frequency is used and two
separate gate drives are employed to control each switch in the
parallel IGBT–MOSFET combination. Analog devices fixed-
point ADMFC340 DSP is used to produce the gate signals. A
dead-time zone is used to select between switches. A Voltech
PM3000A universal power analyzer is used to measure input
and output powers. A Tektronix TDS 3014 oscilloscope is used
to capture the experimental data. The output filter inductance
value is 680 µH and the output filter capacitance value is 20 µF.
The dc-bus voltage, load voltage after the output filter, and
load current for 50 Ω loading and 9 Ω loading are captured and
shown in Figs. 16 and 17, respectively. When the load current
increases as in the 9 Ω loading case, the dc-bus voltage drops to
350 V due to losses in the rectifier circuitry, as shown in Fig. 17.
Experimentally measured gate signals and control signal for
switch selection are shown in Fig. 18. As seen, when the control
signal goes low, gate signals for the MOSFET becomes OFF
(−15 V) and IGBT gate signals becomes ON.
Fig. 18. Gate Signals for each switch and control signal for selection.
TABLE VII
SWITCHES USED IN THE EXPERIMENTS
The switches used in the experiment are given in Table VII.
Since shoot-through has occurred when the load current was
increased with the SPW20N60S5 MOSFET for several tries,
no experimental data can be collected for this MOSFET type.
Experimentally obtained efficiency values with IRFPS29N60L
MOSFET are summarized in Table VIII.
Obtained efficiency gains for HGTG30N–IRFPS29N switch
combination are shown in Fig. 19. Both experimental results
and simulations results are given. As seen, experimental results
show smaller efficiency gains at light loads compared to simu-
lated cases since the real circuit conditions cannot be taken into
account in simulations.
748
TABLE VIII
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS FOR EFFICIENCY VALUES
Fig. 19. Obtained efficiency gains for HGTG30N–IRFPS29N switch combi-
nation. Both experimental results and simulations results are given.
Efficiency improvement is achieved at power levels below
500 W with the proposed topology change. As the load power
increases efficiency gain disappears. When the combined effi-
ciency curve is used, the yearly energy savings is calculated as
45.041 kW·h/year.
Yearly savings amount in dollars is found as $6.706
per year and $67.06 for assumed 10-year lifetime using
14.89 cents/kW·h. The hydrogen amount saved over a year is
calculated as 1.3705 kg. Using $2.5 per kilogram, the total sav-
ings in terms of less hydrogen use is $3.4263 per year and $34.26
over the ten-year lifetime. The return time is then 4.804 years
based on hydrogen savings.
The experimental results also show that it is feasible to employ
parallel IGBT–MOSFET switch combination in a half-bridge
topology to increase light-load efficiency. The obtained results
are tied to selected switches and may vary with different switch
combinations due to device manufacturing processes, character-
istics, parasitics, temperature, etc. Due to these dependencies, it
is not possible to generalize the outcome. Thus, benefits of such
switch combinations should be investigated for every applica-
tion individually.
IV. CONCLUSION
The demand-side characteristics in the stand-alone residential
fuel cell power system are taken into consideration in designing
a power inverter. A novel inverter design is proposed to im-
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 25, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2010
prove the light-load efficiency since the stand-alone residential
power demand stays low most of the day. In the new design, a
low-power switch (MOSFET) is integrated into the high-power
inverter design. The unique feature of the design is that only
one of the switches in parallel IGBT–MOSFET combination is
active at any instant depending on the load current feedback.
Both simulation and experimental results are given to show the
light-load efficiency can be improved and considerable savings
can be achieved.
In this study, only the resistive loading case is investigated
since the use of semiconductor switches is maximized under
resistive loading. Thus, the benefit of the hybrid switch can be
fully investigated. If an inductive load or RL load is used then
the use of antiparallel diode will increase. Both in simulations
and experimental study, an output filter is employed. Thus, the
inverter actually sees an inductive load. Since the filter induc-
tance value is small (680 µH), the effect of the inductor on the
results is assumed to be negligible.
The 20 kHz switching frequency is used based on [7]. If the
switching frequency is reduced, for example, to 5 kHz, the hy-
brid switch will perform better since the conduction time will be
larger with low switching frequency during a switching period.
The larger the conduction times at light loads, the better the
performance of the hybrid switch since the MOSFET switches
perform better at light loads with larger conduction times. Be-
sides, the switching losses will be reduced and total efficiency
will increase. Although it is not considered in here, a Schottky
diode can be used in series with the MOSFET switch to pre-
vent potential hazard of overcurrent in the the body diode of the
MOSFET and to eliminate slow reverse-recovery characteris-
tics of the body diode. However, this will introduce additional
losses. The effect of switching frequency and the use of series
Schottky diode on the performance of the hybrid switch are
going to be investigated in a future study.
In the proposed topology, only one switch is active at a time.
For a sinusoidally changing load current, the MOSFET switch
can be active until its current limit is reached; then, the MOSFET
can be turned off and the IGBT switch can be turned on within
each half cycle. The effect of such a control strategy on efficiency
improvement and hydrogen savings is the subject of a future
study.
Although results are tied to switch selection and might vary
for different switch combinations due to different device manu-
facturing processes, device characteristics, etc., this study points
out that considerable hydrogen savings could be achieved if
light-load efficiency is improved in the stand-alone residential
fuel cell power system. Cost analysis shows a quick return time
for the additional cost of extra switches.
The proposed design can be used for any stand-alone residen-
tial power system where the load demand stays low most of the
time.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Advanced Energy Conversion
for the use of its lab facilities and International Rectifier for
providing free switch samples for this study.
SELAMOGULLARI et al.: SYSTEMS APPROACH FOR A STAND-ALONE RESIDENTIAL FUEL CELL POWER INVERTER DESIGN
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Ugur Savas Selamogullari received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engi-
neering from Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, and the Ph.D. degree
in electric power engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy,
NY.
For one year, he was with the Plug Power company. He is currently a Faculty
member in the Electrical Engineering Department, Yildiz Technical University.
His research interests include renewable energy sources and their applications
to stand-alone systems.
David A. Torrey (S’80–M’88) received the B.S. degree in electrical engineer-
ing from Worcester Polytechnic Institute,Worcester, MA, and the S.M., E.E.,
and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge.
He is currently the Chief Technology Officer of Advanced Energy Conver-
sion, Malta, NY. His research interests include distributed generation, trans-
portation systems, and industrial automation.
Dr. Torrey is a member of Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Institu-
tion of Electrical Engineers (IEE). He has been involved in IEEE activities that
support power electronics through the Applied Power Electronics Conference.
He is a Registered Professional Engineer in NY and a Chartered Engineer in the
U.K.
Sheppard Salon (S’69–M’70–SM’80–F’94) has been with Rensselaer Poly-
technic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY, since 1978, where he is currently a Professor
of electric power engineering. He was a Development Engineer at the Westing-
house Electric Corporation, where he was engaged in large rotating machines.
His current research interests include electric machines and numerical methods
in fields.
Dr. Salon is the Past Chairman of the synchronous machine subcommittee.