Title: Performance analysis of a stand alone PV system with reduced switch cascaded multilevel inverter

Authors: R. Sridhar; Snehamoy Dhar; Subhranshu Sekhar Dash

Addresses: Department of EEE, SRM University, SRM Nagar, Kattankulathur-603203, Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of EEE, SRM University, SRM Nagar, Kattankulathur-603203, Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of EEE, SRM University, SRM Nagar, Kattankulathur-603203, Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: In this paper, a photovoltaic (PV) system fed single phase multilevel inverter (MLI) aimed at feeding standalone loads is proposed. The proposed system consists of PV array, DC-DC boost converter with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller and a reduced switch cascaded inverter. The proposed MLI is advantageous in terms of performance and efficiency as it minimises switching losses which are prevalent in the conventional cascaded one. This work also aims at increasing the DC utilisation of the inverter by adopting third harmonic injection pulse width modulation (THIPWM) technique instead of sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM). The non-linear nature of the PV array is combated by a DC-DC converter which is controlled by perturb and observe (P&O) MPPT algorithm. The performance of the proposed system is verified through a simulation study in MATLAB/simulink and also by developing a prototype of 200 watts. The simulation and hardware results demonstrate minimal switching losses, low THD value with increased DC utilisation suitable for various standalone household loads.

Keywords: maximum power point tracker; MPPT control; perturb and observe; multilevel inverters; MLI; multicarrier PWM; pulse width modulation; MCPWM; third harmonic injection PWM; THIPWM; total harmonic distortion; THD; performance evaluation; PV systems; photovoltaic systems; reduced switch cascaded inverters; DC-DC boost converters; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEC.2015.069428

International Journal of Power and Energy Conversion, 2015 Vol.6 No.2, pp.107 - 127

Received: 20 Jun 2013
Accepted: 10 Jan 2014
Published online: 16 May 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article