Design and development of high performance solar photovoltaic inverter with advanced modulation techniques to improve power quality

ABSTRACT

In addition to the focus towards growing demand on electrical energy due to the increase in population, industries, consumer loads, etc., the need for improving the quality of electrical power also needs to be considered. The design and development of solar photovoltaic (PV) inverter with reduced harmonic distortions is proposed. Unlike the conventional solar PV inverters, the proposed inverter provides the advantages of reduced harmonic distortions thereby intend towards the improvement in power quality. This inverter comprises of multiple stages which provides the required 230V_RMS, 50 Hz in spite of variations in solar PV due to temperature and irradiance. The reduction of harmonics is governed by applying proper switching sequences required for the inverter switches. The detailed analysis is carried out by employing different switching techniques and observing its performance. With a separate mathematical model for a solar PV, simulations are performed in MATLAB software. To show the advantage of the system proposed, a 3 kWp photovoltaic plant coupled with multilevel inverter is demonstrated in hardware. The novelty resides in the design of a single chip controller which can provide the switching sequence based on the requirement and application. As per the results obtained, the solar-fed multistage inverter improves the quality of power which makes this inverter suitable for both stand-alone and grid-connected systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Harmonics
• multilevel systems
• modulation strategy
• photovoltaic systems
• power quality

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge and thank the Department of Science and Technology (Government of India) for sanctioning the research grant for the project titled, ‘Design and Development of Multilevel Inverters for Power Quality Improvement in Renewable Energy Sources’ (Ref. No. DST/TSG/NTS/2009/98) under Technology Systems Development Scheme for completing this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India under Technology System Development Scheme: [Grant Number: DST/TSG/NTS/2009/98].