Comparison of Reduced Part Count Multilevel Inverters (RPC-MLIs) for Grid Interfacing

ABSTRACT

Recently, multilevel inverter (MLI) is gaining immense popularity due to reduced total harmonic distortion, lower electromagnetic interference, and high quality output waveform in high/medium voltage applications. The reduced part count (RPC)-MLI has attracted the researchers by providing higher number of output voltage level with reduced part count as compared to the classical topologies (cascaded H-bridge, neutral point clamped, and flying capacitor). But the discussion over their suitability for particular application is not yet explored completely. In this paper, some of the recently proposed RPC-MLI topologies are reviewed and analysed. RPC-MLI topologies are compared on the basis of number of switches, driver circuits, diodes, standing/blocking voltage across the switches, and switching losses for grid interfacing application. These topologies are simulated here under the same load and input source condition using real time simulator.

KEYWORDS:

• Blocking voltage
• Multilevel inverters
• Reduced part count multilevel inverter (RPC-MLI)
• Switching losses
• Total part count

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rekha Agrawal

Rekha Agrawal received her BE degree from Oriental Institute of Science and Technology, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, in 2009. In the year 2012, she obtained M.Tech (Power Electronics) from Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science, Indore. Currently, she is working towards PhD degree at Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India. Her fields of interest are multilevel inverters, power electronics for renewable energy, real time controllers for power electronic systems and modulation strategies for power converters.

E-mail: [email protected]

Shailendra Jain

Shailendra Jain received the BE degree from Samrat Ashok Technological Institute, Vidisha, India, in 1990, the ME degree from Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science, Indore, India, in 1994, and the PhD degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, in 2003. He was a post doctorate fellow at University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 2007. His fields of interest include power electronics, electrical drives, active power filters, Fuel Cell technology and high power factor converters.

E-mail: [email protected]