Three-Port Converters with a Flexible Power Flow for Integrating PV and Energy Storage into a DC Bus

A family of non-isolated DC-DC three-port converters (TPCs) that allows for a more flexible power flow among a renewable energy source, an energy storage device and a current-reversible DC bus is introduced. Most of the reported non-isolated topologies in this area consider only a power consuming load. However, for applications such as hybrid-electric vehicle braking systems and DC microgrids, the load power generating capability should also be considered. The proposed three-port family consists of one unidirectional port and two bi-directional ports. Hence, they are well-suited for photovoltaic (PV)-battery-DC bus systems from the power flow viewpoint. Three-port converters are derived by combining different commonly known power converters in an integrated manner while considering the voltage polarity, voltage levels among the ports and the overall voltage conversion ratio. The derived converter topologies are able to allow for seven different modes of operation among the sources and load. A three-port converter which integrates a boost converter with a buck converter is used as a design example. Extensions of these topologies by combining the soft-switching technique with the proposed design example are also presented. Experiment results are given to verify the proposed three-port converter family and its analysis.