• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1037-1047
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• 2017

The Differential Power Processing (DPP) converter is a promising multi-module photovoltaic inverter architecture recently proposed for photovoltaic systems. In this paper, a DPP converter architecture, in which each PV-panel has its own DPP converter in shunt, performs distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) control. It maintains a high energy conversion efficiency, even under partial shading conditions. The system architecture only deals with the power differences among the PV panels, which reduces the power capacity of the converters. Therefore, the DPP systems can easily overcome the conventional disadvantages of PCS such as centralized, string, and module integrated converter (MIC) topologies. Among the various types of the DPP systems, the feed-forward method has been selected for both its voltage balancing and power transfer to a modified H-bridge inverter that needs charge balancing of the input capacitors. The modified H-bridge multi-level inverter had some advantages such as a low part count and cost competitiveness when compared to conventional multi-level inverters. Therefore, it is frequently used in photovoltaic (PV) power conditioning system (PCS). However, its simplified switching network draws input current asymmetrically. Therefore, input capacitors in series suffer from a problem due to a charge imbalance. This paper validates the operating principle and feasibility of the proposed topology through the simulation and experimental results. They show that the input-capacitor voltages maintain the voltage balance with the PV MPPT control operating with a 140-W hardware prototype.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.881-893
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• 2019

This paper proposes a practical sliding-mode controller design for shaping the impedances of cascaded boost-converter power decoupling circuits for reducing the second order harmonic ripple in photovoltaic (PV) current. The cascaded double-boost converter, when used as power decoupling circuit, has some advantages in terms of a high step-up voltage-ratio, a small number of switches and a better efficiency when compared to conventional topologies. From these features, it can be seen that this topology is suitable for residential (PV) rooftop systems. However, a robust controller design capable of rejecting double frequency inverter ripple from passing to the (PV) source is a challenge. The design constraints are related to the principle of the impedance-shaping technique to maximize the output impedance of the input-side boost converter, to block the double frequency PV current ripple component, and to prevent it from passing to the source without degrading the system dynamic responses. The design has a small recovery time in the presence of transients with a low overshoot or undershoot. Moreover, the proposed controller ensures that the ripple component swings freely within a voltage-gap between the (PV) and the DC-link voltages by the small capacitance of the auxiliary DC-link for electrolytic-capacitor elimination. The second boost controls the main DC-link voltage tightly within a satisfactory ripple range. The inverter controller performs maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for the input voltage source using ripple correlation control (RCC). The robustness of the proposed control was verified by varying system parameters under different load conditions. Finally, the proposed controller was verified by simulation and experimental results.