• 한국산업융합학회 논문집
• /
• 제26권6_1호
• /
• pp.967-976
• /
• 2023

Currently, with the thriving development in the field of solar energy, the widespread adoption of solar grid-connected power conversion systems is rapidly expanding. As the market continues to grow, the efficiency of solar power conversion systems is steadily increasing, while prices are rapidly decreasing. Photovoltaic panels often produce low output voltages, and Boost converters are commonly employed to elevate and stabilize these voltages. They are also utilized for implementing Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), ensuring the full utilization of solar power generation. Recently, synchronous control techniques have been introduced, using controllable switching devices like Si IGBT or SiC MOSFET to replace the diodes in the original circuits. However, this has raised concerns related to costs. This paper offers a compromise solution, considering both the performance and economic factors of the converter. It proposes a hybrid high-efficiency synchronous converter structure that combines Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET. Additionally, the proposed topology has been practically implemented and tested, with results confirming its feasibility and cost-effectiveness.

• 전력전자학회논문지
• /
• 제21권4호
• /
• pp.335-342
• /
• 2016

This paper proposes an energy storage-assisted, series-connected module-integrated power conversion system that integrates a photovoltaic power conditioner and a charge balancing circuit. In conventional methods, a photovoltaic power conditioner and a cell-balancing circuit are needed for photovoltaic systems with energy storage devices, but they cause a complex configuration and high cost. Moreover, an imbalanced output voltage of the module-integrated converter for PV panels can be a result of partial shading. Partial shading can lead to the fault condition of the boost converter in shaded modules and high voltage stresses on the devices in other modules. To overcome these problems, a bidirectional buck-boost converter with an integrated magnetic device operating for a charge-balancing circuit is proposed. The proposed circuit has multiple secondary rectifiers with inductors sharing a single magnetic core, which works as an inductor for the main bidirectional charger/discharger of the energy storage. The secondary rectifiers operate as a cell-balancing circuit for both energy storage and the series-connected multiple outputs of the module-integrated converter. The operating principle of the cell-balancing power conversion circuit and the power stage design are presented and validated by PSIM simulation for analysis. A hardware prototype with equivalent photovoltaic modules is implemented for verification. The results verify that the modularized photovoltaic power conversion system in the output series with an energy storage successfully works with the proposed low-cost bidirectional buck-boost converter comprising a single magnetic device.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• 제17권4호
• /
• pp.1037-1047
• /
• 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
• /
• 제19권4호
• /
• pp.881-893
• /
• 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.