• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.72-77
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• 2015

Three-level diode clamped multilevel inverter, generally known as neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter, has an inherent problem causing neutral point (NP) potential variation. Until now, the NP potential problem of variation has been investigated and lots of solutions have also been proposed. This paper presents a neutral point voltage control technology using the anti-windup PI controller and offset technology of PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to control the variation of NPC 3-phase three-level inverter neutral point voltage. And the proposed algorithm is tested and verified using a PLL (Phase Locked Loop) in order to synchronize the phase voltage from the line voltage of grid. It significantly improves the voltage balancing under a solar fluctuation conditions of the inverter. Experimental results show the good performance and effectiveness of the proposed method.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.355-363
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• 2007

In this paper, the transformerless three-phase line-connected PV PCS (photovoltaic power conditioning system) is proposed. An improved P&O (perturb and observe) MPPT (maximum power point tracking) algorithm that prevents local maximum power point tracking is proposed. By controlling the three-phase line-connected voltage source inverter using outer DC-link voltage controller, inner current controller and microcontroller friendly simplified space vector modulation (SVM) method, a unity power factor is achieved. An algorithm is suggested to control the DC-link voltage faster and more correctly for the increase system stability and power factor. All algorithms and controllers are implemented on a single-chip microcontroller and the superiority of the proposed algorithms and controllers is proved by experiments.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.296-303
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• 2013

This paper proposes a high efficiency three-phase cascaded phase shifted H-bridge multi-level inverter without DC/DC converters for grid-tied multi string photovoltaic (PV) applications. The cascaded H-bridge topology is suitable for PV applications since each PV module can act as a separate DC source for each cascaded H-bridge module. The proposed phase shifted H-bridge multi-level topology offers advantages such as operation at a lower switching frequency and a lower current ripple when compared to conventional two level topologies. It is also shown that low ripple sinusoidal current waveforms are generated with a unity power factor. The control algorithm permits the independent control of each DC link voltage with a maximum power point for each string of PV modules. The use of the controller area network (CAN) communication protocol for H-bridge multi-level inverters, along with localized PWM generation and PV voltage regulation are implemented. It is also shown that the expansion and modularization capabilities of the H-bridge modules are improved since the individual inverter modules operate more independently. The proposed topology is implemented for a three phase 240kW multi-level PV power conditioning system (PCS) which has 40kW H-bridge modules. The experimental results show that the proposed topology has good performance.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.451-462
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• 2016

Photovoltaic energy conversion becomes main focus of many researches due to its promising potential as source for future electricity and has many advantages than the other alternative energy sources like wind, solar, ocean, biomass, geothermal etc. In Photovoltaic power generation multilevel inverters play a vital role in power conversion. The three different topologies, diode-clamped (neutral-point clamped) inverter, capacitor-clamped (flying capacitor) inverter and cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter are widely used in these multilevel inverters. Among the three topologies, cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter is more suitable for photovoltaic applications since each pv array can act as a separate dc source for each h-bridge module. This paper presents a single phase Cascaded H-bridge five level inverter for grid-connected photovoltaic application using sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique. This inverter output voltage waveform reduces the harmonics in the generated current and the filtering effort at the input. The control strategy allows the independent control of each dc-link voltages and tracks the maximum power point of PV strings. This topology can inject to the grid sinusoidal input currents with unity power factor and achieves low harmonic distortion. A PID control algorithm is implemented in Arm Processor LPC2148. The validity of the proposed inverter is verified through simulation and is implemented in a single phase 100W prototype. The results of hardware are compared with simulation results. The proposed system offers improved performance over conventional three level inverter in terms of THD.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 1996.06a
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• pp.103-108
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• 1996

In this paper, a novel utility connected photovoltaic power generation system with unity power factor and uninterruptable power system facility and its control strategy are proposed. The proposed photovoltaic(PV) system is connected in parallel between utility and load. The PV system provides an uninterruptable voltage to load, a maximum power tracking to solar array, and power factor correction to the utility. The proposed system has the following advantages compared with the conventional utility connected PV system. 1. Harmonic elimination Function 2. Feeding the photovoltaic energy to the utility 3. Providing the uninterruptible power source along battery to the load In case that the photovoltaic array system is on the poor power generation, the battery and capacitor of the PV system are charged by three phase utility source and the inverter in the PV system only provides the reactive current to eliminate the harmonic current exited on the utility. In the normal operation mode, the PV system supplies active power to load and reactive power to utility in order to maintain the unity power factor and to regulate ac load voltage.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.538-548
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• 2014

This study provides a robust control of a grid-connected three-phase two-level photo voltaic inverter. The introduced control method uses the cascade control strategy to regulate AC-side current and DC-link voltage. A robust controller with integration action is used for the inner-loop AC-side current control, which maximizes the convergence rate using a linear matrix inequality-based optimization design method and eliminates the offset error. The robust controller design method considers the parameter uncertainty set to accommodate parameter mismatch and un-modeled components in the inverter model. An outer-loop proportional-integral controller is used to regulate DC-link voltage with linearization of DC/AC relation. The proposed control strategy is applied to a grid-connected 100 kW photo voltaic inverter.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.123-129
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• 2000

This paper desclibes a design method and test results of grid-connected photovoltaic power 당eneration s systems, which consists of solar cells, DCI AC inverter, utility grid. A 50 kW photovoltaic power generation s system including a 3-phase DCI AC inverter is designed and made in order to investigate the system l pelionnance for glid connection. Also the control scheme of a three phase cmrent-controlled PWM inverter W with PI controller is presented by using d-q transformation. The experimental waveforms show that the p proposed system has stable behavior with em unit power factor in utility-interactive operation.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.36-43
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• 2017

This paper describes a hybrid multi-output three-level DC/DC converter suitable for a wide, high-input voltage range of an auxiliary power supply for a high-power photovoltaic generating system. In a high-power photovoltaic generating system, the solar panel output voltage depends on solar radiation quantity and varies from 450Vdc to 1100Vdc. The proposed hybrid multi-output three-level DC/DC converter, which is an auxiliary power supply, would be used as power source for control printed circuit boards and relay and cooling fans in a high-power photovoltaic generating system. The proposed multi-output ($24V_{DC}/30A$, $230V_{DC}/5A$) hybrid three-level boost converter, which uses an energy recovery snubber, is controlled by variable-frequency and phase-shifted modulations and can achieve zero-voltage switching with all operating conditions of input voltage and load range. Experimental results of a 2kW prototype are evaluated and implemented to verify the performance of the proposed converter.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of IIIuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.279-285
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• 2007

Since the residential load is an AC load and the output of solar cell is a DC power, the photovoltaic system needs the DC/AC converter to utilize solar cell. In case of driving to interact with utility line, in order to operate at unity power factor, converter must provide the sinusoidal wave current and voltage with same phase of utility line. Since output of solar cell is greatly fluctuated by insolation, it is necessary that the operation of solar cell output in the range of the vicinity of maximum power point. In this paper, DC/AC converter is three phase PWM converter with smoothing reactor. And then, feedforward control used to obtain a superior characteristic for current control and digital PLL circuit used to detect the phase of utility line.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1233-1242
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• 2014

A new inverter topology for single-phase photovoltaic (PV) systems is proposed in this study. The proposed inverter offers a four-level voltage in its output terminals. This feature results in easier filtering in comparison with other conventional two-level or three-level inverters. In addition, the proposed four-level inverter (PFLI) has a transformer-less topology, which decreases the size, weight, and cost of the entire system and increases the overall efficiency of the system. Although the inverter is transformer-less, it produces a negligible leakage ground current (LGC), which makes this inverter suitable for PV grid-connected applications. The performance of the proposed inverter is compared with that of a four-level neutral point clamped inverter (FLNPCI). Theoretical analysis and computer simulations verify that the PFLI topology is superior to FLNPCI in terms of efficiency and suitability for use in PV transformer-less systems.