Control of TI-SEPIC Converter for Optimal

Utilization of PV Power
Mummadi Veerachary, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract-- In this paper qualitative analysis and controller

design of a TI-SEPIC converter for optimal utilization
photovoltaic power is presented. This converter is essentially
combination of conventional buck and SEPIC converters sharing
common components. On the account of the integration load side
only one inductor is sufficient enough for performing the power
conversion in both Buck and SEPIC converters. Here the
function of the lower SEPIC converter is to extract maximum
power from the PV and feeds into the load, while the remaining
load power demand is supplied by the dc source through a
voltage-mode controlled buck converter. Proposed integrated
converter performance is verified through PSIM software
simulations and then verified with measurement results obtained
the laboratory prototype converter system.

I. INTRODUCTION

IGH frequency switching converters application in the dc

power distribution is increasing in the recent years.
Particularly in the area of automotive systems the main focus
is on hybrid vehicles. As the power conversion system is
becoming miniaturized, increasing the power density is one of
the challenging issues for the power supply designers. One of
the main orientations in power electronics in the last decade
has been the development of switching-mode converters with
higher power density and low electromagnetic interference
(EMI). Light weight, small size and high power density are
also some of the key design parameters [1]-[3]. Several
different types of switch-mode dc-dc converters (SMDC),
belongs to buck, boost and buck-boost topologies, have been
developed and reported in the literature to meet variety of
applications. Major concern in the recent dc-dc distribution
systems, such as in automotive and telecom power supply
systems, is to meet the increased power demand and reduce
the burden on the primary energy source, i.e. built-in battery
or ac utility. This is possible by adding additional power
sources in parallel to the existing battery source. The
additional power sources can be a renewable energy sources
such as photovoltaic (PV) or a fuel cell (FC) storage power.

This work was supported by the Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt.
of India under the R & D project Grant SR/S3/EECE/49/2007.
M. Veerachary is with Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, INDIA (e-mail:
mvchary@eee.iitd.ac.in).

978-1-4244-7882-8/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

Integration of renewable energy sources to form a hybrid

system is an excellent option for the hybrid vehicles and in
automotive industries. In order to efficiently and economically
utilize renewable energy resources, PV and FC, storage is
essential. Nowadays, electric double layer capacitors are
coming up in the energy storage systems, in addition to the
conventional battery systems, which are having faster
charging and discharging rates. However, in all these cases
the power conversion efficiency and its control is major
challenge in the power conversion. The steady-state efficiency
improvement with higher power density of the total
conversion system is one of the key parameter that needs to be
addressed. The other constraint while designing such systems
is also to evolve a simple control strategy with minimum
number of sensing state variables. To meet some of these
design challenges, the researchers are evolving multi-input
converters [4] with different topology combinations. Although
several power conversion topology configurations can easily
be developed, but a single converter with bucking and buckboosting feature is more suitable in the multi-input converter
system. This is because most of the renewable energy sources
may not have identical/ constant voltage for the entire
generation cycle, but their voltage magnitude keep on
changing depending on the environmental conditions. In view
of this the multi-input topology must be having some form of
integration such that the integrated converter is capable of
handling voltage variations.
In this paper a two-input converter which is the integration
of conventional buck and SEPIC converter (TI-SEPIC) with
reduced component count is considered for the investigations.
Photovoltaic renewable energy source and dc-battery are the
two power sources for the proposed converter. The input
power sources are: conventional dc supply/ battery, and the
second one is. The similar kind approach can easily be
extended even to the systems employing the following
powering sources: super capacitors, FC, wind, are their
combination. Several controlling methods, including singleloop and multi-loop strategies, have been reported for the dcdc converters. Each of these control schemes has their own
advantages and limitations. In this paper a simple and cost
effective single-loop voltage-mode controller is designed for
the buck converter, while perturb and observation technique is
employed for the maximum power point (MPP) tracking of
the TI-SEPIC.

its power stage dynamics can be described by a set of state

equations [2] given by:
x = AK x + BK u; v0 = Ck x
(1)

[ x ] = il

vc , and [u]=[Vg], k=1,2,3 for mode-1,

mode-2 and 3, respectively. Applying the state-space
averaging analysis and upon simplification results in the
average
model
where
A=(A1d1+A2d2+A3d3),
B=(B1d1+B2d2+B3d3). Here, the circuit operation depends on
the type of controlling signal used for switching devices S1
and S2. In any case for proper functioning of the integrated
converter the gate control signals for these two converters
must be synchronized. There are two different pulse-width
modulated (PWM) switching schemes are possible, trailing or
leading-edge modulation. Each of these schemes has their own
advantages and limitations. However, trailing-edge
modulation is considered in this paper.
where

Fig. 1. PV - DC supplied TI-SEPIC converter for optimal power control.

II. ANALYSIS OF TI-SEPIC CONVERTER

Depending on the location of the PV renewable energy
source and dc-battery in the two-input converter there are two
different power conversion combinations are possible.
Although it is possible to consider the PV source has enough
power supplying capability but it cannot be a back-up source.
If the PV is considered as a primary source, in that case in the
design stage itself the PV capacity must be more than the load
demand. In view of this reason the dc- battery is considered to
be the primary energy source for the TI-SEPIC converter,
while the PV is a secondary source. For analysis and
experimentation purpose it has been assumed that the battery
has enough power supplying capacity with its voltage is
higher than the load voltage. In view of this assumption, the
battery is connected to high voltage (HV) terminals of the TISEPIC converter. The proposed TI-SEPIC, shown in Fig. 1, is
essentially a parallel combination of buck and SEPIC
converter. However, to reduce the number of energy storage
elements, the switching devices of the two converters are
arranged in such a manner so that only one inductor L on the
load side is sufficient for processing the power from both the
converters. The main advantage of this integrated topology
over the individual topologies parallel connection at the load
terminals is that the order of the power conversion topology is
less by one. In view of order reduction the dynamical behavior
is some what simpler than when it is using two separate
inductors. The circuit can actually operate either in continuous
or discontinuous inductor current mode. But, its operation in a
discontinuous mode of operation will not provide benefits for
the power conversion, and also on the account of higher
power demand the current flows in L1 for most loading
conditions. Furthermore, L2 is designed such that current is
continuous even at lower solar insolations. Here, the converter
switching frequency must be chosen such that the current in
L2 is continuous even at lower solar insolations. In view of
this the circuit operation is discussed here only for continuous
inductor current mode (CICM) and the circuit is having three
different modes of operations. In CICM the TI-SEPIC exhibits
three different topological changes in one cycle of operation,

In this converter the diode D2 is common to both the

converters, while the individual converters are having their
own switching devices. Load and its filtering capacitor are
also common to both the converters. Hence the filtering
requirement is less as compared to the individual converter
connecting in parallel. In this converter, the buck converter is
formed by: S1, D1, L1, R, while the SEPIC converter is formed
by: S2, D2, L1, L2, C2, R. The steady-state load voltage can
easily be established, either by employing volt-sec balance or
through state-space model, and [2] the final expression is:

Vo = Vdc d c +

V pv d p

(1 d )

(2)

where dp duty cycle of switch S2, dc duty cycle of switch S1.

For a given solar insolation the maximum power generation
capability of PV is fixed and depending on the dc bus voltage
(Vo) the TI-SEPIC converter duty-cycle (dp) will be adjusted,
by the MPPT control-loop, and supplies a load current Io1. If
1 power tracking converter efficiency, the amount of load
current supplied by the PV array can easily be obtained by
applying principle of power balance, and it is.
(1 d p )1 I mp
(3)
I o1 =
dp
where Vmp, Imp are the PV array maximum power point array
voltage and current, respectively. If load demand is
Io=(Io1+Io2) then this load is distributed among the two
power sources, PV and DC. The PV supplies Io1, while the
rest will be drawn from the dc source. If 2 is the buck
converter efficiency, the amount of load current supplied by
the DC source is
I
I o 2 = 2 dc
(4)
dc
Notice that the load supplied by each source is dependent on
the respective power processing converter duty ratio.
Furthermore, as there is a constraint on the amount of power
supplied by the PV, and hence their duty ratios will be
adjusted as per their power supplying capacity. Normally, in
the PV supplied multi-input converter systems, firstly, the
duty ratio dp varies in order to extract the MPP value and

then dc of switch S1 varies depending on the deficit amount

of power that needs to be supplied by dc-battery.
III. DESCRIPTION OF CONTROL-LOOP DESIGN
Several different types of control strategies are reported in
literature, and they are broadly classified into: (i) single-loop
voltage-mode, (ii) single-loop current-mode, (iii) two-loop
current mode control, and (iv) multi-loop schemes. Although
the single-loop strategies are simple to implement, but their
dynamic response times are slightly higher side. Two-loop
current-mode schemes are popular in the power supply
applications as they result in faster response, but their
controllers design becomes complex and sometimes it is one
of the limiting factor. In this paper two decoupled control
scheme are proposed, of which one for load dc-bus voltage
regulation and the other for the PV source power extraction.
This structure is capable of maintaining the load voltage
regulation while extracting maximum available power from
the PV renewable source. The control schemes can be
interchangeable from one to other depending on the source
power supply capacity. However, use of maximum power
point tracking control-loop for the buck converter imposes the
constraints on the load for extracting maximum power.
Furthermore, suitable input filter need to be designed for the
buck converter. In view of this difficulty it is always
recommended to use power tracking loop with the buck-boost
topology, in this case it is for SEPIC converter, as it is having
capability of extracting maximum power for most of the
loading conditions. To demonstrate the proposed design the
power tracking control-loop for the SEPIC converter, voltage
control-loop for the buck converter, as shown in Fig. 1, are
used in this paper. Proportional plus integral plus derivative
type controller capable of achieving reasonable dynamic
response time both for line and load changes. The MPPT loop
is designed using the well established perturb and observation
algorithm [1]. A two-zero/ two-pole digital compensator is
designed for the buck converter to ensure dc bus voltage
regulation. For control loop design we define loopgain as
TL(z)=KGc(z)Gvd(z), where Gvd(z): control-to-output transfer
function, Gc(z): Compensator, K is the load voltage sensing
gain. The compensator is designed [5] in digital domain using
pole-zero placement technique. Fine tuning of the
compensator is performed to ensure stability margins: Gain
Margin> 6 dB, 450<Phase Margin<750.

edge modulation. It is clear from the expression, eq. 2, the dcload voltage is dependent on both the supply voltage
magnitudes and the respective converter duty ratio. For a
given battery PV voltage and load demand the dp and dc
varies in order to meet the load demand and to extract
maximum power from the PV source. Here the load supplied
by each converter depends on the respective duty ratio and
their dependence is defined by eqns. 3 and 4. Therefore, the
load voltage and current is controlled by controlling the dp
and dc. The SEPIC converter views the load as a voltage
regulated dc-bus and hence the PV source feeding its entire
available power into the battery.

Fig. 2. Power distribution characteristics for rated solar insolation.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

To demonstrate the proposed converter control strategy a
54 Watt TI-SEPIC system with parameters: L1=L2=100 H,
C1=100 F, C2=220 F, R=2.5 , fs=50 kHz was designed to
supply a constant dc load having a voltage requirement of 12
V 1%. Here, the PV source supplies a maximum power of 30
W under maximum solar insolation condition, while the backup dc voltage source supplies the remaining load demand and
this requirement varies depending on the power generation
available from the PV source. The switching frequency of 50
kHz is used for driving the switching devices and the two
converters turn-off instants are synchronized by using trailing-

Fig. 3. Power distribution characteristics when solar insolation is changing

gradually.

Several realistic cases have been studied and few

simulation and experimental observations are provided here
for validating the concept. PSIM is used for simulation

purpose. For a load demand of 54 watts, the pattern of load

distribution on the two input sources is shown in Fig. 2. These
results are generated assuming that the PV source is receiving
full solar insolation. Under this condition the PV supplying its
maximum power of Ppv=30 watts while dc source Pdc=25
watts. This result gives clear picture of load sharing on the
two sources at rated solar insolation condition. But, in reality
the solar insolation is not constant and it varies with time and
environmental conditions. To show the effectiveness of this
scheme the simulations have been provided in Fig. 3 for
gradually changing solar insolation for a load demand of 60
watts. Note that under the variable solar insolation conditions
the generated PV power also varies as shown in Fig. 3. In
view of this change the power supplied by the dc source is
keep on changing, and its variation is almost opposite to PV
power generation. In most of the realistic cases the solar
insolation variation may not be gradually varying, as shown in
Fig. 3, but it is composed of gradual variation together with
intermediate fluctuations. To test the control strategy for these
types of variations simulation results are provided in Fig. 4.
Here upto t=0.6 sec the solar insolation variation slowly
varying, but during t=0.6 to 0.7 secs the insolation variation
suddenly changed and then follows gradually up to 1 sec
simulation time. In spite of decrease in PV power generation,
on account of variation in the solar insolation, the TI-SEPIC
converter is maintaining the load demand by redistributing
load on to the primary dc-battery source. The load
redistribution on the sources is also studied for three different
solar insolations and the corresponding results are plotted in
Figs. 5 and 6.
If there is power generation from the PV source, which is
the case during night time or no sun, then the entire load is
drawn from the dc source; otherwise both dc and PV sources
are sharing the load demand as per their supplying capacity.
The simulation result reflecting this fact is shown in Fig. 5.
The proposed control scheme capability is also tested for
change in solar insolation in discrete-steps and then observed
the load distribution as shown in Fig. 6. These results indicate
that even in this case also the proposed methodology is
redistributing the load on the two sources together with bus
voltage regulation.
To validate the suitability of the proposed topology and its
power distribution capability an experimental laboratory
prototype has been built and then experiments have been
performed. Here, measured results are provided for two
important test conditions: (i) initially only dc source is
supplying power, no sun, and later the PV is added to the
system with its full capacity, (ii) power distribution profile
when the solar insolation is changing in discrete steps and the
corresponding results are shown in Figs. 7 and 8. These
experimental observations are in close agreement with those
obtained in simulations. The discrepancy in simulation
experimental results is mainly due measuring blocks in
simulation and improper representation of un accountable
non-ideal characteristics of the experimental system.

Fig. 4. Power distribution characteristics against gradual plus sudden variation

in solar insolation.

Fig. 5. Power distribution characteristics when PV source with full solar

insolation is added (simulation).

Fig. 6. Power distribution characteristics when solar insolation is changing in

discrete step (simulation).

VII. REFERENCES
60

[1]

Pdc
50

[2]
40

[3]
30

[4]

20
F ul l sol a r i n sol a t i on
10

[5]
[6]

Ppv
0
- 0.5

0.5

1. 5

2.5

3.5

T i m e ( s)

Fig. 7. Power distribution characteristics when solar insolation is changing in

discrete step (Experimentally measured).
60

Po
50

40

Pdc
30

20

Ppv
10

Sol-1

0
0

Sol-2
4

Sol-3
6

Ti me ( s)

Fig. 8. Power distribution characteristics when solar insolation is changing in

discrete step (test measurements).

V. CONCLUSIONS
Qualitative analysis and controller design of TI-SEPIC
converter suitable for optimal utilization of PV power was
discussed in this paper. Single-loop voltage-mode control
strategy for buck converter, to ensure load voltage regulation,
and power tracking control-loop was designed for the SEPIC
converter. Proposed control scheme effectiveness was tested
both in simulation and experiments. These studies revealed
that load re-distribution was ensured automatically by the
control-loops. Load and solar insolation changes were
reflected on the fixed dc source connected through buck
converter, while the PV source was loaded with its maximum
supplying capacity. The simulation and experimental results
were in agreement with each other.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank the Dept. Of Science &
Technology, Govt. of India for supporting this research under
the R & D project: Design and development of digital
controllers for dc-dc conversion systems supplied from nonlinear energy sources.

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