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An Integrated Inverter With Maximum Power Tracking for Grid-Connected PV Systems

Billy M. T. Ho, Student Member, IEEE, and Henry Shu-Hung Chung, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractAn inverter for grid-connected photovoltaic systems is presented in this paper. It can globally locate the maximum power point of the panel over wide insolation and feed the solar energy to the grid. Its structure mainly integrates a previously developed maximum point tracking method and output current shaping function into a buck-boost-derived converter and then inverts the shaped current through a grid frequency bridge to the grid. Instead of having a storage capacitor connecting in parallel with the converter output, series connection is used, so that the required capacitor voltage rating is lower than that in classical inverters. Most importantly, the inverter output current harmonics are less sensitive to the capacitor value. A 30-W laboratory prototype has been built. The tracking capability, inversion efciency, and large-signal responses at different insolations have been investigated. Detailed analysis on the inverter performance has been performed. The theoretical predictions are veried with the experimental results. Index TermsDC/AC power conversion, inverters, photovoltaic systems.

Fig. 1. Typical structures of grid-connected PV systems. (a) With voltage-fed, self-commutated inverter switching at high frequency. (b) With current-fed, grid-commutated inverter switching at the grid frequency.

I. INTRODUCTION HOTOVOLTAIC (PV) technology has developed rapidly over the last two decades from a small scale, specialist industry supplying the United States space program to a broadly based global activity [1]. The advancement of power electronics and semiconductor technologies, the declining cost of solar panels, and the favorable incentives in a number of countries had profound impact on the commercial acceptance of grid-connected PV systemswhich have been used in peak shaving, demand reduction, and supply of remote loads [2], [3]. Apart from the solar panels, the core technology associated with these systems is a power-conditioning unit (inverter) that converts the solar output electrically compatible with the utility grid [4]. Most inverters in the mid 1990s consisted of a central inverter of dc power rating above 1 kW. They connect several solar panel strings in parallel via a dc bus. However, the concept has the drawbacks of causing a complete loss of generation during inverter outage and losses due to the mismatch of strings [5]. Later, string inverters, which are designed for a system of one string of panels, were used to lessen the problems and have become popular nowadays. With further system decentralization, concept of AC-module was introduced. Every solar panel has a module-integrated inverter of power rating
Manuscript received July 17, 2003; revised June 8, 2004. This work was supported by the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, under Project CityU 1221/03E. The authors are with the Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (e-mail: eeshc@cityu.edu.hk). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPEL.2005.850906

below 500 W mounted on the backside [6][10]. This panelinverter integration allows a direct connection to the grid and provides the highest system exibility and expandability. It also offers the possibilities to overcome problems with respect to high dc voltage level connection, safety, cable losses, and risk of dc arcs, and to achieve high-energy yield in case of system suffering from shading effect, due to the lack of mutual inuence among modules operating points. Typical structures of the AC-module consist of several power conversion stages (Fig. 1) [9], [10]. The front stage has a maximum power point (MPP) tracker for maximizing the output power of the panel, because the maximum power drawn from the panel varies with temperature and insolation [11]. The grid-connected stage uses a full-bridge inverter toward the grid, either self-commutated with a high switching frequency [Fig. 1(a)], or grid-commutated at the grid frequency [Fig. 1(b)]. In the former structure [Fig. 1(a)], the panel voltage is rstly boosted to the grid level together with the tracker. The dc/ac conversion stage, which is usually a pulse-width-modulated (PWM) voltage-source inverter, shapes and inverts the output current. A high-frequency lter is used to eliminate the high-frequency component at the inverter output. In the latter structure [Fig. 1(b)], the tracker, voltage boost, and output current shaping are performed in the front stage. The full bridge is switched at the grid frequency for inverting the shaped output current [7], [9], [10]. As the inverter generates grid-conformed ac power, some enand the ergy storage elements, such as the dc-link capacitor panel input capacitor , are used to compensate the difference between the dc power from the panel and the time-varying in, stantaneous power absorbed by the grid. They, particularly determine the harmonic quality of the output current. For inis made large for keeping verters without MPP tracking, the panel voltage constant and preventing the 100-Hz or 120-Hz grid disturbance injecting into the panel. However, although the terminal voltage is stable, the panel output current may be time

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Fig. 2.

Circuit schematics of the proposed inverter.

varying or even pulsating that cannot stabilize the panel operating point. It is thus important to keep both the panel terminal voltage and output current constant at the MPP [12]. Majority works usually emphasize on researching new MPP tracker [11] and rening individual converter stage. However, the system complexity is still governed by the multistage structure, as depicted in Fig. 1. This paper proposes a buck-boost-derived converter that integrates the functions of the MPP tracker and current shaper in Fig. 1(b). Low component count and the use of low-voltage-rating capacitor are the key advantages of this converter. The output current harmonics are also less sensitive to the storage capacitor value. Tracking of the MPP is based on the switching frequency modulation scheme (SFMS) in [11]. Shaping of the output current is based on controlling the converters output pulse duration such that its average value is proportional to the required current reference in each switching cycle [13]. A 30-W laboratory prototype has been built. The tracking capability, inversion efciency, and large-signal responses at different insolation have been investigated. Detailed analysis on the inverter performance has been performed. The theoretical predictions are veried with the experimental results. II. OPERATING PRINCIPLES OF THE INVERTER A. Description of the Inverters Operations Fig. 2 shows the circuit schematics of the inverter consisting of two stages. The rst stage is a buck-boost-derived converter operating in discontinuous conduction mode. It is formed by , , , and for tracking the MPP of the panel and shaping the output current . The input lter formed by and

is used to smooth the panel output current. The MPP tracking method in [11] is used. Its technique is to perturb the switching and compare the ac component and the average frequency of value of the panel voltage to control the duty cycle of . The MPP can be globally located over wide insolation. is on, and are off. stores energy. When When is off, both and are on. The energy stored in and will transfer to the output. will be switched off when the integrated value of is larger than that of the required output in a switching period . current acts as a buffer that temporarily stores panel energy and transfers it to the output in a switching cycle. If the panel power output is higher than the power absorbed by the grid in one after switching off will cycle, the energy remaining in through and . Since the average voltage transfer to across will be shown to be equal to half of the peak output , it is used to regulate , and so . Thus, ac voltage and in transferring energy to the series connection of the grid provides the advantages of shaping the current and re. ducing the voltage stress on The second stage is a grid frequency inverter formed by , , , and . and are switched on switches and in the positive half cycle of the grid voltage, whilst are switched on in the negative half cycle of the grid is used to absorb the voltage. For the output lter section, and the currents through current difference between and when and are on. and have the resonant frequency at the switching frequency of for keeping the line-frequency and attenuating the high-frequency and . is used to lter the voltage components across high frequency current components going out to the grid. The

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If Fig. 3

will increase, and vice versa. As shown in

(7) and

(8) Consider the time interval to creases from , . Thus, for in-

(9) By substituting can be shown that and into (9), it (10)

Fig. 3. Relationships among v , i , v , p , and p .

Moreover (11) C. Operation of the Buck-Boost-Derived Converter

transformer is used to adjust the voltage level between the inverter output and the grid voltage. B. Relationship Between the Panel Power and Grid Power is constant under a conThe power input from the panel is timestant insolation and the power output to the grid varying at twice of the grid frequency. Mathematically (1) (2) (3) where , , and are the peak voltage, peak current, and angular frequency of the grid, respectively, and is the peak instantaneous grid power. and . At Fig. 3 illustrates the relationships between is equal to . That is the steady state, the average value of (4) Hence, the peak current of The capacitor acts as a buffer for absorbing the difference and . Fig. 3 depicts the low-frequency prole of between varying between and the capacitor voltage at a dc value of . Thus (5) (6) where . ,

Fig. 4(a) shows the equivalent circuit of the front stage buck-boost-derived converter operating in discontinuous conbegins with zero in duction modethe inductor current every switching cycle. The converter input is represented by a voltage source , while its output is represented by a rectied . The components , , , sinusoidal voltage source form a classical buck-boost converter with its output and for supplying to . Fig. 4(b)(e) connecting in series with show the topological sequence of operations. Fig. 5 shows the , , and theoretical waveforms of the gate signal to , , and the states of , , , and . The switching period is . The operations are described as follows. 1) Topology 1 [Fig. 4(b)]: The switch is on and is off. The inductor is charged up. The and are off. Hence diodes (12) , is given by (13) Also, the average current from , , is (14) It is noted that is relatively xed under a constant insolation, implying that a constant solar energy will be converted into the grid.

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Fig. 5. 3=2.

Theoretical waveforms. (a) !t 6= (=2) or 3=2. (b) !t =

=2 and

2)

Topology 2 [Fig. 4(c)]: is off and is on. The diode starts The switch blocks. The stored energy in is conducting and , together with . Thus released to (15)

Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit of the front stage converter. (a) Equivalent circuit. (b) Topology 1. (c) Topology 2. (d) Topology 3. (e) Topology 4.

The output current , which is equal to , as shown in Fig. 2, is sensed and integrated. If the inte-

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grated value is equal to or larger than the integrated , will be turned value of the reference current off. Mathematically (16)

By comparing (19) and (20), it can be seen that at for equality, the determinant zero. That is

, must be

(21) Hence, from (4), (13) and (14) is derived by multiplying The current reference and the controller output the rectied ac voltage . Topology 3 [Fig. 4(d)]: The energy remaining in the coupled inin this ductors after Topology 2 will transfer to and are off. blocks and topology. Both starts conducting. Mathematically

3)

(17) However, when the instantaneous power to the grid is and ), the converter at maximum (i.e., will go to Topology 4 directly. The term equals zero at those moments and is the critical , which will condition for determining the value of be shown in Section II-D. The waveforms are shown in Fig. 5(b). [Fig. 4(e)]: Topology 4 is switched on again in All switches are off, until Topology 1. Therefore (22) (i.e., ) is load independent. Thus, the average value of Thus an error amplier EA1 is used to compare the and and regulate the magnitude of the output current. is larger than , will be As shown in Fig. 2, if increased, and vice versa. E. Turns-Ratio of the Coupled Inductors The primary-to-secondary turns-ratio of the coupled inducstill blocks in Topology tors is determined by ensuring that 2. Thus, by referring Fig. 4(c)

4)

D. Determination of As shown in Fig. 2, is used to adjust the magnitude of in (16) for determining . Thus, considering the waveforms in Topology 2 shown in Fig. 5 and (16) (18) where , and is the instantaneous output grid current before the voltage transformation by . By solving (18), it can be shown that (19) Referring to Fig. 3, at , and . Thus, and , where and represent the peak values of the sinusoidal voltage and current output respectively. The value of is at maximum, which is denoted by . Thus, consider the area under the in Fig. 5(b) waveform of

(23) Thus, the R.H.S. of (23) is maximum when (i.e., ). By using (22), if is maximum

(24) But, the voltage stresses on the switches increases with the value of . It can be shown that (25a) (25b) (25c) (25d)

and so (20) where stresses of , , , , , and , , respectively. are the voltage

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F. Maximum Power Point Tracking of the Panel Tracking the maximum power point (MPP) of the solar panel is based on the frequency modulation technique in [11] that the is modulated with a low-frequency signal. PWM signal to The panel is modeled by a Thevenins equivalent circuit, which consists of a voltage source connected in series with an output around the MPP. Both and are subject to resistance the level of insolation and temperature. The input voltage and and , reequivalent input resistance of the converter are spectively. Assuming 100% conversion efciency (26)
Fig. 6. Setup of the laboratory prototype.

The rate of change of shown to be

with respect to

and

can be

and (34) . and . The tracking method is based on comand , an error term is paring the magnitudes of dened as (35) where and are, respectively, the peak value of and the scaling factor for . At the MPP, the converter will match with the panel. The sign of gives the required adjustment direction of the duty cycle of (36a) (36b) (36c) The tracking method in Fig. 2 is explained as follows. is modand are ulated with a small-signal sinusoidal variation. is then scaled down by the factor of and is comsensed. is obtained by using a peak detector to extract pared with . the value of the ac component in . The switching frequency is removed by using a low-pass (LP) lter. component in The error amplier EA2 controls the PWM modulator to adby moving to the required value. The technique will just keep track of the output characteristics of solar panels without approximating the voltage-current relationships [11]. III. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION A laboratory prototype has been built and investigated. The input side consists of three 10-W panels (Siemens SM-10) connecting in series. A stainless steel cover is put on the panels to ensure uniform illumination on the panels. The setup is shown in Fig. 6. The surface temperature is kept at about 40 C throughout the test. The output power to the output resistance characteristics of the panel at different insolation varies from 38 to 122 when levels is shown in Fig. 7. the insolation level is changed from 1500 W/m to 350 W/m . At the MPP,

(27) At the MPP, and . Hence (28) where is the average input voltage. This equation gives the required dynamic input characteristics of the converter, in which has small-signal variation of subject to a small-signal change of . If the switching frequency of is modulated with a smallsignal sinusoidal variation (29) is the nominal switching frequency, is the moduwhere is the maxlating frequency and is much lower than , and imum frequency deviation. consists of two components, including an average resisand a small variation . That is tance (30) As shown in [14], for the buck-boost converter (31) By differentiating (31), it can be shown that (32) has an average value of can be expressed as and a small variation , which

(33)

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Fig. 7.

0r

characteristics of the panel.

TABLE I COMPONENT VALUES OF THE LABORATORY PROTOTYPE

The output power is also decreased from 34 W to 12 W. The component values and parameters of the prototype inverter are is 20 kHz, tabulated in Table I. The switching frequency of with a maximum frequency deviation of 2 kHz (10%) using a 1 kHz modulating signal. The system is simulated with PSIM 4.1 [15]. Fig. 8(a) shows and at the simulated voltage and current waveforms of the insolation level of 1500 W/m . Fig. 8(b) and (c) show the , , and at and , rewaveforms of spectively. Fig. 9 shows the corresponding experimental waveforms at the insolation levels of 1500 W/m . Figs. 10 and 11 show the waveforms of , , and under the insolations of 750 W/m and 350 W/m , respectively. It can be seen that the results under the insolation level of 1500 W/m are in close agreement with the simulated results and the ones in Fig. 5. The average value of the capacitor voltage is around 30 V, which is equal to , under the three insolation levels. This conrms the expression in (22). Fig. 12 shows the harmonic contents of the output current at the insolation level of 1500 W/m with different values of , including 1000 F, 470 F, and

Fig. 8. Simulated voltage and current waveforms. (a) v , i . (b) v , i and i at !t = =4. (c) v , i and i at !t = =2.

220 F and compared with the IEEE Std. 929-2000 (IEEE Recommended Practice for Utility Interface of Photovoltaic (PV) Systems) [16]. They are all within the harmonic limits. Table II shows the tracking and conversion efciencies of the system at different insolation levels. The tracking efciency, which is the ratio of the tracked power to the maximum extractable power, can be maintained at over 96% over the insolation range. The overall conversion efciency from the panel to the grid is over 83%.

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Fig. 10. Experimental voltage and current waveforms at the insolation level of 750 W/m . v (Ch 3: 100 V/div), i (Ch 4: 0.1 A/div) and v (Ch 2: 10 V/div) (Timebase: 2 ms/div).

Fig. 11. Experimental voltage and current waveforms at the insolation level of 350 W/m . v (Ch 3: 100 V/div), i (Ch 4: 0.1 A/div) and v (Ch 2: 10 V/div) (Timebase: 2 ms/div).

Fig. 9. Experimental voltage and current waveforms at the insolation level of 1500 W/m . (a) v (Ch 3: 100 V/div), i (Ch 4: 0.1 A/div) and v (Ch 2: 10 V/div) (Timebase: 2 ms/div). (b) !t = =4. v (Ch 1: 10 V/div), i (Ch (Ch 3: 5 A/div) (Timebase: 20 s=div ). (c) !t = =2. 2: 5 A/div) and i v (Ch 1: 10 V/div), i (Ch 2: 5 A/div) and i (Ch 3: 5 A/div) (Timebase: 20 s=div ).

Fig. 12. Harmonic contents of i at the insolation level of 1500 W/m with different values of C , including 1000 F, 470 F, and 220 F.

The transient response of the inverter system is investigated by suddenly changing the insolation level from 350 W/m to

, and . 1500 W/m . Fig. 13(a) shows the waveforms of Fig. 13(b) shows the response when the insolation is changed

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TABLE II TRACKING AND INVERSION EFFICIENCIES OF THE PROTOTYPE

capacitor will revert back to 30 V in both cases after the transient period, conrming the control mechanism. The transient period takes about 0.6 s. IV. CONCLUSION This paper has discussed the implementation and performance of an integrated inverter for photovoltaic systems. The inverter provides the function of tracking the MPP of the panels and shaping the output current over wide insolation level. A 30-W laboratory prototype has been built. The tracking capability, inversion efciency, and large-signal responses at different insolations have been investigated. Theoretical predictions have been conrmed with the experimental results of the prototype. REFERENCES
[1] G. Foley, Photovoltaic applications in rural area of the developing world, Tech. Rep., World Bank, New York, 1995. [2] C. J. Hatiziadoniu, F. Chalkiadakis, and V. Feiste, A power conditioner for a grid-connected photovoltaic generator based on the 3-level inverter, IEEE Trans. Energy Conv., vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 16051610, Dec. 1999. [3] K. Y. Khouzam, Technical and economic assessment of utility interactive PV systems for domestic applications in South East Queensland, IEEE Trans. Energy Conv., vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 15441550, Dec. 1999. [4] T. Markvart, Solar Electricity. New York: Wiley, 1994. [5] H. Becker, K. Kiefer, V. Hoffmann, U. Rindelhard, and G. Heilscher, Five years of operational experience in the German 1000-Roofs-PV programmeresults of monitoring and system inspection, in Proc. 14th Eur. Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conf., Barcelona, Spain, Jul. 1997, pp. 16771680. [6] H. Oldenkamp, I. De Jong, C. Baltus, S. Verhoeven, and S. Elstgeest, Reliability and accelerated life tests of the ac module mounted OKE4 inverter, in Proc. 25th IEEE Photovoltaic System Conf., May 1996, pp. 13391342. [7] A. Lohner, T. Meyer, and A. Nagel, A new panel-integratable inverter concept for grid-connected photovoltaic systems, in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Industrial Electronics, Jun. 1996, pp. 827831. [8] M. Meinhardt et al., Miniaturized low prole module integrated converter for photovoltaic applications with integrated magnetic components, in Proc. IEEE Applications Power Electron. Conf. Expo., Mar. 1999, pp. 305311. [9] M. Calais, J. Myrzik, T. Spooner, and V. Agelidis, Inverters for single-phase grid connected photovoltaic systemsan overview, in Proc. IEEE Power Electronic Specialists Conf., Jun. 2002, pp. 19952000. [10] S. B. Kjaer, J. K. Pedersen, and F. Blaabjerg, Power inverter topologies for photovoltaic modulesa review, in Proc. IEEE Industry Applications Conf., vol. 2, 2002, pp. 782788. [11] K. K. Tse, M. T. Ho, H. Chung, and S. Y. R. Hui, A novel maximum power point tracker for PV panels using switching frequency modulation, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 980989, Nov. 2002. [12] Y. Chen, K. Smedley, F. Vacher, and J. Brouwer, A new maximum power point tracking controller for photovoltaic power generation, in Proc. IEEE Applications Power Electronic Conf. Expo, Mar. 2003, pp. 5862. [13] K. Smedley and S. Ck, One-cycle control of switching converters, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 625633, Nov. 1995. [14] D. Maksimovic and S. Ck, A unied analysis of PWM converters in discontinuous modes, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 476490, Jul. 1991. [15] Users Manual of PSIM 4.1, Powersim Technologies Inc., 2000. [16] IEEE Recommended Practice for Utility Interface of Photovoltaic (PV) Systems, IEEE Std. 929-2000, Jan. 2000.

Fig. 13. Transient responses of the inverter system. (Ch 2: v , 10 V/div; Ch 4: i , 0.1 A/div), (Timebase: 100 ms/div). (a) From 350 W/m to 1500 W/m . (b) From 1500 W/m to 350 W/m .

from 1500 W/m to 350 W/m . With the insolation level increased, the output current cannot be increased instantaneously. Thus, the capacitor voltage increases during the transient period. Conversely, with the insolation level decreased, the output current cannot be decreased instantaneously. Thus, the capacitor voltage decreases during the transient period. Nevertheless, the

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Billy M. T. Ho (S02) was born in Hong Kong in 1979. He received the B.Eng. (rst class honors) degree in electronic engineering from the City University of Hong Kong in 2001 where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in power electronics. His research interests include computer-aided simulation techniques, photovoltaic panels power conversion, control methodologies, and inverter applications. Mr. Ho received the Simatelex Charitable Foundation Scholarships for two consecutive years during his undergraduate studies.

Henry Shu-Hung Chung (M95SM03) received the B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1991 and 1994, respectivelty. Since 1995, he has been with the City University of Hong Kong (CityU). He is currently a Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering and Chief Technical Ofcer of e.Energy Technology Limited (an associated company of CityU). He has authored ve research book chapters, and over 200 technical papers including 90 refereed journal papers in his research areas, and holds four US patents. His research interests include time- and frequency-domain analysis of power electronic circuits, switched-capacitor-based converters, random-switching techniques, control methods, digital audio ampliers, soft-switching converters, photovoltaic systems, and electronic ballast design. Dr. Chung received the Grand Applied Research Excellence Award from the City University of Hong Kong in 2001. He was IEEE Student Branch Counselor and Track Chair of the Technical Committee on Power Electronics Circuits and Power Systems of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, from 1997 to 1998. He was Associate Editor and Guest Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS, PART I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, from 1999 to 2003. He is currently an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS.