Robust DC-Link Voltage Control Scheme

for Photovoltaic Power Generation System PCS

Joan Sung Parkt, Jun-Hyuk Chait, Bon-Gwan Gu
1
, In-Soung Jung1,Senior Member, IEEE, Eun-Chul Lee
2
, and
Kang-Soon Ahn"
1 Korea Electronics Technology Institute
2 Willings Co.
Email: parkjs@keti.re.kr
Fig. 1. PCS configuration.
DC350V
I
,
--------------------------_..
8
H-Bridge DC/AC
Inverter
AC220
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I
'---------------------
,. --------------------.... , ,
I
lle
II
J
9
Full BridgeDC/DC
Converter
,----------------------------"':
PV
DC150V-500V
Abstract - A power conversion system (PCS) for photovoltaic
power generation system is composed of the DC/DC converter
and the DC/AC inverter. To maximize power generation, DCIDC
converter operated with MPPT (Maximum Power Point
Tracking) algorithm and the PCS has been developed by the
method of transformer tab change. DCIAC inverter controls DC-
link voltage and grid current. But, single phase grid has 120Hz
(Grid voltage frequency is 60Hz.) power ripple which arise DC-
link voltage ripple. This paper presents a robust DC-link voltage
control scheme. The control scheme utilizes a widow averaged
DC-link voltage as a feedback signal. Experiment performed with
3kW PCS and the results support the validity of the control
scheme.
I. INTRODUCTION
Photovoltaic cells have been mounted on the satellite since
1958 and, with the development of aerospace and satellite
communications, research has been the poetic. In the last
1970s, the wave of the importance of photovoltaic cell is more
opportunity to highlight, so far, lots of worldwide companies
are participating in research and development of photovoltaic
cells. Moreover, in the early 1990s, the seriousness of the
greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide and the regulations of the
international agreement to prevent global warming in Kyoto,
Japan in 1997 make solar cells for practical use be to hurry.
For such reasons, the photovoltaic energy is growing to the
next generation energy. There is no fuel expense to generate
energy and it generates clean electricity directly. And also
there are no mechanical noise and vibration because the
electricity is generated by operating semiconductor.
A power conversion system (PCS) for photovoltaic power
generation is composed of the DC/DC converter and the
DC/AC inverter. The photovoltaic module (PV) with sunlight
produces DC electricity and DC-DC converter transfer
photovoltaic energy to DC-link capacitor. And then DC/AC
inverter makes AC voltage to connect grid. To maximize
power generation, DC/DC converter operated with MPPT
(Maximum Power Point Tracking) algorithm. And DC/AC
inverter controls DC-link voltage and grid current. But, single
phase grid has 120Hz (Grid voltage frequency is 60Hz.) power
ripple which arise DC-link voltage ripple. This paper presents
a robust DC-link voltage control scheme. The control scheme
utilizes a widow averaged DC-link voltage as a feedback
signal. Experiment performed with 3kW PCS and the results
support the validity of the control scheme.
Fig. 2. photo of 3kW PCS
II. TRANSFORMER TAB CHANGE
Fig. 1 shows PCS configuration and Fig. 2 shows a picture
of 3kW PCS. The output characteristic of PV cell depends on
weather. At the constant temperature, the output power is
affected by the irradiation. At the same irradiation, the output
power is affected by the temperature. The output voltage of
PV varies wide range of voltage. DC-DC converter transfer
photovoltaic energy varied wide voltage range to DC-link
capacitor.
Fig. 3. Transformer and waveforms changed transformer tab.

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If
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t!J,.,
-

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III. WINDOW AVERAGED DC-LINK VOLTAGE SIGNAL
(a)Hard switching waveforms
(b)Soft switching waveforms
Operating inverter
[
Fig. 4. Flow chart of the tab change strategy.
o
o
0)
o
As described above, the output characteristic of PV module
depends on weather. In the case of using a conventional
transformer, it does not make book on high efficiency because
the output of PV module is wide voltage range. In this case
which has wide voltage range, it is desirable to have power
transformers that have high efficiency.
This wide voltage range brings the efficiency degradation
and control is more complicated. Most of the PCS on the
market is limited for low voltage or high voltage in accordance
with the output voltage of PV module. For operating at wide
voltage range, tab change scheme is used. As shown in Fig. 3,
to operate in wide voltage range, the two tapped primary is
used. Depending on the output of PV module, it divides into
three sections and changes tap. Fig. 4 shows the flow chart of
the tab change strategy. Three sections are consisted in
accordance with the output voltage ofPV module. It continues
to measure the output of the PV module. If the output voltage
is in the range of different section, the inverter stops for a
minute and DC-DC converter rescan MPPT algorithm. After
tab is changed to meet the voltage range, the DC-AC inverter
operates.
Fig. 5. Switching waveforms of DC-DC converter
In the low switching frequency, hard switching converters
operate well, however, in the high switching frequency, the
switching loss increases and accordingly, component size and
power density of the converter also increase. To resolve the
problem posed by hard switching converters, ZVS (Zero-
Voltage Switching) [5] is used and Fig. 5 shows the
waveforms of hard and soft switching.
DC-DC converter operates with MPPT algorithm to
maximize power generation. DC-DC converter transfers
photovoltaic energy to DC-link capacitor and increase DC-link
voltage. DC-AC inverter controls DC-link voltage to certain
level and transfer DC-link energy built up by DC-DC
converter to grid. And DC-AC inverter has unity power factor
control to increase power transfer efficiency.
When PCS transfer photovoltaic energy to single phase
60Hz grid with unity power factor, the transferred power has
initially 120Hz power ripple because power is multiplication
of grid voltage and current. Hence, this 120Hz power ripple
makes DC-link voltage ripple which makes unexpected current
ripple in inverter controller.
We present a window averaged voltage feedback
eliminating 120Hz voltage ripple. Window size is 8.3msec for
60Hz grid. Hence, window average equation is given by
m=
Fig. 8. Photo of control board
(1)
Inverter
voltage
command
k=n
VDCF(n) = "LVDc(k)/m
k=n-m+l
IV. DC-LINK VOLTAGE CONTROL SCHEME
m = 8.3msec./T
s
Where V
DCF'
V
DC
denote window averaged, measured DC-
link voltage, T
s
PWM period(measurement period). With this
window average, 120Hz voltage ripple is eliminated from DC-
link voltage signal. V
DCF
is utilized in the DC-link controller.

VDCF(n)= LVDC(k)lm
.... +l
Fig. 6. DC-link voltage controller with window averaged DC-link voltage
We utilize conventional PI controller for DC-link voltage
control. DC-link voltage command is constant value and
V
DCF
is injected as a feedback signal. The voltage controller
generates inverter DC current command I;c After
multiplying sin OJt , we obtained inverter AC current
command I:
c
and measured lAC is injected as a feedback
signal. Current controller regulates inverter current.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Me1R P1:max(C2) P2:rms(C1) P3:freq(C1) P4:duly(C2)
value 833 V 1.611 A 58.397Hz 50.53%
status .R. .R.
___ ..1_
leCroy
Fig. 9. Measured waveforms when tab changing

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/ ',,1

Eii:i'liMl
._tJtl. _

Fig. 7. Picture of experimental setup
Me1R P1:rms(C1) P2:pkpk(C3)
value 13.003A 19V
status
___
leCroy
Fig. 10. Waveforms of DC-link voltage and inverter output
Fig. 7 shows the control board and Fig. 8 shows
experimental setup. The whole algorithms for control were
implemented using MC56F8345, 16 bit processor.
A power conversion system (PCS) for photovoltaic power
generation system was tested extensively and evaluated its
performance over various test. Fig. 9 shows measured
waveforms when tab changing. C1 is current, c2 is secondary
voltage and c3 is the output voltage of PV module when tab A
changes in the tab B. Fig. 10 shows de-link voltage and
inverter output voltage and current. The inverter output is 60
[Hz] and de-link voltage has 120 Hz voltage ripple. As shown
in Fig. 9 and 10, it is confirmed that the PCS can be well
operated.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a power conversion system (PCS) for
photovoltaic power generation system.
Through the experimental results, validity and quality of the
reported designs are verified. Also the PCS has been
developed by the method of transformer tab change and the
control scheme utilizes a widow averaged DC-link voltage as a
feedback signal. This scheme is very simple and especially the
excellent performance obtained.
VII. REFERENCES
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[3] B.G. Gu and K.W. Nam, "A DC-link capacitor minimization method
through direct capacitor current control," IEEE Trans. on Ind. Applicat.,
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[4] Muhammad H.Rashid, "Power Electronics," Pearson Education
International, 2004.
[5] N. Mohan, T. M. Undeland and W. P. Robbins, "Power Electronics."
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[6] R. Wu, S. B. Dewan, and G. R.Slemon, "Analysis of a PWM AC to DC
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764, JuI/Aug. 1991.
[7] 1. S. Kim and S. K. SuI, "New control scheme for AC-DC-AC converter
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