Analysis and Evaluation of a Series-Combined Connected Boost and Buck-Boost DC-DC Converter for Photovoltaic Application

J.L. Durn-Gmez, E. Garca-Cervantes, D.R. Lpez-Flores

Power Electronics Laboratory Graduate Studies and Research Division Chihuahua Institute of Technology Chihuahua, Chih. Mxico 31310 jlduran@itchihuahua.edu.mx
Abstract-In this paper it is presented an approach for power conditioning of a PV (photo-voltaic) cell array. In particular, an array of solar cells is employed as an alternative renewable resource (ARR) to provide clean electric energy to remote rural residential or industrial non-linear loads. The approach employs a series-combined connected boost and buckboost dc-dc converter for power conditioning of the dc voltage provided by a photo-voltaic array. The input voltage to the combined converters is 100 V provided from two seriesconnected PV cells, which is converted and increased to 400 V at the dc output voltage. Series-combined connected boost and buck-boost dc-dc converters operate in alternate fashion each other. This helps to reduce the input ripple current and provide the required 400 Vdc on a sinusoidal PWM three-phase inverter. Analysis of the two series-combined dc-dc converters is presented along with simulation results. Evaluation of the combined and series connected topologies is carried out to compare their performance against individual and separate power conditioning structures. Simulations of the series-combined dc-dc converters are presented with an output dc voltage of 400 V and a maximum output load of Po = 600 W.

Prasad N. Enjeti, L. Palma

Fuel Cell Power Systems & Power Quality Laboratories Department of Electrical Engineering Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-3128 Tel. 979-845-7466 enjeti@ee.tamu.edu convert it to an ac output voltage of 120 Vrms. Fig. 2 shows another well known topology, the dc-dc push-pull converter, which employs a high frequency isolation transformer to increase further the input voltage provided from the PV cell. However, these two approaches are limited in their performance due to the nature of each topology. The dc-dc boost converter shown in Fig. 1 is limited by the duty cycle, where a limited output voltage of 170 V can be obtained from a 100 V, 600 W PV cell array. The dc-dc push-pull topology can be employed as shown in Fig. 2, which needs a high frequency isolation transformer to have an increased voltage. However, the main drawback resides precisely in the use of an isolation transformer. Low cost power structures search for reduced components and an excellent performance on both dcdc and dc-ac converters. An additional disadvantage, on using dc-dc converters with limited performance characteristics, is the fact that a PV cell module will exhibit a non-linear characteristic for its output quantities (i.e. current-voltage). This non-linear behavior produces a variation of the maximum power (MP) point under an insolation (sunlight intensity) and temperature changes. Maximum output power can be obtained on a specific solar irradiation, where there is a unique operating point of the PV cell module. Hence, it is important to adjust the PV cell module energy to match the output load for a maximum efficiency. This can be achieved with the equilibrium operating point and by making coincidence with the maximum power point of the PV cell module. Due to the difficulties on maintaining a maximum power operation at different insolation levels and temperatures, in this paper it is proposed a series-combined approach. A dc-dc combined converter is proposed to meet the customers electric demands and improve performance on this new proposed approach. The main objective is to investigate an approach to provide and improve the delivered electric energy by means of power conditioning structures with the use of alternative renewable resources (ARRs). Further, the proposed approach is also connected to a sinusoidal PWM three-phase inverter to investigate the performance of the complete dc-ac power conditioning structure.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Lack of electricity in some rural areas [1], along with the power quality concerns on providing the electric power to residential, and industrial [2] customers require to pay attention on proposing alternatives to supply electricity to critical customers. In supporting those customers, distributed power may be the long-term foundation of competition in electric power industry. Photovoltaic (PV) cells have been extensively used to generate electric energy as a way of distributed generation (DG). Several approaches have proposed power conditioning structures to increase the voltage from PV cells and provide the proper ac voltages required by residential or industrial customers [3]-[5]. Dc-dc and dc-ac converters have been explored extensively to meet the required electric energy demands by those customers. Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate two typical ways for power conditioning the energy provided from alternative renewable resources (ARRs). Fig. 1 shows a typical dc-dc boost converter employed to increase the voltage generated by a PV cell module and

0-7803-9547-6/06/$20.00 2006 IEEE.

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Figure 1. Power conditioning structure of a dc-to-dc boost converter along with a single-phase dc-ac converter (IGBT PWM inverter) to supply 120V to remote rural residential loads. Figure 3. Experimental results for a dc-dc boost converter with a start-up of the dc output voltage under a 67% output load. Ch1 voltage scale: 100V/div., time base: 4ms/div.

Figure 2. Power conditioning structure of a dc-to-dc push-pull converter along with a single-phase dc-ac converter (IGBT PWM inverter) to supply 120V to remote rural residential loads.

II. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS WITH PREVIOUS TYPICAL CONVERTER TOPOLOGIES In this section experimental results are presented to illustrate the performance of two typical converter topologies, that is, the boost and push-pull converters employed as dc-dc converters. Further, experimental results of a SPWM threephase inverter are shown as the second stage to convert the dc output voltage into ac output line-to-line voltages. A. Dc-dc Boost Converter and SPWM Three-Phase Inverter Experimental results of a dc-dc boost converter (Fig. 1) are shown in Fig. 3. This figure shows the dc output voltage, which was stepped-up from the PV cell voltage VSC = 100 V. This input voltage is boosted to a maximum dc output voltage, Vo = 170V with a start-up time close to 400 ms. Due to the limited performance of the dc output voltage, the SPWM three-phase inverter produced low line-to-line ac output voltages, VLL,rms = 96 V. In Fig. 3 the dc-dc boost converter supplied the dc output voltage to a 67% of output load, where the maximum output power is Po = 600 W. The ac output line-to-line voltage of the SPWM threephase inverter is shown in Fig. 4. The maximum rms output voltage was obtained for VLL,rms = 90 V. This low output lineto-line voltage is essentially limited by the dc output voltage provided by the dc-dc boost converter, which was not sufficient to provide higher ac output voltages.

Figure 4. Experimental result of SPWM three-phase inverter rms line-to-line output ac voltage, VLL,rms = 90 V, Po = 420 W, Vo,dc = 170 V.

B. Dc-dc Push-Pull Converter and SPWM Inverter Experimental results of a dc-dc push-pull converter (Fig. 2) are shown in Fig. 5. In this figure it is shown the dc output voltage, which was stepped-up and isolated from the PV cell voltage VSC = 100 V. This input voltage, VSC, is boosted to a maximum output dc voltage, Vo,dc = 174V with a start-up time close to 50 ms. Additionally, the push-pull is an isolated topology which uses a high-frequency transformer. The highfrequency transformer helps stepping-up the input voltage, VSC, by a transformer ratio = NSEC/NPRI. Next, an ac output voltage across secondary windings is rectified via a singlephase rectifier. Due to the limited dc output voltage, the SPWM three-phase inverter it is shown to produce a low lineto-line ac output voltage, VLL,rms = 91.5 V. This is experimentally verified as shown in Fig. 6. In this figure the experimental results were carried out with a 28% of maximum output power. Figs. 4 and 6 have shown one out of the three filtered lineto-line ac output voltages of a sinusoidal PWM three-phase inverter.

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IV.

ANALYSIS AND MODEL OF PROPOSED APPROACH

Figure 5. Experimental results for a dc-dc push-pull converter with a start-up of the dc output voltage under a 28% output load. Ch1 voltage scale: 100V/div., time base: 4ms/div.

In the following section an analysis is presented to show and describe the basic operation of the proposed seriescombined connected dc-dc converter. The system mainly is comprised of a PV cell array with two modules (2 x 300 W, 2 x 50 V), a boost converter and a buck-boost converter. The two main inductors consists of a boost inductor, Lboost, and the buck-boost inductor, Lbuckboost, which can be configured as separate inductors, or they can be two coupled inductors. Two coupled inductors could improve the characteristics of the proposed approach, that is, helping to reduce the input ripple current that is drawn by both dc-dc converters operating alternately. The analysis of the system is carried out under the following assumptions: i) The power semiconductor devices (MOSFETs and diodes) of the series-combined approach are considered as ideal. ii) Both individual converters operate in the continuos inductor current mode. iii) Power semiconductor switches operate alternately. In the following sections the mathematical models for the PV solar cell and the series-combined converters are presented. A. Photovoltaic Cell-Module Model A PV cell-module consists of a combination of many small PV cells which are connected in series and parallel configurations to provide the desired voltage and current quantities. It is known that a PV cell-module shows a nonlinear characteristic between voltage and current as it is depicted in Fig. 8 [6]. In Fig. 8 it is shown the non-linear characteristic of current and voltage quantities, which is dependent on the insolation and temperature. Voc, represents the open circuit voltage of PV cell-module, Iph represents the cell photocurrent, Vload and Iload are the load voltage and load current, respectively. The shaded rectangle in Fig. 8 corresponds to the maximum electric power.

Figure 6. Experimental result of the SPWM three-phase inverter rms lineto-line output ac voltage, VLL,rms = 91.5 V, Po = 170 W, Vo,dc = 174 V.

III. PROPOSED SERIES-COMBINED APPROACH In Fig. 7 it is shown the proposed approach consisting of a dc-dc boost stage which converts the input dc voltage, VSC = 100V, from the PV cell, to a regulated dc output voltage, Vdc = 200V. The second stage consists of a dc-dc buck-boost converter which operates alternatively with the boost converter. The buck-boost converter is also supplied from the voltage provided by the PV cell output voltage of 100 V. Both dc-dc converters are series connected and combined (alternate operation) to deliver the output power and voltage demanded by load.

Figure 7. Proposed approach of a series-combined connected boost and buckboost topologies.

Figure 8. PV cell-module non-linear characteristic under solar irradiance and temperature.

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According to [6] a PV cell-module can be mathematically expressed as,

2NS N S I ph VSC = I SC RS + + ln N P I ph I O

(1)

where,

= (q/AkT),

RS = cell series resistance,

(b) Equivalent circuit of the proposed approach during push-pull stage operation Figure 9. Proposed dc-dc converter operation stages, a)dc-dc boost converter, b) push-pull converter.

q = electric charge, k = Boltzmann constant, T = absolute temperature, Iph = cell photocurrent, Io = cell reverse saturation current. VSC and ISC are the solar cell voltage and current, respectively. Principle of Operation The operation of the proposed approach can be explained as follows. In Fig. 9(a) it is shown the equivalent circuit of the dc-dc converter during the on-time, ton,boost, of the boost converter. The boost inductor current, iL,boost, increases linearly up to a maximum value, which depends on the PV cell module voltage, VSC, the inductor value, Lboost, the switching frequency, fs, and duty cycle of boost converter, D1. During the on-time the output load is supplied by the remaining energy stored in the output capacitor, Co,1, and transferred to the output load. In addition, the stored energy in the buckboost inductor, Lbuckboost, is used to charge the output capacitor, Co,2, as well as to supply energy to the load. The dc output voltage across each of the output capacitors, Vo,1 and Vo,2, is regulated by a voltage control mode control. Both dc output voltages must be regulated to 200 . Fig. 9(b) shows the equivalent circuit during the on-time of the buck-boost converter. Now, as shown in Fig. 9(b), the buck-boost converter initiates conducting its power switch, Qbuck_boost, just during the off-time (toff,boost) of the boost converter switch, Qboost. During the on-time (ton,buckboost) of the buck-boost converter, the buck-boost inductor current, iL,buckboost, begins to increase linearly up to a maximum value IL,max,buckboost. The duty cycle, D2, of the buck-boost converter will be higher than the duty cycle of the boost converter, D1. There will be an overlap of duty cycle D2 during the on (D1) and off times (1-D1) of the dc boost converter operation. Optimization of both duty cycles can reduce the input ripple. B.

In Fig. 10 both boost and buck-boost inductor currents of the proposed approach are depicted. Inductor currents, iL,boost and iL,buckboost are shown to operate in an alternate (phaseshifted) fashion. Hence, this helps to reduce the input ripple current to the converter and delivered by the PV cell modules.

Figure 10. Current waveforms for the typical dc-dc boost and buck-boost converters under continuous conduction mode. V.

SERIES-COMBINED CONVERTER TRANSFER FUNCTION

In order to analyze and evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, a transfer function of the series-combined converter is assumed [7]. Assuming individual transfer functions for the dc-dc boost and dc-dc buck-boost converters, and expressed by (2) and (3), respectively,

vo ,1( s ) = vSC ( s )

1 1 D1 1+ s 1 s+ Qo ,1 o ,1 o ,1

(2)
2

vo ,2 ( s ) = vSC ( s )
(a) Equivalent circuit of the proposed approach during boost stage operation

D2 1 D2 1+ s 1 s+ Qo ,2 o ,2 o , 2

(3)
2

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where, D1 Boost converter duty cycle D2 Buck-boost converter duty cycle o,1, o,2 Angular corner frequencies
o ,1 =
1 D1 Lboost Co ,1

VI.

DESIGN EXAMPLE

o ,2 =

1 D2 Lbuckboost Co ,2

Qo,1, Qo,2 Quality factors Also, PV solar cell-to-output, (sc-out), transfer functions are defined for the boost and buck-boost converters, respectively as,
Gboost ( s ) = v o ,1 ( s ) v SC ( s )
v o ,2 ( s ) v SC ( s )
^ ^

(4)

Gbuckbost ( s ) =

(5)

In this section a design example is presented to give a better understanding of the combined-series converter approach. The design of the proposed dc-dc converter can be carried out by designing separately the boost and buck-boost converters. The input voltage supplied to the converter by the PV cell modules is 100 V. The maximum converter nominal output power is Po = 600 W, and a selected switching frequency fs = 100 kHz. The proposed dc-dc converter must be capable to supply a dc output voltage Vo,dc = 400 V, and an output power to a dcac three-phase converter, Po = 600 W (assuming ideal conditions). A three-phase PWM inverter should be responsible to supply the proper ac output voltages to the load (e.g. residential load). In Table I a summary of data specifications for the proposed series-combined approach is presented. TABLE I BOOST-BUCK-BOOST CONVERTER PARAMETERS
Vsc = 70 V ~ 120 V Vo,dc = 400 V Po, max = 600 W Isc,ave = 6 A Io,dc = 1.5 A fs = 100 kHz dc input voltage range dc output power PV cell module maximum output power PV cell module dc input current dc output current switching frequency

From the proposed approach shown in Fig. 7, a block diagram can be derived and used to obtain a function transfer for the series-combined dc-dc converter as illustrated in Fig. 11.

A. Boost converter component selection The boost inductor, Lboost, and the boost output capacitor, Co,1 are designed to operate within continuous conduction mode. A boost duty cycle, D1, is computed as, V D 1 = 1 SC = 0 . 5 (8) Vo Now, in order to design the boost inductor, a maximum boost inductor current is assumed as, IL,boost,max = 3.94 A. Therefore the minimum inductance needed to get continuous conduction is computed as
Figure 11. Block diagram of the proposed approach

L boost =

V SC D 1

A resultant transfer function, Tp,sc-out(s), can be derived using (4)-(6) and expressed in (7),

2 I L ,boost

, max

V SC fs 2 (1 D 1 ) R o ,1

= 250 H

(9)

T p ,sc out ( s ) = Gboost ( s ) + Gbuckboost ( s )

1 1 D1 s 1 1+ s+ Qo ,1 o ,1 o ,1
2

(6)

T p ,sc out ( s ) =

D2 1 D2 s 1 1+ s+ Qo ,2 o ,2 o ,2
2

If continuous conduction is to be ensured, and to provide a safe margin for continuous current, Lboost = 350 H. Ro,1 represents the output load seen by the combined boost converter and given by

R o ,1 =

(V o )2
2 Po

= 133 . 33

(10)

(7) Therefore, from (7) it can be deduced that the PV cell input voltage-to-output transfer function, Tp,sc-out(s), contains a fourorder denominator polynomial. Similar deductions can be obtained for the control-to-output transfer function, Tp,d-out(s).

The minimum value for Co,1 is calculated from (11), where Vo is the maximum voltage ripple across Co,1. D1 C o ,1 = 3 .675 F 2 Vo (11) Ro ,1 fs V o

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In order to ensure a well regulated dc input voltage to a SPWM three-phase inverter system, with ripple free dc-link voltage, the output capacitor is selected as Co,1 = 100 F. B. Buck-boost converter component selection The buck-boost inductor, Lbuckboost, and the buck-boost output capacitor, Co,2 are designed to operate also within continuous conduction mode. A buck-boost duty cycle, D2, is computed as,
D2 = Vo = 0 .67 Vo + VSC

(12)

Now, in order to design the buck-boost inductor, a maximum buck-boost inductor current is assumed as, ILbuck,boost,max = 5.4 A Therefore the minimum inductance needed to get continuous conduction is computed as
L buckboost = V SC D 2 2 I L ,buckboost
, max

(b) Individual dc output voltage for the buck-boost converter Figure 12. Simulation results of separated start-up dc output voltages for the series-combined converter approach.

D 2 V SC (1 D 2 )2 R o ,2

fs

= 340 H

(13)

If continuous conduction is to be ensured, and to provide a safe margin for continuous current, Lbuckboost = 350 H. Ro,2 represents the output load seen by the combined buck-boost converter and given by
R o ,2 = V o2 = 133 . 33 2 Po
= 5F

(14)

The minimum value for Co,2 is computed as,

C o ,2 = D2 2 Vo R o ,1 V o fs

In Fig. 12(b) it is shown the simulation results of the regulated dc output voltage for the individual dc-dc buckboost converter. The dc input voltage is also assumed and provided by the PV cell module as, VSC = 100 V and an output load, Po,2 = 300 W. In addition, in Fig. 13 it is shown the simulation results of series-combined dc output voltage , Vo,dc. It is shown (Fig. 13) the well regulated dc output voltage and the excellent start-up time response within less than 10 ms.

(15)

where Vo is the maximum voltage ripple across Co,2. Similarly as the value selected for Co,1, and in order to ensure a ripple free dc output voltage, Co,2 = 100 F. VII. SIMULATION RESULTS

Figs. 12 and 13 show the simulation results dc output voltages, Vo,1 and Vo,2, of the proposed series-combined approach. In Fig. 12(a) it is shown the regulated dc output voltage for the individual dc-dc boost converter. Dc input voltage is assumed from the PV cell module as, VSC = 100 V and output load, Po,1 = 300 W.

Figure 13. Simulation result of the dc output voltage, Vdc = 400 V for the proposed series-combined connected boost and buck-boost converter with PV cell input voltage, Vin = 100 V, and output power, Po = 600 W.

(a) Individual dc output voltage for the boost converter

Simulation results for the individual inductor currents are shown in Fig. 14. In the bottom trace (Fig. 14) it is shown the boost inductor current, IL,boost, with a maximum peak current equal to 3.94 A. The boost inductor current is phase-shifted from the buck-boost inductor current, IL,buckboost, as shown in the upper trace in Fig. 14. The buck-boost inductor current exhibits a peak value close to 5.44 A, which is higher than that of the boost inductor peak current due to a higher duty cycle during the buck-boost converter operation. The combined input currents for the boost and buck-boost converters are shown in Fig. 15. The rms and dc values for the combined total current are assumed equal to 6.0 A, which is the amount of current that PV cell array must be supplying to the combined converters. Each PV cell can supply a maximum of 100 V at 300W, which gives a nominal output current of 6

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A per PV cell. In this proposed approach, two PV cells are series-connected and used to provide the required current demanded by the series-combined boost and buck-boost converters. The series-combined converters can be implemented by means of coupling both inductors, Lboost and Lbuckboost in order to reduce the input current ripple from the PV cell modules.

In Fig. 16 simulation results of SPWM and filtered ac output voltages waveforms are shown. The expected rms lineto-line output voltage can be adjusted in a range from 208 V ~ 220 V. VIII. CONCLUSIONS

Figure 14. Simulation results of steady-state inductor currents, IL,boost and IL,buckboost for the proposed series-combined connected boost and buck-boost converters.

Figure 15. Simulation result of steady state of the combined and alternating input inductor currents for the proposed series-combined connected boost and buck-boost converters

In this paper it has been presented an approach to convert the generated dc output voltage of a PV cell array into a higher regulated dc voltage. This higher power conditioned dc output voltage from the proposed approach can be utilized by a typical sinusoidal SPWM three-phase inverter such that nominal line-to-neutral rms voltage, VLN,rms = 120 V and lineto-line rms voltage VLL,rms = 208V can be available to residential and/or industrial loads. Previous simulation and experimental results of the typical dc-dc boost and dc-dc pushpull converters were presented and discussed to evaluate and compare the performance of the new proposed approach with those previous approaches. Simulation results of the new series-combined converter show the feasibility of the proposed approach to obtain a higher dc-link output voltage, Vo,dc-link = 400 V. The dc-link voltage regulation has been shown to be provided by the two output capacitors voltages which can be individually controlled. The ac output load can be unbalanced and/or non-linear. Furthermore, the inductor currents in the boost and buck boost schemes are shown to be within adequate rms and dc current quantities, which must be delivered by the PV cell module. It was shown that dc input current drawn by the proposed converter can have a low input current ripple due to the alternate operation of boost and buckboost converters. This research project is still on-going and additional extensive simulations and experimental results will be included at the conference presentation. REFERENCES
[1] [2] J. Gutirrez-Vera, Use of Renewable Sources of Energy in Mxico, Case: San Antonio Agua Bendita, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conv., vol. 9, no.3, pp. 442-450, Sept. 1994. B. H. Chowdhury and S. Rahman, Analysis of interrelationships between photovoltaic power and battery storage for electric utility load management, IEEE Trans. on Power Syst., vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 900-906, August 1998. W. Shireen and M. S. Arefeen, A utility interactive power electronic interface for alternative/renewable energy systems, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conv., vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 643-649, Sept. 1996. N. Mohan, T.M Undeland and W.P. Robbins, Power Electronics: Converters, Applications and Design, Third Edition. New York: Jonh Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003, pp. 475-477. P. Enjeti, Tutorial Notes: Power Electronics for Distributed Energy Systems: Fuel Cells and Microturbines, IEEE International Power Electronics Congress, Guadalajara, Mex. October 2002. M. Veerachary, T. Senjyu and K. Uezato, Maximum power point tracking of coupled inductor interleaved boost converter supplied PV system, IEE Proc. Electr. Power Appl., vol. 150, no. 1, pp. 71-80, January 2003. R. W. Erickson and D. Maksimovic, Fundamentals of Power Electronics, Ed. Kluwer Academic, Publishers, 2001. ASE Americas, Inc. website (2003) [Online], Available HTTP: http://www.solar4power.com/solar-power-ase.html

[3] [4] [5] [6]

(a) PWM ac output waveforms of line-to-line output voltages

[7] [8] (b) Filtered ac output waveforms of the line-to-line voltage Figure 16. Simulation results of a SPWM three-phase inverter

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