A Five-Level NPC Photovoltaic Inverter with an Actively Balanced Capacitive Voltage Divider
Conference: PCIM Europe 2015 - International Exhibition and Conference for Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy Management
05/19/2015 - 05/20/2015 at Nürnberg, Deutschland
Proceedings: PCIM Europe 2015
Pages: 8Language: englishTyp: PDF
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Authors:
Rufer, A. (EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
Abstract:
A new five-level photovoltaic Inverter is presented, implemented by associating a Multistage Stacked Boost Architecture (MSBA) with a 5-level NPC inverter. Ahead of the MSBA conversion stage, a conventional boost converter allows the operation of the PV cells with a variable voltage using a maximum power point tracking strategy (MPPT). The paper describes a robust voltage balancing principle for the MSBA-stage, which includes local feed-forward for the current control references of each balancing modules. The feed-forward signals are estimated from the inverter output current, with the help of the switching signals of the 5-level inverter. Simulation results are presented, as well as first experimental results.