Power Flow of Photovoltaic System using Buck-Boost PWM Power Inverter

Michihiko Nagao, Member, IEEE Koosuke Harada, Fellow, IEEE Energy Electronics Laboratory, Kumamoto Institute of Technology 4-22-1 Ikeda, Kumamoto 860, Japan
Abstract This paper presents a buck-boost PWh4 power inverter and its application for residential photovoltaic system. The PWM power inverter is realized by combining two sets of a high frequency buck-boost chopper and by making it operate in the discontinuous conduction mode. Photovoltaic system with the power inverter has the following advantages: (1) the power generated by the photovoltaic array can be transferred to the load and the utility line under any array voltage, (2) isolation between the photovoltaic array and the utility line is performed by a small high frequency reactor operating as energy storage element,(3) unity power factor operation is provided, (4)there is no need of a reactor for interconnection with the utility line, (5)so the system configuration is very simple. The input-output characteristics of the system are analyzed. As a result, the ripple component of the array current and the power flow between the interface and the utility line are derived and verified experimentally.
required. (5) From the above features, the circuit onfiguration be omes very simple and the cost reduction can be expected. The power inverter proposed here is realized by constructing an inverter with buck-boost choppers and by operating it in a discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) of reactor current [3]. In this paper, first we show the buck-boost PWM power inverter circuit, its equivalent circuit and basic differential equations. Next, from these results the basic characteristics such as the ripple current of the solar array, input impedance, output voltage and output power of the inverter are introduced. Last, the power flow characteristics are clarifiled when the proposed inverter is interconnected with the utility lines.

2. Circuit configuration
Fig. 1 shows the basic configuration of the PV system using the PWM power inverter. In the figure, PV is the solar array, e,, is the utility line voltage and ZL is the load. IGBTs are used as the main switching devices. The portion surrounded by the broken line is the PWh4 power inverter, in which two sets of the buckboost chopper are combined in bridge form and ac output voltage

1. Introduction
The effective utilization of solar energy has become an important subject because of energy saving and environmental problems. Hence, the photovoltaic power conditioning systems (PV systems) are desired for practical applications as distributed residential systems. In these systems, the costs of solar sells and the interface circuit between the solar array and the utility lines are expected to go down. The voltage-source inverters have been applied conventionally as the interface circuit and studies on the current-source inverters have also started recently [ 11. In this paper we propose a novel scheme which use a power invreter as the interface circuit. The PV system using this power inverter has the following advantages.

v, is obtained by performing synchronous commutation with

switches Q1 and 42. If the isolation is not required, it is possible to omit the secondary winding and to bring out the output from the terminals uv directly. Fig.2(a) shows the waveforms of gate signals V G 1 ,

(1) Arbitrary power can be transfered to the load and utility line regardless of the magnitude of the generated array voltage. (2) Isolation between the photovoltaic array and the utility line is performed by a small magnetic core and one-stage scheme not a two-stage one such as a high-frequency link inverter [2]. (3) High power factor can always be obtained if the power inverter is controlled by the signal in phase with the utility line. (4) reactor for interconnection with the utility line is not The
7803-3773-5/97/$10.00 0 1997 IEEE

Fig. 1. Basic configuration of photovoltaic system using buck-boost PWM power inverter.

inverter input current io, secondary reactor current iL, and output voltage v,. As shown in this figure, in the
VGl,VC;Z,VG2,

pass filter composed of an inductor LF and a capacitor CF is necessary between PV and the inverter to make the PV output current i, continuous. Besides, to obtain a constant maximum power from PV, the value of CFmust be sufficiently large suppress the ripple component of the output current ip The ripple component has twice the frequency5 (= utility line frequency) of the input signal V j as described later. In the case of interconnection with the utility lines, if the phase of the input signal vi is made in phase with the utility line voltage e ,the inverter output voltage vo will be locked to eac . The , inverter output power Po is controlled by the modulation ratio a

positive half-cycle of the input signal vi, the PWM signal VG1 is applied to the gate G1 of the main switching device Q1 and a rectangular signal VGI is applied to the gate GI of Ql, respectively, Moreover, a PWM signal V C ; ~ and a rectangular signal VG2 are applied to the gate G2 and G2 of the switches 42 and Q2 in the negative half-cycle, respectively. By making the inverter operate in DCM, an ac output with constant power Po can be obtained from PV. Fig.2 (b) enlarges the waveforms of Fig.2(a) and shows the operating states. The power inverter has basically three operating states depending on the states of the switching devices. State I (period T i k ) : Q1 is on and 4 2 is off. The energy is stored in the inductor L and the stored energy in the capacitor Cat the previous state is supplied from the capacitor C to the load ZL. State I1 (period T29 : Q1 is off. Q2 is on the stored energy of L is transferred to the load side through Q1 and diode in parallel with Q2. State I11 (period T& : All main switching devices off. The stored energy of L disappears and the energy to the load is supplied from C only. Thus, by repeating the DCM operation for the current in the reactor, the PWM power inverter can be obtained. In this case, since the bus current iD is discontinuous, a low

=Vim / Vcm,and it becomes possible to transfer arbitrary power from PV to the load ZL and the utility line.

3. Basic characteristics of PWM power inverter

First, we will determine an equivalent circuit of the PWM power inverter seen from the input side and clarify the relation between the low frequency ripple of the PV output current and the circuit parameters. Then we will determine the output equations of this inverter, In the analysis, the following assumptions will be made. (1) Input signal frequency5 cc carrier frequencyf, (= 1 / T ) ,. (2) The switching characteristics of the switching devices are ideal. (3) For the IGBTs and diodes, the forward resistance is zero and the backward resistance 00, and these threshold voltages are

Vcbatand VF,respectively.
(4) The parasitic components of the circuit are neglected. ( 5 ) The ripple component of the inverter input voltage e, is sufficiently small by the capacitor CF and so it is equal to constant dc voltage Ec. (6) The load ZL is assumed to be a pure resistance RL. 3.1 Input characteristics

Input current io of the inverter is obtained by double Fourier series analysis as follows [3]:
i

(a) For input signal period Ti

where,

i,h

= hamonic current source to the carrier frequency component.

(4) i = 2VCEsat + F D From Eq.(l), the input side equivalent circuit of the PV system
Fig. 2. Waveforms of signal, currents and output voltage.

can be expressed by Fig.3. Eso, r, and C, are the generated voltage, equivalent output resistance and equivalent capacitor of PV, respectively. Voi is the threshold voltage of the switches. It is seen from Fig.3 or Eq.( 1) to (4) that the input side equivalent circuit of the PWh4 power inverter is composed of the input impedance Zcac, low-frequency ripple current source icr of the second-harmonic component of the frequencyfi of the input signal Vi and the high-frequency ripple current source ich due to the carrier frequencyfc. From Eqs. (2) and (3) , we can understand the following : (l)Zcacis proportional to the square of the modulation ratio a ,fc and inductor L, and pure resistance, (2) the PV output current i, has the second-harmonic component offi only, and (3) when a is made larger, Zcac becomes smaller and the low-frequency ripple current icl becomes larger. In Fig. 3, if r, << 1 2 ~ C S I ~ C<< O ~ L F the assump1 1, W F and tion (1) are considered, each steady-state equivalent circuit for the dc component, 2wi component and high-frequency component can be expressed by Figs. 4 (a), (b) and (c) , respectively. From Fig. 4(a),the PV output mean voltage E, = E,, and the PV output mean current I , can be given by the following equation:

(7)

where

From Eqs. ( 5 ) and (7), the PV output current is,ripple current

AIspp and ripple factor zsl can be given by the following equations :

is = 1s + JZII,IIsin ( 2 q t - E ) 2

(9)

Fig. 5 (a) and (b) show the experimental and calculated waveforms of the input signal vi and PV output current is. It is seen from these waveforms that is has only the ripple component of the second harmonic component of vi. In the experiments of this chapter 3, a voltage source E,, and a pure resistance r, are used instead of a PV array. Moreover, the load ZL is a resistance RL and is not interconnected to the utility line. The circuit parameters used in the experiments are shown in Table 1. 3.2 Output characteristics By applying the method in reference [4] which the difference equation for the output voltage vo is obtained and linearized, the output differential equation is given by

I
The PV output power Ps is given as following: From Fig. 4(b), the ripple currents is/, to the current source due il can be given by the following equation in phasor expression : c

Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit for Photovoltaic system.

Eso=100V,r ~ 2 . 2 RL ~ 4 4 p H1500pF, , , fidOHz, fc=SOkHz, a=OS , L=31pH,

Vi

: 2Vldiv , is : 2Aldiv ,Time : 5 ms/div

(b) Calculation (9).

(a) DC

(b) High frequency

(a) Experiment.

Fig. 5. Waveforms of solar array output current is. Table 1. Circurit parameters of PWM power source (c) Low frequency 2 q . Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit for frequency component.

For v, >> VD,, the steady-state solution vos of the output voltage v, can be given, by the following equation : (13) Moreover, substituting Eq.( 16) into (20) and rearranging for a, the following equation is obtained:
I?

c r

where It is seen from Eq.(21) that the DCM operation region is large when the load is lighter. From Eqs.(l6) and (20), the DCM condition of the output current I, for V, can be given by the following equation:

If WCRLcc 1 , Eq.(13) can be approximated by the following equation :

vo(t) V, E

,,/iTGZ$ = f i V, sin Wit

(15)

It can be understood from Eq.(13) and (15) that the carrier frequency f, should be set sufficiently high and the time constant CRL sufficiently small with respect to the input signal angular frequency wi to obtain a sinusoidal output voltage v, in phase with vi. Expressing the output voltage v, given by Eq.( 14) in terms of the output current I,= V, I RL ,the following equation can be obtained:

If the right-hand side of Eq.(22) is expressed by the output power P o , the following equation is obtained:
\

vo=

(Es-VDj)2 - { a ( E s - v D i > ) 2
Zcac Io

Fig. 6 (a) and (b) show the characteristics of the output voltage V, to the modulation ratio a with the load resistance RL as a parameter and to the output current I , with a as parameter, respectively. Moreover, the characteristics shown by broken lines express the boundary lines of the DCM operation. In this figure, the left-hand side of the broken line is the region performing DCM operation . It is seen from these figures that V, is proportional to a and inversely proportional to I,, and that the DCM operation region is wider at lighter load and a maximum load cunent Iocan be obtained at aIom = 0.5. Fig. 7 shows the characteristics of the output power Po to the output current Io with a as a parameter. Po shows a constant power characteristic independent of I, (RL).

4f& Io

(16)

From Eq. (16) the output power Po =V, I, is given by Po =

( E s - VDi) - I a(Es - vDi>I 4f& ZC,C

(17)

From Eq.(17) ,Po shows a constant power characteristic independent of the load resistance RL. Moreover, Po is equal to the input power PLY the inverter because the input resistance of the of

PWM power inverter is Zcac. Therefore, if the P W M power inverter is operated in DCM, all input power P, of the inverter can
be transfered to the load. 3.3 DCM condition To maintain the proposed inverter in DCM operation, the following equation must be satisfied:
T1

4. Characteristics at utility interconnection

The PWM power inverter has the function of transferring all input power to the load. Therefore, if the inverter is interconnected to the utility line and driven by the input signal vi in phase with the utility line voltage eac, its output voltage v, will be locked by e,, and the generated power P, can be transferred smoothly to the load and utility line side. In this case, the proposed inverter will function as a current source. Therefore, the equivalent circuit for the output side of the system is obtained as shown in Fig.8. iinvl is current source with low frequency component fi and iinvlthe ripple current source with high frequency component f. The output power Po of the , inverter is given by Po = Iinyl I and equals the power Po of

+ T2k < Tc

(18)

where

From Eq.( 18) , (19) and (15), the following equation can be obtained.

k, ,

200

\Buck-BoostPWMl

L 150 p

8 ."

s 100
.

ar

0)

0 : 50.0

......

2 50

(a) All component

0 0
0.2 0.4 0.6 Modulation Ratio a

0.8

(a) Modulation ratio a

200

z p
2 2

150 100
50

(b)Fundamental component

(c) High component

8 l

P .-

Fig. 8. Equivalent circuit for output side of system.

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 Output current lo (A) 6

(b) Output carrent I ,

Fig. 6. Characteristics of output voltage Vo.

300
n

o l " - ~ ....... ' " ' ' ' ~ ... - "

0 1 2 3 4 Output Current I,(A) 5

......... Boundary(23
6

From these results, if the value of C is sufficiently small and the PWM power inverter is controlled by the signal vi in phase with the utility line voltage e,,, the current io become in phase with ea,. In other words, the output power of the inverter can be transfered to the load and utility line under unit power factor . Fig. 9 (a) and (b) show the power flow characteristics to the modulation ratio a with PV generated voltage E,, as a parameter and to E,, with the modulation ratio a as a parameter, respectively. The output power Po of the inverter is supplied to the load RL and the power Pa, from the utility line is reduced following the in crease of Po . Po can be controlled by a and supplied to RL regardless of the value of Eso . Fig. 10 shows the output power factor PF, of the inverter to the modulations factor a with the output capacitance C as a parameter. When the modulation factor a i s smaller and C larger , PF, is smaller. However even if the modulation ratio a is small, the inverter supplies the output power Po to the load RL from PV as showen in Fig.9. Therefore, the reactive power for C is supplied from the utility line eat. A phasor diagram of the voltages and currents for Fig3 (b) can be obtained as shown in Fig. 11.

Fig.7 Characteristics of output power Po.

Eq.(17).As a result, the instantaneous value i (t) of the output current can be given by the following equation:

If the load RL and the line inpeadance are much larger than 1/
wcC,Fig 8(a) can be separated by low and high frequency com-

ponents as shown in Fig 8(b) and (c), respectively. From Fig 8(b), line current iac,output current of inverter io, line effective power Pac, output power of inverter Po, load power PL, line power factor PF,, and output power factor PF, of the inverter are given as follows:

io e h, - Iinvl - IC = C a(c -I K A

- jB1)

Thus, good results have been obtained for the calculated values and experimental ones from section 3 to 4. The main reason

500

1
LLo

g
L

400

n 0.8

a 300 "
n o

d 0.6

B
L

J
p"

200
100

$ 0.4 X
0

5 02 .
0
0.1

0 0

0.2

0.6 Modulation ratio a

0.4

0.8

20

40 60 80 Generated voltage Eso(V)

100

0.2 0 3 0.4 0.5 . Modulation ratio a

0.6

(a) Modulation ratio a.

(b) Solar array voltage ESO

Fig. 10. Output power factor P F ~ .

Im I

Fig. 9. Characteristics of power flow.

of the difference between them may be caused by the fact that the losses due to the resistance components of the switching devices and inductors are neglected. Fig. 12 shows the measured waveforms of the utility line voltage e,,, inverter output current io and the utility line current iac; Fig.12 (a) shows the case of a resistive load 25R, and Fig.12 (b) an inductive load connecting a 200 W capacitor motor with no Fig. 11. Phasor diagram for Fig.8 (b).

load and a 50R resistor in parallel. EaC is set 1OOV. It is seen

from this figure that no matter what kind of load, the current io flows in phase with e,, and the PV generated power P, is transferred to the load and utility line at a high power factor.

5. Conclusions
We have proposed the basic characteristics when a buck-boost PWM power inverter is used in a photovoltaic power generation system, As a result, it becomes clear that a constant power characteristic is obtained by a very simple circuit configuration and the solar array generated power can be transferred smoothly at high power factor regardless of its generated voltage. Moreover, the ripple component of the output current of the solar array has been clarified. In the practical implementation of the proposed scheme, the safety measures for the short-circuit and open-circuit of utility lines still remain for study. However, it may be considered as a useful scheme as an interface circuit of the photovoltaic power conditioning system. lOOV/div, 2Ndiv Eso =loOV, e,, =100VRMS, a =OS
(a) Resistance load

(RL=25L!)

(b) Inductive load (Capacitor motor)

Fig. 12. Experimental waveforms of utility line voltage eac,output current io and utility line current iac using Buck-Boost PWM Power Inverter ",Tran IEE. Japan 114-D,9,885892,1994. (Electrical Engineering in Japan. 1155,128-139,1995. ) [4]Michihiko Nagao, Ryuichi Morikawa and Koosuke Harada. Analysis of high power factor ac-dc buck-boost converter operation in discontinuous mode. Trans. I.E.I.C.E., Japan, C-II,Vol. J75-C-11, N0.11, pp. 686-695, NOV.1992.

References [1 Sakutaro Nonaka, Ktsumi Kesamaru and Kiyomi Yamasaki. Utility 3 interactive photovoltaic system with PWM current source inverter. Trans. I.E.E., Japan, Vo1.112-B,NpS,pp.439-447,May 1992. [2] B.K.Bose, P.M.Szczesny and R.L. Steigerwald, "Microcomputer Control of a Residential Photovoltaic Power Conditioning System ", IEEE Trans, IA, IA-215,1182-1191, 1985. [3] M.Nagao ,H. Horikawa and K. Harada,"Photoroltaic System