1

Residential Solar Power Systems using Z Source Inverter

Amitava Das, 1 Debasish Lahiri,2 A. K. Dhakar 2
1

Electrical Engg. Dept, Techno India, Kolkata, India, 2 Applied Electronics & Instrumentation Engg. Dept., Techno India, Kolkata, India, 3 Electrical Engg. Dept., National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, India.

II. SOLAR POWER SYSTEM FOR RESIDENTIAL USE

AbstractThis paper proposes a residential solar power system using Zsource inverter. The Zsource inverter employs a unique impedance network couple with the solar cell and inverter main circuit. The operating principle, control strategy and characteristics of the system are described. The new and traditional system configurations are compared in this paper. Analysis and simulation results are presented to demonstrate the novelty of features. Index Terms Photovoltaic cell, Z source inverter, MPPT.

A. Basic Requirements In order to transfer the energy from solar PV array into residential circuits, the converter systems must fulfill the following requirements: (a) To convert the D.C voltage to A.C voltage. (b) To boost the voltage if the PV array voltage is less than the utility voltage. (c) To insure maximum power utilization from the PV array. B. Traditional Converter

I. INTRODUCTION HE oil, coal and gas price is rising and global warming becoming more severe due to environmental pollution. Therefore, countries are now looking for alternative energy sources to partially replace fossil fuels. Due to environmental concerns, more efforts are now being put into green power sources like solar power, wind power, geothermal, fuel cell etc. Solar cells or photovoltaic (PV) cells directly use the energy from the sun to generate electricity. As the energy from the sun is free, the major cost of PV generation is the installation cost. The installation cost mainly consists of the costs of solar modules and the converter interface i.e. the power conditioning system (PCS). With the development of PV technology, the price of solar modules has dropped dramatically. A recent worldwide survey shows that in the last three years, the retail price of solar modules has dropped by 16.95%. However, at the same time, the prices for the solar power system almost remain the same. Furthermore, compared with converters used in drive systems, the prices for the converters used in solar power systems are still up to 50% higher [1]. Reducing the cost of these systems has become a major issue in deploying residential solar power systems. Solar power system converts the DC output from PV cell to 230V, 50Hz AC output for residential use in India. This paper proposes a Z-source inverter based solar power system for residential use. By utilizing the Z-source inverter, the number of switching components and the total volume of the system can be minimized. Thus, the overall cost of the system is minimized.

Fig. 1 DC to AC with step-up transformer in traditional PV system

Fig. 2 DC to AC with DCDC boost in traditional PV system Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show the two most commonly used converter system configurations in practice. In the system shown in Fig.1 a transformer at line frequency is utilized to boost the voltage after the DCAC inverter. Usually, a line frequency

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2 transformer is associated with huge size, loud acoustic noise and high cost. In addition, the inverter has to be oversized to cope with the wide PV array voltage change. The KVA rating of the inverter is doubled if the PV voltage varies at a 1: 2 range. So in order to eliminate the transformer and to minimize the KVA rating requirement of the inverter, in many applications, a high frequency DC-DC converter is used to boost the voltage to a constant value as shown in Fig. 2. Unfortunately, the switch in the DCDC converter is very expensive and also reduces the system efficiency [2], [3]. III. PROPOSED INVERTER SYSTEM In the proposed residential solar power system shown in Fig.3, a Z-source inverter [5] is utilized to realize inversion and boost function in one single stage. Unlike the traditional voltage source or current source inverters, the Z-source inverter employs a unique impedance network with split inductors L1 and L2 and capacitors C1 and C2 connected in X shape. With the impedance network, the Z-source inverter can advantageously use the shoot through states to boost the voltage. Furthermore, with the ability to handle the shoot through state, the inverter system becomes more reliable [5], [6]. The inductors and capacitors in the Z-source are both energy storage devices, so that their value can be optimally designed to ensure small size and low cost. IV. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION AND CONTROL by utilizing the Z-source inverter, the volume, the cost as well as the number of active switching devices are minimized. Because of the single stage operation, the efficiency of the system can be greatly improved. In summary, the proposed system: 1) Has only one stage to realize inversion, boost, and maximum power tracking. 2) Has the minimized number of switching devices. 3) Needs no dead time. 4) Can have shoot through state in the inverter. 5) Inherits all the advantages of the six switch inverter system.

Fig. 4 control scheme for six switch inverter As shown in Fig. 4, when the triangular waveforms are greater than the maximum value or lower than the minimum value of the three reference waveforms, all upper three switches or all bottom three switches are turned on respectively, as indicated in the shadowed area. During these periods of time, the output voltage of the inverter is zero, i.e., zero states. For the Z source inverter, the basic idea of control is to turn zero states into shoot through states and keep the active switching states unchanged, thus we can maintain the sinusoidal output and at the same time achieve voltage boost from the shoot through of the DC link [5],[6],[11]. Fig. 5 shows the boost control method of the split-phase Zsource inverter. Phase legs b and c are controlled by SPWM to synthesize AC output and the shoot-through command, and is used to boost voltage as desired. The control of these two phase legs is similar to the simple boost control proposed in [5] and [6]. Two straight lines are used to control the shoot through duty ratio. When the carrier is greater than the upper straight line, phase leg b goes to shoot through state, whereas phase leg c goes to shoot through state when the lower straight line is greater than the carrier. Phase a in the inverter is switching at 50% duty cycle without shoot through. The switching frequency of phase a is the frequency of the carrier. By doing this, each phase leg only

Fig. 3 Proposed inverter for residential solar power system As compared to the systems shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the proposed system does not need a bulky transformer or a DC-DC converter to boost the voltage in the circuit. Thus both size and cost are minimized. As there is no dead time, the control accuracy and THD value can also be improved. Furthermore, the split-phase Z--source inverter naturally inherits all the advantages of the split-phase six-switch inverter. Thus, the 220V AC output filter can be optimized. The PV DC voltage needs to be at least 340--680 V to produce a 220 V split-phase power. Therefore, 1200-V IGBTs are needed in the system. For a 1 kW PV system, a 2 kW inverter is needed to cope with the voltage change. On the other hand, using the proposed system of Fig. 3, the PV voltage can be designed to be 225--450 V, which can be inverted to 220 V split-phase power by the Z-source inverter using 600V IGBTs. In addition, the required KVA rating of the Z -source inverter remains the same of 1 kW for a 1 kW PV system. Therefore,

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3 shoots through once during one carrier cycle, the equivalent switching frequency can be doubled for the output filter.

VC1 = VC 2

T0 T V = B + 1V = pv T pv 2 1 2 0 T 1

(7)

When the PV output voltage value is high enough to produce the required AC voltage, the shoot through state is no longer needed, i.e., T = 0 and B = 1. Under this condition, the relationship between the inverter peak output voltage and the PV output voltage can be calculated by V0 = M .V pv / 2 (8) From Eqn. (7), by controlling the shoot through duty cycle and modulation index a desirable AC output voltage can be obtained. The shoot-through states can be created by shorting both legs b and c, or all the three legs simultaneously during any given shoot through state according to the two straight lines. For all these shoot-through cases, the resulted boost effect and output voltage waveforms remain the same. In the proposed control scheme, only one phase leg is used to create shoot through at any time, thus minimizing the switching frequency. V. MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING STRATEGY Solar PV cell has nonlinear characteristics. Its output voltage and power change according to temperature and irradiation. Fig. 6 shows the typical characteristics for a PV model.

Fig. 5 Boost control topology As described in [5] and [6], the inductors can be wounded around the same core and have the same inductance and the capacitors can also have the same capacitance. The relationship between the output AC voltage and input DC voltage is found as: V0 = MB.V pv / 2 (1) Where V0 is the peak output voltage, Vpv is the PV array voltage, and M is the modulation index. The modulation index is defined as:

M=
B=

V peak Vtri
1 T0 T

(2)

B is called Boost factor, and is defined as: (3)

1 2

Where T0 is the total shoot through period per carrier cycle, and T is carrier cycle. In the simple control method [5], [6], the amplitude of the two straight lines is the peak of modulation waveform, therefore the relationship between modulation index, M and the shoot -- through ratio T0/T can be found as :

T0 = 1 M T
Substituting Eqn. (4) into Eqn. (3) we have:

Fig. 6 Typical P -- I & P -- V characteristics of PV cell For a specified temperature and irradiation, the intersection of the load line with the PV voltage-current characteristic, is the operating point. Since the proposed Z -source based solar power system is directly connected to the residential use, the solar power system is controlled to transfer maximum power from the PV array to the residential circuits continuously. Because of nonlinear characteristic of PV modules, the maximum power can not be achieved by directly connecting the PV models. Tracking of the MPP must be used to effectively get the maximum output power. Several researches are reported on MPPT-featured inverters [7]--[10]. So far, the perturbation and observation method, the incremental conductance method and the hill climbing method, etc. are

(4)

B=

From Eqn. (1) & Eqn. (5) the output voltage is determined as:

1 2M 1

(5)

V0 =

M V pv 2(2 M 1)

(6)

The capacitor voltage is:

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4 used for MPP tracking. In this paper, a simple power feedback method is used by the Z -- source based PCS to achieve MPPT as shown in Fig. 7. L = 1mH C = 120F. The simulations are performed in following two cases: Case -- I: Vpv = 240V. For the case -- I , input voltage, Vpv is 240V to achieve 220V split phase output voltage the modulation index can be calculated from inverse of Eqn. 6 .

M=

2V0 2 2 220 = = 0.62 4V0 V pv 4 2 220 240

(9)

The Boost factor is:-

B=

The shoot through duty cycle can be calculated as: Fig. 7 Block diagram of MPPT control. The power can be measured and used as feedback. The voltage of the PV modules is regulated to an optimal point, which presents the maximum power. This special point is tracked to satisfy the relationship of

1 1 = = 4.16 2 M 1 2 0.62 1

(10)

T0 = 1 M T T0 = 1 0.62 = 0.38 T
The Z -- source capacitor voltage should be -

(11)

dP = 0 . Based on this strategy, the dV

VC1 = VC 2 =

1 T0 / T V pv 1 2T0 / T

maximum power point can always be tracked [10]. VI. SIMULATION RESULTS Usually the PV output voltage changes with temperature, while the PV output current changes with irradiation.

1 0.38 = 240 = 620V 1 2 0.38

(12)

Fig. 9 shows the simulation result of case I. Figs. 9(a) & 9(b)

Fig. 9(a) Input voltage from PV array. Fig. 8 V -- I characteristics under different condition With constant irradiation specified, the PV output power decreases when the temperature power increases when the irradiation increases. One of the functions of the system is to extract the maximum power out of the photovoltaic at any given temperature and irradiation. Based on the curves shown in Fig. 8, simulations are performed to prove the concept proposed in this paper. The simulation setup with the following parameters: L1 = L2 = 1mH. C1 = C2 = 10,000 F The switching frequency = 10 KHz. The filter parameters are: show the simulation waveform of input voltage from PV array and the Z -- source capacitor voltage. The capacitor voltage is close to 620V. Figs 10(a) & 10(b) show the simulation waveform of output voltage and output current respectively. The output voltage is desired split phase 220V rms and the output current is nearly 25A. The output power of the inverter may be calculated around 8800 Watt. Thus the maximum power output from the Solar cell array is realized. The simulation results are consistent with the theoretical calculations.

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Fig. 11(a) PV voltage

Fig 9(b) Z -- source capacitor voltage. -

Fig.11 (b) Z -- source capacitor voltage. Fig 12(a) &12(b) shows the waveform of output voltage and output current of the solar inverter respectively.

Fig. 10 (a) output voltage of the inverter

Fig. 12(a) inverter output voltage

Fig. 10(b) output current of the inverter.

Case -- II: Vpv = 1000V For the case -- II the input voltage is much higher, Vpv = 1000V, the control scheme is different in compare with the case -- I. The modulation index can be calculated as

Fig. 12(b) inverter output current. From the above two cases, it can be realized that the simulation results show that at different input voltage, the proposed residential solar power systems output voltage maintained as 220V rms which is essential for household requirement in India. The output power tracked the maximum PV output power at different temperature and irradiation. The basic topology of the propose scheme was verified.

M=

2V0 2 2 220 = = 0.62 V pv 1000

(13)

As no Boost is needed for this scheme, the Boost factor B = 1 Thus the Z source capacitor voltage is same as input PV voltage, which is 1000V. Fig. 11(a) &11(b) shows the simulation waveform of PV input voltage and Z source capacitor voltage respectively.

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6 VII. CONCLUSION This paper presented a new residential solar power system using Z source inverter. The proposed system shows that the boost and the inversion with maximum power tracking at a single stage is possible, and minimize the no of switching devices. All the possible advantages of Z source inverter and six switch inverter is used and integrated together for high efficiency residential solar energy system with minimized volume and reliable cost. The proposed system is very promising for residential solar energy system in rural area in India. REFERENCES
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