Performance evaluation of a 3-level ANPC photovoltaic grid-connected inverter with 650V SiC devices and optimized PWM

Barater, Davide; Concari, Carlo; Buticchi, Giampaolo; Gurpinar, Emre; De, Dipankar; Castellazzi, Alberto

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion has been on the spotlight of scientific research on renewable energy for several years. In recent years the bulk of the research on PV has focused on transformerless grid-connected inverters, more efficient than traditional line transformer-based ones, but more critical from a power quality point of view, especially in terms of ground leakage current. Neutral point clamped (NPC) inverters have recently gained interest due to their intrinsically low ground leakage current and high efficiency, especially for MOSFET-based topologies. This paper presents an active NPC (ANPC) topology equipped with 650 V SiC MOSFETs, with a new modulation strategy that allows to reap the benefits of the wide-bandgap devices. An efficiency improvement is obtained due to the parallel operation of two devices during the freewheeling intervals. Simulations and experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed converter.

Citation

Barater, D., Concari, C., Buticchi, G., Gurpinar, E., De, D., & Castellazzi, A. (2016). Performance evaluation of a 3-level ANPC photovoltaic grid-connected inverter with 650V SiC devices and optimized PWM. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 52(2), 2475-2485. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2016.2514344

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 4, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 4, 2016
• Deposit Date: May 25, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 7, 2016
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
• Print ISSN: 0093-9994
• Electronic ISSN: 1939-9367
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 2475-2485
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2016.2514344
• Keywords: Active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC), photo-voltaic power systems, power conversion efficiency, pulsewidth-odulated power converters, wide-bandgap semiconductors
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/773703
• Publisher URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=7370927
• Additional Information: (c)2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.
• Contract Date: May 25, 2016