Coordinated Capacitor Voltage Balancing Method for Cascaded H-bridge Inverter with Supercapacitor and DC-DC Stage

Cascaded H-bridge inverter(CHBI) with supercapacitors(SCs) and dc-dc stage shows significant promise for medium to high voltage energy storage applications. This paper investigates the voltage balance of capacitors within the CHBI, including both the dc-link capacitors and SCs. Balance control over the dc-link capacitor voltages is realized by the dcdc stage in each submodule(SM), while a hybrid modulation strategy(HMS) is implemented in the H-bridge to balance the SC voltages among the SMs. Meanwhile, the dc-link voltage fluctuations are analyzed under the HMS. A virtual voltage variable is introduced to coordinate the balancing of dc-link capacitor voltages and SC voltages. Compared to the balancing method that solely considers the SC voltages, the presented method reduces the dc-link voltage fluctuations without affecting the voltage balance of SCs. Finally, both simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the presented method.

Model Predictive Control for Cascaded H-Bridge PV Inverter with Capacitor Voltage Balance

We designed an improved direct-current capacitor voltage balancing control model predictive control(MPC)for single-phase cascaded H-bridge multilevel photovoltaic(PV)inverters.Compared with conventional voltage balanc-ing control methods,the method proposed could make the PV strings of each submodule operate at their maximum power point by independent capacitor voltage control.Besides,the predicted and reference value of the grid-connected current was obtained according to the maximum power output of the maximum power point tracking.A cost function was con-structed to achieve the high-precision grid-connected control of the CHB inverter.Finally,the effectiveness of the proposed control method was verified through a semi-physical simulation platform with three submodules.

THD Analysis of Cascaded H-Bridge Inverter with Fuzzy Logic Controller

In recent days, the multilevel inverter technology is widely applied to domestic and industrial applications for medium voltage conversion. But, the power quality issues of the multilevel inverter limit the usage of much sensitive equipment like medical instruments. The lower distortion level of the output voltage and current can generate a quality sinusoidal output voltage in inverters and they can be used for many applications. The harmonics can cause major problems in equipments due to the nonlinear loads connected with the power system. So, it is necessary to minimize the losses to raise its overall efficiency. In this paper, a new topology of seven level asymmetrical cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter with a Fuzzy logic controller had been implemented to reduce the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and to improve the overall performance of the inverter. The proposed model is well suited for use with a solar PV application. In this topology, only six IGBT switches are used with three different voltage ratings of PV modules (1:2:4). The lower number of semiconductor switches leads to minimizing overall di/dt ratings and voltage stress on each switches and switching losses. The gate pulses generated by Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) technique with a Fuzzy logic controller are also introduced. A buck-boost converter is used to maintain the constant PV voltage level integrated by an MPPT technique followed by Perturb and Observer algorithm is also implemented. The MPPT is used to harness the maximum power of solar radiations under its various climatic conditions. The new topology is evaluated by a Matlab/Simulink model and compared with a hardware model. The results proved that the THD achieved by this topology is 1.66% and realized that it meets the IEEE harmonic standards.

Neural Network and Fuzzy Control Based 11-Level Cascaded Inverter Operation

This paper presents a combined control and modulation technique to enhance the power quality(PQ)and power reliability(PR)of a hybrid energy system(HES)through a single-phase 11-level cascaded H-bridge inverter(11-CHBI).The controller and inverter specifically regulate the HES and meet the load demand.To track optimum power,a Modified Perturb and Observe(MP&O)technique is used for HES.Ultra-capacitor(UCAP)based energy storage device and a novel current control strategy are proposed to provide additional active power support during both voltage sag and swell conditions.For an improved PQ and PR,a two-way current control strategy such as the main controller(MC)and auxiliary controller(AC)is suggested for the 11-CHBI operation.MC is used to regulate the active current component through the fuzzy controller(FC),and AC is used to regulate the dc-link voltage of CHBI through a neural network-based PI controller(ANN-PI).By tracking the reference signals fromMC and AC,a novel hybrid pulse widthmodulation(HPWM)technique is proposed for the 11-CHBI operation.To justify and analyze the MATLAB/Simulink software-based designed model,the robust controller performance is tested through numerous steady-state and dynamic state case studies.

Capacitor Pattern H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter (CPHMLI) Using Phase Diposition Pulse Width Modulation for Grid Applications

This work presents an implementation of an innovative single phase multilevel inverter using capacitors with reduced switches. The proposed Capacitor pattern H-bridge Multilevel Inverter (CPHMLI) topology consists of a proper number of Capacitor connected with switches and power sources. The advanced switching control supplied by Pulse Width Modulation (PDPWM) to attain mixed staircase switching state. The charging and discharging mode are achieved by calculating the voltage error at the load. Furthermore, to accomplish the higher voltage levels at the output with less number of semiconductors switches and simple commutation designed using CPHMLI topology. To prove the performance and effectiveness of the proposed approach, a set of experiments performed under various load conditions using MATLAB tool.

Evaluation of 1.2 kV SiC MOSFETs in Multilevel Cascaded H-bridge Three-phase Inverter for Medium-voltage Grid Applications

A study is conducted to evaluate 1.2 kV silicon-carbide(SiC)MOSFETs in a cascaded H-bridge(CHB)three-phase inverter for medium-voltage applications.The main purpose of this topology is to remove the need for a bulky 60 Hz transformer normally used to step up the output signal of a voltage source inverter to a medium-voltage level.Using SiC devices(1.2-6.5 kV SiC MOSFETs)which have a high breakdown voltage,enables the system to meet and withstand the medium-voltage stress using only a minimal number of cascaded modules.The SiC-based power electronics when used in the presented topology considerably reduce the complexity usually encountered when Si devices are used to meet the medium-voltage level and power scalability.Simulation and preliminary experimental results on a low-voltage prototype verifies the nine-level CHB topology presented in this study.

A New Structure of Multilevel Inverter with Reduced Number of Switches for Electric Vehicle Applications

Both Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) and Electric Vehicles (EVs) need a traction motor and a power in-verter to drive the traction motor. The requirements for the power inverter include high peak power, opti-mum consumption of energy, low output harmonics and inexpensive circuit. In this paper, a new structure of multilevel inverter with reduced number of switches is proposed for electric vehicle applications. It consists of an H-bridge and an inverter in each phase which produces multilevel voltage by switching the dc voltage sources in series. As the number of switches are reduced, both conduction and switching losses will be de-creased, which leads to increase the efficiency of converter. The size and power consumption of driving cir-cuits are also reduced. The proposed three phase inverter can produces more number of voltage levels in the same number of the voltage source and reduced number of switches compared to the conventional inverters. This structure minimizes the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the output voltage waveforms. The structure of proposed multilevel inverter, modulation method, switching losses, THD calculation and simulation re-sults with PSCAD/EMTDC software are shown in this paper.