~
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 35, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1988
A Novel Utility Interfaced High-Frequency Link
Photovoltaic Power Conditioning System
Abstract-Utility line interfaced photovoltaic power conditioning
(PVPC) systems are gaining popularity in augmenting energy. PVPC
systems utilizing a high-frequency (HF) isolation link have the well-
known advantages of small size, light weight, etc. In this paper, a novel
utility interfaced HF link PVPC system is presented. The system
discussed consists of a resonant (load commutated) ASCR HF inverter, a
rectifier, and a line commutated inverter working with a power factor
near unity. An HF transformer provides the isolation between the
photovoltaic array and the utility line. The HF resonant inverter uses an
LCC type commutation circuit and has inherent fault-protection capabil-
ity under a number of fault conditions. The working details of the scheme
are presented together with logic circuit schematics. Experimental results
obtained with a prototype unit are also given.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE power generated by the photovoltaic (PV) array is fed
to the utility line by power conditioning units working in a
utility line connected mode, and thus augments generated
energy. Isolation transformers are part of such photovoltaic
power conditioning (PVPC) units providing ohmic isolation
between the PV array and the utility line. The PVPC systems
using current or voltage source inverters use line frequency
transformers [ 11 whereas high-frequency (HF) link systems
use small size, light weight hf transformers for isolation [2]-
[5]. The HF link system presented uses a HF resonant
inverter, a rectifier and a line commutated inverter working
with maximum possible inverting firing angle.
The basic operation of the system is explained in Section 11.
A control system is proposed in a block schematic form in
Section 111. The working principles of HF resonant inverter
and its logic circuit schematic are presented in Section IV.
Section V discusses the principle of line commutated inverter
(LCI). The features of the PVPC system presented are
summarized in Section VI. The experimental results obtained
with a prototype unit in the Laboratory are given in Section
VI1 .
11. BASICOPERATION
OF THE SYSTEM
The system is shown in Fig. 1 . The PV array output is
filtered by inductor Lf and capacitors C, and fed to the input
of a load commutated HF inverter. The high frequency
rectifier rectifies the HF ac output at the secondary of
transformer T. The voltage at the output of the HF rectifier can
Manuscript received January 7, 1986; revised February 2 , 1987.
A. K . S. Bhatt is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University
of Victoria, B.C., Canada V8W 2Y2.
S . B. Dewan is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University
of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 1A4.
IEEE Log Number 8716662.
0278-0046/88/0200-0153$01 .OO O 1988 IEEE
._
53
be controlled by varying the frequency of operation of the HF
inverter. This controlled voltage is converted into an adjusta-
ble current source id using Ld, and forced into the utility line
using the line commutated inverter. The line commutated
inverter is a conventional phase-controlled converter [6]
operating with fixed maximum possible firing angle (a). Since
the utility line voltage is fixed, the voltage at the dc terminals
of the phase controlled bridge is also fixed. Hence the value of
current id depends on the HF rectifier output voltage. This
implies that the power fed to the utility line is dependent on the
HF inverter output voltage, and hence, controllable by the
operating frequency of the HF inverter.
The equation for the average current in the dc link can be
written as
Id=(VO+ Vccf)/rs (1)
where r, is the circuit resistance, Voand Vcd are the average
voltages of rectified HF source and the voltage across cd,
respectively. The dc link current id is inverted by the line
commutated inverter and forced to the utility line, feeding the
power generated by the HF rectified source eh into the utility
line. For continuous current operation,
Vcd= (2& I/ cos a)/?r (2)
for 1 - 0 line commutated inverter, and
Vcd=(3&Vcos a)/?r (3)
for 3 - 0 line commutated inverter, where a is the firing
angle of SCR’s and V is the line to line rms voltage.
111. PROPOSED
CONTROL
SYSTEM
FOR THE PVPC UNIT
Fig. 2 shows the block diagram of the proposed control
system. The “start/stop requirements logic” block generates
the start/stop signals for the system. This block must also
include the protection features for the system. The “array
voltage window” and “utility voltage window” provide the
information about the PV array voltage output level and the
utility line voltage level, respectively. If the array voltage or
utility line voltage goes below a certain set level, the system
has to be switched off. Similarly, when these voltage levels are
above certain limits, the system has to be switched on
automatically. The HF inverter output current (io), HF
inverter load voltage (U,), filter capacitor current (icf) and the
utility line current (iL) are sensed and used to protect the
system under short circuit or over current, over voltage
situations.
~.
I 1 1 -
154 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL 35, NO I . FEBRUARY 1988

I- Input Cioothin;

transforter High
freouencv comnutzted i w e r t e r
1 ,

bridge r e c t i f i e r

Fig. 1. Utility line interfaced “HF inverter-rectifier-line commutated in-

verter” PVPC system.

input H i q h Frequency
Inverter High

To t h y r i s t o r r a t e s
S1,SZ g a t e s
of l i n e c o m u t p t e d
6 inverter

Current Drivers
referenc
controlle

:
ta rt/8 top
t

IinJbiJ Utility v o l t a g e
hizdow
s t a rt/z to:,

Fig. 2. Block diagram of the proposed control system for the utility line
interfaced high frequency link PVPC system (3 - 0 system is shown).

The PV array voltage V, and array current Io, are multiplied IV. HF INVERTER
in the “Multiplier” block and its output is used to calculate the
This section deals with the selection of HF inverter
peak power point of the PV array output in the “peak power
configuration, the working principle of high frequency in-
point calculator” block. The signal generated by this block
verter and its logic circuit details.
acts as a reference signal in a controller. The controller
In Section IV-A the reasons for choosing resonant (load
compares the current reference signal with the utility line
commutated) inverter and the selection of a particular load
current signal i , and generates appropriate frequency control
commutation configuration are explained. The reasons for
command signal Vp The “HF inverter controller” generates
selecting ASCR as the hf switching device are also given in
the gating signals for S1, S2 and the repetition frequency is
Section IV-A. The operating principle of ASCR HF inverter,
dependent on V p The frequency of operation of high fre-
and its self-protecting features are explained in Sections IV-A
quency inverter will be adjusted such that the power fed to the
and IV-B, respectively. The logic circuit requirements of HF
utility line corresponds to peak power point of the PV array
ASCR inverter and its details are presented in Section IV-D.
output.
“Phase control logic” generates the SCR gating signals for
the line commutated inverter using the utility line voltages as A . Selection of HF Inverter Configuration
the synchronizing signals. The firing delay being fixed by The resonant inverter is chosen as the HF inverter due to the
“firing angle adjust” input. following reasons:
BHAT AND DEWAN: HIGH-FREQUENCY POWER CONDITIONING SYSTEM
Fig. 3. A half-bridge resonant (load commutated) ASCR high frequency
inverter using LCC type commutation, that can be used in the high
frequency link PVPC system shown in Fig. 1.
Circuit is simple, there are no auxiliary SCR's or extra
components for forced commutation, thus the power
components used are minimum.
Due to load commutation of the circuit, the voltage and
current transitions are smooth. Hence the stresses on
the semiconductors are less.
The commutating components not only help in the
commutation process but they also provide a filtering
effect.
The frequency of operation can be high.
The HF inverter using LCC type load commutation (Fig. 3)
has been chosen due to the following advantages:
The load voltage is relatively independent of load and
the load voltage is approximately the fundamental of
the waveform across the nodes ab. The circuit can
work for large load variations: from load open circuit
to load short circuit.
Due to the presence of series capacitor Cs, the
saturation of the transformer is avoided.
Wide-load voltage variation and hence power control
can be achieved by small variation in the operating
frequency, in the present system.
When the load is short circuited, the short circuit
current is limited by the impedance offered by C, and
LS.
ASCR's were chosen as the HF switching devices due to
their good switching characteristics [7]: high dV/dt, di/dt
and voltage ratings, higher surge current capability, small gate
drive requirements, low turnoff time. However, other switch-
ing devices like power transistors can equally be employed.
B. Principle of Operation of ASCR HF Inverter
Fig. 3 shows the load commutated half-bridge inverter using
ASCR's as the switching elements. The PV array output
voltage E is converted into a center tapped dc supply using
155
series connected capacitors C,. To understand the working of
the inverter, the load presented to the inverter is shown as Z1
and the effect of snubber components R , and C, are neglected.
Assume that current io is carried by 0 2 and ASCRl is
triggered. Now the current io gets transferred to ASCRl and
flows resonantly through ASCR1, Lb, C,, ZI, C, and L,. This
resonant current forms a half-sinusoidal wave (Fig. 4(a)) and
goes to zero. Diode D1 starts to conduct at this instant. During
the conduction of D1, it provides a reverse voltage equal to its
forward drop to ASCR1. After a minimum time equal to the
turn-off time of ASCR1, ASCR2 can be triggered and the
current io gets transferred from 0 1 to ASCR2. ASCRl can be
triggered after minimum turnoff time of ASCR2. Hence the
cycle repeats. The triggering of an ASCR can be delayed
beyond the minimum turnoff time of other ASCR, so that
operating frequency of the inverter can be controlled; which in
turn controls the power output. Here it was assumed that the
inverter is working in continuous current mode. The inverter
can also work in discontinuous current mode (Fig. 4(b)), if the
triggering frequency is reduced to such an extent that there are
zero current intervals.
It has been assumed above that the recovery time of the
diodes are zero and hence triggering of an ASCR causes the
current to transfer from the conducting diode to the ASCR in
zero time (in continuous current mode). However, in practice
due to the finite recovery time of the diodes, when an ASCR is
turned on, it conducts transiently with the diode in the other
arm before the ASCR takes over the full output current. The
rate of rise of current during this transient conduction of
ASCR and diode is limited by the branch inductors Lb. The
minimum turnoff time of ASCR's is ensured by the control
circuit. The on coming ASCR is turned on only after a set
minimum time has been elapsed after the current zero point of
the other ASCR has occured.
The ASCR HF inverter explained above has the self-
protecting capability under a number of fault conditions as
explained in the next section.
I 1
 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 35, NO. 1 , FEBRUARY 1988

+E I

r c
Cf r”
I
Lb

Lb

O b

+E

A- --w t

(b)
Fig. 5. Equivalent circuits of the ASCR HF inverter (Fig. 3), under
different fault conditions. (a) During a semiconductor fault. (b) For a short
circuit after LF

12’ ASCRI
I

bl;
,

hSCR2 ,D2 AXRI has to be satisfied to keep the semiconductor current iAt)
I ,

within certain safe limit I,. When one of the above faults
(a) occur, the inverter is switched off by sensing the current icr(t).
(ii) If a short circuit occurs after Lf (Fig. 5(b)) then by
choosing LJto be large, sufficient time can be provided
for the breaker to trip, during which the rate of rise of
current is limited by Lp
(iii) If the load short circuit occurs, then L, and C, limit the
peak current to

Ispk E,, * Jc,/L, (5)

(b)
Fig. 4. Waveforms to illustrate the principle of operation of load coinmu-
tated ASCR HF inverter shown in Fig. 3. (a) Continuous current mode. (b)
Discontinuous current mode.
C. Self-protecting Property of the ASCR Inverter
The ASCR HF inverter has the self-protecting property for
a number of faults and is similar to a series-parallel tuned load
commutated inverter used for induction heating [8]. The self-
protecting feature of the ASCR inverter is briefly explained
below:
(i) The equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 5(a) results under
the following conditions:
(a) a diode or thyristor short circuits;
(b) both semiconductors of the opposite branches fail;
(c) misfire of an ASCR occurs during the wrong half
cycle.
The transient fault current has to be limited within certain
limits under the above fault conditions before the inverter is
switched off. By neglecting output load current, it can be
shown that [8], [5] the constraint
[4L,/Cj] I” 3 (E/I,,,)
where E,, is the normal fundamental voltage of the square
wave across ‘ab’.
From the above discussion we can conclude that fuseless
operation of the ASCR hf inverter is possible.
D. Proposed Logic Circuit for the ASCR HF Inverter
Fig. 6 shows the block schematic of the proposed logic
circuit for the ASCR HF inverter. This consists of
(i) Start/Stop and Sequencing Circuit: This generates the
startistop signal depending on the start/stop command given
by start and stop switches. This block also generates the logic
signals necessary to operate all the relays in a proper
sequence. The inhibit signal generated by the protection circuit
overrides all commands and switches off the DC Contactor.
(ii) Protection Circuit: The inverter output current io;load
voltage i t I ; and the filter capacitor current iJare sensed and are
rectified and filtered. These signals are compared with the
preset limits. If any of the above quantities exceed the set
limits. inhibit signal shuts off in the DC contactor.
(iii) Frequency End Stop Limits: The frequency reference
or command signal is an indication of the operating frequency
of the inverter. “Frequency End Stops” clamp the level of
frequency reference between certain limits. Thus the value of
(4) P‘f is clamped between two limits and operation of the inverter
BHAT AND DEWAN: HIGH-FREQUENCY POWER CONDITIONING SYSTEM 157

START SlDP
"1 - L A -

ScguEnc ing c i rcui t

PrLc Ision STARTISTUP

Rectifier and CJ sig-1
d r i v e power
currmt
frrnrfonrr CYrrC" t 1 1.1 t

-~
p - -ASXI pie
Frrgut"Cy VOltl,t --$-
Dtr drivers
isolation and
with __D

End Stops
-T Cmtrollrd
0,cilI.tor
0
h I I e steering
c,rcuit - r?
-
n c p t i r r p i e bias
m a t e
Rt Ti
I 1 -
Polarity -urn-off 11.c
dc1.y (td)
Indicator (i
JCIILYI1
CYrrent
T r m r l o r w r [CT>

Fig. 6 . Proposed logic circuit block schematic for the ASCR HF inverter
shown in Fig. 3.

is ensured between a preset maximum and minimum frequen- V. LINECOMMUTATED

cies.
(iv) Voltage-Controlled Oscillator: The operating fre-
quency of the inverter is determined by the pulses at the output
0of voltage-controlled oscillator circuit (Fig. 6 ) . The voltage
level Vf controls the repetition rate of pulses at 0.The
voltage-controlled oscillator is inhibited during turnoff times
of ASCR's to avoid the generation of firing pulses during these
intervals.
(v) Pulse Steering Circuit: The pulses generated by the
voltage-controlled oscillator are properly selected by this
circuit to form the alternate firing signals sl and s2.
(vi) Polarity Indicator: A current transformer (CT) senses
the inverter output current ioand forms the input to this circuit.
The zero crossovers of current io are detected. Each zero
crossover indicates that an ASCR current has become zero and
the diode across it starts conducting. In the case of discontinu-
ous current case, confusion can arise about the current zero
crossovers; since diode current zero crossovers look similar to
ASCR current zero crossovers. This problem is overcome by
reset operation using the gate signals SI and s2. Hence the
polarity indicator generates signal 0 which clearly shows
when the ASCR conduction stops. This signal forms the input
to the turnoff time delay circuit.
(vii) Turnoff Time Delay Circuit: This circuit generates a
time delay (td)to be provided for the safe turnoff of ASCR's,
by knowing the ASCR current zero crossing information
supplied by signal @. The output 0of this circuit inhibits the
generation of any gating signals during the turnoff time of
ASCR's.
(viii) Gate Drivers: This block amplifies the gate signals sl
and s2 to get proper gate drive power to trigger ASCRl and
ASCR2. Proper gate isolation is also provided in this block. A
negative gate bias is added to improve both the (dv/dt)
capability and turn-off time (toff) of ASCR's.
The waveforms at different points of the logic circuit are
shown in Fig. 7.
INVERTER
Line commutated inverter is the conventional 1 - 0 or 3 -
0 fully controlled SCR bridge [6] working in the inverting
mode (a > 90"). For firing angles >90°, the terminal voltage
Vcdis negative and hence the rectified HF power is forced to
the utility line. In the present system, the LCI is operated with
fixed maximum firing angle ( a = 180" - y) as near to 180"
as possible. Thus the line PF is near unity. However a margin
angle "y" is to be provided for the safe operation of the
inverter.
VI. FEATURES
OF THE PVPC SYSTEM
PRESENTED
The hf link utility line connected PVPC unit discussed
above has the following advantages and characteristics:
The system has all the advantages of HF link system
[ 2 ] , [ 5 ] : such as, the transformer and other reactive
components are small in size and weight, and the
system has fast response. The audible noise is almost
absent since the inverter operates mostly above 15
kHZ .
Both the HF inverter and the LCI do not use any
forced commutation schemes. Hence the total number
of power components used is minimum and the
control circuit is simple.
The efficiency of the system is high due to the use of
load commutated ASCR HF inverter, and the LCI
operating near unity power factor (UPF).
ASCR HF inverter has inherent short-circuit protec-
tion capability and hence fuseless protection of hf
inverter is possible.
The use of load commutation in the HF inverter
generates sinusoidal current and voltage waveforms.
Thus the voltage and current transitions are smooth
reducing the stresses on the semiconductors.
Small gate power needed to switch large power levels
due the use of SCR's and ASCR's. Hence the drive
1.58 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS. VOL 3.5. NO I . FEBRUARY 1988
Fig. 7. Waveforms at different points of the proposed logic circuit shown in
Fig. 6 for the ASCR HF inverter (Fig. 3).
power requirements are negligible compared to
power levels of the load. Also the surge current
capabilities are higher.
(vii) Due to the use of LCI, connection to a 1 - 0 or 3 - 0
utility line is straightforward without complications in
the control circuitry. This is not true when forced
commutated inverters are used [l].
(viii) Since the LCI is operating near UPF, there is no need
for power factor correcting capacitors and VAR
compensating circuits [ l ] used in earlier PVPC
systems. The (du/dt) and (di/dt) stresses are small,
rms current drawn from the supply is low resulting in
higher efficiency.
The disadvantages of the system are as follows.
(i) The system can not work in stand alone mode. Utility
line must be present for its operation. This may not be
a problem for residential applications, if the role of
PVPC unit is only to feed the power generated by the
PV array to the utility line.
(ii) Line filters are necessary to minimize the current
harmonics injected into the utility line. The use of line
current modulation technique [2]-[4] can be incorpo-
rated in the present system to overcome this problem.
(iii) Even though a margin angle of ‘‘7”is allowed for the
safe commutation of LCI, commutation faults can
occur due to misfiring of thyristors or line transients.
VII. EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS
A 1 - 0 experimental unit described above was built and
tested in the laboratory. ASCR’s were used as the HF
switching devices. A full bridge HF resonant inverter (Fig. 8)
was used and the HF bridge rectifier was connected directly
across c, (without using a hf transformer). No line filters were
used in the system. All the logic and control circuits described
in Sections I11 and IV were realized except for the peak power
tracking circuit (Fig. 2 ) .
The HF inverter triggering frequency was varied to control
the output power. Some of the waveforms obtained are shown
in Fig. 9. Fig. 9(a)-(c) show different waveforms correspond-
ing to continuous line current operation. The HF inverter is
also operating in continuous current mode. The efficiency of
the system corresponding to this was about 83 percent (at
output power of 760 W). Although the system was capable of
delivering more power, the power supply available in the
laboratory was limited to about 1 kW. Fig. 9(d)-(f) show the
operating waveforms of the system in discontinuous line
current mode. In the waveforms shown, the HF inverter is also
operating in the discontinuous current mode. It can be
observed from the waveforms (Fig. 9(b), (e)) that the hf
rectifier input current is nearly constant during a HF half
period, when the hf inverter is active [9]. The zero voltage
intervals can be observed in the voltage waveform (Fig. 9(c))
across C,, even when the HF inverter is in continuous current
mode. This is mainly due to the wiring inductances which
introduce commutation overlap intervals. Fig. 9(g) shows the
operating waveforms of HF inverter at the maximum operat-
ing frequency. Here minimum t,, is about 5 psecs, which was
set in the control circuit.
VIII. CONCLUSIOK
A line-interfaced HF link PVPC system using a resonant HF
inverter, a rectifier and a LCI working near unity power factor
has been described. The HF link PVPC system described has a
BHAT AND DEWAN: HIGH-FREQUENCY POWER CONDITIONING SYSTEM 159

Fig. 8. Full bridge H F resonant inverter using LCC type commutation.

number of features. The major advantages are: all the

advantages of HF link power conversion and resonant invert-
ers are inherent in the system, no forced commutation circuits
are used in the system, HF inverter has self protective features
under a number of fault conditions, etc. Both 1 - 0 and 3 - 0
systems are realizable by changing 1 - 0 LCI to a 3 - 0 LCI.
The operation of the system and the logic circuit details have
been described. Experimental results were presented for a 1 -
0 system. The efficiency of the system was lower than
expected, mainly due to the use of low Q coil in the HF
resonant inverter and also due to the use of long wiring leads in
the experimental setup. The other major source of loss was the
snubber loss in the HF inverter.
The major disadvantages of the system presented are the
necessity for line filters and the high snubber losses in the HF
inverter. The first problem can be overcome using line current
modulation [9]. Further work is in progress in improving the
efficiency of the system by operating the HF resonant inverter
without snubbers. These improvements will be reported in a
future paper.
REFERENCES
111 P. Longrigg, “Semiconductor converterdinverters for photovoltaic
power supply,” in Proc. 16th Intersociety Energy Conversion
Engineering Conf., ASME, pp. 2233-2238, 1981.
r21 R. L. Steigenvald et al., “Application of power transistors to
residential and intermediate rating photovoltaic array power condition-
ers,” Int. Semiconductor Power Converter Conf. Rec. IEEElIAS,
1982, pp. 84-96.
131 M. F. Schlecht, “A line interfaced inverter with active control of the
output current waveform,” IEEE Power Electronics Specialists
(g) Conf. Rec., pp. 234-241, 1980.
Fig. 9. Waveforms obtained from a 1 - 0 experimental system. (Details: r41 L. Bonte and D. Baert, “A low distortion PWM DC-AC inverter, with
L, = 30 pH, Lb = 3 pH, C, = 1.8 pF, C, = 0.9 pF, L,j = 50 mH. active current and voltage control, allowing line-interface and stand-
ASCR’s used: Philips; BTW 631800 RK. a = 160”, utility line voltage; V alone photovoltaic applications,” Int. Telecommu cations Energy
= 120 V, E = 150 V) (a) Utility line voltage ( u L ) and line current (iL), Conf. Rec., pp. 90-95, 1982.
(continuous line current mode). Horizontal axis: 2 ms/cm, Vertical axes: uL 151 A. K. S. Bhat, “High frequency link photovoltaic power conditioning
(50 V/cm), iL (2.3 Alcm). (b) HF inverter output current (io) and HF system,” M.A.Sc. thesis, Dep. Elect. Eng., Univ. of Toronto, Sept.
rectifier bridge input current (i,,,, for conditions of (a). (HF inverter is 1982.
also in continuous current mode.) Horizontal axis: 10 pslcm, Vertical axes: [61 S. B. Dewan and A. Straughen, Power Semiconductor Circuits.
io (6.7 A/cm), i,, (4.6 Alcm). (c) HF inverter output current (io)and H F New York: Wiley, 1975.
inverter output voltage (U,) for conditions of (a). Horizontal axis: 10 pslcm, r71 I. Martin, “ASCR’s in welding equipment for inverters,” RCA Solid
Vertical axes: io (6.7 Alcm), U<, (100 Vlcm). (d)-(e), and (f) Waveforms State Division, Application Note No. AN-6783, 1979.
corresponding to discontinuous current mode of operation and all the scales PI S. A. Rosenberg, “A clamped inverter for induction heating,” Ph.D.
are same as (a), (b), and (c); except for ire,, (1.15 A/cm) in (e). (g) HF thesis, Department of Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Toronto, 1974.
inverter output current (io) and HF inverter rectifier input current r91 A. K. S. Bhat, “High frequency resonant converters for dc to utility
corresponding to maximum frequency of operation. (E = 100 V) interface,” Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Electrical Engineering,
Horizontal axis: 5 ps/crn. Vertical axes: io (6.7 A/cm), i,,,, in (4.6 A/cm). Univ. of Toronto, Aug. 1985.

1 1