A Current-Source Grid-Connected Converter Topology for Photovoltaic Systems

G. Ertasgin, D.M. Whaley, N. Ertugrul and W.L. Soong School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering The University of Adelaide gurhan@eleceng.adelaide.edu.au ABSTRACT This paper investigates the performance of a gridconnected current-source converter topology for PV cells. The constant current source is realised by a large DC link inductor connected in series with the PV panel. A boost switch (named as current waveshaper) is used to produce a modulated output current that resembles the rectified grid voltage, which is in-phase with the grid. An H-bridge inverter with line-frequency commutated thyristors unfolds the output of the current waveshaper to produce a sinusoidal AC output current. The proposed converter concept is verified with simulations and preliminary experimental results.
1. INTRODUCTION
2. BACKGROUND TO PV GCI TOPOLOGIES

An early type of GCI is the current-source inverter (CSI) as shown in Figure 1a. In this GCI, a DC link inductor was utilised to act as a current source and a linefrequency commutated inverter accommodated to produce a square-wave output current. Although, this concept is simple, it requires substantial filtering at the output stage to meet the grid harmonic standards.

Renewable energy sources such as wind, photovoltaic (PV) and geothermal have received much attention recently as alternative means of generating electricity. In particular, small scale PV systems are increasing in numbers due to decreasing costs, and efficiency improvements [1], which are convenient for local power generation. The generated power in PV cells can be used in a standalone system or can be fed to the AC main grid. In standalone systems, the output power of the PV system can also be stored in batteries. However, the battery systems are expensive, bulky and require high maintenance. Where utility power is also available, another solution is to feed the power into the grid, which requires a gridconnected inverter (GCI). With a GCI, excess power is bought and credited by the utility, and grid power is available at times when the local demand exceeds the PV system output. Although GCIs are more expensive than inverters for motor drives or stand-alone systems, this is primarily due to lower sales volumes and also the complexity of meeting the strict grid requirements, such as power quality (harmonic content) and safety standards. This paper considers an alternative grid-connected converter topology to offer solutions for small scale PV systems, which can be cost effective and can meet the grid requirements. The layout of the paper is as follows: Section 2 discusses the existing PV system topologies. The proposed converter circuit is explained in Section 3, and the subsections of this circuit and associated modelling issues are described in Section 4. In Section 5, the computer simulation of the entire converter is given. The paper concludes with experimental results to verify the models developed.
Figure 1: Existing converter topologies for PV systems a) CSI topology b) VSI topology c) Two-stage VSI with DC-DC boost converter.

The most common GCI configuration uses a voltagesource inverter (VSI), as shown in Figure 1b. Unlike the CSI topology, a large DC link capacitor is utilised to produce a constant input voltage. Then, a pulse-width modulated (PWM) inverter is used to generate a sinusoidal AC output current. The VSI topology tends to be slightly cheaper and more efficient than the CSI topology as the DC link capacitor has lower losses and may be lower cost than the DC link inductor [2]. It should be noted here that the power grid can also be treated as a voltage source. Figure 1c shows a two-stage converter topology which consists of a DC-DC boost converter and a VSI inverter. In this circuit, the boost converter performs maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for the PV panel, while delivering a constant DC input voltage to the VSI that is controlled to produce a sinusoidal output current [1]. Although single-stage converters result in size and weight reductions compared with two-stage converters [2], they require more complex control algorithms to operate correctly, especially when employing MPPT [3]. On the contrary, two-stage converters often suffer in terms of efficiency and reliability due to the increased number of switching components [1].

3.

PROPOSED PV CONVERTER TOPOLOGY

A desirable primary feature of a GCI circuit is to feed a sinusoidal current into the grid, which is in phase with the grid voltage, hence a maximum power factor can be achieved and the power grid will not be polluted. In addition, it is also desirable that the GCI system should be efficient, low cost and high power density. The proposed two-stage PV GCI topology is based on a current-source inverter and illustrated in Figure 2. This circuit topology is an extension of a Switched-Mode rectifier (SMR) circuit that was originally proposed for automotive applications [4], where it acted as a DC-DC converter. The SMR concept was investigated for use with a small-scale wind turbine in [6] as a current-source inverter. This paper examines the use of the SMR circuit topology with a PV cell, to operate as a grid-connected inverter. The circuit uses a DC link inductor (L) in series with the PV panel to produce a constant-current source (Figure 2). A boost switch (will be named as a current waveshaper, WS in this paper) is used to produce a PWM output current that resembles a rectified sinewave that is in-phase with the grid. The thyristor based H-bridge inverter in the circuit unfolds the output of the current wave-shaper to produce a sinusoidal AC output current. An output LC filter (CF and LF) is used to remove the PWM switching components (Figure 2).

ensures an output current that is synchronised with the grid voltage. It should be emphasised here that although the thyristors in the H-bridge commutate at zero-currents, the on resistance of the WS switch creates a current divider with the load; thus the thyristors can only commutate properly if the on resistance of the switch is sufficiently low. This ensures that the load current is less than the latching current of the thyristor. It should be reported here that due to the addition of an external inductor in the circuit proposed, the operation of the converter circuit is similar to the concept developed in [4], where the alternator itself had a large winding inductance. Furthermore, it can be noted that unlike the permanent magnet generator implemented in [5], the PV cell application has a much greater constant current region (hence a wider power range), as seen in Figure 3.
20 200rpm 400rpm 600rpm 800rpm 1000rpm
5 4

DC Current (A)

Current (A)

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Constant Current Region

0C 25C 50C 75C

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0 0

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Figure 3: Current-Voltage Curves of a high-inductance PM generator (left) [6] and a PV cell (right).

4. PV ARRAY CHARACTERISTICS/MODELLING
4.1. CONVENTIONAL PV MODELS A PV cell can be modelled by various equivalent circuits. Figure 4 illustrates two of these circuits: onediode and two-diode models. Although the two-diode model provides greater accuracy, the one-diode model is sufficient to simulate a PV cell with a resistive load [1].

Figure 2: Proposed current source inverter topology for the grid connected PV systems

In the proposed circuit given above, when supplied from a DC current source, the boost switch produces an output current which is proportional to (1 d), where d is the PWM duty-cycle of the switch. Though the boost switch (WS) resembles a boost converter, under these circumstances it operates as a current divider, or current waveshaper. An important feature of the circuit is that, due to the current control scheme implemented, the control algorithm does not require the use of an output current sensor. The H-bridge inverter (unfolding circuit) in the circuit is controlled by a microcontroller, which is also used to detect zero-crossings of the mains voltage and to control the duty-cycle of the WS switch. In addition, the microcontroller stores a look-up-table (LUT) that includes the reference current waveform. As can be seen in Figure 2, the thyristor switching is determined from the zero-crossing of the mains voltage (Vref), which

Figure 4: Two different PV cell electrical models

The PV module used in this study is manufactured by BP Solar (BP380J). The simulation studies in this paper are based on the one-diode model as given in equation (1). This equation accommodates the effect of solar irradiance and cell temperature variations.

I = I PH 1 e

V + IRS VOC N S A VT

(1)

Here I, IPH, and V are the output current, the light induced current, and the output voltage respectively, Rs is the total series resistance, Ns is the number of series resistances, A is the ideality factor, and VT is the thermal voltage.

The simulated current-voltage (IV) locus for the PV module under test is given in Figure 5. A set of measured test results taken under strong sunlight conditions is also shown in the same figure, which corresponds to the IV curve of 850 W/m2 at 50C.
5 4 1000W/m2 850W/m2 600W/m2 400W/m2 200W/m2 5 4

input capacitor in a voltage-source inverter can be used for sizing an inductor. In the proposed topology, the difference between the instantaneous inverter input power (at 100 Hz) and the DC power of PV module is supplied or absorbed by the inductor. Therefore, this results in a 100 Hz current ripple in the inductor current and hence the PV cell current. The ripple current can be minimised by selecting a sufficiently large inductor. Guidelines for calculating a suitable inductance value are shown below in (2)-(5). If the average power delivered by the PV cell is given as Pavg = Pcell (2) The input power to the H-bridge inverter is sum of the PV cell power and the instantaneous power, see below (3) Pinput = Pavg + Pavg sin(2100t) Therefore, the stored energy in the inductor can be calculated easily by integrating the term Pcell Pinput. E = (Pcell Pinput) dt = Pavg K (4) In the above equations, Pavg is the average value of the instantaneous inverter input power, Pcell is the PV module power, Pinput is the inverter input power, E is the peak energy which has to be stored by the inductor. K is the integration constant and L is the inductance. Figure 8 illustrates a typical variation of current ripple in an inductor and the value of inductance as a function of the ripple current (Figure 8b). Therefore, the inductor value can be calculated by equalising the change in the inductor energy and the required energy in (4), see (5). L=

Current (A)

Current (A)

3 2 1 0 0

3 2 1 0 0

75oC 50oC 25 oC 0oC 5 10 15 20 25

Voltage (V)

10

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Voltage (V)

Figure 5: Simulations of the BP Solar 380 PV cell currentvoltage loci, showing the dependence on (left) solar irradiation, and (right) cell temperature.

4.2.

DARK IV MEASUREMENTS

In this paper, an alternative measurement technique called the dark IV measurement [7] was used to simulate sunlight operation of the PV cell. This method involved covering the PV cell (to eliminate the light induced current) and using an external constant current source to simulate the light induced current. Figure 6a demonstrates this mode of operation. For faster simulation purposes, a four diode model, based on diodes with an idealised fixed voltage drop, shown in Figure 6b, was developed in the paper to model the PV cell characteristics. The calculated characteristics using the model in Figure 5, and the measured characteristics based on the dark IV tests (Figure 6a) are all given in Figure 7. Rs Rp

2 Pavg K
2 2 I max I min
4

(5)

Imax

a) b) Figure 6: a) The equivalent circuits of the dark IV technique, and b) the simulation model.
5 90 80 4 70 MATLAB Model 4 Diode Model Dark IV measured

IL Current IL I min
WS is on

Ripple Current (A)

3 2 1 0 0

The value of L used

t=DT Time

Current (A)

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MATLAB Model 4 Diode Model Dark IV measured 5

a) b) Figure 8: a) The variation of current ripple in an inductor and b) the value of inductance as a function of the ripple current.
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Figure 7: The IV locus (left), and power-voltage locus (right), based on the conventional model, simplified four diode model, and the measured dark IV data.

5.
5.1.

CONVERTER SIMULATIONS
DC LINK INDUCTOR SIZING

In a single-phase inverter, instantaneous input and output power which fluctuate twice the AC mains frequency (100Hz at 50Hz supply). Besides, the PV cell supplies maximum output power when its output voltage and current are constant. As stated earlier, a DC link inductor is used as an intermediate energy storage element. The analogy between an inductor in a current source and an

In Figure 8a, iL is the ripple current. As seen in Figure 8b, the inductor current ripple is inversely proportional to the inductance. The larger the current ripple amplitude, the more the solar cell output power is reduced below its ideal maximum power point value. Therefore, in the selection of an inductor, a size trade-off must be made, as the inductor size, cost, and losses increases with increasing inductance. Using the above criteria and the computer simulation studies, the value of the DC link inductor is chosen 82mH.
5.2. PROPOSED TOPOLOGY SIMULATIONS

The inverter is simulated using PSIM (a simulation tool designed for power electronics and dynamic systems). Figure 9 shows the basic components of the simulation

model, including the PV cell that is represented by the subcircuit PV model (Figure 6b). In the simulation model, two switches were also included to allow the user to easily switch between various loads: pure resistive, resistive + voltage source, and pure voltage source (grid). Similar switches were also accommodated in the experimental test setup as will be described later. In this study, as the inverter output is expected to be low (due to the PV cell), the voltage source was simulated as a low voltage, grid frequency AC voltage source.

inverter current

grid current

load (grid + inverter) current

Figure 11: Simulated grid connected currents. TOP: inverter current (I_INV), grid current (I_SC); BOTTOM: the sum of the inverter and grid currents.

Figure 9: PSIM schematic of the converter topology.

5.2.1.

RESISTIVE LOAD SIMULATIONS

In the final stage of the simulation, the load resistor was removed, which allows the inverter to feed power into the grid only. Figure 12 shows both the inverter current (top) and voltage (bottom) waveforms. As can be seen in the figure, the inverter current waveform contains a degree of harmonic distortion. The increased distortion level in the current is likely to be caused by the lower load impedance in the grid-connected case compared to the resistive + voltage source load case given earlier.

Figure 10 shows the constant input current, the unfolding circuit output current, and the filtered inverter output current, aimed to demonstrate the converter concept. In the figure, the inverter output currents for three different modulation indices, i.e. 100, 75, and 50% are also shown. As shown in the results that the output current magnitude is linearly related to the modulation index.

Figure 12: Simulated inverter current (top), and voltage (bottom) waveforms for the pure grid-connected system.

6.

EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP AND RESULTS

Figure 10: Resistive load simulation results. TOP: input current (IPV), and unfolded output current (IUNF); BOTTOM: filtered inverter output currents (I_INV) for various modulation indices.

5.2.2.

GRID-CONNECTED SYSTEM SIMULATIONS

The grid-connected inverter and the PV module were tested in the laboratory. In this study, a low-voltage solar panel (22.1V) is utilised to demonstrate the operation of the topology proposed. The inverter operation was synchronised with the grid using a step-up line transformer. Two photos of the experimental setup are given in Figure 13. Firstly, the PV module was covered and the dark IV method was used to simulate a solar irradiance of 1kW/m2.

In this section, the inverter shown in Figure 9 is loaded by the resistor connected in parallel to the voltage source. The simulated inverter and grid currents, as well as the sum of the two (that is, the load resistor current) are shown in Figure 11. This stage of the simulation is considered as a useful intermediate step where the inverter is still supplying the power to the resistive load and the grid current is ideally zero. It is expected that the load resistor current (sum of inverter and grid) will be sinusoidal, of which the inverter supplies most. However due to the distortion in the inverter output current, the grid (voltage source) supplies the necessary current to yield an undistorted sinusoidal load current.

Figure 13: Various components of the converter system. (1) current wave-shaper, (2) thyristor and MOSFET driver circuits, (3) microcontroller, (4) unfolding circuit, (5) variable capacitor bank, (6) variable resistive load, (7) isolation transformer, and (8) auto-transformer.

Preliminary experiments were carried out using a variable resistive-capacitive load. This load comprised of parallel combinations of various non-polarised electrolytic capacitors (100F- 1000F) and a variable resistor load bank (0.1-300). A reduced voltage AC voltage source was achieved using an autotransformer and an isolation transformer.
6.1. RESISTIVE LOAD EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

due to the current magnitude being directly proportional to the modulation index. This power relationship is shown in Figure 16, where the modulation index was set to 100%, 71% and 50%.
mn = 100% mn = 50%

The measured input current, the unfolding circuit output current, and the filtered inverter output current are shown in Figure 14 for the resistive load case. These results match those seen in Figure 10, verifying that each stage of the inverter operates correctly. Figure 15 shows the inverter current, voltage, and instantaneous power; the scales are 10:1, 10:1, and 100:1, respectively.

mn = 71%

mn = 50%

mn = 100%

mn = 71%

Figure 16: Measured resistive load results for three modulation indices of 100%, 71% and 50%.: inverter output powers (left), and input currents (right).

input current wave-shaper current unfolding circuit current

inverter current

Figure 14: Measured grid-connected inverter current waveforms showing PV output, wave-shaper output, unfolding circuit output and load currents.

It should be emphasised here that a reduction in the modulation index reduce the inverter current magnitude (and hence power), and also reduces the input current ripple and pushes the PV cell towards the constant current region. This was demonstrated in the test setup, when the input voltage exceeded the maximum PV cell power point for a modulation index of 100%. By reducing the modulation index, the PV cell was pushed towards the constant current region, which increased the PV input, and thus inverter output power. Figure 17 shows that the maximum (PV) power was observed at a modulation index of 87%. Although this reveals a low system efficiency, this is largely related to the prototype developed, which did not consider an optimal selection of the switching devices, and inductor (Rinductor = 1.26).
100 80 PV Maximum Power Point

current

voltage power

Power (W)

60 40 20

Inductor losses Semiconductor losses

Figure 15: Measured waveforms (current, voltage and power) in the test setup, at low output power (left) and at the maximum inverter output power (right).

0 50

Input Power Output Power 60

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80

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100

As stated previously, the inverter output voltage is in phase with the output current, which is demonstrated in Figure 15 (left), together with the output power of the inverter. Although this current waveform is sinusoidal at low output powers, it was observed that the distortion level increases at higher output powers. Figure 15 (right) shows the distorted current waveform at the maximum power operating point. The current deformation is caused by the increasing output voltage which causes the PV cell to move away from the constant current region of the IV locus (Figure 3, right), and increases the input current ripple. In the results provided above, the load resistance and capacitance were the only variables adjusted to control the inverter output power at 100% modulation index. The effect of varying the modulation index to control the output power was also studied. As the PV cell operates mainly in the constant current region, the inverter output power is proportional to the modulation index squared,

Figure 17: Demonstration of PV cell maximum power point tracking by varying the modulation index.

6.2.

GRID-CONNECTED RESULTS

In this test, the inverter was synchronised first with a resistive load and then connected to the AC mains voltage source keeping the resistive load in place. Following this the resistive load was removed to obtain a pure grid connection. The result given in Figure 18 (left) demonstrates that the converter matches the magnitude and phase of the AC mains voltage. Figure 18 (right) shows that once the grid connection is performed, the inverter voltage is forced to follow the voltage source. However, the inverter output current, in Figure 19a, shows high levels of distortion. The grid provides the necessary current such that the load sees a sinusoidal current, as shown in the bottom trace. Similarly, Figure 19b shows the inverter, the grid, and the load current waveforms for the purely grid-connected case. As expected, the sum of the currents (resistive load) is zero.

inverter voltage

inverter voltage = grid voltage

7.

CONCLUSION

grid voltage

Figure 18: The inverter and the grid voltages prior to gridconnection (left), and after grid connection (right).

inverter current

grid current

inverter, grid, load current load (inverter + grid) current

a)

b)

This paper has described a current-source converter topology for a grid-connected PV system, which was simulated and also realized in the laboratory. As shown, the topology is low-cost and accommodates simple control. The key results are : the DC link inductor must be sized carefully to minimize voltage and current ripples seen by the PV module, hence to maximize output power; the control of the current wave-shaper and the Hbridge are simple, as the output current is linearly related to duty-cycle; sinusoidal output currents can be obtained without the use of a grid current sensor; maximum power point tracking can be performed by monitoring the solar cell output power. Considering the promising preliminary test results, it is aimed to perform future modelling and implementation studies over a range of values of solar irradiance on the topology proposed. The future works will incorporate high voltage PV arrays and will study the performance of transformerless operation.

Figure 19: Measured current waveforms: Inverter and grid current (top), and the sum of each (bottom), for a) resistive load parallel to the grid, and b) the pure grid.

8.
resistive resistive + grid

REFERENCES

[1] Kjaer, S.B.; Pedersen, J.K.; Blaabjerg, F., "A review of single-phase grid-connected inverters for photovoltaic modules," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 1292-1306, Sept.-Oct. 2005. [2] Calais, M.; Myrzik, J.; Spooner, T.; Agelidis, V.G., "Inverters for single-phase grid connected photovoltaic systems-an overview," IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference, vol. 4, pp. 1995-2000, 2002.

grid

[3] Kuo, W.C.; Liang, T.J.; Chen, J.F., "Novel maximumpower-point-tracking controller for photovoltaic energy conversion system," IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 48, no. 3, pp.594-601, Jun 2001. [4] Soong W.L. and Ertugrul N., Inverterless High Power Interior Permanent Magnet Automotive Alternator, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 2004, Vol. 40, no. 4, July/Aug, pp. 1083-1091. [5] Whaley, D.M.; Soong, W.L.; Ertugrul, N., "Investigation of switched-mode rectifier for control of small-scale wind turbines," IEEE Industry Applications Conference, 2005, vol. 4, pp. 2849-2856. [6] Whaley, D.M,; Ertasgin, G.; Soong, W.L.; Ertugrul, N,; Darbyshire, J.; Dehbonei, H.; Nayar, C.V., Investigation of a Low-Cost Grid-Connected Inverter for Small-Scale Wind Turbines Based on a Constant-Current Source PM Generator Submitted to IEEE IECON Conference, 2006. [7] King, D.L.; Hansen, B.R.; Kratochvil, J.A.; Quintana, M.A., "Dark current-voltage measurements on photovoltaic modules as a diagnostic or manufacturing tool," IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1997, pp. 1125-1128.

Figure 20: Comparison of the inverter output current waveforms for resistive load (top), resistive load parallel to the grid (middle), and grid-connected load (bottom).

6.3.

SUMMARY OF THE TEST RESULTS

As stated previously, the inverter was connected to various load configurations, which are compared in Figure 20. For each load configuration, the total harmonic distortion (THD) was measured (Table 1) for the inverter current and voltage waveforms. As expected, the current distortion increased and the voltage distortion decreased when connecting the grid to the inverter (for a given load resistance and capacitance). However, lower distortion was observed for higher currents, and also for the maximum power cases.
Table 1: THD summary of inverter under various loads.
Inverter load Resistive : low output power Resistive : max output power Resistive + Grid : (max power) Resistive : (Figure 20) Resistive + Grid : (Figure 20) Grid : (Figure 20) Current THD 6.26% 9.27% 16.06% 9.03% 17.71% 21.21% Voltage THD 5.08% 10.82% 4.37% 9.49% 5.98% 5.07%