Three Level Boost Paper
Three Level Boost Paper
Abstract. This paper proposes the three-level boost converter for highefficiency photovoltaic power conditioning system. Different from the existing
two-level high boost converter, it has the advantage of high voltage gain and
thus it is easy to make a high voltage from a low voltage. The proposed threelevel boost converter reduces the reverse recovery losses of the diodes and
increases the overall power efficiency. Experimental results show the high
performance for a 4kW resistive load and grid-connected power condition
system.
Keywords: Three-Level Boost Converter, Photovoltaic Power Conditioning
System, PV PCS
Introduction
Nowadays the alternative energy researches are constantly performed due to the
environmental pollution and the depletion of fossil fuels, and particularly the
photovoltaic research is constantly underway. Photovoltaic power system is mainly to
be used in grid-connected system. Photovoltaic power system consists of the gridconnected inverter and the boost converter to earn a high output voltage from the low
output voltage of solar power system [1].
The conventional two-level solar inverter is to implement as it has a simple
structure and the already proven control and PWM technique. However, it also has the
disadvantage to contain higher harmonics in the inverter output voltage and it has the
high reverse recovery losses of diodes and increases the overall power efficiency.
However, the three-level solar inverter requires somewhat more complex PWM
technique than the two-level solar inverter, but it has the benefit to reduce harmonic
content. In addition, it has the disadvantages to require a mid-point of the DC link and
the controller to control the mid-point voltage separately [2-4].
The boost converter is ideally to infinite voltage gain but has the limit to raise the
voltage by more than 5-6 times in practice due to the equivalent series resistance of
the inductor. This paper is to implement the PWM method and the controller of threelevel boost converter which has the higher voltage advantage than the conventional 2level boost converter. In order to verify the proposed three level boost converter, this
paper is devoted through the resistance load variation experiment and the gridconnected experiment.
ISSN: 2287-1233 ASTL
Copyright 2014 SERSC
Ii
D1
S1
Vin
Co1
Vo1
Ci
Vo
Vo 2
Co 2
S2
Fig. 1 shows the circuit diagram of a three level boost converter proposed in this
paper. The development trend of photovoltaic PCS is valuing the increase of the
capacity and high performance and efficacy. Comparing the proposed three-level
boost converter with the conventional two-level converter, three-level converter has
the advantages that the voltage gain is increased doubled, and the voltage across the
switching element and a diode is to be halved. Also, it has the advantage to
equivalently maintain the output voltages of V and V by controlling the midpoint and to realize the multi-level inverter.
o1
Vo _ ref +
o2
KP
PWM Generator
d1
S1
Ki
Vo
Midpoint Contoller
d peak
d2
S2
KP
Vo1 Vo 2
d1 d
Ki
Fig. 2 shows the controller of boost converter proposed in this paper. Boost
converter has two controllers and one PWM generator. The main boost controller
controls the output voltage V by using PI controller which is widely used in the
o
69
automation system. Usually the voltage unbalances between V and V can occur.
To reduce this voltage unbalance, the difference between two voltages is to be
controlled to 0 through PI controller. Finally, PWM is generated by using d and
o1
o2
generated from the controller. Fig. 3 shows the major waveforms for three-level
boost converter proposed in this paper.
d2
d1
d2
d2
d1
S1
S1
S2
S2
Ii
Ii
(a)
(a) 0 . 5
(b)
d1 1
or
Vi
Vo
(b) 0
d 1 0 .5
or
Vi
Vo
2
Ch1 : Vo1
Ch1 : Vo1
Ch2 : Vo1-Vo2
Ch2 : Vo1-Vo2
Ch3 : Vo2
Ch3 : Vo2
Time [1s/div.]
(a)
Time [1s/div.]
(b)
Fig. 4 shows the boost converting from 320 V to 650 V by using the boost
converter proposed in this paper. And the output voltage of V and V was
connected to 250 load resistor. (A) Waveform is the one to be observed its output
voltage by changing the V resistor load to 166 load resistor. (B) Waveform is the
o1
o2
o1
70
Vo2
of these two waveforms can be observed swaying mid-point in the initial stage.
However, it was verified that the original voltage resumed to the normal voltage
within 100ms.
Ch1 : Vo1
Ch2 : Vo1+Vo2
Ch3 : Vo2
Ch4 : Io
Ch1 [100V/div.]
Ch4 [5A/div.]
Time [1s/div.]
The waveform of Fig. 5 is the observed result of the boost converter output voltage
when it is connected with the grid. As experimental result of the output current of the
inverter system up to 5A, at the time that the relay is turned on it was observed a little
bit shaky. However, it was verified to return to the normal voltage range within
500ms.
Conclusion
This paper proposes three-level boost converter for high-efficiency solar inverter. The
proposed boost converter was set to control the algorithm by one triangular wave,
which was controlled by two conventional triangular waves. The boost converter
proposed in this paper could be verified through the resistive load experiment and the
grid-connection experiment. Experimental results show the high performance for a
4kW resistive load and grid-connected power condition system.
71
References
1. Velaerts, M.: New Developments of 3-Level PWM Strategies, European Conf. on Power
Electronics and Applications (1989)
2. Apeldoorn, O., Schulting, L.: 10 kVA Four Level Inverter with symmetrical Input Voltage
Distribution, European Conf. on Power Electronics and Applications (1993)
3. Haddad, K.: Three level DC-DC converters as efficient interface in two stage PV power
systems, Energy tech, (2012)
4. Kwon, J. M., Kwon, B.H.: Three-Phase Photovoltaic System with Three-Level Boosting
MPPT Control, IEEE Trans. on power electronics, vol. 23, no.5 pp. 2319~2327.
72