A New Multilevel Inverter With Reduced Component Count for a Standalone Solar Energy Conversion System

This paper proposes a new MLI topology with reduced device count is proposed which generates different numbers of output voltage levels according to the source management without altering the proposed circuit configuration. This MLI consists of ten semiconductor switches and two isolated DC sources. The asymmetric source management of 1:3 generates seventeen levels in the output voltage waveform and nine levels with symmetric (1:1) and thirteen levels with binary-asymmetric (1:2) source selection. This work projects the application of the proposed 17-level MLI in a constant power standalone solar energy conversion system. Minimum switching transitions and fundamental-voltage-reference based switching angle calculation are adopted to achieve sinusoidal output voltage with least switching loss. As compared with the established 17-levelMLI topologies, the proposed configuration has a lower component count level (CCL), lesser total blocking voltage (TBV), lesser THD, low switching frequency, no electromagnetic interference, more efficient, and cost-effective. The simulation results can be evaluated by using Matlab/Simulink Software.

Keywords: Electric drive, multilevel inverter (MLI), renewable energy, solar photovoltaic.