PV Micro-Inverters as Modules of Multilevel Converters

Rodrigo  A. F. Ferreira; Márcio  C. B. P. Rodrigues; Pedro  G. Barbosa

doi:10.48011/asba.v2i1.1602

Rodrigo A. F. Ferreira Power Electronics and Applications Group, Federal Institute of Southeast of Minas Geraisenergia elétrica
Márcio C. B. P. Rodrigues Power Electronics and Applications Group, Federal Institute of Southeast of Minas Gerais
Pedro G. Barbosa Power Electronics and Automation Group, Federal University of Juiz de Fora

DOI: https://doi.org/10.48011/asba.v2i1.1602

Keywords: MMC, MPPT, Multi-Carrier PWM, Renewable energy

Abstract

The increasing use of renewable energies, especially photovoltaic energy generation, has motivated research in the area of power electronics in order to optimize the integration of these sources into the conventional electric system. In general, photovoltaic systems are connected to the AC grid and, for this purpose, use voltage Inverters. Several topologies can be used for this, among them, the Micro-Inverters and the Multi-Modular Converters, both having their advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to integrate the concepts of both technologies in a Modular Multilevel Converter in which each module is given by a Micro-Inverter. The proposed system is modeled in PSIM and simulation results show that the proposed system presents satisfactory results even under conditions of total or partial shading of PV modules.