Investigations of an improved PV system topology using multilevel boost converter and line commutated inverter with solutions to grid issues

• Multilevel boost converter and line commutated inverter are used.
• The output is fed to single phase utility grid and separately excited DC motor.
• Charging of battery under grid failure.
• Grid issues such as voltage swell, brownout and blackout are addressed.
• MPPT is implemented with simple controllers.

A photovoltaic (PV) system using multilevel boost converter (MBC) and line commutated inverter (LCI), operating in both grid-connected mode and stand-alone mode has been analysed. This proposed system extracts and feeds the maximum power to a single phase utility grid and stand-alone system simultaneously. The duty ratio of the MBC is estimated from the theoretical analysis of the proposed system, for extracting maximum power from PV array. The proposed system tracks the maximum power with the determined duty ratio which remains the same for all irradiations, for a fixed firing angle of LCI. The flexibility of supplying required proportion of extracted power to grid and stand-alone load and the elimination of a separate MPPT controller are the major benefits of the proposed system under normal grid conditions. In addition to it, the grid issues like voltage swell, blackout and brownout are considered and necessary remedial measures have been taken in the proposed system. Based on the issues, either the firing angle of LCI is adjusted or LCI is disconnected and replaced by a battery. Simulation studies have been carried out and the dynamic response of the system is observed. A laboratory prototype is built and experimental investigations have also been carried out. The theoretical analysis, simulation and experimental results are found to be closely associating with each other proving the efficacy of the proposed configuration.