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ScienceDirect
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EnergyProcedia 138
Procedia 00(2017)
(2017)1177–1183
000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

2017 International Conference on Alternative Energy in Developing Countries and Emerging

Economies 2017 AEDCEE, 25‐26 May 2017, Bangkok, Thailand

Integration
Theof
15thSingle Phase
International Reduced
Symposium Switch
on District Multilevel
Heating Inverter
and Cooling
Topology
Assessing thefor Grid Connected
feasibility of using Photovoltaic System
the heat demand-outdoor
temperature function
N. Prabaharan 1
*, A. for
Rini aAnn
long-term district heat
Jerin2, K. Palanisamy2
demand forecast
, S.Umashankar 2

1
Department of of Electrical
a,b,c and Electronics
a Engineering, aMadanapalle Institute b of Technology & Science,
c Andhra Pradesh, India
c
I. Andrić 2
*, A. Pina , P. Ferrão , J. Fournier ., B. Lacarrière , O. Le Corre
School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore 621001, Tamil Nadu, India
a
IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research - Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
b
Abstract Veolia Recherche & Innovation, 291 Avenue Dreyfous Daniel, 78520 Limay, France
c
Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes, France
Renewable power generation becomes more popular nowadays due to the low availability of fuels. This paper proposes an
integration of single DC source reduced switch multilevel inverter topology for grid connected photovoltaic system to achieve a
good quality output waveform. The proposed configuration requires less number of power semiconductor devices when
Abstract
compared to conventional multilevel inverter configurations for generating higher output voltage level with lower total harmonic
distortion. A sine networks
District heating reference with phase disposition
are commonly triangular
addressed in the carrier arrangement
literature as one ofistheutilized
most for generating
effective the switching
solutions pulses the
for decreasing to
the proposed multilevel inverter. A single diode model in photovoltaic system and dual output boost converter
greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector. These systems require high investments which are returned through the heat is utilized in the
proposed
sales. Duesystem to reduce
to the changedtheclimate
complexity. Also, and
conditions the improved incrementalpolicies,
building renovation and conductance maximum
heat demand in thepower
futurepoint
couldtracking is
decrease,
selected in this work. The proposed
prolonging the investment return period. system is tested only in standard test condition using MATLAB/Simulink. Hence, the
proposed
The mainsystem
scope is
ofwell
this suitable
paper is for grid connected
to assess in photovoltaic
the feasibility of using thesystem.
heat demand – outdoor temperature function for heat demand
©forecast.
2017 TheThe districtPublished
Authors. of Alvalade, locatedLtd.
by Elsevier in Lisbon (Portugal), was used as a case study. The district is consisted of 665
©buildings
2017 Thethat
Authors.
vary Published
in by Elsevierperiod
both construction Ltd. and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2017 International Conference on Alternative Energy in
Peer-review
­D under responsibility
eveloping Countries
renovation scenarios and of the
wereEmerging
developed Organizing
Economies. Committee ofdeep).
(shallow, intermediate, 2017 To
AEDCEE.
estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were
compared with results from a dynamic heat demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors.
Keywords: Multilevel inverter; converter; photovoltaic; grid integration; renewable energy; solar
The results showed that when only weather change is considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications
(the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
scenarios, the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
The value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the
decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination of weather and
renovation scenarios considered). On the other hand, function intercept increased for 7.8-12.7% per decade (depending on the
coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters for the scenarios considered, and
improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

* N. Prabaharan.
Peer-review Tel.:
under +91-9750785975.
responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and
E-mail
Cooling. address: prabaharan.nataraj@gmail.com

1876-6102
Keywords:©Heat
2017demand;
The Authors. Published
Forecast; Climatebychange
Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of 2017 AEDCEE.

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2017 International Conference on Alternative Energy in
­Developing Countries and Emerging Economies.
10.1016/j.egypro.2017.10.231
1178 N. Prabaharan et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 1177–1183
2 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

1. Introduction

The amount of fossil fuels which result in carbon emissions to the atmosphere is finite. Hence the necessity for
renewable energy resources has been increasing nowadays [1]. Solar and wind are the most commonly used
renewable sources for grid integration. These are reliable, greener and more eco-friendly. They have an
environmental boon like low emission comparatively [2]. In recent decades the solar power through photovoltaic
systems is affordable and free from dirt or pollution [3]. Photovoltaic power generation is emerging topic of interest
in more developing countries when compared to other renewable energy power generation due to low investment
cost, pollution free and inexhaustible nature.

Nomenclature

k Boltzmann constant (1.3806503 × 10^−23 J/K)

q Electron charge (1.60217646 × 10^−19 C )
a diode ideality constant
T absolute temperature
IPV photovoltaic current

The keystone to exploit the solar based photovoltaic sources is the inverter. It plays a vital role in energy
conversion process from DC to AC in grid connected system. In past decade, multilevel inverter concept is more
popular in renewable energy application. Generally three types of universal multilevel inverter topologies like diode
clamped MLI, flying capacitor MLI and the cascaded H-Bridge MLI is utilized for high voltage and high power
application [4]. In diode clamped MLI, the count of diode raises followed by the increases in output voltage level,
whereas in flying capacitor MLI, the capacitor count has its dominance. The cascaded H-Bridge MLI has less
number of switches and separate DC sources [5]. Reduced switch multilevel inverter topologies have developed to
overcome the drawback of conventional multilevel inverter topologies regarding the component count. Different
topologies of multilevel inverters are explained in a detailed manner in [6]. Every type has its advantages and
disadvantages. A potential drawback of all these topologies is high number of independent floating DC voltage
sources that makes their practical use quite questionable. Therefore, in this paper mainly concentrate to eliminate the
utilization of multiple DC sources in multilevel inverter topology.
The main novelty of this paper is to integrate reduced multilevel inverter with dual output boost converter for
solar photovoltaic system along with improved incremental and conductance maximum power point technique.
Stand-alone power generation system have installed in many places around the world where there is no access to the
grid. So, the grid connected system is the perfect solution for peak demand and the intermittent nature of renewable
power generation. Therefore, the proposed topology is integrated with grid connected system through the passive
filter. The operation of proposed system is tested in standard test condition and the selective test results are portrayed
in this paper.

2. Proposed grid connected system

Fig. 1 shows the equivalent circuit of single diode model of photovoltaic cell. Fig. 2(a) and 2(b) show the I-V and
P-V characteristics of the PV model. The generalized formula for photovoltaic panel is discussed in [7] and given
below. Table 1 shows the different parameters value of 80 W photovoltaic panel.
𝑉𝑉 + 𝑅𝑅𝑠𝑠 𝐼𝐼 𝑉𝑉 + 𝑅𝑅𝑠𝑠 𝐼𝐼 𝑉𝑉𝑠𝑠 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘
𝐼𝐼 = 𝐼𝐼𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 − 𝐼𝐼𝑜𝑜 [𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 ( ) − 1] − ; 𝑉𝑉𝑡𝑡 = (1)
𝑎𝑎𝑉𝑉𝑡𝑡 𝑅𝑅𝑝𝑝 𝑞𝑞
𝐺𝐺
𝐼𝐼𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = (𝐼𝐼𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃,𝑛𝑛 + 𝐾𝐾𝐼𝐼 ∆𝑡𝑡 ) (2)
𝐺𝐺𝑛𝑛
𝐼𝐼𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠,𝑛𝑛 + 𝐾𝐾𝐼𝐼 ∆𝑡𝑡
𝐼𝐼𝑜𝑜 = (3)
𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒[(𝑉𝑉𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜,𝑛𝑛 + 𝐾𝐾𝑉𝑉 ∆𝑡𝑡 )/𝑎𝑎𝑉𝑉𝑡𝑡 ] − 1
 N. Prabaharan et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 1177–1183 1179
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 3

The PV panel output voltage is connected to dual output boost converter. The rating of PV panel is 80 W. Here,
the improved incremental and conductance maximum power point tracking is utilized for achieving good response
form the PV panel. The conventional INC MPPT algorithm has the two different drawbacks such as the operating
point is oscillating around the MPP point and it does not operate properly in fast varying irradiance condition. To
overcome this drawback the improved INC MPPT is discussed in this paper. The detailed algorithm is discussed in
[8]. Fig. 3 shows the flow chart of improved incremental and conductance MPPT algorithm. The improved INC
MPPT algorithm work perfectly under fast varying irradiance condition. The proposed system is shown in Fig. 4.
The proposed system is the combination of dual output boost converter and reduced switch multilevel inverter. The
main advantage of the proposed system is to eliminate the requirement of separate DC sources for multilevel
inverter. Also, it requires less semiconductor devices when compared to conventional MLI topologies for generating
the required output voltage level. The photovoltaic panel is the source of dual output boost converter. The concept of
dual output boost converter is discussed in [9].The dual output boost converter voltage is directly fed to the reduced
switch multilevel inverter. The important note is the switch S2 is a bidirectional switch which helps in blocking
voltage and conducts current in both directions. The proposed topology can extend to any number of output voltage
levels. The dual output boost converter is operated at asymmetric condition. The proposed topology can generate
seven-level output voltage. Here, the switch S1, S2 and the dc-link voltage Vc1 and Vc2 are the level generation part.
The Switches S3 to S6 are the polarity generation part.
The number of output voltage level (LV) is calculated as follows

𝐿𝐿𝑣𝑣 = 2𝑛𝑛+1 − 1 (4)

The number of switches (NS) for multilevel inverter is calculated as follows

𝑁𝑁𝑆𝑆 = 2𝑆𝑆 + 3 (5)

Here, n denotes the number of capacitor in boost converter. S denotes number of switches in multilevel inverter
topology. The output voltage of dual output boost converter is maintained by adjusting the duty cycles of the
switches. The voltage across capacitor is different. Here, the ratio of voltage across capacitor is binary fashion. The
proposed topology switches are triggered by multicarrier phase disposition pulse width modulation technique. Six
carriers are needed for generating the seven level output voltage. The six carriers are in phase with same frequency
and amplitude which is called Phase Disposition. Fig. 5 shows the multicarrier arrangement for seven level output
voltage.

Table 1 Parameter details for 80 W PV panel

Parameters Values
Ipv Rs Short circuit current (Isc) 4.71 A
Id Open circuit voltage (Voc) 22.24 V
Rp V
Maximum power point voltage (Vmp) 18.33 V
Maximum power point current (Imp) 4.37 A
Maximum power (Pmp) 80 W

Fig. 1 Single diode model equivalent circuit

41180 N. Prabaharan
Author et al.Procedia
name / Energy / Energy00
Procedia 138 (2017) 1177–1183
(2017) 000–000

I-V Curve PV curve

5

80
4
Current in Amps

60

Power in watts
3

40
2

1 20

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Voltage in volts Voltage in volts

(a) (b)
Fig. 2 (a) I-V & (b) P-V characteristics

Fig. 3 Improved Incremental and Conductance MPPT algorithm

 N. Prabaharan et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 1177–1183 1181
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 5

D S1
S3 S5
Vc1

Lf R
L
S2
T2
T1 S6
PV + Vc2 S4
BOOST

Fig. 4 Proposed multilevel inverter with dual boost converter

3
2
Amplitude in volts

1
0
-1
-2
-3
0.1 0.105 0.11 0.115 0.12
Time in secs
Fig. 5 Phase Disposition carrier arrangement for 7-level output voltage

3. Simulation results for standard test condition

The proposed grid connected reduced switch multilevel inverter with dual output boost converter for generating
7-level output voltage is simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The proposed structure has only one DC source
for generating the 7-level output voltage. The single diode model for PV and improved incremental and conductance
method is implemented in this paper for giving the better performance when compared to conventional INC method.
The dual output boost converter produces two different rating of output voltage which is shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 7 (a)
shows the output voltage and output current waveform of proposed multilevel inverter without filter. Fig. 7(b) shows
the harmonic spectrum plot for 7-level output voltage in proposed multilevel inverter for PD technique. Fig. 8
depicts the grid voltage and current waveform with filter inductance. The calculation of filter inductance formula is
given below.
𝑽𝑽𝒇𝒇𝒔𝒔𝒔𝒔 𝟏𝟏
Filter Inductance 𝑳𝑳𝒇𝒇 = ( ) (𝟔𝟔)
𝑰𝑰𝒇𝒇𝒔𝒔𝒔𝒔 𝟐𝟐𝟐𝟐𝒇𝒇𝒔𝒔𝒔𝒔
 1182 N. Prabaharan et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 1177–1183
6 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

100

50
Voltage in volts 0
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
200

100

0
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Time in secs
FFT window: 3 of 15 cycles of selected signal

Fig. 6. Dual output boost converter output Time

voltage
(s) waveform (upper and bottom: Vc1 & Vc2)

10
100
Fundamental (50Hz) = 180 , THD= 17.95%
Mag (% of Fundamental)
Voltage in volts (1:20) &

5 80
Current in Amps

60
0
40
-5
20

-10 0
0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0 50 100 150 200
Time in secs Harmonic order

(a) (b)
Fig. 7. (a) Output voltage and current waveform with filter (b) Harmonic spectrum plot for output voltage

Inverter Current Inverter Votlage

10
Votlage in volts Scale (1:20)

-5

-10
0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
Time in secs
Fig. 8. Grid voltage and current for proposed system
 N. Prabaharan et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 1177–1183 1183
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 7

4. Conclusion

The combination of dual output boost converter with reduced switch multilevel inverter has been introduced for
photovoltaic grid connected operation. Also, the improved incremental and conductance MPPT algorithm is tested
in this paper. In this paper, the proposed system requires only one source for generating the required output voltage
level which has the distinct feature. Multicarrier Phase Disposition carrier arrangement is utilized for triggering the
proposed multilevel inverter switches. The proposed system is tested only in standard test condition in this paper.
From the results and discussion, it is concluded that the proposed system provides better quality output waveforms
with lesser component count and also suitable for photovoltaic grid connected operation.

References

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