Fesenko A. Inverter with a wide range of input voltage adjustment and improved mass-size parameters

The dissertation is devoted to the solution of an important and relevant scientific task – photovoltaic (PV) converter mass and size parameters optimization. Specifically, the inverter as part of autonomous stationary power supply systems by means of review, analysis, comparison, calculations, justification of the choice and implementation of complex scientific and practical technical and software methods and tools. The expansion of renewable energy sources in a global generation has been growing over the past decades. Systems based on photovoltaic (PV) cells provide a relatively low percentage even among other sources of "green" energy. However, solar generation shows steady and dynamic growth over recent decades. Such systems are endowed with a number of significant advantages, such as placement possibility without reference to geographical conditions, the absence of harmful emissions in the process of energy generation, such systems don’t include any moving parts, installation possibility on any horizontal or inclined surface (including the roofs of residential buildings), the possibility of working both on the centralized power grid and in autonomous mode. One of the key elements of the solar energy system, in addition to the PV, is a semiconductor converter, which provides the conversion of direct current energy into alternating current, which is commonly used for household appliances. A feature of the operation of the converter with PV as a voltage source is the fluctuation of the input voltage in a wide range when external conditions change. The cost, overall dimensions, weight, and metal capacity of such converters are proportional to their maximum power. It was determined that the metal-intensive passive components contribute a large part of the high cost and the bulky size of such converters. Which, in turn, restrains the further expansion of this type of system. The most metal-intensive components of the converter are inductors and radiators. Their size and mass are proportional to the energy flowing or dissipated by these elements. As a result of the analysis, a number of approaches to reducing the mass and size parameters of the inductor coils by reducing the energy per coil were revealed. Inductor current reduction for the DC/DC stage of the converter can be achieved by parallel connection of several DC/DC cells. Such an approach based on current dividing was determined as the most promising. The switch control signals contain phase shifts which provide some time gap between the transistors opening in different cells. The results of comparative analysis and mathematical simulation indicate that the most promising topology includes a high-frequency DC/DC stage and low-frequency unfolding circuit. The proposed DC/DC stage generates a module of sinusoidal waveform and the unfolding circuit only reverses the direction of the output current. At the same time, the switches of the DC/DC stage work with a high switching frequency of 64 kHz, and the keys of the unfolding circuit are switched with the frequency of the mains voltage. Such functional division makes possible optimization of the transistor parameters according to the operating conditions in each converter stage, based on the expected allocation of static and dynamic losses, as well as to reduce the cost of unfolding circuit components. Due to the features of PV cells as a voltage source, the converter control system requires some flexible algorithm to operate with the dynamic illumination changes and partial shading of the PV panel. Modern control systems provide algorithms for monitoring the maximum power point (MPP) of the PV. Such an algorithm makes it possible to optimize the power extraction from the solar panel under the condition of partial shading by load adjusting. A modified algorithm for tracking the global maximum power point (GMPP) was proposed, which allows for increasing the speed of the system up to three times. The speed increase allows for minimizing energy losses during the reconfiguration of the optimal operating point of the system. A three-level pulse-width modulation (PWM) closed-loop converter control system was proposed. The control system (SC) implements constant monitoring of the current and voltage of the PV and the output current of the converter. These parameters monitoring allows to effective maintain the form of the output current and voltage in a wide range of the input voltage changes. The SC generates several groups of control signals for different parts of the converter: high-frequency PWM.