ULTILEVEL converters have been mainly used in medium-

or high-power system applications, such as static reactive

power compensation and adjustable-speed drives. In
these applications, due to the limitations of the currently
available power semiconductor technology, a multilevel
conceptis usually a unique alternative because it is based
onlow-requency switching and provides voltage and/or
current sharing between the power semiconductors [1]–
[4].

GRID-CONNECTED photovoltaic (PV) converters represent the

most widespread solution for residential renewable energy
generation. While classical designs of PV converters feature a grid
frequency transformer, which is a typically heavy and costly
component, at the interface between the converter and the
electrical grid, researchers are now considering transformer less
architectures in order to reduce costs and weight and improve
efficiency. Removing the grid frequency transformer
entails all the benefits above but worsens the output power
quality, allowing the injection of dc current into the grid [1], [2]
and giving rise to the problem of ground leakage current [3], [4].
Although the active parts of PV modules might be electrically
insulated from the ground-connected mounting frame, a path for
ac ground leakage currents generally exists due to a parasitic
capacitance between the modules and the frame and to the
connection between the neutral wire and the ground, usually
realized at the low-voltage/medium-voltage (LV/MV) transformer
[3]. In addition to deteriorating power quality, the ground leakage
current increases the generation of electromagnetic interference
and can represent a safety hazard, so that
In particular, in full-bridge-based topologies, the ground leakage
current is mainly due to high frequency variations of the
common-mode voltage at the output of the power converter [4].
Several solutions can be found in literature aiming at the
reduction of the common-mode voltage harmonic content [5]–[7].
Once the grid frequency transformer is removed from a PV
converter, the bulkiest wound and reactive components that
remain are those that form the output filter used to clean the
output voltage and current from high frequency switching
components. Further reduction in cost and weight and
improvement in efficiency can be achieved by reducing the filter
size, and this is the goal of multilevel converters.

Multilevel converters have been investigated for years [8], but

only recently have the results of such researches found their way
to commercial PV converters. Since they can synthesize the
output voltages using more levels, multilevel converters
outperform conventional two- and three-level converters in terms
of harmonic distortion. Moreover, multilevel converters subdivide
the input voltage among several power devices, allowing for the
use of more efficient devices.Multilevel converters were initially
employed in high-voltage industrial and power train
applications. They were first introduced in renewable energy
converters inside utility-scale plants, in which they are still largely
employed [9]–[13]. Recently, they have found their way to
residential-scale single-phase PV converters, where they currently
represent a hot research topic [14]–[29]. Single-phase multilevel
converters can be roughly divided into three categories based on
design: neutral point clamped (NPC), cascaded full bridge (CFB),
and custom.

In NPC topologies, the electrical potential between the PV cells

and the ground is fixed by connecting the neutral wire of the grid
to a constant potential, resulting from a dc-link capacitive divider
[15]. A huge advantage is that single-phase NPC
converters are virtually immune from ground leakage currents,
although the same is not true for three-phase NPC converters
[12], [30]. A recent paper has proposed an interesting NPC design
for exploiting next-generation devices such as super
junction or SiC MOSFETs [16]. The main drawback of NPC designs,
with respect to full bridge, is that they need twice the dc-link
voltage.

FBs make for highly modular designs. Usually, each full bridge
inside a CFB converter needs an insulated power supply,
matching well with multistring PV fields [17]. In this case,
sequential permutation of the full bridges can be used to evenly
share power among the parts and to mitigate the effects of partial
shading [17]–[20]. As an alternative, only one power supply can
be used if the output voltage is obtained through a transformer
[21], [31]. CFB converters have also been proposed for stand-
alone applications [17], [22]. CFBs give developers
many degrees of freedom for the control strategy. Together with
the aforementioned sequential permutation and with phase
shifting [19], artificial neural networks [23] and predictive control
[24] have been proposed to minimize harmonic distortion and
achieve maximum power point tracking (MPPT).

Again, no mention is made about how the capacitors are kept

balanced. In PV applications, the PV field dc voltage is constantly
changing due to variations of solar radiation and to the MPPT
algorithm, but the output voltage has to be controlled regardless
of the voltage ratio. This problem was studied in [34]–[36],
measuring the separate full-bridge voltages and computing online
the duty cycles needed to balance the different voltages, and
analyzing also the power balance between the separate cells. A
similar approach is followed in this paper. Moreover, the
developed PWM strategy, in addition to controlling the flying
capacitor
voltage, with the help of the specific TC illustrated in Section IV,
minimizes the ground leakage current.
Finally, it is important to put in evidence that the proposed
converter can work at any power factor as reported in Section III,
while not all the alternative proposals can continuously supply
reactive power [37], [38] The proposed topology was presented
by the authors in a previous paper [39]. With respect to the
previous work, this paper was rewritten and presents a better
organization and a new set of simulation and experimental results
with different setups. This paper is organized as follows: Section II
presents the power converter topology and the PWM control
strategy chosen in order to maximize the performance with the
use of a low-cost digital signal processor (DSP). Section III
describes the regulation of the flying capacitor used to supply the
second full bridge of the CFB topology. Section IV describes the
principle of operation of the additional components able to reduce
the ground leakage current. Sections V and VI show the
simulation and experimental results, whereas Section VII reports
the concluding remarks

The integration of renewable energy systems into the grid has

become an important issue in the last decade because of the
huge expansion of new power plants based mainly on wind and
solar photovoltaic (PV) energy [1], [2]. Although PV systems follow
wind energy systems in importance, an important evolution in the
total nominal installed power has occurred in the last years. The
global total installed power of solar PV was around 136 GW at the
end of 2013, to be compared with just 1.5 GW in 2000 [3].
Over the past five years (2008-2013), solar PV has averaged an
annual growth rate of over 40% (for instance, from 102 to 136GW
during 2013) but PV generates today a few percent of total yearly
electricity production. Germany is the leader of
this energy sector in 2013 accounting for around 26% of the
global PV market with 35.5 GW installed followed by China (18.3
GW), Italy (17.6 GW), Japan (13.6 GW), US (12 GW) and Spain (5.6
GW). In 2013 the growth has been mostly
concentrated in a few countries like China (11.3 GW), Japan (6.9
GW), US (4.8 GW) and Germany (3.3 GW) [4].

Grid-connected PV installations represent 99% of the global total

installed power and they cover from low power installations (PV
roof systems in domestic and residential applications) to high
power power plants currently reaching up to
550 MW (Topaz Solar Farm Project in USA to be operating during
2015). This fact has led to the appearance of new PV converter
topologies and, among them, multilevel converters are very
attractive due to its good features such as high
nominal power and high quality of output waveforms [5]–[12]. In
this way, the focus of the researchers has been attracted and PV
systems using neutral-point-clamped converters [13], cascaded
H-bridge converters [14]–[17] or other hybrid multilevel
converters [18]–[22] have been recently addressed. In this paper,
a multilevel H-bridge cascaded converter is used to directly
integrate the PV arrays into the grid.
On the other hand, for low-power systems (< 10 kW), multilevel
converters have been competing with high-frequency pulsewidth-
modulation converters in applications where high efficiency is of
major importance. Moreover, lower prices of power switches and
new semiconductor technologies, as well as the current demand
on high-performance inverters required by renewable energy
systems (RES), have extended the applications of multilevel
converters [5]–[10]. For the particular case of stand-alone RES
(SARES), it is of common sense that it should be capable of
supplying alternating current (ac) electricity [11], thus providing
compatibility with standard appliances that are cheap and widely
available. In
addition, due the intermittent nature of almost all renewable
energy (RE) sources, most single-consumer SARES include an
energy storage device that is usually implemented by lead-acid
battery banks [12]–[14].

According to these facts, it is evident that a device capable of

converting a single dc voltage from a battery bank into an ac
voltage is a key element of most stand-alone photovoltaic (PV)
systems. These dc/ac converters, which are commonly referred to
as inverters, have experienced great evolution in the last decade
due to their wide use in uninterruptible power supplies and
industrial applications. However, it is still a critical component to
most SARES, and the development of high performance inverters
is a challenge even today [15]–[17].

Having in mind that SARES only make sense if they can be

reliable and flexible, then all balance-of-system components must
be accomplished with these characteristics. This way, to the best
of the author’s knowledge, the most important
characteristics of a RES battery inverter, concerning the order of
importance, are as follows: 1) reliability (most important); 2)
surge power capacity; 3) no-load consumption and efficiency. This
paper investigates which multilevel topologies better meet the
current demand on high-performance battery inverters for stand-
alone PV system applications.
One of the most important types of PV installation is the grid
connected inverter configurations. These grid connected PV
systems can be categorized from two viewpoints: PV cell and
inverter configurations, see Fig. 1. The PV cell arrangements fall
into four broad groups: centralized technology, string technology,
multi-string technology and AC-module and AC-cell technologies
[2].

All approaches have advantages and disadvantages [2], [3]; and

will compromise various attributes such as harmonic generation,
complexity, efficiency, flexibility, reliability, safety, modularity and
cost. However, for residential PV installations,
the most suitable configuration seems to be the string or
multistring
technologies where one or more strings of PV cells are connected
to a single inverter. Using this type of configuration, there will be
no losses associated with the string diodes compared to
centralized technology. Moreover, independent
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is possible for all strings
which might be installed in different sizes and orientations. This
also increases the overall efficiency under special circumstances
like partial shadowing.

There are different approaches to implement string and multi-

string topologies. Usually, these modules consist of a solar array
and a DC to DC converter controlled by a MPPT algorithm.
Afterwards, the output of the DC/DC converters
build up a DC voltage which is then converted to AC by means of
an inverter [4]. The other possibility is to use multilevel topologies
which are able to generate better output quality, while operating
at lower switching frequency. This implies
lower switching dissipation and higher efficiency. Moreover, this
topology utilizes switches with lower breakdown voltage;
therefore, it can be used in higher power applications at lower
cost. It is worth mentioning that although the number of switches
in this approach is higher than other two level topologies, for a
sufficient high number of levels, the output filter can be avoided
which means less weight, cost and space.
On the other hand, even with the same size of filter at the output,
the switching frequency can be decreased which means higher
efficiency. In general, a greater number of switches in multilevel
converters can be justified since the semiconductor cost
decreases at a much greater rate than the filter components
cost. This projects the total cost of multilevel converters to be
comparable or even lower than that of two-level converters.

Among various multilevel topologies, the most important ones are

[5]: Diode-Clamped Multilevel Converter (DCMC) [6] and Flying
Capacitors Multilevel converters (FCMC) and Cascaded Multilevel
Converters (CMC). The first, simplest and the most modular
topology is CMC. However, the main problem associated with the
CMC topology is the need for isolated DC sources which are not
usually available without the use of transformers. In some specific
applications such as photovoltaic systems, separate dc sources
exist and can be used in the CMC topology [7], [8]. A diversity of
multilevel converter topologies have been used in photovoltaic
applications [9], [10], [11] and a comparison of some topologies is
presented in [12].

Among the three topologies, CMLI is highly preferred for the

interconnection of renewable energy systems because of the
advantages such as absence of
voltage unbalance problem, possible elimination of DC–DC boost
converter, adaptive at low switching frequency and absence of
clamping capacitors and diodes. Solar photovoltaic (PV) fed CMLI
is dealt in various literatures, but it intends for low voltage and
low level configurations. Pulse-width modulation (PWM) technique
for a 5-level CMLI [1–2] and 7-level CMLI [3] for PV system is
addressed which requires boost converter, auxiliary circuitry and
multiple reference signals for pulse generation. A 5-level current
CMLI for a single phase grid connected PV system given in [4]
requires the redesign of LC filter to reduce the inductive and
resistive losses for higher power levels

hotovoltaic system or PV
system is a system that
converts
sunlight into electricity.
Converting the sun’s radiation
directly
into electricity is done by
solar cells. These cells are
made of
semiconducting materials.
When sunlight is absorbed
by these
materials, the solar energy
knocks electrons loose from
their
atoms, allowing the electrons
to flow through the material
and
hence produce electricity
[1]. The electricity converted
by the
cells is in direct current (DC).
A grid-connected PV system
will
require a DC-to-AC inverter.
This device will convert the
DC
electricity produced by the PV
array into alternating current.
PV
system is one of the electricity
sources as mentioned above
hotovoltaic system or PV
system is a system that
converts
sunlight into electricity.
Converting the sun’s radiation
directly
into electricity is done by
solar cells. These cells are
made of
semiconducting materials.
When sunlight is absorbed
by these
materials, the solar energy
knocks electrons loose from
their
atoms, allowing the electrons
to flow through the material
and
hence produce electricity
[1]. The electricity converted
by the
cells is in direct current (DC).
A grid-connected PV system
will
require a DC-to-AC inverter.
This device will convert the
DC
electricity produced by the PV
array into alternating current.
PV
system is one of the electricity
sources as mentioned above
hotovoltaic system or PV
system is a system that
converts
sunlight into electricity.
Converting the sun’s radiation
directly
into electricity is done by
solar cells. These cells are
made of
semiconducting materials.
When sunlight is absorbed
by these
materials, the solar energy
knocks electrons loose from
their
atoms, allowing the electrons
to flow through the material
and
hence produce electricity
[1]. The electricity converted
by the
cells is in direct current (DC).
A grid-connected PV system
will
require a DC-to-AC inverter.
This device will convert the
DC
electricity produced by the PV
array into alternating current.
PV
system is one of the electricity
sources as mentioned above
Cascaded seven level inverter with reduced number of switches using levelshifting PWM
technique. Abstract: A multilevel inverter is a power electronic device that is used for high
voltage and high power applications and has many advantages like, low switching stress, low
total harmonic distortion (THD).
Abstract- A 5-level cascaded hybrid multilevel inverter for interfacing with renewable energy
resources is developed. The objective of this research is to propose an alternative topology of
hybrid cascaded multilevel inverter applications. The modified PWM technique is also
developed to reduce switching losses.
CMLI requires more number of semiconductor switches which has
to be reduced for minimising switching loss, cost, complexity and
space. Series connection of multilevel inverters introduced in [6]
restricts its use in high power applications because of the
necessity of changing the voltage polarity in every half cycle and
also the switches with different ratings are required. A detailed
look-up table is required for the method proposed in [7] which
consists of series connection of a high-voltage NPC and a low-
voltage conventional inverter. A 5-level inverter with four DC
sources comprising two numbers of 2-level and 3-level inverters is
proposed in [8]. The drawback of this method is that
inconventional inverters upto 9 level can be generated with the
same number of power supplies. Bidirectional switches with
voltage and current blocking capability for the reduction of
switches is proposed in [9–11] where each bidirectional switch
requires a separate gate drive circuit which increases the power
loss.

The general function of the multilevel inverter is to synthesize a

desired ac voltage from several levels of dc voltages. For this
reason, multilevel inverters are ideal for
connecting either in series or in parallel an ac grid with renewable
energy sources such as photovoltaics or fuel cells or with energy
storage devices such as capacitors or batteries. Additional
applications of multilevel converters include such uses as medium
voltage adjustable speed motor drives, static var ompensation,
dynamic voltage restoration, harmonic filtering, or for a high
voltage dc back-to-back intertie.
Additionally, multilevel converters can also control the real and
reactive
power flow from a utility connected renewable energy source.
These power electronic topologies are attractive for continuous
control of system dynamic behavior and to reduce power quality
problems such as voltage harmonics,
voltage imbalance, or sags [8-10]. With a capacitance connected
in parallel with the renewable energy source, a multilevel
converter can provide static var compensation even when there is
no output power from the photovoltaic or fuel cell energy source.
With banks of batteries or large capacitors on the dc bus, the
multilevel converter can provide significant ride through
capability for voltage sags or load swings experienced at the
utility interface connection.

This paper is organised as follows: Section 2 presents the

proposed logic circuit design and Section 3 exhibits the
simulation results and comparative analysis. Section 4
presents the experimental results and Section 5 gives the
final conclusions.