Renewable energy sources can be used for electric power generation to supply specific devices in distributed systems such as smart grids. Hydrogen fuel cells have proven to be an effective solution to produce electrical energy with fairly good efficiency and minimum environmental pollution. A single-stage solution to interconnect a fuel cell with a low-voltage distribution system is proposed in this paper. The traditional boost dc/dc converter plus voltage source inverter is replaced by a single-stage multilevel current-source inverter (MCSI). The MCSI can both interconnect to the grid and perform the maximum power point tracking algorithm. This novel single-stage converter approach provides active power to the grid, power factor compensation, and reduction of the line current harmonic content. The synchronization, modulation, and control scheme are implemented on a field-programmable gate array board using a fast-prototype high-level synthesis tool to reduce design time. Both simulation and experimental results show excellent behavior and fast dynamics while complying with IEEE and IEC harmonic content regulations.
Every power converter needs a precise synchronization method to be able to connect to the utility grid. The synchronization impacts directly on the performance of the converter.
Multilevel Current Source Inverters (MCSI) have proved to be a high performance option for industrial applications due to reliability, fault tolerant capabilities, quasi soft switching and the use of lower filter capacitor values. One of its major challenges is to balance the internal currents that feed each module. Imbalances could be caused by manufacturing deviations of the reactive components, temperature drift or aging, nonlinear loads and modulation errors, among others. Using the well-known Phase Shift Carrier Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (PSC-SPWM), a slight change in the amplitude of the carrier signals produces a variation in the average value of the internal currents. In this paper, we introduce a control strategy to balance the current of the inductors and its implementation in a prototype. Simulation and experimental results at different operating conditions show a robust behavior of the control system along with a low distortion in the output voltages and currents of the converter.
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