Cascaded Controller for Controlling DC Bus Voltage in Mismatched Input Powers

Abstract

The lack of uniform production of panels in photovoltaic (PV) systems and snowball effects in fuel cell (FC) systems led us to use a separate dc–dc converter. In addition, in the PV and FC systems, the output voltage is low. Hence, dc–dc boost converters are commonly used in a series connection. Each small unit of a PV or FC operates independently. Therefore, another problem arises in the system that uses the series connection of the converter's output. Owing to the unequal electricity production of the cells, a voltage imbalance occurs at the output terminals. To create voltage balance, a modular structure grounded on a three-level boost converter was investigated. The main objective of this article is to design the control of a modular topology, allowing perfect control of the dc-bus voltage, even with mismatched input powers. The proposed control strategy ensures dynamical properties independent of the operating point, voltage balance, and robust control of the dc output voltage with respect to load perturbations. To ensure the balance of voltages and the control of currents, a sliding mode controller based on indirect synthesis was used. To control the dc–bus voltage, an energy controller is proposed that ensures dynamical performance independent of the operating conditions. The performance in terms of tracking and regulation, as well as its effect on the voltage balance of the output capacitors, was validated through simulations and experimental results. A comparison with a classical proportional integral (PI) approach for controlling the dc-bus voltage was performed.