Design and Modeling of Solar Photovoltaic System Using Seven-Level Packed U-Cell (PUC) Multilevel Inverter and Zeta Converter for Off-Grid Application in India

Abstract

DOI : 10.26650/electrica.2019.18053 In the present study, standalone operation of the solar photovoltaic system with storage is evaluated with the recently introduced seven-level packed U-cell (PUC) multilevel inverter. Zeta converter is used to regulate the output voltage of the photovoltaic (PV) array with the help of the MPPT algorithm. Level-shifted modulation scheme is applied for the PUC inverter. The standalone operation is taken into consideration keeping in view the application/penetration of the solar PV system in remote areas. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India has set up the plan to establish the standalone solar PV system for off-grid application in the regions to meet the power requirement of those communities and regions that are difficult to connect with the grid. The climatic condition in the central and western parts of India is conductive for solar PV generation. In contrast to the other well-known inverter topologies, such as neutral point clamped, flying level capacitors, and cascaded H-bridge, among others, PUC inverter requires the least number of switches and capacitors for the same output levels. The system is modeled in the MATLAB®/Simulink using the Waaree Energies WSM-315 modules to supply a load of 2 kW. To optimize the solar PV-based system, incremental conductance optimization technique is used. Cite this article as : Azeem A, Ansari MK, Tariq M, Sarwar A, Ashraf I. Design and Modeling of Solar Photovoltaic System Using Seven-Level Packed U-Cell (PUC) Multilevel Inverter and Zeta Converter for Off-Grid Application in India. Electrica, 2019; 19(2): 101-112.