Novel Family of B4 Multilevel Inverters with Impedance Source Network for Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

Renewable energy sources are being increasingly connected in distribution system using advanced topologies of inverters with high power quality and reliability. This paper presents new of a multilevel voltage source inverter (MVSI) that has been designed to reduce circuit complexity by combining the concept of conventional three phase four switch topology (B4 inverter topology) with bidirectional switches. The proposed topology can be easily extended to any number of even voltage levels providing significant reduction in number of circuit components, especially active switches, and thereby improving reliability of the system. The topology is integrated to impedance source networks to obtain their unique advantages such as buck-boost operation from DC link, low inrush current during starting, shoot through stability and low common mode noise. The energy efficiency of this inverter at higher switching frequencies is further improved by applying a concept of “dead banding”. The performance of proposed topology is demonstrated with extensive MATLAB/Simulink simulation studies with carrier based Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) having low computational efforts.