Voltage Error Estimation-Based Fault Diagnosis Method for Three- phase PWM-inverter in Grid-connected Photovoltaic Power System Without any Over-rating

Abstract

Inverter is an essential component of a grid connected PV system. In fact, an open-switch fault in this power converter could result an important system malfunction and consequently leads to system disconnection. In this context, this paper focuses on the fault-tolerant control of PWM-inverter with redundancy leg for grid-connected PV system. In addition, a fast method of fault detection and compensation is used to maintain the continuous operation of the converter when there is a half-leg open-circuit fault (IGBT+ anti-parallel diode) on one of PWM-inverter legs. Therefore, it can detect this type of fault and compensate it in less than 50 μs by using a time criterion instead of voltage criterion. Also, the fuzzy logic technique is employed to control the active and reactive power injected into the network without exceeding the whole system power capacity limits. Note that, in this study, the active and reactive power references of the chosen operating point (the reactive-to-active power ratio: tgφ = Q/P = 0.19) are based on experimental tests. Simulation results show the feasibility and the effectiveness of the proposed fault diagnosis method in terms of fault detection and service continuity in presence of a half-leg open-circuit fault in PWM-inverter without any over-rating of the PV system components or instability.