TY - GEN
T1 - Enhancing micro-inverter energy capture with sub-module differential power processing
AU - Qin, Shibin
AU - Morrison, Andrew J.
AU - Pilawa-Podgurski, Robert C.N.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Differential power processing (DPP) is a power electronics system architecture that configures DC-DC converters in parallel with the PV string to improve its power yield. The parallel nature of the DPP architecture brings a number of benefits such as low converter power rating and low power losses, all of which make DPP especially suitable for sub-module level maximum power point tracking (MPPT). Meanwhile, micro-inverters typically perform only module level MPPT and do not address power losses due to uncompensated sub-module mis-match. In this paper, we introduce DPP converters into a micro-inverter system to improve its energy capture by recovering power losses due to sub-module mismatch. We present a small-footprint DPP converter design together with a control scheme such that the DPP converters can work with commercial micro-inverters and can be seamlessly integrated into the existing micro-inverter design. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution, a hardware prototype was built and tested with an off-the-shelf commercial micro-inverter to prove the concept. The improvement in energy capture with DPP converters was experimentally verified.
AB - Differential power processing (DPP) is a power electronics system architecture that configures DC-DC converters in parallel with the PV string to improve its power yield. The parallel nature of the DPP architecture brings a number of benefits such as low converter power rating and low power losses, all of which make DPP especially suitable for sub-module level maximum power point tracking (MPPT). Meanwhile, micro-inverters typically perform only module level MPPT and do not address power losses due to uncompensated sub-module mis-match. In this paper, we introduce DPP converters into a micro-inverter system to improve its energy capture by recovering power losses due to sub-module mismatch. We present a small-footprint DPP converter design together with a control scheme such that the DPP converters can work with commercial micro-inverters and can be seamlessly integrated into the existing micro-inverter design. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution, a hardware prototype was built and tested with an off-the-shelf commercial micro-inverter to prove the concept. The improvement in energy capture with DPP converters was experimentally verified.
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U2 - 10.1109/APEC.2014.6803373
DO - 10.1109/APEC.2014.6803373
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84900457873
SN - 9781479923250
T3 - Conference Proceedings - IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition - APEC
SP - 621
EP - 628
BT - APEC 2014 - 29th Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 29th Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, APEC 2014
Y2 - 16 March 2014 through 20 March 2014
ER -