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Fig. 3. Experimental primary-current waveform of the transformer. (a) At minimum input voltage, 375 V without the proposed IVFF circuit. (b) At maximum
input voltage, 395 V without the proposed IVFF circuit. (c) At minimum input voltage, 375 V with the proposed IVFF circuit. (d) At maximum input voltage,
395 V with the proposed IVFF circuit.

of the PDP, the operational principles of the proposed circuit are

confirmed. By employing the proposed IVFF circuit, at maximum
voltage, the peak primary current of the transformer is greatly reduced from 8.6 to 6.0 A, and the measured efficiency is improved
from 95.43% to 96.59%. Moreover, the proposed circuit is simple
and cost effective, and it can be widely applied to commercial
PWM controllers.
R EFERENCES
[1] T. Shinoda and K. Awamoto, Plasma display technologies for large area
screen and cost reduction, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., vol. 34, no. 2,
pp. 279286, Apr. 2006.
[2] J.-Y. Lee, J.-S. Kim, N.-S. Jung, and B.-H. Cho, The current injection
method for AC plasma display panel (PDP) sustainer, IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 615624, Jun. 2004.
[3] J.-Y. Lee and M.-J. Youn, An advanced sustaining technology for plasma
display panel using voltage-balancing method, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.,
vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 542553, Apr. 2006.
[4] S.-K. Han, G.-W. Moon, and M.-J. Youn, A high efficiency
ZVS PWM asymmetrical half bridge converter for plasma display
panel sustaining power module, in Proc. IEEE PESC, Jun. 2004, vol. 1,
pp. 776781.
[5] W.-J. Lee, C.-E. Kim, S.-K. Han, and G.-W. Moon, A new high
efficiency phase shifted full bridge converter for sustaining power
module of plasma display panel, in Proc. IEEE PESC, Jun. 2005, vol. 1,
pp. 26302634.

Grid-Connected Photovoltaic System

With Power Factor Correction
Yu-Kang Lo, Ting-Peng Lee, and Kuan-Hung Wu

AbstractA combined grid-connection/power-factor-correction technique for a photovoltaic (PV) system is proposed in this letter. A maximum
power point tracking dc/dc converter served as a charger for the battery
bank. A bidirectional inverter is applied as a generator/discharger during
daytime, supplying power to the load. The inverter can also be used as
a charger to maintain the minimum required voltage level of the batteries
when the PV power is insufficient. Experiments on a 1-kW PV system show
satisfactory results of the power management and the unity power factor
at the utility side.
Index TermsGrid connection, photovoltaic (PV) system, power factor
(PF) correction.

I. I NTRODUCTION
Solar energy has been regarded as a new regenerative energy source
since several decades ago [1][4]. A conventional grid-connected
photovoltaic (PV) system with a battery energy storage system is
shown in Fig. 1(a). The maximum power point tracker (MPPT) is
a dc/dc converter for extracting as much solar power as possible
[5][8]. Usually, the discharger shares the same power circuit as the
charger. The dc/ac inverter translates the input dc voltage into an

Manuscript received July 21, 2007; revised January 28, 2008.

The authors are with the Department of Electronics Engineering, National
Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan, R.O.C.
(e-mail: yklo@mail.ntust.edu.tw).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2008.921204
0278-0046/$25.00 2008 IEEE

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 55, NO. 5, MAY 2008

2225

inverter. The circuit is simpler and cost effective. In the succeeding

sections, the operating principles of the proposed grid-connected PV
system will be thoroughly discussed. Experimental results will be
given to validate the effectiveness of the fulfilled functions.

II. S YSTEM D ESCRIPTION

Fig. 1.

(a) Conventional and (b) discussed grid-connected PV systems.

Fig. 2. Discussed PV system: (a) circuit topology and (b) block diagram of
the controller.

ac voltage. There are two stages of power conversions in either the

charging or discharging state. The system structure and control are
somewhat complicated. Moreover, the waveform of the injected current from the inverter into the load depends on the type of load, i.e., the
power factor (PF) seen from the utility side remains uncompensated
via the connection of the PV system.
In this letter, a grid-connected PV system with a simpler structure that provides the function of a parallel PF corrector (PPFC) is
presented. The block diagram of the discussed system is illustrated
in Fig. 1(b) [1]. The MPPT also serves as a charger, tracking the
maximum solar power and charging the battery bank at the same time.
The dc/ac inverter operated under hysteresis current mode control is
capable of bidirectional power transfer. The output filter capacitor is
eliminated, and the response speed is faster. When either the solar
power or the stored energy of the batteries is sufficient, the inverter
provides all or part of the load power by injecting into the load
an in-phase fundamental current with the source voltage. At the
same time, the current harmonics and the out-of-phase fundamental
current component are also supplied by the inverter, which now serves
as a PPFC.
The presented PV system features advantages compared to the
conventional topology shown in Fig. 1(a). The power transfers from
the solar panels to the batteries and from the batteries to the utility are
achieved through only one stage. In addition, the unity PF at the utility
side can be obtained by adequately shaping the output current of the

The MPPT shown in Fig. 1(b) is usually a boost dc/dc converter.

The perturb-and-observe method is adopted to draw the maximum
solar power. According to the obtained solar energy, the controller
determines the ratio between the amounts of the load power supplied
by the PV system and the mains. The battery bank voltage is related to
the required dc voltage level of the dc/ac inverter and thus determines
the number of solar panels. The upper limit of the battery voltage EH
is recommended by the battery manufacturer. In addition, the lower
bound EL is set depending on the performance of the PPFC and the
discharge depth of the battery.
The dc/ac inverter is of full-bridge type, as shown in Fig. 2(a).
One problem may arise in the presented PV system. When charged
and discharged, the variation in the MPPTs output voltage and the
reflected low-frequency voltage ripples from the inverter will shorten
the lifetime of the batteries. To cope with this problem, a bidirectional
switch or a relay S, as shown in Fig. 2(a), is used to disconnect
the battery bank when it is fully charged and discharged to a preset
depth, i.e., the batteries never experience the situation where charging
and discharging simultaneously take place. In this way, the effects of
the battery current ripple on the battery lifetime can be reduced to a
minimum degree.
The output current of the inverter ip must contain all the harmonics iLh and the out-of-phase fundamental component iLfo of load
current iL . When the PPFC also supplies power to the load, ip may
carry part of the in-phase fundamental component iL of iL . From the
preceding descriptions and the KCL equations, it leads to
iP = iL is = (iL is ) + iLfo + iLh .

(1)

The magnitude of the in-phase fundamental part of ip , which is

equal to iL is , represents the power level sent from the PPFC to
the load. The waveform of ip determines the quality of is . Usually,
ip is sensed to follow its command ip,com , which is the difference
between the actual load current iL and the command of is is,com . To
reduce the complexity of the control circuit, is is instead sensed to
track is,com to produce the gate signals of the inverter. The input dc
voltage level of the inverter must be high enough for ip to perfectly
resemble its command. However, a larger switching loss will thus
result. Thus, the lower limit of the battery voltage can be determined at
the heaviest load. The block diagram of the controller for the discussed
PV system is depicted in Fig. 2(b), where Is,com is the amplitude of
is,com . As stated earlier, Is,com determines the required amount of
power supplied from the utility.
Four operating stages of the proposed grid-connected PV system are
discussed here. It is assumed that the system has been in the nighttime
long enough, and the battery bank has been discharged to its lowest
allowable voltage level.
Stage 1: The MPPT is shut down. The battery bank is disconnected. To prevent ip and is from distortion, the lowest
voltage level of the battery bank and the output capacitor
of the MPPT EL is first set. Since each battery is specified with the lowest discharging voltage, the required
number of the series batteries can thus be calculated.
Is,com is determined to supply the total load power and
maintain the MPPTs output voltage at EL .

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 55, NO. 5, MAY 2008

Fig. 3. Related waveforms of the presented grid-connected PV system operated at (a) Stage 1, (b) Stage 2, (c) Stage 3, and (d) Stage 4.

Stage 2: When the sun begins to shine, the MPPT produces the
maximum available solar power. The battery bank is
connected to be charged. All the solar power is first
supplied to charge the batteries. Since the load power
is still supplied by the utility solely, Is,com remains the
same as in Stage 1. Once E increases beyond EH , the
battery bank is disconnected.
Stage 3: After the battery bank is disconnected, if the sunlight is
still sufficient, then Is,com decreases to extract as many

energies as possible from the PPFC. The ratio of the

load power supplied by the PPFC depends on the output
power of the MPPT. In some cases, the available solar
power may be more than required. The operating point of
the MPPT is then adjusted to be away from the optimum
to output less solar power.
Stage 4: In the nighttime, the MPPT is shut down. The battery
bank is reconnected and begins to discharge through
the PPFC. A minimum value of Is,com is determined

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 55, NO. 5, MAY 2008

from the allowable maximum discharging current of the

battery. When E falls below EL , then the battery bank is
disconnected, and the operation returns to Stage 1.
III. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULT AND D ISCUSSION
A prototype system is built to perform some experiments. The load
is supplied via a full-bridge diode rectifier. Some circuit parameters
are listed as follows: Vs = 110 Vrms and load power PL = 1 kW. The
rating of each single lead-acid battery is 12 V/26 Ah. The maximum
discharge current is specified as 0.125 C. From the data sheet of the
battery, the final discharge voltage per battery is 10.5 V. EL is required
to be higher than 160 V for the inverter to properly function. Sixteen
batteries are connected in series. Therefore, EL and EH are 168 and
218.4 V, respectively. Eighteen 75-W solar panels are connectednine
in series and two in parallel. The maximum rated power of the
PV system is 1350 W. The functions of the MPPT/charger and the
inverter/discharger are fulfilled by a digital signal processor controller.
Fig. 3(a) shows the related waveforms when the MPPT is shut down
in Stage 1. The power supplied by the utility Ps is 1053 W, which
is also the sum of PL and the power required to maintain the output
voltage of the MPPT at EL . The PPFC injects all the reactive power
to the load. Fig. 3(b) depicts the related waveforms in Stage 2, where
the MPPT is now activated. All the power produced by the solar cells
is delivered to charge the batteries. Since the batteries are not fully
charged, the average battery current is positive. The load power is
still supplied by the mains. In Fig. 3(c), the battery voltage reaches
EH , and Stage 3 begins. The battery bank is disconnected. The PPFC
supplies part of the load power and all the current harmonics. The
power supplied by the utility is reduced to 700 W. During Stage 4,
the MPPT is shut down again due to insufficient sunlight. The battery
bank is reconnected and discharges to the load through the PPFC. As
shown in Fig. 3(d), the batteries are discharged at a preset rate. The
utility supplies about 50% of the load power. Unity PF remains at the
mains side, and the total harmonic distortion is less than 2% for all the
four tests. The recorded conversion efficiency, which is defined by PL
divided by the sum of Ps and the PV power, is above 94%.

2227

As for the reliability and safety of the high battery bank voltage,
additional bypass and protection circuits may also be incorporated in
the presented PV system.
IV. C ONCLUSION
A new control method for a grid-connected PV system is proposed
in this letter. The circuit cost is reduced, and the function of parallel PF
correction can be fulfilled. Some problems may appear for the battery
bank directly connected between the MPPT and the inverter. However,
these problems can be solved with additional bypass and protection
circuits. The presented PV system is suitable for supplying a load
demanding a high PF at the utility side.
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[1] S. J. Chiang, K. T. Chang, and C. Y. Yen, Residential photovoltaic energy
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[2] J. M. Kwon, K. H. Nam, and B. H. Kwon, Photovoltaic power conditioning system with line connection, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 4,
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[3] W. D. Xiao, W. G. Dunford, P. R. Palmer, and A. Capel, Regulation of
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[4] W. D. Xiao, N. Ozog, and W. G. Dunford, Topology study of photovoltaic
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[5] K. K. Tse, B. M. T. Ho, H. S. H. Chung, and S. Y. R. Hui, A comparative study of maximum-power-point trackers for photovoltaic panels
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[6] N. Kasa, T. Iida, and L. Chen, Flyback inverter controlled by sensorless
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[7] J. H. R. Enslin, M. S. Wolf, D. B. Snyman, and W. Swiegers, Integrated
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[8] J. H. Park, J. Y. Ahn, B. H. Cho, and G. J. Yu, Dual-module-based
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