A Novel Three Phase Five Level Inverter for Hybrid Solar –Wind Energy System

Simhadri .Lakshmi Sirisha, Asst.Professor, VNITSW,Palakaluru. Email: slsirisha.s@gmail.com

Ravipati. Srikanth,Asst.Professor,VNITSW,Palakalur. Email: ravipatister@gmail.com
Sk.Rafi, Asst.Professor,VNITSW,Palakalur. Email: raffi206@gmail.com
Abstract
At present, the whole world is going through a severe energy crisis due to the non replenish
able nature of fossil fuels which are major sources of conventional energy. In addition to limited
availability of conventional energy sources, they also contribute heavily towards environmental
pollution. In this scenario, renewable energy sources has got significant role to play in meeting
global energy demand. Solar and wind energy systems are the most popular types of grid
connected renewable energy systems. We are presenting a new system configuration for
interfacing the hybrid solar and wind energy system to the grid. This configuration is flexible and
it allows these two renewable energy sources to supply the load together or independently
depending upon their availability. The configuration proposed here uses a modified five-level
inverter for converting DC voltage generated from renewable energy sources to AC voltage at
desired frequency. The usage of five-level inverter reduces Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) in
output voltage and helps in eliminating bulk filters required at the output side. Simulation study
of the proposed system is carried out using MATLAB Simulink.

KEYWORDS: Hybrid Energy System, Pitch Angle Controller, Boost Converter, Multilevel
Inverter.

1. Introduction demand for electricity is rapidly increasing.

Due to the critical condition of
industrial fuels which include oil, gas and
others, the development of renewable energy
sources is continuously improving. This is
the reason ,renewable energy sources have
become more important these days .Few
other reasons include advantages like
abundant availability in nature, eco-friendly
and recyclable. Many renewable energy
sources like solar, wind, hydel and tidal are
available. Among these renewable sources
solar and wind energy are the world’s fastest
growing energy resources. With no emission
of pollutants, energy conversion is done
through wind and PV cells. Day by day, the
But the available base load plants are not
able to supply electricity as per demand. So
these energy sources can be used to bridge
the gap between supply and demand during
peak loads. This kind of small scale stand-
alone power generating systems can also be
used in remote areas where conventional
power generation is impractical.
In this paper, a wind-photovoltaic
hybrid power generation system model is
studied and simulated. A hybrid system is
more advantageous as individual power
generation system is not completely reliable.
When any one of the system is shutdown the
other can supply power.
 The entire hybrid system comprises
of PV and the wind systems. The PV system
is powered by the solar energy which is
abundantly available in nature. PV modules,
maximum power point tracking systems
make the PV energy system. The light
incident on the PV cells is converted into
electrical energy by solar energy harvesting
means. Induction turbine, gear box,
generator and an AC- DC converter are
included in the wind energy system. The
wind turbine is used to convert wind energy
to rotational mechanical energy and this
mechanical energy available at the turbine
shaft is converted to electrical energy using
a generator. Hybrid generation systems that
use more than a single power source can
greatly enhance the certainty of load
demands all the time. Even higher
generating capacities can be achieved by
hybrid system. In stand-alone system we can
able to provide fluctuation free output to
irrespective of weathers condition.
In this paper dc bus voltage is kept
constant using boost converter for solar
photovoltaic system and wind energy
system. A five level inverter is used to
convert the dc voltage from hybrid system to
ac voltage and connect to the grid.
Multilevel inverters synthesize a desired
voltage from several levels of direct current
voltages as inputs. As the number of levels
increases, the synthesized output waveform
approaches towards required sine wave.
Main advantages of using multilevel inverter
topology are reduction of power ratings of
individual power devices and reduction in
their cost. The attractive features of a
multilevel inverter are that they can generate
the output voltages with very low THD, can
draw input current with low distortion, and
can operate at wide range of switching
frequencies from fundamental frequency to
very high frequency. This paper presents a
modified form of multilevel inverter which
uses less number of switches and input DC
sources.
2. Proposed System
The block diagram of the proposed structure
is as shown in the Fig :2.1.
Fig:2.1 Block Diagram of the proposed structure
The two input sources are solar and
wind power. The system is capable of
operating independently with one of the
sources active, which means it can operate
with solar power alone or with wind power
alone. The solar panel used is capable of
generating 160V. But the panel voltage may
be less than 12V if the solar radiation is
insufficient and can fall below 160V.The
output of the solar panel is fed through a
boost converter to keep the output of the
solar panel voltage to a constant value of
400V. The wind generator used is a
Permanent Magnet synchronous generator.
But the output voltage of the wind generator
varies with wind speed. Hence the output of
the wind generator is fed through a boost
converter to make the output voltage to a
constant value of 400V. Hence the source
selector will be selecting the source as per
their availability from either solar or wind
power. This output is fed to a 5 level
multilevel inverter which converts it to ac.
3. Pv Cell Modeling
An ideal solar cell is modelled by a
current source in parallel with a diode.
However no solar cell is ideal there by shunt
and series resistance are added to the model
as shown in Fig. 4. Rs is the series resistance
whose value is very small. Rp is the
equivalent shunt resistance whose value is
very high.
Applying Kirchoff’s current law at the node
where current source (Iph), diode, Rp and Rs
meet, we get,
(1)
We get the following equation for the PV
cell current
(2)
where Iph is insolation current, I is the cell
current, Iscr is the reverse saturation current,
V is the cell voltage, Rs is the series
resistance, Rp is the parallel resistance, and
Vt is the thermal voltage.
The building block of PV
array is a solar cell, which is basically a p-n
junction that converts light energy into
electricity. The equivalent circuit is shown
in Fig:3.1
Fig :3.1 Block diagram of PV cell
The current source Iph represents the cell
photo current, Rj is used to represent the
non-linear impedance of the p-n junction,
Rsh and Rs are used to represent the intrinsic
shunt and series resistance respectively.
Normally value of Rsh is very large and
Rs is very small, hence both can be
neglected to simplify the analysis. PV cells
are grouped in larger units called PV
modules which are further interconnected in
series-parallel combination to form PV
arrays. The mathematical model used to
simplify the PV array is represented by the
equation
(3)
Where I is the PV array output current,
V is the PV array output voltage, ns is the
number of cells in series, np is the
number of cells in parallel, q is the charge of
an electron, k is the Boltzman’s constant, A
is the p-n junction ideality factor, T is the
cell temperature, and Irs is the cell reverse
saturation current. The factor A determines
deviation of cell from the ideal p-n junction
characteristics and its value ranges from 1 to
5. The photo current Iph depends on the solar
radiation and cell temperature as follows
(4)
Where Iscr is the cell short circuit
current at reference temperature and
radiation, Ki is the
short circuit current temperature coefficient
and S is the solar radiation in MW/cm2.
The Simulink model of PV array is shown in
Fig:3.2 .
The model includes three subsystems, one
subsystem to model PV module and two
more subsystems to model Iph and Irs.
Fig:3.2 Simulink Model of PV Arrray
The Specifications of the solar array is as
specified in the Table : 3.1. The output
voltage of the simulink model of PV Array
is shown in Fig: 3.3
 Characterstics Specifications
Nominal voltage(volts) 12
Open circuit voltage(volts) 21
Voltage at max power,pmax 16.8
Current at max power 2.2
Short circuit current 2.55
Max rated 37
power,pmax(watts)
Number of cells 36

Table : 1 Specifications of Solar Array Fig: 4.1 Simulink model of the Wind Turbine generator
200 250
solar panel o/p voltage

o/p voltage from wind

150 200

100 150

100
50

50
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
time 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Fig: 3.3 Output Voltage of Solar Panel time
4. Wind Energy System 4.2 The Output Voltage of Wind energy System
The wind generator used is a permanent
magnet DC generator. The Simulink model
of the wind turbine generator is shown in
Fig:4.1 Wind turbine generates a torque
which is used to drive the generator. The
most commonly used generators are singly
fed and doubly fed induction generators.
They produce alternating voltage as output.
But in our application we require DC output. Fig:4.3 Block Diagram Of Pitch Angle Controller

Hence we used a permanent magnet dc The Pitch angle controller designed in

generator. The output voltage of the Wind Matlab/Simulink is shown in Fig:4.4 Here,
Energy System is shown in Fig: 4.2 pitch compensator is also designed with
4.1 Pitch Angle Controller Proportional gain (Kp):1.5, Integral gain
(Ki):6, output max. Limit: 45, min. limit: 0,
The pitch angle is kept constant at zero
Pitch Gain: 500.
degree until the speed reaches point D speed
of the tracking characteristic. Beyond point
D the pitch angle is proportional to the speed
deviation from point D speed. For
electromagnetic transients in power systems
the pitch angle control is of less interest. The
wind speed should be selected such that the
rotational speed is less than the speed at
point D.
Fig :4.4 Pitch angle controller Simulink Diagram
 S.No Parameter Value 500

wind voltage after boost

1. Pitch Angle 500 400

300

200
Table: 2 Pitch Angle Controller
100

5. Dc-Dc Converter 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
For converting dc voltage generated from time

solar photovoltaic system and wind energy Fig : 5.3 Boost output voltage of Wind Energy System

system to battery voltage level, two DC-DC

6. Multilevel Inverter
converters are used here. Boost converter is
used to boost up the voltage of solar The single phase five-level inverter
photovoltaic system. The circuit of boost uses a full bridge configuration with an
converter is as shown in Fig:5.1 auxiliary circuit. The circuit diagram is
shown in Fig : 6.1

Fig: 5.1 Simulink Model of Boost Converter

The Relationship between voltage and
current in inductor is: 𝑖 = 1𝐿 ∫0𝑡 𝑉𝑑𝑡 + 𝑖𝑜
For a constant rectangular pulse Fig: 6.1 Single Phase Five-level inverter
𝑉𝑡
𝑖= + 𝑖𝑜 The voltage across each DC
𝐿
From the above we can see that the current is a linear capacitor is Vdc/2. The operational principle
ramp, when the voltage is a constant pulse of the proposed inverter is to generate five
(𝑉𝑖𝑛−𝑉 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠)𝑇𝑜𝑛 levels of output voltage, Vdc, Vdc/2, 0, -
𝛥𝑖 =
𝐿
And when the MOSFET switches off the current is
Vdc/2 and - Vdc. An auxiliary circuit
(𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡−𝑉 𝑖𝑛+𝑉𝐷)𝑇𝑜𝑓𝑓 consisting of four diodes and switch S1 is
𝛥𝑖 =
𝐿 used between the DC capacitors and the full-
Equating the above equations, bridge inverter for generating five voltage
𝑉𝑖𝑛−𝑉𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠∗𝐷
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = (1−𝐷)
− 𝑉𝐷 levels at the output. Using proper switching
If we neglect the drops across the transistor & diode sequence in this modified circuit generates
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = (1−𝐷)
𝑉𝑖𝑛 five levels in output voltage. Table:1 shows
the switching sequence used for generating
The inductor is designed by
(𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡−𝑉𝑖𝑛+𝑉𝐷)(1−𝐷) five levels at the output voltage.
𝐿=
min(𝑖 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑) 𝑓
500 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 Vinv
solar voltage after boost

400 0 1 0 0 1 Vdc
300 1 0 0 0 1 Vdc/2
200
0 1 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 1
100
1 0 0 1 0 -Vdc/2
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 0 0 1 1 0 -Vdc
time
Fig: 5.2 Boost o/p voltage of Solar Panel
Table :3 Switching Sequence
 1000

3 level o/p voltage

500

Fig: 6.2 The ideal output voltage of multilevel inverter.

7. Simulation Results: -500

Proposed system to generate five level

-1000
output voltage is simulated using Matlab 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
time
Simulink software. The Simulink diagram
of Hybrid energy system is shown in Fig: Fig: 7.4 Three level Output voltage waveform
7.1 . The simuink diagram of Five level
inverter is shown in Fig: 7.2. 1000

3 level o/p voltage

500

-500

-1000
0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8
time
Fig: 7.1 Simulink Diagram of Hybrid Energy System Fig : 7.5 Three level output voltage from
(0.5 sec to 0.8 sec)
2000
5 level o/p voltage

1000

-1000

-2000
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
time
Fig: 7.6 Five level Output voltage waveform
Fig : 7.2 Simulink Diagram of Five Level Inverter.
2000
The Output waveforms are shown from Fig: 7.3 to
7.8
5 level o/p voltage

1000

-1000

-2000
0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8
time
Fig: 7.7 Five level Output voltage waveform( .5 sec to 0.8sec)

Fig: 7.3 The Torque and speed output waveforms of wind energy
system.

2000
3 phase five level o/p
1000
0
-1000
-2000
0 0.1 0.2
7.8 Three phase five level output voltage Waveform
Conclusion
In this paper the modeling and
simulation of a five level inverter fed from
hybrid energy sources has been presented.
Solar and wind power are the two sources
being used. The five level inverter topology
used in proposed system has minimum
number of switches and DC sources
compared to conventional cascaded H-
bridge config -uration. Detailed simulation
study is carried out to evaluate the dynamic
performance of the proposed system under
different worst case conditions. It is found
from simulation studies that the performance
of the proposed hybrid energy system is
good for all the tested conditions.
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Simhadri Lakshmi Sirisha has obtained her
M.Tech from VVIT, Nambur & completed B.Tech
from Vignan’s Engineering College, Vadlamudi. Her
Areas of interest are Hybrid Energy Systems,
Multilevel Inverters. Presently working as Asst.
Professor in VNITSW, Pedapalakaluru, Guntur.
(Email:ID::slsirisha.s@gmail.com)
Ravipati Srikanth is presently working as
Asst.Professor in VNITSW, Pedapalakaluru .His
Areas of interest include Advanced Control Systems
,Renewable Energy Systems , Power electronics
&Drives.(Email.Id: ravipatister@gmail.com)
Sk.Rafi has obtained his M.Tech from VVIT
Nambur & completed B.Tech from Vignan’s Lara
Inst.of Technology &Science, Vadlamudi. He is
presently working as Asst.Professor in
VNITSW,Pedapalakaluru. His Areas of interest
include Advanced Control Systems ,Renewable
Energy Systems, Power Electronics & Drives
(Email.Id: raffi206@gmail.com