Dual-Mode Photovoltaic Bidirectional Inverter Operation for Seamless Power Transfer to DC and AC Loads with the Grid Interface

Abstract

This paper develops the photovoltaic bidirectional inverter (BI) operated in dual mode for the seamless power transfer to DC and AC loads. Normal photovoltaic (PV) output voltage is fed to boost converter, but in space application, boost converter is not so preferable. To overcome this, buck and boost converters are proposed in this paper. Duty cycle to this converter is provided with the help of the outcome of the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller. This can be implemented by using perturbation and observation method. The MPPT will operate the switch between buck and boost modes. When the output voltage of a PV array is close to the dc bus voltage, then the bidirectional inverter can fulfill both rectification and grid connected mode. To control the power flow between dc bus and ac grid, a dc distribution system is used to regulate the dc bus voltage to a convinced level. Moreover, the bidirectional inverter must fulfill grid connection (sell power) and rectification (buy power) with power factor correction (PFC) to control the power flow between dc bus and ac grid. The simulations and hardware experimental results of a 2.5 kVA circuit are presented to validate the performance of the proposed dual-mode seamless power transfer.