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Series-Connected DC-DC Power Converters for

Low-Voltage DC Source in Distributed Generation


C.Pica, R.Bojoi, G.Griva, A.Tenconi
Department of Electrical Engineering
Politecnico di Torino
c.so Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 – 10129, Torino, ITALY
cesare.pica@polito.it

Abstract — Power conditioners for low-voltage DC sources in conditioners [5-12]. Single-stage conditioners have only one
Distributed Generation usually have two major functions: to stage for both boosting and converting. They can consist of a
boost the energy source output voltage and to convert it into an conventional DC-AC converter connected to the grid through a
AC voltage. The voltage boost is usually done by a DC-DC transformer, or a transformer-less boost DC-AC converter [5].
converter. This paper shows alternative topologies for standard Advantages of single-stage conditioners are their reduced
DC-DC converters, in which the converter is series-connected number of components and good efficiency [2]. However,
with the source. The convenience of series-connected converters is conventional DC-AC converters generally need a bulky Line-
evaluated by means of analytical results. Then, two standard DC- Frequency (LF) step-up transformer, while transformer-less
DC converters have been “re-designed” in series-connected
boost DC-AC converters are often limited in power rating and
versions and their operation has been evaluated in simulation: the
switches peak current can be significantly reduced, thus reducing
operation under a wide range of DC input voltage [1-2].
the costs and improving the energy source utilization. Therefore, a multiple-stage power conditioner consisting of
DC-DC and DC-AC converters is usually preferred [3]. Fig.1
Keywords - DC-DC converter; power conditioner; distributed illustrates two common multiple-stage topologies. In Fig.1(a) a
generation multiple-stage power conditioner is shown, where the voltage
I. INTRODUCTION boost is done by a non-isolated DC-DC converter.
Environmental and economical concerns, regarding the
growing energy consumption and the today's large-scale power
production, have increased the interest in alternative electrical
energy sources, such as photovoltaic panels and fuel cells [1-3].
These sources are mostly small and modular, so they are
potential solutions for Distributed Generation (DG) [2].
However, since they commonly generate a low amplitude and
load-dependent varying DC voltage, a power conditioner is
usually necessary to convert the generator’s output into a (a)
standardized power supply for stand-alone or grid-connected
applications. Furthermore, a power conditioner has additional
features, such as power quality improvement, and it can also
improve the performance and utilization of electrical power
generators [4].
Primarily, a power conditioner for low-voltage DC sources
DG has to cope with two major requirements: to boost the (b)
energy source output voltage and to convert the DC voltage
into an AC voltage having specific requirements. Such Fig.1. Multiple-stage conditioners: a) with boost non-isolated DC-DC
requirements are met by single or multiple-stage power converter as first stage; b) with boost isolated DC-DC converter as first stage.
The drawback of this structure is that it cannot be used in For sake of simplicity, the power losses and the voltage and
applications requiring a high boost, as in the cases with current ripples are neglected. As a consequence:
relatively low DC voltage sources [13]. Hence, as illustrated in
Fig.1(a), a LF transformer should be eventually used as well. Iin = n·Iout . 
For applications requiring higher boost, power conditioners
where Iin and Iout are the input and the output average currents.
with an isolated DC-DC converter are recommended [2-4], as
shown in Fig.1(b). In the standard converter (Fig.2), nstd is the voltage boost
ratio of the DC-DC converter, which in this case is equal to n;
This paper focuses on such DC-DC converters (Fig.1(b)).
furthermore, the input average current, I1(std), of the DC-DC
The work shows an alternative design for standard isolated DC-
converter is Iin.
DC converters, in which the converter is connected in series
with the DC source. For the same ratio between the output and In the series-connected scheme (Fig.3), nsc is the voltage
input voltages, the series-connected converters can be designed boost ratio of the inner DC-DC converter and is given by:
in such a way that the switches current may be significantly
smaller in comparison with their standard versions. For this Vc 
nsc
reason, the series-connected converters have reduced cost and Vin
become an attractive solution.
where Vc is the output voltage of the converter, applied across
In this work, the convenience of series-connected the capacitor Cf. Moreover, in the series-connected converter,
converters in comparison with standard converters is evaluated the required output voltage Vo is given by:
analytically, then, two standard DC-DC converters are
simulated in series-connected versions using Pspice models. Vout = Vin + Vc . 
The following converters have been considered in their series-
connected versions: Push-Pull isolated DC-DC converter and In fact, the output of the inner DC-DC converter is in series
Full-Bridge isolated DC-DC converter. Moreover, for both with the DC source, that is the series-connected converter.
considered converters, voltage-fed and current-fed converter From (4) one of the advantages of series-connected
topologies are evaluated. The objective is to verify the converters becomes evident: while in the standard converter the
effectiveness of series-connected converters in DG voltage across the filter capacitor is the same as the required
applications. output voltage, Vout, in the series-connected converter the
capacitor voltage can be significantly smaller. Using (3) and
II. SERIES-CONNECTED DC-DC CONVERTERS (4), Vout is expressed as:
The schemes of both standard and series-connected Vout = (1 + nsc) Vin  
converters are shown respectively in Fig.2 and Fig.3. These
figures represent voltage-fed converters, however the analysis hence,
developed in this section can easily be applied to current-fed
converters, in which the filter inductance, Lf, is placed at the nsc = (n - 1). 
converter input. In both schemes, n is the voltage boost ratio of
the whole system, defined as: Since the currents ripple are neglected:

Vout I2(sc) = Iout (7)


n 
Vin and
where Vout is the output voltage and Vin is the input voltage.
I1(sc) = nsc·Iout . 
For the fair comparison of the two topologies, the switch
utilization factors [14] are equal, thus both the topologies
operate with the same duty-cycle. Therefore, the relationship
between the switch peak current, î1(sc), in the series-connected
converter and that in the standard converter, î1(std), is given by:
Fig.2. Scheme of standard DC-DC converter.
iˆ1( sc ) n 1 . (9)
iˆ1( std ) n
Hence, the switch peak current in the series-connected
topologies is smaller than in standard converters; the advantage
is larger as smaller is the overall boost required. Such feature,
together with the reduced voltage across the filter capacitor,
would imply lower hardware costs for the same voltage boost
and output power.

Fig.3. Scheme of series-connected DC-DC converter.


In the literature, two standard converters have been pointed
out as good solutions for DG applications [1, 2]: the Push-Pull
isolated DC-DC converter and the Full-Bridge isolated DC-DC
converter. Moreover they have been proposed both as voltage-
fed and current-fed converters. Hence, in this paper, such
topologies have been chosen to be re-designed in their series-
connected versions, and then simulated to validate the
analytical evaluation. Fig.4 and Fig.5 show, respectively, a
voltage-fed and a current-fed Push-Pull converter designed as
series-connected converters. In Fig.6 and Fig.7, the voltage-fed
and the current-fed topologies are respectively shown for a
Full-Bridge series-connected converter.

Fig.7. Current-fed Full-Bridge isolated DC-DC converter designed as


series-connected converter.

III. POWER RATING AND LOSSES COMPARISON


This section presents a performance comparison between
standard converters and their series-connected versions. The
criteria for the comparison are the switch power ratings and the
power losses of both types of converters, as functions of the
required overall voltage boost (n).
The switch power rating is defined as the product between
the switch peak voltage rating and the switch peak current
Fig.4. Voltage-fed Push-Pull isolated DC-DC converter designed as
series-connected converter. rating [14]. From (9) and noting that the peak voltage across the
switches is the same for both topologies, the ratio between the
switch power ratings of the series-connected converter and of
the standard converter is given by:

Psw( sc ) n 1  
Psw( std ) n
where Psw(sc) is the switch power rating of the series-connected
converter and Psw(std) the switch power rating of the standard
converter. It can be easily demonstrated that also the
relationship between the transformer power ratings in both
topologies follows the same ratio described in (10).
Regarding the power losses, the comparison considers both
topologies to be operated in hard-switching. For the same
Fig.5. Current-fed Push-Pull isolated DC-DC converter designed as operating conditions, the transformer secondary currents for
series-connected converter. both topologies are equal, with a peak value equal to the filter
inductance peak current. However, with the same output
voltage (Vout), the turns ratio of the transformer in the series-
connected converter is smaller than for the standard one, and
then the transformer primary currents are different. Hence, the
differences between the power losses in both topologies are
mostly concentrated on the switches: switching power losses
and on-state power losses. The switching power losses can be
calculated by (11), as defined in [14],

Ps = 0.5 Vs ·î1·fs (tc(on) + tc(off)) 


where Ps represents the average switching power losses, Vs is
the switch peak voltage, fs is the switching frequency, tc(on) is
the turn-on crossover interval and tc(off) is the turn-off crossover
interval [14]. The term î1 represents the switch peak current,
which in the case of the standard converter is equal to î1(std), and
Fig.6. Voltage-fed Full-Bridge isolated DC-DC converter designed as
series-connected converter.
in the case of the series-connected converter is equal to î1(sc).
Considering both topologies operating with the same fS, and in
order to simplify the analytical comparison, supposing the case 1) Voltage-Fed Push-Pull DC-DC converters
in which both topologies operate with the same (tc(on) + tc(off)), In Fig.9 the switch current waveforms for the converter
the ratio between the switching losses in series-connected and operating in the standard (Fig.9(a)) and series-connected
standard converters would be the same as given in (10). (Fig.9(b)) schemes are shown. In this figure a voltage boost of
As regards the on-state power losses, in applications using n = 3 has been applied for both topologies. In Fig.10 the same
MOSFETs, such losses can be estimated by (12), comparison is illustrated, but in this case a boost of n = 5 has
been applied in both standard (Fig.10(a)) and series-connected
(Fig.10(b)) topologies.
Pon =( î1 )2 rDS·D 
From the results shown in Fig.9, a voltage boost of n = 3
where Pon represents the average on-state power losses, rDS is (Vout/Vin = 3) implies, on the series-connected converter, a
the switch on-state resistance and D is the duty-cycle. switch peak current 33% smaller than for the standard
Therefore, supposing the same rDS in both converter topologies, converter. When the voltage boost is increased to n = 5, as
the ratio between the on-state power losses in these converters shown in Fig.10, the ratio between the switch peak currents in
is given by: both topologies has a difference of 20%.
2
Pon( sc ) § n 1 ·
¨ ¸  
Pon( std ) © n ¹
where Pon(sc) and Pon(std) are, respectively, the average switch
on-state power losses of the series-connected converter and of
the standard converter. In Fig.8, the relationships established in
(10) and (13) are illustrated.

(a) (b)
Fig.9. Switch currents in Push-Pull converters for n = 3: (a) standard
converter; (b) series-connected converter.

Fig.8. Relationship between power losses in series-connected converters,


Ploss(sc), and standard converters, Ploss(std), as functions of n. Trace 1: switching
power losses (Ps); Trace 2: switch on-state power losses (Pon).

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS


This section presents simulation results comparing standard (a) (b)
and series-connected DC-DC converters.
Fig.10. Switch currents in Push-Pull converters for n = 5: (a) standard
converter; (b) series-connected converter.
A. Switch currents in standard and series-connected DC-DC
converters 2) Voltage-Fed Full-Bridge DC-DC converters
The simulation results presented in this first sub-section The simulations performed for the Push-Pull DC-DC
compare the switch currents in both standard and series- converters have been repeated for the Full-Bridge DC-DC
connected converters. The results are related to a voltage-fed converters. The obtained results are presented in Fig.11 and
Push-Pull DC-DC converter and a voltage-fed Full-Bridge DC- Fig.12. The results are similar to those presented in Fig.9 and
DC converter. The current values are expressed in per unit Fig.10, and the same considerations described before are
(p.u.) and are related to the peak current of the standard applicable for the Full-Bridge DC-DC converters.
converter version simulated in each comparison. The
comparative results obtained for current-fed converters are
similar and equivalent to those obtained for voltage-fed
converters and are not shown.
(a) (b)
Fig.11. Switch currents in Full-Bridge converters for n = 3: (a) standard Fig.13. Filter capacitor voltage in Full-Bridge DC-DC converter (n = 3).
converter; (b) series-connected converter. Trace 1: standard converter; Trace 2: series-connected converter.

(a) (b)
Fig.14. Filter capacitor current in Full-Bridge DC-DC converter (voltage
(a) (b) boost n = 3): (a) standard converter; (b) series-connected converter.

Fig.12. Switch currents in Full-Bridge converters for n = 5: (a) standard


converter; (b) series-connected converter.
2) Input filter inductor current in current-fed converters
In current-fed converters the inductor is placed on the input
side and its current is i1(sc), whose peak is given by (7). Hence,
B. LC Filter voltages and currents in standard and series- unlike voltage-fed converters, in current-fed series-connected
connected DC-DC converter converters also the inductor current is decreased as a function
In both standard and series-connected schemes, in voltage- of n. Such feature represents an additional advantage due the
fed converters as well as in current-fed converters, the same LC smaller component size required. In Fig.15 the input inductor
filter has been used. The only difference is that in the series- currents are shown for a current-fed Push-Pull converter, on
connected schemes the filter capacitor is connected in series both standard and series-connected topologies operating with a
with the DC source (Fig.3). voltage boost of n = 3 and at the same load conditions. The p.u.
values are related to the filter inductor current in the standard
Due to the nontraditional topology of series-connected converter.
converters it may be of interest to visualize the voltage and
current waveforms of the LC filter, in comparison with the
same waveforms when the converter is designed in the standard
scheme.
1) Filter capacitor voltage and current in voltage-fed
converters
The following figures show the waveforms of the capacitor
voltage and current for a voltage-fed Full-Bridge DC-DC
converter designed either as standard or series-connected
converter. Fig.13(a) and Fig.13(b) show respectively the filter
capacitor voltages in the standard and in the series-connected
converter, for the same output voltage. The values in p.u. are
related to the output voltage.
The filter capacitor currents are shown in Fig.14(a) and
Fig.14(b), respectively, and the values in p.u. are related to the
Fig.15. Filter inductor current in Current-fed Push-Pull DC-DC converter
output current. (n = 3). Trace 1: standard converter; Trace 2: series-connected converter.
C. Switch Power Losses The series-connected converter presents higher efficiency
In order to compare the switch power losses in the and lower costs due the smaller switch power rating and output
considered topologies (standard and series-connected filter capacitor required. The work shows also that the series-
converter), a Full-Bridge DC-DC converter has been simulated connected converters can be even more advantageous than the
in both topologies. The simulation results are shown in Table I. standard converters in case of current-fed converters because of
The results regard the ratio between the total switch power the reduced current through the input inductor. On the other
losses in series-connected converter (Psw_total(sc)) and standard hand, the series-connected configuration is not suitable when
converter (Psw_total(std)), for three different voltage boost ratios (n galvanic isolation between the energy source and the load is
= 3, n = 4 and n = 5). mandatory: in fact, in the series connected configuration, the
high frequency transformer accomplish only with the voltage
TABLE I. SWITCH POWER LOSSES boost, but does not separate the two sides.
As easily predictable, the advantages of the series-
Voltage Psw _ total ( sc )
boost connected converters are evident at low voltage boost ratio (Vout
(n) Psw _ total ( std ) = 3÷4 Vin) and decrease as the ratio increases. When the
required voltage boost ratio is higher, a “nested series-
3 0.48
connected converter” could be adopted, as the authors will
4 0.59 investigate in future works. Finally the simulations of the
system dynamic performance show the satisfactory
5 0.64
controllability using well-known control techniques.

D. Series connected DC-DC converter control ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


A control structure consisting of an inner current loop and This work has been supported by the Regione Piemonte,
an outer voltage loop has been applied to verify the transient Italy, under the research grant C65/2004.
behavior of the series-connected converters. Proportional-and-
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