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