Space Vector Modulation Technique for Leakage Current Attenuation in Grid-Connected Three-Phase Multilevel PV Inverters
Leakage current attenuation, space vector modulation, multilevel inverter, photovoltaic systems, capacitor balance
In this work, is proposed a Space Vector Modulation (SVM) based technique for leakage current reduction and capacitor balancing in a grid-connected three-phase multilevel inverter applied to photovoltaic systems. The technique is based on the selection of vector redundancies to ensure the balance and on the definition of a switching sequence that imposes a reduced variation in CMV, in order to decrease the leakage current. The unbalance of the capacitors is limited by a hysteresis band, and its value, together with the direction of the currents of each phase, are used for the appropriate choice of redundancies. In the simulations, a resistor was used in parallel with one of the capacitors of the Direct Current (DC) bus in order to cause a constant disturbance in the balance. The proposed technique preserves the maximum number of levels allowed by the topology in line and phase voltages, thus ensuring reduced values of total harmonic distortion THD. Subsequently, comparisons between the results obtained and other existing techniques are made, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each one of them.