The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics (전력전자학회논문지)

The Korean Institute of Power Electronics (전력전자학회)
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Lifetime Evaluation of Power Devices of Single-Phase 5-Level NPC Inverters Considering Mission Profile of PV Systems

미션 프로파일을 고려한 단상 5-레벨 태양광 NPC 인버터의 전력 반도체 소자 수명 분석

  • Ryu, Taerim (Dept. of IT Media Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology) ;
  • Choi, Ui-Min (Dept. of Electronic & IT Media Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology)
  • Received : 2021.12.16
  • Accepted : 2022.01.26
  • Published : 2022.06.20
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Abstract

The reliability improvement of PV systems is an important factor in reducing the cost of PV energy because it is closely related to the annual energy production as well as the maintenance cost of PV systems. The reliability of PV inverters plays a key role in the reliability of PV systems because it is regarded as one of the most reliable critical parts of PV systems. The lifetime evaluation of PV inverters considering the mission profile in the design phase plays an important role in reliability design to ensure the required lifetime of PV inverters. In this paper, the lifetime of representative single-phase T-type and I-type NPC inverters are comparatively evaluated by considering the mission profile of a PV system recorded at Iza, Spain. Furthermore, the effect of the pulse width modulation methods on the lifetime is also discussed. The lifetime evaluation of PV inverters is performed at the component-level first and then the system level by considering all power devices.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

이 성과는 정부(과학기술정보통신부)의 재원으로 한국연구재단의 지원을 받아 수행된 기초연구사업임. (No. 2019R1F1A1057164)

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