• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.261-270
• /
• 2015

In this paper, the Optimal Harmonic Stepped Waveform (OHSW) method is proposed in order to eliminate the selective harmonic orders available at the output of cascaded multilevel inverter (CMLI) fed by solar photovoltaic (SPV). This technique is used to solve the harmonic elimination equations based on stepped waveform analysis in order to obtain the optimal switching angles which in turn reduce the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). The OHSW method considers the output voltage waveform as four equal symmetries in each half cycle. In the proposed method, a solar fed fifteen level cascaded multilevel is considered where the magnitude of six numbers of harmonic orders is reduced. A programmable pulse generator is developed to carry the switching angles directly to the semiconductor switches obtained as a result of OHSW analysis. Simulations are carried out in MATLAB/Simulink in which a separate model is developed for solar photovoltaic which serves as the input for cascaded multilevel inverter. A 3kWp solar plant with multilevel inverter system is implemented in hardware to show the effectiveness of the proposed system. Based on the observation the OHSW method provides the reduced THD thereby improving power quality in renewable energy applications.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.171-180
• /
• 2008

One of the major problems in electric power quality is the harmonic contents. There are several methods of indicating the quantity of harmonic contents. The most widely used measure is the total harmonic distortion (THD). Various switching techniques have been used in static converters to reduce the output harmonic content. This paper presents and compares the two harmonic optimization techniques, known as optimal minimization of the total harmonic distortion (OMTHD) technique and optimized harmonic stepped-waveform (OHSW) technique used in multi-level inverters with unequal dc sources. Both techniques are very effective and efficient for improving the quality of the inverter output voltage. First, we describe briefly the cascaded H-bridge multi-level inverter structure. Then, we present the switching algorithm for the inverter based on OHSW and OMTHD techniques. Finally, the results obtained for the two techniques are analyzed and compared. The results verify the effectiveness of the both techniques in multi-level voltage-source inverter with non-equal dc sources, clarifying the advantages of each technique.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.545-551
• /
• 2010

A new family of DC to AC converters, referred to as multilevel inverter, has received much attention from industries and researchers for its high power and voltage applications. One of the conventional techniques for implementing the switching algorithm in these inverters is optimized harmonic stepped waveform (OHSW). However, the major problem in using this technique is eliminating low order harmonics by solving the nonlinear and complex equations. In this paper, a new approach called the "bacterial foraging algorithm" (BFA) is employed. This algorithm eliminates and optimizes the harmonics in a multilevel inverter. This method has higher speed, precision, and convergence power compared with the genetic algorithm (GA), a famous evolutionary algorithm. The proposed technique can be expanded in any number of levels. The purpose of optimization is to remove some low order harmonics, as well as to ensure the fundamental harmonic retained at the desired value. As a case study, a 13-level inverter is chosen. The comparison results by MATLAB software between the two optimization methods (BFA and GA) have shown the effectiveness and superiority of BFA over GA where convergence is desired to achieve global optimum.