Search

In this article, a hybrid asynchronous particle swarm optimization-genetic algorithm (APSO-GA) is proposed for the removal of unwanted lower order harmonics in the cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter (MLI). The APSO-GA is applicable to all levels of MLI. In the proposed method, ring topology based APSO is hybrid with GA. APSO is applied for exploration and GA is used for the exploitation of the best solutions. In this article, optimized switching angles are calculated using APSO-GA for seven-level and nine-level inverter, and results are compared with GA, PSO, APSO, bee algorithm (BA), differential evolution (DE), synchronous PSO, and teaching–learning-based optimization (TLBO). Simulation results show that APSO-GA can easily find feasible solutions particularly when the number of switching angles is high; however, the rest of all stuck at local minima due to less exploration capability. Also, the APSO-GA is less computational complex than GA, BA, TLBO, and DE algorithms. Experimentally, the performance of APSO-GA is validated on a single-phase seven-level inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observing present scarcity of fossil fuel and emissions of greenhouse gases, electricity generated from Renewable Energy (RE) sources turns out to be the best alternative for generating the power. In RE system, the inverter is normally used to condition the DC power into AC to meet the requirements of load and transmission system. The inverter offers myriad benefits; however, the presence of harmonics (particularly low-order) in the output voltage affects the efficiency and performance of inverter, causes switching losses and decreases the lifetime of the system. In last three decades, significant research has been done to develop the efficient control technique for eliminating the unwanted harmonics. The preliminary review of existing control techniques revealed that the selective harmonic elimination pulse-width modulation (SHEPWM) is more proficient to eliminate the low-order harmonics. However, non-linear transcendental equations used in this technique pose a challenge to solve particularly for calculus-based methods. With the advent of powerful and low-cost computers, bio-inspired intelligent algorithms (BIAs) seem to be a better approach for solving these complex equations. This review paper presents the detailed principle operation of nine well-known BIAs and discusses their application in inverters for harmonic elimination (HE). Moreover, different objective functions are also discussed in this paper which is used by the researchers for HE. Additionally, the performance of five renowned BIAs, namely, Imperialist Competitive Algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization, Differential Evolution, Bee Algorithm and Genetic Algorithm is critically evaluated. Their performance is analyzed in terms of accuracy, computational complexity, convergence speed, and a number of control parameters. The conclusion has been made on the basis of information extracted from the literature and evaluation results with future recommendations. This single paper covers all the essential information regarding HE in inverters, which will help researchers to design the efficient RE conversion system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel inverter (MLI) topologies play a crucial role in the dc–ac power conversion due to their high-quality performance and efficiency. This article aims to propose a new switched-capacitor-based boost multilevel inverter topology (SCMLI). The proposed topology consists of nine power semiconductor switches with one dc voltage source and two capacitors, capable of generating a nine-level output voltage waveform with twice voltage gain. With the addition of two switches, the proposed topology can be used for higher voltage-gain applications. Other features of the proposed topology include the self-voltage balancing of the capacitors, parallel operation of the capacitors, lower voltage stress across the switches, along with the inherent polarity changing capability. To obtain the high-quality output waveform, a selective harmonic elimination pulsewidth modulation technique is applied. In this technique, the detrimental low-order harmonics can easily be regulated and eliminated from the output voltage of MLI. The proposed topology is compared with the recently introduced SCMLI topologies considering various parameters to set the benchmark of the proposed topology. The performance of the proposed MLI is investigated through various experimental results using a laboratory prototype setup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) are widely used to deliver reliable and high quality power to critical loads under all grid conditions. This paper proposes a high-frequency isolated online UPS system for low power applications. The proposed UPS consists of a single-stage AC-DC converter, boost DC-DC converter, and an inverter. The single-stage AC-DC converter provides galvanic isolation, input power factor correction, and continuous conduction of both input and output current. The low battery bank voltage is stepped up to high dc-link voltage by employing a high voltage gain boost converter, thus allows the reduction of battery bank to only 24 V parallel connected batteries. Operating batteries in parallel improves the battery performance and resolves the issues related to conventional battery banks that arrange the batteries in series combination. The inverter provides regulated output voltage to the load. A new cascaded slide mode (SM) and proportional-resonant (PR) control for the inverter has been proposed, which regulates the output voltage for both linear and non-linear loads. The controller shows excellent performance during load transients and step changes. Besides, the controller for boost converter and AC-DC converter is presented. Operating principle and experimental results of 1 kVA laboratory setup have been presented for the validation of proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Multilevel inverters have been the vital component for the power electronic systems and have been researched extensively to further enhance their performances in terms of topology and their control. In this paper, a new bidirectional single‐phase multilevel inverter module has been proposed with a reduced number of switches along with lower voltage stresses. The proposed module generates 17 levels at the output with 10 unidirectional switches along with four dc voltage sources with two varieties of dc voltage sources. Moreover, for a higher number of levels, the cascade connection of several modules has been discussed in this paper with three different methods for the selection of dc voltage sources. The proposed module has been compared with several similar topologies, which set the benchmark of the proposed one. The operation and performance of the proposed module have been validated through several simulation and experimental results with different types of load considering a change of modulation index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]