Design Optimization of Grid-Connected PV Inverters

Eftichios Koutroulis, Member, IEEE

Frede Blaabjerg, Fellow, IEEE

Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering

Technical University of Crete
Chania, Greece
efkout@electronics.tuc.gr

Department of Energy Technology

Aalborg University
Aalborg, Denmark
fbl@et.aau.dk
application of these methods for the design of a PV inverter
enables the maximization of the PV energy injected into the
electric grid by the optimized PV installation. The proposed
techniques encompass the influences of the electric grid
regulations and standards and the PV array operational
characteristics on the design of grid-connected PV inverters.

Abstract The DC/AC inverters are the key elements in gridconnected PV energy production systems. In this paper, new
design optimization techniques focused on transformerless
(very high efficiency) PV inverters are proposed. They have
been developed based on an analysis of the deficiencies of the
current, state-of-the-art PV inverters design technology, which
limits the amount of PV energy supplied into the electric grid.
The influences of the electric grid regulations and standards
and the PV array operational characteristics on the design of
grid-connected PV inverters have also been considered. The
simulation results verify that the proposed optimization
techniques enable the maximization of the PV energy injected
into the electric grid by the optimized PV installation.

I.

This paper is organized as follows: the state-of-the-art

PV inverters design issues and constraints are described in
Section I; the application of optimization procedures for the
optimal design of power converters is analyzed in Section II
and the proposed design optimization techniques of PV
inverters are presented in Section III.
II.

INTRODUCTION

Compared to the grid-connected PV inverters that have

galvanic isolation (either on the DC, or the AC side), the
transformerless PV inverters have the advantages of lower
cost, higher efficiency, smaller size and lighter weight [2].
The H-bridge, single-phase with DC decoupling, Refu Solar,
H5, HERIC, NPC, Conergy, H-bridge zero vector rectifier,
three-phase full-bridge and full-bridge with split capacitor
topologies are widely applied in order to built the power
section of transformerless PV inverters since they obtain the
highest efficiency [2-5]. According to the analysis presented
in [3], a different distribution of the power losses among the
power switches is developed in each of these topologies, thus
a different thermal design should be applied in each case. In
order to increase the PV inverter power density, LCL-type
output filters are usually used instead of the L- or LC-type
filters [6]. The drawback of the LCL-type filters is that due
to their inherent resonance frequency, they can produce
stability problems and special control design techniques are
required.

The worldwide-installed Photovoltaic (PV) power

capacity exhibits a nearly exponential increase and the
majority of PV systems are used to supply the generated
energy into the electric grid [1, 2]. A general block diagram
of a grid-connected PV system is illustrated in Fig. 1, using a
DC/AC inverter in order to interface the energy produced by
the PV array into the electric grid. The power section of the
DC/AC inverter is controlled by a control unit. The design of
a PV inverter for a selected application contains the selection
of the appropriate topology and control unit configuration,
while simultaneously it is constrained by limitations and
requirements imposed by grid regulations and standards. The
actual operation of the PV inverter is affected by the PV
array. Metrics such as the power conversion efficiency and
the European efficiency are used to evaluate the
performance of the designed PV inverter [2, 3].
In this paper, three new design optimization techniques
focused on transformerless (very high efficiency) PV
inverters are presented, for the optimal design of the PV
inverter power section and output filter, modulation strategy
and control strategy, respectively. The simultaneous

The control unit is usually developed using DSP and

FPGA ICs [7, 8] for the execution of control and energy
management algorithms (e.g. Maximum Power Point
Tracking-MPPT [9], detection of islanding conditions,
modulation strategies etc.). Due to their high-speed features
and their concurrent processing capability, FPGAs enable a
significant reduction of execution time in the PV inverter
control algorithm.

Fig. 1. The block diagram of a grid-connected PV system.

978-1-4244-8085-2/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

DESIGN ISSUES/CONSTRAINTS

691

The PWM schemes used to control the power switches of

transformerless PV inverters are based on the comparison of
a low-frequency reference sinewave with a high-frequency
triangular wave [10]. Targeting the minimization of the
power switches losses (conduction and switching) and the
equal distribution of these losses among the power switches,
or the minimization of the output voltage Total Harmonic
Distortion (THD), various PWM Strategies for NPC and
Active NPC inverters are investigated in [10-13].

generated energy yield [20]. The PV inverters are designed

to operate over a wide DC input voltage range (e.g. 350V750V) in order to perform the PV array MPPT process under
the continuously varying solar irradiation and ambient
temperature conditions. As shown in Fig. 2(a), both the
power injected into the grid and the PV inverter power loss
vary significantly during the day, although the corresponding
power conversion efficiency of the PV inverter, plotted in
Fig. 2(b), remains relatively constant (average 93.1%). The
stochastically varying meteorological conditions prevailing
at the PV array installation site and the shape of the PV
inverter efficiency vs. output power curves define the actual
energy injected into the electric grid.

In transformerless PV inverters, a leakage ground current

is developed due to the stray capacitance (its value depends
on the environmental conditions) between the PV panels and
ground. The leakage ground current amplitude depends on
the topology of the PV inverter, the modulation (switching)
strategy, the switching frequency and the output filter
components values [14]. The electric grid regulations impose
limits on the maximum permitted leakage ground current
amplitude, since it is a source of electromagnetic
interference, grid current distortion and power losses in the
PV system [15]. The leakage ground current problem is
significant in the case of the full-bridge inverter (both singleand three-phase) [2, 16].

III.

POWER CONVERTERS DESIGN OPTIMIZATION

The objective of a power converter design optimization

procedure is, given the converter topology, to calculate the
converter component types, values and dimensions, which
result in the minimization (or maximization, depending on its
nature) of a certain converter characteristic defined by the
designer (e.g. power loss, power density etc.), while
simultaneously the performance specifications are met [21].
This task is mathematically formulated as follows:

The PV inverter operating efficiency depends on the

power section topology, the output power level (drops by up
to 5% at light load and high DC input voltage [17], due to
the domination of the control unit and switching power
losses in that area), the DC input voltage amplitude (typically
it is reduced by 0.3%-1% per 150 V, depending on the input
power level) and the type and operational characteristics
(conducting and switching) of the components
(semiconductors, magnetic elements and capacitors), which
are used to build the PV inverter [2, 4]. Currently, the stateof-the-art transformerless PV inverters have maximum
power conversion efficiency and European efficiency values
(at the nominal DC input voltage) in the order of 98% and
97%, respectively.

minimize f( X ) or maximize f( X )
X

subject to :
gi ( X )= 0, i = 1,2,..., p

The power system interconnection regulations and

international standards (e.g. IEEE 1547, EN50160 etc.)
impose limitations, which must be considered during the
design of PV inverters [6, 18]. The galvanic isolation
provides enhanced safety features, but the necessity for its
implementation depends on the electric grid codes imposed
by the utility companies in each country [19]. Various
international standards (IEEE 1547, EN50160, IEC61727
and VDE0126-1-1) set limitations on parameters such as the
Total Demand Distortion (TDD %) of the current injected at
the PCC and the corresponding limits of the individual
harmonics, the maximum values of the voltage harmonic
distortion, voltage unbalance, voltage amplitude variations
and frequency variations and the maximum permitted DC
current injection.

hj ( X )

0,

j = 1,2,...,q

(a)

Depending on the PV system installation site potential,

the solar irradiation can exhibit 8% annual energy content
over 1000W/m2 (up to 1550W/m2) [17]. The PV inverter
power rating must be matched to this condition, else the PV
inverter excess output power curtailment function, which is
activated under overloading conditions, reduces the

(b)
Fig. 2. An example of a commercially available PV inverter operation
during a clear-sky day: (a) the output power and power loss variations
and (b) the corresponding power conversion efficiency.

692

where X is an n-dimensional vector of the decision

variables (also stated as design variables) representing the
circuit parameters to be optimally selected (e.g. the values of
components, the switching frequency, the number of turns
etc.), such that the value of function f( X ) is minimized [or
maximized, depending on the nature of f( X ) ], subject to
equality and inequality constraints (related to e.g. the power
converter specifications, performance, physical limitations
etc.), which are represented by the functions gi ( X ) and
h j ( X ) , respectively. The function f( X ) represents the
target of the converter optimization process (e.g. the total
weight, the total power loss etc.). The functions f( X ) ,
gi ( X ) and h j ( X ) are mathematically formulated using
circuit and power loss models describing the operation of the
power converter topology under study.

algorithm was used in order to iteratively modify the

decision variables values until convergence to the optimum
(minimum or maximum depending on its nature) of the
objective function has been achieved. The implementation of
controllers for the maximization of the power converter
efficiency in real-time has been presented in [44-46].
According to the investigation of the existing literature
on the power converter design optimization methods, it is
concluded that each method has been applied to a specific
power converter topology and the nature of the objective
function to be optimized (e.g. power losses, total volume
etc.) has been defined according to the power converter
application field (e.g. power factor correction, electric
vehicle drive etc.). Also, the optimization procedure has
usually been limited to a narrow set of decision variables,
depending on the computational capabilities of the
mathematical tools used to perform the optimization of the
objective function in each case. Thus, the effect of other
important design variables (e.g. the switching frequency) has
either been neglected, or it has been investigated using
sensitivity-analysis techniques, which do no guarantee that
the resulting design is optimal, especially in the case of
highly non-linear objective functions. Using these
techniques, power density increments by a factor of 2-4 [38],
reduction of the packaged power converter volume by 38.3%
[40] and efficiency improvements in the order of 8-20% in
the light to medium load region [46] have been achieved.
However, none of these methods has yet been applied for the
design optimization of PV inverters. Thus, the proposed
techniques presented in the next Section target to exploit the
potential of nonlinear optimization techniques, using
multiple decision variables and equality and/or inequality
constraints, for the optimal design of PV inverters.

An extended survey of the existing literature about the

application of these methods has been performed [22-46].
The optimization of the parameters in a power converter
using a PID controller is explored in [22, 23]. Methodologies
for the optimal design of various power converter types (e.g.
Buck, Boost, Cuk, flyback, full-bridge ZVS-PWM etc.) have
been presented in [24-43]. The alternative types of one or
more of the decision variables used and the objective
functions and optimization algorithms considered in these
methodologies, are listed in Table I. The inputs of the
corresponding optimal design procedures are the power
converter design specifications (e.g. power rating,
input/output voltage range, operating temperature limits,
EMC standards etc.) and the available components electric,
magnetic and thermal characteristics. Then, an optimization
TABLE I.
THE PARAMETERS OF PAST-PROPOSED DESIGN
OPTIMIZATION METHODS FOR POWER CONVERTERS
Decision
variables
Transformer or
inductor:
core size
flux density
current
density
copper size
windings
number
of
turns
core centerleg width
core window
width
Filter values:
capacitance
inductance
Switching
frequency value

Objective functions
Minimized

transformer
power
losses (core
and
winding)
power
converter
weight
power
converter
volume
output filter
size
output filter
cost
transistor
and diode
power
losses
total cost of
the power
converter
components

Maximized

power
conversion
efficiency

IV.

THE PROPOSED DESIGN OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES

OF PV INVERTERS

Optimization
algorithms

In this Section, three techniques for the optimal design of

a PV inverter power section and output filter, modulation
strategy and control strategy, respectively, are presented. The
simultaneous application of these methods for the design of a
PV inverter enables the maximization of the PV energy
injected into the electric grid by the optimized PV
installation.

Gradientbased search
methods
Exhaustive
search
techniques
Monte Carlo
search
methods
Simplex
optimization
algorithm
Genetic
Algorithms
Tabu search
algorithm

A. Optimal design of the PV inverter power section and

output filter
During its operation under the stochastically varying
solar irradiation and ambient temperature conditions, an
ideal PV inverter would be capable of maximizing the
energy injected into the electric grid, with the minimum
possible PV inverter construction and maintenance costs
during its lifetime operation. Thus, a PV inverter design
optimization methodology should embrace optimization at
both the converter-circuit and the circuit-device levels, using
information about the solar irradiation potential of the PV
installation site and the limitations imposed by the electric
grid regulations.

693

A flow-chart of the proposed automated optimization

procedure is illustrated in Fig. 3. Given the PV inverter
specifications and the available components electric,
magnetic and thermal characteristics, the satisfaction of the
PV inverter operational constraints is verified for each set of
the design variables values, using the appropriate
mathematical models of the PV inverter topology under
consideration. Then, the objective function of the design
optimization process is evaluated. If any of the constraints is
not satisfied or the global optimum of the objective function
has not been derived, then a new set of the design variables
values is produced by the optimization algorithm and the
process described above is repeated.

grid-interconnection specifications (e.g. the maximum

permitted harmonic current levels etc.) imposed by grid
codes and international standards,
economic parameters (e.g. annual inflation rate etc.).
The proposed design optimization algorithm calculates the
optimal values of the following design variables:
switching frequency,
power semiconductors type and configuration (e.g. the
number of power MOSFETS connected in parallel),
power switches gate-drive design parameters (i.e. the gate
series resistances during turn-on and turn-off and the gatedrive supply voltage),

The optimization algorithm inputs are the following:

configuration of the PV modules (tilt angle, power rating,
open-circuit voltage etc.),

output filter inductance and capacitance values (depending

on the filter type),

1-min or 1-hour average solar irradiance and ambient

temperature time-series during the year,

output filter inductor magnetic core size (center-leg width

and window width), flux density, current density, copper
size and number of turns,

input/output voltage ranges and the power rating

specifications of the PV inverter,

heat sink dimensions and thermal resistance to the

ambient.

PV inverter topology and modulation strategy,

The optimal values of the design variables are calculated

such that the PV inverter Levelized Cost Of the Electricity
generated (LCOE) is minimized, while simultaneously the
PV inverter specifications and the constraints imposed by the
grid codes and international standards are met. Thus, the PV
inverter design optimization problem is mathematically
formulated as:

price and technical characteristics of the commercially

available power semiconductors used to built the inverter:
the type and model (e.g. MOSFET IRFZ44, IGBT
PM75DSA120, power diode IXYS-DSEP30-06BR etc.)
and the corresponding device-specific characteristics
available in the device datasheet, which define the
switching and conducting behavior of the device,
price and technical characteristics of commercially
available magnetic components and capacitors (in the
format available in the device datasheet) for the
construction of the output filter,

minimize LCOE = minimize

X

Cp
ET

subject to :

EMI specifications,

design specifications & constraints are met

where C p is the present value of the PV inverter total life
cycle costs, ET is the PV inverter total output energy during
its operational lifetime and X is the vector of the decision
(design) variables listed above. Such an objective function
targets to maximize the PV inverter output energy by
minimizing the PV inverter total energy losses, which arise
due to the power losses of the PV inverter components, while
simultaneously the minimum PV inverter cost is achieved.
The PV inverter total cost is calculated as the sum of the
manufacturing cost and the maintenance cost during its
operational lifetime period. The maintenance cost is
estimated by calculating the Mean Time Between Failures of
the designed PV inverter, thus incorporating the PV inverter
reliability in the optimization process. This approach has the
advantage that the exact optimal solution is provided for
each installation site of the PV inverter. However, its
disadvantage is that it is not feasible for the industry to
construct PV inverters dedicated to each installation site. In

Fig. 3. The flow-chart of the proposed optimization procedure.

694

this case, the typical meteorological data of wide

geographical areas could be used, according to a large-scale
geographical classification (e.g. southern Europe, northern
Europe etc.). The objective function minimization process is
performed by iteratively modifying the decision variables
values and evaluating the objective function, until
convergence to the optimum solution is detected. This
procedure is implemented using Genetic Algorithms, which
are capable to derive the global optimum solution of the
objective function with relative computational simplicity.

(a)

As an example, for the solar irradiation conditions

considered in Fig. 2, the switching power loss, Ps (W),
during the day of an IGBT-type power switch used in a 400
V nominal dc input voltage level, single-phase full-bridge
SPWM PV inverter [47] is plotted in Fig. 4, for various
values of the switching frequency, f s and the inverter-side
inductance, L , of the LCL-type output filter. The application
of the proposed optimization methodology for the calculation
of the optimal values f s 15.75 kHz and L 1.2 mH ,
results in a reduction of the daily PV energy dissipated
during the switching action by 9.8%-48.8%, compared to the
application of the suboptimal values of f s and L presented
in Fig. 4, thus increasing the overall PV energy supplied into
the electric grid.

(b)

(c)

B. Optimization of the PV inverter modulation strategy

The single-phase, full-bridge PV inverters [Fig. 5(a)]
have the advantage of higher design simplicity (e.g. lower
number of power switches), but they suffer from high
leakage ground current, which depends on the amplitudes of
the voltage harmonics generated by the PV inverter [14].
Additionally, the PV inverter output voltage THD affects the
output filter type and components values, which must be
used in order to comply with the maximum permitted THD
limitations set by the electric grid regulations. Thus, the
optimal switching angles [ 1 , 2 ,..., n ] of the unipolar
[Fig. 5(b)], or the bipolar [Fig. 5(c)] output voltage
waveform can be calculated, such that the THD (objective

Fig. 5. The single-phase, full-bridge PV inverter: (a) the block

diagram of the configuration, (b) the unipolar output voltage waveform
and (c) the bipolar output voltage waveform.

function) of the single-phase full-bridge PV inverter output

voltage, Vo , is minimized. Since both of these waveforms
exhibit an odd, half-wave symmetry, this optimization
problem is formulated as:
hmax

min

1, 2

,...,

h=2

THD = min
1, 2

,...,

Vh2

V1

subject to the constraints:

0<
i

<

< 90 o
i+1

for i = 1...n

for i = 1...n - 1

where n is the number of distinct angles, hmax is the number

of harmonics, V1 is the rms value of the fundamental and Vh
are the rms values of the individual harmonics, calculated as
follows:
for the unipolar waveform:

Fig. 4. The switching power loss of an IGBT-type power switch in a

single-phase SPWM PV inverter during a clear-sky day for different
values of the design variables.

695

Vh =

4Vd
h

-1

k+1

cos h

k=1

for the bipolar waveform:

Vh =

4Vd
h

1+ 2

-1 cos h

(a)

k=1

where Vd is the full-bridge DC input voltage. The

application of a Genetic Algorithm-based optimization
procedure for the calculation of the optimal switching angles
[ 1 , 2 ,..., n ], which minimize the THD of the full-bridge
inverter output voltage, Vo , according to (3)-(7), with n 10
and hmax = 50 , results in optimal THD values of 28.57%
[unipolar waveform, Fig. 6(a)] and 47% [bipolar waveform,
Fig. 6(b)], which are reduced by approximately 42.8% and
50.5% compared to the unipolar and bipolar, respectively,
SPWM waveforms. The resulting optimal values of the 1
angle in the case of the bipolar waveform with n 10 , is
plotted in Fig. 7. It is observed that the optimal 1 angle
values are highly non-linear. These values can be stored in a
look-up table, implemented in the PV inverter control unit
memory, in order to control the PV inverter operation. For
the bipolar waveform with n 10 , the total memory
required to store the optimal values of [ 1 , 2 ,..., 10 ] with
a 2% resolution of V1 is approximately 28kB.

Fig. 6. The optimal (minimum) THD for each rms value of the
fundamental, in case that n 10 : (a) for the unipolar output voltage
waveform and (b) for the bipolar output voltage waveform.

In order to encompass the impact of the output filter on

the leakage ground current amplitude, the optimization
process described above can be extended such that the
optimal values of the output filter components (L, L-C, or LC-L) are also calculated.

Fig. 7. The resulting optimal values of the

(b)

Pgrid
Ppv

angle in case of the

bipolar waveform with n 10 .

output power, which is injected to the electric grid, is

calculated as follows:

C. Optimization of the PV inverter control strategy

The PV inverters perform an MPPT function
continuously in order to maximize the energy generated by
the PV array. The MPPT schemes applied are based on the
attributes of the PV array current-voltage characteristic. This
leads to PV inverter operation at variable DC input voltage
and power levels, depending on the solar irradiation and
ambient temperature conditions. The PV inverter efficiency,
ninv , varies accordingly:

ninv =

Pgrid = g(f(V pv , G, TA ),V pv ) Ppv

= g(f(V pv , G, TA ),V pv ) f(V pv , G, TA )
= h(V pv , G, TA )
It is observed that the power injected into the electric grid
depends on the PV array output voltage, the solar irradiance
and the ambient temperature. The application of a
conventional MPPT scheme [9] on the PV array powervoltage characteristic (Fig. 8), results in the PV array
operation at point A. However, due to the PV inverter power
conversion efficiency characteristics, the power injected by
the PV inverter into the electric grid is maximized at point B.
In order to operate the PV array under the stochastically
varying meteorological conditions, at the point where the
power injected into the electric grid is maximized (e.g. point
B in Fig. 8), the MPPT process performed by the control unit

= g(Ppv ,V pv )= g(f(V pv , G, TA ),V pv )

where Pgrid (W) is the PV inverter output power, Ppv (W)

and V pv (V) are the PV array output power and voltage,
respectively, G ( W / m 2 ) is the solar irradiance and TA
( o C ) is the ambient temperature. Thus, the PV inverter

696

maximization of the PV energy injected into the electric grid

by the optimized PV installation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Dr. Eftichios Koutroulis thanks his former graduate
student Mr. N. Tsitsopoulos for his contribution during the
development of the optimal THD calculation program code.
REFERENCES

Fig. 8. The power-voltage characteristic of a PV array for MPPT

operation.

[1]

of the PV inverter [48] can be performed using a Perturb &

Observe algorithm, according to the following control law:

[2]

cs,k = cs,k -1 + cs,k -1

cs,k -1 = C sign
where

cs,k -2

sign(

Pgrid,k -1 - Pgrid,k -2
V pv,k -1 - Ppv,k -2

[3]

[4]

cs,k -1 is the control signal (e.g. reference voltage,

reference current etc.) change at step k - 1 , Pgrid,k -1 and

[5]

Pgrid,k -2 are the PV inverter output power levels at steps k - 1

and k - 2 , respectively, C is a constant determining the
speed and accuracy of convergence to the MPP point and the
function sign(x) is defined as:

sign(x) =

1,

[6]

if x ! 0

[7]

-1, if x < 0
[8]

For the solar irradiation conditions considered in Fig. 2, the

application of the proposed MPPT method results in a 6.113
kWh of daily energy to be injected to the grid, which is
increased by 0.22% compared to the injected energy using
the conventional MPPT methods. This method does not
increase the PV inverter cost, since the sensors and signal
conditioning circuits required to measure Pgrid and V pv are
also installed in the PV inverter control unit in order to
implement the conventional control schemes of the PV
inverters.
V.

[9]

[10]

[11]

CONCLUSIONS

The DC/AC inverters are the key elements of the gridconnected PV energy production systems. In this paper, three
new design optimization techniques focused on
transformerless (very high efficiency) PV inverters have
been proposed, which enable the optimal design of the PV
inverters power section and output filter, modulation strategy
and control strategy, respectively. They encompass the
influences of the electric grid regulations and standards and
the PV array operational characteristics on the design of
grid-connected PV inverters. The simulation results verify
that using the proposed optimization techniques results in the

[12]
[13]

[14]

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