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Inverter topologies and control structure in photovoltaic applications: A review

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DOI: 10.1063/1.3505096

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 JOURNAL OF RENEWABLE AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY 3, 012701 共2011兲

Inverter topologies and control structure in photovoltaic

applications: A review
Savita Nema, R. K. Nema, and Gayatri Agnihotri
Department of Electrical Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology,
Bhopal 91426051, India
共Received 19 March 2010; accepted 25 September 2010; published online 13 January 2011兲

The inverter is an integral component of the power conditioning unit of a photo-

voltaic power system and employs various dc/ac converter topologies and control
structure. It has to meet various international standards before it can be put in
commercial use. The function of inverter in distributed power generation system on
top of photovoltaic generation includes dc-ac conversion, output power quality
assurance, various protection mechanisms, and system controls. The requirements
in terms of low cost, high efficiency, high reliability, and tolerance over wide range
of input voltage variations have driven the inverter development toward simpler
topologies, lower component counts, and tighter modular design. Historically, the
inverters employed in PV technology may be classified based on number of power
processing stages, type of power decoupling, types of interconnection between the
stages, and types of grid interface. Based on power processing stage, the inverter
may be classified as single stage and multiple stage inverters. This paper presents a
comprehensive review of various inverter topologies and control structure em-
ployed in PV applications with associated merits and demerits. The paper also gives
the recent trends in the development of PV applications. © 2011 American Institute
of Physics. 关doi:10.1063/1.3505096兴

I. EVOLUTION OF PHOTOVOLTAIC INVERTERS

The photovoltaic 共PV兲 generation is a technique of converting solar radiation or photon energy
into direct current electricity using semiconductor material that exhibit photovoltaic effect. The
International Energy Agency has numerated photovoltaic applications into four categories,1
namely, off grid domestic, off grid nondomestic, grid connected distributed, and grid connected
centralized. Broadly speaking, the first two applications may be put under the category of stand-
alone system and the last two applications under grid connected system. The grid connected
centralized systems carry forward the philosophy of conventional centralized power system or
typically installed for strengthening the utility distribution system, whereas grid connected distrib-
uted system is relatively a recent application where a PV system is installed to supply power to a
building or other load that is also connected to the utility grid.
With the concept of smart building coming up, the PV units will become a standard compo-
nent integrated in electrical systems of residential and commercial building. The PV inverter will
just become another unit working together with all electrical equipment connected by a bus system
and optimally controlled by an energy management system. As the PV system has a highly
modular structure, therefore many possible configurations are available in which the PV inverter
may be connected. The emerged configurations are designated as central inverter, string inverter,
multistring inverter, and ac cell/module.2 These configurations are shown in Figs. 1共a兲 and 1共b兲.
Series connected modules form a string and each such string generates sufficiently high
voltage to avoid further amplification as in centralized inverter of Fig. 1共a兲共iii兲. The power level is
achieved by connecting these strings in parallel through string diode and the arrangement forms an
array. The array is interfaced with ac grid through a centralized inverter. The limitations of such
configuration are high voltage dc cable between PV modules and centralized inverter, mismatch

1941-7012/2011/3共1兲/012701/23/$30.00 3, 012701-1 © 2011 American Institute of Physics

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 012701-2 Nema, Nema, and Agnihotri J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

AC
L1 N
Module

PV STRING
String oriented
Inverter
AC Grid

DC-DC
230 V

CONVERTER
OF
MPPT INVERTER
Central AC
Inverter GRID
DC BUS
CONTROL
UNIT

(a) (b)

FIG. 1. PV inverter configuration. 共a兲 Central inverter, string inverter, ac module. 共b兲 Multistring inverter.

losses between PV modules, losses in string diodes, losses in centralized inverter, and nonflexible
design. In addition, the grid connected inverter in such configuration is line commutated, therefore
injects current harmonics leading to poor power quality and difficult to cope with emerging
stringent standards.
With the limitations listed above, the centralized inverter concept is given up and instead of
having a single inverter for the array, each string in the array has its own dedicated inverter. One
such string with dedicated inverter is shown in Fig. 1共a兲共ii兲. No losses are associated with string
diodes and a separate MPP tracker 共MPPT兲 for each string leads to higher efficiency. MPP stands
for Maximum power point. It is a unique point on voltage-power 共V-P兲 characteristics of a PV
source corresponding to which, the maximum power is delivered to load for given operating
conditions of solar insolation and temperature. To avoid mismatch losses in the string, the unitary
concept has led to development of ac modules of Fig. 1共a兲共i兲, wherein the inverter is integrated
with module at the time of fabrication and PV output is no more dc. The ac output can now be
directly synchronized with the grid. The other features include “plug and play” operation, high
power quality due to self commutated dc-ac inverter, and reduced cost due to mass production.
The multistring inverter of Fig. 1共b兲 has individual MPPT control but interfaced with the grid
through a centralized inverter. The capacity addition is simple as the new string with its own
MPPT control can be plugged into an existing platform leading to a flexible design with high
efficiency.
The above classification of inverter does not reveal any specific information about the topol-
ogy and control employed therein. Another broad classification of PV inverters is based on the
number of power processing stages employed. The solar inverters from the viewpoint of power
processing stage may be broadly classified as single stage inverter and multiple stage inverter. The
conceptual block diagram is given in Figs. 2共a兲–2共c兲.
The single stage inverter of Fig. 2共a兲 is assigned with all tasks of PV power processing that
includes maximum power point loading, dc/ac conversion, grid synchronization, and current con-
trol with requisite voltage amplification. Figure 2共b兲 depicts the scheme of multiple stage inverter,
wherein the task of maximum power point loading is taken care by dc-dc converter and the
subsequent stage of dc-ac conversion does rest as needed for grid synchronization and current
control. Depending on the control of dc-ac inverter, the dc output of previous stage of dc-dc
converter is either a pure dc 共dc-dc converter is now designed to handle the nominal power兲 or

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 012701-3 Inverter topologies and control structure J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

DC
PV
DC

Grid Grid
DC Grid DC DC DC DC
PV PV PV
AC DC AC DC AC
(a) (b) (c)

FIG. 2. 共a兲 Single power processing inverter. 共b兲 Dual power processing inverter. 共c兲 Dual stage inverter.

modulated to have output current as sine wave. Apart from the above broad classification as single
and multiple stages, there are other possible ways in which PV inverter may further be classified,
as depicted in the tree chart of Fig. 3.

II. SINGLE STAGE INVERTER

The single stage inverter has a matrix of power electronics switches within, which are sequen-
tially or combinatorially put on, as to have a requisite synthesized output both in shape and
magnitude. The single stage inverter may be further classified as 共1兲 buck inverter, 共2兲 boost
inverter, and 共c兲 buck-boost inverter.
All these power circuits are switching converters in which the semiconductor device switches
at a rate that is fast compared to the variation of input and output waveforms. In early days, the
inverters employed in modular PV system used a cascade of a two converter circuit for boosting
and inversion, respectively. The cascade arrangement is not very efficient. The starting point for
the development of new topologies which are able to avoid cascades was the circuit and a two port
theory.3 Figure 4 depicts two such ways of connecting two ports: parallel/series connection or
parallel/parallel connection. Each two port is responsible for generating a half sine wave. In
stand-alone applications, the two ports need to be bidirectional in order to transport power in both
directions. The simplification in topology can be achieved for grid connected operation where the
bidirectional power flow can be dispensed with.
In Fig. 4, the converter with buck, boost, or buck-boost characteristics is connected either in
parallel/series or in parallel/parallel. Apart from these, other converter topologies such as Cuk,
zeta, flyback, and push pull also qualify for connection. Note that the same PV source has to be
used; therefore, input ports are connected in parallel. Now, the possibilities of connecting output
ports either in series or in parallel result in two possible configurations of Figs. 4共a兲 and 4共b兲. As

PV INVERTER

SINGLE STAGE MULTIPLE STAGE

Buck Boost Buck-Boost DC-DC-AC DC-AC-DC- DC-AC-AC

Inverter Inverter Inverter AC

04 06 04 06 04 06
Switch Switch Switch Switch Switch Switch
Topology Topology Topology Topology Topology Topology

Iso- Non-Iso Iso- Non-Iso Iso- Non-Iso

lated lated lated lated lated lated

High Line High Line High Line

Freq Freq Freq Freq Freq Freq

FIG. 3. Tree chart depicting classification of single phase inverter.

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 012701-4 Nema, Nema, and Agnihotri J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

Converter with Converter with

Buck/Boost V1 Buck/Boost V1
Characteristics Characteristics
PV PV
ARRAY ARRAY

VN VN

Converter with Converter with

Buck/Boost V2 Buck/Boost V2
Characteristics Characteristics

(a) (b)

FIG. 4. Possible two port connection: 共a兲 parallel/series, 共b兲 parallel/parallel.

the output of zeta or Cuk converter behaves like a current source, it is possible to connect their
output side in series. On the other hand, topologies derived from converters with high frequency
transformers evolve through parallel/parallel connection, so that the same transformer core can be
used. In these topologies, two more switches are required for changing polarity. As the control of
reactive load is more complex with these topologies, they are not suitable for stand-alone system.
Table I enumerates some of these topologies.
The soft switching at high frequency employed with these converter topologies is a promising
way to reduce the size of new converter. With increased switching frequency, the size of inductive
and capacitive elements gets reduced, but switching losses increase, which may be reduced by soft
methods such as zero voltage or zero current switching.
All PV inverters, whether single stage or otherwise, must guarantee that PV module共s兲 is
operated at MPP, which is the operating condition where most energy is captured. This task is
done by MPPT. The ripple caused at the terminals of PV source due to fluctuations in power
around MPP should be sufficiently small. Calculations show that the ripple voltage should be
below 8.5% of the MPP voltage in order to reach a utilization ratio of 98%. This is explained by
Kjaer et al.4 by giving an example that “a PV module with MPP voltage of 35 V should have a
voltage ripple below 3.0 V in order to have a utilization ratio of 98%.” In fact, the power injected
into the grid follows a sine wave raised to second power 关sin2共␻t兲兴, for which reason the inverter
must contain a power decoupling device. Normally, an electrolytic capacitor is used as a power
decoupling device. This component is the main limiting factor of the inverter lifetime. Thus, it
should be kept as small as possible, substituted with film capacitors. The capacitor is either placed
in parallel with the PV modules or in the dc link between the inverter stages.
The primary objective of single stage topologies is to minimize the component count so as to
have better efficiency with size and cost reduction.

TABLE I. Comparison of different inverter topologies: INV= Inverter, C = Cuk, Ze= Zeta, F = Flyback, PP= Push pull.

Switches employed

Topology Number Stress Remarks

Inverter-Cuk 共Inv-C兲 4 Ue+ Ua Grid connected

Ie+ Ia Stand-alone
Inverter-Zeta 共INV-Ze兲 4 Ue+ Ua Grid connected
Ie+ Ia Stand-alone
Inverter-Flyback 共INV-F兲 3+2 2Ue+ 2Ua Grid connected
Ie, Ia
Inverter-Push pull 共INV-PP兲 6+2 2Ue+ 2Ua Grid connected
Ie, Ia

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 012701-5 Inverter topologies and control structure J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

S1 S2

DC
input
C
source
S4 Rload S3

(a) Traditional full bridge Buck Inverter

S1 S2 S1 S2
DC Rload DC L/2 Rload L/2
input AC input
source C output source
2 2
S4 S3 S4 C C S3

IA
(b) Traditional full bridge Buck Inverter (c) Buck Inverter based on DC/DC Converter

FIG. 5. 关共a兲–共c兲兴 Topologies of buck inverter.

A. Buck inverter
The traditional full bridge buck converter5 is shown in Fig. 5共a兲 and is an extension of the
concept of parallel/series connection of Fig. 4共a兲. One buck converter is formed by the traditional
complimentary switches of 共S1,S4兲 in the same leg, and S3 in the other leg, as shown by the dotted
box in Fig. 5共a兲. The switches S1,S4 in the same leg are complimentary switches and ensure the
canonical switch function of buck converter, whereas S3 is to be closed concurrently with S1 to
complete the current path through load. Effectively, simultaneous closing of 共S1,S3兲 gives an
output across the load, say, “positive” such that node “A” is at higher potential than node “B.” The
other buck converter is formed by switches 共S2,S3兲 and S4, where 共S2,S3兲 in the same leg are
complimentary switches and emulate the canonical switch function of buck converter, whereas
switch S4 is to be closed concurrently with switch S2, so that the waveform of the negative half
across the load is synthesized leaving node B now positive than node A contrary to earlier switch
operation, resulting in negative output now across the load, Rload.
The simultaneous closing of switches 共S1,S3兲 in first buck converter and 共S2,S4兲 in second
buck converter in fact follows the paradigm of conventional bridge operation, as shown in Fig.
5共b兲. It may be seen that either buck converter is fed through the same source; therefore, the input
side is connected in parallel, whereas the load is connected differentially and the output across the
load is a superimposed waveform of either buck converter. This makes the output side to be
connected in series and thereby emulates the parallel/series connection of Fig. 4共a兲. As the inverter
follows the working principle of buck converter, therefore the output voltage is always less than
the input voltage. The inverter output is a square wave, which is then filtered by a low pass LC
filter to recover fundamental sine waveform across the load, with the difference that the output
voltage here is a sine wave and not the unipolar.
Two bidirectional dc/dc converter is used to formulate the topology of Fig. 5共c兲 where load is
connected differentially across the converter.6 The topology reduces to that of traditional topology
in Fig. 5共b兲 if IA is zero. The gain of the converter is related with the duty cycle as

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 012701-6 Nema, Nema, and Agnihotri J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

E11 Two Port 1 Two Port 2 E21

Rload Rload

S2 S4
S2 S4
L L
DC L L
A11 A21
C1 C2
input C1 C2
source
S1
Vin S3
S1 S3
A12 A22

E12 Boost 1 Boost 2 E22

(a) Boost Inverter based on DC/DC Converter (b) Boost Inverter as cascade Parallel/Series Two Port Network

FIG. 6. Four switch boost inverter by Caceres and Barbi.

Vo = Va − Vb = d · Vin − 共1 − d兲 · Vin ,

V0
= 2 · d − 1,
Vin
and

Vin
IL = 共2 · d − 1兲 · .
R
The above expression shows that the output voltage will be zero for d = 0.5 and is always less
than the input voltage, a basic property of buck type converter.

B. Boost inverter
The boost inverter is capable of generating output ac voltage larger than dc input voltage. The
power stages in boost inverter have two bidirectional converters and the load is connected differ-
entially across them. It is again an extension of concept of parallel/series connection of Fig. 4共a兲.
A nonisolated boost inverter by Caceres and Barbi7 is shown in Fig. 6共a兲. The power stage consists
of two bidirectional boost converters and the load is connected differentially across them. Each
converter is modulated to produce unipolar dc biased sine output 180° out of phase with the other,
so that the synthesized output across the load is a pure sine wave. A sliding mode control is
employed to optimize inverter dynamics. The output voltage is given by the expressions

V0 2·d−1
= .
Vin d · 共1 − d兲
The boost inverter is again an extension of a two port network with two boost converters
connected in parallel/series connection. The first boost converter “Boost1” has an input port
共A11 , A12兲 and the second boost converter has an input port 共A21 , A22兲 connected in parallel with
the same input source Vin, as shown in Fig. 6共b兲. The load is connected differentially across two
ports 共E11 , E21兲 forming a series connection in the output making overall topology as parallel/
series connection of Fig. 4共a兲. The switches 共S1 , S2兲 in the same leg form the canonical switch
function of boost converter 1, i.e., Boost 1, and switches 共S3 , S4兲 form the canonical switch
function of boost converter 2, i.e., Boost 2.
The buck and boost converter described in this section are examples of direct converter,
implying that there is a direct dc path between the source and the load in one or other state of
canonical buck/boost switch. In contrast, the buck-boost converter of the next section, as we will
see, falls under the category of indirect converter.

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 012701-7 Inverter topologies and control structure J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

E21 Buck-Boost 1
A22 A12 Buck -Boost 2 E11

S3 S1 S3 S1
Vin Vin
L L L L

A21 A11
C2 C1
S4 V1 V2 S2 S4 S2
C2 C1
Vo

Rload Rload
Two Port 1 Two Port 2 E12
E22
(a) Buck Boost (b) Buck Boost Inverter as cascade Parallel/Series Two Port
Inverter Network

T1 T2
D1 S2 S1
D2 D1 L
L1 C AC
C1 L2 L1
C

L2
C2 S4 S3
D2
T3 T4
(c) Four Switch buck-boost inverter (d) Four switch resonant buck-boost inverter

LAC
GRID

CAC! PV CAC2
T1 T2
SAC1 SDC1 SDC2 SAC2

(e) Four Switch Bidirectional buck-boost inverter

FIG. 7. 关共a兲 and 共b兲兴 Buck-boost inverter topologies. 关共c兲 and 共e兲兴 Some more single stage buck-boost inverter topologies.

C. Buck-boost inverter
The buck-boost inverter works on the principle of indirect converter and in none of the
switching state, the load receives direct feed from the input source. The buck-boost inverter8,56
generates ac output voltage either lower or higher than the dc input voltage. Two buck-boost
converters are connected in parallel with a common dc input source and the output is obtained by
connecting the load differentially across the converters. A buck-boost inverter is shown in Fig. 7共a兲
and represented as two port network cascaded as parallel/series configuration in Fig. 7共b兲.
Other variants of buck-boost inverter topologies are also available in the literature. An alter-
native buck-boost inverter by Kasa et al.9 is shown in Fig. 7共c兲. It makes use of split dc/PV power
source and is proposed for residential PV application with MPPT. An isolated version of buck-
boost inverter with bidirectional feature is proposed by Kaer et al.10 with a major benefit of
galvanic isolation by high frequency transformer but costly because of the use of two transform-
ers. The topology is shown in Fig. 7共e兲. In order to reduce switching losses, Wang11 proposed a

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 012701-8 Nema, Nema, and Agnihotri J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

TABLE II. Summary of single stage buck-boost topology.

Dual grounding and Grid connected/ Reported

Figure No. Power decoupling isolation capability stand-alone operation capability application

Figure 7共a兲 Large input electrolytic No, nonisolated Stand-alone reported and UPS
capacitor or small grid connected expected
intermediate film capacitors
Figure 7共c兲 Large input electrolytic capacitor Yes, nonisolated Grid connected only PV
Figure 7共d兲 Small intermediate film capacitors Yes, isolated Grid connected reported and PV
stand-alone expected
Figure 7共e兲 Large input electrolytic capacitor No, nonisolated Stand-alone reported and UPS
grid connected expected

resonant buck-boost inverter of Fig. 7共d兲, which is operated in discontinuous conduction mode. All
above inverter circuits belong to the category of four switch topologies. A short summary of
buck-boost topologies is presented in Table II.
There are also few topologies of buck-boost inverter which make use of six switches in place
of four switches of earlier topologies. Two additional switches are used either for synchronous
commutation in each half cycle of the ac output such as in Ref. 12, or for the purpose of grounding
of grid and PV module such as in Ref. 13. The transformerless topology of Ref. 13 qualifies for ac
module because of its compactness. These topologies are shown in Figs. 8共a兲 and 8共b兲.
In addition to aforementioned topologies, Myrzik also derived single stage boost or buck-
boost nonisolated topologies and isolated five switch topologies in Ref. 14 by connecting a pair of

LAC

Q1 Q2

T1
Q1' Q2'
PV CF

Q2 Q1 GRID
C

(a) Six Switch isolated buck-boost inverter [17]

A L2

E
B

PV C L1 C C GRID
C
F

(b) Six Switch buck-boost inverter [18]

FIG. 8. 关共a兲 and 共b兲兴 Six switch buck-boost topology.

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 012701-9 Inverter topologies and control structure J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

Two Port 1 Two Port 2

S11 S21
UA
1/2L2 1/2L2

Vin UE<UA C2
C1 C1

S11 S22
L1 L1

Zeta 1 Zeta 2

Zeta Inverter with Parallel/Series Connection [19]

FIG. 9. Topology using two zeta converters.

Cuk converters, zeta converters, or D2 converters in parallel-series or parallel/parallel connection.

A topology that evolved using two zeta converters is shown in Fig. 9. The new inverters can be
employed with stand-alone or grid connected PV system.
As a concluding remark, the following features of buck-boost inverter can be noted:
共i兲 Compact design due to elimination of low frequency transformer.
共ii兲 Good efficiency and low cost.
共iii兲 Limited power capacity.
共iv兲 Compromised output quality.
共v兲 Limited operation range imposed to dc sources.
共vi兲 Current in the main switch is a discontinuous triangular pulse.
共vii兲 Excessive peak current stresses on power switches with increasing power capacity.

Because of the limitations of single stage inverter such as 共iii兲–共v兲 and 共vii兲, multiple stage
inverters are often used in applications where high power, high performance, and wide input
voltage range are required. The multiple stage inverter review, as found in the literature, is briefly
described in Sec. III.

III. MULTIPLE STAGE INVERTER

The conceptual block diagram of multiple stage inverter in PV application is shown in Fig.
2共b兲. The multiple stage topologies are basically a two stage inverter in which the first stage is a
dc/dc converter used to optimally load the PV array at its MPP. The subsequent stage is a dc/ac
inverter which controls the grid/load current by means of a pulse width modulation or bang-bang
control in isolated/nonisolated operation.
The isolation can be achieved either by means of a high frequency transformer or using a line
frequency transformer toward the grid. Modern inverters tend to use a high frequency transformer
due to accrued benefit of size reduction. The size reduction results in a new design such as printed
circuit board 共PCB兲 integrated magnetic components. Normally, grounding of PV modules is not
required if the maximum output voltage is below 50 V.4 For such low PV voltages, voltage
amplification is achieved using a high frequency transformer, which provides isolation as well. A
normal full bridge inverter cannot be used as grid interface when both the input and the output of
the inverter are to be grounded.4
The voltage source inverter 共VSI兲 and current source inverter 共CSI兲 are two well known
fundamental power conversion circuits and the expected output voltage is a sine waveform due to
pulse width modulation 共PWM兲 operation and filter. To achieve VSI operation the relationship

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 012701-10 Nema, Nema, and Agnihotri J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

L2
L D6

T1 D1 T3 D3 T5 D6 T1 T2
LAC
T5 D5 240V
CS L1
AC PV C Df
C8 C
AC

T4 D4 T2 D5 T6 T4 T3
D2

(a) Two stage boost inverter [20] (b)Two stage non isolated buck-boost inverter [24]
10 (a-b): Examples of Multiple stage topologies (DC-DC-AC)

Lf
S6 S1 S2 Sflyback Cf
Dfb1 1 SAC1
Ssynchronou AC
PV 240V 1:n:n
C Z s
L
Cin Cs
S5
PV
Cs S3 S4
Ls
Sbuck-boost Dfb2 SAC2
S0

Sflyback
(c)Two stage buck-boost inverter [25] (d) An isolated flyback buck-boost
2 inverter [26] - [27]

FIG. 10. 关共a兲 and 共b兲兴 Examples of multiple stage topologies 共dc-dc-ac兲. 关共c兲 and 共d兲兴 Examples of multiple stage topolo-
gies 共dc-dc-ac兲.

Vo共peak兲 ⱕ Edc holds good, implying that the dc input voltage 共Edc兲 must be higher than the desired
peak output voltage Vo共peak兲. This constraint originates from the performance of VSI, which is
based on the operation as buck converter.
On the other hand, for CSI operation the relationship Vo共peak兲 ⬎ Edc holds good. This implies
that to achieve CSI operation the peak output ac voltage must be greater than the dc input voltage.
This constraint originates from the performance of CSI which is based on the operation as boost
converter.
Most practical inverters in PV application are based on VSI principle. Broadly speaking, the
multiple stage converters may be classified as 共a兲 dc-dc-ac topologies, 共b兲 dc-ac-dc-ac topologies,
and 共c兲 dc-ac-ac topologies.4,15

A. dc-dc-ac topologies
An example of dc-dc-ac topology is shown in Fig. 10共a兲. An elevated dc voltage with tolerable
ripple is obtained in the preceding boost stage, which is inverted in succeeding stage, which is
high frequency PWM buck output stage.16 There is no need to synchronize between two stages
and the output power is usually controlled in second stage. Alternatively, for the same topology,
the first stage can be controlled in such a way as to give a rectified sine wave output at the dc link,
then the following stage will simply unfold into a line frequency ac output such as in Refs. 17–19.
Another two stage nonisolated buck-boost inverter is described by Saha et al.,20 which oper-
ates for dc input voltage less than 100 V with limited dc voltage variation range and conversion
ratio. The second stage of topology is a CSI that operates at line frequency to implement half-
wave inversion, as shown in Fig. 10共b兲.
To expand the dc input range without using a high frequency transformer, a capacitor is added
in the charging loop of energy storage device to form a buck-boost inverter21 of Fig. 10共c兲. This

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 012701-11 Inverter topologies and control structure J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

Rectified Output Unfolding Bridge

Lf
M1 M2 M1 M2
D1 D2
HF Xmer
Cf
PV

T1 Low Pass
M4 M3 D4 D3 M4 M3 Filter

DC/AC Conversion AC/DC Conversion DC/AC Conversion

(a): Three Stage PV Inverter with DC Link having Rectifier in II Stage followed by LPF
Rectified Output Unfolding Bridge

M1 M2 M1 M2
D1 D2
HF Xmer
Pseudo DC
PV Link
T1 Low Pass
M4 M3 D3 M4 M3
D4 Filter

DC/AC Conversion AC/DC Conversion DC/AC Conversion

(b): Three Stage PV Inverter with DC Link having Rectifier in II Stage but No LPF

Rectified Output Unfolding Bridge

Lf
M1 M2 M1 M2
D1 D2
HF Xmer

PV

T1 Low Pass
M4 M3 D4 D3 M4 M3 Filter

DC/AC Conversion AC/DC Conversion DC/AC Conversion

(c): Three Stage PV Inverter with DC Link having Rectifier in II Stage and CSI in Final Stage

FIG. 11. 关共a兲–共c兲兴 Different variants of dc-ac-ac-dc topology.

inverter can operate with a good response even if a dc source voltage fluctuates from nearly zero
voltage level to a level exceeding the output voltage. This is certainly obtained at the cost of more
complex operations and additional switching components.
A topology making use of a small intermediate capacitor, which is used as an energy buffer,
is presented by Shimizu et al.22 and Kjaer23 and is shown in Fig. 10共d兲. The power is processed in
three stages of a switching cycle and the output voltage is composed of a dc component and ac
component alternating at twice the frequency of the load.

B. dc-ac-dc-ac topologies
The middle term put under the brackets forms a dc link for topology dc-共ac-dc兲-ac converter.
A dc link makes constant dc voltage available from a source of varying dc voltage before being
put into inversion. Three different variants24–26 of the topology are shown in Figs. 11共a兲–11共c兲.
These topologies are compared in Table III below.

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 012701-12 Nema, Nema, and Agnihotri J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

TABLE III. dc-ac-ac-dc topologies at a glance.

Dual grounding
Grid connected/ and isolation
Figure No. First inverter Rectifier Final inverter stand-alone capability

Figure 11共a兲 Boost and invert LPF gives rectified Unfold to give sine wave Both Yes, isolated
using SPWM sine wave as output as output
technique
Figure 11共b兲 -do- No LPF, sine modulated Unfold+ filter to Grid connected Yes, isolated
pulse train give sine wave
as output as output
Figure 11共c兲 -do- -do- CSI Grid connected Yes, isolated

C. dc-ac-ac topologies
In such topologies, both stages of inverter give an ac output with the difference that the second
output is bidirectional. The topology27 is therefore suitable for stand-alone applications, where the
provision of power flow from the output side to the input side is a requisite. One such topology is
shown in Fig. 12.
A similar topology has been presented by Koutroulis et al.28 for designing low cost and
lightweight sinusoidal power inverter, which produces a low distortion output voltage less than
2%, with good load regulation and relatively high efficiency of 85% in an output power range of
75–200 W, having a bidirectional feature such that with an inductive load the reactive power is
transferred back to the dc input source. The inverter is controlled by two minimum time feedback
loops.

IV. CONTROL STRUCTURE

A. Single stage inverter
The control structure of a single phase single stage inverter is nicely described by Ciobotaru
et al.29 and is shown in Fig. 13. The overall control structure of Fig. 13 can be distinctly divided
to perform 共i兲 synchronization using phase locked loop 共PLL兲, 共ii兲 input power control, 共iii兲 MPPT
control, and 共iv兲 grid side control.
The PLL is used to recover the phase angle information from the utility to provide a unity
power factor operation, which implies synchronization of inverter output current with grid voltage,
and to provide a sinusoidal current reference. The overall PLL structure is assigned the task of
assessing the amplitude and frequency of grid voltage and keeping track of it.
Input power control uses power feedforward. For this purpose, it needs to have information of
PV power on dc side and amplitude of grid voltage on ac side. With phase angle information

S11 S11
M1 M2
HF Xmer S12 S12

PV ZL

T1 S11 S11
M4 M3

S12 S12
DC/AC Conversion
FIG. 12. Bidirectional dc-ac-ac converter 共Ref. 27兲.

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 012701-13 Inverter topologies and control structure J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

+ U L
I DC LCL Ig
Full Bridge
Low Ug
PV String C U DC Inverter Grid
Pass
VSI-PWM
Filter
- V N

PWM
DRIVER
PDC Pdc ∗ 2 Iˆref
X
U gRMS dc + 1 − dc + 1
2 2

I DC
U DC ref
ε I d+ Iˆ*ref I ref ε U ref dc
MPPT P
+ X PR
U DC + - + -I g U DC
U DC DC Sinθ Current
Voltage Controller
+ Controller PLL
Ug

(a)

Ipv io is vs
Lo

Lf
Ci

kpwm Z
Gch
Cf Im
+ + Gvs
+
VDC
Gcc
Ipv
Gfd
MPPT Gvf
- io
Controller io + + il
Vref
- is* +
+ Gvci PLL
Fixed Im sin(wst)
Voltage Vcref
(b)

FIG. 13. 共a兲 Control structure of single phase single stage inverter 共Ref. 29兲. 共b兲 Control structure of single phase single
stage inverter 共Ref. 30兲.

recovered from PLL, the input power control updates the value of current amplitude reference.
The feedforward improves the dynamic of PV system as MPPT control is rather slow. The single
stage inverter performs MPP tracking without dc/dc converter based on instantaneous value of
current and voltage on PV side and outputs a dc voltage reference Udcref.
The proportional integral 共PI兲 control gives a zero steady state error with dc reference, but in
the application where sine reference is to be tracked, such as on the grid side control, a
proportional-resonant 共PR兲 control has better performance. A harmonic controller with PR control
action is used to compensate for selected third, fifth, and seventh harmonics as they are the most
predominant harmonics in the current spectrum.
Another single stage controller proposed by Kuo et al.30 is shown in Fig. 13共b兲. The power
circuit is the buck inverter of Fig. 5共b兲 with a decoupling capacitor on the input side and inductive
filter on the grid side. The single stage PV inverter is controlled so as to supply power to the local

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 012701-14 Nema, Nema, and Agnihotri J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

INPUT SIDE CONTROL GRID SIDE CONTROL

PV DC/DC DC/AC
ARRAY CONVERTER CONVERTER
GRID
MPPT ENERGY POWER CONVERTERs
ISOLATION OUTPUT
CONTROL STORAGE FILTER

FIG. 14. General structure of grid connected residential PV system.

load and supply surplus power with unity power factor to the utility line. As there is no dc/dc
converter for MPPT, the single stage dc/dc conversion system must be operated so as to track the
MPP of PV array. The microcontroller 89C51 is used for MPPT by computing a vref by MPPT
algorithm resembling incremental conductance. The difference in two strategies of single stage
controller of Figs. 13共a兲 and 13共b兲 is in their design as later senses load current too in addition to
grid current; so as to feed local load and to dump any excess power if available to grid. Moreover,
the same system is designed to act as power line conditioner in rainy days apart from its normal
working as solar generator in sunny days.

B. Multiple stage inverter

A general structure of PV system is illustrated in Fig. 14. The control task in a PV system can
be divided in two major parts.
共1兲 The source or input side controller. The main task assigned to this controller is to extract
maximum power from the source and is generally termed as MPPT. It also takes care of the
input side circuit, which is invariably a dc/dc converter.
共2兲 Load or output or grid side controller. This controller is assigned with the following tasks:
共a兲 Control of active power being fed to the grid in a grid connected system or control of
requisite active power in a stand-alone system.
共b兲 Control of reactive power Q between the source and the grid/load.
共c兲 Control of dc link voltage.
共d兲 Ensure power quality standard of injected power.
共e兲 Grid synchronization in a grid connected system.
共f兲 Local voltage and frequency regulation with voltage harmonic compensation.

The work presented in this paper focuses on residential PV system, which is normally utility
interactive in nature; therefore, the various controller structure reviewed and described in this
paper is intended for grid connected system.

1. Input side controller

The main task assigned to this controller is to extract maximum power from the source and is
generally termed as MPPT. A very common control technique to achieve MPPT is to compare a
PV array voltage 共or current兲 with a constant reference voltage 共or current兲 under specific atmo-
spheric conditions,31–33 as shown in Fig. 15共a兲. The resulting difference signal is then used to drive
a power switch, which interfaces the PV array to the load. Although the implementation of this
method is very simple, the method itself is not very accurate, as it does not take into account the
effects of temperature and insolation variations.
Figure 15共b兲, on the other hand, senses the PV array voltage/current that is compared with a
reference voltage/current calculated by microcontroller based on prevailing environmental condi-
tions of solar insolation and temperature. The error between the two is adjusted by PI controller so
as to match the reference current with PV array output current, such that the duty cycle of dc/dc
converter is regulated until the array is loaded to its maximum power point.29,30

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 012701-15 Inverter topologies and control structure J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

Array Voltage Array Voltage

or or
Current sensing Current sensing
DC/DC DC/DC
Load Load
PV Converter PV Converter
ARRAY ARRAY
error PWM
error
Amplifier Comparator
Amplifier

PI
Array Actual Control Carrier Sawtooth
constant Voltage or Vref/Iref adjustment
constant Current Comparator using
Reference microcontroller

Carrier Sawtooth

(a) (b)
Array Voltage
or
Current sensing
DC/DC
Load
PV Converter
Mosfet
ARRAY Driver Battery

dI/dV+I/V
calculation PWM
Comparator Current Sensor
error
Amplifier
PI
Control PWM
0 Control
Carrier Sawtooth
(c) (d)

FIG. 15. 关共a兲–共d兲兴 Past proposed MPPT control systems. 共a兲 MPPT control system with constant voltage or current
reference. 共b兲 MPPT control system with current reference. 共c兲 MPPT control system with incremental conductance
method. 共d兲 Feedforward maximum power tracking control system.

The schemes of Figs. 15共a兲 and 15共b兲 can either sense current or voltage to implement MPPT
with corresponding analogous current or voltage as reference quantity in the control loop. The
scheme of Fig. 15共c兲 differs in that the reference quantity of zero is compared with dP / dV
computed as incremental conductance. Two sensors that sense PV array instantaneous current and
voltage are needed here for computation of dP / dV. A PI controller is used to regulate the PWM
control signal of the dc/dc converter until the condition dI / dV = −I / V is satisfied. This method has
the disadvantage that the control circuit complexity results in a higher system cost. Alternatively,
the power slope dP / dV can be calculated digitally by sampling the PV array output current I and
voltage V at consecutive time intervals 共n − 1兲 and n as34

dP P共n兲 − P共n − 1兲
共n兲 = .
dV V共n兲 − V共n − 1兲
Since this method requires fast calculation of power slope, its implementation is expensive.
For battery charging applications, where the dc/dc converter output voltage can be assumed almost
constant, a feedforward MPPT controller36 may be applied, as shown in Fig. 15共d兲. The value of
the battery charging current is used to control directly the duty cycle of PWM control signal
applied to dc/dc converter. An output power increase results in both higher output current and
higher PWM control signal duty cycle, until the maximum power is transferred to the load. This
method has the disadvantage that it can be used in applications where the output voltage is
relatively constant.30
In the above methods, normally two different control variables are often chosen to achieve the
maximum power control.35
Voltage feedback control. The solar array terminal voltage is used as the control variable for
the system.35 It keeps the array operating close to its maximum power point by regulating the
array’s terminal voltage and matches the voltage of the array to a desired voltage. It has the
following drawbacks.
• The effects of the insolation and temperature of solar array are neglected.
• It cannot be widely applied to battery storage system.

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 012701-16 Nema, Nema, and Agnihotri J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

Therefore, this control is only suitable for use under constant insolation conditions, such as a
satellite system, because it cannot automatically track the maximum power point of the array when
variation in insolation and temperature occurs.
Power feedback control. The maximum power control is achieved by forcing the derivative
dP / dV to be equal to zero under power feedback control. A general approach to power feedback
control is to measure and maximize the power at the load terminal. This has an advantage in that
the PV array characteristics need not be known beforehand. However, this method maximizes
power to the load but not power from the solar array.
Apart from these two methods reported by many authors, some authors strongly recommend
use of current feedback control.34,37,55

2. Grid side controller

The grid side control strategy in the present paper is discussed for a generalized three phase
system, wherein three phase quantities are always referred to some reference frame with transfor-
mation matrix, as given in Table IV. Even in “single phase single stage system” of Ref. 30, as
given in Fig. 13, the PLL structure used for synchronization of the inverter output current with
grid voltage uses transformation ␣ , ␤ / d , q to generate grid reference, as shown in Fig. 16.
The control strategy normally employs two cascaded loops.38
共i兲 Internal current loop in order to regulate the grid current and is responsible for power
quality issues and current protection, thus inherit important attributes of harmonic compen-
sation and dynamics.
共ii兲 External voltage loop to control dc link voltage and to balance the power flow in the
system. The design aims for system stability with slow dynamics.

There are other control strategies possible.

共i兲 A dc link voltage loop cascaded with an inner power loop instead of a current loop, thereby
controlling the injected current into the utility indirectly.39
共ii兲 An output power loop cascaded with an inner current loop.

Normally, all control strategies may be referred to three reference frames:38

共I兲 synchronous reference frame,
共II兲 stationary reference frame, and
共III兲 natural reference frame.

The control exercised through these reference frames is shown in Figs. 17共a兲–17共c兲 and
features are summarized in Table IV.
Control requirement. Generally, a PI controller with grid voltage feedforward is used for
current controlled PV inverters, but this solution exhibits two well known drawbacks:
共i兲 inability of PI controller to track a sine reference without steady state error, and
共ii兲 poor disturbance rejection capability due to poor performance of integral action.

The possible solution is to use a 共i兲 generalized integrator40 or 共ii兲 P + Resonant controller.41
The generalized integrator is a double integrator that achieves an infinite gain at a certain
frequency, called resonant frequency, and almost no attenuation exists outside this frequency.
Thus, it can be used as a notch filter in order to compensate the harmonics in a very selective way,
whereas in a P + Resonant controller is a stationary frame regulator and the PI dc-compensator is
transformed into an equivalent ac compensator, such that it has the same frequency response
characteristics in the bandwidth of concern.
Comments from authors. The classification of PV inverters is based on literature review
carried out in the context of power circuit topologies and control strategies employed in utility
interactive inverters. Apart from topology and control strategy considerations, there are many
other issues which require due judgment and should be addressed. They include design constraints

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 012701-17
TABLE IV. Different control reference frames at a glance.

S. No. Feature共s兲 Synchronous reference frame Stationary reference frame Natural reference frame

共i兲 Transformation module abc to dq abc to ␣␤ abc 共natural兲

共ii兲

Inverter topologies and control structure

Control variables dc Sinusoidal Individual 03 phase variables
共iii兲 Controller共s兲 PI PR Four possible types:
共a兲 PI, 共b兲 PR, 共c兲 hysteresis, 共d兲 dead beat
共iv兲 Controller matrix See footnote

冤 冥 冤 冥
KI K Is
KP + 0 KP + 0
s s2 + ␻2
KI K Is
0 KP + 0 KP +
s s2 + ␻2

共v兲 Controller characteristics Well suited for dc Well suited for sinusoidal quantity; high gain at ␻r, Suitable for sinusoidal quantity
⬖ess = 0
共vi兲 Grid phase angle extraction Using 共i兲 PLL 共preferred兲 Using 共i兲 PLL 共preferred兲 and 共ii兲 arctangent function Using 共i兲 PLL 共preferred兲 and
and 共ii兲 arctangent function 共ii兲 arctangent function
共vii兲 Modulation necessary Yes Yes No; if hysteresis or dead beat controller

J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

is in use as they directly output switching
function for power switches
共viii兲 Evaluation Voltage feedforward is necessary due Complexity of control is lower and ␪ is not necessary Complexity of control is higher, ␪
to cross coupling and phase angle ␪ for evaluation is not necessary for evaluation,
is a must for evaluation independent control of each phase possible

冤 冥
K Is
KP + 0 0
s2 + ␻2
K Is
abc
GPR 共s兲 = 0 KP + 0
s2 + ␻2
K Is
0 0 KP +
s2 + ␻2

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 TABLE IV. 共Continued.兲

012701-18
S. No. Feature共s兲 Synchronous reference frame Stationary reference frame Natural reference frame

冤 冥
K Is K p Kis + 冑3Ki␻o K p Kis − 冑3Ki␻o

Nema, Nema, and Agnihotri

KP + − − − +
s2 + ␻2 2 2共s + ␻o兲
2 2
2 2共s2 + ␻2o兲
K p Kis − 冑3Ki␻o K Is K p Kis + 冑3Ki␻o
abc
GPI 共s兲 = − − KP + − −
2 2共s2 + ␻2o兲 s + ␻2
2
2 2共s2 + ␻2o兲
K p Kis + 冑3Ki␻o K p Kis − 冑3Ki␻o K Is
− − − − KP +
2 2共s2 + ␻2o兲 2 2共s2 + ␻2o兲 s2 + ␻2

J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

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 012701-19 Inverter topologies and control structure J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

V ∗d ≡ 0 ω ff
θˆ θˆ
Vα Vd +
ε +
ω̂ 1 θˆ
αβ - PI s
Vg Create +
Orthogonal
system fˆ fˆ f
dq 1
2π
Vβ Vq

Vˆg Vˆgf
2 2
Vα + Vβ

FIG. 16. PLL structure in single phase single stage inverter 共Ref. 29兲.

Ud
Udc +
- Ud* +
Udc*
+ DC LINK
CONTROLLR
Id*
+ PI
CONTROLLER +
Id - +
Modulation Ua grid
-wL Ub
and PWM Uc
wL Inverter
ia ib ic
Iq - +
Uq*+
Q* + Q
CONTROLLER + PI
CONTROLLER + abc θ PLL
θ abc

- Iq* + Uq dq dq

Q id iq
(a)
Ud Uq

Udc +
- iα * + Uα *
Udc* + DC LINK
CONTROLLR Id* + PR
CONTROLLER +
iα - +
Modulation
grid
HC
dq and PWM Ua Ub Uc
αβ HC Inverter
Iq* iβ * + ia ib ic
Q* θ + Uβ *
+ Q
CONTROLLER + PR
CONTROLLER + abc
PLL
Q - iβ - αβ
Iq iα iβ

(b)

Udc
- ia * Ua *
Udc* + DC LINK
CONTROLLR + CURRENT
CONTROLLER
Id* ia - grid
Ub * Modulation
dq ib * and PWM
αβ ib
+ CURRENT
CONTROLLER Inverter
Ua Ub Uc

- ia ib ic
Q*
Iq* θ ic * Uc *
+ Q
CONTROLLER + -
CURRENT
CONTROLLER PLL
Q - ic -

(c)

FIG. 17. 共a兲 General structure for synchronous rotating frame control structure. 共b兲 General structure for stationary
reference frame control structure. 共c兲 General structure for natural reference frame control structure.

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 012701-20 Nema, Nema, and Agnihotri J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

and considerations,42 possible weak points in inverter design,43 optimal size and cost limits,3,44
islanding issues,45,46 anti-islanding methods, measurement and testing,47–51 power quality
issues,45,52 and selection of inverter.53 These subsidiary issues need also to be given due consid-
eration while designing a power conditioning unit for PV applications.

V. TRENDS OF RECENT DEVELOPMENT AND GUIDING STANDARDS

The trends in recent development of the PV inverter aim at high efficiency with low cost, and
at the same time have to meet stringent conditions imposed by standards, e.g., IEEE 1547 and UL
1741. This section discusses some factors influencing the development of modern PV inverters
and their guiding standards.

A. Factors influencing the development of modern PV inverters

共i兲 Component count. Innovative single stage topologies with a reduced number of power
switching, energy storing, and harmonic filtering devices have been emerging, which
yields lower cost and higher overall efficiency.
共ii兲 Input voltage range. The modern trend is to develop the inverter, which can accept wider
input voltage range and performance remains insensitive against both load and input varia-
tions.
共iii兲 Soft switched converters. The increasing switching frequency that reduces the size of
energy storage elements and at the same time increases switching losses. Resonant con-
verters using zero voltage switching 共ZVS兲 and zero current switching 共ZCS兲 soft switching
techniques greatly reduce the switching losses at the expense of high voltage or current
stresses on power switches.57 Currently proposed soft switch converters are mainly based
on buck converters. A few soft switched buck-boost topologies are also proposed and being
widely used in commercial applications.
共iv兲 ac modules. The modern trend is toward the modular PV system with plug and play type
modules having transformerless multilevel inverter accommodating wide input voltage
range and with large power capacity.54

B. Guiding standards
There are many guiding standards in force and deal with the issues like power quality, detec-
tion of islanding operation, grounding, enclosures, etc.4 The European standard 共EN兲 is less strin-
gent than US-IEEE and IEC standards, as is evident from Table V, which summarizes these
standards. These codes and standards have been created to ensure safety of electrical systems and
also generally address the efficiency and reliability of the systems. Standards are guides for
suggested practice and as such are voluntary only, while codes are mandatory if adopted by local
or state inspection authority. Perhaps the two most common standards that deal with PV system in
US are the IEEE-929 共IEEE recommended practice for utility interface of residential and inter-
mediate photovoltaic system兲 and UL-1741 共standard for static inverters and charge controllers for
use in photovoltaic system兲. This is not a complete list; there are many other standards which deal
with the PV modules and other balance of system components 共IEEE P-1479, IEEE-937, IEEE-
1145, etc.兲, protective relaying 共IEEE C5, UL-1741, Sand 87-7024兲, etc.
The IEEE and the IEC standards put limitations on the maximum allowable amount of dc
injected current into the grid. The purpose of limiting the injection is to avoid saturation of
distribution transformers.59 The uniformity in all standards can be seen in terms of the total
harmonic distortion 共THD兲, which all of them prescribe to be less than 5%.
IEEE-929 recommends that power conditioning unit 共PCU兲 and PV system be grounded in
accordance with applicable codes. It is a common practice in Europe to have the PV source
circuits ungrounded,60 whereas in USA one of the current carrying conductors must be grounded.
This can be troublesome for many high power transformerless systems, since a single phase
inverter with neutral to line grid connection is already system grounded on the grid side. Ground-
ing conductors do not carry current under normal operation but do conduct when a ground fault

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 012701-21 Inverter topologies and control structure J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 3, 012701 共2011兲

TABLE V. Guiding standards for residential PV system 共Ref. 4兲.

Issue IEC61727 IEEE1547 EN61000-3-2

Nominal power 10 kW 30 kW 16 A ⫻ 230 V = 3.7 kW

Harmonic currents 共3–9兲 4.0% 共2–10兲 4.0% 共3兲 2.30 A
共Order – h兲 limits 共11–15兲 2.0% 共11–16兲 2.0% 共5兲 1.14 A
共17–21兲 1.5% 共17–22兲 1.5% 共7兲 0.77 A
共23–33兲 0.6% 共23–34兲 0.6% 共9兲 0.40 A
Note: IEEE-929 standard 共⬎35兲 0.3% 共11兲 0.33 A
also suggest identical limits 共13兲 0.21 A
for individual harmonics 共15–39兲 2.25/h
as above.

Even harmonics
in these ranges shall
be less than 25%
of the odd harmonic Approximately 30%
limits listed. of the odd harmonics
Maximum current THD 5%
Power factor at 50% of rated power 0.9
⬍0.22 A corresponds
Less than 1.0% Less than 0.5% to a 50 W
dc current injection of rated output current of rated output current half-wave rectifier.
Voltage range of normal operation 85%–110% 共196–253 V兲 88%–110% 共97–121 V兲 ¯
Frequency range for normal operation 50⫾ 1 Hz 59.3–60.5 Hz ¯

occurs. Generally, the negative conductor is also connected to the ground at some point along the
system. If so, then the negative conductor is called the grounded conductor, whereas grounding
conductors are the conductors used for the purpose of connecting all metallic frames and parts of
PV system to the ground. Since the negative conductor is connected to the ground at only one
point, current will flow in the grounded conductor, but will not flow in any of the grounding
conductors, as there is no closed circuit in which the current can flow. The NEC 690 standard
demands that PV modules should be system grounded and monitored for ground faults when the
maximum output voltage of the PV modules reaches a certain level, e.g., 50 V.
The inverters employed in all residential power system must guarantee that it is operated at its
maximum power point, irrespective of change in environmental conditions of solar insolation and
temperature.58 Another important safety feature to be included with residential PV inverter is the
protection against islanding to ensure safety to equipment and operating personnel.

VI. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a comprehensive review of various single stage inverter topologies em-
ployed in PV applications. The paper puts emphasis on three main topologies classified as buck,
boost, or buck-boost inverter. The single stage topologies, although have merits of compact design
due to elimination of low frequency transformer and good efficiency and low cost, yet have
drawbacks of limited power capacity, compromised output quality, limited operation range, and
excessive peak current stresses on power switches with increasing power capacity. Because of
these limitations they are not employed for high power applications, wherein multiple stage
topologies are the choice of disposition.
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