Z-Source Inverter-Based Standalone Photovoltaic Generation System with

MPPT capability
Yi-Shun Chiu, Chun-Liang Liu, Yi-Hua Liu and Kuan-Yu Lin
Department of Electrical Engineering, NTUST Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C
Contact e-mail : yhliu@mail.ntust.edu.tw

capacitors C1, C2 connected in X shape. With the impedance

Abstract—This paper proposes a Z-source inverter (ZSI) system for
standalone photovoltaic generation system (PGS). The advantages network, the ZSI can use the shoot through states to boost
of ZSI include high reliability, high efficiency, low cost and compact voltage. The advantages of ZSI include:
size. The operation principle, design considerartion and control • ZSI can be employed for implementing all kinds of
method of the system will be presented. Experimental results will power conversion.
also be provided to validate the correctness of the proposed system. • ZSI is a buck-boost inverter, it provides a cheaper,
simpler, single stage approach for applications such as
I. INTRODUCTION PV generation. The cost can be reduced and the
The concerns over greenhouse gas emission and the ever efficiency can be increased.
rising fuel prices have significantly promoted the development • With the ability to handle the shoot through state, the
of green energies. Amomg them, photovoltaic (PV) energy is system becomes more reliable.
one of the most important energy resources due to If the impedance network is symmetrical (i.e. L1=L2=L,
characteristics such as environmental sustainability and C1=C2=C), the effect of introducing the shoot through state
inexhaustibility [1-3]. For standalone photovoltaic generation within the zero state can be derived using the equivalent circuit
systems (PGS), a power conditioning unit (PCU) is often shown in Fig. 2:
required to convert the dc output from PV array to 50- or 60-Hz
ac voltage. PCU generally employs two-stage configuration to From Fig. 2(a), during shoot through state (T0), the ZSI can
transfer the PV array energy to AC load side. The first stage is be expressed by equations as follows:
used to boost the usually low PV array voltage and track the VL1 = VC 1 = VC , V L 2 = VC 2 = VC
maximum available solar power, the second stage converts the (1)
PV dc power into high quality ac power. Comparing to single-
I C 1 = − I L1 = I L , IC 2 = − I L2 = I L
stage topology, the additional power converter in two-stage (2)
topology increases system cost and lowers efficiency.
Vd = VC 1 + VC 2 = 2VC , Vi = 0
(3)
Z-source inverter (ZSI) can boost the output voltage by
introducing shoot through states; therefore, it can be utilized to From Fig. 2(b), during non-shoot through state (T1), the
realize inversion and boost function in one single stage. By ZSI can be described by equations as follows:
utilizing the ZSI, the number of switching components and the
volume of the system can be reduced [4-10]. Thus, the cost of VL = VPV − VC
(4)
the PCU can be minimized. In this paper, a digitally-controlled
ZSI-based standalone PGS with maximum power point tracking Vi = 2VC − V PV
(5)
(MPPT) capability is proposed. The operation principle, design
considerartion and control method of the system will be By applying the volt-second balance across Z-source
described in detail. In order to validate the correctness of the inductor over one switching period, the voltage across Z-source
proposed system, simulation and experimental results will also capacitor can be obtained as
be provided. According to the experimental results, the VC T1
measured conversion efficiency of the proposed system are all = (6)
higher than 90 %, and the measured MPPT tracking accuracies VPV T1 − T0
are all higher than 98 % for all tested conditions. In addition, the
The peak dc-link voltage across inverter bridge can be
proposed control scheme can regulate the shoot through duty
calculated as
ratio and the modulation index to achieve MPPT and maintain
the output voltage magnitude simutaneously. 1
Vˆi = 2VC − VPV = VPV = B × VPV (7)
T0
II. HARDWARE CONFIGURATION 1− 2
Ts
Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of the proposed system. In
Fig. 1, the input power of the proposed system is dc voltage The output ac voltage can then be obtained by
from the PV array, and the output voltage is 110 Vrms AC vˆac = m a × B × V PV
voltage for home appliances. From Fig. 1, the ZSI employs a (8)
unique impedance network with two inductors L1, L2 and two
 where the boost factor B is defined as
1 1 T
B= = ≥ 1 , and Bduty = 0 , Ts is the switching
T0 1 − 2 Bduty Ts
1− 2
Ts
period.
From (8), there are two control variables - shoot-through
duty (Bduty) and modulation index (ma)- which can be used to
control the output ac voltage.
In Fig. 1, the dsPIC33FJ16GS502 digital signal controller
(DSC) from Microchip Corp. is used to provide the required
gating signals for the power switches and then gather and
analyze data from the data acquisition circuit. PWM modulation
strategies and interfacing IC driving signal is also realized using
the DSC to achieve better performance. Fig. 3 shows the
modified sinusoidal PWM control scheme for ZSI.

Fig. 3 Sinusoidal PWM control scheme for ZSI

III. SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

In this section, the software configurations of the proposed
ZSI-based standalone PGS will be provided. For a standalone
PGS, MPPT and stable output voltage are two main objectives
of the system. However, there are two control variables, i.e. the
shoot-through duty (Bduty) and modulation index (ma), in a ZSI
system. Therefore, a novel control scheme is also proposed in
this paper to achieve both MPPT and voltage control in the same
time. The MPPT method implemented in this paper is a
commonly adopted perturb and observe (P&O) method. Fig. 4
shows the software flowchart of the proposed controller. From
Fig. 1 The block diagram of the proposed ZSI-based standalone Fig. 4, the main tasks of the DSC include:
PGS •Performing digital filter and digital controller
•Provide the gating signals of ZSI
•Control the interfacing circuits.
The digital filter and digital controller is performed every
41 μs. The switching frequency of the proposed power stage is
between 15 kHz. The digital filter used in the proposed system is
a 32-order finite impulse response (FIR) filter for both voltage
and current feedback signal. The equation describing a FIR filter
can be expressed as in (9).
T −1
y[n] = ∑ ak x[n − k ] (9)
(a) (b) k =0

Fig. 2 Equivalent circuits of ZSI a) Non-Shoot through state and
b) Shoot through state
where x is the filter input, y is the filter output and ak is the
corresponding coefficient of the designed FIR filter.
The digital controller is used to calculate the required
modulation index command. A simple increamental PID
controller is utilized in this paper and the utilized PID control
algorithm can then be designed as in (10).
 Δu (n) = K P (e(n) − e(n − 1)) + K I e(n)
(10)
+ K D (e(n) − 2e(n − 1) + e(n − 2))
where e(n) is the error signal and u(n) is the output of the
PID controller.
It should be noted that for ZSI, additional shoot-through
states should be added to the null intervals with the active
interval kept constant and centrally placed. Therefore, a
modified Z-source sinusoidal PWM (ZSPWM) control scheme
is utilized in this paper. Fig. 5 shows the software folowchart of
the proposed ZSPWM. Fig. 6 displays the software flowchart of
the utilized perturb and observe (P&O) MPPT method.

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Due to limited space, only part of the experimental results
are provided. Fig. 7 shows the gating signals of the proposed
ZSI. From Fig. 7, the proposed ZSPWM is succesfully realized.
Fig. 8 shows the MPPT tracking for 1000 W/m2 irradiance.
From Fig. 8, the MPPT tracking accuracy is higher than 98 %.
Fig. 9 shows the measured efficiency of the proposed ZSI.

Fig. 5 Software flowchart of the proposed ZSPWM

Fig. 4 Software flowchart of the proposed system

Fig. 6 Software flowchart of the P&O MPPT method

 V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a ZSI-based PGS with MPPT capability is
developed. By utilizing the ZSI, the cost and the number of
active switches can be minimized. The efficiency of the system
can also be improved due to the single stage operation.
According to the experimental results, the measured conversion
efficiency of the proposed system are all higher than 90 %, and
the measured MPPT tracking accuracies are higher than 98 %.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Science Council of
Taiwan and Taiwan Power Company under Contracts NSC 102-
Fig. 7 Gating signals of the proposed ZSI 3113-P-110-007.

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Fig. 9 Measured efficiency of the proposed ZSI