Discontinuous Multilevel Pulse Width Modulation Technique for Grid Voltage Quality Improvement and Inverter Loss Reduction in Photovoltaic Systems

In the last decade, countries have experienced increased solar radiation, leading to an increase in the use of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to boost renewable energy generation. However, the high solar penetration into these systems can disrupt the normal operation of the distribution grid. Thus, a major concern is the impact of these units on power quality indices. To improve these units, one approach is to design more efficient power inverters. This study introduces a pulse width modulation (PWM) technique for multilevel power inverters, employing a sine wave as the carrier wave and an amplitude over-modulated triangular wave as the modulator (PSTM-PWM). The proposed technique improves the waveform quality and increases the AC voltage output of the multilevel inverter compared with that from conventional PWM techniques. In addition, it ensures compliance with the EN50160 standard. These improvements are achieved with a lower modulation order than that used in traditional techniques, resulting in reduced losses in multilevel power inverters. The proposed approach is then implemented using a five-level cascaded H-bridge inverter. In addition, a comparative analysis of the efficiency of multilevel power inverters was performed, contrasting classical modulation techniques with the proposed approach for various modulation orders. The results demonstrate a significant improvement in both total harmonic distortion (THD) and power inverter efficiency.