Active and reactive power control of PV-PHEV fed 3-level Neutral Point Clamped Inverter

Abstract

The grid is burdened with maximum load during peak hours. In order to help peak shaving in the load curve and power control there is a constant research to incorporate renewable power in the grid. Accordingly, this paper proposes integration of Photo-Voltaic array (PV) and Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) to AC grid. Studies and analysis of the effects of the same on active and reactive power of the grid are carried out. Incremental conductance algorithm is implemented in the simulation to ensure that the PV operates at Maximum power point (MPP). A DC-DC boost converter is used for boosting the limited supply available from PV and the Battery of PHEV. Duty ratio is fixed according to the required output voltage of the inverter. A 3-level Neutral Point Clamped Inverter topology i used to integrate the renewables to the grid. Independent active and reactive power control is achieved by using direct current control strategy. Such an inverter can operate from lagging power factor to leading power factor smoothly. MATLAB/Simulink is used to perform all the simulations and study the proposed system.