A streamlined 17-level cascaded H-bridge multilevel converter with solar PV integration

The quest for a green electrical power system has increased the use of renewable energy resources and power electronic converters in the existing power system. These power electronic converters, however, are a major cause of harmonics and result in the degradation of power quality. In the last two decades, researchers have proposed various designs of multilevel converters to minimize these harmonic distortions, however, a comprehensive solution for stand-alone solar photovoltaic (PV) systems with low THD is still missing in the present body of knowledge. This paper proposes a single-phase 17-level Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Converter (CHMC) model for a stand-alone system using solar PV arrays. The proposed model employs eight different flexible PV arrays that can be replaced with DC voltage sources when required to meet the load demand. The proposed model does not include any capacitor and filter thus saving a lot of cost in the overall system. The model has been implemented in the Simulink environment using a model-based design approach. The simulation results show that the proposed model has reduced the total harmonic distortion (THD) to almost 7% as compared to the existing models. The cost comparison of the proposed converter also proved its economic benefit over other types.