Designing and developing nine-level Packed U-Cell (PUC9) inverter for high power applications

Abstract

It is a fact that energy consumption has had an increasing trend, and due to economic reasons and environmental concerns, the usage of renewable energies like wind and solar is increasing drastically. Inverters are needed in order to change the produced energy into usable energy for consumers. Although the existing inverters work properly, factories and countries always tend to decrease energy loss and the cost of the components used in producing and ransferring energy. Considering the aforementioned issues, PUC9 inverter could be a suitable choice due to its simplicity, reliability and efficiency and also needing low weight transformers in comparison with other inverters. The main objectives of this project are reducing the complexity of PUC9 control system, as a result producing an industry-oriented converter, which balances the dc capacitor level as desired, increasing the efficiency of PUC9 inverter, and designing an inverter compatible with adding series inverter together to decrease complexity. In order to achieve the above mentioned research objectives; first, I do literature review on different types of inverters, especially single dc sources inverters, and check out the design the complexity of each type of reviewed inverter in terms of switching state possibility, the number of their components, advantages and disadvantages, and THD (Total Harmonic Distortion). Afterward, I review some modulation and voltage balancing techniques. Then, PUC9 inverter is theoretically analyzed. After that, I apply model predictive control on PUC9; in addition, I propose one modulation technique on it. On that occasion, I obtain mathematical model of PUC9, simulate it with SimPowerSystem and Matlab Simulink, and validate them experimentally. Finally, I offer nine-level UX-Cell inverter, apply model predictive control and sensorless control technique, simulate it with Matlab Simulink, validate it experimentally, and consider its pros and cons in comparison with PUC9 inverter. For this purpose, I design the PCB of PUC9 and UX-Cell inverter with Altium Design software and test both patents experimentally in stand-alone and grid-connected modes.

Date	23 Dec 2019
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Kamal Al-Haddad (Supervisor)