Performance Assessment of Eight-Switch 11-Level Packed U Cell Converter Under Dynamic Solar Photovoltaic Environment

This paper presents a new eleven-level packed U cell (PUC) converter with less active switches for solar photovoltaic (PV) applications. This PUC converter comprises eight active switches with two capacitors and a photovoltaic array. Compared to the existing topology, the proposed topology has the ability to attain eleven levels in converter output voltage, with fewer active switches. The operating modes of the eleven-level PUC converter are discussed. A single-phase active and reactive power (PQ) control with the capacitor voltage balancing is incorporated for grid-tied configuration. The maximum power point tracking (MPPT) using perturb and observe is used from the PV array. The balancing of floating capacitors is achieved by proportionalintegral (PI) controllers. This helps in achieving desired converter voltage levels. Conduction and switching losses are calculated for the efficiency of the system. Eleven level PUC converter performance is analyzed in steady-state and dynamic conditions using the OPAL-RT test bench.