This paper presents a method for stabilizing the voltage of a DC grid using a hybrid energy source and single-phase bidirectional converter. The converter controls the power flow between the DC bus and AC grid, regulating the DC bus voltage within a certain range. When operating in grid-connection mode, a higher DC voltage prevents dramatic drops from increased DC loads. In rectification mode, a lower DC voltage extends the voltage swing range. The bidirectional converter can perform both grid connection and rectification with power factor correction to prevent wide DC voltage variations and improve availability without increasing capacitor size. Simulation and experimental results from a 5kW prototype verify the proposed regulation mechanism.
This paper presents a method for stabilizing the voltage of a DC grid using a hybrid energy source and single-phase bidirectional converter. The converter controls the power flow between the DC bus and AC grid, regulating the DC bus voltage within a certain range. When operating in grid-connection mode, a higher DC voltage prevents dramatic drops from increased DC loads. In rectification mode, a lower DC voltage extends the voltage swing range. The bidirectional converter can perform both grid connection and rectification with power factor correction to prevent wide DC voltage variations and improve availability without increasing capacitor size. Simulation and experimental results from a 5kW prototype verify the proposed regulation mechanism.
BIDIRECTIONAL CONVERTER USING HYBRID ENERGY SOURCE
ABSTRACT Renewable power generation systems grow rapidly. By nature, renewable power is not continuous and reliable. It will be converted into dc form and buffered with energy storage elements. This brings dc-driving opportunities for electric appliance and equipment which are mostly supplied with dc voltage sources. However, the distributed generation systems require bidirectional converter to control the power flow between dc bus and ac grid, and to regulate the dc bus to a certain range of voltages. This paper presents dc-bus voltage control with a single-phase bidirectional inverter for dc distribution systems. The bidirectional inverter can fulfill both grid connection and rectification modes with power factor correction approaches. When the system is operated in grid-connection mode, it needs a higher dc-bus voltage to prevent dramatic voltage drop below the lower bound due to a step dc load increase. And the system requires a lower dc-bus voltage to extend the range of voltage swing in rectification mode. In the literature, there are some power flow controls for dc distribution system with constant-power loads, such as general dc/dc converters. The bidirectional converter can fulfill both grid connection and rectification with power factor correction. This method can prevent dc-bus voltage from wide variation and improve the availability of the dc distribution systems without increasing dcbus capacitance. A power distribution system requires a bi-directional inverter to control the power flow between dc bus and ac grid, and to regulate the dc bus to a certain range of voltages, in which dc load may change abruptly. This will result in high dc-bus voltage variation. In this paper, we take into account this variation and propose an on-line regulation mechanism according to the inductor current levels to balance power flow and enhance the dynamic performance. Additionally, for power compensation and islanding protection, the bi-directional inverter can shift its current commands according to the specified power factor at ac grid side. Simulated and Experimental results obtained from a 5kW single-phase bidirectional converter have verified the analysis and discussion.