A New Inverter for Improved Fuel Cell Performance in Grid-tied Application

Author

Akkinapragada, Nagasmitha ; Chowdhury, Badrul H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Missouri Univ., Rolla, MO

fYear

2007

fDate

24-28 June 2007

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

8

Abstract

The interconnection of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with the power conditioning units vis-a-vis a DC/DC converter and a DC/AC inverter for interfacing with the utility grid is presented. Fuel cells operate at low voltages and hence need to be boosted and inverted in order to be connected to the grid. The fuel cell and the DC/DC converter modeling are briefly explained. The methodology and the controller design for the control of power flow from the fuel cell to the utility grid are discussed. Power characteristics of the DC/AC inverter are compared with the characteristics of the DC/DC converter and the fuel cell. Fuel cells have slow response time which prevents it from grid-tie applications. Simulations validate the improvement in the response when the power conditioning unit is connected.

Keywords

invertors; power grids; solid oxide fuel cells; DC/AC inverter; DC/DC converter; SOFC; fuel cell performance; grid tied application; power conditioning; solid oxide fuel cell; Cogeneration; DC-DC power converters; Fuel cells; Inverters; Low voltage; Phase transformers; Power conditioning; Power system modeling; Reactive power control; Solids; DC/AC inverter; DC/DC converter; SOFC; distributed generation; real and reactive power control;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Engineering Society General Meeting, 2007. IEEE

Conference_Location

Tampa, FL

ISSN

1932-5517

Print_ISBN

1-4244-1296-X

Electronic_ISBN

1932-5517

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PES.2007.386039

Filename

4275805