A cascaded boost inverter-based open-end winding three-phase induction motor drive for photovoltaic-powered pumping applications

Although PWM inverter-fed drives are now a well-established technology in industrial applications, the generation of common mode voltage associated with these modulation techniques results in undesired bearing current and shaft voltage, which yield bearing failure and electromagnetic interference that increases system maintenance and affects system reliability. In this paper, a cascaded boost inverter is proposed for a three-phase induction machine (IM) with an open-end winding photovoltaic-powered pumping applications. The proposed inverter is capable of producing pure sinusoidal three-phase terminal voltages, which eliminates the common mode voltage. Moreover, the inverter inherently offers a voltage boosting capability, which minimizes the dc-link voltage requirements. This system is proposed for IM drives for photovoltaic-powered pumping applications, where dc link voltage minimization is important to ensure optimal arrangements of PV panels. The proposed system is simulated for conventional V/f control using MATLAB/SIMLINK.