Evaluation of DC-link decoupling using electrolytic or polypropylene film capacitors in three-phase grid-connected photovoltaic inverters

Author

Karanayil, Baburaj ; Agelidis, Vassilios Georgios ; Pou, Josep

Author_Institution

Australian Energy Res. Inst., Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

fYear

2013

fDate

10-13 Nov. 2013

Firstpage

6980

Lastpage

6986

Abstract

The life expectancy and long term reliability of grid-connected three-phase photovoltaic (PV) inverters can be increased by replacing the conventional electrolytic film capacitors by metallized polypropylene film capacitors. This paper presents a detailed evaluation of a three-phase grid-connected PV inverter performance when replacing the electrolytic capacitor with a minimum value of metallized polypropylene film capacitor-one. The minimum dc bus capacitance leads to larger voltage ripples. However, such ripples were found to be within acceptable limits to run the inverter satisfactorily. Simulation results are presented for a 15-kW grid-connected inverter at nominal voltage of 700V dc and experimental results are provided for a 3.0-kW system at a nominal voltage of 400V dc, built in the laboratory.

Keywords

electrolytic capacitors; invertors; photovoltaic power systems; DC-link decoupling; conventional electrolytic film capacitors; dc bus capacitance leads; grid-connected three-phase photovoltaic inverters; life expectancy; long term reliability; metallized polypropylene film capacitors; three-phase grid-connected photovoltaic inverters; voltage ripples; Arrays; Capacitance; Capacitors; Films; Inverters; Power supplies; Simulation; Photovoltaic systems; electrolytic capacitor; grid-connected inverters;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Industrial Electronics Society, IECON 2013 - 39th Annual Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

Vienna

ISSN

1553-572X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECON.2013.6700290

Filename

6700290