Series

Series
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ISSN:
1931-9525
1931-9525
1931-9525

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VILATHGAMUWA •• NAYANASIRI
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Editor:Jerry
Jerry
JerryHudgins,
Hudgins,
Hudgins,University
University
UniversityofofofNebraska-Lincoln
Nebraska-Lincoln
Nebraska-Lincoln

• NAYANASIRI •• GAMINI
Power
Power Electronics
Electronics

NAYANASIRI • GAMINI
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Dulika
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 95

CHAPTER 5

Energy Storage Interfacing

5.1 INTRODUCTION
Solar irradiance varies with the time of the day and the presence of clouds. As a result, electric
power generated in photovoltaic cells varies with time. Moreover, the generated power varies due
to change in the incidence angle of light and shading. On the other hand, depending on the sys-
tem which the PV system is connected, the power demand varies with the time. As a result, at any
given time there is a possibility of having a surplus of power or a lack of power in the PV system.
But the fundamental requirement, i.e., the balance between generated and the delivered power
should be maintained all the time. In off-grid residential PV systems, the PV system is the only
supply and therefore there should be an energy storage mechanism that can absorb power fluctu-
ations and thereby maintain the balance. If energy storage is not available, the imbalance appears
as fluctuations in the output voltage which might be detrimental for the connected equipment. In
grid-connected residential PV systems, the generated PV power is directly fed into the grid. In
other words, power fluctuations are transferred into the grid. Similarly, in commercial PV systems
it is possible to transfer power fluctuations into the grid if the grid has sufficient amount of spin-
ning reserve to absorb the fluctuations. If the grid does not have sufficient spinning reserve these
fluctuations can cause system instabilities. In such situations grid operators recommend adding
energy storage to absorb fluctuations.
Utility scale PV systems supply a significant share of power to the grid. erefore, fluctua-
tions in the generated PV power should be absorbed on-site with suitable energy storage mecha-
nisms and the output should be regulated depending on the grid requirements. Moreover, utility
scale large photovoltaic power systems are expected to regulate their power dispatch at least for
a one-hour period. Apart from the energy storage, solar power prediction is emerging as a sup-
porting mechanism that can help to estimate the amount of power that can be dispatched in the
next hour and thereby reduce the size of the energy storage. erefore, in summary, energy stor-
age technologies help absorb short-term power fluctuations ranging from seconds to hours while
solar power prediction helps to optimize the use of energy storage.
Apart from the mitigation of power fluctuations, energy storage systems can play other
important roles as well in PV power systems. Load shifting is one such role which refers to the
store of energy during low demand periods and discharge during high demand periods. To meet
grid codes in some countries, large PV systems are required to remain connected during short
term low voltage conditions of the grid. is is known as the low-voltage ride through (LVRT)
capability where energy storage systems can make a significant contribution. e amount of power
96 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING
that can be injected into the grid drops during these low voltage conditions which results in an
accumulation of energy within the PV system. is energy accumulation reflects as an increase
in the voltage in intermediate stages and lead to instabilities and stresses in the power converter
system. is instability makes it difficult to remain connected during the recovery period. If energy
storage systems are present, they can be used to store excess energy and thereby keep the system
stable and connected during the recovery period. ese supporting functions together with the
need for absorbing power fluctuations consolidate that energy storage is an inevitable part in
modern PV power systems.
Batteries, supercapacitors, flywheels, compressed air, pumped hydro, superconductors, and
generation of hydrogen are possible energy storage technologies that can be used in PV systems.
Out of these energy storage technologies, batteries and supercapacitors have become the popular
choice owing to their wide availability, simplicity, technological maturity, and lower cost compared
to the other options. Moreover, the combination of battery and supercapacitor makes a good
synergy and helps extend power and energy capacities that cannot be achieved with individual
storage systems.
Characteristics of batteries and supercapacitors are different from each other. Moreover,
photovoltaic systems have their own characteristics. erefore, interfacing technologies that can
match those characteristics have become an essential part in modern photovoltaic power systems.
Power electronic converter systems are the only choice that can meet all these requirements. ere-
fore, the aim of this chapter is to discuss these characteristics in detail, identify suitable power
electronic converter technologies that can be used as interfaces and discuss their advantages and
limitations. Recent developments in the interfacing converter technologies are also provided in
the later part of this chapter.

5.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF BATTERIES,

SUPERCAPCITORS, AND PV CELLS
Lead acid is the most common and widely available battery technology that can be used as energy
storage in residential and commercial PV power systems. Even though lead acid batteries are not
expensive, their efficiency and cycle life are low compared to the alternative battery technologies
such as Lithium-ion, molten-salt and flow batteries. Out of these technologies, Lithium ion
batteries have the highest efficiency and cycle life. erefore, they have become the number one
choice in consumer electronic and automobile industries. However, cost of Lithium-ion batteries
are still at the high side and therefore not a very popular choice in PV systems. is has created
a technology gap in energy storage especially for commercial and utility scale PV power systems.
On the other hand, flow battery technologies such as Zinc-Bromide, Vanadium-Redox, and Iron-
Chromium and molten-salt battery technologies such as Sodium-Sulfur and Sodium-Nickel are
moderate in cost, efficiency, and cycle life. erefore, these technologies are becoming the popular
choice for energy storage in commercial and utility-scale PV power systems.
 5.2. CHARACTERISTICS OF BATTERIES, SUPERCAPCITORS, AND PV CELLS 97
An equivalent circuit that can be used to explain the behavior of batteries is shown in
Fig. 5.1a. Depending on the battery technology there might be slight differences in the respective
equivalent circuit and its parameters. Nevertheless, in most cases this circuit is detailed enough to
explain battery characteristics. e voltage, VSOC , marked in this equivalent circuit represents the
open circuit voltage of the battery. is voltage is a function of the state of charge (SoC) of the
battery. However, this voltage usually shows only a little change as shown in Fig. 5.1b. In other
words, batteries can supply steady power for a long period of time without a significant drop in
the voltage. is explains the capability of batteries to act as an energy source. e resistor in
the equivalent circuit represents the internal resistance of the battery. e voltage drop across this
resistor reduces the output voltage of the battery when it is discharging. In the same way, this drop
has to be compensated during charging and therefore the supply voltage has to be larger than VSOC .
is voltage drop is the reason why there are two separate lines in Fig. 5.1b representing the battery
charging and discharging. Moreover, this resistance limits the output power and charging power.
erefore, even though batteries can sustain steady power for a long period of time the maximum
power that can be delivered or absorbed by the battery is limited by the internal resistance. e
other two RC networks represent slow response of batteries to transients. Owing to the high
time constants of these RC components, batteries are not capable of supporting fast charging and
discharging cycles. Moreover, fast charging/discharging reduces battery life. erefore, batteries
can be used as an energy source but not as a power source for absorbing short-term large power
fluctuations.
Voltage (V)

Charge
Discharge
Rp1 Rp2

R0 VB I = constant
Vsoc Cp1 Cp2
Time (t)

(a) (b)

Figure 5.1: (a) Battery equivalent circuit and (b) variation of the terminal voltage under constant
current charging and discharging.

An equivalent circuit of a supercapacitor is shown in Fig. 5.2a. Both the capacitances and
the resistances shown in this figure vary with the frequency, temperature, and voltage. But for
simplicity, these large number of RC branches can be simplified into a simple RLC network,
as shown Fig. 5.2b. In this figure, the effect of resistors are simplified into an equivalent series
98 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

400
Supercapacitor

300
Voltage (V)

200

100

0
0 20 40 60 Energy (kJ) 80

(e)

Figure 5.2: (a) Detailed equivalent circuit of a supercapacitor, (b) simplified equivalent circuit of a
supercapacitor, (c) variation of the supercapacitor voltage against time for constant current charging
and discharging, and (d) change of supercapacitor voltage with stored energy.

resistance (ESR) and a leakage resistance RLeak . Similar to the batteries, ESR introduces voltage
drop and limits the charging/discharging power. However, this resistance is very low compared
to that of the batteries. As a result, supercapacitors are capable of supplying or absorbing signif-
icantly large amount of power compared to batteries. is makes supercapacitors an ideal choice
for improving the LVRT capability. As the supercapacitor gets discharged its voltage drops and
therefore, a high level of output power cannot be maintained for a long time, as shown in Fig. 5.2b.
 5.3. THE NEED OF ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING IN PV SYSTEMS 99
erefore, supercapacitors are good only as a high power source but not as an energy source. As
illustrated in Fig. 5.2d, the combination of battery and supercapacitor can make a good match
where supercapacitors help mitigate short term power fluctuations and batteries help mitigate
long-term power fluctuations. Furthermore, this combination reduces fast charging/discharging
stresses on the battery and thereby prolong the battery life. e leakage resistance is quite low in
supercapacitors and therefore their self-discharge rate is high compared to the batteries.
Energy stored in a capacitor has a square relationship with the voltage as expressed in (5.1)
where E is the stored energy, C is the capacitance, and V is the voltage. e corresponding change
of the voltage with the stored energy is shown in Fig. 5.2e. is diagram further indicates that
more than 75% of energy can be taken out of the supercapacitor with a 50% drop in its voltage.
1
ED C V 2: (5.1)
2

5.3 THE NEED OF ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING IN

PV SYSTEMS
A typical voltage-current characteristic of a photovoltaic array is shown in Fig. 5.3a. As this dia-
gram illustrates, terminal voltage of PV cells depend on the solar insolation and the current drawn
from the cell. As a result, the output power becomes maximum only at a particular point and it
varies with the solar insolation. e change of this maximum power point with solar irradiance
shows that the output voltage at the maximum power point increases with the solar insolation.
erefore, if maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is to be implemented, the terminal voltage
of the PV should be given freedom to vary within a range marked as PV panel output voltage.
e simplest way of integrating a battery with the PV panel is the direct connection across
the panel as shown in Fig. 5.4a. However, when a battery is in parallel with the PV panel, it tries
to control the terminal voltage of PV module and as a result the maximum power point tracking
becomes impossible. In other words, the power drawn from the PV panel depends on the battery
voltage. For example, if the dashed vertical line in Fig. 5.3a corresponds to the battery voltage
at any given instance, the possible PV power levels are the points that intersect with this line.
ese are not the maximum power points in most of the cases. erefore, even though this direct
connection is simple, it reduces the efficiency of PV power capture. Moreover, this arrangement
does not allow controlling the battery power and therefore fluctuations present in PV power is
directly passed to the battery. e situation becomes even worse if a supercapacitor is directly
connected across the PV panel as its voltage varies in a wide range. erefore, in order to achieve
the maximum power capture, PV panel should be given the freedom to vary its output voltage
within the optimum range. Energy storage elements such as batteries and supercapacitors need
to be segregated from the PV panel. e most common way of making this separation is the use
of a DC-DC converter, as shown in Fig. 5.4b.
e DC-DC boost converter in Fig. 5.4b acts as an interface between the PV panel and the
grid connecting inverter. is allows the PV panel to vary its output voltage within the optimum
100 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING

Maximum power

Current (A),
Power (W)
point curve

Voltage (V)
Supercapacitor
voltage range Battery PV panel
voltage output
range voltage range

(a)

Maximum power
Current (A),
Power (W)

point curve

Voltage (V)
PV panel output Available Battery voltage
voltage range supercapacitor range (dc-link
voltage range voltage range)

(b)

Figure 5.3: PV characteristic and voltage ranges of battery and supercapacitor (a) direct connection of
energy storage element(s) across the PV panel and (b) direct connection of energy storage element(s)
to the DC-link.

range and thereby operate at the maximum power point (MPP). e output voltage of the DC-
DC boost converter, known as the DC-link voltage, Vdc , is generally regulated to a level higher
than the output voltage of the PV panel, as shown in Fig. 5.3b. However, there is a possibility of
letting the DC-link voltage vary in a small range a so that a battery can be connected directly into
the DC-link as shown in Fig. 5.4b. is voltage range is marked in Fig. 5.3b as the battery voltage
range. Unlike in the previous case, this configuration allows the control of the battery power with
the appropriate control of the boost converter. e two battery interfacing techniques shown in
 5.3. THE NEED OF ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING IN PV SYSTEMS 101

(a)


 (b)

(c)

Figure 5.4: (a) A battery is directly connected across the PV panel in a single-phase system, (b) in-
terfacing DC-DC converter for the PV panel and direct connection of a battery to the DC-link in a
single-phase system, and (c) interfacing DC-DC converter for the PV panel and direct connection of
a battery to the DC-link in a three-phase system.

Figs. 5.4a and 5.4b are for feeding a single-phase power grid. e hardware implementation for
three-phase power systems is an extension of the single-phase system, as shown in Fig. 5.4c.
Even though the direct connection of the battery to the DC-link is simple, it allows the
PV panel to track the MPP and control battery power so that the fluctuation present in the PV
power is directly passed to the battery. Moreover, as the DC-link voltage gets higher, more battery
cells are required to be connected in series to meet the voltage requirement. is increases the
internal resistance and cell voltage balancing becomes more complex. Apart from that, due to the
wide voltage range requirement for supercapacitors to get their maximum use, it is not possible
to connect them directly into the DC-link as the allowable variation in the DC-link voltage is
102 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING
limited. erefore, in order to get the optimum use of battery and supercapacitor, they should be
segregated from the DC-link as well. e most common way of achieving this is to use separate
interfacing DC-DC converters for these energy storage elements.
e interfacing DC-DC converters need to provide a high voltage gain so that the energy
storage elements can operate at low voltages. Especially, in the case of supercapacitors, the DC-
DC converter needs to operate even at the lower limit of the supercapacitor voltage. Moreover,
the interfacing converters should be bi-directional as the energy storage elements are supposed to
have both charging and discharging functionalities. In other words, they should be able to operate
in first two quadrants as shown in Fig. 5.5. As illustrated in this diagram, both input and output
voltages of the converters are positive while the current flow can be either in positive or negative
direction. Battery and supercapacitor voltages are generally kept lower than the DC-link voltage.
When the energy storage feeds power to the DC-link, the interfacing DC-DC converter needs
to act as a boost converter to facilitate the battery and/or supercapacitor discharging process. On
the other hand, when the energy storage system is required to draw power from the DC-link,
the interfacing DC-DC converter needs to act as a buck converter to facilitate the battery and/or
supercapacitor charging process.

Vdc (V)

Quadrant 2 Quadrant 1
ESS discharge ESS discharge

Power flow Grid or Power flow Grid or

ESS ESS
dc-link dc-link
I dc (A)
Not used Not used
Quadrant 3 Quadrant 4

Figure 5.5: DC-DC converter operating areas in the four-quadrant diagram.

5.4 COMMONLY USED ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING

CONVERTER TOPOLOGIES
e simplest bidirectional DC-DC converter that can be used to interface a battery to the DC-
link of the PV power conversion system is shown in Fig. 5.6a. is converter can be considered as
a combination of traditional buck and boost converters. As this converter uses only two switches
with anti-parallel diodes and an inductor at the low voltage side, it is simple to control and cost
effective to implement. e identical converter topology can be used to interface a supercapacitor
5.4. COMMONLY USED ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING CONVERTER TOPOLOGIES 103
as well to the DC-link as shown in Fig. 5.6b. With the proper control of the switches Q6 –Q9 ,
it is possible to direct short-term power fluctuations towards the supercapacitor and long-term
power fluctuations to the battery.
As in the traditional DC-DC converter, the operation of the bi-directional DC-DC con-
verter shown in Fig. 5.6a is based on charging and discharging of the inductor. Based on inductor
charging/discharging and converter boost/buck operation, four different operating modes can be
defined for this converter. ese four operating modes are illustrated in Fig. 5.6c with correspond-
ing current paths and the switch to be turned on to activate the mode. Inductor current variations
and transistor switching states are shown in Fig. 5.6d. As shown in the top two diagrams in
Fig. 5.6c, during the boost operation, the transistor Q6 is turned off. When the complementary
transistor Q7 is turned on, the inductor gets charged form the battery as shown in the top left
diagram of Fig. 5.6c. e inductor current waveform is shown in Fig. 5.6d. When Q7 is turned
off, the inductor tries to maintain the current flow and as a result the anti-parallel diode of Q6 gets
forward biased. is creates a current path and let the energy stored in the inductor to discharge
to the DC-link, as shown in the top right diagram of Fig. 5.6c.
During the buck mode of operation of the converter, transistor Q7 , is turned off and Q6 is
turned on and off to control inductor charging and discharging as illustrated in the two bottom
diagrams of Fig. 5.6c. When Q6 is turned on, the inductor gets charged as shown in the bottom
right diagram of Fig. 5.6c. In this mode of operation, the inductor current direction reverses as
shown in Fig. 5.6e. When Q6 is turned off, the inductor tries to maintain the current flow and as
a result the anti-parallel diode of Q7 gets forward biased. is creates a current path and let the
energy stored in the inductor to discharge to the battery as shown in the bottom left diagram of
Fig. 5.6c.
Even though the DC-DC converter shown in Fig. 5.6a is simple and cost effective it has
certain disadvantages such as ripples in the current, lower voltage transfer gain and the need for
a large inductor to reduce current ripple. Generally, it is preferred to charge/discharge batteries
with low ripple current in order to achieve higher efficiency and a longer lifetime. erefore, as
a solution to the current ripple and to reduce the inductor size, another DC-DC converter can
be connected in parallel as shown in Fig. 5.7a. With this configuration, current ripples can be
reduced if the turn on and off operations of the converters are offset by a half-cycle period. is
is known as the interleaved operation. Moreover, as the two converters share the power, it is
possible to reduce the inductor size of each converter and current ratings of the transistors and
diodes. Moreover, it is possible to add more converters in parallel to increase the current rating
of the total converter system and thereby reduce the ripple in the current.
Even though the interleaved DC-DC converter reduces current ripples and inductor size,
the voltage gain remains the same. erefore, if a high voltage gain is required then the cascade
connection shown in Fig. 5.7b has to be used. Even though it is possible to connect more con-
verters in cascade to achieve higher gains it complicates the converter control. Moreover, this
topology requires additional DC capacitors to be placed in between converters.
104 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING

(a)


(b)
 

Figure 5.6: e simplest bi-directional DC-DC converter for energy storage interfacing (a) a battery
is connected to the DC-link through the converter and (b) a battery and supercapacitor are connected
to the DC-link through separate DC-DC converters. (Continues.)
5.4. COMMONLY USED ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING CONVERTER TOPOLOGIES 105

(c)

(d) (e)

Figure 5.6: (Continued.) e simplest bi-directional DC-DC converter for energy storage interfacing,
(c) current flow in the four operating modes, (d) inductor current in the boost operation, and (e)
inductor current in the buck operation.

e bi-directional DC-DC converter discussed above can only operate in buck mode when
charging the battery and boost mode when discharging the battery. is is not an issue as the
battery voltage is usually kept below the DC-link voltage. However, if the voltage of the energy
storage system is close to the DC-link voltage this converter won’t work. For such systems, the
buck-boost or Cúk converters are good choices. Figure 5.8a shows a buck-boost converter. e
polarity of output voltage gets reversed with respect to a common ground in the buck-boost con-
verter. is might be a burden in certain applications. is issue can be solved by adding more
switches as shown in Fig. 5.8b. is configuration is known as the cascade buck-boost converter.
106 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING

(a) (b)

    
Figure 5.7: (a) Interleaved DC-DC converter and (b) series connection of two DC-DC converters.

(a) (b)

Figure 5.8: (a) Buck-boost type bi-directional DC-DC converter, and (b) cascade bi-directional
buck-boost converter.

A few other bi-directional DC-DC converter topologies are shown in Fig. 5.9. Figures 5.9a
and 5.9b are two different forms of the Cúk converter. Figure 5.9c is a bidirectional form of
a positive output Luo converter. All these converters consist of two switches, two diodes, and
two inductors. e main advantage of these topologies is the reduced input and output current
ripples. However, they require two large inductors and capacitors which are bulky and expensive.
erefore, these topologies are mostly used in low power applications.
e DC-DC converters discussed so far do not possess any galvanic isolation which is a
requirement mandated by many standards for PV systems. Main reasons for the need of galvanic
isolation are safety, proper operation of protection systems, and noise reduction. Moreover, in
many cases energy storage systems are preferred to be kept at a lower voltage than that of the DC-
link and that requires very high gain DC-DC converters. erefore, if both galvanic isolation and
high voltage transfer gain are required, magnetic coupling with a high frequency transformer can
be chosen as shown in Fig. 5.10. e high frequency operation reduces the size of the transformer.
A high voltage transfer gain can be obtained with a high turns ratio, n, of the transformer.
 
5.4. COMMONLY USED ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING CONVERTER TOPOLOGIES 107

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 5.9: (a, b) Bi-directional forms of Cúk converter, and (c) Luo DC-DC converter.

Figure 5.10: Bi-directional isolated full bridge DC-DC converter.

e bidirectional operation of the isolated full-bridge converter shown in Fig. 5.10 requires
both converters on either side of the transformer to be equipped with controllable switches. How-
ever, only the source-side converter control is sufficient to achieve the power transfer. e diodes
on the other side can passively connect AC power to DC power. In other words, if the battery is
to be discharged, control on the battery side switches is sufficient to ensure desired power flow
from the battery to the DC-link. e switches on the DC-link side can be kept turned off. In the
DC-link side, the current flows through the diodes. Similarly, when the battery is to be charged,
control on the DC-link side switches is sufficient to achieve the desired power flow. Even though
this one side control is simple and reduces control complexity, it does not allow the full use of
capabilities and features of the converter system. erefore, the trend is to control both sides
irrespective of the direction of power flow.
In commercial and utility-scale PV power systems, it is economical to have a centralized
large energy storage system rather than having separate energy storage systems attached to indi-
108 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING
vidual converters such as micro inverters or micro converters. In such applications, the connection
of energy storage systems to the AC bus through inverters is preferred. Two possible ways of con-
necting a battery-supercapacitor hybrid energy storage system are shown in Figs. 5.11a and 5.11b.
In both approaches the battery is directly connected to the DC-side of the grid connecting in-
verter. is direct connection is possible due to the fact that the battery voltage varies only within
a small range. However, it is not possible to connect a supercapacitor directly into the DC-side
of the inverter as its voltage varies in a wide range. erefore, an interfacing DC-DC converter
is required to connect a supercapacitor to the grid-connecting inverter.
As shown in Fig. 5.11a, it is possible to have separate inverters for the battery and super-
capacitor. is gives more control flexibility as their power can be controlled separately. How-
ever, the drawback of this approach is the increased component count. e approach shown in
Fig. 5.11b is an alternative which slightly compromises the control flexibility over the compo-
nent count. Even with this approach it is possible to direct short term power fluctuations to the
supercapacitor and long term power fluctuations to the battery. Proper control of the switches
Q5 –Q10 is essential to achieve this objective. As discussed earlier, if the battery voltage is re-
quired to be kept at a low value, an additional DC-DC converter needs to be used to interface
the battery with the DC-link of the grid connecting inverter. Moreover, the galvanic isolation
can be achieved with the use of line frequency transformer at the grid side or isolated DC-DC
converters at the DC-side of the grid-connecting inverter.

5.5 SOFT-SWITCHING BASED-ISOLATED

BI-DIRECTIONAL DC-DC CONVERTERS FOR ENERGY
STORAGE INTERFACING
As mentioned earlier, galvanic isolation and voltage matching have become major considerations
in bi-directional DC-DC converters. e bi-directional full-bridge DC-DC converter with a
high frequency isolation transformer, shown in Fig. 5.12, is a good solution that can meet those
requirements. However, owing to the increased component count, power losses increase and as a
result efficiency drops. Losses in the power conversion occur in two forms namely, conduction loss
and switching loss. e conduction loss increases with the number of devices in the conduction
path. e switching loss increases with the switching frequency. In high frequency converters
switching losses are dominant. erefore, soft-switching technologies are developed to reduce
switching losses and thereby improve the power conversion efficiency. Compared to traditional
hard-switched PWM converters, the soft-switching converters might have a high circulating cur-
rent and more devices in the conduction path lead to increase in conduction losses. However, at
high switching frequencies, switching loss reduction caused by soft-switching offsets the increase
in conduction losses and hence there is an improvement in the overall efficiency.
Soft-switching techniques can be incorporated into the isolated bi-directional full bridge
DC-DC converter with resonant tanks as shown in Fig. 3.12. In the series resonant converter
shown in Fig. 5.12a the resonant inductor Lr and resonant capacitor Cr are connected in series
 5.5. SOFT-SWITCHING-BASED ISOLATED BI-DIRECTIONAL DC-DC CONVERTERS 109

Inverter for the PV panel

Battery Inverter for the battery

DC-DC converter for Inverter for the

the supercapacitor supercapacitor

(a)

Inverter for the PV panel

DC-DC converter for Battery Inverter for the battery

the supercapacitor

(b)

Figure 5.11: (a) Battery and supercapacitor connected to the AC bus through DC-AC inverters, and
(b) alternative way of integrating a battery and a supercapacitor to the AC bus through a DC-AC
inverter.
110 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 5.12: Bi-directional isolated full bridge DC-DC converter with (a) series resonance, (b) par-
allel resonance, (c) series parallel resonance, and (d) LLC resonance.

with active full-bridge switches in both sides of the transformer. ese inductors and capacitors
form resonance tanks in both sides of the transformer and act as voltage dividers with the load
reflected from the other side of the transformer. At the resonant frequency, the impedance of
the series resonant tank is insignificant and therefore, the resonance does not reduce the voltage
gain. If the switching frequency is slightly increased or decreased from the resonant frequency
the impedance of the resonant tank increases rapidly and therefore, the voltage gain becomes
lower. erefore, this converter has a limited operating range. In order to increase the efficiency,
zero voltage switching (ZVS) is preferred if the switching frequency is larger than the resonance
frequency and zero current switching (ZCS) is preferred when the switching frequency is lower
than the resonance frequency [50]. e main drawbacks of the series resonance topology are the
need for high switching frequency to regulate output voltage and high circulating energy at light
load conditions.
 5.6. SIMULATION STUDY 111
e parallel resonance converter shown in Fig. 5.12b has a wider operating range com-
pared to the series resonance converter. However, high circulating energy can be seen at light
load conditions. e series parallel resonance converter shown in Fig. 5.12c merges the above two
resonant topologies with two resonance capacitors and one resonance inductor. is combina-
tion helps minimize limitation of each resonant topology and therefore it is possible to achieve
voltage regulation even at no-load conditions. e main drawback of the series parallel resonance
converter is drop in voltage transfer gain if the voltage range is large. e LLC topology shown
in Fig. 5.12d is an alternative to achieve high switching frequency and higher efficiency at high
voltages [50].

5.6 SIMULATION STUDY

is section is aimed at explaining the control aspect of energy storage interfacing converters and
relevant results are obtained in a simulation study. As shown in Fig. 5.13a, a PV power system
feeding a three-phase power grid has been selected for this study. e battery bank is connected
to the DC-link through an interfacing DC-DC converter. e control of the entire system can be
delegated into three distinct controllers, namely, MPPT controller, DC-DC converter controller,
and the grid connecting inverter controller which are shown in Figs. 5.13b, 5.13c, and 5.13d,
respectively.
e MPPT control system shown in Fig. 5.13a consists of three main components, namely:
the MPP algorithm, outer voltage controller, and inner current controller. e MPP algorithm
ensures maximum power is extracted from the PV panel for a given insolation level. In order to
do this, the MPP algorithm calculates the optimal PV panel terminal voltage using the power
gradient algorithm known as dP/dV control. At the MPP, the power gradient, dP/dV, should
be zero. If it is positive that means the optimal point has not been reached and it is possible to
extract more power. erefore, the PV panel terminal voltage has to be increased further. Similarly,
a negative gradient indicates that the increase of the PV terminal voltage will decrease the power
that can be extracted from the PV panel. erefore, the terminal voltage should be reduced. Based
on the decision of the MPPT algorithm, a reference voltage will be generated which feeds the
subsequent outer voltage controller loop that in turn regulates the PV panel terminal voltage to
this optimal level. is control is achieved by controlling the innermost current loop. e output
of the innermost current controller is the modulation index that is sent to the PWM module. e
PWM module generates required gate signals for the switching device.
e control objective of the battery interfacing DC-DC converter is to regulate the DC-
link voltage to a predefined value. is is done by either injecting power into the DC-link or
absorbing power from that. e V 2 controller shown in Fig. 5.13c generates a positive modulation
index depending on the amount of power exchange required between the battery and the DC-link.
If the modulation index is positive, that means the battery should inject power to the DC-link.
is is done by activating the boost converter. Similarly, if the modulation index is negative, that
112 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING

(a)

(b)

Figure 5.13: (a) Schematic of the PV power system used in the simulation study and (b) MPPT
controller. (Continues.)

means power should be absorbed by the DC-link. is can be achieved by activating the buck
converter. e corresponding switching signal generation logic is shown in Fig. 5.13c.
e grid connecting inverter regulates the current fed into the grid. e amounts of active
and reactive power transferred to the grid are determined by the d - and q -axes current references,
id and iq , shown in Fig. 5.13d. Generally, the q -axis current, iq , which determines the reactive
power exchange, is set to zero to achieve unity power factor. erefore, in this simulation study,
the q -axis current reference, iqref , is set to zero. e d -axis current, id , which determines the
active power exchange with the grid, is controlled by an outer control loop which is not shown
in this diagram. In this simulation, the d -axis current reference, idref , is set to a constant value
which represents a constant power dispatch situation. ese two current references are compared
 5.6. SIMULATION STUDY 113

(c)

id vd - ωLiq Vdc

id* - + vd*
SQ1
+ Pl + SQ2
SQ3
SVM SQ4
iq* vq* SQ5
+ Pl + SQ6
- + θ
0 va
ωLid PLL vb
θ θ vc

va Park vd id Park ia
vb ib
vc transformation vq iq transformation ic

(d)

Figure 5.13: (Continued.) (c) DC-DC converter controller, and (d) grid interfacing inverter controller.

with the actual currents to obtain errors which are then passed through PI controllers as shown in
Fig. 5.13d to obtain voltage references, vdref , and vqref . e space vector modulation (SVM) has
been used to generate gate signals for the switches. e orientation reference  for the modulator
and dq axis transformation of voltage and currents is provided by a phase-locked loop (PLL). e
Park transformation is used in this dq axis transformation.
In the simulation, two step changes are introduced to the solar insolation, as shown in
Fig. 5.14a, aiming to illustrate the dynamic behavior of the aforementioned three power converters
of the PV system. As shown in Fig. 5.14b, power generated by the PV panel varies with the
change in the solar insolation. e battery energy storage system absorbs these fluctuations and
солнечное излучение
114 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING
thereby maintains a constant power dispatch to the grid as shown by the trace marked as Pg in
Fig. 5.14b. is is achieved by charging the battery when the PV power is high and discharging
the battery when it is low. In other words, battery gets charged when the solar insolation is at
0.9 and discharged when it drops to 0.2. e captured PV power is slightly above the output
power dispatched to the grid when the solar insolation is at 0.6 and therefore the battery still gets
charged but at a lower power level. e corresponding battery power variations are depicted in
Fig. 5.14b by the trace marked as Pb .
e corresponding variations in the PV panel terminal voltage, battery terminal voltage
and DC-link voltage are shown in Fig. 5.14c. As mentioned above, with reference to Fig. 5.3,
the PV panel terminal voltage shows a slight drop when the solar insolation drops from 0.9 to
0.2. is is a result of the maximum power point tracking achieved by the controller of the DC-

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 5.14: (a) Solar insolation, (b) PV power, battery power and power dispatched to the grid,
(c) PV voltage, battery voltage and DC-link voltage, and (d) dq -axis component of the inverter output
current. (Continues.)
 5.6. SIMULATION STUDY 115

(e) (f )

Figure 5.14: (Continued.) (e) inductor current and gate signals of the switches S6 and S7 during the
boost operation, and (f ) inductor current and gate signals of the switches S6 and S7 during the boost
operation.

DC converter attached to the PV panel. e DC-link voltage is regulated at the set point by
the DC-DC converter. e battery terminal voltage shows a slight increase when it is charging
compared to discharging. is accounts for the voltage drop across the internal resistance of the
battery bank.
e control objective for the grid connecting inverter is to maintain a constant power deliv-
ery to the grid irrespective of changes in the captured PV power. is constant power delivery to
the grid is achieved by regulating the d -axis current component, id , of the inverter output current.
In this simulation, the d -axis current reference is set to 10A which corresponds to 5 kW power
output to the grid. e q -axis current component, iq , is regulated at zero to ensure unity power
factor at the feeding point. e corresponding d -axis and q -axis currents are shown in Fig. 5.14d
which are well regulated at the set points irrespective of the changes present in the captured solar
power.
In order to illustrate the operation of the battery interfacing bi-directional DC-DC con-
verter during charging and discharging states, inductor current variations and gate signals of the
two switches are shown in Figs. 5.14e and 5.14f, respectively. As discussed above with reference
to Figs. 5.6d and 5.6e when the battery is charging the converter operates as a buck converter.
e switch Q7 is turned off as illustrated in SQ7 plot in Fig. 5.14f. e switch Q6 turns on and
off to let the inductor gets charged and discharged. As depicted in the plot of IL in Fig. 5.14f,
when the switch Q6 is turned on, the inductor gets charged. According to the convention used
in Fig. 5.13a, the current flowing out of the battery is positive. erefore, in this buck converter
operation, the inductor current is negative and increases with a negative slope. Similarly, when
116 5. ENERGY STORAGE INTERFACING
the switch Q6 is turned off the inductor gets discharged with a positive slope in the current wave-
form. As the inductor current is negative during the buck converter operation this positive slope
indicates a decrease of the current.
An identical analysis can be extended for the boost mode of operation where the battery
gets discharged to supply power to the DC-link. e corresponding inductor current variations
and gate signals of the two switches are shown in Fig. 5.14f. As shown in SQ6 and SQ7 plots
of Fig. 5.14f, in the boost mode of operation, switch Q6 is kept turned-off and Q7 is turned on
and off to charge and discharge the inductor. e inductor current is positive in the boost mode
of operation. When switch Q7 is turned on, the inductor current increases with a positive slope
which indicates that it gets charged during this period. When switch Q7 is turned off the inductor
discharges its stored energy into the DC-link.
 117

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Authors’ Biographies

MAHINDA VILATHGAMUWA
Mahinda Vilathgamuwa obtained his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Moratuwaand
University of Cambridge in 1984 and 1988, respectively. In 1985 he started his academic career
as an assistant lecturer at University of Moratuwa. Later, after obtaining a Ph.D. in Electrical
Engineering from University of Cambridge, England, he became a Senior Lecturer at the same
University. Since 1993 Mahinda served as an academic in the capacities of Lecturer, Assistant
Professor, and Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. In 2014
he joined the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane Australia where he is currently
a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Mahinda is also a Senior Member
of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

DULIKA NAYANASIRI
Dulika Nayanasiri received his B.Sc. degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
from University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, in 2010 and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical
Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2015. Currently, he is work-
ing as a lecturer in the Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering department at Univer-
sity of Moratuwa. His research interests include power electronic converters and their application
in renewable energy, especially in grid-connected photovoltaic systems.

SHANTHA GAMINI
Shantha Gamini received his B.Sc. degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, in 2003, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineer-
ing from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2013. From 2011–2015 he worked
as an Electrical Systems Engineer at Rolls Royce Advanced Technology Centre in Singapore.
Currently, he is a lecturer in maritime electrical engineering at the Australian Maritime College
at University of Tasmania, Australia. His research interests include power electronic converters,
renewable energy technologies, grid integration of energy systems, shipboard power systems, and
electric propulsion. Dr. Shantha has published over 30 scientific papers in international journals
and conference proceedings.