A novel reduced switching loss bidirectional AC/DC converter PWM strategy with feedforward control for grid-tied microgrid systems

This paper presents a novel simplified pulse width modulation (PWM) strategy for the bidirectional ac/dc single-phase converter in a microgrid system. Then, the operation mechanism of the novel simplified PWM is clearly explained. The number of switchings of the proposed simplified PWM strategy is one-fourth that of the conventional unipolar PWM and bipolar PWM. Based on the novel simplified PWM strategy, a feasible feedforward control scheme is developed to achieve better rectifier mode and inverter mode performance compared with the conventional dual-loop control scheme. The proposed simplified PWM strategy with the proposed feedforward control scheme has lower total harmonic distortion than the bipolar PWM and higher efficiency than both unipolar and bipolar PWMs. Furthermore, the proposed simplified PWM operated in the inverter mode also has larger available fundamental output voltage V _AB than both the unipolar and bipolar PWMs. A prototype system is constructed and the control scheme is implemented using FPGA Spartan-3E XC3S250E. Both simulation and experimental results verify the validity of the proposed PWM strategy and control scheme.