6794 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO.
12, DECEMBER 2014
An Effective Control Method for Three-Phase
Quasi-Z-Source Cascaded Multilevel Inverter
Based Grid-Tie Photovoltaic Power System
Yushan Liu, Student Member, IEEE, Baoming Ge, Member, IEEE, Haitham Abu-Rub, Senior Member, IEEE,
and Fang Zheng Peng, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—The quasi-Z-source cascaded multilevel inverter
(qZS-CMI) presented many advantages over conventional CMI
when applied in photovoltaic (PV) power systems. For example,
qZS-CMI provides the balanced dc-link voltage and voltage boost
ability, saves one-third modules, etc. However, current research
studies only disclosed control of single-phase qZS-CMI-based PV
power systems, and there was no literature related to control of
three-phase qZS-CMI-based PV power systems. In this paper, for
the first time, three-phase qZS-CMI’s control is proposed and
demonstrated for application to PV power systems. The models
of PV-panel-fed qZS H-bridge module and qZS-CMI-based PV
power system are built to accurately design control algorithms for
each module and the whole system. The proposed control method
includes the distributed maximum power point tracking for each
module, dc-link peak voltage balance control for all modules, and
grid-tie control for the whole system; moreover, a new multilevel
space vector modulation method is proposed for the three-phase
qZS-CMI. Simulation and experimental results on a test bench
with a three-phase seven-level qZS-CMI-based PV power system
verify the proposed control and modulation methods.
Index Terms—Cascaded multilevel inverter (CMI), photovoltaic
(PV) power systems, quasi-Z-source inverter, space vector modu-
lation (SVM).
I. I NTRODUCTION
T HE CASCADED multilevel inverter (CMI) has many
advantages over other multilevel inverters [1]–[9], which
is one of the attractive topologies in photovoltaic (PV) power
systems [10]–[12]. Nevertheless, PV voltage variation in a wide
Manuscript received July 12, 2013; revised December 1, 2013; accepted
January 5, 2014. Date of publication April 9, 2014; date of current version
September 12, 2014. This work was supported by the National Priorities
Research Program-Exceptional Proposals (NPRP-EP) under Grant X-033-2-
007 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation).
Y. Liu is with the School of Electrical Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong Uni-
versity, Beijing 100044, China; and also with the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha 23874, Qatar
(e-mail: 09117342@bjtu.edu.cn).
B. Ge is with the School of Electrical Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong Univer-
sity, Beijing 100044, China, and also with the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843
USA (e-mail: bm-ge@263.net).
H. Abu-Rub is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer-
ing, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha 23874, Qatar (e-mail: haitham.
abu-rub@qatar.tamu.edu).
F. Z. Peng is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 USA (e-mail: fzpeng@
egr.msu.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2014.2316256
0278-0046 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
range causes each module dc-link voltage’s dramatic change,
and different modules of conventional CMI have different
dc-link voltages, i.e., imbalanced voltage [11], [12]. Moreover,
CMI should output the rated voltage even for the lowest PV
voltage, as a result of overrating design for conventional CMI
[13]. To overcome the disadvantages of conventional CMI-
based PV power systems, the extra dc–dc boost converter is
added into each module’s dc-link after the PV panel in [11]
and [12], so a two-stage inverter is achieved for each module.
This topology involves extra power switches and inductors,
and power circuit and control implementation are complex,
with increased system cost and power loss. A quasi-Z-source
CMI (qZS-CMI) achieved the same purpose in single-stage
power conversion [13]–[16]; each module’s bridge leg allows
shoot through, and just an extra diode rather than an active
switch is required. The qZS-CMI can save one-third modules
in comparison to traditional CMI-based PV systems [13]. These
features make qZS-CMI with competitive effects on PV power
system’s efficiency, reliability, volume, and cost.
For the three-phase qZS-CMI-based grid-tie PV system, up
to date, there is no literature reporting its control method and
operating performance. The current works related to a qZS-
CMI-based grid-tie PV system are very initial because it is
a quite new topic. For a three-phase system, the qZS-CMI is
compared with conventional CMI in [13] for MW-scale PV
application, which shows that the qZS-CMI has dominant ad-
vantages such as high reliability, high efficiency, and low cost,
but it did not involve a control method. For a single-phase sys-
tem, GaN devices were applied to single-phase qZS-CMI-based
PV systems, and a high efficiency was achieved in [15]; the
parameter design of the qZS H-bridge module was presented
in [17]. A control method of single-phase qZS-CMI-based PV
system was proposed in [14], including independent dc-link
voltage control, distributed maximum power point tracking
(MPPT), and grid-tie control. It used shoot-through duty cycle
to track the PV panel’s maximum power point, and a constant
dc-link peak voltage control adjusts the module’s modulation
signal to push all PV powers injected to the grid. However, the
module and system models were not disclosed in [14], a simple
control explanation was verified by simulation results, and there
were no experimental results. For the multilevel modulation of
qZS-CMI, phase-shifted sinusoidal PWM (PS-SPWM) is the
only method proposed in [14], which requires many resources
to generate shoot-through states because two more references
are compared with carrier in each module.
LIU et al.: EFFECTIVE CONTROL METHOD FOR THREE-PHASE QZS-CMI-BASED GRID-TIE PV POWER SYSTEM
Fig. 1. Topology of the n-layer qZS-CMI-based grid-tie PV power system.
In this paper, the detailed control scheme for three-phase
qZS-CMI-based grid-tie PV power system is proposed to bal-
ance the dc-link peak voltages of all modules, to achieve
the distributed MPPT, and to perform the grid-injected power
control. The proposed control method is based on the built
accurate dynamic models of each module and the whole system.
A new multilevel space vector modulation (SVM) for the three-
phase qZS-CMI is proposed to reduce the modulation burden
existing in PS-SPWM because the new method no longer needs
extra two references and comparators to generate shoot-through
duty cycles for each module and the modulation method is
significantly simplified. A test bench of the three-phase qZS-
CMI-based grid-tie PV power system is built. Simulation and
experimental results verify the proposed control method and
new multilevel SVM.
II. Q ZS-CMI
Fig. 1 shows the discussed n-layer three-phase qZS-CMI-
based grid-tie PV power system. Each phase consists of n
modules in series to produce (2n + 1)-level stair step voltage.
The output voltage of phase x in qZS-CMI is
vHx = vHx1 + vHx2 + · · · + vHxk + · · · + vHxn (1)
where vHxk represents the kth module output voltage of phase
x; x = a, b, and c; and k = 1, 2, . . . , n.
In Fig. 1, each module contains a qZS network, a PV panel,
and an H-bridge inverter [14]. There are shoot-through and
nonshoot-through states in each module, which are the same
as the qZS inverter [18], [19]. Fig. 2(a) and (b) shows the
equivalent circuits of the kth module of phase x at shoot-
through and nonshoot-through states, respectively.
6795
Fig. 2. Equivalent circuits of the kth qZS H-bridge module in phase x.
(a) Shoot-through state. (b) Nonshoot-through state.
If the shoot-through time interval is Tsh during switching
period Ts , the shoot-through duty cycle of the kth module in
phase x is defined as Dxk = Tsh /Ts . With Fig. 2, the module’s
steady-state model is summarized by [18]
1 − Dxk Dxk
v̄C1xk = v̄P V xk v̄C2xk = v̄P V xk
1 − 2Dxk 1 − 2Dxk
1
v̂DCxk = v̄C1xk + v̄C2xk = v̄P V xk (2)
1 − 2Dxk
where vP V xk , vC1xk , vC2xk , and vDCxk are the voltages of the
PV panel, capacitors 1 and 2, and dc-link in the kth module of
phase x; the symbols “∧” and “−” denote the amplitude and
average values, respectively.
III. N OVEL M ULTILEVEL S PACE V ECTOR
M ODULATION FOR Q ZS-CMI
For the three-phase qZS-CMI, each layer has six half-
H-bridge legs, where three left half-H-bridge legs from phases
a, b, and c can be considered as a three-phase inverter; three
right half-H-bridge legs from phases a, b, and c are considered
as another three-phase inverter. Therefore, each layer includes
two three-phase inverters and n layers with 2n three-phase
inverters. The conventional SVM is applied to each of these
three-phase inverters, as a result of the new multilevel SVM
for the three-phase qZS-CMI. There are two key points: 1) the
modulation signals of two three-phase inverters in the same
layer have a 180◦ phase shift to ensure each module with three-
level output voltage, and 2) there is a 2π/(nK) phase shift
between reference vectors of two adjacent layers, in which K is
the number of reference voltages per control cycle, to produce
a step-like multilevel voltage.
The first layer’s three modules are used as an example to
demonstrate the aforementioned idea. With SVM, two three-
phase inverters have two groups of switching times, i.e., ta1L ,
tb1L , and tc1L for three left half-H-bridge legs (one three-phase
inverter) and ta1R , tb1R , and tc1R for three right half-H-bridge
legs (another three-phase inverter). These switching times are
distributed to three modules in the first layer, i.e., ta1L and ta1R
for module A1 of phase a, tb1L and tb1R for module B1 of phase
b, and tc1L and tc1R for module C1 of phase c.
Fig. 3 shows the switching pattern of module A1 , where
Sa1L1 , Sa1L2 , Sa1R1 , and Sa1R2 are the switching control
signals of four switches in module A1 shown in Fig. 1,
tmin = min(ta1L , ta1R ), and tmax = max(ta1L , ta1R ). When
shoot-through time interval Tsh per control cycle is equally
divided into four parts, we define tmin − = (tmin − Tsh /4) and
6796 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2014

Fig. 4. Block diagram of the kth module model in phase x.

Fig. 5. Block diagram of the qZS-CMI-based PV system’s model for phase x.

Fig. 3. Switching pattern of module A1 in the three-phase qZS-CMI.
At shoot-through state, the average current of inductor L1
tmax + = (tmax + Tsh /4), and meantime, the active vector has
can be expressed as
the same time interval Tv . For modules B1 and C1 , there
are the same method, but tmin = min(tb1L , tb1R ) and tmax =
īL1xk_sh = īP V xk = iP V xk . (7)
max(tb1L , tb1R ) for module B1 and tmin = min(tc1L , tc1R )
and tmax = max(tc1L , tc1R ) for module C1 .
From (6) and (7), inductor L1 has average current
It can be seen that the proposed new SVM does not need extra
two references to produce the shoot-through duty cycle, so its
īL1xk = Dxk īL1xk_sh + (1 − Dxk )īL1xk_nsh
implementation is easy to reduce hardware resource burden.
îgx (1 − Dxk )v̂Hxk
= Dxk iP V xk + . (8)
IV. P ROPOSED C ONTROL M ETHOD FOR THE T HREE -P HASE 2v̂DCxk (1 − 2Dxk )
Q ZS-CMI-BASED G RID -T IE PV S YSTEM
The transfer function of each H-bridge module is
The three control objectives are to achieve the following:
1) the distributed MPPT for all PV panels, 2) the balanced VHxk (s)
Ginvxk (s) = = v̂DCxk (9)
dc-link peak voltages for all modules, and 3) the unity power Vmxk (s)
factor in grid-injected power.
where Vmxk is the kth module’s modulation signal of phase x.
Fig. 4 shows the module model of (4), (8), and (9).
A. Modeling of Each Module
As shown in Fig. 1, the PV voltage of the kth module in phase B. Modeling of the qZS-CMI-Based PV System
x meets
From Fig. 1, the qZS-CMI-based grid-tie PV system has the
dvP V xk
iL1xk = iP V xk − Cp (3) dynamic equation
dt
digx
where iP V xk and iL1xk are the currents of the PV panel and vHx = vgx + Lf + rf igx (10)
inductor L1 of the kth module in phase x. dt
The Laplace transformation of (3) is where Lf and rf are the inductance and parasitic resistance of
1 the filter; and vgx is the grid voltage of phase x. The transfer
VP V xk (s) = [IP V xk (s) − IL1xk (s)] . (4) function is
Cp s
At nonshoot-through state, each module contributes output Igx (s) 1
Gf x (s) = = . (11)
power by VHx (s) − Vgx (s) Lf s + rf

îgx v̂Hxk From (1) and (9), VHx is equal to

= v̂DCxk īDCxk = vP V xk īL1xk_nsh (5)
2

n 
n
where igx is the grid-tie current of phase x, iDCxk is the dc- VHx (s) = VHxk (s) = Vmxk (s)Ginvxk (s). (12)
link current in the kth module of phase x, and iL1xk_nsh is the k=1 k=1
current of inductor L1 during nonshoot-through state. From (2)
and (5), there is From (4), (8), (11), and (12), Fig. 5 shows the qZS-CMI-
based PV system’s model for phase x when n modules are
îgx v̂Hxk taken into account, where VP V tx is the sum of PV voltages for
īL1xk_nsh = . (6)
2v̂DCxk (1 − 2Dxk ) n modules in phase x.
LIU et al.: EFFECTIVE CONTROL METHOD FOR THREE-PHASE QZS-CMI-BASED GRID-TIE PV POWER SYSTEM 6797

Fig. 6. Proposed total PV voltage and grid-tie current control of the three-phase qZS-CMI-based PV system.

C. Proposed Control Method

1) Total PV Voltage and Grid-Tie Current Control: Fig. 6
shows the proposed total PV panel voltage control and grid-
tie current control. For each of three phases a, b, and c, a
proportional-integral (PI) regulator is employed to make sure
the sum of n PV panel voltages of phase x

n
vP V tx = vP V xk
k=1

to track the sum of n PV voltage references Fig. 7. PV panel voltage controls for modules 2 to n in phase x.

n
vP∗ V tx = vP∗ V xk with
k=1 1
Gvf xk (s) = (15)
where vP∗ V xk is the kth module’s PV voltage reference in nGinvxk (s)
phase x when using the MPPT algorithm. Perturbation and 
where Vmxk is the regulated modulation signal from the kth
observation strategy is employed in considering its easy imple-
module’s PV voltage control in phase x.
mentation and high tracking efficiency [20].
From (12), (14), and (15), the phase x of qZS-CMI has the
As shown in Fig. 6, the grid-tie current peak value references
voltage VHx as
are the outputs of three-phase total PV voltage controllers. The
phase-locked loop (PLL) senses the phase angle of the grid 
n

voltage to ensure that the grid current reference is in phase VHx (s) = Vmxk Ginvxk (s) + Vgx (s). (16)
with the grid voltage. The grid-tie current closed-loop control k=1

is fulfilled in two-phase stationary α − β frame through three- According to (11) and (16), the grid current in phase x is
phase/two-phase transformation. The practical grid-tie current
tracks the sinusoidal reference with zero-error when using the 1 
n

proportional and resonant (P R) regulator [21] Igx (s) = Vmxk Ginvxk (s) (17)
Lf s + rf
k=1
kRj ω0
GP Rj (s) = kP j + (13) which shows that feedforward control eliminates the effect of
s2 + ω02
grid voltage on the grid-tie current.
where j = α, β. The resonant term introduces an infinite gain As shown in Fig. 6, the output of the grid-tie current loop per
at the grid frequency ω0 by kRj , whereas the system dynamics phase is the sum of modulation signals from all cascaded qZS
in terms of bandwidth, phase, and gain margin are determined H-bridge modules in that phase. The first module’s modulation
by proportional term kP j , which can be designed in the same signal is obtained by total modulation signals and other n − 1
way as that for a PI controller [21]. Therefore, considering the module modulation signals (vmx2 to vmxn ), i.e.,
pulsation of grid frequency, a compromise of kP j should be 
n 
n 
n

taken into account between frequency bandwidth and stability. Vmx1 = Vmxk + Vgx (s) Gvf xk (s) − Vmxk . (18)
A grid voltage feedforward control for each module will re- k=1 k=1 k=2
duce the PI regulator’s burden, achieve fast dynamic response,
and minimize the grid voltage’s impact on grid-tie current. 2) PV Voltage Controls of Other Modules: Fig. 7 shows the
Then, the kth module in phase x has the voltage modulation PV panel voltage control for modules 2 to n in phase x.
signal As shown in Fig. 7, each PV panel voltage is controlled by
an independent PI regulator to track the reference vP∗ V xk . The

Vmxk = Vmxk + Vgx (s)Gvf xk (s) (14) MPPT algorithm outputs the desired vP∗ V xk .
6798 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2014

Fig. 8. DC-link peak voltage control of the kth module in phase x.

From the module model of Fig. 4, there is

VP V xk (s) îgx (1−Dxk )
Gvoxk (s) = =− Ginvxk (s)
Vmxk (s) 2v̂DCxk (1−2Dxk )Cp s
îgx (1 − Dxk )
=− . (19)
2Cp s(1 − 2Dxk )

For the PI regulator of the kth module in phase x

kIxk
GP Ixk (s) = kP xk +
s
the open-loop transfer function of PV voltage control is

Gvcomxk (s) = Gvoxk (s)GP Ixk (s)

îgx (1 − Dxk )(kP xk s + kIxk )
=− (20)
2Cp s2 (1 − 2Dxk )

and the closed-loop transfer function will be

VP V xk (s) −Gvcomxk (s)
Gvcxk (s) = = . (21)
VP∗ V xk (s) 1 − Gvcomxk (s)

3) Balanced DC-Link Voltage Control: Fig. 8 shows the dc-

link peak voltage control for the kth module in phase x, where
the inductor current closed loop with proportional (P) regulator
is employed to improve the dynamic response; the PI regulator
of the dc-link peak voltage closed loop will ensure zero-error
tracking [22]. The actual dc-link peak voltage is calculated by
capacitor C1 voltage and shoot-through duty cycle. The dc-link
peak voltages of all modules in three phases are set to the same
desired value, which ensures the balanced dc-link voltage.
The obtained modulation signals vmxk and the desired
shoot-through duty ratios Dxk , (x = a, b, c; k = 1, 2, . . . , n)
from Figs. 6–8 are used to the proposed multilevel SVM in
Section III. The 12n switching signals shown in Figs. 6 and 7
drive the three-phase qZS-CMI to achieve the aforementioned
control objectives.
V. S IMULATION AND E XPERIMENTAL V ERIFICATIONS
A test bench of the three-phase qZS-CMI-based grid-tie PV
power system is built to verify the proposed control method and
multilevel SVM, where nine qZS H-bridge modules achieve
three-phase qZS-CMI with seven-level stair step phase voltage.
Fig. 9(a) shows the built test bench; each layer has three
modules for three phases, including gate drive and sampling
circuits, power devices, and capacitors. The qZS inductors of
all modules are located on the base. Table I lists the system
specifications. The design of qZS inductance (L1 and L2 ) and
capacitance (C1 and C2 ) is provided in [14]. The design of PV
panel terminal capacitance Cp and grid-side filter inductance
Fig. 9. Test bench of the three-phase seven-level qZS-CMI-based PV power sys-
tem. (a) Hardware photograph. (b) Control block diagram in implementation.
TABLE I
T EST B ENCH ’ S S PECIFICATIONS
Lf aims to absorb the high-frequency current of inductor
L1 and to block the high-frequency harmonic of the grid-tie
current, respectively.
Fig. 9(b) shows the block diagram used in implementing
the proposed control method. The control board integrates
TMS320F28335 DSP and Altera EPM3128A CPLD. The DSP
receives feedback data from sampling circuits, fulfills the pro-
posed control algorithms, and achieves the multilevel SVM.
The CPLD helps the DSP to allocate the pulsating signals to
the three layers’ gate driving circuits.
The Agilent Solar Array Simulator (SAS) E4360A is em-
ployed to emulate the power-voltage characteristics of PV
panels. Each channel can supply 120-V maximum voltage and
5-A maximum current.
LIU et al.: EFFECTIVE CONTROL METHOD FOR THREE-PHASE QZS-CMI-BASED GRID-TIE PV POWER SYSTEM
Fig. 10. Simulation results (top figure: module A1 ’s PV panel voltage and dc-
link voltage; middle figure: qZS inductor current in two control cycles; bottom
figure: the qZS-CMI’s seven-level output voltage and PV panel voltage).
Fig. 11. Experimental results. (a) Module A1 ’s PV panel voltage, dc-link
voltage, and qZS inductor current in two control cycles. (b) qZS-CMI’s seven-
level output voltage and PV panel voltage of module A1 .
A. Verification of New Multilevel SVM
Resistor load is used in this case, i.e., the PV power gener-
ation system works at stand-alone mode. Identical 100-V PV
voltage and shoot-through duty ratio of 0.1 are performed to all
qZS H-bridge modules. Figs. 10 and 11 show the simulation
and experimental results in two control cycles.
From (2), the module’s dc-link peak voltage should be 125 V
when the PV voltage is 100 V and the shoot-through duty cycle
6799
Fig. 12. Tested efficiency curve of the three-phase qZS-CMI with the pro-
posed multilevel SVM.
is 0.1. As shown in Figs. 10 and 11, simulated and tested dc-link
peak voltages are identical to theoretical value. Moreover, the
new SVM equally divides shoot-through time interval into four
parts per control cycle, which are in accordance with theoretical
analysis. In addition, the balanced dc-link peak voltage is
shown in stair step of the qZS-CMI’s seven-level output voltage
of Figs. 10 and 11.
The system efficiency is tested at different power. The 100-V
PV voltage and shoot-through duty ratio of 0.1324 are applied
to all qZS H-bridge modules in three-phase qZS-CMI, i.e.,
136-V dc-link peak voltage and 400-V rms line-to-line voltage
are fulfilled. Fig. 12 shows the tested efficiency curve of the
three-phase qZS-CMI in test bench.
B. Investigations of Grid-Tie and Voltage Balance Controls
In this case, the three-phase qZS-CMI-based PV system
is connected to the grid. Different PV voltages are used in
modules to investigate the qZS-CMI’s voltage balance control
capability. At the beginning, all PV panels work at 38 ◦ C and
1000 W/m2 ; at 1 s, the PV panel temperature of module A3
changes to 25 ◦ C in simulation (the assumption of temperature
change is just for testing purposes; the practical temperature
cannot change immediately), which leads to PV panel’s max-
imum power point change from (105 V, 525 W) to (120 V,
600 W) according to the P –V characteristics. In experiment,
this test of temperature variation is performed by changing the
P –V curve in Agilent SAS. Figs. 13 and 14 show the simulation
and experimental results.
As shown in Figs. 13(a) and (b) and 14(a), different tem-
peratures result in different PV voltages at the maximum power
points for modules A1 and A3 ; lower temperature causes higher
PV voltage (120 V) of module A3 , and original voltage is
105 V. To ensure a constant dc-link peak voltage (136 V), the
shoot-through duty cycle of module A3 is adjusted to smaller
value (D = 0.058) from the original D = 0.114. The balanced
voltage is shown in the seven-level output voltage with equal
stair step voltage, as shown in Figs. 13(e) and 14(c).
No matter what temperatures are, the modules keep on track-
ing their PV panels’ maximum power points through modifying
modulation signals. For example, with the same dc-link peak
voltage, module A3 has a larger modulation signal at a lower
PV panel temperature, as shown in Fig. 13(c), which leads to
a higher module output voltage for module A3 . At the same
time, the grid-tie phase current will increase because the total
PV power of the modules in this phase increases. As a result,
module A3 outputs a larger power to the grid after the PV panel
temperature reduces; other modules have smaller modulation
signals and smaller module output voltages, but other modules’
6800 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2014
Fig. 13. Simulated results when the PV panel of module A3 has temperature
change. (a) PV voltage, dc-link voltage, and shoot-through duty cycle of
module A3 . (b) PV voltage, dc-link voltage, and shoot-through duty cycle
of module A1 . (c) Modulation signals of three modules in phase a. (d) Grid-
tie current and grid voltage. (e) Three-phase grid-tie currents and qZS-CMI’s
seven-level voltages.
Fig. 14. Experimental results. (a) PV panel voltages of modules A3 and A1 ,
and the grid-tie current and voltage in phase a. (b) Zoom-in view of the grid-tie
current and voltage in phase a. (c) Three-phase grid-tie currents and qZS-CMI’s
seven-level voltage in phase a.
output powers are constant. For instance, module A1 outputs a
smaller module voltage with a smaller modulation signal and a
larger module current. The grid-tie current is exactly in phase
with the grid voltage, as Figs. 13(d) and 14(b) show.
C. Investigation of Irradiation Variations
Irradiance variation of the PV panel will cause the PV current
to change at maximum power point. This case will test the
irradiation variation’s effect on the system by using simulation.
At the beginning, all PV panels work at 25 ◦ C and 1000 W/m2 ;
at 1.5 s, the PV panel’s irradiation of module A3 changes to 800
W/m2 , which leads to the PV panel’s current and power changes
from (5 A, 600 W) to (4 A, 480 W) at MPPs. Simulation results
are shown in Fig. 15.
LIU et al.: EFFECTIVE CONTROL METHOD FOR THREE-PHASE QZS-CMI-BASED GRID-TIE PV POWER SYSTEM 6801

From Fig. 15(a), the irradiation reduction causes the PV

current of module A3 to decrease at MPP, but the PV voltage
does not have a big change, as shown in Fig. 15(b). The
modulation signals of all modules are adjusted to change the
grid-tie phase current, as Fig. 15(c) shows. A lower irradiation
of module A3 causes a smaller modulation index than other
modules, implying smaller PV current and output power of
module A3 . Therefore, the grid-tie phase current is reduced
even though it is not obvious in Fig. 15(d) since a decrease of
120-W power will not result in a big current change for a grid
of 400-V rms line-to-line voltage.
Meanwhile, the dc-link peak voltages of all modules remain
constant, and the balanced voltages of the three-phase qZS-CMI
are shown in Fig. 15(e).
Finally, the total maximum PV powers of all modules are in-
jected to the grid, and each module provides its own maximum
power.

VI. C ONCLUSION
A control method for three-phase qZS-CMI-based grid-tie
PV system has been proposed. The detailed dynamic models of
the module and the whole system have provided the fundamen-
tals for the proposed control method. A new multilevel SVM
has been proposed for the three-phase qZS-CMI, which sim-
plified the modulation burden when compared to existing PS-
SPWM. The proposed control method ensured the distributed
MPPT, dc-link voltage balance for all modules, and grid-
injected power control with unity power factor. The three-phase
seven-level qZS-CMI-based PV power system’s test bench was
built. Simulation and experimental results verified the proposed
scheme and new modulation method.

Fig. 15. Simulation results when the PV panel’s irradiation of module A3
reduces. (a) PV currents of modules A1 and A3 . (b) PV voltage, dc-link
voltage, and shoot-through duty cycle of module A3 . (c) Modulation signals
of three modules in phase a. (d) Grid-tie current in phase with grid voltage.
(e) qZS-CMI’s seven-level three-phase voltages and currents.
R EFERENCES
[1] J. Rodriguez, J.-S. Lai, and F. Z. Peng, “Multilevel inverters: A survey
of topologies, controls, applications,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 49,
no. 4, pp. 724–738, Aug. 2002.
[2] B. Ge, F. Z. Peng, and Y. Li, “Multilevel converter/inverter topologies
and applications,” in Power Electronics for Renewable Energy Systems,
Transportation and Industrial Applications, H. Abu-Rub, M. Malinowski,
and K. Al-Haddad, Eds. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley, 2014.
[3] S. Vazquez et al., “Analysis of the power balance in the cells of a multi-
level cascaded H-bridge converter,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 57,
no. 7, pp. 2287–2296, Jul. 2010.
[4] J. Napoles et al., “Selective harmonic mitigation technique for cascaded
H-bridge converters with nonequal dc link voltages,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., vol. 60, no. 5, pp. 1963–1971, May 2013.
[5] F. Carnielutti, H. Pinheiro, and C. Rech, “Generalized carrier-based mod-
ulation strategy for cascaded multilevel converters operating under fault
conditions,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 679–689,
Feb. 2012.
[6] H. Sepahvand, J. Liao, M. Ferdowsi, and K. A. Corzine, “Capacitor
voltage regulation in single-dc-source cascaded H-bridge multilevel con-
verters using phase-shift modulation,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60,
no. 9, pp. 3619–3626, Sep. 2013.
[7] B. P. McGrath, D. G. Holmes, and W. Y. Kong, “A decentralized controller
architecture for a cascaded H-bridge multilevel converter,” IEEE Trans.
Ind. Electron., vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 1169–1178, Mar. 2014.
[8] C. Baier et al., “Improving power quality in cascade multilevel converters
based on single-phase non-regenerative power cells,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., vol. 61, no. 9, pp. 4498–4509, Mar. 2014.
[9] N. A. Rahim, M. F. M. Elias, and W. P. Hew, “Transistor-clamped
H-bridge based cascaded multilevel inverter with new method of capacitor
voltage balancing,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60, no. 8, pp. 2943–
2956, Aug. 2013.
6802 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2014

[10] J. Chavarria, D. Biel, F. Guinjoan, C. Meza, and J. J. Negroni, “Energy- Baoming Ge (M’11) received the Ph.D. degree
balance control of PV cascaded multilevel grid-connected inverters un- in electrical engineering from Zhejiang University,
der level-shifted and phase-shifted PWMs,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., Hangzhou, China, in 2000.
vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 98–111, Jan. 2013. Since 2002, he has been with Beijing Jiaotong
[11] S. Rivera, S. Kouro, B. Wu, J. I. Leon, J. Rodriguez, and L. G. Franquelo, University, Beijing, China, where he is a Professor
“Cascaded H-bridge multilevel converter multistring topology for large with the School of Electrical Engineering. He is
scale photovoltaic systems,” in Proc. IEEE ISIE, Jun. 27–30, 2011, also with the Department of Electrical and Computer
pp. 1837–1844. Engineering (ECE), Texas A&M University, College
[12] S. Kouro, C. Fuentes, M. Perez, and J. Rodriguez, “Single dc-link cas- Station, TX, USA. He was a Visiting Scholar with
caded H-bridge multilevel multistring photovoltaic energy conversion sys- the University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, from
tem with inherent balanced operation,” in Proc. 38th Annu. Conf. IEEE 2004 to 2005, and a Visiting Professor with ECE,
IECON, Oct. 25–28, 2012, pp. 4998–5005. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA, from 2007 to 2008 and
[13] Y. Xue, B. Ge, and F. Z. Peng, “Reliability, efficiency, cost comparisons 2010 to 2014.
of MW-scale photovoltaic inverters,” in Proc. IEEE ECCE, Sep. 15–20,
2012, pp. 1627–1634.
[14] D. Sun et al., “A new grid-connected PV system based on cascaded H-
bridge quasi-Z source inverter,” in Proc. IEEE ISIE, May 28–31, 2012, Haitham Abu-Rub (M’99–SM’07) received the
pp. 951–956.
M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Gdynia
[15] Y. Zhou, L. Liu, and H. Li, “A high-performance photovoltaic module-
Marine Academy, Gdynia, Poland, in 1990, and the
integrated converter (MIC) based on cascaded quasi-Z-source inverters Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Gdansk
(qZSI) using eGaN FETs,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 28, no. 6,
University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland, in 1995,
pp. 2727–2738, Jun. 2013.
and in humanities from Gdansk University, Gdansk,
[16] B. Ge, “Energy Stored Cascade Multilevel Photovoltaic Grid-Tie Power
Poland, in 2004.
Generation System,” Patent CN101917016 A, Dec. 15, 2010. He is currently a Professor with Texas A&M Uni-
[17] D. Sun et al., “Modeling, impedance design, efficiency analysis of quasi-
versity at Qatar, Doha, Qatar.
Z source module in cascade multilevel photovoltaic power system,” IEEE
Dr. Abu-Rub is an Editor of the IEEE T RANSAC -
Trans. Ind. Electron, to be published.
TIONS ON S USTAINABLE E NERGY and of the IEEE
[18] Y. Li, S. Jiang, J. Cintron-Rivera, and F. Peng, “Modeling and control J OURNAL OF E MERGING AND S ELECTED T OPICS IN P OWER E LECTRONICS.
of quasi-Z-source inverter for distributed generation applications,” IEEE
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 1532–1541, Apr. 2013.
[19] B. Ge et al., “An energy stored quasi-Z-source inverter for application to
photovoltaic power system,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60, no. 10,
pp. 4468–4481, Oct. 2013. Fang Zheng Peng (M’92–SM’96–F’05) received
[20] M. A. G. de Brito, L. Galotto, L. P. Sampaio, G. de Azevedo e Melo, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
C. A. Canesin, “Evaluation of the main MPPT techniques for photovoltaic from Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka,
applications,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 1156–1167, Japan, in 1987 and 1990, respectively.
Mar. 2013. Since 2000, he has been with Michigan State Uni-
[21] L. F. A. Pereira, J. V. Flores, G. Bonan, D. F. Coutinho, and J. M. G. versity, East Lansing, MI, USA, where he is currently
da Silva, “Multiple resonant controllers for uninterruptible power a Full Professor with the Department of Electrical
supplies—A systematic robust control design approach,” IEEE Trans. Ind. and Computer Engineering.
Electron., vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 1528–1538, Mar. 2014. Dr. Peng has served the IEEE Power Electronics
[22] Y. Liu et al., “Quasi-Z-source inverter based PMSG wind power genera- Society in many capacities such as Chair of the
tion system,” in Proc. IEEE ECCE, Sep. 17–22, 2011, pp. 291–297. Technical Committee for Rectifiers and Inverters, as
an Associate Editor of the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON P OWER E LECTRONICS,
Region 1–6 Liaison, and Member-at-Large.
Yushan Liu (S’12) received the B.Sc. degree in
automation from the Beijing Institute of Technology,
Beijing, China, in 2008. She is currently working to-
ward the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in the
School of Electrical Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong
University, Beijing.
She is also a Research Assistant with the De-
partment of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, Qatar. Her
research interests include modeling and control of
Z-source inverters, cascaded multilevel inverters,
grid-connected photovoltaic power generation, and battery energy storage.