IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO.

4, APRIL 2013 1971

Common-Mode Voltage Reduction Pulsewidth

Modulation Techniques for Three-Phase
Grid-Connected Converters
Chung-Chuan Hou, Member, IEEE, Chih-Chung Shih, Po-Tai Cheng, Senior Member, IEEE,
and Ahmet M. Hava, Member, IEEE

Abstract—This paper experimentally investigates the perfor-

mance of three-phase voltage source pulsewidth modulation Grid converter
(PWM) converter, with the grid interfaced photovoltaic energy i DC
conversion system being the main application. In such applica- S1 S3 S5
+
tions the ground leakage current [common mode current (CMC)] V sa
C1 L sa
should be much less than an ampere and this is difficult to ob-
a
tain in transformerless (direct) connected systems. With the tar- i sa
L sb V sb
get being the reduction of the common mode voltage (CMV) and
CMC, the converter performance is investigated thoroughly. Con- PV vdc o b
i sb
n
ventional PWM methods [space vector PWM (SVPWM) and dis- V sc
continuous PWM (DPWM)] and recently developed reduced com- L sc
C2 c
mon mode voltage PWM (RCMV-PWM) methods [active zero state
PWM (AZSPWM) and near state PWM (NSPWM)] are consid- i sc
--
ered. The performance of a 1-kW rated PWM rectifier with addi- N S4 S6 S2
tional common-mode capacitor emulating a PV system has been
experimentally investigated. It is shown that the CMV and CMC Stray Capacitance Ground
of the tested RCMV-PWM methods is significantly less than con-
ventional methods. In particular, NSPWM yields the best overall i cm
performance including low ground leakage current, low inverter
output (phase current) and input (dc-link current) ripple, and low Fig. 1. Transformerless grid-connected PV system.
switching losses. Accounting for the parasitic capacitance effect,
the resonant frequency of the common-mode circuit is identified
and it is used in the converter design for the purpose of avoid- governments and the awareness of global warming issues. The
ing resonances involving large CMV-CMC. This paper aims help conversion efficiency, weight, and size are critical factors when
the design engineer select the appropriate PWM method for grid-
PV systems are evaluated for installations. Therefore, trans-
connected applications and provides some design rules of thumb.
formerless converter circuits are often favored. Fig. 1 shows a
Index Terms—Common-mode current (CMC), common-mode typical three-phase transformerless grid-connected PV system.
voltage (CMV), leakage current, parasitic capacitance, photo-
The stray capacitance between PV panels and the ground is
voltaic, pulsewidth modulation (PWM), three phase.
estimated at 200 nF/kWp, which depends on several factors,
such as the PV panel and the frame structure, the weather con-
ditions, etc. The total stray capacitance of the installation can
I. INTRODUCTION
range from nanofarad to microfarad [1], [2]. The stray capaci-
HE number of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system
T installations has grown dramatically in recent years glob-
ally, thanks to all kinds of incentive programs offered by the
tance results in significant common-mode current (CMC) as the
grid-connected converter switches at high-frequency pulsewidth
modulation (PWM). The lack of the galvanic isolation presents
a potential safety risk if the CMC is not well managed. The
German DIN VDE 0126-1-1 standard requires disconnection
of the converter within 0.3 s when the ground current exceeds
Manuscript received May 27, 2011; revised October 16, 2011; January 7, 300 mA (peak) [3]. The capacity of three-phase PV converters
2012; accepted March 29, 2012. Date of current version October 26, 2012. usually goes beyond 10–15 kWp, and the stray capacitance of
Recommended for publication by Associate Editor S. Sanders. the PV panels of this capacity would be the dominating factor
C.-C. Hou is with the Chung Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan (e-mail:
bird@chu.edu.tw). of the CMC.
C.-C. Shih is with the Delta Electronics Inc., Taoyuan 33370, Taiwan (e-mail: This paper experimentally investigates the performance of
ccshih1203@gmail.com). three-phase voltage source PWM converter, with the PV energy
P.-T. Cheng is with the National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
(e-mail: ptcheng@ee.nthu.edu.tw). conversion system being the application and the common-mode
A. M. Hava is with the Middle East Technical University, Ankara 06800, performance of the rectifier being the main focus. Conventional
Turkey (e-mail: hava@metu.edu.tr). PWM methods, such as the space vector PWM (SVPWM)
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. and the discontinuous PWM (DPWM), and recently devel-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2012.2196712 oped reduced common-mode voltage PWM (RCMV-PWM)
0885-8993/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE
1972 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 4, APRIL 2013

(010) V 3 V 2 (110) In the following, the important RCMV PWM methods will be
briefly discussed and their pulse patterns will be shown.

A2 A. Active Zero State PWM

A3 A1
V4 V1 The AZSPWM methods [4]–[6] use the same active vectors
(011) (100) to produce the desired output voltage as the conventional sinu-
A4 A6
A5 soidal PWM (SPWM) and SVPWM do. Instead of zero vectors,
AZSPWM methods, as the name suggests, utilize two oppo-
site active vectors of equal time to effectively create the zero
(001) V 5 V 6 (101) state. The choice of these two opposite active vectors depends
(a) on the location of the voltage command. A simple illustration
of AZSPWM is given in Fig. 3(a). AZSPWM1 always switches
(010) V 3 V 2 (110)
between adjacent vectors over a 60◦ span on the dq plane. Other
AZSPWM methods may switch between nonadjacent vectors
B3 B2 across a 120◦ span.

V4 B4 B1 V1 B. Remote State PWM

(011) (100)
B5 B6
(001) V 5 V 6 (101)
(b)
Fig. 2. Voltage vector states on the dq plane and the region definition for
RCMV-PWM techniques. (a) Type A regions. (b) Type B regions
methods, such as the active zero state PWM (AZSPWM),
the near state PWM (NSPWM), and the remote state PWM
(RSPWM) are considered. The PWM techniques are reviewed,
the high-frequency common-mode voltage (CMV) and CMC is-
sues in grid-connected converters are discussed. Then, detailed
experimental study evaluates and compares the performance of
the discussed methods with the common-mode behavior be-
ing the main focus. It is shown that the use of the correct
RCMV-PWM method can yield significant advantages in terms
of CMV-CMC reduction. This paper aims to help the design en-
gineer select the appropriate PWM method for grid-connected
applications and provides some design rules of thumb.
II. COMMON-MODE REDUCING PWM METHODS
Various RCMV-PWM techniques have been presented. This
section will briefly describe the AZSPWM [4]–[6], the remote
state PWM (RSPWM) [7], [8], and the NSPWM methods [9].
While conventional three-phase PWM methods utilize the com-
bination of active vector states and zero vector states to pro-
duce the desired output voltage, the RCMV-PWM techniques
use only active vector states so their CMV can be significantly
reduced. The selection of active vector states of various RCMV-
PWM techniques depends on where voltage command is located
in the dq plane. Fig. 2 shows how the dq plane can be divided.
The CMV of grid-connected converter is expressed as
follows:
VCM = (Vao + Vbo + Vco )/3 (1)
The remote state PWM (RSPWM) methods presented in [7]
and [8] utilize the vectors of the same common-mode signature,
like V1 , V3 , V5 or V2 , V4 , V6 to produce the desired output
voltage. RSPWM1 utilizes only one vector group in a fixed
sequence. RSPWM2 also utilizes only one vector group, and
the sequences vary depending on the voltage command, thus it
yields better waveform quality. RSPWM3 alternates both vector
groups every 60◦ span and also applies variable sequence. A
simplified illustration of RSPWM3 is given in Fig. 3(b).
C. Near State PWM
The NSPWM method [9] utilizes a group of three active
voltage vectors to synthesize the desired output voltage. The
active vector states closest to the voltage command are used,
and a near-neighbor voltage vector is also selected based on the
location of the voltage command. The utilized voltage vectors
change every 60◦ on the vector plane. A simplified illustration
of NSPWM is given in Fig. 3(c).
III. PERFORMANCE INDEX OF RCMV-PWM METHODS
The output voltage waveform quality can be investigated in
terms of the normalized harmonic flux vector defined over an
arbitrary N th PWM cycle as follows [10]:
 N Ts
π
λhn (Mi , θ, Vdc ) = (VK − Vref )dt (2)
Vdc Ts (N −1)T s
where Mi = π2VV rdecf , and Ts is the period of the modulation.
The RMS harmonic flux over a PWM cycle (or a duty cycle
δ of 0 to 1) λhn -rm s and the harmonic distortion factor (HDF), a
normalized λhn -rm s over a fundamental cycle can be expressed
as

 1
λhn -rm s (Mi , θ) = λ2hn dδ (3)
0
 2π
288 1
HDF = f (Mi ) = 2 λ2hn -rm s dθ. (4)
π 2π 0
HOU et al.: COMMON-MODE VOLTAGE REDUCTION PULSEWIDTH MODULATION TECHNIQUES 1973

(010) V 3 V 2 (110) (010) V 3 (010) V 3 V 2 (110)

V ref V ref V ref

V4 V1 V1 V4 V1
(011) (100) (100) (011) (100)

(001) V 5 V 6 (101) (001) V 5 (001) V 5 V 6 (101)

Sa 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 Sa 0 1 0 1 0 Sa 1 1 1 1 1
Sb 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 Sb 1 0 0 0 1 Sb 1 0 0 0 1
Sc 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Sc 0 0 1 0 0 Sc 0 0 1 0 0
V6 V1 V2 V3 V2 V1 V6 V3 V1 V5 V1 V3 V2 V1 V6 V1 V2
V no V no V no
V dc /6 V dc /6
0 0 0
-V dc /6 -V dc /6 -V dc /6

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 3. Illustrations of various RCMV-PWM schemes. (a) AZSPWM1 in region A1. (b) RSPWM3 in region B1. (c) NSPWM in region B1.

Smaller HDF implies smaller ac inverter flux ripple that re- For grid-connected PV applications, the converter usually
sults in smaller output filter size for the same current ripple operates with unity power factor and injects real power into
value, or smaller ripple with the same filter size. The dc-link cur- the grid. The dc bus voltage is maintained only at a sufficient
rent of the converter affects the dc-link capacitor sizing because level for effective current control without overmodulation and
the capacitor needs to absorb the PWM ripple current. Each to uphold the conversion efficiency. Thus, the converter usually
RCMV-PWM technique has its unique ripple current, which de- operates with high modulation index. The linear modulation
pends on the modulation index Mi and the displacement power range of RSPWM is limited, for example, RSPWM3 is linear up
factor angle φ. The ratio of the harmonic RMS value of the dc- to Mi = 0.604. Inevitably, it will require higher dc bus voltage
link current Idch -rm s and the converter ac output fundamental for grid connection [8], which likely leads to higher operational
current RMS value I1rm s is evaluated in [6] and [9] as the dc losses. Even at low modulation index range, RSPWM methods
link current quality factor may require larger filter due to its high HDF and Kdc .
RSPWM methods and AZSPWM2-3 methods require simul-
Idch -rm s
Kdc = . (5) taneous switching of two converter poles to reduce their CMV.
I1rm s However, in practice this is hardly realized because of the dead-
Smaller Kdc implies less capacitor ripple current and less stress. time, differences in gate-delay, and nonidentical semiconductor
The Kdc factor for various RCMV-PWM methods are given as devices. The CMV often becomes as large as conventional. In
follows [10]: addition, the high CMV caused by dead-time and mismatches
1) AZSPWM in these two methods happens as very narrow CMV pulses,
 √ √  and results in high over-voltages which may damage the insula-
9 3 3 3 tion of the PV panels. The HDF and Kdc characteristics given
Kdc = 1 + Mi 2 − cos (2ϕ)
π 2π in Fig. 4 show that both AZSPWM1 and NSPWM have good
18 performance at high modulation index. In NSPWM, only two
− Mi2 cos2 (ϕ) (6) converter poles switch in every PWM cycle, and the other con-
π2
verter pole is locked to either the positive or the negative rail of
2) RSPWM the dc bus. This is a significant advantage as the PV converter
6 18 systems place the conversion efficiency as the top priority. Of
Kdc = 1 + Mi cos (2ϕ) − Mi2 2 cos2 (ϕ) (7) the RCMV PWM methods, only AZSPWM1 and NSPWM will
π2 π
be considered and compared with the conventional SVPWM
3) NSPWM and DPWM1 methods in this paper.
 √ 
24 3 3 18
Kdc = 1 + Mi 2 − cos (2ϕ) − Mi2 2 cos2 (ϕ). IV. CARRIER-BASED AZSPWM1 AND NSPWM
π π π
Both AZSPWM1 and NSPWM can be easily implemented
(8) with their respective zero-sequence injection command and two
1974
Fig. 4. Harmonic distortion factor and the dc bus ripple factor of various
RCMV-PWM techniques [6]. (a) Harmonic distortion factor. (b) DC bus ripple
factor.
phase opposite triangular carriers as shown in Fig. 5. The zero
sequence commands are produced from the phase voltage com-
mands Va∗ , Vb∗ , and Vc∗ as follows:
1) AZSPWM1
1
V0 = − [max(Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ ) + min(Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ )]. (9)
2 Four modulation methods, SVPWM, AZSPWM1, DPWM1,
The zero sequence injection of AZSPWM1 is exactly the
same with that of the SVPWM [11].
2) NSPWM: among the three phase voltage commands Va∗ ,
Vb∗ , and Vc∗ , the one with the maximum magnitude is first
identified as Vm ax , then the zero sequence command is
determined
 
Vdc1
V0 = [sign(Vm ax )] · − (Vm ax ). (10)
2
The zero sequence injection of NSPWM is exactly the
same as that of the DPWM1 [10], [12].
The modified phase voltage commands Va∗∗ , Vb∗∗ , and Vc∗∗ ,
are then produced by adding the zero sequence command V0 to
the original phase voltage commands, and then compared with
triangular carriers +Vtri and −Vtri to produce gate pulses of the
converter. Among Va∗∗ , Vb∗∗ , and Vc∗∗ , the one of the smallest
magnitude is compared with −Vtri , and the other two are com-
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 4, APRIL 2013
CMV Reduction PWM
gate
V*
a V**
a +V tri pulses
++
Current V*
b ++
V**
b
Controller V*
c V**
c
++
−V tri
V0
Zero Sequence Calculator
Fig. 5. Control block diagram of the grid converter.
pared with +Vtri . Please note that AZSPWM1 and SVPWM
have exactly the same modulation waveforms. NSPWM and
DPWM1 also have exactly the same modulation waveforms.
Therefore, in terms of implementing these modulation meth-
ods, AZSPWM1 and NSPWM are just as easy as SVPWM and
DPWM1, respectively.
V. LABORATORY TEST RESULTS
A test-bench converter as shown in Fig. 1 is built in the lab-
oratory for testing. Fig. 5 is a simplified representation of the
controller of the grid-connected converter. Based on the ac grid
voltage, converter phase current, and the power flow in the con-
verter dc bus, the current controller generates the phase voltage
commands Va∗ , Vb∗ , and Vc∗ which can convey all the power
to the ac grid at unity power factor. A zero sequence com-
mand Vo and the modified voltage command are then calculated
as described in Section IV. The controller is implemented in
a TMS320F28335 DSP kit, and the various modulation algo-
rithms are programmed into an FPGA chip. The parameters of
the test-bench are given as follows:
A Cstray = 0.1μF capacitor is connected between the ground
and the positive rail of the dc bus, and another 0.1μF is con-
nected between the negative rail of the dc bus and the ground.
These capacitors are placed to emulate the PV panel parasitic
capacitance.
and NSPWM are evaluated on the laboratory test bench, their
resulting time domain waveforms and frequency domain spectra
are given in Figs. 6 – 9, respectively. Statistics of these wave-
forms are also given in Table II. For SVPWM and AZSPWM1,
the frequency of the carrier triangular wave is set at 10 kHz. For
DPWM1 and NSPWM, it will be 15 kHz. The converter then
has exactly the same number of switchings per unit time while
operating under all four modulation methods.
SVPWM demonstrates the worst performance in terms of the
common-mode noise among the tested methods. Its utilization
of zero vector states result in severe CMC icm as Fig. 6 shows.
The RMS value of icm reaches 2.95 A(rms). This also explains
why its phase current isa becomes very distorted.
AZSPWM1 has exactly the same voltage references as
SVPWM, but two phase-opposite triangular waves are applied
in order to eliminate the use of zero vectors. The resulting CMC
significantly reduces to 0.77 A(rms). Comparing the spectra in
HOU et al.: COMMON-MODE VOLTAGE REDUCTION PULSEWIDTH MODULATION TECHNIQUES
(a)
Phase Current (A)
Frequency (Hz)
CMC (A)
Frequency (Hz)
(b)
Magnitude (V)
Frequency (Hz)
(c)
Fig. 6. SVPWM at 10 kHz. (a) Phase current and the CMC; 2 A/div, 5 ms/div.
(b) Spectra of phase current (top) and CMC (bottom). (c) Spectrum of the CMV.
Figs. 6(b) and 7(b) shows that this reduction primarily comes at
the 10-kHz switching frequency component, a contribution of
the phase opposite triangular carrier waves.
DPWM1 and NSPWM also share the same voltage refer-
ences, and NSPWM adopts two phase-opposite triangular car-
rier waves to eradicate the zero vector states. The RMS value of
the CMC icm is 0.99 A(rms) under DPWM1 operation, and it
reduces to 0.37 A(rms) under NSPWM operation. Similar to the
relationship between SVPWM and AZSPWM1, the reduction
can be attributed to the use of phase-opposite triangular car-
rier waves as shown in Figs. 8(b) and 9(b). Please note that the
1975
(a)
Phase Current (A)
Frequency (Hz)
CMC (A)
Frequency (Hz)
(b)
Magnitude (V)
Frequency (Hz)
(c)
Fig. 7. AZSPWM1 at 10 kHz. (a) Phase current and the CMC; 2 A/div,
5 ms/div. (b) Spectra of phase current (top) and CMC (bottom). (c) Spectrum of
the CMV.
aforementioned tests are performed without any common-mode
filter in order to directly observe the common-mode signatures
of these PWM schemes. All the resulting CMC in Table II ex-
ceed the requirement of VDE 0126-1-1. To meet this standard,
the common-mode filter needs to be included in the test-bench
converter. Among these PWM methods, NSPWM can meet the
VDE 0126-1-1 standard with the smallest common-mode filter.
Based on the pulse patterns of the tested modulation wave-
forms, the CMV base frequency can be predicted. For DPWM1
and NSPWM, the CMV changes four times per PWM cycle,
while for SVPWM and AZSPWM1 the CMV changes six times.
For 15 kHz carrier of DPWM1-NSPWM this corresponds to
1976
(a)
Phase Current (A)
Frequency (Hz)
CMC (A)
Frequency (Hz)
(b)
Magnitude (V)
Frequency (Hz)
(c)
Fig. 8. DPWM1 at 15 kHz. (a) Phase current and the CMC; 2 A/div, 5 ms/div.
(b) Spectra of phase current (top) and CMC (bottom). (c) Spectrum of the CMV.
a base frequency of 30 kHz, and for 10 kHz of SVPWM-
AZSPWM1 this corresponds to 30 kHz. As a result, the domi-
nant components of CMV for all methods are around 30 kHz.
However, as the waveforms do not have full symmetry, lower
frequency components down to the carrier frequency exist. The
CMV harmonic spectrums of the studied methods are shown
in Figs. 6(c), 7(c), 8(c), and 9(c) to confirm this result. With
the CMV harmonic spectrum being wide, and the resonant fre-
quency of the zero sequence equivalent circuit being fairly low
for PV applications, there exists a risk of exciting the resonance.
In fact, this becomes the case for the conducted experiment.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 4, APRIL 2013
(a)
Phase Current (A)
Frequency (Hz)
CMC (A)
Frequency (Hz)
(b)
Magnitude (V)
Frequency (Hz)
(c)
Fig. 9. NSPWM at 15 kHz. Phase current and the CMC; 2 A/div, 5 ms/div. (b)
Spectra of phase current (top) and CMC (bottom). (c) Spectrum of the CMV.
Most grid-tied inverters adopt LCL filters on the grid side. The
filter capacitor terminal voltage is equivalent to the ideal grid
source voltage as in Fig. 1. The inverter side inductor, typically
a few percent per unit in terms of its impedance, is set such that
the inverter ripple current is sufficiently small. The grid side
inductor is typically smaller than the inverter side inductor. The
line current THD is then an issue of PWM methods. NSPWM
at high modulation index range has low ripple. DPWM1 and
SVPWM also have low ripple. All these methods achieves sat-
isfactory level of output current THD, whether on the inverter
side or on the line side.
HOU et al.: COMMON-MODE VOLTAGE REDUCTION PULSEWIDTH MODULATION TECHNIQUES 1977

TABLE I 4 Bode Diagram

PARAMETERS OF THE TEST BENCH 10

AC utility 220 Vrms(line-to-line), 60 Hz

AC side inductor Lsa = Lsb = Lsc = 5 mH 10
3 (45kHz, 583.7 ohm)
DC bus voltage vdc = 370 V
DC bus capacitor 1000 µF (30kHz, 380 ohm)
Load 1 kW

Impedance (Ω)
2 (15kHz, 161 ohm)
10
Stray capacitance Cstray = 0.1 µF
(10kHz, 54.25 ohm)
TABLE II 10
1
MEASUREMENT OF PWM METHODS UNDER TEST (WITHOUT SNY
COMMON-MODE FILTER)
0
SVPWM AZSPWM1 DPWM1 NSPWM 10
Carrier 10k 10k 15k 15k
frequency
−1
(Hz) 10
3 4 5
CMC 2.95 0.77 0.99 0.37 10 10 10
(A,RMS) Frequency (Hz)
Phase current 3.4 3.0 2.8 3.0
(A, RMS) Fig. 11. Impedance of the CMC equivalent circuit.
Phase current 4.2 4.6 4.1 4.2
THD (%)
DC bus ripple 1.01 0.37 0.27 0.21
(V, pk-pk) the frequency increases the circuit becomes more inductive and
the CMV with large magnitude cannot force large CMC due
V cm L cm to increasing impedance at increasing frequencies. Thus, the
o filter design and control of the grid-connected converter with
NSPWM become easier tasks.
The PV grid interface application involves a major differ-
C stray C stray ence from the conventional motor drive application in terms of
i cm common-mode behavior. In motor drive applications, the CMC
n is strongly dependent on dv/dt of the inverter, and partially on
the CMV magnitude and waveshape. The peak CMC is typically
determined by the dv/dt of the inverter and is weakly dependent
Fig. 10. Common-mode model of transformerless grid-connected PV system.
on the PWM method. This is because the parasitic capacitance
of the motor drives is very small (several nanofarad) and the
Fig. 10 shows the common-mode equivalent circuit model of motor common-mode inductance is approximately 1%–4% pe-
the converter shown in Fig. 1. The common-mode equivalent runit. As a result the resonant frequency is high (order of magni-
inductance can be expressed as tudes higher than the carrier frequency). Further, in motor drives
1 the carrier frequency is typically lower than the grid-connected
Lcm = (Lsa + Lsb + Lsc ). (11) converters; therefore, the CMV base frequency is far below the
3
common-mode equivalent circuit resonant frequency and the
The resulting resonant frequency of the common-mode circuit circuit can be considered open circuit for the carrier frequency
is calculated range. As a result, the CMV magnitude contribution is limited
1 to CMC. However the dv/dt transitions force a larger current
ω0,cm =  . (12)
Lcm · 2Cstray (also including the effect of electrodischarge machining phe-
nomenon). Fig. 12(a) shows the CMC and CMV waveforms of
The impedance of the CMC equivalent circuit given in Fig. 11. NSPWM with 15-kHz carrier and Cstray = 1nF. In this test, the
With the three single-phase ac filter inductors of 5mH and the resonant frequency of the common-mode equivalent circuit is
ground capacitance of 0.2μF, the resulting resonance frequency 123.2 kHz, far above the NSPWM carrier frequency. The CMC
is at 8.7 kHz, which is a bit below the tested carrier frequen- contains current spikes closely associated with the dv/dt of the
cies (10 kHz for SVPWM-AZSPWM1, 15 kHz for DPWM1- CMV.
NSPWM). As can be seen from the CMC currents, the CMC of In PV applications due to the large capacitance, the resonant
SVPWM and AZSPWM1 is very high at the carrier frequency. frequency is low and close to the PWM frequency such that the
This is mainly due to the resonance. While the CMV of all the CMV magnitude plays a major role in determining the CMC
methods at the 30 kHz is most dominant, the CMC for this peak and RMS values. Thus, a PWM method with low CMV
frequency is less than the lower frequency current due to this magnitude and low RMS value becomes favorable. NSPWM
resonance. Based on this result, it becomes obvious NSPWM that carries these properties is, therefore, favorable for this ap-
which has its carrier at 15 kHz which is almost twice distant plication. The experimental waveforms confirm that the CMC
from the common-mode circuit resonant frequency (of 8.7 kHz) consists of PWM frequency and multiple frequency ripple that
has a significant advantage of avoiding the resonance. Thus, the is dominant to the ripple of switching instants due to dv/dt.
CMC of NSPWM is much lower. It is worth to mention that as Fig. 12(b) shows CMC and CMV of NSPWM with 15 kHz
1978
Fig. 12. CMC (top: 2 A/div, 50 μs/div) and CMV (bottom: 200 V/div,
50 μs/div) of NSPWM at 15 kHz with different C stray . (a) C stray = 1nF.
(b) C stray = 100 nF.
carrier and Cstray = 100nF. In this case, the resonant frequency
is 8.7 kHz. The resulting CMC waveform is much smoother.
Fig. 13 shows the dc bus voltage ripple waveforms under the
four modulation methods. The peak-to-peak values are 1.01,
0.37, 0.27, and 0.21 V for SVPWM, AZSPWM1, DPWM1,
and NSPWM, respectively. NSPWM is superior for this case
as predicted with the Kdc curve of Fig. 4(b) This feature of
NSPWM is due to the fact that with unity power factor and
high modulation index, the dc bus current instantaneous and
average voltage values over each PWM cycle are closer to each
other than other methods. This fact was illustrated in [13] in
detail. This favorable result has a significant meaning in PV
applications. It has been reported that the dc bus voltage ripple
has negative effect on the PV panels (performance and life).
Thus, less ripple implies better performance and life of PV
system. Further, small ripple favors decreasing the electrolytic
capacitor size and allowing reduced cost. Thus, NSPWM is the
most favorable method for PV grid interface in terms of dc bus
side performance also.
The resonant frequency of the common mode is closely re-
lated to the equivalent common-mode inductance and the stray
capacitance. For the grid side filter inductor, some manufactur-
ers use three-phase-integrated inductor, which is more econom-
ical, and some use three single-phase inductors, which are better
cooled and more reliable. In either case the common-mode fil-
ter can be added if CMC needs to be further suppressed. The
resulting resonant frequency for the common mode is likely to
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 4, APRIL 2013
2.5
1.5
Bus ripple (V)
0.5
−0.5
−1
−1.5
−2
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Time (Sec.) x 10
Fig. 13. DC bus voltage ripples. From top to bottom: SVPWM, AZSPWM1,
DPWM1, and NSPWM.
remain low due to the large stray capacitance of the PV panels.
Thus, the principles discussed and results shown are valid.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a survey of common-mode reduction
PWM techniques suitable for grid-connected PV converters.
Due to the substantial parasitic capacitance of the PV panels,
the ground current produced to the converter PWM operation be-
comes a critical safety issue. The German standard VDE 0126-
1-1 very has specific limits for ground leakage and fault current.
Since the conversion efficiency is the critical factor for grid-
connected PV systems, transformerless dc/ac converter systems
are often favored. The CMC becomes an even more pronounced
issue due to the lack of galvanic isolation.
Among all the common-mode reduction PWM techniques,
this paper selects AZSPWM1 and NSPWM based on their
outstanding performances, in terms of ripples at the ac side
(HDF) and at ac side (Kdc ), especially at high modulation in-
dex range. They are tested along side their “conventional” PWM
counterpart, SVPWM and DPWM1, respectively. The outcomes
show that by nullifying the zero vector states, AZSPWM1 and
NSPWM exhibit superior performance in reducing the CMC.
Because NSPWM operates with discontinuous voltage refer-
ences, only two converter poles switch within one PWM cy-
cle. Under the constraint of same number of switchings per
unit time, NSPWM can operate with a carrier wave frequency
1.5 times higher than what AZSPWM1 operates with. And this
explains why NSPWM has the best performance among the
examined modulation techniques. NSPWM can meet the re-
quirement of industry standards like VDE 0126-1-1 with the
smallest common-mode filter.
Most RCMV-PWM techniques were first developed for mo-
tor drives applications. In motor drives, the parasitic capaci-
tance is very small, and the resulting resonance frequency of the
common-mode equivalent circuit is much higher than the PWM
carrier frequency. Thus, the peak CMC is more dependent on
the dv/dt of the inverter, and less dependent on the magnitude
HOU et al.: COMMON-MODE VOLTAGE REDUCTION PULSEWIDTH MODULATION TECHNIQUES
and wave shape of the CMV. However, for PV applications, the
parasitic capacitance is much more significant, and the resulting
resonance frequency may fall below the PWM carrier frequency
as the grid-converter tends to switch at high frequency to reduce
filter size and meet harmonic requirement. In this case, the CMV
magnitude and frequency are critical in determining the CMC
peak and RMS values. Again, NSPWM becomes favorable due
to its low CMV magnitude and low RMS value. For up to hun-
dreds of kilowatt range of PV inverters, the dc bus voltage is
typically below 1000 V for two-level inverters. These PWM
methods are applicable, and the CMC and CMV discussions are
valid for this capacity range.
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1979
Chung-Chuan Hou (S’08–M’09) received the B.S.
and M.S. degrees in 1987 and 1989, respectively, in
the Department of Power Mechanical Engineering,
and the Ph.D. degree in 2009 in the Department of
Electrical Engineering all from the National Tsing
Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
He is currently an Associate Professor in the De-
partment of Electrical Engineering, Chung Hua Uni-
versity, Hsinchu, Taiwan. His research interests in-
clude active power filters, microgrid, and smart grid
issues.
Chih-Chung Shih received the B.S and M.S. degrees
in the Department of Electrical Engineering, National
Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 2006 and
2010, respectively.
He is currently with the Delta Electronics
Inc., Taoyuan, Taiwan. His research interests in-
clude power converters and pulsewidth modulation
methods.
Po-Tai Cheng (S’96–M’99–SM’09) received the
Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, in 1999.
He is currently a Professor in the Department of
Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua Univer-
sity, Hsinchu, Taiwan. His research interests include
microgrid and smart grid issues, power electron-
ics for distributed energy resources, and high-power
converters.
Ahmet M. Hava (S’91–M’98) was born in Mardin,
Turkey, in 1965. He received the B.S. degree from
Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, in
1987, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1991 and 1998,
respectively, all in electrical engineering.
In 1995, he was with Rockwell Automation-
Allen Bradley Company, Mequon, WI. From 1997
to 2002, he was with Yaskawa Electric America,
Inc., Waukegan, IL. Since 2002, he has been with
the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Depart-
ment, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, where he is currently
an Associate Professor. His research interests include power electronics, motor
drives, and power quality.