Power quality enhancement of a hybrid energy source powered packed e-cell inverter using an intelligent optimization technique

The most installed Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in micro-grids (MG) are Photovoltaic (PV) power and wind power. Due to the intermittent behaviour of renewable sources, parallel operation of RES and battery storage known as hybrid system is important particularly in remote micro-grids to reduce the fuel consumption by diesel generators and continuity of supply to the load. In this paper, multilevel inverter called Packed E-Cell (PEC) is used for parallel operation of RES and battery storage optimally for micro-grid applications. The PEC requires less components compared to other Multi-level inverters (MLI) topology with relatively low total harmonic distortion (THD). Further, selective harmonic technique based on optimization principle is used to enhance the harmonic profile using low frequency switching technique. The 3rd and 5th harmonics are eliminated using Genetic Algorithm (GA) optimization technique. The simulation-based analysis is done using Simulink/MATLAB and the results obtained for THD in the output current and voltage are presented and discussed in the paper. A comparative analysis is also presented with high frequency modulation technique phase disposition pulse width modulation (PDPWM) technique. The experimental validation of the proposed scheme is done using Typhoon HIL (hardware in loop).