A new proposal for ground leakage current reduction in transformerless grid-connected converters for photovoltaic plants

In domestic grid connected PV applications a single phase converter is usually used. In such a low power plants it is possible to adopt converter topologies without galvanic isolation between the photovoltaic panels and the grid. The absence of a high or low frequency transformer permits to reduce power losses, cost and size of the converter. On the other side in presence of a galvanic connection a large ground leakage current could arise due to parasitic PV panel capacitance. Leakage currents cause electric safety problems, EMI increase and, consequently, a reduction of the converter power quality. This paper presents a converter topology able to minimize the ground leakage current also in case of unipolar PWM modulation without increasing inductive common mode filter size and preserving efficiency. Simulations and experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed solution.