Digital Control of Actual Grid-Connected Converters for Ground Leakage Current Reduction in PV Transformerless Systems

The design of a PV grid-connected converter usuallycomprehends a galvanic isolation between the grid and thephotovoltaic panels. Recently, in low power systems, thegalvanic isolation has been removed with the aim to increaseefficiency and reduce the cost of the converter. Due to thepresence of a parasitic capacitance between the photovoltaiccells and the metal frame of the PV panel, usually connected toearth, a high value of common mode current (i.e. groundleakage current) can arise. In order to limit the ground leakagecurrent (which deteriorates the power quality and generatesEMI), new converter topologies have been proposed. Theireffectiveness is based on the symmetrical (ideal) commutationsof the power switches and some of them adopt a further voltagelevel derived from a capacitive divider of the DC bus voltage.Unfortunately, in actual implementations, asymmetrical powerswitches transients and variations of this added voltage lead tohigher ground leakage current with respect to the ideal case.After a review of the state of the art this paper investigates thesetwo issues and presents a particular solution (based on digitalcontrol and PWM strategy) that, in conjunction with acompensation strategy of power switches actual commutations,guarantees low ground leakage current regardless theparameters tolerance of the power circuit. Simulation andexperimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposedsolution.