Modeling and simulation of a novel solar PV/battery hybrid energy system with a single phase five level inverter

In current global energy scenario, renewable energy sources can play an important role in meeting the ever increasing energy demand. This is due to exhaustive nature of fossil fuels and the environmental pollution caused by other conventional energy sources. Among renewable energy sources, solar photo-voltaic system is the most popular one as solar energy is available in abundance without paying any cost. The output voltage generated from the solar panels depends on solar irradiance level and temperature. This paper intends to present a novel solar PV/battery hybrid energy system with a single phase five level inverter. The battery is used as a backup source when in case solar power is absent. The power flow through the battery is controlled using a bidirectional converter so that the optimum usage of the battery is ensured. The proposed configuration uses a modified single phase five level inverter topology for converting DC voltage generated from solar photovoltaic/battery energy sources to AC voltage for feeding to the load. The usage of five level inverter reduces Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) in output voltage and thus eliminates the use of bulk filters at the output side. Simulation study of the proposed system is carried out using MATLAB Simulink. Simulation results for different cases are provided in this paper.