Multilevel inverter for interfacing renewable energy sources with low/medium- and high-voltage grids

This study presents a new multilevel inverter (MLI) with reduced devices, for low/medium- and high-voltage applications. The proposed MLI is evolved from existing cross-connected source-based multilevel inverter (CCS-MLI), results in reduced switches, driver circuits, diodes, and DC voltage sources when compared with the classical CHB, CCS-MLI, and other MLIs. Owing to reduced device numbers, the complexity, size, cost, and maintenance of the proposed topology are greatly reduced. The detailed analysis and working of the proposed topology is presented along with its comparison with classical, CCS-MLI, and other MLIs. Different algorithms are presented for selecting appropriate magnitudes of DC voltage sources to generate different voltage levels in the output. The proposed MLI is suitable for grid integration of renewable energy sources. The concept is presented through modelling and simulation in MATLAB/Simulation environment and validated through real-time simulator OPAL-RT (OP-4500).