| Title |
Lifetime Evaluation of Power Devices of Single-Phase 5-Level NPC Inverters Considering Mission Profile of PV Systems |
| DOI |
https://doi.org/10.6113/TKPE.2022.27.3.221 |
| Keywords |
Reliability; PV system; Lifetime; NPC inverter; DPWM (Discontinuous Pulse Width Modulation Method) |
| Abstract |
The reliability improvement of PV systems is an important factor in reducing the cost of PV energy because it is closely related to the annual energy production as well as the maintenance cost of PV systems. The reliability of PV inverters plays a key role in the reliability of PV systems because it is regarded as one of the most reliable critical parts of PV systems. The lifetime evaluation of PV inverters considering the mission profile in the design phase plays an important role in reliability design to ensure the required lifetime of PV inverters. In this paper, the lifetime of representative single-phase T-type and I-type NPC inverters are comparatively evaluated by considering the mission profile of a PV system recorded at Iza, Spain. Furthermore, the effect of the pulse width modulation methods on the lifetime is also discussed. The lifetime evaluation of PV inverters is performed at the component-level first and then the system level by considering all power devices. |