PV water pumping with a peak-power tracker using a simple six-step square-wave inverter

The application of photovoltaics (PVs) has been increasingly popular, especially in remote areas, where power from a utility is not available or is too costly to install. PV-powered water pumping is frequently used for agriculture and in households. Among many available schemes, the system under study consists of a PV array, a variable-frequency inverter, an induction motor, and a water pump. The inverter feeds the induction motor, which drives the water pump. To seek the optimum power output of the PV array, the inverter is operated at variable frequency, to vary the output of the water pump. The inverter is operated to generate a six-step quasi-square wave, instead of a pulsewidth modulated (PWM) voltage output, to reduce the switching losses. The inverter acts as both a variable-frequency source and a peak-power tracker of the system, thus, having the number of switches minimized. The system is a low-cost design, with a simple control strategy. The DC bus is supported by a DC capacitor; thus, a balance-of-power flow must be maintained to avoid the collapse of the DC-bus voltage. Another advantage of the system is that the current is limited to an upper limit of the PV-array current. Thus, in case a short circuit is developed, the motor winding and the power semiconductor switches can be protected against excessive current flow.