Bidirectional Grid-Tie Flyback Converter Applied to Distributed Power Generation and Street Lighting Integrated System

This paper presents a multifunctional bidirectional converter applied to street lighting and photovoltaic (PV) microgeneration systems. The proposed converter works as an electronic driver supplying a street lighting luminaire based on light emitting diodes (LEDs) at night, from ac single-phase mains with high power factor and reduced harmonic distortion. During daylight hours, the converter injects the produced energy by a PV panel to the grid, working as a grid-tie inverter. The proposed topology is based on the integration of two flyback converters, one for each half-cycle of the grid voltage, avoiding the usual diode bridge rectifier for LED lamps drives, thus providing a bidirectional power flow. A prototype of the proposed electronic stage has been designed, built, and tested, in order to validate the system. Finally, experimental results are presented. In rectifier mode, an efficiency of 86% was achieved, whereas an efficiency of 89% was obtained in inverter mode.