Efficiency calculation of inverter for PV applications Using MATLAB and SPICE

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the efficiency of the inverter circuits used for the Photovoltaic (PV) systems. The analysis of a power electronics converter with the SPICE during the steady-state operation takes a long time and the results may not be obtained accurately due to convergence problem in the solver. The MATLAB package program is widely preferred to analyze the power electronics converters if the switching losses are not taken into account and efficiency of the converter is not main purpose of the study. Here, In order to perform a detailed efficiency analysis of converter with SPICE program, the gate signals of IGBTs have been generated as a text file in MATLAB simulation of the same converter and that data has been transferred into the SPICE. The simulation results are verified with experimental results. The algorithm developed here is applicable to all converters that can be simulated in the MATLAB and the SPICE. Hence this approach is very useful to compare the efficiencies of the power electronic converters which are alternative to each other.