A Current-Fed Quadruple Active Bridges-based Smart Transformer Architecture Integrated with Battery Energy Storage Systems

Smart Transformers (ST), which is a power electronic-based transformer with control and communication functionalities, can provide an effective solution to overcome the challenge of future grids. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are indispensable to compensate sudden variations in the power generation from the renewable energy sources (RES). This paper proposes a current-fed quadruple active bridges (CF-QAB)-based cascaded H-bridge smart transformer architecture, which not only play the role of power electronic transformers, but also achieve the integration of BESS in an electric distribution system. The advantage of the proposed architecture is requiring no additional hardware circuits, which reduces system volume and cost with respect to the existing ST architecture.