Implementation of a Novel Multilevel Inverter Topology With Minimal Components—An Experimental Study

Voltage source inverters are currently gaining popularity in a variety of power system applications, including renewable energy, HVdc, and microgrid. Among all the renewable energy applications, multilevel inverters (MLIs) are the most popular converters for high- and medium-power industries. This article reviews and compares many of the recently developed topologies for renewable energy integration with energy storage systems (ESSs). In addition, a new design of a seven-level inverter is proposed. It utilizes only six power electronic switches in its design of which four have unidirectional voltage-blocking capability and two have bidirectional voltage-blocking capability. Various simulation results of the proposed topology along with the total harmonic distortion (THD) contents of voltage and current are presented in detail under different loading conditions. Afterward, a new factor of comparison is proposed in which component ratings are also considered. Finally, a hardware prototype is built to check the authenticity of the proposed design, and satisfactory results are presented.