IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 51, NO.

6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 4709

Bidirectional Grid-Tie Flyback Converter Applied to

Distributed Power Generation and Street
Lighting Integrated System
Maicol Flores de Melo, William Dotto Vizzotto, Pablo J. Quintana, Student Member, IEEE,
Andr Lus Kirsten, Member, IEEE, Marco Antonio Dalla Costa, Member, IEEE, and
Jorge Garcia, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper presents a multifunctional bidirectional

converter applied to street lighting and photovoltaic (PV) micro-
generation 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. Fig. 1. Block diagram of the proposed system.

Index TermsBidirectional converters, distributed power

generation, grid-tie inverter, multifunctional system, power
electronics, street lighting. installed next to the consumer centers. Hence, a low-power PV
generation system consisting of a single PV panel and a grid-tie
I. I NTRODUCTION inverter is considered one of the most viable solutions for small
consumers due to its modularity and low cost [5][11].
P HOTOVOLTAIC (PV) energy has become one of the ma-
jor research topics in the last few years, due to a significant
increase of the total power installed worldwide. Environmental
With regard to energy efficiency and energy savings, street
lighting systems (SLS) are nowadays another important re-
impact has become one of the main concerns about the energy search subject. In the last years, SLS were mostly based on
generation; however, the extensive use of PV panels contributes discharge lamps. These kinds of lamps use ac power, do not
to a reduction of this impact caused by nonrenewable energy allow dimming, and require a high voltage pulse for their
sources [1][4]. ignition. However, LED technology has become an attractive
Moreover, distributed generation avoids investments in en- and widespread solution for SLS due to latest developments
ergy transmission systems, since these systems are typically such as increment of luminous flux, luminous efficacy, and long
useful life [12][17].
Thus, this paper proposes a multifunctional system, which
Manuscript received December 8, 2014; revised March 10, 2015; accepted integrates an SLS based on LEDs with a grid-tie PV power
June 5, 2015. Date of publication June 30, 2015; date of current version generation system, consisting of a single lamp post with an
November 18, 2015. Paper 2014-SECSC-1004.R1, presented at the 2014 LED luminaire and a PV panel. Therefore, there will be two
IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada,
October 59, and approved for publication in the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON operation modes: on one hand, during sunlight hours, the
I NDUSTRY A PPLICATIONS by the Sustainable Energy Conversion Systems converter will behave as an inverter, injecting in the grid the
Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. power generated by the PV panel. On the other hand, during
M. F. de Melo, W. D. Vizzotto, A. L. Kirsten and M. A. Dalla Costa
are with the Intelligence in Lighting Research Group (GEDRE), Federal the absence of sunlight, it will work as a rectifier in order
University of Santa Maria (UFSM), 97105-900 Santa Maria, Brazil (e-mail: to supply the LED lamp. Fig. 1 presents a block diagram of
[email protected]; [email protected]; andre@gedre. the system. Through relay R1 and modifying semiconductors
ufsm.br; [email protected]).
P. J. Quintana and J. Garcia are with the Department of Electrical and driving signals, operation modes can be changed. Concomitant
Electronic Engineering, University of Oviedo, 33204 Oviedo, Spain (e-mail: operation will not be allowed.
[email protected]; [email protected]). Hybrid systems, similar to the one proposed, are usually
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. autonomous, storing the produced energy in batteries [18][21].
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2015.2451115 These systems are mainly used in places where the grid is
0093-9994 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
4710 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 51, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

Fig. 2. Proposed bidirectional flyback converter.

not available; thus, they must rely on batteries in order to

supply the lamps during the night [18], [21], [22]. The proposed
application avoids the use of any energy storage system.
An interface converter between the PV panel and the dc-link
to track its maximum power point (MPPT) is usually needed.
However, this stage is out of the scope of this work, since
the boost converter operating as MPPT is widely presented
in the literature, which provides information about applica-
tions, design, optimized algorithms, and experimental results
[23][27].
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, the pro-
posed topology, both operation modes, and driving signals are
explained. Section III shows the design methodology, and in
Section IV, the parameters of the power converter are defined.
Then, Section V presents experimental results, and finally,
conclusions are presented in Section VI.

II. B IDIRECTIONAL F LYBACK C ONVERTER

Flyback converters are widely used in low-power lighting ap-
plications [15], [28], as well as in renewable energy systems [1],
[2], [29]. The main advantages of this converter are the galvanic Fig. 3. Control signals and main waveforms for (a) rectifier and (b) inverter
insulation, simple structure, low cost, and high efficiency. operation modes.
Fig. 2 shows the proposed topology of the bidirectional fly-
back converter. This topology is similar to other configurations Switches driving signals, together with the main waveforms
proposed in the literature [15], [30]. of the bidirectional converter, are shown in Fig. 3. It is possible
In [15], an approach about rectifier mode is presented, and to observe that, for both operation modes, a synchronism with
the possibility of moving to a bidirectional system where the the grid voltage is necessary, which is performed by a zero cross
SLS and the renewable energy were fully integrated is barely detector. The switch SR works only in rectifier mode, with com-
commented. Moreover, the proposed design methodology for plementary command signal of the main switches (S1 or S2 ),
the rectifier operation mode does not consider the inverter and it is kept turned off during all operation in inverter mode.
mode. On the other hand, in [30], the analysis for the inverter Switches S1 and S2 operate at grid frequency (60 Hz) in
mode is shown. However, a design methodology and experi- the inverter mode and at high frequency in the rectifier mode.
mental results for this operation mode are not presented. Switches SA and SB are kept turned off during the rectifier
Thus, this paper brings the following main contributions, re- mode and switching at high frequency in the inverter mode. It
garding the aforementioned studies: a detailed design method- is important to mention that the gate driver of the switches SA ,
ology for the bidirectional system, for both operation modes, SB , and SR is performed using the same reference, according to
their respective operation principles, and experimental results Fig. 2, simplifying the implementation of the converter.
concerning the rectifier and inverter modes. It is important to report that the filter, composed of Lf and
The proposed topology is composed of the integration of Cf , is used in both operation modes to filter the high frequency
two flyback converters that work symmetrically, one in each harmonics originated by the switching converter.
half-cycle of the grid voltage. Thus, this avoids the diode
bridge rectifier, allowing a bidirectional energy flow for the
A. Operation Stages: Rectifier Mode
proper system operation. The converter works in discontinuous
conduction mode (DCM) in both operation modes. During the rectifier mode, a pulsewidth modulation (PWM)
As previously said, this system operates in two different is used to generate the command signals for S1 and S2 , with a
modes: rectifier and inverter. For rectifier mode, relay R1 must constant modulating signal. This modulation results in a con-
be connected to node B and to node A during inverter mode, stant duty cycle, and since the flyback converter is working in
as shown in Fig. 1. DCM, it behaves as a loss-free resistor. Therefore, the primary
DE MELO et al.: BIDIRECTIONAL GRID-TIE FLYBACK CONVERTER APPLIED TO INTEGRATED SYSTEM 4711

Fig. 5. Operation stages for inverter operation mode: (a) first stage, (b) second
stage, and (c) third stage.

Fig. 4. Operation stages for rectifier operation mode: (a) first stage, (b) second
stage, and (c) third stage. sequently, the shape of magnetizing current is sinusoidal, which
means that the current injected in the grid will be sinusoidal,
current envelope is proportional to the grid voltage. This way, too. As shown in the previous section, the analysis related to
the input current is sinusoidal in open loop. operation stages is performed only for positive grid voltage.
The following analysis related to operation stages is per- During this positive half-cycle, the main switch is SA ,
formed only for positive grid voltage, but the analysis for whereas SB remains turned off. The switch SR is turned off
negative grid voltage would be similar. during all inverter mode, and its intrinsic diode is used for the
During the first stage [see Fig. 4(a)], the switch S1 is turned proper converter operation. The switches S1 and S2 operate at
on, biasing direct the diode of the switch S2 . This way, the grid frequency (60 Hz), according to Fig. 3.
grid voltage (Vg ) is applied to the LP winding, occurring the During the first stage, shown in Fig. 5(a), the switch SA
energy storage in the magnetic coupling. During this stage, is turned on. This way, the voltage Vb is applied to the LS1
the bus capacitor (Cb ) is responsible for supplying the LEDs. winding, storing the energy in the magnetic coupling element.
The second stage, presented in Fig. 4(b), starts at the instant The second operation stage for the inverter mode begins
that S1 is turned off and SR is turned on. Thus, it occurs the in the instant that SA is blocked; thus, the stored energy is
discharge of the stored energy in the magnetic coupling through discharged by switch S2 and the diode of S1 to the grid [see
the load and the bus capacitor. Fig. 5(b)]. During this stage, there is no current flow in the
The third stage starts when inductor LS1 is completely dis- windings LS1 and LS2 .
charged, characterizing the DCM operation of the converter. Fig. 5(c) shows the third operation stage. It begins when the
During this stage, shown in Fig. 4(c), the capacitor Cb supplies inductor LP is completely discharged, characterizing the DCM
the LEDs. This stage ends when the switch is turned on again, operation of the inverter. This stage ends when the main switch,
restarting the first stage of operation. i.e., SA , is turned on again, restarting the first stage.
The operation during the negative half-cycle of the grid The inverter mode operation with the negative grid voltage
voltage is analogous, only changing the S1 and S2 gate sig- is analogous to that presented earlier. The discussion about the
nals. In this case, the energy discharge occurs by LS2 and the operation stages is very similar, where the only difference is to
SB diode. The rectifier stage must comply with the standard replace the subscripts of the switches 1 and A for 2 and
IEC61000-3-2 class C, related to harmonic distortion of the B, respectively.
input current.
III. D ESIGN OF THE P ROPOSED C ONVERTER
B. Operation Stages: Inverter Mode
Here, the equations used to design the bidirectional flyback
During the inverter mode operation, a sinusoidal PWM to converter are presented. However, these equations are ob-
generate the needed signals to control SA and SB is used. Con- tained considering the individual operation modes. The design
4712 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 51, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

TABLE I TABLE II
S TRESSES ON S EMICONDUCTORS FOR THE R ECTIFIER M ODE S TRESSES ON S EMICONDUCTORS FOR THE I NVERTER M ODE

methodology proposed considers both operation modes and is

discussed in Section IV.

A. Rectifier Mode
The maximum value of the duty cycle (Dmax ) of the flyback
converter during rectifier mode is given by the following equa- The average input power of the inverter stage is as follows:
tion, in order to guarantee DCM operation: Tg
2
VLEDs NP 2
Dmax = (1) Pi = (Vb Ismax sin(t)) dt (5)
VLEDs NP + Vpk NS Tg
0

where VLEDs is the lamp voltage; NP and NS are the number where Ismax represents the peak value of the filtered current
of turns of the LP and LS transformer windings, respectively; injected in the grid by the inverter.
and Vpk is the peak voltage of the grid. Thus, handling (5), LP can be determined by
The average input power Pi of the converter is defined, taking
into account its equivalent resistance due to DCM operating Vb2 Vpk
2
NP2
mode. Its expression is LP = (6)
4 Pi fsi (Vpk NS + Vb NP )2
Tg
2 where fsi is the switching frequency during inverter operation
2 Vg (t)2 Dr2
Pi = dt (2) mode.
Tg 2 LP fsr
0 Table II shows the maximum voltage and current stresses on
the semiconductors during the inverter operation mode.
where Tg is the grid period, Vg (t) is the grid voltage, Dr is the
duty ratio, and fsr is the switching frequency during rectifier
mode. IV. P ROPOSED D ESIGN M ETHODOLOGY
Therefore, the equation can be rearranged to define the
The main challenge when designing this converter is to
inductance LP , as follows:
define the parameters in order to maximize the efficiency in
2
Vpk Dr2 both operating modes. Therefore, here, semiconductors stresses
LP = . (3) are analyzed, and after the determination of these values, the
4 Pi fsr
flyback components can be designed.
The parameters to be analyzed are as follows:
Table I shows the maximum voltage and current stresses on
the semiconductors during the rectifier operation mode. maximum current related to the dc-link voltage;
switches voltages and currents related to turns ratio;
magnetizing inductance related to operation frequencies.
B. Inverter Mode
In the same way, the following equation expresses the max- It is important to mention that all analyses presented here
imum duty ratio during inverter mode, which guarantees DCM consider the equations in Section III. These analyses are per-
operation: formed for a grid voltage of 220 VRMS ; the LED luminaire rated
power is 106 W, and the maximum power point (MPP) of the
Vpk NS PV panel is equal to 130 W. However, the considered inverter
Dmax = (4)
Vpk NS + Vb NP input power is equal to 120 W, due to an MPPT converter
efficiency of approximately 92%. The PV panel voltage is equal
where Vb is the dc-link voltage. to 17.6 V at the MPP, and the LEDs voltage is equal to 50.8 V.
DE MELO et al.: BIDIRECTIONAL GRID-TIE FLYBACK CONVERTER APPLIED TO INTEGRATED SYSTEM 4713

Fig. 6. Maximum secondary current (ILS ) depending on dc-link voltage and

transformer turns ratio. Fig. 8. Maximum current values through the semiconductors for different
turns ratio.

Fig. 9. Magnetizing inductance related to frequency operation for both stages.

On the other hand, turns ratio higher than 4 results in a

Fig. 7. Maximum switches voltage related to flyback converters turns ratio considerable increase of S1 and S2 voltages (see Fig. 7) and
for both operation modes. high currents in switches SA , SB , and SR , as shown in Fig. 8.
Therefore, this analysis proposes to choose the turns ratio
A. DC Link of the bidirectional flyback converter in order to maximize
Among all analyses that must be performed, the current the efficiency for both modes. Then, based on the presented
through LS during inverter mode is critical. At the MPP, the analysis, a turns ratio equal to 3 was chosen, which leads to
PV panel operates at 17.6 V, which means that high values of maximum switches voltage lower than 600 V and maximum
currents are provided to the inverter, as presented in Fig. 6. currents lower than 15 A.
It is possible to observe that, for 17.6 V, the current stress is
significant, and it may exceed 30 A at the secondary. Therefore, C. Magnetizing Inductance and Operating Frequencies
a step-up converter is necessary between the PV panel and the
flyback converter. Then, a boost converter was chosen in order The proposed converter presents two operating stages with
to increase the bus voltage to 80 V and to perform the MPPT. different characteristics, different input power and voltage lev-
els. Fig. 9 shows an analysis that relates the magnetizing
inductance value, for each operation mode, with the switching
B. Turns Ratio
frequencies. It is necessary to highlight that the bus voltage
The main parameters for the turns ratio definition are voltage (80 V) and the turns ratio equal to 3 defined earlier are con-
and current switches stresses. Fig. 7 shows the maximum volt- sidered in this analysis.
age stresses for all switches of the proposed topology, whereas This analysis consists of defining the operating frequencies,
Fig. 8 shows the maximum current stresses in these switches. in order that the inductance (LP ) for both operation modes
Both figures consider the two operation modes, and they depend is the same. There are some restrictions related to maximum
on the flybacks turns ratio. and minimum values allowed to these switching frequencies.
Based on the presented results, it can be observed that a turns The minimum switching frequency of 20 kHz was defined,
ratio equal to one is inappropriate due to the high voltage stress in order to avoid audible noise. The maximum switching fre-
of SA and SB switches, presented in Fig. 7, and high current quency of 80 kHz was also defined, in order to minimize
values in S1 and S2 , presented in Fig. 8. This factor is significant the switching losses. Therefore, based on Fig. 9, a 30-kHz
since the used topology is a flyback converter, whose maximum switching frequency was chosen for the rectifier stage and
voltage stress is increased due to the leakage inductance of the 60 kHz for the inverter one, resulting in a 640-H magnetizing
magnetic coupling. inductance.
4714 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 51, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

TABLE III TABLE IV

P ROTOTYPE C OMPONENTS AND PARAMETERS R ECTIFIER O PERATION PARAMETERS

Fig. 11. Rectifier mode: LEDs current (CH 2: 1 A/div), voltage (CH 1:
25 V/div), and power (CH M: 100 W/div)time scale 10 ms/div.

Fig. 12. Rectifier mode: grid current (CH 4: 1 A/div), grid voltage (CH 3:
Fig. 10. System prototype. 250 V/div), and input power (CH M: 200 W/div)time scale 10 ms/div.

V. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS TABLE V

R ESULTS FOR THE R ECTIFIER M ODE
In order to validate the presented analysis, the topology was
implemented in the laboratory, and the obtained results are
shown here. The flyback converter working in DCM presents
high power factor for the rectifier mode in open loop [15].
The inverter operation mode uses a sinusoidal reference
current by a lookup table in the microcontroller, which is
activated in each zero cross voltage, as observed in Fig. 3. luminaire with 106 W, 50.8 V, and an equivalent resistance
Table III presents a list of parameters and components used in equal to 24.2 . In Table IV, flyback parameters when working
the prototype implementation, which is presented in Fig. 10. as a rectifier are shown.
It is important to mention that the input filter design was Experimental results of voltage, current, and power in the
performed using a classic design, for a cutoff frequency of LEDs are shown in Fig. 11. Fig. 12 presents the grid voltage,
approximately 4 kHz, with the values of Cf and Lf presented current, and power waveforms. The values of total harmonic
in Table III. distortion (THD), power factor (PF), and efficiency, presented
in Table V, were measured with a precision digital power
analyzer, Yokogawa, model WT3000.
A. Rectifier Mode
As aforementioned, the rectifier mode must comply with the
Two Bridgelux LEDs connected in series, model BXRA- standard IEC61000-3-2 class C, related to the grid current har-
C4500, comprise the luminaire used in this work. Each LED monics. Fig. 13 shows a comparison between the grid current
presents a color temperature of 5600 K cool white, with a harmonics during rectifier operation mode with the standard,
typical luminous flux of 5.000 lm. The voltage and current for where the conformity of the system with IEC61000-3-2 can be
each array are 25.4 V and 2.1 A, respectively, resulting in a observed.
DE MELO et al.: BIDIRECTIONAL GRID-TIE FLYBACK CONVERTER APPLIED TO INTEGRATED SYSTEM 4715

Fig. 13. Harmonic content of the grid current for rectifier mode.
Fig. 15. Flyback inverter efficiency for different input power values.
TABLE VI
I NVERTER O PERATION PARAMETERS

Fig. 16. Rectifier mode: primary switches voltage S1 (CH 3: 250 V/div),
S2 (CH 1: 250 V/div) and LP current (CH 4: 2 A/div)time scale 20 s/div.

Fig. 14. Current injected into the grid (CH 4: 500 mA/div) and grid voltage
(CH 3: 100 V/div)time scale 10 ms/div.

TABLE VII
R ESULTS FOR THE I NVERTER M ODE

Fig. 17. Rectifier mode: secondary switches voltage SA (CH 3: 100 V/div),
SB (CH 1: 100 V/div) and LS current (CH 2: 10 A/div)time scale 20 s/div.

B. Inverter Mode
of the PFC converter is discharged completely, it creates a way
In inverter mode, a boost converter works as an interface through the parasitic resonant circuit components, distorting
between the PV panel and the DC link. The proposed system the input current. Further analysis about the intrinsic switches
performs the interface between the DC link and the grid. capacitances influence on the distortion of the input current is
Table VI shows the parameters for this operation mode. The presented in [31]. An efficient way to reduce this distortion is to
grid voltage and injected current waveforms are shown in use silicon carbide (SiC) switches, which have low capacitance
Fig. 14. Table VII shows the values of THD, PF, and efficiency values, reducing the resonant energy that flows in the reactive
of the flyback inverter. Since the MPPT system modifies the components.
bus voltage depending on the available power in the PV panel, In order to prove the proposed design methodology, which
adjusting the inverter input power is required to modify the considers the semiconductors stresses, the main waveforms of
bus voltage, emulating the MPPT converter operation. Thus, voltage and current in the switches for the rectifier operation
Fig. 15 shows the inverter efficiency curve for different input mode are shown in Figs. 16 and 17. The maximum current in the
power values, which is considered satisfactory, since the con- switches S1 and S2 is 4.72 A, and the high voltage is 445 V. For
verter is optimized for two-stage operation. In this case, the bus the switches SA and SB , the maximum current and voltage are
voltage varies from about 35 V (40 W) to 80 V (120 W). 13.1 A and 376 V, respectively. The same parameters discussed
The injected current in the grid is strongly affected by the in the previous sections are shown in Figs. 18 and 19 for the
capacitance of the switches. This distortion occurs when the inverter mode. The maximum current and voltage in S1 and
PFC stage operates in DCM, since the moment that the winding S2 are 3 A and 660 V, whereas in SA and SB , they are 8 A
4716 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 51, NO. 6, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

mode and 89% for the inverter one were achieved. In addition,
both modes operated with high power factor, i.e., 0.998 for the
rectifier mode and 0.996 for the inverter one, and reduced total
harmonic distortion, according to the requirements of the IEC
61000-3-2 standard.
Future developments include an analysis of the effects of
harmonics in the grid voltage, variations in the characteristics
of the PV/LEDs through time, reduced load by the dimming,
optimization of the system, and size and cost, for industrial
operation and others.

Fig. 18. Inverter mode: primary switches voltage S1 (CH 1: 250 V/div),
S2 (CH 3: 500 V/div) and LP current (CH 4: 2 A/div)time scale 10 s/div. R EFERENCES
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ate methodology to design the converter was also shown, since solar energy and LEDs, in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Ind. Technology, 2010,
the efforts were as expected. Efficiency of 86% for the rectifier pp. 11431148.
DE MELO et al.: BIDIRECTIONAL GRID-TIE FLYBACK CONVERTER APPLIED TO INTEGRATED SYSTEM 4717

[21] S.-Y. Fan, S.-Y. Tseng, Y.-J. Wu, and J.-D. Lee, PV power system using Pablo J. Quintana (S13) was born in Tapia de
BuckIForward hybrid converters for LED lighting, in Proc. IEEE Energy Casariego, Spain, in 1987. He received the M.Sc.
Convers. Congr. Expo., 2009, pp. 25842591. degree in electrical engineering from the University
[22] P. J. Quintana, J. Garcia, J. M. Guerrero, T. Dragicevic, and J. C. Vasquez of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain, in July 2011, where he
Control of single-phase islanded PV/battery streetlight cluster based on is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in the
power-line signaling, in Proc. SmartMILE, Dec. 2013, pp. 16. CE3I2 research group.
[23] N. Femia, G. Petrone, G. Spagnuolo, and M. Vitelli, Optimizing duty- He is also a Lecturer with the Electrical and
cycle perturbation of P&O MPPT technique in Proc. IEEE PESC, Electronic Engineering Department, University of
Jun. 2025, 2004, vol. 3, pp. 19391944. Oviedo. His research interests include power factor
[24] N. Femia, G. Petrone, G. Spagnuolo, and M. Vitelli, Optimization of per- correction topologies, electronic ballasts, power con-
turb and observe maximum power point tracking method, IEEE Trans. verter modeling, integration of renewable energies
Power Electron., vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 963973, Jul. 2005. and lighting systems connected to the ac grid or to islanded microgrids, and
[25] M. F. Melo, W. D. Vizzotto, A. L. Kirsten, and M. A. Dalla Costa, Photo- harmonics correction.
voltaic grid-connected flyback micro-inverter and boost MPPT integrated
to street lighting system based on LEDs in Proc. SmartMILE, Dec. 2013,
pp. 17.
[26] C. Ratsame and T. Tanitteerapan, An efficiency improvement boost con-
verter circuit for photovoltaic power system with maximum power point Andr Lus Kirsten (S11M15) was born in Santa
tracking in Proc. ICCAS, 2011, pp. 13911395. Maria, Brazil, in 1986. He received the B.S, M.Sc.,
[27] Y. P. Siwakoti et al., Microcontroller based intelligent dc/dc converter and Ph.D. degrees from the Federal University of
to track maximum power point for solar photovoltaic module, in Proc. Santa Maria, Santa Maria, in 2009, 2011, and 2014,
IEEE CITRES, 2010, pp. 94101. respectively, all in electrical engineering.
[28] Y.-C. Chuang, Y.-L. Ke, H.-S. Chuang, and C.-C. Hu, Single-stage Since 2014, he has been a Professor with the
power-factor-correction circuit with flyback converter to drive LEDs for Federal University of Santa Maria. His main research
lighting applications, in Conf. Rec. IEEE IAS Annu. Meeting, 2010, interests are electronic ballasts, power electronics,
pp. 19. switching-mode power converters, power factor cor-
[29] X.-F. He, Z. Zhang, and X. Li, An optimal control method for pho- rection, and solid-state transformers.
tovoltaic grid-connected interleaved flyback micro-inverters to achieve
high efficiency in wide load range, in Proc. IPEMC, 2012, vol. 2,
pp. 14291433.
[30] J. Garcia, M. A. Dalla Costa, A. Kirsten, D. Gacio, and P. Quintana,
Study of a flyback-based stage as grid interface topology for micro-
generation applications, in Proc. IPEMC, 2012, pp. LS7a.2-1LS7a.2-6. Marco Antonio Dalla Costa (S03M09) was born
[31] K. De Gusseme, D. M. Van de Sype, A. P. M. Van den Bossche, and in Santa Maria, Brazil, in 1978. He received the
J. A. Melkebeek, Input-current distortion of CCM boost PFC converters B.S. and M.Sc. degrees from the Federal University
operated in DCM IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 858865, of Santa Maria, Santa Maria, in 2002 and 2004,
Apr. 2007. respectively, and the Ph.D.(Hons.) degree from the
University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain, in 2008, all in
electrical engineering.
Maicol Flores de Melo was born in Cacequi, Brazil, From 2008 to 2009, he was an Associate Profes-
in 1989. He received the B.S. and M.Sc. degrees in sor with the Universidade de Caxias do Sul, Caxias
do Sul, Brazil. Since 2009, he has been an Associate
electrical engineering from the Federal University of
Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil, in 2012 and 2014, Professor with the Federal University of Santa Maria.
respectively. He is currently working toward the He has authored over 30 journal papers and over 60 international conference
Ph.D. degree in the Intelligence in Lighting Research papers. He is the holder of two Spanish patents. His research interests include
dc/dc converters, power factor correction stages, dimming systems, high-
Group (GEDRE), Federal University of Santa Maria.
His research interests include dc/dc converters, frequency electronic ballasts, discharge lamp modeling, light-emitting diode
power factor correction stages, lighting systems systems, renewable energy systems, and solid-state transformers.
based on light-emitting diodes, renewable energy
systems, and integration of renewable energies and
lighting systems.
Jorge Garcia (S01M05SM11), received the
M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
William Dotto Vizzotto was born in Nova Palma, from the University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain,
Brazil, in 1993. He is currently working toward in 2000 and 2003, respectively.
the Degree in electrical engineering at the Federal
In December 1999, he joined the Electrical and
University of Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil. Electronic Engineering Department, University of
Since 2011, he has been carrying out research Oviedo, where he is currently an Associate Pro-
activities with the Intelligence in Lighting Re- fessor. His current research interests include power
search Group (GEDRE), Federal University of Santa electronics and control for industrial, grid support,
Maria. His main areas of interest are LEDs, LED and lighting applications. He has coauthored over
drivers, street lighting, renewable energy, and dcdc 40 journal papers and over 80 international confer-
converters.
ence papers on power and industrial electronics.