Comparison Between PWM and SVPWM Three-Phase Inverters in Industrial Applications

Abstract

Two different three-phase inverters are introduced and compared showing the differences and similarities between them in terms of output power, implementation, challenges and efficiency. Both inverters use the same feedback controller and both have the same input voltage and the same load levels. The first inverter is a three-phase sinusoidal pulse width modulation (PWM) inverter that generates gate-control signals using a sinusoidal wave source. It is shown that pulse width modulation utilizes a simpler approach to convert DC power into AC. The second inverter is a three-phase space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) inverter. SVPWM inverters utilize a space vector (reference vector) to create the desired sinusoidal waves. SVPWM proved to have less total harmonic distortion (THD% = 1.15%) and faster response time (114ms) with an output error of 0.13V. this compares with a sinusoidal PWM (THD% = 3.73%, response time = 136ms and output error = 0.23V). SVPWM proves to have better overall performance. MATLAB's Simulink is used to build and test the performances of each inverter and then compare the inverters with a pre-existing three-phase grid.