As the use of photovoltaics becomes more widespread, new technologies for more efficient energy generation, transmission, and distribution based on power electronics converters are being developed. The most common applications are grid-on, energy storage, hybrid, and high voltage gain applications. These applications impose several additional requirements in the design of power converters associated with the solar battery’s maximum power tracking and operation in a wide range of input currents and voltages. The practical realization of such solutions can be implemented on the basis of various topologies, which requires a preliminary application of criteria for assessing their effectiveness. The paper conducts a comparison of different topologies on power converters based on two parameters that describe their cost and power loss for various PV applications. For a straightforward study, these parameters are represented using the gain factor, which allows for an accurate comparison of the efficiency of various types of converters.

The focus of this study is on the grid-forming operation of the Energy Router (ER) based on Model Predictive Control (MPC). ER is regarded as a key component of microgrids. It is a converter that interfaces the microgrid (s) with the utility grid. The ER has a multiport structure and bidirectional energy flow control. The ER concept can be implemented in Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEB) to provide flexible energy control. A concept is proposed where the ER works as a single grid-forming converter. The challenge is to keep the predefined reference voltage and frequency inside the NZEB in all possible modes, including the idle operation mode, current sources, and nonlinear load control. To gain stability and output voltage quality, the MPC is proposed. The design of the modified MPC algorithm with improved dynamics performance is explained. PLECS software is utilized to verify the proposed algorithm. The results demonstrate the suitable performance of the proposed control method in terms of total harmonic distortion of the output voltage. The influence of weighting coefficiencies is evaluated, showing the higher impact of the capacitor filter voltage on lowering the total harmonics distortion of the output voltage. Finally, the capability of the control system toward step change in the reference value is evaluated.