Power electronics architectures are trending increasingly towards modular multi-converter structures that facilitate plug-and-play operation while enhancing reliability and efficiency. Generally speaking, this could take the form of parallel-connected systems that promote current sharing or series-connected systems that enable operation at elevated voltages. Our group formulates high-performance solutions for parallel-connected converters in computational applications, point-of-load setups, as well as microgrids. Innovations in series-connected configurations facilitate medium-voltage energy conversion for batteries, photovoltaics, and solid-state transformer applications.

power electronics

Selected Publications

2023

37.

Ramasubramanian, Deepak; Farantatos, Evangelos; Ajala, Olaoluwapo; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian

A universal grid-forming inverter model and simulation-based characterization across timescales Proceedings Article

In: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2023.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling, systems

2022

36.

Ajala, Olaoluwapo; Baeckeland, Nathan; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj; Domínguez-García, Alejandro

Model reduction and dynamic aggregation of grid-forming inverter networks Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2022.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

35.

Mallik, Rahul; Majmunović, Branko; Dutta, Soham; Seo, Gab-Su; Maksimović, Dragan; Johnson, Brian

Control design of series-connected PV-powered grid-forming converters via singular perturbation Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 2022.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: converter design, inverters

34.

Majmunović, Branko; Mukherjee, Satyaki; Martin, Trent; Mallik, Rahul; Dutta, Soham; Seo, Gab-Su; Johnson, Brian; Maksimović, Dragan

1 kV, 10-kW SiC-based quadruple active bridge DCX stage in a DC to three-phase AC module for medium-voltage grid integration Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 2022.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: converter design, inverters

33.

Lu, Minghui; Dhople, Sairaj; Zimmanck, Donny; Johnson, Brian

Spontaneous phase balancing in delta-connected single-phase droop-controlled inverters Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 2022.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: converter design, inverters

32.

Lu, Minghui; Dhople, Sairaj V.; Johnson, Brian

Benchmarking nonlinear oscillators for grid-forming inverter control Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, pp. 1-1, 2022.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters

31.

Son, Yeongrack; Mukherjee, Satyaki; Mallik, Rahul; Majmunovi'c, Branko; Dutta, Soham; Johnson, Brian; Maksimovi'c, Dragan; Seo, Gab-Su

Levelized cost of energy-oriented modular string inverter design optimization for PV generation system using geometric programming Journal Article

In: IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 27561-27578, 2022.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters

30.

Lin, Yashen; Eto, Joseph; Johnson, Brian; Flicker, Jack; Lasseter, Robert; Pico, Hugo Villegas; Seo, Gab-Su; Pierre, Brian; Ellis, Abraham; Miller, Jeremiah; Yuan, Guohui

Pathways to the next-generation power system with inverter-based resources: Challenges and recommendations Journal Article

In: IEEE Electrification Magazine, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 10-21, 2022.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

2021

29.

Lu, Minghui; Dutta, Soham; Johnson, Brian

Self-synchronizing cascaded inverters with virtual oscillator control Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, pp. 1-1, 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

28.

Ajala, Olaoluwapo; Lu, Minghui; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian; Domínguez-García, Alejandro

Model reduction for inverters with current limiting and dispatchable virtual oscillator control Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, pp. 1-1, 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

27.

Lu, Minghui; Purba, Victor; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian

Unified equivalent-circuit models for voltage-source inverters that capture averaged dynamics and power-flow solutions in distribution networks Proceedings Article

In: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 1–10, 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

26.

Dutta, Soham; Lu, Minghui; Majmunović, Branko; Mallik, Rahul; Seo, Gab-Su; Maksimović, Dragan; Johnson, Brian

Grid-connected self-synchronizing cascaded H-bridge inverters with autonomous power sharing Proceedings Article

In: Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, pp. 2806–2813, IEEE 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

25.

Venkatramanan, D; Vamanan, Nimesh; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj

Quantitative analysis of third-harmonic neutral-point current, its impacts, and mitigation in three-level NPC inverters Proceedings Article

In: Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, pp. 3563–3570, IEEE 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

24.

Lu, Minghui; Mallik, Rahul; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj

Dispatchable virtual-oscillator-controlled inverters with current-limiting and MPPT capabilities Proceedings Article

In: Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, pp. 3316–3323, IEEE 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters

23.

Venkatramanan, D; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj

Averaged dynamic model of three-level NPC grid-following inverter for examining neutral-point instability Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling of Power Electronics, pp. 1–7, IEEE 2021.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

2020

22.

Dutta, Soham; Lu, Minghui; Mallik, Rahul; Majmunović, Branko; Mukherjee, Satyaki; Seo, Gab-Su; Maksimović, Dragan; Johnson, Brian

Decentralized control of cascaded H-bridge inverters for medium-voltage grid integration Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, pp. 1–6, IEEE 2020.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

21.

Lu, Minghui; Purba, Victor; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian

Comparison of droop control and virtual oscillator control realized by Andronov-Hopf dynamics Proceedings Article

In: Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, pp. 4051–4056, IEEE 2020.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

20.

Lu, Minghui; Dutta, Soham; Purba, Victor; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian

A pre-synchronization strategy for grid-forming virtual oscillator controlled inverters Proceedings Article

In: Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, pp. 4308–4313, IEEE 2020.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters

2019

19.

Lu, Minghui; Dutta, Soham; Purba, Victor; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian

A grid-compatible virtual oscillator controller: Analysis and design Proceedings Article

In: Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, pp. 2643–2649, IEEE 2019.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters

18.

Seo, Gab-Su; Colombino, Marcello; Subotic, Irina; Johnson, Brian; Gross, Dominic; Dörfler, Florian

Dispatchable virtual oscillator control for decentralized inverter-dominated power systems: Analysis and experiments Proceedings Article

In: Applied Power Electronics Conference, pp. 561–566, IEEE 2019.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters

17.

Lu, Minghui; Seo, Gab-Su; Sinha, Mohit; Rodriguez, Fernando; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian

Adaptation of commercial current-controlled inverters for operation with virtual oscillator control Proceedings Article

In: Applied Power Electronics Conference, pp. 3427–3432, IEEE 2019.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters

2018

16.

Purba, Victor; Johnson, Brian; Rodriguez, Miguel; Jafarpour, Saber; Bullo, Francesco; Dhople, Sairaj

Reduced-order aggregate model for parallel-connected single-phase inverters Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 824–837, 2018.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

15.

Achanta, Prasanta; Johnson, Brian; Seo, Gab-Su; Maksimović, Dragan

A multilevel DC to three-phase AC architecture for photovoltaic power plants Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 181–190, 2018.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters

14.

Sinha, Mohit; Dörfler, Florian; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj

Stabilizing phase-balanced or phase-synchronized trajectories of Van der Pol oscillators in uniform electrical networks Proceedings Article

In: Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, pp. 335–340, IEEE 2018.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

13.

Khan, Mohammed; Lin, Yashen; Johnson, Brian; Purba, Victor; Sinha, Mohit; Dhople, Sairaj

A reduced-order aggregated model for parallel inverter systems with virtual oscillator control Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, pp. 1–6, IEEE 2018.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

12.

Achanta, Prasanta; Sinha, Mohit; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj; Maksimović, Dragan

Self-synchronizing series-connected inverters Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, pp. 1–6, IEEE 2018.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

2017

11.

Johnson, Brian; Rodriguez, Miguel; Sinha, Mohit; Dhople, Sairaj

Comparison of virtual oscillator and droop control Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, pp. 1–6, IEEE 2017.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

2015

10.

Sinha, Mohit; Dörfler, Florian; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj

Uncovering droop control laws embedded within the nonlinear dynamics of van der pol oscillators Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 347–358, 2015.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

9.

Johnson, Brian; Sinha, Mohit; Ainsworth, Nathan; Dörfler, Florian; Dhople, Sairaj

Synthesizing virtual oscillators to control islanded inverters Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 31, no. 8, pp. 6002–6015, 2015.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters

8.

Sinha, Mohit; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian; Ainsworth, Nathan; Dörfler, Florian

Nonlinear supersets to droop control Proceedings Article

In: Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, pp. 1–6, IEEE 2015.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

7.

Sinha, Mohit; Dörfler, Florian; Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj

Virtual oscillator control subsumes droop control Proceedings Article

In: American Control Conference, pp. 2353–2358, IEEE 2015.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

2014

6.

Salapaka, Srinivasa; Johnson, Brian; Lundstrom, Blake; Kim, Sangsun; Collyer, Scott; Salapaka, Murti

Viability and analysis of implementing only voltage-power droop for parallel inverter systems Proceedings Article

In: Conference on Decision and Control, pp. 3246–3251, IEEE 2014.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

5.

Dörfler, Florian; Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian; Hamadeh, Abdullah

Synchronization of nonlinear circuits in dynamic electrical networks Proceedings Article

In: European Control Conference, pp. 552–557, IEEE 2014.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

2013

4.

Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj; Hamadeh, Abdullah; Krein, Philip

Synchronization of parallel single-phase inverters with virtual oscillator control Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 29, no. 11, pp. 6124–6138, 2013.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems

3.

Johnson, Brian; Dhople, Sairaj; Cale, James; Hamadeh, Abdullah; Krein, Philip

Oscillator-based inverter control for islanded three-phase microgrids Journal Article

In: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 387–395, 2013.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters

2.

Dhople, Sairaj; Johnson, Brian; Hamadeh, Abdullah

Virtual oscillator control for voltage source inverters Proceedings Article

In: Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, pp. 1359-1363, 2013.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, modeling

2011

1.

Johnson, Brian; Krein, Philip; Chapman, Patrick

Photovoltaic AC module composed of a very large number of interleaved inverters Proceedings Article

In: Applied Power Electronics Conference, pp. 976-981, 2011.

Links | BibTeX | Tags: inverters, systems