Power electronics converter (PECs) has become an attractive replacement for the conventional inverter in grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) applications. This is due to improved the transient performance and provided better power quality. In this paper, an improved controller and a novel topology for a PEC is proposed. In this paper, an improved controller and a novel topology for a PEC is proposed. The proposed PEC topology is based on the three-level converter and adaptive PI with a fuzzy logic controller (API-FLC). The PEC with the novel controller is designed to achieve constant DC link voltages and sinusoidal current and voltage with near unity power factor when operating in different conditions. In order to evaluate the validity of the proposed PEC, the model was simulated by MATLAB/Simulink Toolbox. The results obtained with the proposed converter gives a better dynamic performance and improved power quality compared to the conventional converter. © 2018 The Authors, published by EDP Sciences.