Renewable energy is high on international and national agendas. Currently, grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems are a popular technology to convert solar energy into electricity. Existing PV panels have a relatively low and varying output voltage so that the converter installed between the PVs and the grid should be equipped with high step-up and versatile control capabilities. In addition, the output current of PV systems is rich in harmonics which affect the power quality of the grid. In this paper, a new multi-stage hysteresis control of a step-up DC-DC converter is proposed for integrating PVs into a single-phase power grid. The proposed circuitry and control method is experimentally validated by testing on a 600 W prototype converter. The developed technology has significant economic implications and could be applied to many distributed generation (DG) systems, especially for the developing countries which have a large number of small PVs connected to their single-phase distribution network. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.