IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 22, NO.

4, DECEMBER 2007

881

A Single-Stage Three-Phase Grid-Connected

Photovoltaic System With Modified MPPT
Method and Reactive Power Compensation
Wu Libo, Zhao Zhengming, Senior Member, IEEE, and Liu Jianzheng

AbstractSingle-stage grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems have advantages such as simple topology, high efficiency, etc.
However, since all the control objectives such as the maximum
power point tracking (MPPT), synchronization with the utility voltage, and harmonics reduction for output current need to be considered simultaneously, the complexity of the control scheme is much
increased. This paper presents the implementation of a single-stage
three-phase grid-connected PV system. In addition to realize the
aforementioned control objectives, the proposed control can also
remarkably improve the stability of the MPPT method with a modified incremental conductance MPPT method. The reactive power
compensation for local load is also realized, so as to alleviate grid
burden. A DSP is employed to implement the proposed MPPT
controller and reactive power compensation unit. Simulation and
experimental results show the high stability and high efficiency of
this single-stage three-phase grid-connected PV system.
Index TermsGrid-connected inverters, maximum power point
tracking (MPPT), photovoltaic (PV), solar energy.

I. INTRODUCTION
HOTOVOLTAIC (PV) systems are solar energy supply
systems, which either supply power directly to an electrical equipment or feed energy into the public electricity grid.
Generally, PVs are considered as an expensive method of producing electricity. However, in stand-alone situations, PVs are
the most economic solutions to provide the required power service. Moreover, with the development of PV technologies, applications of PVs in grid-connected situations have grown rapidly,
indicating that PVs are very attractive to produce environmentally benign electricity for diversified purposes [1][3].
Power electronic conversion is the key to improve the efficiency of PV panels and the system stability in grid-connected
PV systems. One task of power electronic conversion is to continuously adapt the system such that it can draw the maximum
power from the PV panels regardless of weather or load conditions. Since the PV panels have a nonlinear voltagecurrent
characteristics, and the insolation and ambient temperature are
unpredictable, the maximum power point tracking (MPPT)
controller tends to be a nonlinear and time-varying system.
Many MPPT techniques have been developed such as the perturb and observe method [4], [5], the incremental conductance
method [6], etc. The perturb and observe method is simple for

Manuscript received October 25, 2005; revised June 28, 2006. Paper no.
TEC-00363-2005.
The authors are with the State Key Laboratory of Power Systems, Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronic Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China (e-mail: wulibo@tsinghua.org.cn;
zhaozm@tsinghua.edu.cn; liujianzheng@263.net).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2007.895461

implementation, but its accuracy is low because the perturbation process would make the operation point of the PV panels
to oscillate around the maximum power point (MPP). Furthermore, when insolation changes rapidly, the perturb and observe
method would probably fail to track the MPP. The incremental
conductance method offers good performance under the conditions of rapidly changing insolation. However, high complexity
of the method requires high sampling accuracy and fast control
speed, which adds to the cost of the total system.
Generally, a grid-connected PV system has two control loops.
The inner loop is a pulse width modulation (PWM) loop, which
modulates output currents of the inverter, to meet the requirements of the waveform and phase. The outer loop determines the
output power of the inverter according to the MPP of PV panels.
Conventionally, these two loops are realized respectively in two
stages of power conversion [7]. One is a dc/dc converter with
MPPT control and the other is a dc/ac inverter. But two stages
may result in more power loss than that of the single-stage conversion. In single-stage grid-connected PV systems, both loops
are realized simultaneously in one power conversion stage, thus,
simplifying the system topology. However, to maintain the sinusoidal waveform of output currents, the minimum period to
change the reference output power should be half of the grid
voltage period, thus, the outer loop here has a much lower speed
than that of the PWM loop. To maintain the system stability, the
MPPT method should be modified to work at low speed.
This paper presents a modified incremental conductance
MPPT method applied in a single-stage grid-connected PV system [8]. With voltage and current sensors, the controller adopting this method calculates the recent power point of PV panels
and decides the output power of the inverter. To avoid voltage
collapse phenomena, the minimum step length to modify the reference value of the output power varies according to the tracking
direction. However, because the tracking speed is limited by the
step length and the control period, the variable-step method still
cannot assure the stability of the dc-link voltage when there is a
rapid change of insolation. In the modified method, if the output
power of PV panels is detected to be decreasing rapidly, the controller will presume that a step change of insolation occurs, and
then, reset the reference output power of the inverter according
to the current PV output power. The control objective of this
method is to balance the input and output current of the dc-link
capacitor and maintain its voltage so as to track the MPP for
maximizing the energy capture.
Generally, a single-stage grid-connected PV system consists
of voltage and current sensors, a power electronic converter, and

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Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the proposed grid-connected PV system. v P V :

output voltage of PV panels; iP V : output current of PV panels; iP V U / V / W :
output currents of the inverter in three phases; iG R ID U / V / W : currents drawn
from grid in three phases; iL O A D U / V / W : local load currents in three phases;
S1 S 6 : switching devices in the inverter; C : dc-link capacitor; LU / V / W :
inverter output filters.

a control system with a DSP or micro controller unit (MCU).

If load current sensors are included, the PV system can also
serve as a static var generator to compensate reactive power of
local load. Integration of a reactive power compensation unit
in the system can reasonably improve system performance with
few additional costs. The proposed PV system in this paper has
realized the function of detecting and compensating reactive
power.
The proposed grid-connected PV system consists of PV panels, an inverter, a controller, and filters, which will be discussed
in Section II. Section III will introduce the electrical characteristics of PV panels and discuss the operation principle of the
modified MPPT method. Simulation of the stability will also be
presented to explain the performance of this MPPT method in
Section IV. Section V will discuss the implementation of a reactive power compensation unit in the system. The experimental
results and conclusions will be included in the Sections VI and
VI1, respectively.
II. OVERALL SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
The proposed three-phase single-stage grid-connected PV
system consists of PV panels, an inverter, a controller, and filters,
which is shown in Fig. 1.
In the proposed grid-connected PV system, output currents of
the inverter are the control objects of MPPT, PWM, and reactive
compensation. Currents drawn from grid or local load currents
also need to be sampled for the calculation of local reactive
load.
III. PROPOSED MODIFIED MPPT METHOD
Fig. 2(a) and (b) shows the simulated I V and P V characteristics of the ideal PV panels, respectively. The series of

Fig. 2. Simulated characteristics of PV panels under different insolation conditions. (a) I V characteristics. (b) P V characteristics.

curves show the output characteristics under different insolation conditions [9], [10].
The output voltage, current, and power of the PV panels
in the grid-connected system are defined as VPV , IPV , and
PPV , respectively. When the PV panels operate at the MPP,
(1) must be satisfied. In a PV system, see Fig. 2(b), there are
three kinds of operating states, which are discussed herein as
follows.
1) If (2) is true, the PV panels operate in the voltage-source
region, and the reference output power of the inverter
PREF should be increased to approach the MPP.
2) If (3) is true, the PV panels operate in the current-source
region, and PREF should be decreased rapidly to avoid a
voltage collapse and to approach the MPP simultaneously.
3) If (1) is true, PREF should be unchanged since the PV
panels operate already at the optimal point.
Also
PPV
IPV
VPV
(VPV IPV )
=
= VPV
+ IPV
= 0 (1)
VPV
VPV
VPV
VPV
VPV

IPV
VPV
+ IPV
<0
VPV
VPV

(2)

VPV

IPV
VPV
+ IPV
> 0.
VPV
VPV

(3)

In the proposed single-stage PV system, if the reference output power of the inverter is increased or decreased by a fixed
step length, the method could be called a constant-step MPPT

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883

Fig. 3. Simulation of the constant-step MPPT method (steady state). (a) PV

output power. (b) Inverter output current.

method. Fig. 3 shows the steady-state simulation waveforms of

a single-stage grid-connected PV system with the constant-step
MPPT method. The PV panels in simulation are 300 WP (peak
watt), 23-V open voltage, and 17 V at the MPP. The dc-link
capacitance is 2200 uF.
Fig. 3 shows that, in a steady state, the constant-step MPPT
method can balance the input and output current of the dc-link
capacitor, so as to track the MPP of PV panels. The PV output
power is very close to the maximum power.
The MPPT control objective in PV systems is to regulate
the actual operating voltage of the PV panels according to the
voltage at MPP, by adjusting the output power of the inverter.
In the tracking process, if the operating voltage of PV panels is
greater than the MPP voltage, the system controller will increase
the output power of the grid-connected inverter to pull it down;
if the operating voltage of PV panels is less than the MPP
voltage, the system controller will decrease the output power of
the grid-connected inverter to push it up. However, in the latter
case, if insolation decreases at the same time, after the value
of PREF has been set lower, inverter output power may be still
greater than the actual PV output power, which will pull down
the dc-link voltage further. From Fig. 2(b), when the operating
point of PV panels moves from MPP to its left side, the output
power will decrease at the same time, which will cause the
dc-link voltage to collapse finally.
To avoid a dc-link voltage collapse phenomenon in the PV
grid-connected system, a novel MPPT method with a variablestep method is proposed. The modification of this method focuses on the closed-loop control of power. The modified method
can fulfill the requirement of high efficiency and high stability.
When the insolation of sunlight is smooth and steady, the
tracking process of the modified MPPT method is similar to the
constant-step MPPT method. Both of them track the MPP of PV
panels by increasing or decreasing the reference output power of

Fig. 4. Flow process diagram for determination of P R E F in the modified

MPPT method.

the inverter. The difference between them is that, in the modified

method, the step length is different in the increasing case and the
decreasing case. In the increasing case, it is smaller. Therefore,
when PREF exceeds the current maximum output power of PV
panels, the system controller can rapidly decrease it so as to
maintain dc-link voltage, to operate PV panels near its MPP,
and to assure the system stability.
However, when there is an insolation disturbance or step
change of sunlight, decreasing PREF by a large step length
still cannot assure the stability of the dc-link voltage.
In the modified method, the system controller samples the PV
output voltage VPV and current IPV , and then calculates output
power PPV . If PPV is detected to be decreasing rapidly, the
controller will presume that a step change of insolation occurs,
and the reference value of inverter output power will be reset
according to the current PV output. This method can keep the
system operating stably in an insolation step change process.
Fig. 4 is the flow process diagram for determination of PREF
in the modified MPPT method. P is the step change threshold
value of PV panels output power, P1 is the minimum step length
to modify PREF , K is a constant with a value greater than 1,
and P0 is the PV output power in the previous control period.
In the simulation, K is set between 2 and 3.
IV. STABILITY COMPARISON
To test the stability of the proposed modified MPPT method,
the simulation results of a single-stage grid-connected PV system that uses the modified method are compared to the results
of the constant-step method.

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Fig. 5. Simulation of the dc link voltage collapse process. (a) Step change of
insolation. (b) The dc-link voltage collapse process.

Fig. 5 shows a simulated dc-link voltage collapse process in

the PV system with the constant-step method. From Fig. 5, when
there is a negative step change of insolation for 0.1 s, PREF will
deviate from the current MPP of PV panels, which will pull
down the dc-link voltage until the inverter output current is
distorted. The voltage of the dc-link capacitor will rise slowly
after its input and output currents balance again.
The modified MPPT method is also simulated to test its stability. Circuit parameters are the same as the aforementioned
simulation. Fig. 6 shows the simulation waveforms of a tracking process during step change of insolation. Fig. 6 indicates
that systems with the modified method can detect step change
of insolation, modify the reference value of output power, and
prevent the dc-link voltage collapses. Simulation results show
that the system can remain stable in case of a 50% step change
of insolation. The high stability of the MPPT method will also
ensure the high efficiency of the system by drawing the maximum power from the PV panels under different insolation
conditions.
V. REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION UNIT
For three-phase power systems with sinusoidal voltages and
sinusoidal currents, quantities such as active power, reactive

Fig. 6. Simulation of tracking process during step change of insolation with

the modified MPPT method. (a) Step change of insolation. (b) dc-link voltage.
(c) Output current of inverter after insolation step change.

Fig. 7. Diagram of calculation for output current reference value in the threephase grid-connected PV system.

power, active current, and reactive current are conventionally

defined on the average concept. But for systems with unbalanced and distorted currents, average concept is not suitable.
The concept of instantaneous reactive power, which has been
established by Akagi et al. [11], provides an effective method
to calculate and compensate the reactive power for three-phase
systems.
In the proposed grid-connected PV system, the flowchart for
the calculation of the output current reference value is shown in

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885

Fig. 8. Photographs of the experimental system. (a) Inverter in the proposed

PV system. (b) PV panels installed in Tsinghua University.

Fig. 9. Experimental waveform of dc-link voltage during a step change of

insolation.

Fig. 7, which includes both the MPPT algorithm and a reactive

power compensation unit.
In Fig. 7, the detected load currents iLOAD U , iLOAD V , and
iLOAD W are transformed into pq coordinates by the block
(Cpq) after the coordinate transformation. The dc components ip0 and iq 0 with extremely low-frequency components are
extracted from the currents ip and iq on pq coordinates by a
low-pass filter (LPF). They are then transformed into coordinates again by the block Cpq 1 , after which the fundamental
currents iF U , iF V , and iF W are obtained by retransforming

Fig. 10. Experimental waveforms of the proposed three-phase grid-connected

PV system. (a) Output voltages and currents without reactive power compensation. (b) Output voltages and currents with positive reactive power
compensation. (c) Output voltages and currents with negative reactive power
compensation. (d) Output current with deadbeat algorithm. (e) Currents drawn
from the grid.

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iF and iF into U V W coordinates. Finally, the reference

currents iREF U , iREF V , and iREF W are calculated by block
(CAL). The equations are listed as follows:

iREF U = iLOAD U iF U + iPV U

iREF V = iLOAD V iF V + iPV V
(4)

iREF W = iLOAD W iF W + iPV W .

With the proposed method, it is simple to determine the reference currents of the three-phase grid-connected PV inverter
with minute fluctuations.
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Based on the earlier theoretical analysis, a 300-WP experimental system was designed and implemented. Fig. 8 presents
photographs of the inverter and PV panels in the proposed PV
system that was installed on the West Main Building, Tsinghua
University, Beijing, China.
The experimental waveform of the proposed modified MPPT
method applied in the single-stage grid-connected PV system is
shown in Fig. 9. After a step change of insolation, the MPPT
controller can maintain the dc-link voltage and keep it close to
the MPP. In Fig. 10, experimental waveforms of the proposed
PV system are shown. A deadbeat control algorithm [12] is also
employed in the system for PWM generation. The current waveform of the inverter adopting this deadbeat algorithm is shown
in Fig. 10(d). The currents drawn from the grid are included in
Fig. 10(e) to indicate that there is no reactive power drawn from
the grid after the compensation.

[6] K. Hussein, I. Muta, T. Hoshino, and M. Osakada, Maximum photovoltaic power tracking: an algorithm for rapidly changing atmospheric
conditions, Proc. Inst. Electr. Eng., vol. 142, no. 1, pp. 5964, Jan. 1995.
[7] A. Lohner, T. Meyer, and A. Nagel, A new panels-integratable inverter
concept for grid-connected photovoltaic systems, in Proc. IEEE Int.
Symp. Ind. Electron., Warsaw, Poland, vol. 2, Jun. 1720, 1996, pp. 827
831.
[8] W. Libo, Z. Zhengming, and L. Jianzheng et al., Modified MPPT strategy
applied in single-stage grid-connected photovoltaic system, in Proc. 8th
Int. Conf. Electr. Mach. Syst. Conf., Sep. 2729, 2005, vol. 2, pp. 1027
1030.
[9] W. Libo, Z. Zhengming, and L. Jianzheng, Intelligent controller for photovoltaic lighting systems, J. Tsinghua Univ., vol. 43, no. 9, pp. 1195
1198, 2003.
[10] C. Kunlun, Z. Zhengming, and Y. Liqiang, Implementation of a standalone photovoltaic pumping system with maximum power point tracking,
in Proc. ICEMS, Aug., vol. 1, pp. 612615.
[11] H. Akagi, Y. Kanazawa, and A. Nabae, Instantaneous reactive power
compensators comprising switching devices without energy storage components, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. IA-20, no. 3, pp. 62530, May/Jun.
1984.
[12] T. Kawabata, T. Miyashita, and Y. Yamamoto, Dead beat control three
phase PWM inverter, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 21
28, Jan. 1990.

Wu Libo received the B.S.E.E., M.S.E.E., and Ph.D.

degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in
2001, 2003, and 2006, respectively.
His current research interests include power electronics applications, inverter design, and stand-alone
and grid-connected photovoltaic systems.

VII. CONCLUSION
Implementation of a single-stage three-phase grid-connected
PV system is presented in this paper. The novel modified MPPT
method applied in the system can remarkably improve system
stability during rapidly changing process of insolation. Due to its
improvement on the dynamic response, the step length of output
power reference is reduced, which can also increase the steadystate accuracy of the method. A reactive power compensation
unit based on the instantaneous reactive power theory is also
realized in the same system, which can compensate the reactive
power of local load without increasing total system cost.
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[2] Y. Chen and K. M. Smedley, A cost-effective single-stage inverter with
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[3] E. V. Solodovnik, S. Liu, and R. A. Dougal, Power controller design
for maximum power tracking in solar installations, IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 12951304, Sep. 2004.
[4] O. Wasynczuck, Dynamic behavior of a class of photovoltaic power
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[5] P. Huynh and B. H. Cho, Design and analysis of a microprocessorcontrolled peak-power-tracking system, IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron.
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Zhao Zhengming (M02SM03) was born in Hunan, China. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Hunan University, Changsha, China, in 1982 and 1985, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1991.
He was in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, where he is currently a
Professor. From 1994 to 1996, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ohio State University. He has also
been a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Irvine. His current research interests include power electronics and motor
control, high power conversion, motor design and drive, adaptive parameter
identification, solar energy applications, etc.

Liu Jianzheng received the B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E.

degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in
1985 and 1988, respectively.
He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University. His current research interests include power
electronics applications, grid-connected photovoltaic
systems, and wind generation systems.