Control of Single-Phase Grid Connected Inverter

System

Jozef Sedo, Slavomir Kascak

Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Dept. of Mechatronics and Electronics
University of Zilina
jozef.sedo@fel.uniza.sk
slavomir.kascak@fel.uniza.sk

Abstract— In this paper, an implementation of the control
and the synchronization algorithms for a Voltage Source
Inverter used in a grid-connected structure is carried out.
The main purpose is to show the combined operation of
the control and synchronization algorithm for achieving
the proper behavior of the grid inverter for the single
phase utility grid system. In order to obtain a proper
functionality of the system during perturbation, a
proportional integral controller structure along with
Second Order Generalized Integrator Phase-Locked Loop
(SOGI PLL) is designed and used as synchronization
algorithm. Also, the aim is to control power factor at grid,
to feed power into the grid, and to decrease phase current
distortion of VSI. Secondly, the design of third order LCL
output filter will be proposed in this paper. The results of
simulations of the inverter system connected to grid (220V,
50 Hz) using MATLAB/Simulink are also shown.
Simulation results confirms that the grid input power
factor is nearly unity, and the distortion of phase current
of the proposed system is reduced, causing the total
harmonic distortion for various power conditions falls
within 5%.
controller, SOGI PLL algorithm and calculation of the active
and reactive power. These control methods provide robust
current regulation, unity power factor, low THD and optimize
the energy suitable for grid-connection [6].
This paper presents a power control of a single-phase
voltage source inverter for grid-connected photovoltaic
system. The proposed method is based on vector control of
power by decoupling control of the active and reactive current
components to feed the active power to the grid. The aim of
this research is to control power at grid, to improve overall
efficiency of transferring power of PV to alternate current
power conversion into the grid, and to decrease phase current
distortion of VSI. The simulation results of the proposed
system will be shown in next chapters.
II. CONTROL STRATEGY
The proposed grid connected inverter system is depicted in
Fig. 1. The power circuit consists of current input source, full-
bridge inverter, third order output filter, load and utility grid.
The controlled current source simulates PV panels.

Keywords—Voltage Source Inverter, LCL filter,

I. INTRODUCTION
Renewable energy source such as photovoltaic systems
have received much attention recently as alternative means of
generating electricity. The photovoltaic systems are used
today in many applications. It has the advantage of being
maintenance and pollution free [5]. Photovoltaic system that
supplies power directly to the utility grid is becoming more
popular due to cost reduction [2]. The aim of grid-connected
photovoltaic energy converter is to process the power and
inject a sinusoidal current into the utility grid [3].
In this paper reactive power is controlled to zero.
Therefore, the phase shift between the grid voltage and the
inverter output current is also zero. It means that to the grid is
delivered only active power. The advantage of this control
strategy is implementation of the simple digital algorithms,
which are created by proportional-integral PI current Fig. 1. The block scheme of control and power subsystems.

978-1-4673-8698-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 207

 The output LCL filter maintains that the value of current where k affects the bandwidth of the closed-loop system and Ȧn
total harmonic distortion THD is within 5%. The full-bridge represents the resonance frequency of the SOGI [8].
inverter can be controlled by the unipolar PWM. There are
possibilities to control this inverter by the improved hybrid
PWM [1]. The advantage of this PWM is in lowered switching
losses, where the transistor’s switching frequency of the one
leg is only 50 Hz. In this case should be used IGBT transistors,
which are able to carry higher currents at lower conduction
losses. As shown in Fig. 2, the main control issues namely PLL
algorithm, orthogonal system generator OSG, power
calculation algorithm and PI controllers, have been included
within the system. The power calculation algorithm is based on Fig. 3. Second order generalized integrator for orthogonal signal generation.
the control of the active and reactive power in d, q axis. The
inverter current is transformed, using Park equations, in the two The Bode representation of the closed-loop transfer
components referred to the rotating dq reference frame of the function for the proposed structure is shown in Fig. 4.
grid voltage. The two components Id and Iq are proportional to Influence of k parameter on bode representation is shown Fig.
the active and reactive power, respectively, and then, two 5.
proportional–integral (PI) regulators have been used. The
reference current value of d Axis Id* is calculated in order to
regulate DC bus voltage VDC [9]. The reactive power is
maintained at zero through Iq*, as only the injection of active
power into the mains is allowed, according to the European

Magnitude (dB)
standards. PI outputs are transformed back into Įȕ reference
frame, using the inverse Park transformation, providing the
signals for inverter modulation.
III. CONTROL SUBSYSTEM
A. Synchronisation Algorithm
The phase angle of the utility is critical information for
Phase (deg)

operation of power devices feeding power into the grid like PV

inverters. A phase locked loop is a closed loop system in which
an internal oscillator is controlled to keep the time/phase of an
external periodical signal using a feedback loop [8]. The PLL is
a system which controls the phase of its output signal such that
the phase error between the output phase and the reference
phase is minimal. A functional diagram of a PLL is shown in Fig. 4. Bode plot of the close-loop transfer function
the figure below, which consists of a phase detect consisting of
park transform, a loop filter (LPF) and a voltage controlled
oscillator (VCO). Bode Diagram
0
vĮ vd
vgrid Orthogonal VCO
Park LPF -20
Signal vȕ vq Ȧout sin
Transform
Generation kp + kiœ Ko + 1/s
cos -40
Ȧ0
-60

Fig. 2. Phase lock loop basic structure.

-80
90
Method of creating an orthogonal system (OSG) is depicted k = 0.1
in Fig. 3. As output signals, two sine waves (vĮ and vȕ) with a 45 k = 0.5
k=1
phase shift of 90° are generated. The component vĮ has the 0 k=3
same phase and magnitude as the fundamental of the input k=5
-45
signal (vgrid). The second order generalized integrator closed
loop transfer function can be written as: -90
10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4
v′(s ) kω n s
H d (s ) =
Frequency (Hz)
= (1)
v(s ) s 2 + kω n s + ωn2 Fig. 5. Bode plot of the close-loop transfer function at different values of
gain k parameter
qv′(s ) kω 2
H q (s ) = = 2 n , (2)
v (s ) s + kωn s + ωn2

208
 IV. POWER SUBSYSTEM
The voltage source inverter is connected to utility grid
through LCL filter. Its schematic is shown in Fig. 7.
RLi Lfi Lfg RLg

RC

Fig. 7. LCL filter.

Transfer function of ideal LCL filter (RLi = RLg = Rc = 0) is:

I g (s ) 1 1
Fig. 6. Distorted grid voltage v and generated orthogonal voltage system (v' H (s ) = = ⋅ 2 (9)
and its quadrature qv'). U i (s ) sL fi L fg C s + ωres
2

B. dq Power Calculation L fi + L fg
ω res = (10)
After the Park transformation, according measured values L fi L fg C
of grid voltages (ud, uq) and grid currents (id, iq) are established
following equations of active and reactive power (3) (4). According the above mentioned equation the bode diagram
was realized and is depicted in Fig. 8.
p = ud .id + uq .iq (3)

q = u q .id − u d .iq (4)

C. Decoupling
Mathematical model of LCL filter (filtering capacitor is
neglected, because of high impedance at the fundamental
frequency) in stationary Į-ȕ system:
diα
L = − R.iα + uiα − u gα (5)
dt
diβ
L = − R.iβ + uiβ − u gβ (6)
dt
Where L = Li + Lg and R = RLi + RLg .

Applying the transformation method from stationary

orthogonal system (Į-ȕ) to rotating frame (d-q):
did
L − ω1 L.iq = − R.id + uid − u gd (7)
dt Fig. 8. Bode plot of ideal LCL filter.

diq A. Design of Converter Side Inductance

L + ω1 L.id = − R.iq + uiq − u gq
dt
It can be seen from equation (7) and (8) that there is a
crosscoupling between the d and q components (because of the
Ȧ1L part). Crosscoupling can affect the dynamic performance
of the regulator [11]. Therefore, it is important to decouple the
coupling term for better performance.
In this paper, feedback decoupling method for current
control of VSI in rotating d-q frame was applied.
(8)
The converter side inductance is designed in order to limit
the current ripple generated by the VSC. In fact the current
ripple is mainly due to the switching of the VSC and at that
frequency the v/i ratio is determined only by the converter side
inductance. When the switching frequency fsw is much higher
than the utility frequency f1, the time average value of the
inverter output voltage vAV can be regard to be constant during
the switching period Tsw. Thus, the filter inductor current of
grid-connected single-phase full-bridge inverters during any

209
switching period has typical waveform as shown by the lower
curve in Fig. 9.

uo
Udc

uAV

ipp [A]
0
Ȧt
ǻi
ǻImax

0
Ȧt
-ǻImax
Tsw/2 Tsw/2 Tsw/2
Fig. 10. Magnitude distribution of ǻipp of single-phase full-bridge inverters.
Fig. 9. Output voltage and current waveform of typical single-phase full-
bridge inverters. B. Design of filter capacitor
On the grid side the use of capacitors is justified by the
In this case, the peak-to-peak value of the filter inductor current necessity to filter the switching frequency harmonics that can
ǻipp that results from the unipolar PWM switching can be interfere with other equipment, thus an LCL filter configuration
calculated as (11). is typically adopted. The capacitor has a different influence on
U dc − u AV d the control system depending on the position of the current and
Δi pp = 2ΔI max = ⋅ Tsw (11) voltage sensors [4]. In this paper, grid voltage is sensed and the
L 2 grid current is controlled to be in phase. Then according [10],
When the condition u L = vo1 − u g = 0 described in [7] is the following formula can be used for the rating of the filter
capacitor:
applied to single-phase full-bridge inverters during the interval
of 0 < Ȧt < ʌ, equations (12) and (13) can be deduced. L − Lg
C= , (17)
u AV = d .U dc (12) Z b2
d = ma . sin ωt (13) where Z b = U n2 / Pn , Un is line rms voltage and Pn is active
power of converter.
From (12) and (13), the peak-to-peak value of the filter
inductor current during 0 < Ȧt < ʌ can be calculated by (14). C. Design of Grid Side Inductance
U dc .Tsw The grid side inductance is determined by the acceptable
Δi pp = (1 − ma . sin ωt ).ma . sin ωt (14) switching ripple in the grid. Once chosen the value of the
2L converter side inductor Li on the basis of (16), the grid side
Fig. 10 shows magnitude distribution ǻipp of grid connected inductance will be expressed as a function of this value:
single-phase full-bridge inverters according to the parameter of
modulation index ma. Lg
r= (18)
Li
Maximum value of current ripple is:
U dc .Tsw Resonant frequency of LCL filter is (10). Using of equations
ΔI max = (15) (17) and (18):
8L
Zb 1+ r (19)
Maximum current ripple does not depend on modulation ω res =
index ma. Filter inductance on converter side can be calculated Li r (1 − r )
according In Fig. 11 is waveform of resonant frequency as a function
Converter side inductance can be calculated according to of the inductance ratio for simulation parameters from Table 1.
the equation (16).
U dc .Tsw
L= (16)
8ΔI max

210
 was determined. Firstly, the loaded converter was connected to
the grid. The step change of Id* was from 0.5 to 0.8 of the
nominal current value. After transients and synchronization, the
converter currents iconv mostly covered the needs of the load.
After step change, the current is divided on the current to the
load iload and the rest of the current igrid flows to the grid. It is
evident that the transients are compensated for two periods and
the THD of the current satisfy the specified criteria [3] (THD is
equal to 3.15 %).
6
iconv
i
4 grid
iload
Fig. 11. Resonant frequency of filter as a function of the inductance ratio.
2

The resonant frequency range of the LCL filter must satisfy

condition (20). 0

10 f1 ≤ f res ≤ 0,5 f sw (20) -2

V. SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS -4

The grid connected VSI together with its control has been
simulated using Matlab/Simulink. Simulation parameters are -6
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
listed in Table I. t [s]
Fig. 13. The step change of the reference current during the load condition.
TABLE I. SIMULATION PARAMETERS
Parameter Value In Fig. 14 there are set equal conditions for the step change
Power Pn 200 W of the reference current, but the converter is unloaded and the
Line voltage Un 230 V whole current is supplied to the grid. The total harmonic
Switching frequency fsw 50 kHz distortion THD of the igrid current is also less than 5% and it is
Inverter side inductance Lfi 32 mH
3%. Therefore, it can be declare.
Grid side inductance Lfg 16 mH
Filter capacitor C 56 nF

The simulation results are presented for load (pure

resistive) and no-load operation of the converter connected to
the grid. As was mentioned above the reference current Iq*
controlled the reactive power at zero value and Id* the active
i [A]

power. From Fig. 12 it can be seen that the grid voltage is in

phase with output converter current, it means that the control
algorithm satisfies the condition of zero value of the reactive
power.

Fig. 14. The step change of the reference current during the no-load condition.

From the realized simulation experiments it can be confirmed

Fig. 12. Zero phase-shift between the voltage grid and converter current.
In the next simulations (Fig. 13) were performed the step
changes of the reference Id* current and also the THD value
that the initial condition are fulfilled.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper VSI grid connected converter and also its control
algorithm is presented. The synchronization algorithm formed
by the PLL structure is explained and also the effect of the
grid voltage ripple on the SOGI is investigated. It can be
stated, that the ripple voltage did not have an influence on a
function of SOGI and the quadrature voltages vĮ and vȕ stayed
undistorted. The simulation results also show that the currents
meet the defined condition and THD is under 5% in whole

211
range of operation and the reactive power is kept constant at
zero value.
In the future work the proposed control technique will be
tested on physical model and can be complemented by the
compensation of reactive power in case of the inductive load.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors want to thank for the support of National Grant
Agency for project Vega – 1/0579/14 - Research of topological
structures of segments of power electronic system for wireless
energy transfer.
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