Chennai and Dr.
MGR University Second International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Intelligent System (SEISCON 2011) ,
Dr. M.G.R. University, Maduravoyal, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. July. 20-22, 2011.
Experimental Study on Reactive Power Management in
Inverter-Interfaced Distributed Generation System
Satyaranjan Jena*, B. Chitti Babu* and Amiya Naik*
*Department of Electrical Engineering, NIT Rourkela, Odisha, India.
srj.nitrkl@gmail.com,bcbabunitrkl@gmail.com,naikamiya@gmail.com
Keywords: Hysteresis current controller, PI controller, Point of
common coupling (PCC), distributed generation (DG), Reactive
power control.
Abstract
The escalating demand of reactive power consumption by the load
in the grid connected system usually causes the following problems
1) Voltage sag and swell at the point of common coupling (PCC)
2) Harmonic distortion of the grid current 4) low power factor etc.
More over, to meet the rising reactive power load demand, distrib-
uted generation (DG) is a viable option. For that, usually current
regulated PWM voltage-source inverters (VSI) are used to inter-
face DG with utility grid in order to ensure the grid stability. In
this paper, reactive power compensation for inverter interfaced DG
system based on hysteresis with proportional integral (PI) control-
ler is proposed along with independent control of active and reac-
tive power of the grid. The hysteresis with PI controller can largely
reduce the current harmonics at PCC considerably which ensures
lower total harmonic distortion (THD) during reactive power load
demand increases. The performance indices include THD of the
grid current, fast current tracking during steady state and transient
conditions. The studied system is modeled and simulated in the
MATLAB Simulink environment. Further, an experimental work
has been carried out in the laboratory set-up in the discrete-domain
via TMS320F2812 digital signal processor (DSP) and we could find
there is an effective validation with simulated results.
1 Introduction
The existing power system is going to be reformed due to the
enduring diminution of conventional energy sources and to avoid
possible pollution to the environment; Distributed generation
plays a vital role in the restructuring of the existing power system
[1]. More over, It can meet the future energy demand along with
load management during peak load demand.
However, due to the penetration of distributed sources, integration
of all DGs are necessary in order to provide secure and reliable
power to the utility grid. The integration of DGs are possible by
connecting them via power electronics converters [2].
During reactive power consumption of the load, grid connected
system faces the problems at PCC like voltage sag and voltage
80
swell, harmonic distortion of grid current and lower power fac-
tor etc. In order to meet the reactive power demand during these
situations, power electronics control concepts are needed and the
main tasks are control of active power delivered to the grid, con-
trol of reactive power transfer between the distributed power gen-
eration systems (DPGS) and the grid; control of dc-link voltage,
ensure high quality of the injected power, and grid synchroniza-
tion [3, 4].
In this paper, reactive power compensation for inverter interfaced
DG system based on hysteresis with proportional integral (PI)
controller is proposed along with independent control of active
and reactive power of the grid. The hysteresis with PI control-
ler can largely reduce the current harmonics at PCC considerably
which ensures lower total harmonic distortion (THD) during reac-
tive power load demand increases. The performance indices in-
clude THD of the grid current, fast current tracking during steady
state and transient conditions. The studied system is modelled and
simulated in the MATLAB Simulink environment. Further, an
experimental work has been carried out in the laboratory set-up
in the discrete-domain via TMS320F2812 digital signal proces-
sor (DSP) and we could find there is an effective validation with
simulated results.
The paper is organized as follows – Overall DPGS control struc-
ture is given in section 2. Reactive power control strategy based
on hysteresis with PI controller for grid side converter is analyzed
in sec 3. Section 4 dedicated to results and discussion, followed
by conclusion in section 5.
2 Overall DPGS Control Structure
The type of renewable source mainly decides the structure of the
distributed power. However in most of the cases a current con-
trolled VSI is generally used to synchronize the utility grid with
the distributed generation as shown in Fig.1 which comprises DG
source, back-to-back bi-directional voltage source converter, line
inductor and utility grid with load. The source-side converter,
controlled by an input side controller, normally ensures the maxi-
mum power which is extracted from the input power source via
MPPT algorithm and transmits the information about available
power to the grid-side converter. The main objective of the grid-
side controller is to interact with the utility grid. The grid-side
 Experimental Study on Reactive Power Management in Inverter-Interfaced Distributed Generation System

controller controls active power sent to the grid, control of reac- 3 Reactive power control strategies
tive power transferred between the DPGS and the grid, control of
the DC-link voltage, control of power quality and grid synchroni- through grid side converter
zation. Line inductor eliminates high frequency current harmon-
The hysteresis band current control is characterized by uncon-
ics is inverter output voltage and ensures proper synchronization
ditioned stability, very fast response, and good accuracy. On the
of inverter with utility grid.
other hand, the basic hysteresis technique exhibits also several
Source Side Converter Grid Side Converter
undesirable features; such as uneven switching frequency that
Green Power
B
B
GRID
causes acoustic noise and difficulty in designing input filters [6].
Ia – Switching pulses
Voltage
Sensor Current Sensor PI
VDC

+
Ia,Ib,Ic
3
Emulator
DSP TMS320F2812
PROCESSOR
HB

Va,Vb, Vc
I a ref
Voltage
Sensor

ILa,ILb,ILc
Figure 3: PI with Hysteresis current control
Current
Sensor

3.1 Control structure

3φ Load

The control loop comprises hysteresis+PI current controller in the

Figure 1: Simplified block diagram of experimental setup for syn- inner loop. The converter manages the amount of IInverter injected
chronization of the DG to the utility grid. to the PCC bus. The load current, IL is converted to the synchro-
nously rotating frame by using equation (3),
2.1 Modelling of Grid connected VSI
ª º
Figure 2 illustrates the schematic diagram of voltage source in- ªi º « »
cos( Zt ) cos( Zt(2 S /3)) cos( Zt(2 S /3)) »
verter connected with the grid. « Ld » 2«
« iLq » « sin( Zt ) sin( Zt(2 S /3)) sin( Zt(2 S /3)) »
From fig.2 we can derive « » 3« »
¬ iL0 ¼ « 1 1 1 »
Va Vm cos Zt « »
¬ 2 2 2 ¼
Vb Vm cos( Zt2 S 3) (1)
ª iLa º
Vc Vm cos( Zt2 S 3) « »
X« iLb » (3)
Where Vm and Ȧ are the maximum phase voltage and angular «
¬i »
Lc ¼
frequency of the utility.
For a grid connected inverter system. if the line resistance is ne- The adjustment of the dq-transformation is so that the voltage
glected the equation in the stationary reference frame is at the PCC has no q-axis component. A PI regulator controls the
S1
angular frequency by (4). Then the transformation angle can be
S3 S5

c
determined by (5).
Line Inductance
PLL
VDC
KI
S4 S6 S2
+ + ω θ

∫
V Vq
abc abc
c B Y R

Utility Grid dp
+

∫
PLL
KI

Figure 2: Three phase inverter connected to utility grid

Figure 4: Block diagram for Grid angle detection
ª dia º
« » Z k PPLL vq k IPLL ³ vqudt 
« dt » ª 1 0 0 ºª I a º ª (ViaVa ) º (4)
« dib » R« »« » 1« »
« dt » L « 0 1 0 »« I b » « (V V ) » (2) T ³  Z u dt  (5)
L« ib b »
« » «
¬0 0 1» ¼«
¬ Ic »¼ ¬ (VicVc ) ¼ It is assumed that there is no path for the zero sequence compo-
« dic »
«
¬ dt ¼» nents, therefore i0 in (1) and v0 in Fig.3 can be ignored. However,
these variables have been considered in the formulation to present
Where R= Resistance which is neglected during further analy- the general case.
sis, L= Line inductance, Via = inverter voltage for phase A and The resultant q-component is responsible for the reactive power
Va=grid voltage of phase A .Vib,Vb, Vic and Vc are the correspond- flow through the utility network. To compensate the reactive com-
ing values for phase B and C, Ia, Ib, and Ic are the corresponding ponent the quadrature component (i.e., iqref) of the reference cur-
value of grid current [5].

81
 Chennai and Dr.MGR University Second International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Intelligent System

rent of VSI, IInverter, equal to the quadrature component (i.e., ilq) The switching logic is formulated for phase A as follows:
of the load current (ILoad). If į >HB upper switch is OFF and lower switch is ON
The generated active power of DG is expressed by the (S4 = 1, S1 = 0).
If į <-HB upper switch is ON and lower switch is OFF
P vd uid vquiq (6)
(S4 = 0, S1 = 1).
I a ,I b ,I c The switching logic for phases B and C is similarly.
Line
inductance
V DC
SWitching
Pulses
4 Results & Discussion
Utility
3 j VSI
Grid
HB
This section reveals the simulation results for hysteresis with PI
current control algorithm applied to three-phase mains connected
Variable
Hysteresis
inverter system. The studied model has been developed and simu-
V a, V b, V c
Band Adaptive
hysteresis band
lated in the MATLAB/simulink environment. Further to validate
the result an experiment is carried out using TMS320F2812 digi-
fc
tal signal processor. The CC studio software is used to generate
the corresponding C- codes from the MATLAB/Simulink envi-
i dref
ronment to real-time.
a-b- c I La , I Lb , I Lc
a-b- c
to LPF to
The parameter taken for simulation are listed in table-1
d- q -0 i qref d- q -0
0
i 0ref Table 1: Parameter for simulation
3 j Local Table-1(System Parameter)
Load

q 3-ĭ supply VPhase = 230V, f = 50Hz

PLL Dc-link voltage 600V
DC link capacitor 2200ȝF
Figure 5: Block diagram for current control of three-phase grid-
Pref 3.5Kw
connected VSI
Line inductance 5mH
Where vd and vq are the dq components of the PCC voltage (VPCC)
in the synchronously rotating frame, respectively and id and iq 4.1 Steady State Analysis (Simulation Results)
are the dq component of the three phase DG current, IInverter. As
mentioned before, we have: In steady state the reactive power demand of the load is kept very
vd vPCC & vq 0 (7) small.

Hence 200
Voltage

P 0
(V)

Id (8) -200
VPCC 200 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Current
(A)

0
Selecting the reference active power of DG as the command signal
-20
given of the utility the equation (6) can be rewritten, as follows: 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
20
Current
(A)

0
Pref -20
I d ref (9) 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
VPCC 5000
(Watt)
P

Where idref is the direct component of the reference current of the 0

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
2000
VSI, IInverter.This component is also responsible for the losses in
(Var)

0
Q

both the converter and the capacitor. Finally, applying inverse d-q
-2000
transformation rotating at the supply frequency Ȧ by the equation 5
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Current
(A)

(8), the three-phase VSI reference currents are determined from 0

the d-q reference components [7,8]. -5
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Time(Sec)
ªi º ª sin( Zt ) cos( Zt ) 1º ª iLa º
« aref » « » « »
« ibref » Z t  S Z t  S Figure 6: Simulation result of the steady-state response of
« sin( ( 2 / 3)) cos( ( 2 / 3)) 1»X« iLb » (10)
« » hysteresis+PI current controller (a) grid voltage at VPCC (b) grid
¬ icref
« »
¼
«
¬ sin( Zt  (2 S / 3)) cos( Zt  (2 S / 3)) 1» ¼ «
¬ iLc »
¼
current (c) Inverter output phase current and load current(d) Ac-
tive power (e) Reactive power (f) Quadrature component of in-
After obtaining the reference current the PWM is generated as verter current.
given by equation 9
Figure 6 (a) and 6(b) shows three phase grid and voltage. Fig
G ia  iref (11) 6(c) revels that active power is equal to the input command value
3.5kw. Here the active power demand of the load is more than the

82
 Experimental Study on Reactive Power Management in Inverter-Interfaced Distributed Generation System

command value hence the deficit power to the load is supplied by controller is less which is shown in fig. 8(a) as compared to the
the utility grid. fig.6 (d) shows the load current (dotted line) and hysteresis controller as shown in fig.8 (b). Hence we can conclude
the inverter current per phase. The reactive power demand of the that the dynamic response is of Hysteresis with PI controller is
load is kept very low which is given in fig.6 (d). faster than the hysteresis controller.

4.2 Transient Analysis (Simulation Results) 4.3 Effect of Higher Band width of the Hysteresis
Fig.7. shows the transient response of hysteresis with PI current Band (Simulation Result)
controller. 20

15
Voltage

200 10
(V)

0
5
-200

Current(A)
200 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 0
Current
(A)

-5
0
-10
-20
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 -15
Current

20
(A)

0 -20
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-20 Time(Sec)
20
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
5000 15
(Watt)
P

10
0 5
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2

Current(A)
0
(Var)

5000
Q

-5
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 -10
20
Curent

-15
(A)

0
-20 -20
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 T ime(Sec)
Time(Sec)
Figure 9: Response of grid (Phase-A) current for change in hyster-
Figure 7: Simulation result of the steady-state response of hyster- esis bandwidth.
esis + PI current controller (a) grid voltage at VPCC (b) grid cur-
rent (c) Inverter output phase current and load current(d)Active In fig.9 another comparison is made to prove the effectiveness of
power (e)Reactive power (f) Quadrature component of inverter the hysteresis+PI controller over conventional hysteresis control-
current. ler. In case of hysteresis controller the switching frequency can
In this reactive power demand of the load is increased between a be decreased by increasing the band width of the hysteresis band
period 0.08 sec to 0.14 sec. Fig.7 (b) shows that the inverter cur- but if the band increases it leads to more distortion in the grid cur-
rent is increasing due to the increase of reactive power load de- rent which increases the current error. By using the hysteresis+PI
mand.in described control scheme the PWM-VSI is able to inject controller the current error can be considerably minimize even if
the reactive power when the load demand increases which can be the band width is higher. Fig.9 (a )and 9 (b) shows the response of
analyze by observing fig.7 (e) .As far as the active power is con- A-phase current when the hysteresis band width is changed at 0.1
cerned in fig 7(d) it is almost constant and equal to the input com- sec from HB=1 to HB=3.In hysteresis controller there is a large
mand value (3.5Kw). Fig.7 (f) shows the quadrature component ripple after 0.1sec as band width increases as shown in fig.9(a) but
of the inverter current under dynamic change in the load reactive in hysteresis+PI controller the distortion less with the increase in
power. band width shown in fig.9 (b).
20 Fundamental (50Hz) = 10.08 , THD= 2.69%
Actual Current

15
Reference Current
Current Error
10
10
8
5
Current(A)

0 6
Mag

-5

-10
4
-15
2
-20
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Time(Sec)
20 0
Actual current 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
15 Referece current
Current error
Frequency (Hz)
10
Fundamental (50Hz) = 10.01 , THD= 1.94%
5
10
Current(A)

-5 8
-10
6
Mag

-15

-20
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 4
Time(Sec)

2
Figure 8: Response of reference current, actual current and cur-
0
rent error for hysteresis With PI controller. 0 500 1000 1500
Frequency (Hz)
2000 2500

Fig. 8 implies the superiority of the hysteresis+PI controller over Figure 10: THD of grid current for (a) hysteresis current control-
hysteresis controller. The current error in case of Hysteresis+PI ler (b) hysteresis+PI current controller.

83
 Chennai and Dr.MGR University Second International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Intelligent System

The current harmonic spectrum for hysteresis+PI current control

method is shown in fig.10 (a).The THD is 1.94% which is less
than THD of hysteresis current controller. THD of hysteresis cur-
rent controller is 2.69% shown in fig.10 (b).

4.4 Steady State Analysis (Experimental Result)

The performance of the proposed control approach is validated
with the help of a scaled laboratory prototype using TMS320F2812
digital signal processor and code composer studio software.
During experimental verification the circuit is simulated for time
t=0 to t=0.12 sec instead of t=0.2 sec. The fig 11 shows the steady
state experimental result which resembles with the steady state
simulation result shown in fig.6. In fig 11 (d) both active power
and reactive power is shown and in fig 11 (e) gives the result of
reactive power and quadrature component of current.

Figure 12: Experimental result of change in load(change in reac-

tive power demand of load) of hysteresis+PI current controller (a)
grid voltage at VPCC (b) grid current (c) Inverter output phase
current and load current(d) Active power and reactive power (e)
Quadrature component of inverter current & Reactive power.

Figure 13: Experimental result of actual current reference current

Figure 11: Experimental result of the steady-state response of and error(a) Hysteresis current controller (b) Hysteresis with PI
hysteresis+PI current controller (a) grid voltage at VPCC (b) grid controller.
current (c) Inverter output phase current and load current(d)Active
power and reactive power (e) Quadrature component of inverter
4.6 Effect of Higher Band width of the Hysteresis
current & Reactive power.
Band (Experimental Result)
4.5 Transient Analysis (Experimental result)
Fig 12 shows the corresponding result when the reactive load de-
mand is changed which resembles validation of simulation result
shown in fig.7
Fig 12 (a) gives the change in current due to the change in load at
0.08 sec. The corresponding values of per phase load current and
grid current is shown in fig 12 (b) where the grid current is more
as the load is higher than the reference value of power.fig 12 (c)
shows that the active and reactive power can be controlled in-
dependently.12 (e) gives the of quadrature component of current
correspond to the change in reactive power of the load.
Fig. 13 verifies the advantage of hysteresis with PI (fig.13.a) con- Figure 14: Experimental result of grid current and error for change
troller as compared to hysteresis controller (fig.13.b) as given for in band width of the hysteresis band for (a) Hysteresis current
the simulation result in fig. 8 in sec 4.2 controller (b) Hysteresis with PI controller.

84
 Experimental Study on Reactive Power Management in Inverter-Interfaced Distributed Generation System
Figure 15: THD of grid current for (a) Hysteresis current control-
ler (b) Hysteresis with PI controller.
Like simulation on experimental basis we can also conclude that
at higher band width,hysteresis+ PI (fig.14.a) gives lesser distor-
tion as compred to hysteresis controller (fig.14.b) hence the THD
is less for hysteresis+PI controller (fig.15.b) as compared to hys-
teresis controller (fig.15.a).
5 Conclusion
This paper described the combined advantages of hysteresis and
PI current controller for grid connected inverter system along with
the control of active and reactive power of the utility end indepen-
dently. This particular topology is reduces the current error even
if the band width is higher. From the Simulation and experimental
study we observed that, hysteresis with PI current controller can
enable to reduce the current error at load terminal, thus in turn it
reduces the THD of load current and it provides less distortion. In
addition, the voltage profile at PCC can be maintained constant ir-
respective of the variation of the reactive power consumption and
it reduces the EMI effects, which are the important requirements
of the distribution system to satisfy the sensitive loads like medi-
cal equipments etc.
85
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