Synchronization of grid tied inverter using dq-PLL

Ms. Prajakta R. Narkhede, Dr.P.J.Shah

Department of Electrical Power System
SSBT’s College of Engineering and Technology,
North Maharashtra university,425001, Jalgaon, Maharashtra
narkhedepraju30@gmail.com
shah.paresh@sscoetjalgaon.ac.in

Abstract

To achieve proper grid synchronization the phase, amplitude and frequency of the inverter and grid are
important factors.This factors are required for the operation of grid connected power conditioning
equipments. In those applications an accurate and rapid detection of the grid voltage is essential to obtain
the correct generation of reference signals. The main aim of this paper is to simulate the grid tied inverter
and to apply the phase locked loop. In order to operate the inverter and the grid in synchronization, the
input angle of the grid voltage is achieved by using Phase Locked Loop in the dq-synchronous reference
frame.

This paper describes about the Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation(SPWM) technology which overcomes
the low performance of conventional pulse width modulation technique use for active filter. In this
method the desired output voltage is obtained by comparing the reference waveform with the triangular
‘Carrier Waveform’. Therefore by using SPWM method, the voltage source inverter can be controlled as
well as THD can be reduced to the limit of IEEE harmonic standard. The simulation results shows that the
inverter output voltage and grid voltage are in same phase and frequency.

Keywords- Grid Synchronization, PLL, SPWM, THD.

Introduction available renewable energy sources, solar and

As in the present days utilization of electrical
energy is increasing and the rate of increment of
generation of electrical energy is less as
compared with the rate of increment of
utilization. Hence, distributed generation of
electricity from various renewable sources is
need of time [1]. The generation of electricity
from renewable sources can be done by using
sources such as water, air, solar irradiation, etc.
These sources are available in bulk amount in
the nature and hence their adoption in the
electricity generation is increasing throughout
the world. The leading problem with the
renewable sources is that they are fluctuating in
nature. Hence, it is important to change their
characteristics before connecting to the grid. The
equipment’s used to change the characteristics
vary with the type of generation. Out of all
wind energy is widely available in India. Out of
above, solar energy is becoming popular choice
among installers due to its stationary structure.
The control can be done by using various
equipments such as charge controller, inverter
etc. In this, inverter control is very much
important because generated energy is DC in
case of solar system. The aim of the design is to
synchronize incoming DC signal with grid in
phase and magnitude. The proposed grid-tied
inverter uses transformation of three phase
signals into direct and quadrature axis for their
analysis. The transformation makes it easy to
synchronize the inverted signal with grid by
obtaining phase angle signals from Phase
Locked Loop (PLL) block. The output of
analyzed signals is given as input to the
sinusoidal PWM gate pulse generator. The
PWM signals fire the MOSFET switches as per

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the input signals. The block diagram of proposed
system is shown below in Figure 1. The PLL is
non-linear feedback system in which output AC
signal of inverter is maintained and
synchronized with grid [2]-[4].
Figure 1: Block Diagram of Proposed system
Method use for inverter grid Synchronization
Figure 2: Block Diagram of conventional PLL
PLL is a feedback control system. It
automatically matches the phase of a locally
generated signal with the phase of input signal.
In grid connected system, PLL synchronizes the
instantaneous phase angle of inverter voltage
with the phase angle of grid voltage to get power
factor close to unity. The block diagram of
conventional PLL is given in figure 2[5].
It consist of PD, LF and VCO. The PD measures
the phase difference between the input and
reproduced output then generates a voltage
consistent with the phase difference between the
two signals. It is often analog or digital.
The LP may be a low pass filter (LPF) which
blocks all higher frequency signals and extracts
DC component. The filter regulates the
steadiness of the loop. If it's not designed
correctly, then it can build oscillations around
the loop and enormous signals will appear on the
tune line. This may end in VCO being forced to
comb over wide band of frequency. Hence,
proper filter design is required.
The DC component is then amplified and passed
to VCO which might be a PI controller to get a
frequency of output. The frequency is then
integrated to make the phase of output. If the
output frequency is locked with the input
frequency, the phase difference of PD is
eventually driven to zero. As a result, phase of
output is locked with the input[6].
PLL algorithm
The PLL algorithm that's wont to synchronize
the phase of Voltage Source Inverter output
voltage with the utility grid voltage at the grid
interactive operation may be a typical closed-
loop servo system where the instantaneous
phase-angle of the grid voltage, θ, is detected.
The block scheme of PLL designed in dq
synchronous-rotating coordinate system is
illustrated in figure 3. As seen from the figure,
the three-phase grid voltages Va, Vb, Vc are
measured and transformed into the stationary
reference voltages Vα and Vβ, then converted to
the rotating reference voltages Vd and Vq .Vd
and Vq appear as DC quantities. The PI worked
as a loop filter of PLL is typically wont to
control Vq parameter, and under ideal conditions
like no harmonics, balanced grid voltages, Vq
value is zero while Vd is adequate to the utmost
value of the grid voltage. On the opposite part,
the output of PI controller becomes the grid
frequency by adding feedforward angular
Figure 3: Basic block diagram of the dq-PLL
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frequency of the grid (where angular frequency,
ωg=2πf and f is that the fundamental of the grid
voltage waveform). θ is decided by the mixing
of angular frequency. The estimated phase-angle
is fed back to the αβ-dq transformation block.
Also, the grid voltage frequency, f are often
determined during this system[7],[8].
Method use for inverter control
The voltage source inverter manipulated here
mainly adopts the sinusoidal PWM technique
which uses the DC input voltage of constant
magnitude. Here the function of the converter
is to control the frequency and magnitude of DC
to AC converted output. So as to control the
inverter, modulation strategies are used which
mainly determine the efficiency parameter of
inverter like switching losses and harmonic
reduction. In accordance with the sine function,
the inverter output voltage and frequency are
often controlled by using SPWM technique. In
SPWM technique each period is characterized
by constant amplitude pulses, but with different
duty cycles[8]. Here so as to scale
back harmonic content and to regulate the output
voltage, width of the pulses are modulated. In
SPWM to get the PWM signal, three sine waves
and a triangular carrier of high frequency is
employed. The sinusoidal waves of 120 deg
phase difference with one another are
often considered because the reference
signal supported the need of inverter output
frequency, the frequency of sinusoidal waves is
chosen.
A wave with high frequency is taken into
account as triangular wave. By analyzing the
comparison between sinusoidal wave and
triangular wave, generation of switching signal
takes place. When sine voltage exceeds the
triangular voltage, comparator generates a pulse
and it is utilized in triggering of respective
inverter switches. And hence the voltage
regulation and harmonic reduction takes
place. Just in case of harmonics with several
orders, it becomes difficult to eradicate
harmonics with SPWM technique, hence to
beat from that problem LC filter is
synchronized within the circuit which is capable
of eradicating higher order harmonics. Figure 4
shows the pulse width modulation technique.
Comparator compares the carrier waveform with
the reference waveform and generates PWM
signals[9].
Figure 4: Block diagram of Pulse Width Modulation
Controlling of Voltage Source Inverter
The Proportional Integral controller which is used
for three phase system is as shown in figure 5. The
most important advantage of PI controller is that
after the set point change there will be no any
remaining control error. But on the other hand it
has disadvantage that there is steady state error for
three phase system. But it is effective for single
phase system. As shown in figure 5. The filtered
voltage is sensed and phase lock loop is used to
determine the angular frequency from it. Here the
stationary dqo transformation is used to determine
the error signal and then these error signal is again
converted into abc quantities. Then these signal is
given to PWM generator. The main function of PI
controller is to decrease the error signal which is
generated between actual current quantities sensed
before the filter and reference signal after the filter.
The reference generator block takes grid voltage in
dqo reference frame ( 𝑉𝑜𝑑 and 𝑉𝑜𝑞 ) as input
signal[10].
After that they generate the reference current signal
( 𝑖𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑓 and 𝑖𝑞𝑟𝑒𝑓 ). These reference signals are
compared with the actual current signals.[10]
The active power (P) and reactive power (Q)
supplied to grid can be given in synchronous
reference frame as
P = 1.5(𝑉𝑜𝑑 𝑖𝑑 +𝑉𝑜𝑞 𝑖𝑞 ) (1)
Q = 1.5(𝑉𝑜𝑑 𝑖𝑞 +𝑉𝑜𝑞 𝑖𝑑 ) (2)
Where the 𝑉𝑜𝑑 , 𝑉𝑜𝑞 , 𝑖𝑑 , 𝑖𝑞 are the voltages and
currents after the filter in dqo reference frame
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Figure.5. Proportional Integral controller block diagram
and P, Q are the active and reactive power
respectively.
Assume 𝑉𝑜𝑞 =
0, and hence (1) and (2) can be written as
P = 1.5( 𝑉𝑜𝑑 𝑖𝑑 ) (3)
Q = 1.5(𝑉𝑜𝑑 𝑖𝑞 ) (4)
𝑖𝑑 = 2P/3𝑉𝑜𝑑 (5)
𝑖𝑞 = 2Q/3𝑉𝑜𝑑 (6)
These current signals are compared with actual
quantities and given to the PI controller. As PI
controller requires feed forward path to improve
reference tracking, grid voltage is fed to it. Then
these signals are again transformed to abc frame
and from SPWM, it is fed to the inverter switches.
System configuration
Simulation of the entire system that's the facility
electronics interface of renewable energy with grid
and therefore the control methodology is completed
using Simulink. The renewable energy is modeled
by a DC voltage source which is converted into AC
voltage employing a Voltage Source Inverter .To
get rid of high frequency switching components
from the inverter output LC filter is employed. The
filtered output of inverter is totally synchronized
with grid and is therefore connected with grid.
Phase locked loop and dq current controller using
PI controller also are implemented in Simulink.
Figure 6 shows the simulink model of Grid Tied
Inverter. Here the PI controller is used to reduce the
error. Two loads are connected after the V- I
measurement block. The V-I measurement block
measures the three phase voltage and current. The
system parameters utilized in simulation are listed
in Table1.
Simulation Results
Figure 7 shows the inverter output and grid voltage
on same axis. Yellow line indicates the inverter
voltage whereas pink line indicates the grid voltage.
From waveform it is observed that the voltage of
inverter and grid are same both in magnitude and
phase. This is the condition for inverter grid
synchronization. Therefore by using dq PLL
method proper synchronization can be achieved.
Figure 8 shows the inverter output waveform.
Initially the breaker which is connected in series
with first R-L load is open. Therefore the
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.
Figure 6: MATLAB simulink model of grid tied inverter

Table 1: Simulation Parameters

Sr.No. Parameters Value

1. Three phase peak voltage 330V
2. DC supply 650V
3. Supply frequency fs 50HZ
4. Filter Inductance Lf 3mH
5. Inductor internal resistance Rf 0.05Ω
6. Filter capacitance 30μF
7. Capacitor resistance 0.5Ω
8. Load 1 R=30Ω, L=75mH
9. Load 2 R=10.29Ω, L=25.86mH

current is small upto 0.4 sec. But after 0.4 Sec the
breaker will be closed. Therefore second load is
added to the system and load current increases after
0.4 sec.
According to IEEE standard 519 the THD value
should be less than 5%[11]. Figure 9 shows the
THD value of inverter output voltage after
synchronization. The THD value is 0.76%.
Conclusion
In this paper the method use for synchronization i.e.
dq-PLL method, SPWM technique & PI controller
is discussed. From this paper the simulation results
of inverter filtered output voltage, inverter non-
filtered output voltage, active and reactive power
supplied by inverter to grid, inverter grid
synchronized voltage and current are observed. The
simulation of simple voltage source inverter is
studied and observed with its harmonic analysis.
The simulation result shows that initially the
voltage waveform is not pure sinusoidal but when
filter is use, we get pure sinusoidal waveform.
Then we used PI controller and SPWM Technique
for controlling of inverter. The advantage of PI
controller is that there is no remaining steady state
error after a set point changed. The advantages of
SPWM are easy to implement and control, Lower
power dissipation, lower switching losses etc. The
dq PLL method is used for real time following of
grid phase angle and voltage. All simulation results
confirmed that the output voltage of the SPWM
controlled grid tied inverter are balanced with the
grid and grid synchronization is successfully
achieved.

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Figure 7: Grid and inverter output voltages on same axis

Figure 8: Inverter output current

Figure 9: THD analysis of inverter output voltage after synchronization

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