IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 24, NO.
3, SEPTEMBER 2009
Adaptive Grid-Voltage Sensorless Control Scheme
for Inverter-Based Distributed Generation
Yasser Abdel-Rady Ibrahim Mohamed, Member, IEEE, Ehab F. El-Saadany, Senior Member, IEEE,
and Magdy M. A. Salama, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—This paper presents an adaptive grid-voltage sensor-
less control scheme for inverter-based distributed generation units
based on an adaptive grid-interfacing model. An adaptive grid-
interfacing model is proposed to estimate, in real time, the inter-
facing parameters seen by the inverter and the grid-voltage vector
simultaneously. A reliable solution to the present nonlinear estima-
tion problem is presented by combining a grid-voltage estimator
with an interfacing parameter estimator in a parallel structure.
Both estimators adjust the grid-interfacing model in a manner
that minimizes the current error between the grid model and the
actual current dynamics, which acts as a reference model. The
estimated quantities are utilized within the inner high-bandwidth
current control loop and the outer power controller to realize an
adaptive grid-voltage sensorless interfacing scheme. Theoretical
analysis and simulation results are provided to demonstrate the
validity and usefulness of the proposed interfacing scheme.
Index Terms—Adaptive identification, digital current
control, distributed generation (DG), grid-voltage sensorless
control, pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) inverters.
I. INTRODUCTION
RIVEN BY economical, technical, and environmental
D reasons, the energy sector is moving into an era where
large portions of increases in electrical energy demand will be
met through widespread installation of distributed resources or
what’s known as distributed generation (DG) [1]. Unlike large
generators, which are almost exclusively 50–60 Hz synchronous
machines, DG units include variable frequency (variable speed)
sources (such as wind energy sources), high-frequency (high
speed) sources (such as microturbines), and direct energy con-
version sources producing dc voltages (such as fuel cells and
photovoltaic sources). The majority of the distributed resources
are interfaced to the utility grid via dc–ac inverter systems
[2], [3]. However, the control performance of the interfacing
system depends on the interfacing impedance seen by the in-
verter and the grid voltage at the point of common coupling
(PCC).
To reduce system’s cost and to increase its reliability, it is
highly desirable to realize a grid-interfacing scheme with the
minimum number of sensing elements. Along with the reliability
and cost enhancements, significant performance enhancements
Manuscript received May 19, 2007; revised December 22, 2007. First pub-
lished June 16, 2009; current version published August 21, 2009. Paper no.
TEC-00170-2007.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON N2L 3G1, Canada (e-mail:
yasser_rady@ieee.org).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2008.2001448
0885-8969/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE
683
can be obtained by eliminating the grid-voltage sensors in an
inverter-based DG interface. Among these are: 1) the elimination
of the residual negative sequence and voltage feedforward com-
pensation errors (the injected currents are so sensitive to minute
variations in the reference voltage vector, which highly depends
on the feedforward compensation control) and 2) the positive
contribution to the robustness of the power sharing mechanism
in paralleled inverter systems, where the power-sharing mecha-
nism is generally based on open-loop controllers.
Recently, grid-voltage sensorless techniques have been inves-
tigated especially in three-phase pulsewidth-modulated (PWM)
voltage-sourced converter systems [4]–[9], where the basic
number of sensors needed is five (two ac currents and voltages,
and the dc-link voltage). By avoiding the use of grid-voltage or
grid-current measurements, the number of sensors is reduced. It
is commonly desirable to use grid-voltage sensorless schemes,
where an inherent overcurrent protection is provided. Different
sensorless interfacing schemes have been reported. The posi-
tion of the grid-voltage vector is estimated in [4] by modify-
ing the proportional-integral (PI) current regulator and using a
model-based observer. The principle of direct power control is
applied to realize voltage sensorless control of a PWM rectifier
system [5]. The dc-link voltage information is considered the
only measured variable in a PWM active rectifier in [6], and a
state–space observer is proposed to estimate unknown quanti-
ties. However, the control algorithm is very complex, and the
stability is not verifiably guaranteed under parametric uncertain-
ties. An input current model-based observer is proposed in [7]
for input current estimation in PWM converters. A direct con-
trol of the converter instantaneous current, based on the direct
power control, and the estimation of the line voltage waveform
is proposed in [8].
However, the aforementioned voltage-sensorless control
schemes assume precise knowledge of the interfacing
impedance parameters at the PCC. On the distribution level,
distribution system parameters are time-varying and directly im-
pact the performance of the control and estimation algorithms.
For example, the current delivered by a grid-connected inverter-
based DG unit passes though a filter inductor and possibly a
coupling transformer. Interfacing parameters, such as the equiv-
alent inductance and resistance of the coupling transformer,
filter inductors, and connection cables, vary with temperature,
transformer saturation, cable overload, and other environmental
conditions. On the other hand, depending on the grid configura-
tion, a large set of grid impedance values (as DG is commonly
installed in weak grids such as remote areas with radial distribu-
tion feeders) challenge the stability and control of the interfacing
684 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 24, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2009

scheme [10]–[14]. In particular, there is a strong trend toward the

use of current control for grid-connected PWM inverters in DG
systems [2], [15], due to the need to control both the harmonic
content and the power factor of the current. In this approach,
it is commonly desired to design the inner current control loop
with high-bandwidth characteristics to ensure accurate current
tracking, shorten the transient period as much as possible, and
force the voltage-source inverter (VSI) to equivalently act as
a current source amplifier within the current loop bandwidth.
In addition, the current controller should not allow system un-
certainties and disturbances, such as preexisting grid-voltage
distortion and parameter variations, to drive harmonic currents
through the inverter. However, if the current control loop is
designed with high-bandwidth characteristics (e.g., deadbeat
control performance [16]–[20]), the sensitivity of the dominant
poles of the closed-loop current controller becomes very high to
uncertainties in the total interfacing inductance and resistance.
In addition, in a current-controlled DG interface, the sensitiv-
ity of the current controller to system uncertainties remarkably Fig. 1. Grid-connected three-phase VSI with an inner current control loop and
increases when the grid voltage is estimated [19], [20], where LC filter.
the grid-voltage estimator dynamics will be dependent on sys-
tem parameters. These facts challenge the stability and con- II. MODELING OF THREE-PHASE CURRENT-CONTROLLED
trol effectiveness of a grid-voltage sensorless current-controlled GRID-CONNECTED VSI
system.
Motivated by the aforementioned limitations, this paper A common topology of a grid-connected three-phase current-
presents an adaptive grid-voltage sensorless interfacing scheme controlled VSI with an LC filter is depicted in Fig. 1, where R
for inverter-based DG units based on an adaptive grid- and L in Fig. 1 represent the equivalent resistance and induc-
interfacing model. A novel adaptive grid-interfacing model tance of the filter inductor, the coupling transformer (if any),
is proposed to provide real-time estimates of the interfacing and the equivalent grid resistance and inductance seen by the
(impedance) parameters seen by the inverter and the grid- inverter, respectively, C is the filter capacitance, and vs is the
voltage vector simultaneously. The adaptive model utilizes a grid voltage. To impose an arbitrary current in the inductive R–L
grid-voltage estimator in parallel with an interfacing parame- impedance, a current controller is usually adopted to shape the
ters estimator. Both estimators adjust the grid-interfacing model voltage applied on the inductor so that minimum current er-
in a manner that minimizes the current error between the grid ror is achieved. A PWM scheme would ensure that the inverter
model and the actual current dynamics, which acts as a reference voltage is free from low-order harmonic distortion. However, the
model. Due to the nonlinear nature of the estimation problem high-frequency current distortion due to the switching frequency
and the periodic time-varying nature of the grid voltage, the grid- must be attenuated to cope with the power quality standards for
voltage estimator utilizes a neural network (NN) based adapta- connection of an inverter to the grid [27]. Also, the current con-
tion algorithm, which works as a real-time optimization agent. troller should not allow system uncertainties and disturbances,
The self-learning feature of the NN adaptation algorithm allows such as preexisting grid-voltage distortion and parameter varia-
a feasible and easy adaptation design at different operating con- tions, to drive harmonic currents through the inverter. The first
ditions [21]–[24]. In the proposed scheme, the online weight requirement can be achieved with the second-order LC filter,
adaptation rules are synthesized in the sense of Lyapunov sta- while the second requirement calls for a robust current regula-
bility theory [25]. This approach guarantees the stability of the tion scheme. A robust current regulation scheme, which satisfies
learning algorithm in a systematic manner. The estimated grid these requirements, is presented in Section IV.
voltage can be regarded as a quasi-input signal; hence, undis- In the stationary reference frame αβ, the current dynam-
turbed model is yielded. Relying on the undisturbed model, a ics can be reasonably represented by the following state–space
simple parameter estimator is used to estimate unknown inter- equations:
facing parameters by minimizing the parameter estimation error ẋ = Ac x + B c (v − v s ) , y = Cx (1)
by an iterative gradient algorithm offered by the projection al-
gorithm (PA) [26]. The estimated quantities are utilized within with
the inner high-bandwidth current control loop and the outer x = [ iα iβ ]T , v = [ vα vβ ] T , v s = [ vsα vsβ ]T
power controller to realize an adaptive grid-voltage sensorless
and
interfacing scheme. Theoretical analysis and simulation results



are provided to demonstrate the validity and usefulness of the −R
L 0 1
L 0 1 0
Ac = , Bc = , C=
proposed interfacing scheme. 0 −R
L
0 1
L 0 1
ABDEL-RADY IBRAHIM MOHAMED et al.: ADAPTIVE GRID-VOLTAGE SENSORLESS CONTROL SCHEME FOR INVERTER-BASED DG 685

where Ac , B c , and C are the system matrices of continuous

time system (1); vα , vβ , iα , and iβ are the α- and β-axis in-
verter’s voltages and currents; vsα and vsβ are the α- and β-axis
components of the grid-voltage vector.
Since the harmonic components included in the inverter out-
put voltage are not correlated with the sampled reference cur-
rents, the PWM VSI can be assumed as a zero-order hold circuit
with a transfer function H(s)
1 − e−sT
H(s) = (2)
s
where T is the discrete-time control sampling period and s is
the Laplace operator.
For digital implementation of the control algorithm, the cur-
rent dynamics in (1) can be represented in discrete-time with
the conversion H(s) in (2) as follows:
iα β (k + 1) = Aiα β (k) + B {v α β (k) − v sα β (k)} (3)
where A, B are the sampled equivalents of Ac , B c . If the Fig. 2. Proposed estimation algorithm.
continuous system is sampled with interval T , which is at least
ten times shorter than the load time constant, then the matrices
of the discrete-time system A, B can be obtained by Euler’s parameter estimation error by an iterative gradient algorithm
approximation as follows: offered by the PA.

 To estimate the grid-voltage vector, suppose that the
1 − TLR 0
A=e Ac T
≈ I + Ac T = (4) impedance parameters R and L are exactly known; and let us
0 1 − TLR construct an adjustable model with the following input/output
 T
T 
0 relation:
B= eA c τ dτ · B c ≈ B c T = L T . (5)
0 0 L
x̂˙ = Ac x + B c (v ∗ − v̂ s ) (6)
Considering the physical constraints, the preceding model is
subjected to the following limits. The load current is limited where superscripts (ˆ) and (∗ ) denote estimated and reference
to the maximum continuous current of the inverter or to the quantities, respectively. Assuming that the nonlinearities associ-
maximum available current of the inverter in a limited short- ated with the inverter operation—particularly the blanking time
time operation. Also, the load voltage is limited to the maximum and the voltage limitation effects—are properly compensated,
available output voltage of the inverter depending on the dc-link the actual voltage components can be replaced with the refer-
voltage. ence ones, denoted by v ∗ in (6). This assumption is justified by
considering that the inverter’s switching period is much smaller
III. ADAPTIVE GRID-INTERFACING MODEL than the circuit time constant. As a result, the direct measure-
ments, which are affected by the modulation and acquisition
A. Estimation Algorithm
noise, are avoided.
Generally, any implementation strategy of a model-based The convergence of the adjustable model in (6) can be
grid-interfacing scheme is by nature parameter dependent. In achieved with an appropriate adaptation algorithm using the
particular, accurate knowledge of the interfacing parameters estimation error. The dynamics of the estimation error vector
R, L, and the grid voltage is required in order to implement e ≡ x − x̂ = [ eα eβ ]T can be obtained as
a high-performance voltage-sensorless interfacing scheme.
Fig. 2 shows the proposed estimation algorithm. The algo- ė = B c (v̂ s − v s ) . (7)
rithm utilizes an adjustable current dynamics reference model
in the stationary reference frame, which runs in parallel with A three-layer NN, as shown in Fig. 3, which comprises an
the actual inverter current dynamics; the later acts as a reference input layer (the i layer), a hidden layer (the j layer), and an
model. The grid-voltage estimator utilizes an NN-based adap- output layer (the k layer), is adopted to implement the proposed
tation algorithm, which employs a three-layer feedforward NN NN-based adaptation algorithm. The inputs of the NN adapta-
to work as a real-time optimization agent for the present esti- tion algorithm are e(k) and ∆e(k), whereas the output is the
mation problem. The estimated grid voltage can be regarded as estimated grid-voltage vector v̂ s . The connective weights of the
a quasi-input signal, which can be included in the model excita- NN are adjusted online to adjust the model in (6) so that that
tion voltage; hence, undistributed model is yielded. Relying on the estimation error in (7) is minimized. The signal propagation
the undistributed model, a simple parameter estimator is used and the fundamental function of each layer are summarized as
to estimate unknown interfacing parameters by minimizing the follows:
686 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 24, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2009

The stability condition in (12) is satisfied when ∆Ve (k) < 0

as ∆Ve (k) is defined as an arbitrary positive, as shown in (11).
For the error dynamics in (7), and with the chosen Lyapunov
function, the sensitivity of the controlled system is not required
in the online learning algorithm. On the other hand, complex
identification techniques are needed to identify the Jacobian of
the controlled plant in the traditional back-propagation learning
algorithm [22], [23]. The learning algorithm aims at evaluating
the derivatives of the Lyapunov energy function with respect to
the network parameters so that ∆Ve (k) < 0 is satisfied. Accord-
ingly, the output layer weights W k j are updated as follows:

∂ V̇e ∂v̂s ∂O k ∂netk

∆W k j (k) = −ηk j
Fig. 3. NN structure. ∂v̂s ∂O k ∂netk ∂W k j
 
eα (k)Ojα
Input layer: = −ηk j B (13)
 T eβ (k)Ojβ
neti = xi , O i = Oiα Oiβ = fi (neti ), fi (ϕ) = ϕ
where ηk j is the learning rate of the connected weight vector
i = 1, 2 (8) W kj .
where x1 = e(k) and x2 = (1 − z −1 )e(k) are the network in- Similarly, the hidden layer weights are updated as follows:
puts. ∂ V̇e ∂netk ∂O j ∂netj
Hidden layer: ∆W j i (k) = −ηj i
∂netk ∂O j ∂netj ∂W j i
  β β T
   
netj = α α
i Wj i Oi i Wj i Oi
eα (k)Wkαj f  α α
i Wj i Oi Oi
α
 T 1  
Ojβ = −ηj i B   
β  
O j = Ojα = fj (netj ), fj (ϕ) = (9)
1 + e−ϕ eβ (k)Wk j f β β
i Wj i Oi
β
Oi
j = 1, . . . , 4
 T (14)
where W j i = Wjαi Wjβi are the connective weights be-
tween the input and the hidden layers and fj is the activation where ηj i is the learning rate of the connected weight vector
function. W ji.
Output layer: The update rules in (13) and (14) provide an iterative gradient
   algorithm designed to minimize the energy function in (11).
α α β β T
netk = j Wk j Oj i Wk j Oj Since the gradient vector is calculated in the direction opposite
 T to the energy flow, the convergence of the NN is feasible.
O k = Okα Okβ = fk (netk ), fk (ϕ) = ϕ In the aforementioned analysis, it has been assumed that the
k = 1, 2 (10) interfacing parameters R and L are exactly known. However, in
  T
practical applications of the control system, the actual parame-
where W k j = Wkαj Wkβj are the connective weights be- ters a = 1 − T R/L and b = T /L are assumed to be unknown,
tween the hidden and the output layers. and they should be adjusted in real time by a parameter estimator
The selection of the NN learning algorithm dictates the net- that can provide estimated values â and b̂.
work performance. Recently, several NN learning approaches With the NN grid-voltage estimator, the estimated grid volt-
have been proposed based on Lyapunov stability theory [28]. age can be regarded as a quasi-input signal, which can be used for
This approach guarantees the stability of the learning algorithm feedforward control. Subsequently, the following undistributed
in a systematic manner. In the present online learning algo- model can be derived from (3) as follows:
rithm, the weight adaptation rules are synthesized in the sense
of Lyapunov stability theory. iα β (k + 1) = Aiα β (k) + Bu∗α β (15)
A discrete-time Lyapunov candidate function is selected as
where u∗α β = v ∗α β − v̂ sα β is the equivalent excitation voltage.
1 Due to the decoupling symmetry of the system matrices Ac
Ve (e(k), k) = eT (k)e(k). (11)
2 and B c in the stationary reference frame, there are only two
parameters to be estimated: a and b; therefore, either the α- or
The Lyapunov’s convergence criterion must be satisfied such the β-current dynamics can be used in the estimation phase. By
that this method, the computational demand is reduced. Using the
Ve (k)∆Ve (k) < 0 (12) α-axis current dynamics,

where ∆Ve (k)is the change in the Lyapunov function. iα (k) = aiα (k − 1) + bu∗α (k − 1) = RT (k − 1) θ(k) (16)
ABDEL-RADY IBRAHIM MOHAMED et al.: ADAPTIVE GRID-VOLTAGE SENSORLESS CONTROL SCHEME FOR INVERTER-BASED DG 687

where R(k − 1) = [ iα (k − 1) u∗α (k − 1) ]T is the input/ The stability condition in (19) is satisfied when ∆VT (k) < 0
output measurement vector and θ(k) = [ a(k) b(k) ]T is a pa- as VT (k) is defined as an arbitrary positive as shown in
rameter vector. The dynamics in (16) can be used in a re- (18).
cursive estimation process to provide an estimate θ̂(k) = First, the change in the Lyapunov function ∆V1 (k) is given
T
[ â(k) b̂(k) ] of unknown plant parameters. The estimation er- by
ror {iα (k) − RT (k − 1)θ̂(k)} will be produced mainly by pa- ∆V1 (k) = V1 (eα (k + 1), eβ (k + 1)) − V1 (eα (k), eβ (k)) < 0.
rameter variation. Therefore, this error can be used to adaptively (20)
adjust the estimated parameters in a manner that minimizes the The change in the error ∆eα (k) and ∆eβ (k)due to the adap-
error. At this condition, the estimated parameters will converge tation of the weight vector W k j can be given by [30]
to their real values. To achieve this objective, an iterative gradi-
 ∂ e α (k ) 
ent algorithm based on the PA is used. The PA suits the present

 ∆Wkαj
∆eα (k) eα (k + 1) − eα (k) ∂ W kαj
estimation problem, where rapid parameter estimation with low = = .
computational complexity is required. ∆eβ (k) eβ (k + 1) − eβ (k) ∂ e β (k )
∆Wkβj
∂ W kβj
The parameter vector θ̂(k) is recursively updated using the (21)
PA [23] as follows: Since
rR(k − 1){iα (k) − RT (k − 1)θ̂(k)}  
 ∂e T Ojα
θ̂(k + 1) = θ̂(k) + α (k ) ∂ e β (k )
ε + RT (k − 1)R(k − 1) ∂ W kαj ∂ W kβj = bηk j
(17) Ojβ
where r ∈ [0, 2] is a reduction factor and ε is a small value to
then the following incremental error dynamics can be obtained:
avoid division by zero if RT (k − 1)R(k − 1) = 0.
The estimate θ̂ is used to update the adjustable model param-
   2 
∆eα (k) eα (k) Ojα
eters in (6); therefore, an unbiased grid-voltage estimate v̂ s can = −b ηk j
2
 2 . (22)
be obtained. The estimated grid voltage is fedforward to (15) ∆eβ (k) eβ (k) Ojβ
resulting in equivalent excitation signal to cancel the voltage
disturbance. As a result, the unbiased parameter estimate θ̂ can Accordingly, ∆V1 (k) can be represented as
be reliably obtained. Using the preceding recursive process, the
∆V1 (k) = eα (k)∆eα (k) + eβ (k)∆eβ (k)
grid voltage and the interfacing parameters will quickly con-
verge into their real values. The estimated quantities can be 1 
+ ∆eα (k)2 + ∆eβ (k)2
reliably used to realize an adaptive grid-voltage sensorless con- 2
trol scheme.   2 
 α 2 b2 ηk j Ojα
= −b ηk j eα (k) Oj
2 2
1−
2
B. Convergence Analysis
  2 
The estimation scheme is based on parallel estimators strat- 2 β
 β 2  b ηk j Oj 
egy to linearize the present nonlinear estimation problem. The − b ηk j eβ (k) Oj 1 −
2 2
.
main potential of the parallel estimation strategy is the inher- 2
ent decoupling of the disturbance parameter estimation prob-
lems; therefore, the augmented nonlinear error dynamics are (23)
avoided and both estimators can be designed separately [25],
[29]. Accordingly, two Lyapunov function candidates for the To satisfy the convergence condition ∆V1 (k) < 0, the learn-
error vector [ eα eβ ]T and the parameter estimator error vector ing rate ηk j should satisfy
θ̃(k) ≡ θ(k) − θ̂(k) are utilized. The total Lyapunov function 2
is selected as 0 < ηk j <   α 2  β 2  . (24)
maxk b Oj (k) , b2 Oj (k)
2 
VT (eα (k), eβ (k), θ̃(k), k)
Since 0 < Ojα < 1 and 0 < Ojβ < 1, j = 1, . . . , Rk j , where
= V1 (eα (k), eβ (k), k) + V2 (θ̃(k), k) Rk j is the number of weights between the output and hidden
1  layers, then
 by the definition ofthe usual Euclidean norm in n ,
= eα (k)2 + eβ (k)2 + θ̃(k)T θ̃(k). (18) β
Oj  ≤ Rk j and Oj  ≤ Rk j .
α
2
The change in the error ∆eα (k)and ∆eβ (k) due to the adap-
The Lyapunov’s convergence criterion must be satisfied such
tation of the weight vector W j i can be given by
that
 ∂ e α (k ) 


 ∆Wjαi
VT (k)∆VT (k) < 0 (19) ∆eα (k) eα (k + 1) − eα (k) ∂ W jαi
= = .
where ∆VT (k) = ∆V1 (k) + ∆V2 (k)is the change in the total ∆eβ (k) eβ (k + 1) − eβ (k) ∂ e β (k )
∆Wjβi
∂ W jβi
Lyapunov function. (25)
688 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 24, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2009

Further, By using the parameter estimation error dynamics with the

 ∂ e α (k )     update law (17), ∆V2 (k) can be evaluated as
Wkαj f  Wjαi Oiα Oiα

∂ W jαi
 = b
i
  2
 
∂ e β (k )  rR(k − 1)R(k − 1)θ̃(k)  
∂ W jβi Wkβj f  i W β β
O
ji i Oi
β
∆V2 (k) = θ̃(k) −  − θ̃(k)T θ̃(k)
 ε + RT (k − 1)R(k − 1) 
therefore, the following incremental error dynamics can be  2
obtained: r θ̃(k)T R(k − 1)

 =
∆eα (k) ε + RT (k − 1)R(k − 1)


∆eβ (k) rRT (k − 1)R(k − 1)
  × −2 + . (31)
 2     2
α 2 ε + RT (k − 1)R(k − 1)
eα (k) Wkαj f W α α
O (O )
 i ji i i 
= −b2 ηj i   β 2     2  2  . Now, if ε > 0 and 0 < r < 2 are assumed, the bracketed term
β β β
eβ (k) Wk j f i Wj i Oi Oi in (31) is negative, and consequently, the stability condition in
(30) is satisfied and the following convergence properties are
(26)
satisfied:
Accordingly, ∆V1 (k)can be represented as
θ(k) − θ o  ≤ θ(k − 1) − θ o  ≤ θ(0) − θ o  , k≥1
∆V1 (k) = eα (k)∆eα (k) + eβ (k)∆eβ (k)
(32)
1 
+ ∆eα (k)2 + ∆eβ (k)2 R(k − 1)θ̃(k)T
2 lim  =0 (33)
  α 2  k →∞
ε + RT (k − 1)R(k − 1)
  2 b 2
ηj i Mj i
= −b2 ηj i eα (k)2 Mjαi 1−
2 where θ o is the parameter vector obtained at perfect convergence
  2  of the estimator.
 β 2 b2 ηj i Mjβi Using the aforementioned conditions, it can be shown that
− b ηj i eβ (k) Mj i
2 2
1−
2 ∆VT (k) = ∆V1 (k) + ∆V2 (k) < 0, and it follows that the aug-
mented error is monotonically nonincreasing. Therefore, the
(27) convergence is guaranteed and the estimates can be reliably
where used in the control system design.
 2    2    2 
Mjαi α 2
Wkαj f W α α
O (O )
2  =  
i ji i i IV. PROPOSED CONTROL SCHEME
    .
β   2  2   2 Fig. 4 shows the proposed adaptive grid-voltage sensorless
Mj i β
Wk j f i W β
O
ji i
β
O β
i
control scheme for a current-controlled PWM-VSI. The scheme
To satisfy the convergence condition ∆V1 (k) < 0, the learn- consists of the proposed adaptive grid-interfacing model, which
ing rate ηj i should satisfy provides real-time estimates of the interfacing parameters and
the grid-voltage vector at the PCC; a current control loop, which
2
0 < ηj i <  α 2  β 2  . (28) is realized in the rotational reference frame to null the phase
maxk Mj i (k) , Mj i (k)
 errors, and an average power controller to generate the reference
current vector.
Provided that fj (ϕ) ∈ [0, 1] and fj (ϕ) = fj (ϕ) − (fj (ϕ))2 ,
 
then max fj (ϕ) = 1/4. Therefore, the following inequalities A. Current Control Loop
can be deduced:
 α 2  α 2 The inner current loop is necessary to obtain high power
 α 2 Wk j −m ax Oi−m
Mj i (k) ≤ ax quality in grid-connected inverters. Currently, there is a strong
16 trend toward fully digital control of power converters based on
 2  β  2 β 2 deadbeat current control techniques [16]–[20]. As compared to
 β  Wk j −m ax Oi−m ax
Mj i (k) ≤ . (29) other current control techniques, such as the hysteresis control
16 scheme, ramp comparison, and stationary and synchronous PI
Since the weights update rules are synthesized in the direction control schemes [16], deadbeat controllers offer the potential
opposite to the energy flow, the weights between the hidden and for achieving the fastest transient response, precise current con-
output layers are bounded. Since the parameters of the NN are trol, zero steady-state error, the lowest distortion, and the full
bounded, the convergence is guaranteed. compatibility with digital-control platforms [18]. However, as
Second, the change in the Lyapunov function for the param- a high-bandwidth model-based controller, the deadbeat current
eter estimator ∆V2 (k) is given by control scheme shows a high sensitivity to plant uncertainties. In
  addition, the sensitivity to system uncertainties increases when
∆V2 (k) = V2 θ̃(k + 1) − V2 θ̃(k) < 0. (30) the grid voltage is estimated. To alleviate this limitation, the
ABDEL-RADY IBRAHIM MOHAMED et al.: ADAPTIVE GRID-VOLTAGE SENSORLESS CONTROL SCHEME FOR INVERTER-BASED DG 689

Fig. 4. Proposed control scheme for the DG interface.

outputs of the estimation unit are used to redesign the deadbeat

controller in real time.
In the synchronous reference frame that rotates syn-
chronously with the grid angular speed ω1 , and by using the
time-delay compensation method developed in [28], the current
dynamics can be controlled to yield a deadbeat current control
response, in the presence of system delays with the following
control law:
1 ∗ 
v ∗dq (k + 1) = idq (k + 2) − Adq Adq i∗dq (k)
b
!!
+ b v ∗dq (k) − v sdq (k) + v sdq (k + 1)
Fig. 5. Proposed voltage-sensorless power controller.
(34)
where jectory. Since the required power transient response is much

 slower than the current dynamics, the reference current can be
a −T ω1
Adq = . filtered to ensure high-quality inductor current.
T ω1 a
Based on the time-scale separation between the power and
Using the estimated quantities, the control voltage can be current dynamics, the output power variation depends only on
adaptively calculated as follows: the variation of the grid voltage within the control cycle. Us-
1 ∗  ing the active and reactive power references p∗ and q∗ and
v ∗dq (k + 1) = idq (k + 2) − Âdq Âdq i∗dq (k) grid-voltage components vsq and vsd , the reference currents are
b̂
! ! calculated as follows:
+ b̂ v ∗dq (k) − v̂ sdq (k) + v̂ sdq (k + 1)
∗

∗ 
id 1 vsd −vsq p
∗
= 2 . (36)
(35) iq vs  vsq vsd q∗
where To compensate for the filter-capacitor current component, the


â −T ω1 inductor current references are calculated by adding a simple
Adq = . feedforward compensation term as follows:
T ω1 â

∗

∗

id 1 vsd −vsq p 1 vsd
To achieve higher dc-link voltage utilization and lower distor- = + (37)
i∗q vs2  vsq vsd q∗ Zc vsq
tion in the output current, the space vector modulation (SVM)
technique is employed to synthesize the control voltage in (35). where Zc is the capacitor impedance.
The voltage-sensorless power controller can be realized using
B. Power Control the estimated voltage components as

∗

∗ 

To ensure high power quality, the outer power control loop id 1 v̂sd −v̂sq p 1 v̂sd
= 2 + . (38)
should offer a relatively slowly changing current reference tra- i∗q v̂s  v̂sq v̂sd q∗ Zc v̂sq
690 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 24, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2009

Fig. 6. Developed Simulink model of the proposed DG interface with a microturbine source.

To provide a sufficient attenuation gain for the harmonic con-

tent in the reference current vector, a low-pass filter (LPF) is
adopted and digitally implemented as follows:

∗ 

îdf (k) 2σ − T i∗df (k − 1)
=
î∗qf (k) 2σ + T i∗qf (k − 1)

∗ 
T id (k) − i∗d (k − 1)
+ (39)
2σ + T i∗q (k) − i∗q (k − 1)
where i∗df , i∗qf are the filtered d- and q-axis reference current
components, respectively, and 1/σ is the filter cutoff frequency.
It should be noted that the filter cutoff frequency should be low
enough to provide sufficient attenuation of current reference Fig. 7. Robustness of the conventional and proposed current controllers with
harmonics caused by voltage harmonics. At the same time, it measured and estimated grid voltage.
should be high enough to provide a reasonable dynamic response
of the power control loop. Fig. 5 depicts the structure of the
digital signal processor (DSP) has been chosen as an embedded
proposed voltage-sensorless power controller.
platform for real-time digital simulation experiments. The esti-
mation and control algorithm is coded as a Matlab S-function
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
written in C++. The C++ S-function facilitates straightfor-
To evaluate the performance of the proposed control scheme, ward real-time coding via the RTW. The execution time of the
a 10-kV·A three-phase grid-connected microturbine DG inter- current control interrupt routine is about 130 µs. Subsequently,
face incorporated with the proposed control scheme, as reported a control period T = 150 µs is selected. With this setting, a safe
in Fig. 4, has been used. The system parameters are as follows: CPU load coefficient 86% and a switching frequency 6.7 kHz
grid phase voltage = 120 V at 60 Hz, grid resistance = 0.05 Ω, have been obtained. As these figures reveal, the processing de-
grid inductance = 0.2 mH, dc-link voltage = 500 V, nominal mand of the proposed control scheme is relatively modest for a
interfacing inductance Lo = 2.5 mH, nominal interfacing re- DSP system, making it possible to achieve quite high switching
sistance Ro = 1.0 Ω, nominal filter capacitance Co = 45 µF. frequencies. It should be noted that the control period is mainly
The LC-filter parameters are chosen to attenuate the switching dependent on the instruction time of the hardware. Further, code
frequency components in the output current much below the optimization is another factor in determining the execution time
nominal fundamental current component. An attenuation factor of the control interrupt service routine.
50–70 dB can be selected as a design constraint to cope with The proposed interfacing scheme is initially tuned using the
standards in [27]. The developed Simulink model of the overall nominal system parameters. For the adaptive estimation unit,
DG interface is shown in Fig. 6. The real-time code of the pro- r = 0.65, ε = 0.001, and an initial parameter vector: θ̂(0) =
posed control scheme is generated by the real-time workshop [ao , bo ] = [0.94, 0.06] are chosen. The initial parameter vector
(RTW), under Matlab/Simulink environment. The TMS320C30 is set to the nominal value.
ABDEL-RADY IBRAHIM MOHAMED et al.: ADAPTIVE GRID-VOLTAGE SENSORLESS CONTROL SCHEME FOR INVERTER-BASED DG 691

Fig. 8. Performance of proposed and conventional current control with 20% mismatch in L. (a) and (b) Phase-a steady-state current response and the corresponding
spectrum of the conventional controller. (c) and (d) Phase-a steady-state current response and the corresponding spectrum of the proposed controller.

Fig. 9. Dynamic performance of the proposed adaptive estimation unit. (a) Phase-a current command and the corresponding output current. (b) Actual and
estimated grid voltages. (c) Estimated interfacing resistance. (d) Estimated interfacing inductance.

To verify the feasibility of the proposed controller, differ-

ent operating conditions have been considered. Some selected
results are presented as follows.

A. Stability and Robustness to Parameter Variation

The stability and robustness of the inner current control is
mainly affected by parameter variation. The sensitivity to pa-
rameter variation increases when the grid voltage is estimated.
Fig. 7 shows the change in the radius of the pole with maximum
amplitude (in the z-plane) versus the uncertainty in the interfac- Fig. 10. Current control performance with the nominal inductance and 50%
ing inductance, for both the conventional deadbeat current con- reduction in R.
troller [17] and proposed controllers. Two cases are considered,
692
Fig. 11. Dynamic performance of the proposed interfacing scheme. (a) Step response in the active power. (b) Reactive power response due to zero command. (c)
Generated reference d-axis current and output phase-a current. (d) Output phase-a current and grid voltage.
first when the grid voltage is measured and second when the
grid voltage is estimated. It can be seen that the conventional
deadbeat current controller is driven into instability with about
10% mismatch in L when the grid voltage is measured. When
the grid voltage is estimated, the conventional deadbeat con-
troller becomes unstable at only 5% mismatch in L. On the
other hand, the proposed controller is stable at any value of the
load inductance, as shown in Fig. 7. This is due to the self-tuning
feature, which enables the “redesign” of the deadbeat controller
in real time at different load parameters. When both parameters
R and L and the grid voltage are reliably estimated and used for
the self-tuning control, the stability of the deadbeat controller
becomes independent of system parameters.
Fig. 8(a) shows the phase-a steady-state current response
obtained with the conventional deadbeat controller with 20%
mismatch in L. In this scenario, the d-axis current command is
set to 20 A at t ≥ 0.0167 s, and the q-axis current command
is set to zero. Sustained oscillations in the current response are
obvious in Fig. 8(a). These oscillations are indeed the result of
the instability of the control system. The control loop limiter
constrains the magnitude of these oscillations. Fig. 8(b) shows
the corresponding current spectrum. The total harmonic distor-
tion (THD) is 66.12% up to 8.16 kHz (i.e., up to the 136th
harmonic). This result does not meet the IEEE Standard 1547
requirement of THD [27], which is below 5%. Fig. 8(c) shows
the phase-a steady-state current response obtained with the pro-
posed current controller with 20% mismatch in L. It is clear that
the algorithm is stable and the output current tracks its refer-
ence command precisely. The corresponding current spectrum
is given in Fig. 8(d). In this case, the THD up to 8.16 kHz is
0.95%.
B. Dynamic Performance of Proposed Estimation Unit
To evaluate the performance of the proposed adaptive esti-
mation unit, uncertainties in the interfacing parameters as 60%
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 24, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2009
mismatch in L and 50% mismatch in R are considered. Fig. 9
depicts the dynamics of the proposed adaptive estimation unit.
In this scenario, the d-axis current command is set to 20 A at
t ≥ 0.0167 s, and the q-axis current command is set to zero.
Fig. 9(a) shows phase-a current response with the proposed cur-
rent controller. It can be seen that the actual current tracks its
reference trajectory precisely with zero steady-state error, zero
overshoot, and with a rise time around 280 µs. Fig. 9(b) shows
the estimated grid phase voltage. The estimate converges to its
real value within 2.5 ms. Fig. 9(c) shows the estimated interfac-
ing resistance. The estimate smoothly converges in less than 2
ms to the expected value 1.5 Ω. Fig. 9(d) shows the estimated
interfacing inductance. The estimate smoothly converges in less
than 2 ms to 4.15 mH that is the total inductance seen by the
inverter.
The control performance is examined with the nominal inter-
facing inductance and 50% reduction in R, which yields 100%
increase in the power circuit time constant. The current control
performance is shown in Fig. 10. Stable control performance
with high power quality is preserved due to the self-tuning
control.
C. Power Control
To evaluate the performance of the overall control system, a
step change in the demanded active power from 0 to 5.2 kW
is given at t ≥ 0.2 s, while the reference reactive power is set
to zero to maintain a unity power factor. Fig. 11(a) shows the
reference and actual active power. It can be seen that the active
power output of the inverter can be correctly estimated and the
actual power follows its reference correctly. Fig. 11(b) shows the
reactive output power. The reactive power is well regulated to
its reference value. Fig. 11(c) shows the reference d-axis current
component and the output phase-a current. The actual current
tracks its reference trajectory precisely with zero steady-state
error and zero overshoot. Because the injected power is only
ABDEL-RADY IBRAHIM MOHAMED et al.: ADAPTIVE GRID-VOLTAGE SENSORLESS CONTROL SCHEME FOR INVERTER-BASED DG
active, the output current appears in phase with the estimated
grid voltage, as shown in Fig. 11(d).
The reported results indicate that the proposed scheme results
in an adaptive grid-voltage sensorless operation and robust cur-
rent and power tracking responses even under the occurrence of
large uncertainties in the interfacing parameters.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, an adaptive grid-voltage sensorless control
scheme for inverter-based DG has been presented. An adap-
tive grid-interfacing model has been designed to estimate, in
real time, the interfacing parameters seen by the inverter and
the grid-voltage vector simultaneously. A reliable solution to
the present nonlinear estimation problem is presented by com-
bining a grid-voltage estimator with an interfacing parameter
estimator in a parallel structure. The estimated quantities have
been utilized within the inner high-bandwidth current control
loop and the outer power controller to realize an adaptive grid-
voltage sensorless interfacing scheme. Theoretical analysis and
simulation results have been provided to demonstrate the va-
lidity and usefulness of the proposed interfacing scheme. The
proposed adaptive grid-interfacing model is independent of the
type of the current controller; therefore, it can be used to en-
hance the robustness of the existing controllers. In addition, the
proposed grid-voltage sensorless interfacing scheme is inher-
ently self-commissioning/self-tuning and guarantees high con-
trol performance, without the constraint conditions and detailed
prior knowledge of the interfacing parameters at the PCC.
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Yasser Abdel-Rady Ibrahim Mohamed (M’06)
was born in Cairo, Egypt, on November 25, 1977. He
received the B.Sc. (with honors) and M.Sc. degrees
in electrical engineering from Ain Shams University,
Cairo, in 2000 and 2004, respectively, and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from the University
of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, in 2008.
He is currently a Research Associate in the De-
partment of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Waterloo. His current research interests
include distributed energy resources interfacing and
control, high-performance motor drive systems for aerospace actuators, and ro-
bust and adaptive control theories and applications.
Dr. Mohamed is an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUS-
TRIAL ELECTRONICS.
694 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 24, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2009
Ehab F. El-Saadany (M’01–SM’05) was born in
Cairo, Egypt, in 1964. He received the B.Sc. and
M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Ain
Shams University, Cairo, in 1986 and 1990, respec-
tively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineer-
ing from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON,
Canada, in 1998.
He is currently an Associate Professor in the De-
partment of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Waterloo. His current research inter-
ests include distribution system control and opera-
tion, power quality, power electronics, digital signal processing (DSP) applica-
tions to power systems, and mechatronics.
Magdy M. A. Salama (S’75–M’77–SM’98–F’02)
received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Cairo Uni-
versity, Cairo, Egypt, and the Ph.D. degree from the
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, in
1971, 1973, and 1977, respectively, all in electrical
engineering.
He is currently a Professor and the University
Research Chair in the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo. His
current research interests include the areas of the op-
eration and control of distribution systems, power
quality analysis, artificial intelligence, electromagnetics, and insulation sys-
tems. He has consulted widely with government agencies and industrial plants.
Prof. Salama is a Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of
Ontario.