Design of LCL Filters With LCL Resonance Frequencies Beyond the Nyquist Frequency for Grid-Connected Converters

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel LCL filter design method and its current control for grid-connected converters. With the proposed design method, it is possible to set the resonance frequency of the LCL filter to be higher than the Nyquist frequency, i.e., half of the system sampling frequency, and this observation is so far not discussed in the literature. In this case, a very cost-effective LCL filter design can be achieved for the grid-connected converters, whose dominant switching harmonics may appear at double the switching frequency, e.g., in unipolar-modulated three-level full-bridge converters and 12-switch-based three-phase pulsewidth-modulated converters. Moreover, a single-loop current control strategy is proposed for the designed LCL filter, and the control system is inherently stable without introducing any passive or active damping. Based on the new stability region, two LCL filter design examples are given, with one of them optimizing the utilization of passive filter inductors, and another one being robust against grid impedance variation. Comprehensive experimental results, showing the high-quality output current and excellent resonance attenuation, are presented in this paper, which are also in very good agreement with those of the simulated ones. These results successfully verify the feasibility of the proposed LCL filter design and its current control.