Voltage unbalance and harmonics compensation for islanded microgrid inverters

Abstract

Voltage source inverters (VSIs) are usually used for all kinds of distributed generation interfaces in a microgrid. It is the microgrid's superiority to power the local loads continuously when the utility fails. When in islanded mode, the voltage and frequency of the microgrid are determined by the VSIs; therefore the power quality can be deteriorated under unbalanced and non-linear loads. A voltage unbalance and harmonics compensation strategy for the VSIs in islanded microgrid is proposed in this study. This method is implemented in a single synchronous reference frame (SRF) and is responsible for both the voltage unbalance and harmonic compensation. Furthermore, the virtual impedance loop is modified to improve the compensation effect. The impedance model of the VSI is built to explain the compensation ability of the proposed strategy. The whole control system mainly includes power droop controllers, a modified virtual impedance loop and inner SRF-based voltage unbalance and harmonics compensators. The proposed strategy is demonstrated in detail and validated with simulations and experiments.