ABSTRACTPower quality improvement in grid‐tied solar photovoltaic (PV) system is one of the emergent current research trends. To address the power quality concern, shunt active power filters (SAPF) are widely deployed and researched in grid‐tied PV systems. This paper presents a simplified adaptive transversal (SAT)‐filter control scheme for the two‐stage PV‐SAPF system. The proposed control has the ability to improve different power quality indices. Also, it features faster operation under steady‐state and under dynamic conditions, better dc‐offset rejection ability due to estimation of the accurate fundamental component of the load current. To justify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme, a thorough comparison is carried out with different conventional and adaptive control schemes. Simulations and extensive experimental analysis are carried out under severe transient conditions such as balanced‐unbalanced supply, sudden load, and irradiation change scenario.