Inverter Control Research Articles

Parallel inverter control method based on adaptive parameters

AbstractIn the inverter parallel system, due to the uncertainty of the working environment, the output voltage cannot meet the requirements, and the power distribution accuracy by the traditional droop control method is low. To increase the control accuracy of the output voltage of the inverter parallel system and improve the power distribution accuracy between parallel modules, this paper proposes a parallel inverter control method based on adaptive parameters. This method is improved on the basis of traditional P‐V droop control, and an adaptive parameter control method is implemented by the Lyapunov function, which can effectively improve the control accuracy of the output voltage and ensure that the output voltage remains within a certain constraint range under any load conditions. In order to further improve the output voltage control accuracy, the adaptive parameter control method is adopted. The parameter optimization strategy was deduced, and the steady‐state and dynamic control performances were significantly improved. Simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

Grid-current-sensorless control of grid-forming inverter with LCL filter

As the grid impedance increases, the grid strength gradually becomes weak. In order to have good output characteristics in weak grid, grid-forming (GFM) inverters with LCL filter have gradually become popular. This paper studies grid-current-sensorless control which does not require grid current sensors. Firstly, the grid-current-sensorless control loops are given. Then, in order to make up for the inability to sample the actual grid current, a grid current estimator, which is derivative operator free and low-complexity, is proposed. And the robustness and accuracy of the estimator is verified by simulation. Afterwards, to demonstrate that this control operates stably when the grid strength changes, a joint small-signal stability analysis combining the control strategy and circuit topology is presented. The theoretical feasibility of the control is proved. Finally, to verify the robustness of the control under different grid strengths, the experiments are carried out on a 20kW GFM inverter. The results show that the proposed control has satisfactory steady-state and dynamic performance whether under strong grid or weak grid.

Synchronization and Control of a Single-Phase Grid-Tied Inverter under Harmonic Distortion

Grid-connected inverters in renewable energy systems must provide high-quality power to the grid according to regulatory standards such as the IEEE 1547. To provide high-quality current control when the inverter is connected to a distorted grid, the frequency and phase information of the fundamental harmonic of the grid should be accurately obtained. This paper examines controller design for a single-phase inverter when there is distortion in the grid voltage. The control structure is designed to enhance the quality of the injected current into the grid. To this end, a frequency-locked loop (FLL) sinusoidal tracking controller which is able to reject the grid harmonics is proposed. Thus, the contribution of this paper is a new frequency-locked loop structure with adaptive notch filters that can provide accurate estimation of grid phase and frequency and improve the performance of single-phase inverters working under harmonic distortion. We also present an explanation of how the proposed adaptive nonlinear scheme can be discretized for digital implementation on a microcontroller. Experimental and simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed controller in eliminating distortion and enhancing the quality of the produced power.

Processor-in-the-Loop Validation of an Observer Current-based Dead-Beat Control for a Single-Phase UPS Inverter

This paper presents a dead-beat control algorithm for Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) applications of single-phase inverters. The proposed control method requires the measurement of capacitor current and output voltage in order to keep the output voltage sinusoidal ensuring high dynamic performance even under load changes. The dead-beat controller optimizes the behavior of the system by eliminating the error between the output and the reference voltage without increasing the number of current sensors, which are costly, and eliminates load voltage distortions and restores the system state in the event of external shutdown-loop road interference. In this paper, we propose a capacitor current estimation based on the Luenberger observer. Processor-In-the-Loop (PIL) is a test method that allows us to create and evaluate controllers by running built-in C code on the DSP scheduled for the controller during simulated PSIM power phase control. It can be seen that the simulation results match the PIL test results, which proves the validity of the proposed controller.

Improving Voltage Ride-Through Capability of Grid-Tied Microgrid With Harmonics Mitigation

When the microgrid operates in grid-tied mode, the voltage ride-through (VRT) capability presents a challenge in its inverter controller design. This letter proposes an effective method to support the VRT capability of an inverter-based grid-tied microgrid during grid fault. In addition, the inverter control is implemented by a combined method to mitigate its output current harmonics under normal or faulty grid conditions, even if the grid voltage is distorted. Simulations are performed using Matlab/Simulink and implemented in a real-time simulator with a hardware setup to validate the usefulness of the proposed method.

Hybrid-Modulation Hysteresis Scheme Based Decoupled Power Control of Grid-Connected Inverter

Most existing power control methods for grid-connected inverter are implemented in synchronous reference frame. In order to achieve soft-switching operation, those methods usually need additional design considerations, which could introduce complex computation. This article presents a control strategy for single-phase grid-connected inverter system with LCL filter that can be used for grid-connected battery/photovoltaic (PV) system, with the target to implement decoupled active and reactive power control capability in stationary frame and achieve soft-switching behavior for higher efficiency. In order to improve system efficiency, a new hybrid-modulation-based hysteresis current scheme is used to achieve soft-switching while improving the inherent zero-crossing distortion issue existing in traditional unipolar hysteresis current control. Multiproportional and resonant compensators are utilized to mitigate output low-frequency distortions further, together with a capacitor current feedback-based active damping design embedded in an inner loop. The proposed controller also demonstrates good robustness and immunity to distorted grid conditions. Simulation and experimental results are presented in this article with essential theoretical analysis to verify the validity of the proposed control strategy.

Adaptive Control of Grid-Connected Inverters With Nonlinear LC Filters

Distributed generation is an effective solution to clean, reliable, and cost-efficient energy supply. In this framework, inverters play a key role as energy converters. Accordingly, this article investigates the utilization of nonlinear inductive–capacitive (LC) filters for grid-connected inverters. Nonlinear LC filters are made of inductors with nonlinear B–H curves, which makes them have a smaller volume, less dissipation loss, and lower cost. The main drawback of using these filters, however, is their nonlinear current-dependent characteristics. To harness the undesirable impacts of nonlinear filters on the system performance, an adaptive observer-based control scheme is developed in this article. The proposed controller is based on a concurrent estimation of nonlinear inductor values, capacitor voltages, and grid-side currents. Based on its fast adaptation to plant changes, this scheme provides an improved stability margin and an inherent resonant damping characteristic under grid impedance uncertainty. Compared with the conventional approaches, this method requires no extra sensors. A comparative simulation and experimental analysis, based on a three-phase 7-kW inverter, is provided to validate the efficacy of the proposed control strategy.

Investigate the maximum power point of photovoltaic system at different environmental conditions

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">The main objective of this work is to implement a circuit-based simulation model of a photovoltaic (PV) cell in order to investigate the electrical behavior of the practical cell with respect to some changes in weather parameters. The simulation model consists of three subsystems: photovoltaic cells, DC/DC converter and MPPT controller based logic fuzzy control. The maximum power control function is achieved with the appropriate power control of the power inverter. Fuzzy logic controller has been used to perform MPPT functions to get maximum power from the PV panel. The proposed circuit was implemented in MATLAB/Simulink. The obtained results show that the output sequence is non-linear and almost constant current to the open circuit voltage and the power has maximum motion to voltage for certain environmental conditions.</span></p>

Low-Complexity Finite Set Model Predictive Control for Split-Capacitor ANPC Inverter With Different Levels Modes and Online Model Update

In this article, an improved finite-control-set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) is presented for an active neutral point clamped (ANPC) topology. The considered converter significantly reduces the required power electronics components compared with other common dc-link converters, where only seven active switches, one bidirectional switch, and two floating capacitors (FCs) are employed to produce nine levels in the phase voltage. The developed FCS-MPC handles three control objectives with only one weighting factor, namely, current control, FC balancing, and NP potential stabilization, which reduces the cumbersome effort required for weighting factors coordination. In addition, the number of iterations required to identify the optimal vector is significantly reduced, which, in turn, reduces the execution time of the algorithm. The proposed control method empowers the considered converter to operate in different modes under the faulty condition of the bidirectional switch without any structure modification, which guarantees continuous operation of the converter while ensuring the balancing of FCs and dc-link capacitors in all operating modes. The sensitivity of the proposed FCS-MPC to parameter mismatch, which is a basic issue of MPC-based techniques, is tackled by employing an extended Kalman filter (EKF) to online estimate the system parameters. The proposed FCS-MPC algorithm is experimentally validated and compared with the conventional FCS-MPC method under different operating conditions.

A Blind Spot in the LVRT Current Requirements of Modern Grid Codes for Inverter-Based Resources

Modern grid codes (GCs) require that inverter-based resources (IBRs) inject both positive- and negative-sequence currents during asymmetrical low-voltage ride through (LVRT) conditions. This GC provision prioritizes the reactive currents and also demands maximizing the active positive-sequence current if the IBR has unused current generation capacity when the required reactive current is generated. A variety of inverter control schemes are available to generate positive- and negative-sequence active/reactive currents, and satisfying these GCs seems to be straightforward. However, this paper reveals that the reference current generation methods of existing inverter control schemes fail to fulfil some important requirements of recent GCs. For example, they do not fully utilize the inverter capacity to generate the maximum active and/or reactive current. It is shown that these so-far hidden GC violations can result in a large untapped generation capacity during asymmetrical faults. This paper also develops an algorithm that satisfies recent GCs by deriving the positive- and negative-sequence currents that maximize the IBR’s reactive and active currents while the reactive current is prioritized. The simulation of a grid with high IBR penetration verifies that this new algorithm can unlock the full potential of recent GCs by significantly increasing the power generated during LVRT.

Design and development of solar photovoltaic fed modular multilevel inverter using intelligent techniques for renewable energy applications

This paper presents the design and development of Modular Multilevel Inverter (MMI) to reduce Total harmonic distortion (THD) using intelligent techniques towards marine applications. Many researchers have described the additional advantage of inverter control challenges such as voltage imbalance, increasing the number of voltage levels, power quality issues, reducing the number of semiconductors switches and achieving higher efficiency. Under the intelligent techniques, the implementation is carried out with aid of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) to calculate the modulation index (ma) and switching angles (θ) for MMI. Based on the calculation, it is trained to form a mapping between inputs and outputs for obtaining reduced Total Harmonics Distortion (THD). The objective of the intelligent controller is to control the inverter for regulating the output voltage with lowest THD. The proposed control structure has been estimated and compared for better robustness in terms of switching angle and modulation index with least THD in the inverter. Simulations and prototype models are made to analyze the controller’s performance, for inverter output voltage and harmonics. This proposed system is designed for marine lighting load application. The FPGA performance with all intelligent methods are analyzed by in SPARTAN3E500 FPGA device.

Load Voltage Control of a Wind Turbine-driven Three-phase Squirrel-Cage Induction Generator in an Islanded Microgrid

The intermittent nature of the wind resources and reactive power consumptions are major issues associated with squirrel cage induction generator wind power system when operated in an island microgrid mode. The resultant effect of these two issues are continuous fluctuations of load voltage which has adverse effects on electrical devices. This paper proposes a voltage regulation technique based on proportional controller and phase deposition sine pulse width modulation (PDSPWM) for the control of 5-level neutral point clamped multilevel inverter. The instantaneous voltage tracking strategy based on root mean square value of microgrid voltage was adopted to regulate and maintain the output load voltage at 400 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠 despite rotor fluctuations with wind speeds. The simulation was carried out in a MATLAB/SIMULINK environment and the performance of the control scheme was found to be excellent.

Impact of large-scale photovoltaic-energy storage power generation system access on differential protection of main transformer under symmetrical faults

The low voltage ride-through (LVRT) requirements demand large-scale photovoltaic (PV) power generation system remain connected to the grid during faults. It results in considerable impact on the characteristics of fault current. This paper combines charge-discharge characteristics of the energy storage (ES) with PV generation system to enhance the LVRT capability. Based on the inverter control strategy and specific LVRT requirements, fault current characteristics of the PV-ES power generation system is discussed in this paper. In order to analyze the fault characteristic, the fault current expression as three-phase short-circuit faults occurs on both sides of the main transformer is calculated. Furthermore, taking the winding connection of the transformer into account, the ratio of differential current to braking current is further derived to find out the factors influencing the performance of the transformer differential protection. It is found that factors influencing the transformer differential protection include the rated capacity of the PV-ES generation system, fault severity, the length of transmission line and so on. And as the rated capacity of the PV-ES power generation system increase, the transformer differential protection would experience reduced sensitivity or even do not trip. The findings of this paper can lay a foundation for further improvement of the transformer differential protection. The elaborate performance evaluation of transformer differential protection, including the operation condition of the second harmonic braking element, is presented and verified by simulation using MATLAB/Simulink.

A Study on Performance and Characteristic Analysis According to the Operating Point of IPMSM Drive

This study presents the characteristics and performance of a motor at the operating point based on pulse-width modulation (PWM). PWM is used in modulating the output voltage of a three-phase inverter. The PWM technique has advantages and disadvantages depending on the system size and operating range. For example, some discontinuous pulse-width modulation (DPWM) techniques are advantageous in low-cost systems because they can reduce the number of switches. Some PWM techniques are complicated for software construction and require a lot of computation. In this paper, PWM techniques were constructed by using the offset voltage injection method. Therefore, the construction of the PWM technique is simplified by the method. In an experimental setup, an interior permanent-magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) and a three-phase inverter were implemented to test motor control performance depending on the PWM technique. In addition, the current control characteristics and inverter efficiency were analyzed and compared depending on the speed and load of the motor. According to the results of this paper, it is possible to compare the motor and inverter control characteristics using various types of PWM rapidly. Additionally, it will help to select an appropriate PWM technique for a specific system.

Sliding Mode Control for Single-Phase Grid-Connected Voltage Source Inverter with L and LCL Filters

This paper presents an analysis of the sliding mode control (SMC) method applied to a single-phase grid-connected voltage source inverter (VSI) with L and LCL filters. First, simulation results were presented for the L filter, and then, after some adjustments, the same theory was applied to the LCL VSI with active damping. To improve the obtained results for the SMC control, we adopted the hyperbolic tangent function and the explicit establishment of the modulation index m in the mathematical procedure to help reduce the chattering phenomena; later on, the same function was replaced by the usage of a proportional plus resonant controller to continuously improve the control system responses.

Active and Reactive Power Control of the Voltage Source Inverter in an AC Microgrid

This paper presents the mathematical model and control of a voltage source inverter (VSI) connected to an alternating current (AC) microgrid. The VSI considered in this paper is six switches three-phase Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) inverter, whose output active and reactive power is controlled in the dq reference frame. The control strategy presented here is state feedback control with disturbance cancellation. This disturbance signal is either provided by a voltage sensor or estimated using a presented extended high gain observer (EHGO). The control strategy without EHGO requires a current sensor and a voltage sensor, and the control strategy with EHGO requires only a current sensor. The EHGO is saving the requirement of a voltage sensor. The stability analysis of the presented control strategy is showing that the error is ultimately bounded in the presence of disturbance, formed due to Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) inverters. The microgrid is simulated using the SimPowerSystems Toolbox of MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation results are also showing the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, that the output active and reactive power control is achieved with ultimately bounded errors. The comparison of the proposed control with the PI-based control scheme is also presented, and it is shown that better reference tracking with the desired settling time of “0.04 s” is achieved with the proposed control.

Single-Phase Grid-Forming Strategy with Power Decoupling Implementation for Electrolytic-Capacitor-Free EV Smart Battery Charger

Smart Battery Chargers (SBCs) implementing grid-forming (GFM) control strategies are a promising solution to provide voltage and frequency support, increasing the grid reliability. Typically, GFM studies consider inverters with high DC-link capacitance. Therefore, there is a research gap in two-stage DC-AC converters with small DC-link capacitance implementing GFM strategies. This article proposes a novel approach to implement a GFM control strategy along with active power decoupling (APD) in an isolated, single-phase, electrolytic-capacitor-free two-stage DC-AC structure. The structure is composed of a voltage source inverter (VSI), DC-linked by film capacitors, with a dual-active-bridge series-resonant (DABSR) DC-DC converter. High DC-link ripple is allowed and managed by the APD. Hence, electrolytic capacitors are avoided, increasing the converter lifetime. In the proposed approach, the VSI implements the GFM strategy, operating in the four quadrants of the active and reactive power plane. However, the DABSR allows galvanic isolation, average DC-link voltage control, and suppression of the low-frequency ripple on the battery current, minimizing the impact in the battery lifetime. Design criteria are given for the DC-link voltage controller, active-reactive power controllers, inner inverter controllers, and APD technique. The control strategy is validated for vehicle-to-grid and stand-alone vehicle-to-home applications, using hardware-in-the-loop for a 2kW test setup.

Experimental Study of an Inverter Control for Reactive Power Compensation in a Grid-Connected Solar Photovoltaic System Using Sliding Mode Control

In photovoltaic (PV) systems, inverters have an essential role in providing an energy supply to meet the demand with power quality. Inverters inject energy into the grid considering that a renewable source is available; however, during intermittent periods or in the absence of power generation, the inverter remains inactive, which decreases the performance of the PV system. One way to increase the operation of inverters is to operate them as Volt-Amps Reactive (VAR) compensators to generate reactive power in the absence of renewable sources. The paper presents the development of a control scheme that allows the PV system’s inverter to improve the power factor in the electrical system with or without PV power generation. The proposed control is based on using a sliding mode controller (SMC) current control loop and PI-based voltage control loop. The control scheme is developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK, and for real evaluation, a PV prototype is implemented. The control strategy efficiency is confirmed by the obtained results. The control scheme increases the practical utility of PV systems. Additionally, it improves the power factor in all cases during the injection of active power to the grid operating under intermittent conditions and/or in the absence of power generation.

Modified Passivity-Based Control for LCL-Filtered Grid-Tied Inverter with Output Admittance Reshaping

As a nonlinear control method, the Euler–Lagrange- (EL-) based passivity-based control (PBC) has been studied for grid-tied converters based on energy function to achieve better performance. However, the EL-based PBC method is dependent on an accurate mathematical model. In the traditional EL-based PBC research for LCL-filtered grid-tied inverter, the effect of the digital control delay is rarely considered and the stability under the grid impedance uncertainties is not discussed, especially in the capacitive grid or complex weak grid. To address these concerns, this study proposes a modified EL-based PBC method based on the output admittance reshaping for LCL-filtered grid-tied inverters. The system’ passive region is expanded by adding capacitor current feedback loop up to the Nyquist frequency. The potential resonance is thus eliminated irrespective of the grid impedance. Additionally, the stable region and control parameters design methods of the modified EL-based PBC method with inverter-side control are also carried out. To verify the correctness of the theoretical analysis, both simulation and experimental results are investigated from a 3 kW grid-tied inverter prototype.

PID based control of regenerative inverter for DC rail transit

Bu çalışmada, doğru akım (DA) raylı ulaşım sistemlerinde rejeneratif enerji kazanımını gerçekleştiren şebeke bağlantılı üç fazlı evirici birimine yönelik yeni bir kontrol mekanizması önerilmiştir. DA raylı ulaşım sistemlerinde trenlerin frenleme sırasında üretmiş olduğu rejeneratif enerjiye bağlı olarak hat gerilimi hızlı şekilde değişebilmektedir. Hat gerilimindeki bu değişimlere hızlı cevap vermek amacıyla evirici birimi kontrol yapısı içerisinde, baskın kutup atama yöntemine göre tasarlanan bir oransal-integral-türevsel (PID) kontrolör kullanılmıştır. PID içerisinde yer alan türevsel etki ile sistem tepkisi hızlandırılmış böylelikle hat gerilimindeki değişimlere hızlı cevap verilmesi sağlanmıştır. Ayrıca literatürdeki sabit gerilim değerinde çalışmasını gerçekleştiren sistemlerden farklı olarak iki farklı gerilim değerini dikkate alan yeni bir çalışma stratejisi önerilmiştir. Böylece, evirici çalışma bölgesi artırılarak daha fazla rejeneratif enerji kazanımı ile enerji verimliliğine katkı sağlanmıştır. Son olarak, Matlab/Simulink ortamında gerçek bir sistemin ayrıntılı modeli oluşturulmuş ve önerilen yöntemin uygulanabilirliğini göstermek amacıyla PID tabanlı kontrol yapısının performansını PI tabanlı kontrol ile karşılaştıran benzetim çalışmaları sunulmuştur.