G. Garcerá

Sensitivity Study of the Dynamics of Three-Phase Photovoltaic Inverters With an LCL Grid Filter

An accurate small-signal model of three-phase photovoltaic (PV) inverters with a high-order grid filter is derived in this paper. The proposed model takes into account the influence of both the inverter operating point and the PV panel characteristics on the inverter dynamic response. A sensitivity study of the control loops to variations of the DC voltage, PV panel transconductance, supplied power, and grid inductance is performed using the proposed small-signal model. Analytical and experimental results carried out on a 100-kW PV inverter are presented.

An Adaptive Synchronous-Reference-Frame Phase-Locked Loop for Power Quality Improvement in a Polluted Utility Grid

The proper operation of grid-connected power electronics converters needs using a synchronization technique to estimate the phase of the grid voltage. The performance of this synchronization technique is related to the quality of the consumed or delivered electric power. The synchronous-reference-frame phase-locked loop (SRF-PLL) has been widely used due to its ease of operation and robust behavior. However, the estimated phase can have a considerable amount of unwanted ripple if the grid voltage disturbances are not properly rejected. The aim of this paper is to propose an adaptive SRF-PLL which strongly rejects these disturbances even if the fundamental frequency of the grid voltage varies. This is accomplished by using several adaptive infinite-impulse-response notch filters, implemented by means of an inherently stable Schur-lattice structure. This structure is perfectly suited to be programmed in fixed-point DSPs (i.e., it has high mapping precision, low roundoff accumulation, and suppression of quantization limit cycle oscillations). The proposed adaptive SRF-PLL has been tested by means of the TI TMS320F2812 DSP. The obtained experimental results show that the proposed synchronization method highly rejects the undesired harmonics even if the fundamental harmonic frequency of a highly polluted grid voltage abruptly varies.

An Active Anti-Islanding Method Based on Phase-PLL Perturbation

This paper presents a new active anti-islanding detection method for distributed power generation systems. This method is based on introducing a disturbance at the inverter output and observing the behavior of the voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC), which depends on the impedance connected to the PCC in an islanding situation. The islanding detection is based on the Goertzel algorithm.

Photovoltaic Power System With Battery Backup With Grid-Connection and Islanded Operation Capabilities

This paper presents the analysis, design, and experimentation results of a photovoltaic energy management system with battery backup. The proposed system is capable of both grid-connected and islanded operations. The main advantage of the proposed system is that, in grid-connected mode, the inverter works as a current source in phase with the grid voltage, injecting power to the grid and controlling the dc-link voltage. The dc/dc converter manages the battery charge. In islanded mode, the inverter control is reconfigured to work as a voltage source using droop schemes. The dc/dc converter controls the dc-link voltage to enable the maximum power point tracking reference to be followed. An operation protocol is proposed to ensure the quality of the energy supply and minimize energy loss. A battery bank is connected to the dc link as energy storage for islanded operation mode. The aim of this paper is to show that the proposed system performs correctly, without dangerous transients for the inverter or the loads. Simulation and experimental results on a 3-kW prototype show the feasibility of the proposed control strategy.

An Adaptive Control System for Three-Phase Photovoltaic Inverters Working in a Polluted and Variable Frequency Electric Grid

The proportional + resonant (PR) controller has been proposed in the past as a suitable method to control the current generated by the grid-connected photovoltaic voltage source inverters. Due to the fact that information regarding the frequency of the grid is needed to use this control technique, the synchronous reference frame phase-locked loop (SRF-PLL) is commonly used. To assure that the total harmonic distortion of the injected current (THDi) meets the appropriate standards, even if the grid voltage is polluted and its frequency varies, an adaptive control strategy is presented in this paper. This control strategy can improve the behavior of both, the conventional SRF-PLL and the conventional PR controller, when they are used in a polluted grid with a time varying frequency. The experimental results obtained by means of a digitally controlled 10-kVA inverter, show up that the THDi of the injected current is improved when the proposed adaptive control strategy replaces the conventional one.

Robust average current-mode control of multimodule parallel DC-DC PWM converter systems with improved dynamic response

This paper presents a novel average current-mode control (ACC) strategy for the control of multimodule parallel pulsewidth modulation DC-DC converters, which represents a drastic improvement over conventional ACC. This new method consists of the addition of an auxiliary controller into the control loop, besides the current and voltage regulators. The reference-model-based auxiliary controller improves the robustness of the ACC dynamics in buck-derived distributed power systems, preserving loop gain crossover frequency and stability margins over significant changes of the number of connected modules, the load and the line voltage. Moreover, this control scheme shows much better disturbance rejection properties, i.e., closed-loop output impedance and audiosusceptibility, than conventional ACC. From a control theory point of view robust performance is achieved, preserving stability. A multimodule buck prototype has been experimentally tested with different numbers of modules on stream, line, and load conditions, including discontinuous conduction mode. Measurements of the small-signal frequency response of the converter have been carried out, showing the improvement achieved by the proposed control scheme. The empirical large-signal response of the converter under load steps is also shown in order to validate the concept.

Reconfigurable Control Scheme for a PV Microinverter Working in Both Grid-Connected and Island Modes

In this paper, a photovoltaic (PV) microinverter capable of operating in both island mode and grid-connected mode by means of a reconfigurable control scheme is proposed. The main advantage of control reconfiguration is that in grid-connected mode, the microinverter works as a current source in phase with the grid voltage, injecting power to the grid. This is the operation mode of most commercial grid-connected PV microinverters. The idea is to provide those microinverters with the additional functionality of working in island mode without changing their control algorithms for grid-connected mode, which were developed and refined over time. It is proposed that in island mode, the microinverter control is reconfigured to work as a voltage source using droop schemes. These schemes consist in implementing P/Q strategies in the inverters, in order to properly share the power delivered to the loads. The aim of the paper is to show that the proposed control reconfiguration is possible without dangerous transients for the microinverter or the loads. Simulation and experimental results on an 180-W PV microinverter are provided to show the feasibility of the proposed control strategy.

Robust control of power-factor-correction rectifiers with fast dynamic response

This paper proposes a new robust control technique for single-phase boost high-power-factor rectifiers. The proposed circuit significantly improves the dynamic response of the converter to load steps without the need of a high crossover frequency of the voltage loop, so that a low distortion of the input current is easily achieved. A 250-W power-factor-correction rectifier with the proposed control scheme has been designed and implemented, validating the concept both analytically and experimentally.

Measurement of the Loop Gain Frequency Response of Digitally Controlled Power Converters

The study of the loop gain frequency response in a power converter is a powerful tool commonly used for the design of the controllers used in the control stage. As the control of medium- and high-power electronic converters is usually performed digitally, it is useful to find a method to measure the digital loop gains. The purpose of this paper is to present a method for properly measuring the loop gain frequency response of digitally controlled power converters by means of an analog frequency response analyzer (FRA). An analog sinusoidal reference signal generated by the FRA is injected through an analog-to-digital converter into the digital controller, and added to the discrete feedback signal. To obtain the frequency response of the open-loop gain, both feedback and disturbed feedback signals are sent back to the FRA by using the pulsewidth modulation peripherals of the controller.

Reconfigurable control scheme for a microinverter working in both grid connected and island mode

The aim of this paper is to implement a microinverter to work in island mode and grid mode through a reconfigurable control scheme, depending on the operation mode in which it is placed. For the grid mode, it is proposed that the microinverter works as current source, and for the island mode it is proposed that the microinverter works as voltage source through the implementations of droop schemes. The implementation of the controllers and their working characteristics are presented using simulations in PSIMTM.