State feedback control and variable step size MPPT algorithm of

three-level grid-connected photovoltaic inverter

Djaafer Lalili

, Adel Mellit
1
, Nabil Lourci, Boubeker Medjahed, Chabane Boubakir
Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Renewable Energy Laboratory, Jijel University, Ouled-aissa, P.O. Box 98, Jijel 18000, Algeria
Received 13 May 2013; received in revised form 19 October 2013; accepted 21 October 2013
Available online 14 November 2013
Communicated by: Associate Editor Nicola Romeo
Abstract
In this paper, the state feedback linearization control technique is applied for controlling the power factor of a grid-connected multi-
level photovoltaic inverter. By applying this technique, the nonlinear state model of three-level inverter in the dq reference frame will
be transformed into two equivalent linear subsystems. Hence, the pole placement linear control loops can be applied on these linear sub-
systems in order to separately control the grid power factor and the dc link voltage of the inverter. The control system includes also a
Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) based on variable step size incremental conductance algorithm. Compared with conventional
xed step size method, the variable step MPPT improves the speed and the tracking accuracy. It has been shown that the three-level
inverter allows reduction of the THD of grid voltage and current as well as the reduction of the blocking voltage of the inverter switches.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Photovoltaic array; Three-level inverter; Grid-connected inverter; MPPT; Power factor control; State feedback linearization
1. Introduction
Increasing concerns about fossil fuel decit, racing oil
prices, global warming and damage to environment and
ecosystem, require developing pollution-free natural energy
resources such as solar energy. Solar energy can be used in
two forms: through the solar collectors such as parabolic
concentrators, or through photovoltaic (PV) arrays, which
convert directly the energy contained in photons of light
into electrical energy. The PV array has a nonlinear PV
characteristic which presents a unique maximum power
point (MPP), depending on atmospheric conditions, such
as temperature and solar irradiation. Since the power e-
ciency of PV array available in the market is still low, the
PV array must be ensured to operate always on the maxi-
mum point.
The maximum power point tracking can be achieved
using several methods, such as perturb and observe method
(Salas et al., 2006; Mellit et al., 2011) incremental conduc-
tance method (Li and Wang, 2009), and intelligent-based
methods (Chaouachi et al., 2010; Petreus et al., 2009;
Messai et al., 2011). These methods vary in their simplicity,
convergence speed, and hardware implementation (Mellit
and Kalogirou, 2008).
PV system can operate in stand-alone mode or grid-
connected mode. The grid-connected PV systems are
gaining today the most interest over traditional stand-alone
PV systems, which suer from several drawbacks, such as
unavoidable costly and bulky batteries and their regular
maintenance. Usually, the grid-connected PV system has
two-stages of conversion (Mellit and Massi, 2010). The rst
stage is a dcdc converter, acting as MPP tracker, and the
second stage is a dcac converter. If the MPP control is
0038-092X/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2013.10.024

Corresponding author. Tel.: +213 551719907.

E-mail address: lalilidjaafer@yahoo.fr (D. Lalili).
1
Associate member at the International Centre for Theoretical and
Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy.
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Solar Energy 98 (2013) 561571
moved towards the dcac inverter, dcdc converter can be
eliminated from the system, resulting in increasing simplic-
ity, overall eciency and cost reduction.
Three level inverters have more advantages than the
standard two level inverters. ac-link voltage harmonics
are lower due to the increase of output voltage levels.
The blocking voltage of each switch is clamped to the half
of dc-link voltage (Beser et al., 2010; Ravi et al., 2011).
Power factor control and reactive power regulation are
known as the most important issues in connecting PV array
to the grid. The grid-connected inverter must be controlled
in such a way that not only it injects a current with low
total harmonic distortion (THD), but also allows control-
ling the injected reactive power into the grid. Many control
techniques of grid-connected PV inverter have been pro-
posed in literature. A multiple closed loops control struc-
ture for grid current and dc link voltage are given in
(Molina and Mercado, 2008; Gonzalez et al., 2008). Other
control structures consist of using a classical PI and/or
bang-bang controllers (Rahim et al., 2010; Jain and
Agarwal, 2007). Other authors propose the use of phase
lock loop (PLL) control of the grid current (Hamrouni
et al., 2008; Kerekes et al., 2009; Kwon et al., 2006). In
(Hassaine et al., 2009), the grid power factor is controlled
using a previously calculated and tabulated PWM, and act-
ing on the phase shift between grid voltage and inverter
output voltage. An extended Direct Power Control
(EDPC), based on geometrical considerations about inver-
ter voltage vectors and their inuences on active and reac-
tive power change, is proposed in (Martinez et al., 2010).
Recently (Ravi et al., 2011) use fuzzy-logic and digital PI
for controlling of a three phase ve-level neutral clamped
inverter (NPC) for grid connected PV system. The pro-
posed ve-level inverter solves harmonics and high fre-
quency switching problems.
This paper aims to design a new approach for control-
ling the grid current and dc link voltage, using the state
feedback linearization control technique. The three-level
grid-connected PV inverter has a nonlinear state model;
therefore, the inputoutput linearization technique can be
applied on it. The theoretical foundation of this control
method consists rstly to transform a nonlinear system into
linear equivalent subsystems, and secondly to apply the
well known linear control laws on these subsystems
(Isidori, 1989; Slotine and Li, 1991). This control method
has been widely applied on electrical motors control
(Grenier et al., 1997; Mehta and Chiasson, 1998; Boukas
and Habelter, 2004) and PWM rectiers control (Yacoubi
et al., 2005; Lee, 2003). A rst step to apply this control
theory on PV inverters is made by Zue and Chandra
(2009), but it gives a superuous complex model of the
inverter, including switching functions.
Compared to other control methods, the developed
method allows control of both power factor and dc link
voltage using the same control algorithm. There is no need
to use two separated algorithms for controlling these two
variables. Also, in the proposed control method, the
MPP control is moved towards the dcac converter, hence,
there is no need to use a dcdc converter, which increase
the simplicity of the conversion system. We have applied
Nomenclature
v
dc
PV output voltage
i
pv
PV output current
i
ph
cells photocurrent
i
S
cells reverse saturation current
i
RS
cells reverse saturation current at reference tem-
perature and solar irradiation
q electron charge, 1.60217733 10
19
Cb
A pn junction ideality factor, between 1 and 5
k Boltzmans constant, 1.380658 10
23
J/K
k
i
cells short-circuit current temperature coe-
cient
T
c
cells absolute working temperature, K
T
ref
cells reference temperature, K
S total solar irradiation, W/m
2
E
g
bang-gap energy of the semiconductor used in
the cell
R
s
cell series resistance
N
p
number of panels connected in parallel
N
s
number of panels connected in series
V
N
output voltage of the PV array at the Nth sam-
ple of time
I
N
output current of the PV array at the Nth sam-
ple of time
V
N1
output voltage of the PV array at the (N 1)th
sample of time
I
N-1
output current of the PV array at the (N 1)th
sample of time
a scaling factor for adjusting the step size of incre-
mental conductance MPPT
v
a,b,c
three phase output voltages of the inverter
e
a,b,c
three phase voltages of the grid
i
a,b,c
three phase currents of the grid
v
d,q
dq components of the output voltage of the in-
verter
e
d,q
dq components of the grid voltage
i
d,q
dq components of the grid current
x frequency of grid voltages
R line resistance of the grid
L line inductance of the grid
C dc bus capacitance
562 D. Lalili et al. / Solar Energy 98 (2013) 561571
the developed method on the case of two levels grid-con-
nected inverter (Lalili et al., 2011). Therefore, the main
objective of this work is to extend the method to the case
of three-level grid-connected inverter. In other word, to
demonstrate the potential of this method in the case of
three-level grid-connected inverter.
This paper is organized as follows: Next section gives a
general description of the whole PV system. Section 3, pro-
vides a brief review of input output feedback linearization
control theory. The application of this control theory on
the grid-connected photovoltaic inverter is presented in
Section 4. Simulation results and discussion are outlined
in Section 5.
2. Power system description
The structure of the single-stage grid-connected power
system is shown in Fig. 1. The system is composed of
two PV arrays, capacitive dc link, a three level inverter
and a three phase grid. The photovoltaic array converts
solar irradiation into dc current. The dc link capacitors
aim to reduce the high frequency ripple of the dc voltage
in the input side of the inverter. The three-level inverter
is controlled by Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation
(SVPWM) which includes self balancing of the dc link
capacitors voltages. The SVPWM is known as the most
ecient among the PWM techniques, and it is well
explained in (Lalili et al., 2007, 2008).
2.1. Photovoltaic array model
A photovoltaic cell is basically a pn semiconductor
junction diode which converts solar irradiation into elec-
tricity. Its equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 2. It is consti-
tuted of a light generated current source, a parallel diode,
and a series resistance (Tsai et al., 2008). Photovoltaic cells
are grouped together in order to form photovoltaic mod-
ules, which are combined in series and parallel to provide
the desired output power. When the number of cells in ser-
ies is N
s
, and the number of cells in parallel is N
p
, the rela-
tionship between the output current and voltage is given
by:
i
pv
N
p
i
ph
N
p
i
s
exp
q
AkT
c
v
dc
N
s

R
s
i
pv
N
p
_ _ _ _
1
_ _
1
The signication of each symbol is indicated in the
nomenclature.
The generated photocurrent i
ph
is related to the solar
irradiation by the following equation:
i
ph
i
sc
k
i
T
c
T
ref

S
1000
2
The cells saturation current i
s
varies with temperature
according to the following equation:
i
s
i
RS
T
c
T
ref
_ _
3
exp
qE
g
Ak
1
T
ref

1
T
c
_ _ _ _
3
The reverse saturation current i
RS
at reference temperature
and solar irradiation can be approximately obtained by:
i
RS

i
sc
exp
qV oc
NskATc
_ _
1
4
The above equations indicate that the current generated by
the photovoltaic array depends on the temperature T
c
and
solar irradiation S. The increase in solar irradiation leads
to an increase of the operational point for maximum power
generated; however, the increase in temperature makes
with that power diminishes. The specications of the used
PV modules is standard conditions are listed in Table 1.
2.2. MPPT algorithm
Due to their low eciency, PV systems should be
designed to operate at their maximum output power level
at all times. The output voltage that corresponds to the
PV
ea
eb
ipv L, R
L, R
L, R
Ia
Ib
Ic
vb
S24
S23
S22
S21
vc
S34
S33
S32
S31
S14
S13
S12
S11
va
id1
C
C
vdc1
vdc2
id2
Ln i0
N
ic1
ic2
id0
ipv
ec
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of single-stage grid-connected three-level inverter.
Iph
Ipv
Vdc
Rs
+
-
D
Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of PV cell.
D. Lalili et al. / Solar Energy 98 (2013) 561571 563
maximum output power of the PV array varies with tem-
perature and solar irradiation. MPP tracking is the tech-
nique that adjusts the output voltage of the PV array in
order to extract the maximum available power at any
change in solar irradiation or cells temperature. There are
many control methods for MPP tracking. Comparative
studies (Salas et al., 2006; Houssamo et al., 2010; Hohm
and Roop, 2003) show that incremental inductance algo-
rithm tracks fast the maximum power point (MPP) under
rapid changing atmospheric conditions. The incremental
conductance algorithm is based on the fact that the deriv-
ative of the PV output power with respect to output voltage
is zero at the MPP, positive on the left of MPP and nega-
tive on the right of the MPP:
dP
dV
0; at MPP
dP
dV
> 0; left of MPP
dP
dV
< 0; right of MPP
_

_
Derivating the output power P = VI, with respect to out-
put voltage:
dP
dV

dVI
dt
I V
dI
dV
dP
dV
0 )
dI
dV

DI
DV

I
V
DI/DV represents the incremental conductance, and I/V
represents the instantaneous conductance. The MPP can
be tracked by comparing I/V to DI/DV as follows:
DI
DV

I
V
; at MPP
DI
DV
>
I
V
; left of MPP
DI
DV
<
I
V
; right of MPP
_

_
The input of the MPPT controller are the voltage and cur-
rent of the PV array, and its output is the reference voltage
used for the PWM control of the dcdc or dcac converter
connected to the PV array. When atmospheric conditions
changes, the MPPT controller increments or decrements
the reference voltage by a predened iteration step in order
to reach the new MPP.
Traditional incremental conductance MPPT algorithm
uses a xed iteration step size. A large step size contributes
to faster dynamics of the power drawn from the PV array,
but excessive steady state oscillations in voltage, current
and power. A small step size reduces the oscillations but
produces a slower dynamics of the drawn power. As a
compromise, a modied incremental conductance algo-
rithm with a variable iteration step size is applied (Li and
Wang, 2009). The step size is automatically tuned accord-
ing to operating point. If the operating point is far from
MPP, the algorithm increases the step size which enables
a fast tracking ability. If the operation point is near to
the MPP, the step size becomes automatically very small
that the oscillations are well reduced. The variable step size
adopted for this algorithm is given by the following
equation:
e a
V
N
I
N
V
N1
I
N1
V
N
V
N1

5
where V
N
, I
N
is the output voltage and current of the PV
array at the Nth sample of time. V
N1
, I
N1
the output
voltage and current of the PV array at the (N1)th sample
of time. a is the scaling factor for adjusting the step size.
The variable step size incremental conductance MPPT
algorithm is resumed in the owchart of Fig. 3.
2.3. Three level inverter model
With reference to Fig. 1, the AC-side of three-level
inverter is governed by the following equations:
Table 1
Specications of PV module MSX 60.
Characteristics Values
Typical peak power 60 W
Voltage at peak power 17.1 V
Current at peak power 3.5 A
Short-circuit current (I
sc
) 3.8 A
Open circuit voltage (V
oc
) 21.1 V
Temperature coecient of I
sc
(k
1
) 3 mA/C
Nominal operating cell temperature (T
ref
) 49 C
Factor of PV technology (A) 1.5
Series resistance 0.21 X
Fig. 3. Flowchart of variable step incremental conductance MPPT
algorithm.
564 D. Lalili et al. / Solar Energy 98 (2013) 561571
v
a
R i
a
L
dia
dt
e
a
v
b
R i
b
L
di
b
dt
e
b
v
c
R i
c
L
dic
dt
e
b
_

_
6
The following Parks transform is applied on the system
(6):
a
b
c
_
_
_
_
_
_

2
3
_
sinx t cosx t 1=

2
p
sinx t 2p=3 cosx t 2p=3 1=

2
p
sinx t 2p=3 cosx t 2p=3 1=

2
p
_
_
_
_
_
_
d
q
o
_
_
_
_
_
_ 7
The following equations are obtained in the rotating dq
frame:
v
d
e
d
R i
d
L
di
d
dt
x L i
q
v
q
e
q
R i
q
L
di
q
dt
x L i
d
v
o
e
o
L
dio
dt
_

_
8
where e
d
, e
q
, e
o
, i
d
, i
q
, i
o
v
d
, v
q
and v
o
are the components of
grid voltage, grid current and inverter output voltage
respectively. Neglecting the power losses in inverter
switches, the power balance relationship between the dc in-
put side and the ac output side is given by:
e
d
i
d
v
dc1
i
dc1
v
dc2
i
dc2
9
where v
dc1
, v
dc2
, i
dc1
and i
dc2
are the input voltages and cur-
rents of the inverter, respectively. Applying Kirchho law
on the dc side of the inverter (Fig. 1) yields to the following
equation:
i
dc1
i
pv
i
c1
;
i
dc2
i
c2
i
pv
;
i
c1
i
c2
i
d0
i
0
;
i
c1
C
dv
dc1
dt
; i
c2
C
dv
dc2
dt
10
where i
pv
is the PV array output current.
Combination of Eqs. (9) and (10) leads to two dieren-
tial equations which describe the output voltages dynamics:
dv
dc1
dt

ipv
C

e
d
i
dc1
iov
dc1
Cv
dc1
v
dc2

dv
dc2
dt

ipv
C

e
d
i
dc1
iov
dc2
Cv
dc1
v
dc2

_
11
In order to reduce the system nonlinearity, instead of using
v
dc1
and v
dc2
as state variables, it is better to use (v
dc1
v
dc2
)
and (v
dc1
+ v
dc2
) as new state variables:
dv
dc1
v
dc2

dt

io
C
dv
dc1
v
dc2

dt

2ipv
C

2e
d
i
dc
iov
dc1
v
dc2

Cv
dc1
v
dc2

_
12
Eqs. (8) and (12) yield to the state model of the three-level
inverter connected to the dc link bus and the grid. This
state model can be grouped into the following vector form:
_
X F X GX U
where X is the state vector, U is the control input vector, G
is the input matrix and F is a nonlinear vector eld. Vectors
X, U, G and F are dened as:
X
x
1
x
2
x
3
x
4
x
5
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_

i
d
i
q
i
o
v
dc1
v
dc2
v
dc1
v
dc2
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
;
U
u
1
u
2
u
3
_
_
_
_
_
_
v
d
v
q
v
0
_
_
_
_
_
_;
F X
e
d
L
R i
d
x i
q
e
q
L
R i
q
x i
d
eo
L
io
C
2ipv
C

2e
d
i
d
i
o
v
dc1
v
dc2

Cv
dc1
v
dc2

_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
;
G
1
L
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1
0 0 0
0 0 0
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
13
The objective of the control is to regulate the input dc volt-
ages and the power factor of the grid. This objective is ob-
tained by regulating the states x
2
(i.e. i
q
) x
4
(i.e. v
dc1
v
dc2
)
and x
5
(i.e. v
dc1
+ v
dc2
) of the state model. Hence, these
states are considered as the outputs of the model:
y y
1
; y
2
; y
3

T
x
2
; x
4
; x
5

T
i
d
; v
dc1
v
dc2
; v
dc1
v
dc2

T
14
The state model (12) presents nonlinearity in the fth equa-
tion, due to division by state x
5
, and also due to the multi-
plication of states x
3
and x
4
. Then the input output
feedback linearization theory can be applied to control this
system. In the next section, a brief review of the input out-
put feedback linearization theory will be presented.
3. Inputoutput feedback linearization theory
The main idea of the inputoutput linearization
approach is to design a nonlinear control, which trans-
forms a nonlinear system dynamics into fully or partially
decoupled linear subsystems, so that linear control tech-
niques can be easily applied (Isidori, 1989; Slotine and
Li, 1991).
Consider a nonlinear multi input multi output system as
follows:
_ x f x gx u; y hx 15
where x is the n 1 state vector, u is the m 1 control in-
put vector, y is the m 1 vector of system outputs, f and h
are vector elds, and g is a n m matrix whose columns
are vector elds g
i
.
For obtaining the exact inputoutput feedback lineari-
zation, the system outputs y
i
must be dierentiated until
D. Lalili et al. / Solar Energy 98 (2013) 561571 565
the inputs appear. Assume that the integer noted r
i
is the
smallest integer in a way that at least one of the inputs
appears in the r
i
th derivation of y
i
, then:
y
r
i

i
L
ri
f
h
i

m
j1
L
g
i
L
ri 1
f
h
i
u
j
16
The Lie derivative of a function h with respect to a vector f
is dened as:
L
f
h @h=@x f 17
and the higher order Lie derivatives are dened as:
L
i
f
h L
f
L
i1
f
h; i 2; 3; . . . 18
The integer r
i
is called the relative degree of the output y
i
.
In Eq. (16), the Lie derivative, for at least one value of
the index j, is not equal to zero:
L
g
i
L
ri 1
f
h
i
0
Performing the above procedure for each output y
i
yield to:
y
r
1

1
.
.
.
y
rm
m
_

_
_

L
ri
f
h
1
x
.
.
.
L
rm
f
h
m
x
_

_
_

_
Ex u 19
where the matrix E(x)
mxm
is called the decoupling matrix
for the system. If E(x) is non-singular, then the input out-
put transformation can be obtained by setting the control
vector u as:
u E
1
x
v
1
L
ri
f
h
1
.
.
.
v
m
L
rm
f
h
m
_

_
_

_
20
Substituting (20) into (19) allows obtaining a linear dier-
ential relation between the output vector y and the new in-
put vector v:
y
r
1

1
y
r
m

m
_ _
T
v
1
v
m

T
21
Eq. (21) means that the input output linearization trans-
forms the original nonlinear system into m linear and
decoupled subsystems, each one of them represents by
series of integrators. Each output y
i
depends only on its
associated control input u
i
.
Having these linear equivalent subsystems, it is easy to
make the outputs y
1
, y
2
. . .y
m
track their references y
1ref,
y
2ref
. . .y
mref
by setting the following linear control loops:
v
1
k
11
y
1ref
y
1
k
12
_ y
1ref
_ y
1
. . .
k
1r
1
1
y
r
1
1
1ref
y
r
1
1
1
_ _
k
1ri
_
y
1ref
y
1
dt y
ri
1ref
.
.
.
v
m
k
m1
y
mref
y
m
k
m2
_ y
mref
_ y
m
. . .
k
mr
1
1
y
r
1
1
mref
y
r
1
1
m
_ _
k
mri
_
y
mref
y
m
dt y
ri
mref
22
Applying (22) into (21) and noting: e
i
= y
iref
y
i
, the error
dynamics of the system become:
e
ri 1
1
k
11
_ e
1
k
12
e
1
k
1r
1
1
e
ri
1
k
1r
i
e
1
0
.
.
.
e
ri 1
m
k
m1
_ e
m
k
mm
e
1
k
mr
1
1
e
ri
m
k
mri
e
m
0
23
It is then easy to choose suitable constants k
ij
such that the
errors dynamics are stable and achieve the tracking of the
references y
iref
by usual linear pole placement techniques.
4. Application on the inverter state model
4.1. Relative degrees
As mentioned above, the outputs of the system are the
followings:
y
1
x
2
i
q
;
y
2
x
4
v
dc1
v
dc2
;
y
3
x
5
v
dc1
v
dc2
24
We dierentiate repeatedly each output until at least one of
the inputs u
1
, u
2
or u
3
appears explicitly in the derivatives
expression.
For the rst output:
_ y
1

e
q
L
R x
2
x x
1

1
L
u
2
25
The input u
2
appears after the rst dierentiation. Hence
the relative degree associated to the output y
1
is: r
1
= 1.
For the second output:
_ y
2
f
4

i
o
C

x
3
C
26
y
2

1
C
di
o
dt

1
C
dx
3
dt

1
C
v
o
e
o
L
_ _

e
o
LC

u
3
LC
27
The input u
3
appears after the second dierentiation.
Hence the relative degree associated to the output y
2
is:
r
2
= 2.
For the third output:
_ y
3
f
5

2 i
pv
C

2 e
d
i
d
i
o
v
dc1
v
dc2

C v
dc1
v
dc2

2 i
pv
C

2 e
d
x
1
x
3
x
4
C x
5
28
y
3

1
C
2
_
i
pv

2 e
d
_ x
1
x
3
_ x
4
x
4
_ x
3
x
5
2 e
d
x
1
x
3
x
4
_ x
5
x
2
5
_ _

2
_
i
pv
C

2e
2
d
LCx
5

2e
d
x x
2
Cx
2
5

2 e
d
R
L C x
5

x
2
3
C
2
x
5

2 x
3
x
4
i
pv
C
2
x
2
5

x
4
e
0
C L
n
x
5

4 e
2
d
x
2
1
C
2
x
3
5

4 e
d
x
1
i
pv
C
2
x
3
5

x
2
3
x
2
4
C
2
x
3
5

e
d
L C x
5
u
1

x
4
L C x
5
u
3
29
The inputs u
1
and u
3
appears after the second dierentia-
tion. Hence the relative degree associated to the output
y
3
is: r
3
= 2.
566 D. Lalili et al. / Solar Energy 98 (2013) 561571
The sum of relative degrees of the outputs is
r
1
+ r
2
+ r
3
= 5, which is equal to the order of the system.
So, with this choice of outputs, the system accepts an exact
linearization, and the linearization is not associated with
any internal dynamics.
4.2. Feedback linearization
Grouping Eqs. (25), (27), and (29) of the rst derivation
of y
1
and the second derivations of y
2
and y
3
in the follow-
ing matrix form:
_ y
1
y
2
y
3
_
_
_
_
_
_
b
1
b
2
b
3
_
_
_
_
_
_
BX

0
1
L
0
0 0
1
LC
e
d
LCx
5
0
x
4
LCx
5
_
_
_
_
_
_
..
AX
u
1
u
2
u
3
_
_
_
_
_
_
UX
30
where:
b
1

e
q
L
R x
2
x x
1
b
2

e
0
L
n
b
3

2e
2
d
LCx
5

2e
d
x x
2
Cx
2
5

2 e
d
R
L C x
5

x
2
3
C
2
x
5

2 x
3
x
4
i
pv
C
2
x
2
5

x
4
e
0
C L
n
x
5

4 e
2
d
x
2
1
C
2
x
3
5

4 e
d
x
1
i
pv
C
2
x
3
5

x
2
3
x
2
4
C
2
x
3
5
31
and
Ax
0
1
L
0
0 0
1
LC
e
d
LCx
5
0
x
4
LCx
5
_
_
_
_
_
_ 32
A(x) is the decoupling matrix of the system. It must be non-
singular in order to make the linearization feedback.
The determinant of the matrix A(x) is:
det AX
e
d
L
3
C
2
x
5
33
The component e
d
of the grid voltage is always dierent
from zero. Hence, the determinant is not null, and the ma-
trix A(x) is non-singular. In order to linearize the system,
the following linearization control law is applied:
u
1
u
2
u
3
_
_
_
_
_
_ AX
1
v
1
b
1
v
2
b
2
v
3
b
3
_
_
_
_
_
_ 34
Substituting (34) into (30), The nonlinearity is cancelled
and a linear and decoupled relationships between the out-
puts y
i
and the new inputs v
i
are obtained:
_ y
1
y
2
y
3
_
_
_
_
_
_
v
1
v
2
v
3
_
_
_
_
_
_ 35
These three subsystems are equivalent to three integrators
as indicated in Fig. 4.
4.3. Linear control loop
To ensure that the outputs y
1
, y
2
and y
3
track their
references y
1ref
= i
qref
, y
2ref
= v
dc1ref
v
dc2ref
and y
3ref
=
v
dc1ref
+ v
dc2ref
, the following control laws are applied:
v
1
k
11
y
1ref
y
1
k
12

_
y
1ref
y
1
dt _ y
1ref
v
2
k
21
y
2ref
y
2
k
22
_ y
2
ref _ y
2
k
23

_
y
2ref
y
2
dt y
2ref
v
3
k
31
y
3ref
y
3
k
32
_ y
3
ref _ y
3
k
33

_
y
3ref
y
3
dt y
3ref
36
The integral actions in Eq. (36) are added in order to
compensate static errors and parameters uncertainties.
Let the tracking errors e
1
= y
1ref
y
1
, e
2
= y
2ref
y
2
and
e
3
= y
3ref
y
3
. Substituting Eqs. (36) into (35) yields to
the following errors dynamics:
e
1
k
11
_ e
1
k
12
e
1
0
e
2
k
21
e
2
k
22
_ e
2
k
23
e
2
0
e
3
k
31
e
3
k
32
_ e
3
k
33
e
3
0
37
The coecients k
ij
are chosen in such a manner that the
characteristic polynomials of Eq. (35) are Hurwitz polyno-
mials, so that the tracking errors e
1
, e
2
and e
3
converge to
zero.
5. Simulation results and discussion
The block diagram of Fig. 5 shows the PV inverter sys-
tem and its control scheme. The MPPT block gives the dc
link voltages references to the linear control loop. The lin-
ear control loop gives the control signals v
1,
v
2
and v
3
to the
feedback linearization loop (Eq. (34)). The outputs of the
feedback linearization block are the reference control sig-
nals u
1ref
, u
2ref
and u
3ref
(Eq. (32)). These two control sig-
nals are used to generate the phase reference voltages, by
applying the Park transformation. The phase reference
voltages are used for the SVPWM of the inverter. The
parameters of the simulated power circuit are summarized
in Table 2.
The Matlab/Simulink has been used for simulating the
proposed control scheme. At the beginning of simulations,
solar irradiation and temperature are supposed equal to
y
1
1/s
v
1
1/s
1/s
v
2 y
2
1/s 1/s
y
3
v
3
Fig. 4. Decoupled and linearized system.
D. Lalili et al. / Solar Energy 98 (2013) 561571 567
their standard values (1 kW/m
2
and 25 C), and the dc
capacitors are initially partially charged so that v
dc1
=
v
dc2
= 100 V. Fig. 6 shows that from initial conditions,
the output power, voltage and current of PV array con-
verge to the maximum power point, which is
P = 3728 W, v
dc
= 538.5 V and I = 6.9 A. The sum of dc
link voltages tracks perfectly its reference sorted from the
MPPT bloc, which proves the eectiveness of MPP control.
The dierence between the dc voltages is null in steady
state, which prove that the neutral point potential is con-
trolled. As can be seen, from Fig. 7 the q component of grid
Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of the PV system and its control.
Table 2
Simulation parameters.
Parameter Value
Grid voltage (V: rms) 120 V
Grid frequency (f) 50 Hz
Grid inductance line (L) 2 mH
Grid resistor line (R) 0.1 X
DC bus capacitor (C) 2200 lF
Fig. 6. PV output voltage, current and power.
Fig. 7. Components of grid current: (a) q component and (b) d component.
568 D. Lalili et al. / Solar Energy 98 (2013) 561571
line current tends to its reference (i
qref
= 0 in this case), and
the d component tends to a constant value, depending on
the output power of PV array. Hence, the grid line current
is synchronized with the grid line voltage, which is con-
rmed on the current waveform of Fig. 8.
Figs. 9 and 10 illustrate a simulation of a step change in
solar irradiation which decrease from 1 kW/m
2
to 0.4 kW/
m
2
at time t = 0.4 s, and increases from 0.4 kW/m
2
to
1 kW/m
2
at time t = 0.6 s. With reference to Fig. 9 it is
clearly shown that the voltage, current and power of the
new MPP are rapidly reached. Fig. 10 shows that the q
component of grid current is not aected by solar irradia-
tion changes, and therefore the power factor is also not
aected.
Figs. 11 and 12 show a simulation of step changes in
ambient temperature at time t = 0.8 s from 25 C to
Fig. 8. Waveforms of grid voltage and current.
Fig. 9. PV outputs behavior towards step change in solar irradiation. (a) Sum of voltages, (b) dierence of voltages, (c) power, and (d) current.
Fig. 10. Grid current components behavior towards step change in solar irradiation. (a) q component and (b) d component.
Fig. 11. PV outputs behavior towards step change in cells temperature. (a) Sum of voltages, (b) dierence of voltages, (c) power, and (d) current.
D. Lalili et al. / Solar Energy 98 (2013) 561571 569
50 C, and at time t = 1 s from 50 C to 25 C. After each
change in temperature, the new MPP is rapidly reached,
and the power factor of grid is not aected.
In Figs. 13 and 14 the consequences of step change in q-
component of grid current reference at time t = 1.2 s, from
0 A to 10 A, are presented. With reference to Fig. 13 it can
be seen that after this step change, the q component of grid
current reaches rapidly its new reference, and consequently,
the grid current is phase-shifted with respect to grid volt-
age, as indicated in Fig. 14.
In order to show the advantage of using a three level
inverter in the cascade, instead of a two level inverter, we
present the FFT analysis of grid current for each case.
Fig. 15a presents FFT analysis of grid current when a
two level inverter is used in the photovoltaic system (Lalili
et al., 2011), and Fig. 15b presents the FFT analysis of grid
current when the photovoltaic cascade is based on three
level inverter. We show that the THD of the grid current
in the case of the three level inverter is lower than that of
the case of the two level inverter.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, the potential of state feedback lineariza-
tion control combined with variable step incremental con-
ductance MPPT control for three-level grid-connected
photovoltaic inverter has been demonstrated. It has been
shown that, changes of solar irradiation and temperature
do not aect the power factor of the grid. In addition, vary-
ing the step size of the incremental conductance MPPT
algorithm improves the dynamic and the steady state
Fig. 12. Grid current components behavior towards step change in cells temperature. (a) q component and (b) d component.
Fig. 13. Grid current components behavior towards step change in i
qref
. (a) q component and (b) d component.
Fig. 14. Grid current waveform with step change in i
qref
.
Fig. 15. FFT analysis of grid current. (a) Two level inverter and (b) three level inverter.
570 D. Lalili et al. / Solar Energy 98 (2013) 561571
performances of the PV system. Compared with two-level
grid connected inverter, the three-level inverter presents
signicant reduction of the THD of grid voltage and cur-
rent. It also allows reduction of the blocking voltage of
the inverter switches.
Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by the MESRS of
Algeria under the CNEPRU Project Number
J0201720110003. The authors would like to thank Mr. T.
Taleb and the German Academic Exchange Service
(DAAD) for the material installed in our laboratory
(Photovoltaic modules, batteries, regulator and inverter).
The second author expresses a special acknowledgment to
the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP),
Italy for his helpful in this work.
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