Power control for grid connected applications based on the phase

shifting of the inverter output voltage with respect to the grid voltage
Linda Hassaine
a,
, Emilio Olas
b
, Jess Quintero
b
, Andrs Barrado
b
a
Centre de Dveloppement des Energies Renouvelables, CDER, BP 62 Route de lObservatoire, Bouzarah, 16340, Algiers, Algeria
b
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Departamento de Tecnologa Electrnica, Grupo de Sistemas Electrnicos de Potencia Avda. Universidad, 30, 28911 Legans, Madrid, Spain
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 13 May 2013
Received in revised form 4 November 2013
Accepted 1 December 2013
Keywords:
Grid connected photovoltaic inverter
Power control
Phase shifting
Digital SPWM control
a b s t r a c t
In photovoltaic (PV) systems connected to the grid, the main goal is to control the power that the inverter
injects into the grid. According to the grid demands, injected power does not only include the control of
the active power, but also the control of the injected reactive power. This paper presents, a digital control
strategy based on the phase shifting of the inverter output voltage with respect to the grid voltage, in
order to control the power factor with a minimum number of Digital Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation
(DSPWM) patterns and for a wide range of the inverter output current. This proposed method has been
described, simulated and validated by experimental results.
The proposed control strategy requires few hardware and computational resources. As a result, the
inverter implementation is simple, and it becomes an attractive solution for low power grid connected
applications.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Generally, the grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system extracts
maximum power from the PV arrays. The maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) technique is usually associated with a DCDC con-
verter. The DCAC converters inject sinusoidal current into the grid
controlling the power factor. Therefore, the inverter converts the
DC power from the PV generator into AC power for grid injection.
A further concern in the operation of grid-connected system is that
inverter topology design is often limited to the feeding of active
power to the AC system without injecting reactive power. This de-
sign may deteriorate the power factor of AC source. To cope with
this issue, the control of the active and reactive power supplied
by photovoltaic systems through the inverter receives an increased
interest nowadays [1,2].
Some key points have been identied in which signicant
improvements can be carried out in the design and implementa-
tion of the inverters connected to the grid: reduction of harmonic
distortion, elimination of the DC component injected into the con-
nected grid [310], and the digital implementation of the control
[1113]. Another very important aspect of the systems connected
to the grid is to select a proper power factor according to the grid
demands: active or reactive power. The most efcient systems are
those which allow variation in the active and reactive power in-
jected into the grid, depending on the power grid requirements
[14,15].
The power quality injected into the grid and the performance of
the converter system depend on the quality of the inverter current
control. Moreover, the use of pulse width modulation (PWM) in
conjunction with closed-loop current control [1619], allows a
sinusoidal input current to be achieved with a total harmonic dis-
tortion (THD) below 5% as suggests the International Standard IEEE
Std 929-2000 [3]. Most of the control strategies were made based
only to control the active power and the current injected into the
grid with a power factor equal to the unity [2026].
The proposed control strategy is capable to control, not only
the current injected into the grid, but also the power factor, with
a minimum number of DSPWM patterns. Varying the power fac-
tor, within a certain range, the injected reactive power (inductive
or capacitive) can be dynamically changed and controlled, in
order to obtain the high reliability of the inverter. The new
proposed strategy control break the limitations of existing
grid-connected system where the inverter topology is designed
to supply only active power to the grid without injecting reactive
power.
The basic idea of the control is to use a minimum number of
PWM patterns previously calculated and tabulated applied to a
constant DC bus voltage. Acting on the phase shift of the inverter
output voltage as control parameter, the output current amplitude
and the power factor can be controlled, and therefore the magni-
tude of the power injected to the grid, both active and reactive
power.
0142-0615/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2013.12.009

Corresponding author. Tel.: +213 21 901503; fax: +213 21 901560

E-mail address: l.hassaine@cder.dz (L. Hassaine).
Electrical Power and Energy Systems 57 (2014) 250260
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
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j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ i j epes
This paper describes the control strategy based on the phase
shifting of the inverter output voltage with a minimum number
of DSPWM patterns, this is followed by the presentation of the pro-
posed control structure, and next the digital implementation is de-
tailed. The simulation results are further discussed and nally,
experimental results have been carried out demonstrating the
validity and performance of this method.
2. Power factor and total harmonic distortion
In photovoltaic system connected to the grid, the current wave-
form injected into the grid is not a sinusoidal. The current quality
depends on the harmonics contents. The real power factor can be
calculated using the following expression [26]:
PF
1

1 THD
2
p DPF 1
where PF is the power factor; THD is the total current harmonic dis-
tortion; DPF is the displacement power factor; The displacement
power factor (DPF) is equal to cos u (DPF = cos u).
Substituting DPF with cos u in Eq. (1), it can be obtained:
PF
1

1 THD
2
p cos u 2
To measure the distortion of the output current, the total har-
monic distortion, THD is often used. Total Harmonic Distortion is
a measure of the proportionality between the fundamental and
the sum of all other frequencies in the current waveform. The
THD content of the current injected into the grid is reported lower
than 5%. Eq. (3) denes the THD used here:
THD

I
2
out
I
2
out1
q
I
out1
3
where I
out
is the total current; (RMS) is the Root means square and
I
out1
is the fundamental current (RMS).
The main objective of this work is to develop a control strategy
based on Eq. (2), where the total harmonic distortion is equal or
near to zero (THD 0), in order to control the power factor, PF,
with a minimum number of DSPWM patterns for a wide range of
power injected into the grid, by shifting the phase of the inverter
output voltage with respect to the grid voltage. In the following
it is shown the development of this approach.
3. Inverter control description
In Fig. 1, is shown an electrical scheme of the single phase inver-
ter connected to the grid in order to explain the key of the output
current control of the inverter. In addition, an active and reactive
power can be controlled.
The main specication of the inverter connected to the grid is
that the current must be injected from a PV panel with a power
factor within a certain range [4]. The equivalent electrical circuit
is shown in Fig. 2.
In order to explain the circuit characteristics, in Fig. 3, is repre-
sented the phase diagram for the RMS values of the fundamental
component of the inverter output voltage (V
inv
), the fundamental
component of the inverter output current (I
out
), the fundamental
component of inductance voltage (V
L
) and the fundamental com-
ponent of the grid voltage (V
grid
).
The phase shift between the grid voltage and the fundamental
current component of inverter output current is represented by an-
gle (u). Moreover, the phase shift between the grid voltage and the
inverter output voltage is represented by angle (d). V
inv
and I
out
can
be expressed as:
m
in

2
p
V
inv
\ d 4
i
out

2
p
I
out
\ u 5
I
out
L
+
V
grid
-
V
inv
+
-
V
dc
AC
DC
PV
Panel
C
Fig. 1. Electrical scheme of the single phase inverter connected to the grid
(inductive coupling).
i
out
L
+
v
grid
- -
v
inv
+
Fig. 2. Equivalent electrical circuit of the inverter connected to the grid.
Fig. 3. Phase diagram with V
inv
, V
L
and V
grid
voltage
.
Fig. 4. Phase diagram with V
inv1
= 0.8
*
V
inv
.
Fig. 5. Phase diagram with d
2
> d.
L. Hassaine et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 57 (2014) 250260 251
Firstly, assuming the phase angle d = constant, and varying the
amplitude of the inverter output voltage, V
inv
. For example
V
inv1
= 0.8 V
inv
, it can be seen in Fig. 4, that, not only the amplitude
of the output current varies, but also its phase with respect to the
grid voltage.
Secondly, if the value of the inverter output voltage is kept con-
stant and varying the phase angle d = d
2
, it can be obtained a vari-
ation of the amplitude of the output current and its phase as shown
in Fig. 5.
Figs. 4 and 5, show an example how the inverter output voltage
and the phase shift d affect the inverter output current amplitude
(I
out
), and phase (u). It can be concluded that in both cases, control-
ling the amplitude of the inverter output voltage V
inv
and its phase
shift angle d with respect to the grid voltage, the amplitude and
phase of the current I
out
injected into the grid can be controlled.
These conclusions are very important to develop the control
strategy proposed in this work. In the following, are shown the
steps to develop the proposed control strategy.
Applying the cosine theorem to the phase diagram, Fig. 3, the
following relations can be obtained:
V
L
cos u V
inv
sin d 6
V
2
L
V
2
inv
V
2
grid
2 V
inv
V
grid
cos d 7
where
V
L
x L I
out
8
From these fundamental equations, it can be determined the
relationship for the current injected into the grid, the power factor,
PF and the active and reactive power.
3.1. Current injected into the grid
From Eqs. (6) and (8), the inverter output current and the phase
shift between the inverter output current and the grid voltage, (u)
can be expressed as:
I
out
cos u
V
inv
sin d
x L
9
From Eq. (9), it can be concluded that the inverter output current
magnitude I
out
and its phase depend on both the inverter output
voltage magnitude V
inv
(for different amplitude modulation indexes
m
a
) and on its phase.
To be able to inject power into the grid, an essential condition is
that the value of the DC bus must be high enough since the voltage
V
inv
must have a maximum value, greater or equal than the grid
maximum voltage. Selecting an appropriate SPWM, the magnitude
of the output voltage can be controlled. Varying the amplitude of
modulation index (m
a
), different magnitude of inverter output
voltage can be obtained. As a result the maximum magnitude of
the inverter output voltage, V
inv
is expressed as function of modu-
lation index m
a
:
V
inv
m
a
V
dc
10
Substituting Eqs. (8) and (10) in Eq. (7), it can be obtained the rela-
tionship for the inverter output current Eq. (11):
I
2
out

m
a
V
dc

2
V
2
grid
2m
a
V
dc
V
grid
cos d
x
2
L
2
11
From Eq. (11), it can be deduced that the inverter output current
magnitude depends on the inverter output voltage magnitude
(V
inv
= m
a
V
dc
) and on the phase shift (d) between V
inv
and the grid
voltage V
grid
, for different values of the amplitude modulation in-
dex (m
a
). For a combination of the inverter design parameters,
(coupling inductance, L, continuous DC bus, V
dc
, and amplitude
modulation index m
a
), the I
out
only depends on the phase shift, d,
between V
grid
and V
inv
, therefore the injected current into the grid,
I
out
, can be expressed as:
I
out
f d 12
In Fig. 6, it is represented the phase diagram between the inver-
ter output voltage and the grid voltage when the magnitude of V
inv
is maintained constant (m
a
= constant) and varying the phase shift
d.
From this, the magnitude of the output current I
out
can be
determined.
In order to identify the parameters (L, V
dc
, m
a
), it is necessary to
carry out a systematic analysis of the inuence of each variable on
the power factor, PF and the maximum active and reactive power
injected into the grid.
3.2. Power factor, PF
The analysis is based on inductive coupling between the inver-
ter and the grid, although this approach can be applied to other
output lter congurations (LC, LCL, etc.) [26,27]. In any case, it
is assumed, as a rst approach, that the current injected into the
grid presents a low harmonic content (THD 0). That means that
this approach is valid for fundamental harmonic (pure sinusoidal
wave). Therefore, the PF is determined, only, by the displacement
factor (cosu). From Eq. (9), the expression of the power factor is
deduced:
PF cos u
m
a
V
dc
xL I
out
sin d 13
To guarantee the effectiveness of the propose strategy control it
is necessary, on one hand, a total harmonic distortion not higher
than specied 5%. This condition can be previously calculated
and optimized using different analog or digital strategies of SPWM
pattern generation and selecting an appropriate coupling lter and
frequency modulation index (m
f
). On the other hand, the displace-
ment factor (cosu) has to be within the pre-calculated limits, to
guarantee the specied output current. This magnitude can be con-
trolled by selecting an adequate amplitude modulation index, m
a
,
and a phase shift, d, of the inverter output voltage.
In Fig. 7, which shows PF vs I
out
, it can be seen, that with just
one simple pattern (one m
a
), I
out
can be controlled from I
min
to
I
min
+ DI for a PF > 0.996. If a wider range of I
out
is desired, more
DSPWM patterns (more m
a
) are required.
In Fig. 7, we have presented three patterns, each one corre-
sponding to a different m
a
. It can be deduced that only three pat-
terns are necessary and sufcient to cover current range from
3.5 A to 33.4 A, while PF remains always higher than 0.996.
Fig. 6. Phase diagram for different d.
252 L. Hassaine et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 57 (2014) 250260
Therefore the number of DSPWM patterns is determinate by the
m
a
, and the desired PF (related to the quality of injected current).
From Eqs. (11) and (13), it can be shown in Fig. 8, the power fac-
tor and the inverter output current as function of the phase angle,
d, for two value of V
inv
. Since the power factor is, in this case, very
close to the unity. The output current I
out
is quite linear with phase
angle, d, and is practically proportional to the active power injected
into the grid that means that a wide range of powers can be cov-
ered with only two different modulation indexes, maintaining a
power factor close to the unity.
Another important point is the active and reactive power.
In Fig. 9, we show an example of the inverter output current I
out
as a function of the phase angle d. For these parameters design and
for a power factor PF = 0.99, the inverter output current is varied
linearly with the angle d. We can see the output current I
out1
for
an inverter output voltageV
inv1
= 342 V (m
a1
= 0.910) and the out-
put current I
out2
for V
inv2
= 370 V (m
a2
= 0.986), ensuring a power
factor PF > 0.99.
3.3. Active and reactive power
For a fundamental harmonic of sinusoidal wave, the active
power provided by the converter to the grid can be expressed as:
P
V
grid
x L
V
inv
sind 14
Moreover, the reactive power (Q) provided by the converter to
the grid, can be expressed as:
Q
V
grid
x L
V
inv
cosd V
grid

15
From Eqs. (14) and (15), it can be concluded that the value and
sense of the active and reactive power, (generation and absorption),
for the fundamental component of the output current, depend on
the following parameters:
The amplitude of V
inv
.
The phase shift between the inverter output voltage and the
grid voltage, d.
Fig. 10 shows the active power and reactive power as function
of inverter output current for different values of inverter output
voltage V
inv
. In this gure, we have presented active power and
reactive power for three patterns, each one corresponding to a dif-
ferent ma. It can be deduced that if we want to inject only active
power, we must take the maximum value of the inverter output
voltage very close to the grid voltage value, considering that the in-
verter is controlled by pulse width modulation in the linear zone
(V
inv
= m
a
V
dc
). When V
inv
= 342 V (m
a1
= 0.910) and I
out
< 15 A,
the reactive power is near zero; when the current increases, V
inv
(m
a
) should be increased to maintain reactive power near zero.
4. Proposed control structure
The proposed control structure, for a PWM single-phase inver-
ter connected to the grid, is shown in Fig. 11. The photovoltaic sys-
tem consists in a photovoltaic generator (PVG), a maximum power
14 17.5 21 24.5 28 31.5 35
0.98
0.996
P
o
w
e
r
F
a
c
t
o
r
(
P
F
)
0 3.5 7 10.5
0.94
0.96
1
I
out
(A)
I
max
V
inv
=382 V

m
a
=1
I
min
I
min
+ I
min
++
V
inv,
=342 V
m
a
=0.895
V
inv
=357 V
m
a
=0.935
=3.4 =13.3
=23.2
=33.1
Fig. 7. Power factor, PF, as function of the I
out
for three different values of m
a
and of
the inverter output voltage, V
inv
(V
inv
= m
a
V
dc
).
0 3.8 7.6 11.4 15.2 19 22.8 26.6 30.4 34.2 38
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
PF(357V)
I
out
(357V)
I
out
(342V)
PF(342V)
P
o
w
e
r
F
a
c
t
o
r
P
F
,
i
n
v
e
r
t
e
r
o
u
t
p
u
t
c
u
r
r
e
n
t
I
o
u
t
Phase angles ()
Fig. 8. Power factor, PF, and the inverter output I
out
as function of the phase angle d.
Fig. 9. I
out
as function of the angle phase d for two m
a
.
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
5000
1
.
10
4
5
.
10
4
2
.
10
4
V
inv
= 342 V
V
inv
=382 V
V
inv
= 357V
A
c
t
i
v
e
P
o
w
e
r
(
P
)
,
r
e
a
c
t
i
v
e
P
o
w
e
r
(
Q
)
I
out
(A)
Q
P
P
P
Q
Q
-5000
Fig. 10. Active and reactive power as function of the current I
out
for different values
of V
inv
.
L. Hassaine et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 57 (2014) 250260 253
point tracking (MPPT) block and a PWM single phase inverter (DC/
AC).
The DC/DC converter is employed to boost the PV-array voltage
to an appropriate level based on the magnitude of utility voltage,
while the controller of the DCDC converter is designed to operate
as a maximum power point (MPP) that increases the economic fea-
sibility of the PV system. Several algorithms can be used in order to
implement the MPPT [2833]: perturb and observe [33], incremen-
tal conductance [34], parasitic capacitance and constant voltage,
but only the rst two are the most frequently used [28].
For the MPPT controller, the perturb-and-observe method is
adopted owing to its simple structure and the fact that it requires
fewer measured parameters. This strategy is implemented to oper-
ate under rapidly changing solar radiation in a power PV grid con-
nected system, using only one variable: PV output current. The
constant voltage method is accomplished by keeping the voltage
in the PV terminals constant and close to the MPP.
The control loop for the PWM inverter is assured by the output
current control, the DC bus control and synchronizing to the grid,
to inject power into the grid at all time. In this case the voltage
at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC; the point where the load
would be connected in parallel to the two sources), is not consid-
ering. The inverter is decoupled of the grid. The output voltage of
the PWM inverter is already set by the utility PV modules. There-
fore the inverter is current controlled to ensure only power injec-
tion into the grid.
The power control is obtained by means of the inverter output
voltage shifting phase, PCSP (Power Control Shifting Phase). In
Fig. 11 are represented a controller with two control loops: an in-
ner one, that allows controlling the inverter output current and an
outer one to control the DC bus V
dc
.
The reference of the output current (I
ref
) depends on the DC bus
voltage (V
dc
) and its reference (V
ref
). A low pass lter is incorporate
in order to ensure that high frequency switching noise present in
the measured inverter output current signal does not pass through
to the PI controller.
The control structure is associated with proportional-integral
(PI) controllers since they have a satisfactory behavior when regu-
lating dc variables.
In this case the output current I
out
is not controlled varying the
amplitude modulation index m
a
, since it is considered constant,
but by phase shifting the inverter output voltage with respect to
the grid voltage. The adequate value of the phase shifting is ob-
tained taking into account the zero crossing detector (ZCD) of the
reference (V
grid,ref
). The DSPWM generates the driving signals for
the PWM inverter according to the switching pattern, with the cor-
responding phase shifting, in order to satisfy the current reference,
I
ref
. So the power factor is indirectly controlled. As a result, a cer-
tain amount of reactive power can be generated.
The main advantage of this control strategy is its simplicity
with respect to the computational requirements of the control
circuit and hardware implementation. On the other hand, it allows
reconguring the control in a fast and simple way in case that not
only an active power needs to be injected but also a reactive one.
Fig. 11. Control structure for a single phase connected to the grid.
Comp.
Phase shift
counter
+
Phase angle d
(from the current loop
compensator)
DPWM counter
Increasing
lecture pointer
Reset
Start pulse
Comp.
Toggle
Look-up tables
Control
pulse
Pattern
selection
Fig. 12. Block diagram of digital DSPWM with phase shift.
Phase shift
I
S
V
grid
V
inv
t
Start Pulse
t
Phase shift
counter
t
DPWM
counter
t
Fig. 13. Synchronism signal between the grid voltage and the inverter output
voltage.
254 L. Hassaine et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 57 (2014) 250260
As it was described in the previous section, a suitable selection
of the V
inv
values and the coupling inductance value, in order to
eliminate the high order harmonic, the desired power factor close
to the unity can be obtained.
5. Proposed control implementation
The single-phase inverter with PCSP control has been imple-
mented according to the block diagram shown in Fig. 11. The
digital PCSP is based on the DSPWM patterns dened by m
a
with
different phase angles stored in a look up table (Fig. 12). Only
the change angles are stored. When using symmetric patterns
the look up table can be reduced and high accuracy resolution
can be achieved. Pattern other than PWM can be used (ex.
Harmonic cancellation).
The Digital Sinusoidal Pulse-Width-Modulator (DSPWM) con-
verts the stored code in the look up table in pulsating signal and
generates the driving signals of the switches. The DSPWM code is
obtained by two codes: DSPWM pattern code and Phase angle
Fig. 14. Average model of the inverter with phase shifting control.
amplitud Constante
amplitud Variable
Inverter output voltage, V
inv
Inverteroutput current, I
out
Power factor, PF
Fig. 15. Inverter output voltage, V
inv
, Inverter output current, I
out
, and the power factor, PF.
L. Hassaine et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 57 (2014) 250260 255
code. The duty cycle and the switching pattern depend on the
stored code and the frequency modulation index respectively.
The current injected into the grid must be synchronized with
the grid voltage as required by the norms of grid. Synchronization
algorithms are very important for a power distribution system
[24,25].
In this work, it is considered the RMS value of the inverter out-
put current, therefore the synchronization of the grid voltage and
the inverter output current injected into the grid can be assumed
with the zero crossing detector (ZCD). This is accomplished by gen-
erating a synchronism signal in each crossing by zero of the grid
voltage. The ZCD method is simple and adequate for this approach.
The diagram representing the principle of operation of the
DSPWM block is shown in Fig. 12. When the ZCD detect the posi-
tive zero crossing of the grid voltage, the starting signal (syn-
chro-signal) is generated. In this time the phase shift angle and
the DSPWM pattern code are updating.
Initially, this code is loaded from the look up table to the phase
register corresponding with the actual value of the shifted phase
according with DSPWM patterns, which satisfy the output current
reference as shown in Fig. 13.
The control quantity (phase angle d) is updated every line cycle.
Fig. 16. Inverter behavior for different amplitude currents.
FPGA
Single-phase
inverter
Data acquisition
and conversion
Fig. 17. Single phase inverter prototype.
0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2 2.25 2.5
0.9998
0.9999
1
PF Is Vinv1 , L , ( )
PF 1.61 Vinv1 , L , ( )
PF 4.8 Vinv1 , L , ( )
0.99
Is Vinv1 , L , ( )
180

1.61 Vinv1 , L , ( )
180

, 4.8 Vinv1 , L , ( )
180

,
0,71(I
out
=1,6A)
2,12(I
out
=4,8A)
( )
( )
out
I L
dc
V
a
m
PF


= =

sin
cos
Fig. 18. Representation of FP and the inverter output current as function of inverter
parameters design.
Fig. 19. Inverter test bench.
256 L. Hassaine et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 57 (2014) 250260
This method needs the less circuitry but no fast dynamics. For
many applications where the control of the current injected into
the grid is accomplished with the power factor equal to unity,
any error in the zero crossing detection generates an error in the
phase of the current injected into the grid. As a result the reactive
power is injected into the grid.
The proposed control strategy based on the phase control; as-
sume that a quantity of the reactive power is injected, due to an
initial phase shift. Hence any error generated by the circuit for
detecting the zero crossing is corrected by the same control.
6. Simulation results
The inverter average model has been obtained as shown in
Fig. 14 and simulated by PSIM. The simulation is represented for
a frequency modulation index of m
f
= 30.
Fig. 15, shows the simulation results of the inverter average
model closed loop, the response of the inverter to different refer-
ence currents are represented , in this case the inverter output cur-
rent, I
out
, and the power factor, PF, when the amplitude of the
inverter voltage is kept constant. We can see the behavior of the
power factor for different output currents.
It can be deduced from this, that the inverter output current and
the power factor vary according to the phase shift, d, between the
inverter output voltage and the grid voltage.
Fig. 16 shows the behavior of the inverter response to different
current amplitude. The inverter output current has a phase shift u
1
with respect to the grid voltage which correspond to a determined
power factor. We can see another case of inverter output current
with a phase shift u
2
corresponding to another power factor.
It can be deduced the dependence of the inverter output current
as a function of the phase shift angle d between the inverter output
voltage and the grid voltage.
7. Experimental results
A prototype of a single phase inverter, Fig. 17, has been built to
validate the performance of the digital control previously de-
scribed. The control has been developed in a FPGA platform (Spar-
tan-3 of Xilinx) for fast prototyping.
To design a prototype parameters in order to study the control
loop behavior, we have taken into account the mathematical devel-
opments obtained in Section 3, considering these conclusions, we
have obtained the inverter parameters design for a continuous
voltage bus 640 V, output inductance 8 mH, and output lter
capacitor 33 lF. The dependence of the output current inverter
(current injected into the grid), the phase angle of the output volt-
age with respect the grid voltage, for a power factor equal 0.999, as
shown in Fig. 18.
To validate the performance of the closed loop inverter, we
implemented a test bench shown in Fig. 19. The goal of these
experiments is to validate the proposed method of the current in-
jected into the grid by shifting the phase of the inverter output
voltage with respect to the grid voltage.
To analyze experimentally the inverter response, we have used
as the inverter control current reference, the echelon current corre-
sponding to a current of 1.6 A and 4.8 A.
Figs. 20 and 21 show the inverter response to positive and neg-
ative echelon current. The echelon current is represented from an
output current from 1.6 A to 4.8 A (positive and negative echelon
current).
Fig. 20. Inverter response to positive echelon current. Fig. 21. Inverter response to negative echelon current.
L. Hassaine et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 57 (2014) 250260 257
Fig. 22. Inverter output voltage, grid voltage and inverter output current, I
out
= 1.6 A.
Fig. 23. Inverter waveforms (zoom) for the inverter output current, I
out
= 1.6 A.
Fig. 24. Inverter output voltage, grid voltage and inverter output current, I
out
= 4.8 A.
258 L. Hassaine et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 57 (2014) 250260
Considering that the grid voltage period is 20 ms, it can calcu-
late the value (in time) of the phase for both current.
For 0.71 the equivalent phase is 39.6 ms, for 2.12 corresponds
the phase 118.1 ms.
Fig. 22, shows the output voltage of the inverter, the grid volt-
age and the inverter output current for an output current equal
to 1.6 A.
Furthermore, Fig. 23 shows an enlarged view (zoom) of zero
crossing of the grid voltage.
Moreover, in Fig. 24, its shown the output voltage for the inver-
ter, the grid voltage and the inverter output current for an output
current of 4.8 A (see Fig. 25).
8. Conclusions
In this paper, the new control strategy requires few values of
amplitude modulation index (m
a
) to achieve a high power factor
(PF > 0.99) over wide range of the inverter output current (I
out
).
This current is a function of the phase angle (d) between the inver-
ter output voltage (V
inv
) and the grid voltage (V
grid
). By modifying d
the I
out
injected into the grid can be directly controlled. Moreover,
the mathematical analysis done in this work shows that the inver-
ter output current can be controlled by controlling the phase angle
d between the inverter output voltage (V
inv
) and the grid voltage
(V
grid
).
A digital implementation on FPGA platform, of the new control
strategy based on phase shifting of the inverter output voltage with
respect to the grid voltage, has been described and validated by
means of experimental results. A wide power range can be covered
with few stored DSPWM patterns. The proposed strategy control is
simple, does not require complicated hardware and computational
resources, it is attractive for low power grid connected applications
and allows to control the active and reactive power injected into
the grid.
Moreover, robustness of the proposed control allows to design a
low cost and simple inverter with a reduced amount of compo-
nents, based on a full bridge topology that can be implemented
with minimum computational resources.
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