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Voltage-controlled three-phase three-leg inverters are widely applied in various occasions. The inverters are generally switched to the current-controlled mode to limit the fault currents when short-circuit faults happen. Under symmetrical fault, the inverter can be controlled as a symmetrical, three-phase current source. However, the voltage limiting will happen under asymmetrical fault. As a result, the fault phase currents will be distorted and cannot be completely controlled. Considering that the voltage limiting is mainly caused by large load impedance of healthy phase under asymmetrical fault, the voltage limiting is avoided by paralleling the virtual impedance with the output filter capacitor in this paper. As a result, the current limiting loop is not broken and the fault phase currents can be effectively controlled. The implementation of virtual impedance in control system and the influence of virtual impedance on the stability of system are also analyzed in detail in this paper. The theoretical results are validated by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly reviews the common-mode voltage (CMV) and neutral point (NP) voltage for neutral point clamped three-level inverter (NPC TLI). Then, the space vector pulsewidth modulation (SVPWM) and traditional virtual SVPWM (VSVPWM) are discussed in terms of these two issues, revealing the drawbacks in reducing CMV or eliminating NP voltage oscillation. A novel virtual space vector modulation, named as RCMV_VSVPWM, is proposed in this paper to reduce CMV and eliminate NP voltage oscillation for NPC TLI. By selecting vectors with lower CMVs, a set of novel virtual voltage vectors are generated. The highlight of the method is zero average NP current in one control cycle and lower CMV. Furthermore, the active NP voltage control suitable for RCMV_VSVPWM is presented and evaluated. The corresponding experimental results are given, which are well-consistent with theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper improves the position sensorless drive by sensing actual machine phase voltages. A high-bandwidth phase voltage measurement is developed for pulsewidth modulation (PWM) voltage inverters. On the basis, the actual phase voltage is obtained based on the digital integration of PWM voltage using the capture modulator in existing drive microcontrollers (MCU's). Comparing to existing phase voltage measurement, no separated A/D converter and communication hardware are required because PWM pulses are directly measured using MCUs. However, for standard machines without neutral points, only line-to-line ac PWM voltages can be measured for the phase voltage reconstruction. Since the capture based on transistor-transistor logic (TTL) logics receives only digital signals, a preprocess circuit to convert ac PWM line voltages to equivalent digital signals is proposed. This paper clearly explains the voltage sensing hardware using MCU capture modulator. According to experimental results, a 150-MHz sampling rate for phase voltage measurement is achieved based on the proposed capture-based voltage measurement. Although the physical limitation of back electromotive force estimation still appears, the proposed phase voltage measurement substantially enhances the sensorless drive performance at low speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A space vector modulation (SVM) technique of a dual-inverter system for an open-end winding motor drive is described in this paper, where one inverter has a battery power source and the other has an only capacitor across the dc bus. The SVM must be achieved to operate the motor with field-oriented control and simultaneously to control the capacitor voltage at a constant value by using redundant switching states of the dual-inverter system. The control of the capacitor voltage is carried out by selecting a charging or a discharging mode in each redundant switching state, taking the instantaneous motor power factor into account. In addition, it is also required to reduce the error voltage pulses, which are generated in output multilevel voltage waveforms during the dead time. The compensation method of the existing dead-time scheme and the improved SVM sequence to reduce the error voltage vectors are proposed in this paper. The proposed methods are examined through several experimental tests and are confirmed to generate superior output voltage waveforms from the viewpoint of the measured total harmonic distortion and dv/dt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel seven-level inverter topology for medium-voltage high-power applications. It consists of eight active switches and two inner flying capacitor (FC) units forming a similar structure as in a conventional active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) inverter. This unique arrangement reduces the number of active and passive components. A simple modulation technique reduces cost and complexity in the control system design without compromising reactive power capability. In addition, compared to major conventional seven-level inverter topologies, such as the neutral point clamped, FC, cascaded H-bridge, and ANPC topologies, the new topology reduces the dc-link voltage requirement by 50%. This recued dc-link voltage makes the new topology appealing for various industrial applications. Experimental results from a 2.2-kVA prototype are presented to support the theoretical analysis presented in this paper. The prototype demonstrates a conversion efficiency of around 97.2% ± 1% for a wide load range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a dc-link voltage control method of a single-phase back-to-back cascaded H-bridge inverter (SBCI) for a medium-voltage motor drive system. The main advantage of the SBCI topology over the conventional regenerative cascaded H-bridge topology with a three-phase active front-end (AFE) is a simple system structure, which is composed of an input transformer, a power cell, a current sensor, etc. However, the challenging points of the SBCI are larger voltage ripple in the dc-link capacitor and imbalance of dc-link voltages of each phase. The asymmetric dc-link voltage of each power cells could cause unstable operation such as over-modulation due to the lack of the dc-link voltage of a particular phase and result in over-voltage or under-voltage faults. In this paper, the control strategy of the dc-link voltage for the SBCI that uses the negative-sequence voltage of the converter is described. The proposed control method is verified with a computer simulation whose target is a 6.6-kV–1.25-MW medium-voltage drive system. Also, through the experimental setup with the prototype SBCI whose power rating is 16.2 kVA, the dc-link voltage of each AFE has been controlled within a 0.5% error of its reference value at the full load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photovoltaic (PV) output voltage varies over a wide range depending on operating conditions. Thus, the PV-connected converters should be capable of handling a wide input voltage range while maintaining high efficiencies. This paper proposes a new series resonant dc–dc converter for PV microinverter applications. Compared with the conventional series resonant converter, a dual-mode rectifier is configured on the secondary side, which enables a twofold voltage gain range for the proposed converter with a fixed-frequency phase-shift modulation scheme. The zero-voltage switching turn-on and zero-current switching turn-off can be achieved for active switches and diodes, thereby, minimizing the switching losses. Moreover, a variable dc-link voltage control scheme is introduced to the proposed converter, leading to a further efficiency improvement and input-voltage-range extension. The operation principle and essential characteristics (e.g., voltage gain, soft-switching, and root-mean-square current) of the proposed converter are detailed in this paper, and the power loss modeling and design optimization of components are also presented. A 1-MHz 250-W converter prototype with an input voltage range of 17–43 V is built and tested to verify the feasibility of the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phase-to-neutral voltage or neutral-to-virtual neutral voltage zero-crossing points (ZCPs) detection method is usually used for sensorless brushless dc motor commutation control. Unfortunately, neither of them can be realized in lower speed range. In this paper, a simple commutation point detection method is proposed based on detecting inactive phase terminal to dc-link midpoint voltage. It eliminates the requirement of neutral wire or virtual neutral voltage and provides an amplified version of back electromotive force at the ZCPs which makes the lower speed range detection possible. As the speed increases, commutation point error is enlarged due to the low-pass filter. Utilizing the symmetry of the terminal to midpoint voltage, the phase error can be corrected. However, due to the nonlinear relationship between the detected voltage difference and phase error, it is difficult to regulate the error fast and robustly. Therefore, a novel phase regulator based on fuzzy neural network is proposed in this paper with simple structure and learning ability. The validity of the proposed ZCPs detection method and commutation instant shift correction method are verified through experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The planned China fusion engineering test reactor (CFETR) needs one or more negative-ion-based neutral beam injectors (N-NBIs) with a beam energy of 500 or even 1000 keV. In order to prepare for CFETR, a prototype of CFETR N-NBI is being designed. The prototype needs an acceleration grid power supply (AGPS) rated at 200 kV/25 A with a maximum pulselength reaches to 3600 s. The AGPS adopted a single-stage inverter-type high-voltage power supply (HVPS). The output voltage ripple is an important specification of the AGPS, which can affect the efficiency and stability of N-NBI system by influencing the beam divergence. However, the conventional methods cannot be used to limit the output voltage ripple of the inverter-type HVPS used as AGPS of CFETR N-NBI prototype. This paper simplified the AGPS to an insulated three-phase three-level (TPTL) dc–dc converter connected with a dual dc link. The working process of the TPTL dc–dc converter with duty-cycle modulation has been analyzed, and two main continuous conduction modes are described. The influence of key parameters such as duty cycle of inverter, leakage inductance of transformer, and output current on output voltage ripple is analyzed. Based on the analysis results, a so-called combined control strategy was proposed to keep the output voltage ripple at a level. The proposed strategy is suitable for the cases where the object output voltage is below 175 kV. Some simulations were carried out by using MATLAB/Simulink. The results showed that the analysis in this paper is reliable and the proposed control strategy has a good performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grid-interactive inverters allow distributed generation units to provide various ancillary services in microgrids. As the linear modulation region of inverters is restricted by the dc-bus voltage, providing ancillary services may drive the fundamental positive-sequence inverter voltage to the overmodulation region. Therefore, to operate in the linear modulation region the maximum active- and reactive-power of the inverter may have to be reduced unless pulsewidth modulation (PWM) references are adjusted. In this paper, an atypical PWM method is proposed for maximizing dc-bus utilization of grid-interactive two-level voltage source inverters (2L-VSI) providing ancillary services. Two important ancillary services, i.e., negative-sequence compensation and harmonic compensation are considered in this paper. The proposed method increases the maximum active- and reactive-power that a 2L-VSI can deliver when providing ancillary services by injecting a common-mode component in the references computed based on instantaneous reference magnitudes. The validity of the proposed technique is verified through simulation, as well as experimental data obtained using a 208-V three phase grid-connected 2L-VSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the digital implementation of a boundary controller with unipolar switching characteristic for single-phase voltage source full-bridge inverters. This paper expands the application of a second-order switching surface-based control method to unipolar switching of single-phase voltage source inverters (VSIs) using a finite-state machine. The finite-state machine has been formulated considering four different states of the inverter; positive,zero1, negative, andzero2. The second-order boundary control governs the current state of the system and provides proper switching action to keep the system within the desired reference. The control law is implemented digitally in F28m35x digital control card. A full-bridge inverter topology is used to achieve the three-level voltage switching. Various simulations and experiments were performed in a 550 VA, 120 V, 60 Hz VSI with a digitally implemented controller to verify the theoretical predictions. A high-quality voltage output was obtained for various loading conditions. The transient performance of the controller was investigated using a reference and load changes. A comparison of the implementation was made with the existing classical controllers to verify the fast-dynamic response of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a split-capacitor four-wire current source inverter, which is the dual of the split-capacitor four-wire voltage source inverter. Since the midpoint of the dc link is tied to the neutral point of ac filter capacitors, the common-mode voltage (CMV) is reduced significantly. Consequently, the leakage current issue is effectively addressed. The proposed circuit is cost-effective as no extra switch is added. This paper, first, establishes the equivalent common-mode circuit of the proposed inverter. The impact of the neutral line inductance on CMV is also analyzed. Then, a specific modulation is introduced to balance the dc-link voltages/currents. To achieve good input/output performance, a nonlinear control method is developed based on time-domain models. Finally, all the proposed methods and related theoretical analysis are verified by simulations and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multifunctional grid-connected inverter (MFGCI) has been a promising solution to mitigate power quality problems in distributed generation system and microgrid applications. However, the capability of a conventional MFGCI is limited when compensating a voltage-based power quality problem. In this paper, a new configuration of MFGCI is proposed to improve both voltage-based and current-based power quality issues and is named shunt-series-switched MFGCI (SSS-MFGCI). The SSS-MFGCI can be connected in series or parallel to the grid by implementing bidirectional switches to provide different modes of operation depending on various grid disturbances. The required compensating current and voltage are analytically derived considering the grid and load conditions for voltage regulation. This paper also presents the compensation strategies, control scheme, and transition scheme between different modes of the proposed SSS-MFGCI. Simulation results to prove the concept are also included for unbalanced sag and swell cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The active power distribution network operation with the integration of various renewable distributed generations (DGs), storage units, and dynamic loads are attracting a lot of interest due to substantial benefits in maximizing the penetration of available renewable energy resources (RES). However, the risk of voltage violation in the active distribution system (ADS) is exacerbated due to increasing penetration of DGs. It has become a bottleneck to maximize the DG penetration into the system. This bottleneck can be handled by effective voltage regulation and reactive power support into ADS. Nowadays, power electronic devices are frequently used for voltage and reactive power support over the conventional approaches. In this paper, an approach to maximize the penetration of RES, such as solar, wind, etc., into ADS by maximum utilization of existing solar photovoltaic inverters (SPVI) in the system is presented. Optimal utilization of SPVI may enhance the voltage stability of the ADS and wind power penetration into the system. The proposed SPVI control approaches are depended on active power generation of solar photovoltaic (SPVG), rating and capability of SPVI, and required reactive power in the ADS. In this paper, the problem of maximum penetration of RES is formulated as an optimal power flow embedded nonlinear optimization problem subject to the physical limitations of the SPVI. The results of the analysis performed on an IEEE 33 bus system show that the proposed SPVI control strategies can improve the voltage profile of the ADS with minimization of curtailment of wind power generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grid-tied inverters and associated control techniques have gained importance in the domain of distributed generation. Different methods of control have been compared in the literature depending upon the ability to meet total harmonic distortion limits, damping offered to resonant oscillations, and stable operation. Multiple-loop methods compared to their single-loop counterparts have proved to be highly effective for meeting the grid regulations. In the literature, while single-loop and two-loop control systems for LCL filter have been assessed, not much study on three-loop control (TLC) has been done, possibly due to the hardware complexity and cost imparted by the increase in the number of sensors. In this paper, a TLC structure for grid connected inverters is analyzed for stability and parametric variations. Robustness of TLC is compared with single-loop grid current feedback control and a two-loop control structure. An approach to estimate the state variables is proposed in this paper, which cuts down the number of sensors and cost of implementation. The performance of the system is analyzed through simulations and results are validated in a hardware setup, under dynamic and steady-state conditions, thereby showing that this is a promising approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new high-efficiency photovoltaic (PV) converter for grid connection through a high-leg delta transformer. The converter is composed of a symmetrically connected boost converter and three half-bridge inverters. One of the three half-bridge inverters is connected to the boost converter, and the others are directly connected to the PV terminals. As a result, this circuit configuration enables to reduce the power losses in both boost converter and inverters. This paper also proposes a new cooperative control method between the symmetrically connected boost converter and inverter. The control method can reduce the average switching frequency to 75% of that in a conventional one, resulting in a great reduction in the switching power loss. Experimental results confirm that the proposed circuit configuration makes it possible to improve its European efficiency from 91.6% to 94.5%. Moreover, system performance is evaluated on the assumption of maximum power point tracking operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents theoretical and experimental discussions on low-voltage-ride-through operation of a modular multilevel single-delta bridge-cell (SDBC) inverter intended for utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems. Modern grid codes require grid-tied inverters to provide dynamic grid support during grid-fault events by injecting reactive current. This paper discusses decoupled positive- and negative-sequence reactive-current control, focusing on asymmetric voltage sags with imbalanced magnitude and phase relationships. The main objective is to present a feedforward control method based on calculation of the zero-sequence current required for achieving power balance during normal and grid-fault conditions. Moreover, this paper demonstrates a practical method that minimizes overcurrent stress in the three inverter clusters by adjusting active power drawn from PV arrays. Experimental results on a three-phase 12.6-kVA system prove that the SDBC inverter is capable of seamlessly operating through asymmetric voltage sags. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The output voltage of power electronic converters is a very important quantity for dynamic control of power electronic systems. In electrical drives without electromechanical position or speed sensor, the terminal reference voltage is used to obtain the rotor position. Dead-time effects and semiconductor voltage drop lead to distortion in the actual output voltage and degrade the control performance when the back electromotive force magnitude is low. Thus, for stable low-speed operation, output voltage sensing becomes necessary. Due to the switching nature of power electronic systems, this is not a trivial task, especially when instantaneous measurement of the terminal voltage is required. In this paper, an instantaneous switching-period average voltage sensing technique is proposed that utilizes a combined approach of oversampling and filtering. Based on the theoretical analysis of the sampling- and filter-induced measurement distortion, a general solution for an optimal filter design is derived. The additional sensing circuit is integrated into the low-side gate driver of the converter outputs. This paper includes details about the hardware implementation and extensive verification measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversification of control schemes adopted by inverter-interfaced distributed generators (IIDGs) leads to difficulties in fault current estimation in a microgrid, which might make preexisting protection systems invalid and threaten the safety of power electronic devices. It is therefore important to study fault characteristics of IIDGs. This paper investigates characteristics of fault current of IIDGs caused by both symmetrical and asymmetrical faults. Two kinds of widely used control modes, current control (constant current control and PQ control) and voltage control (V/F control and droop control), are under investigation to provide an intuitive comparison on fault current. In particular, a novel algorithm is proposed to calculate fault current of droop-controlled IIDGs. It is found that different limiters have great impacts on fault response of IIDGs and detailed research works are carried out to identify the effects in this paper. Simulation results based on PSCAD/EMTDC and calculation results based on MATLAB/Simulink verify the correctness of the proposed fault models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a decentralized control scheme for controlling active and reactive power of grid-tied ac-stacked photovoltaic (PV) inverter architecture using single member phase compensation. Reactive power control is required for the next generation of grid-tied smart PV inverter systems in power networks with high PV penetration. The decentralized control scheme proposed in this paper allows for a fully distributed architecture, both in terms of active and reactive power control and physical implementation of a PV system. This will result in higher reliability and potentially lower cost with minimum communications requirements. A decentralized controller enables higher switching frequencies that can shrink passive components. Therefore, string voltage variations due to voltage drop across passive components will be negligible and the system will be controlled with minimum communications requirement. The relative gain array approach has been used to study the feasibility of the decentralized control scheme. Detailed modeling and analysis are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed decentralized approach and the effect of this approach on control implementation. Finally, effectiveness of the proposed decentralized approach is verified using mathematical modeling, simulation, and a lab-scale experimental setup in different operation conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel unified nonlinear optimization-based speed and position estimation algorithm for interior permanent magnet synchronous motor drives at wide speed range operations. A cost function based on the voltage equations in the stationary reference frame is employed for speed and position estimation. The speed and position can be estimated by minimizing the cost function. At low speed, including the standstill condition, the cost function is modified and high-frequency sinusoidal voltage signals are injected in the estimated magnetic axis. A phase locked loop is combined with the proposed position estimator for reducing the noise of estimation results. Compared with existing sensorless methods, a unified estimator is used at low- and high-speed operations and a better performance is obtained in transient and steady-state conditions. The convexity of the cost functions with respect to the speed and position estimation errors is analyzed in the paper. The feasibility of the proposed estimation algorithm is validated with an experimental test bench. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning-based approach for distribution system voltage regulation with high penetration of photovoltaics (PVs). The designed agents can learn the coordinated control strategies from historical data through the counter-training of local policy networks and centric critic networks. The learned strategies allow us to perform online coordinated control. Comparative results with other methods show the enhanced control capability of the proposed method under various conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi infeed interaction factor (MIIF) index was introduced by CIGRE as a measure of inter-inverter interactions in multi-infeed HVDC systems, which include only line-commutated converter based HVDC (LCC–HVDC) links. The MIIF is although valid among LCCs in hybrid multi-infeed HVDC systems, but not among voltage-source converters (VSCs) as well as between LCC and VSC when the VSC operates under the constant ac voltage control mode. In this paper, a multi-infeed voltage interaction factor (MVIF) index is firstly proposed as the quantitative measure of inter-inverter interactions in hybrid multi-infeed HVDC systems. Compared to the MIIF, the MVIF is unified since it is applicable regardless of inverter types and control modes. Moreover, the quasi-steady-state power-flow model of hybrid multi-infeed HVDC systems is utilized as the mathematical framework to develop the analytical calculation method of the MVIF. This lends a theoretical basis for the efficient evaluation of inter-inverter interactions. Furthermore, the parametric dependence of the MVIF is analyzed to provide an exhaustive perspective of inter-inverter interactions. This offers a useful tool to aid planning and operation of hybrid multi-infeed HVDC systems. Finally, dynamic simulations conducted on the PSCAD/EMTDC program validate the MVIF and its analytical calculation method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inverter nonlinearity and sampling current dc bias can cause harmonic distortion of estimated back electromotive forces (EMFs), and therefore results in position estimation error and degrades control performance of model-based sensorless techniques of permanent-magnet synchronous motors, especially in low speed region. In this paper, the effects of inverter nonlinearity and sampling current dc bias on back EMF estimation are analyzed. A voltage feedforward compensation method based on an iterative learning control (ILC) algorithm is proposed and it is used to eliminate the harmonics of estimated back EMFs and position estimation error, so as to improve the performance of sensorless control. Compensated voltages at different rotor positions are calculated online by the ILC algorithm and stored in a lookup table. The method does not depend on current polarity and inverter model. And it is simple and easy to implement. The effectiveness of the proposed compensation method is verified by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voltage imbalances are one of the most severe challenges in electrical networks, which negatively affect their loads and other connected equipment. This paper proposes a voltage support control strategy to mitigate the voltage imbalance in inverter-based low voltage distribution networks. The control scheme is derived taking in mind the following control objectives: a) to increase the positive sequence voltage as much as possible, b) to decrease the negative sequence voltage as much as possible, c) to inject the power generated by the primary source, and d) to minimize the output current of the inverter. The innovative contribution of the proposed solution is based on the design of a control algorithm that meets the aforementioned objectives without resorting to communications with other grid components. The theoretical results are experimentally validated by selected tests on a laboratory setup with X/R ratio close to one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the in-depth mechanism of commutation failure for a line-commuted converter-based high-voltage direct current (LCC-HVDC) system. The commutation failure prevention control (CFPREV) and the initial fault voltage angle (IFVA) are considered from the view of the voltage-time area (VTA) in the analysis. It is revealed that the IFVA is among the dominant factors for commutation failures when the voltage drop of the inverter bus is relatively small, and CFPREV further intensifies the impact of the IFVA on commutation failures, while the fluctuation of the direct current plays a dominant role in commutation failures under a greater voltage reduction at the inverter bus. A quantitative division of the severity of AC faults is proposed to determine dominant factors for commutation failures. The relationship between the chance of commutation failures to occur and the IFVA is built, and the method used for computing probability of commutation failures is proposed. The influence of the dynamic of CFPREV output on our research is studied. Simulations based on a typical monopole LCC-HVDC system using PSCAD/EMTDC software are conducted to verify the correctness of the theoretic analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed computing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional three-level inverter only has voltage buck capability. The quasi-Z-source three-level T-type inverter (QZS 3LT $^2$ I) has been proposed to realize voltage buck–boost operation. In this paper, we further propose a novel modulation scheme for the QZS 3LT $^2$ I to realize voltage boosting, reduce the common-mode voltage (CMV), and control the neutral-point voltage balance simultaneously. The proposed scheme adopts a large vector, a medium vector, a small vector with low CMV magnitude, a zero vector, and a shoot-through vector to generate the output voltage. According to sector number and neutral-point voltage difference, a p-type or n-type small vector with low CMV magnitude is properly selected to balance the neutral-point voltage. Shoot-through states are inserted within zero vector to boost the dc input voltage without affecting the ac output voltage. Dwell times of basic vectors are calculated through the revised volt–second balance equation. Furthermore, a coordinate control strategy between neutral-point voltage balance and voltage boosting is proposed. Doing so, the CMV magnitude can be restricted within one-sixth of dc-link voltage and neutral-point voltage imbalance can be effectively mitigated. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by simulations and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a modification of the Vienna rectifier (VR) to obtain more than three voltage levels at the DC line connection, while preserving the unity power factor at the AC grid side. The proposed unidirectional multilevel there-phase rectifier, called the “Negev rectifier”, has a reduced device count and utilizes a unique novel Time Division Multiplexed based control scheme, which makes the challenging N-level VR expansion possible. The Negev rectifier can serve as a grid interface for supplying dc voltage to multilevel inverters with 4 up to 7 voltage levels, eliminating the burden of inverter-side voltage balancing control. The Negev hardware can be constructed by two complementary topologies, making it suitable for either high current or high voltage applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares transient responses of virtual oscillator control (VOC) to the conventional droop control method, under various inverter terminal voltage amplitude and frequency regulations. The system of interest is an islanded microgrid of three three-phase inverters sharing a resistive load. By letting the two controllers have similar steady-state droop characteristics, the virtual oscillator and droop controlled systems are compared in a small-signal framework with the aid of eigenvalue analyses. The analytical results are verified by simulating the two systems in MATLAB/Simulink. In the simulations, the third inverter in each system is connected to share the load when the other two inverters are already synchronized. Transients are compared by examining synchronization time after the third inverter is connected. The key finding is VOC outperforms droop control in terms of time responses when the terminal voltage frequency regulation range is allowed to be wide; otherwise, the droop control responds faster than the VOC technique. The same conclusions are found for two other load types: constant power load and nonlinear load. In addition, transient energy losses are investigated, which shows positive correlation with the time response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a two-degrees-of-freedom control algorithm based on uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE), aimed to minimize the total harmonic distortion of inverter output voltage is proposed, possessing enhanced robustness to fundamental frequency variations. A multiple-time-delay action is combined with a commonly utilized low-pass UDE filter to increase the range of output impedance magnitude minimization around odd multiples of fundamental frequency for enhanced rejection of typical single-phase nonlinear loads harmonics. Marginal robustness improvement achieved by increasing the number of time delays is quantified analytically and revealed to be independent of delay order. The performance of the proposed control approach and its superiority over two recently proposed methods is validated successfully by experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For parallel-connected LCL-type inverters in islanded operation, it is difficult to reshape the large harmonic impedance by the conventional capacitor voltage control due to the presence of grid-side inductor, which seriously deteriorates the voltage quality at the point of common coupling (PCC) under nonlinear loads. To address this issue, a harmonic voltage distortion damping method is proposed in this paper, which mainly includes a direct output voltage control and the parallel virtual-admittance control. First, the direct output voltage control converts the grid-side inductor into the equivalent output impedance of the inverter itself by changing the voltage feedback variable from capacitor voltage to output voltage, and then the harmonic impedance is reshaped from a large value to a small value with the P + Repetitive controller. However, it is found that the direct output voltage control fails to damp PCC voltage distortion with droop-frequency offset. That is because its voltage controller cannot guarantee the resonance bandwidth of main harmonic frequency, and then a slight droop-frequency offset can cause a large increase in the harmonic impedance. For this, the parallel virtual-admittance control is further proposed to limit the size of the output impedance to no more than that of the impedance in parallel, which effectively reduces the adverse effect of droop-frequency offset on the quality of the PCC voltage. Further, the parallel virtual-admittance control is simplified with the same harmonic voltage distortion damping consequent. The system stability conditions are analyzed in detail, and its proper control parameters are selected without complicated trial. Finally, the experimental results validate the proposed control method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the design and experimental validation of disturbance observer (DO)-based control for grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) inverters fed by a dc–dc boost converter considering unbalanced grid voltages. The control scheme uses multiples controllers that are developed based on employing DO technique along with a feedback-linearizing (FBL) control. The main controller is designed to regulate the active and reactive powers injected into the grid via controlling the grid-tied inverter. Under unbalanced grid voltages, the active and reactive power is composed of a dc component as well as an ac component that oscillates at twice the grid frequency. Therefore, the unknown perturbation, representing the mismatch between the nominal and actual system, can be treated as a sum of a constant offset and a sinusoidal disturbance. To ensure accurate control of the active/reactive power, a DO is designed to estimate the unknown perturbation, which is then canceled by a FBL control. By considering the control input limitation in the observer synthesis, an antiwindup compensator arises naturally in the control law, which attenuates the effect of the windup phenomenon during control saturation. Moreover, a simplified representation of the DO is proposed to facilitate real-time implementation. The proposed approach for the power control can be used in both balanced and unbalanced systems since it can reject constant and sinusoidal disturbances. Experimental tests were performed to investigate the ability of the proposed control scheme to achieve good transient and steady-state performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, instantaneous pulse power compensator (IPPC) method is proposed to achieve power pulsation decoupling function for single-phase inverter applications. A smaller capacitor is placed in series with the traditional dc-link capacitor, and this smaller capacitor voltage is controlled using pulse currents to cancel out the dc-link voltage ripple. Unlike twice-line-frequency power decoupling method, the proposed IPPC method can compensate the pulsating power with all the orders harmonics on the dc-link line, not only the second-order component. Both modeling and simulation results show that IPPC method can achieve nearly zero voltage ripple for the dc-link capacitor since the pulse current is fully compensated. Whereas twice-line-frequency power decoupling method has limit in voltage ripple reduction, especially in small dc-link capacitance conditions. The experimental results based on a full-bridge topology decoupling circuit and a single-phase inverter application show consistent results with simulation results. A 16% reduction of the prototype size, i.e., 16% higher power density with only ∼1% efficiency penalty can be achieved by the proposed IPPC method when compared to the second-order power decoupling method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel grid synchronization method with bumpless start that requires minimal computational load and can selectively track the positive sequence of the grid voltage in an unbalanced and distorted three-phase weak grid. Only 12 floating-point operations are required to obtain the in-phase and quadrature components that define a synchronous frame which tracks the positive sequence of the grid voltage. Contrary to a phase-locked loop (PLL), the presented scheme does not require to measure any ac voltages. Therefore, this sensorless method is particularly suited for weak-grid conditions, in which the voltage at the point of common coupling may contain significant noise and can experience larger deviations from the grid voltage (compared to a strong grid) due to the voltage drop in the weak grid impedance. The error in the estimated phase depends on the accuracy of the plant model. If the LCL filter parameters are known, then both the proposal and a PLL-based scheme result in the same steady-state error. Experimental results show the advantages of the proposal compared to a moving average filter PLL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-stage single-phase inverter system has found many applications in distributed generators and grid-connected systems. However, the existence of double-line frequency ripple on the dc-bus voltage due to single-phase inverter's operation has given rise to some design and reliability issues. Some of these are the degradation in the quality of inverter's output voltage and shortening of dc-bus capacitor's lifetime. The problem is rooted in the controller design of the front-end dc–dc converter, which is often designed based on a simplified mathematical model of the dc–dc converter that fails to account for some complex phenomena, such as system's nonlinearities and circuit parameter variations due to temperature and aging effects. In this paper, a disturbance-observer-based control is proposed where these unmodeled effects are treated in the form of lumped disturbance and compensated for in a feed-forward manner. The major advantage of this control solution is that only minimal plant information is needed for controller design and that a decoupled composite controller can be realized, where the feedback compensator is designed to meet certain stability criteria while the disturbance-observer-based feed-forward compensator is designed to handle fast transient events. A prototype of a dual-active-bridge (DAB) dc–dc converter implemented with disturbance-observer-based control is constructed to verify its effectiveness. Experimental results show that the dynamic response of the DAB converter is significantly improved and the double-line frequency ripple on the dc-bus voltage is effectively suppressed by the proposed control solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficiency improvement of the on–off controlled Class E dc–dc converter operated at 20 MHz switching frequency is investigated in this paper. It is found that with the on–off control, the input power of the converter during the on mode increases with the increase of the input voltage, and it can be reduced by increasing the switching frequency. With this discovery, a variable switching frequency (VSF) on–off control is proposed, which slightly increases the switching frequency when the input voltage increases, maintaining the input power during the on mode slightly higher than the rated output power over the entire input voltage range, and thus highly improving the efficiency of Class E dc–dc converter at high input voltage. A prototype of 9-V–18-V input, 10-W Class E dc–dc converter has been fabricated and tested in the lab. The experimental results show that the proposed VSF on–off control improves the conversion efficiency of the Class E dc–dc converter by 4%–10% compared to the constant switching frequency on–off control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce switching loss of neutral point clamped three-level inverter (NPC TLI), generally discontinuous pulsewidth modulation (DPWM) is used. But it can result in dc offset and ac ripple on neutral point (NP) voltage. So a novel pulse sequence DPWM (NPSDPWM) is proposed to reduce switching loss and control NP voltage simultaneously in this paper. NP voltage is controlled by choosing proper clamping modes. To avoid unexpected switching action during changing clamping mode, an improved pulse sequence is also presented. The switching loss and NP voltage ripple of NPSDPWM, traditional and proposed DPWM in previous literature are compared, respectively. The experimental results show that NPSDPWM has well NP voltage control ability and the switching losses are reduced effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-level inverter has an outstanding performance and is more advantageous in the switching vector selection than two-level inverter. In particular, the neutral-point voltage unbalance and common-mode voltage (CMV) reduction of three-level inverter should be carefully regulated for the appropriate operation, both of which, however, are mutually coupled resulting that the conventional space vector modulation (SVM) scheme cannot deal with them properly. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes an improved space vector modulation (ISVM) technique to reduce the CMV and neutral-point voltage imbalance simultaneously. The generating mechanism of neutral-point voltage oscillation is derived. Based on the analysis, the proposed ISVM method adopts four voltage vectors (large, medium, small, and zero vectors) with adjusted dwell times to eliminate the ac unbalance of the neutral-point voltage. Considering the occurrence of neutral-point voltage disturbances, the dc neutral-point unbalance voltage is controlled by selecting the P-type or N-type small vector and adjusting the dwell times of small vectors for neutral-point voltage recovery. In addition, a novel switching sequence arrangement method with the minimal number of switches transition in one switching cycles and between switching cycles is proposed to reduce the total switching loss. Theoretical analysis and verification results show that the proposed ISVM scheme can reduce the magnitude of CMV to half of value using the conventional SVM, and an accurate control of ac and dc unbalanced neutral-point voltage can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power quality of inverter-based microgrids is a challenging issue due to nonlinearities of inverters, multiple resonance modes of network impedance, and unbalanced and nonlinear loading condition. The ideal solution is to assure the best power quality at the common bus to which loads are connected, and share the negative and harmonic sequence currents between the inverters without any communication. However, it is difficult to achieve this objective with existing virtual-impedance-based methods when nonlinearities of inverters, e.g., dead time, are not negligible. In this paper, a novel cost-function-based method is proposed to solve this problem. The proposed cost functions are optimized using continuous-control-set model predictive control. As unknown nonlinearities of inverters can be observed by introducing disturbance models, even when they are not negligible, the presented method can compensate bus voltage unbalance and harmonics and share the compensated current between inverters autonomously, with neither communication nor upper level controller. Parameter tuning of the proposed method is the key to achieve the balance between bus voltage quality and current sharing, and between stability and fast response. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed control scheme is effective even under conditions of large inverter nonlinearities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the possibility of controlling the output voltage of a standalone single-phase inverter by directly controlling the output filter capacitor current without using a dedicated output voltage sensor. The plant modeling and controller design are presented. The proposed method depends on having the value of the output filter capacitance. A method to estimate the output filter capacitance is also presented. Rigorous analysis is done to show that the proposed sensorless scheme is largely insensitive to parameter variations and ensure that the output voltage is within specified regulations at utility level. It is also demonstrated in this paper that compared to the conventional voltage control scheme the proposed control scheme ensures an improved total harmonic distortion of the output voltage waveform. Experimental results presented validate the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degradation in power quality causes adverse economical impact on the utilities and customers. Harmonics in current and voltage are one of the most commonly known power quality issues and are solved by the use of a hybrid series active power filter (HSAPF). In this paper, a new controller design using sliding-mode controller-2 is proposed to make the HSAPF more robust and stable. An accurate averaged model of a three-phase HSAPF is also derived in this paper. The design concept of the robust HSAPF has been verified through simulation and experimental studies, and the results obtained are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a hierarchical control architecture for the regulation of frequency and nodal voltages of a microgrid in islanded operation. Considering systems with both dispatchable and nondispatchable generation, as well as noncontrollable loads, the suggested approach allows to coordinate the MG devices in order to maintain the network variables inside the desired operational ranges. Moreover, the proposed algorithm, based on model predictive control, introduces the possibility to define different resource management strategies while taking into account the constraints of the available devices. Simulation examples are reported and described in the final part of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A robust field-weakening method for direct-torque-controlled (DTC) synchronous reluctance motors is presented in this paper. The proposed algorithm achieves smooth transition between the constant torque and field-weakening regions. Maximum torque per ampere is utilized below base speed, while both the current and voltage limits of the drive system are satisfied in the field-weakening region. The proposed method is robust to the variations in the machine dq -axis inductances. This ensures the system stability during field-weakening operation, especially along the maximum torque per flux trajectory. The proposed algorithm is incorporated into the duty ratio regulation-based DTC to achieve high-performance torque and flux control in the field-weakening region. Experimental results included in this paper confirm the veracity of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quasi-Z-source modular cascaded converter (qZS-MCC) is proposed for dc integration of high-power photovoltaic (PV) systems. The qZS-MCC comprises series-connected front-end isolated qZS half-bridge (HB) dc–dc converter submodules (SMs). With the front-end isolation, the qZS-MCC achieves high-voltage dc capability, while maintaining modularity and PV panel grounded. The post-stage qZS-HB handles the PV voltage and power flows, dc-link voltage balance, and output-series power integration. Whereas, the front-end isolation converters of all SMs perform a constant duty cycle, lowing the control complexity. There is no double-line-frequency power flowing through the dc-side PV panels, qZS inductors, and qZS capacitors in the qZS-MCC, so small qZS impedance is possible compared to the existing qZS cascaded multilevel inverter. The configuration, operating principle, power loss evaluation, and passive components design of the proposed system are investigated in this part of the paper. The system control, modeling, and corresponding verifications are stated in Part II of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a hybrid modulation method for a dual-output five-leg indirect matrix converter topology. The proposed control technique combines a space vector modulation scheme (SVPWM) applied to the rectifier stage so as to control the input currents and a new digital scalar modulation scheme (DSPWM) designed to control the two loads output voltages. A generalized expression of the output voltage references is also developed showing the capability of the proposed method to control more than two independent loads without requiring additional mathematical development. Furthermore, a new modified expression of the output voltages references is proposed to enable the correct operation of the converter under unbalanced grid voltages. Also, this paper proposes a detailed mathematical analysis that allows evaluating the effect of output loads unbalances on the input current harmonic content. Simulation and experimental results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical investigations and confirm the capability of the proposed method to control multiple drive systems as well as ac input currents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Model predictive control (MPC) method has been developed as a simple and effective current control technique for voltage-source inverters (VSI). The conventional MPC method applied to VSI adopts all the seven voltage vectors (VVs), including one zero VV and six nonzero VVs, to implement the predictive current control in order to improve the current control performance. However, the common-mode voltage (CMV) is large due to the use of zero VV. Although the MPC strategy only using six nonzero VVs can reduce the CMV, its switching frequency is relatively high due to too many switches between nonadjacent VVs. In this paper, a new MPC-based CMV suppression strategy for VSI is proposed and applied to a permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG)-based control system. Only four nonzero VVs, including three adjacent nonzero VVs and one nonadjacent nonzero VV, are utilized to perform the optimization in every sampling period, resulting in switching frequency and calculation effort reduction with no adverse effect on the current response. Moreover, the influence of the MPC-based CMV reduction algorithm on the speed control of PMSG is tested in this paper. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A modified-virtual-space-vector-based dc-link voltage balancing strategy is proposed in this paper for a three-level inverter. In the proposed strategy, the summation of the three-phase currents for virtual vector needs not to be zero and it also keeps the two capacitor voltages balanced with wider range of load variations. The duty cycles for all the power switches are also derived in this paper using a nearest three-voltage vector scheme. Due to the reduced use of the medium voltage vectors, the proposed control strategy can considerably decrease the neutral-point voltage fluctuation for lower power-factor-based loads as well. Detailed simulation and experimental studies are also carried out to show the effectiveness of the proposed system with a dc-link voltage balancing strategy with permanent magnet synchronous machine. Voltage and current harmonic distortions are also presented with change in modulation index. A Dspace-based real-time operating system is used for real-time implementation with a 6.0-kW surface permanent magnet synchronous motor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a model predictive control technique applied to a dual-active bridge inverter where one of the bridges is floating. The proposed floating bridge topology eliminates the need for isolation transformer in a dual inverter system and therefore reduces the size, weight, and losses in the system. To achieve multilevel output voltage waveforms, the floating inverter dc-link capacitor is charged to the half of the main dc-link voltage. A finite-set model predictive control technique is used to control the load current of the converter as well as the floating capacitor voltage. Model predictive control does not require any switching sequence design or complex switching time calculations as used for space vector modulation; thus, the technique has some advantages in this application. A detailed analysis of the converter as well as the predictive control strategy is given in this paper. Simulation and experimental results to validate the approach are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces a sliding mode control (SMC) strategy for three-phase dynamic voltage restorers (DVRs) with a 12-switch voltage source inverter. The compensating voltage references needed in the SMC strategy are generated by an adaptive notch filter (ANF), which exhibits excellent performance under grid voltage anomalies such as voltage sags, swells, and unbalanced and distorted grid voltage conditions. The consequence of using the ANF eliminates the use of phase-lock loop or frequency-lock loop and low-pass filter, which makes it distinguishable from the existing reference signal generation solutions. In addition, the use of the SMC strategy with its attractive properties makes the control implementation simple. Theoretical results are supported by simulation results as well as real-time laboratory results over a range of grid voltage anomalies. These results show that the proposed control strategy not only offers an excellent dynamic response independent from the parameter variations and disturbances but also compensates the voltage sags, swells, and harmonics on the load terminals under the defined limits of the IEEE-519 standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strive to increase the energy yield of photovoltaic (PV) power systems has made PV module integrated dc–dc converters (dc-MICs) a reality of modern PV plants. These converters regulate their input voltage, and their dynamic behavior is heavily influenced by the non-linear characteristic of the PV module. The regulation of the PV module voltage and average inductor current by means of a linear cascaded controller is a popular control technique, simplifying the converter dynamics, and providing inherent current limiting; however, it is prone to instability depending on the interaction between the PV source and the interfacing converter, as well as the value of the controller parameters. These factors present a clear challenge for control design; moreover, the converter transient response undesirably depends on the PV module operating point. In order to solve these issues, while maintaining regulation of PV module voltage and average inductor current, this paper proposes to adopt a non-linear controller designed with the feedback linearization control (FLC) technique. The control laws are derived and implemented in a non-inverting buck–boost dc module integrated converter, as this is a favorite topology for the PV interfacing application. A digitally controlled converter prototype is built and used to obtain experimental results, where the FLC technique is compared with a linear cascaded control technique. The results confirm the superior performance of the presented FLC technique, which is robust and able to regulate the converter input voltage with fast and consistent dynamics, regardless of the PV module or load operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]