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The distribution systems and microgrids in remote, and rural areas are often of a single-phase nature due to economic viability. Fixed frequency three-phase induction generators (IGs) are popular in such applications due to their competitive performance features, and utility. This article proposes a control approach for injecting power to a single-phase grid from an active phase converter (APC) assisted three-phase IG. The presented approach ensures a balanced operation of the IG even with variable generation. This work proposes a method of using an ac auxiliary capacitor that reduces the APC pole currents and improves the converter efficiency. Closed-form expression of the grid current and converter pole currents for a given operating point of the IG are derived. Based on the analysis, and the converter current expressions, a procedure to find the optimal auxiliary capacitance for a given operating point of the IG is presented. Experimental results are provided to validate the theoretical framework, and APC control approach. The experimental results demonstrate the injection of 2.4 kW real power into the single-phase grid at near unity factor and validate the proposed control of the APC-IG system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control is a key functionality in solar photovoltaic (PV)-based power conversion systems. A variety of perturbative MPPT control schemes are available in the literature, many of which are voltage-based techniques wherein the PV bus voltage is perturbed and set to the required level by an appropriate converter control that achieves the MPP tracking. However, a comprehensive plant model of the PV-fed converter system and a systematic control design of the PV bus voltage loop that facilitates the design of the MPPT control is not available in the literature. In this article, a detailed small-signal model is proposed for a single-stage PV-fed buck converter that acts as a battery charge-controller. The effects of parasitic storage elements present in the PV source as well as the interconnecting cable from rooftop are discussed in detail, along with the impact of series–parallel connection of the PV modules for power scaling. A full-order as well as a reduced-order model of the system is proposed and the various relevant transfer-functions are analytically derived. Based on this model and the control to converter input bus voltage transfer-function $\widetilde{v}_{\text{in}}/\widetilde{d}$ , a systematic design procedure for the PV bus voltage controller is proposed. It is shown that such a design facilitates the selection of perturbation period of a typical MPPT control algorithm for an improved tracking performance. The steps involved in the system model development and the control design are generalized and can be extended to other converter topologies as well. Active transfer-function measurements and experiments conducted on a 1-kW charge-controller hardware prototype validate the accuracy of the proposed model and the tracking performance of the MPPT control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultracapacitor (UC) based dc–dc power supplies are widely used for addressing surge power demands and to provide energy backup to critical loads. The conventional control techniques, such as unified control strategy, though ensure seamless mode transition, do not offer complete flexibility in charging and discharging controls which is crucial in UC-based backup systems. On the other hand, controls, such as independent switch control, though allow great flexibility in control, do not ensure seamless mode transition without appropriate mode-switch logic. This paper proposes a time-varying virtual resistance based mode transition control for independent switch control which not only ensures smooth, seamless transition between charging and discharging control modes but also ensures complete control over the mode transition durations. The proposed control is found to be robust to error mode identification as compared to introducing dead band between control modes. The proposed control is verified on a proof of concept experimental setup at a power level of $P_o=65$ W, voltage level of $V_g=26$ V with the dc–dc converter switching at $f_{\text{sw}}=100$ kHz. The performance comparison with PWM blocking method is also evaluated where the proposed control is found to work well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual-comparison one-cycle control for the bidirectional power flow in single-phase grid-connected converters is proposed in this paper. Advantages of dual-comparison one-cycle control when compared to conventional one-cycle control is that it does not give any steady-state dc offset, no light-load instability, and implements unipolar pulsewidth modulation without having to sense the grid voltage. Addition of a fictitious current term, which is generated from the gating signal of one of the active devices, using a bandpass filter, enables the bidirectional power flow. The quality factor of the bandpass filter is shown to impact the total harmonic distortion in current, fundamental displacement angle, and steady-state dc offset. The optimal value of a quality factor, obtained with aid of simulations, gives a superior performance. The current drawn or injected into the grid is seen to lag the grid voltage. The reason for a nonunity displacement power factor is analyzed and a compensation to achieve a unity displacement power factor is also proposed in this paper. Detailed simulation and experimental studies are carried out to validate the proposed control and the high performance that can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paralleling power converters is a common practice in industries to enhance total power rating, reliability, and availability of the system. In case of fault occurring in systems with parallel converters, the faulty power converter can be isolated and the system can still be operated at reduced power level. In this paper, a grid-connected power converter consisting of two parallel H-bridge converters with low ground leakage current is considered. Two contingency configurations, that are also of low ground leakage current, are proposed to enhance the availability of the system. This is done by reconfiguring the power circuit to a single H-bridge in the case of failure in one of the bridges. The power converter is experimentally tested with the proposed configurations for experimental validation. The results show that the second configuration has better performance in terms of power loss and current total harmonic distortion when operating at lower power level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The control of an ultracapacitor (UC)-based dc–dc power supply is crucial to provide reliable energy backup to critical loads in the case of momentary power main failures. In this regard, smooth and seamless transition between charging and discharging controls of UC stack is of paramount importance. For ride-through applications where charging and discharging times are critical, provision of different control structures for charging and discharging subsystems is crucial. The conventional control techniques, though ensure seamless mode transition, does not allow different control structures for both the subsystems. This paper proposes an independent switch control strategy, which ensures seamless transition between charging and discharging control modes. The proposed control is based on pulse-width modulation blocking and is shown to ensure the fastest mode transition between control modes. The proposed control also elucidates an accurate method for identification of control modes, which is important to independent switch control. The advantages of the proposed control compared with conventional controls is presented in this paper. The proposed control strategy has been verified in simulations and experimentation, and the mode identification algorithm is found to work well. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Resistance emulation using one cycle control (OCC) has been used extensively in single-phase full-bridge boost rectifiers. This paper proposes a new control strategy called dual comparison OCC (DC-OCC), which eliminates the limitations of OCC. The advantages of the proposed control strategy is that it ensures the average current is equal to grid voltage scaled by emulated resistance, in each switching cycle. This eliminates issues such as dc offset due to the peak current comparison in OCC. It also ensures that there is no distortion in current when the converter is lightly loaded. It is analytically shown that the proposed DC-OCC does not have the light load instability concerns of conventional OCC. The proposed method is also shown to achieve unipolar pulse-width modulation without sensing the grid voltage resulting in lower effective switching frequency. The proposed control requires only one additional comparator and additional logical elements for implementation. Detailed simulation and experimental studies are carried to validate the proposed control and the high performance that can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a control power supply (CPS) design which is used to feed power to the subsystems of a power converter. The CPS design presented here maintains a constant 24Vdc output even over a wide (90Vrms to 270Vrms ) ac voltage variation at its input for a High Power Converter (HPC). The circuit design and closed loop control design of such a CPS are presented. During starting, the power supply to the control circuitry of the CPS in turn is obtained using a separate start-up power supply. The various design issues and details of the on-board power supply and start-up power circuit to ensure the reliable start-up and shut down of the CPS are analyzed. The CPS was tested for wide input voltage range (vin) and the performance validates the design. The CPS has also been tested for an input side voltage sag and its performance allows the HPC to meet the low voltage ride-through requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closed loop control of a grid connected VSI requires line current control and dc bus voltage control. The closed loop system comprising PR current controller and grid connected VSI with LCL filter is a higher order system. Closed loop control gain expressions are therefore difficult to obtain directly for such systems. In this work a simplified approach has been adopted to find current and voltage controller gain expressions for a 3 phase 4 wire grid connected VSI with LCL filter. The closed loop system considered here utilises PR current controller in natural reference frame and PI controller for dc bus voltage control. Asymptotic frequency response plot and gain bandwidth requirements of the system have been used for current control and voltage controller design. A simplified lower order model, derived for closed loop current control, is used for the dc bus voltage controller design. The adopted design method has been verified through experiments by comparison of the time domain response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise is one of the major issues during design of grid-tied power converters. A novel $LCL$ filter topology for a single-phase pulsewidth modulation (PWM) rectifier that makes use of bipolar PWM method is proposed for a single-phase to three-phase motor drive power converter. The proposed topology eliminates high dv/dt from the dc-bus common-mode (CM) voltage by making it sinusoidal. Hence, the high-frequency CM current injection to the ground and the motor-side CM current are minimized. The proposed filter configuration makes the system insensitive to circuit nonidealities such as mismatch in inductors values, unequal turn-on and turn-off delays, and dead-time mismatch between the inverter legs. Different variants of the filter topology are compared to establish the effectiveness of the proposed circuit. Experimental results based on the EMI measurement on the grid side and the CM current measurement on the motor side are presented for a 5-kW motor drive. It is shown that the proposed filter topology reduces the EMI noise level by about 35 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a simple single-phase grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) inverter topology consisting of a boost section, a low-voltage single-phase inverter with an inductive filter, and a step-up transformer interfacing the grid is considered. Ideally, this topology will not inject any lower order harmonics into the grid due to high-frequency pulse width modulation operation. However, the nonideal factors in the system such as core saturation-induced distorted magnetizing current of the transformer and the dead time of the inverter, etc., contribute to a significant amount of lower order harmonics in the grid current. A novel design of inverter current control that mitigates lower order harmonics is presented in this paper. An adaptive harmonic compensation technique and its design are proposed for the lower order harmonic compensation. In addition, a proportional-resonant-integral (PRI) controller and its design are also proposed. This controller eliminates the dc component in the control system, which introduces even harmonics in the grid current in the topology considered. The dynamics of the system due to the interaction between the PRI controller and the adaptive compensation scheme is also analyzed. The complete design has been validated with experimental results and good agreement with theoretical analysis of the overall system is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]