Reliability Enhancing Control Algorithms for Two-Stage Grid-Tied Inverters

In the photovoltaic (PV) generation system, two types of grid-tied inverter systems are usually deployed: the single-stage grid-tied inverter system and the two-stage grid-tied inverter system. In the single-stage grid-tied inverter system, the input of the inverter is directly connected to the PV arrays, while an additional dc-dc stage is inserted between the PV arrays and the dc-ac inverter in the two-stage design. The additional dc-dc stage could provide a stable dc-link voltage to the inverter, which also enables new design possibilities, including the multi-MPPT operation and solar-plus-storage application. Thus, the two-stage grid-tied inverter has been widely used in the PV generation system.As the core component of the PV generation system, the reliability of the grid-tied inverter determines the overall robustness of the system. The two-stage grid-tied inverter system includes three parts: the dc-dc stage, dc-link capacitor, and dc-ac inverter. Thus, the reliability of the two-stage grid-tied inverter relies on the reliability of each part. The dc-dc stage is used to provide a stable dc-link voltage to the inverter. However, when the inverter stage provides constant power to the grid, the load of the dc-dc stage becomes the constant power load (CPL), which will deteriorate the stability of the dc-dc stage. The dc-link capacitor is used to attenuate the voltage ripple on the dc-link and balance the transient power mismatch between the dc-dc stage and the dc-ac stage. However, during the operation of the inverter system, the degradation of the capacitor will reduce the converter reliability, and even result in system failure. The inverter stage is connected to the grid through the output filter, and the LCL type filter has been commonly used due to its superior performance. The resonance of the LCL filter must be properly damped to enhance the inverter stability. However, the grid-side impedance will lead to the resonant frequency drifting of the LCL filter, which will worsen the stability margin of the inverter. Thus, the control design of the two-stage grid-tied inverter system must consider those reliability challenges. In this work, three control algorithms are proposed to solve the reliability challenges. For the dc-dc stage, an uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE) based robust voltage control scheme is proposed. The proposed voltage control scheme can actively estimate and compensate for the disturbance of the dc-dc stage. Both the disturbance rejection performance and the stability margin of the dc-dc stage, especially under the CPL, could be enhanced. For the dc-link capacitor, a high-frequency (HF) signal injection based capacitance estimation scheme is proposed. The proposed estimation scheme can monitor the actual dc-link capacitance in real-time. For the inverter stage, an adaptive extremum seeking control (AESC) based LCL filter resonant frequency estimation scheme is proposed. The AESC-based estimation scheme can estimate the resonant frequency of the LCL filter online. All the proposed reliability enhancing control algorithms could enhance the reliability of the two-stage grid-tied inverter system. Detailed theoretical analysis, simulation studies, and comprehensive experimental studies have been performed to validate the effectiveness

Reliability Enhancing Control Algorithms for Two-Stage Grid-Tied Inverters

In the photovoltaic (PV) generation system, two types of grid-tied inverter systems are usually deployed: the single-stage grid-tied inverter system and the two-stage grid-tied inverter system. In the single-stage grid-tied inverter system, the input of the inverter is directly connected to the PV arrays, while an additional dc-dc stage is inserted between the PV arrays and the dc-ac inverter in the two-stage design. The additional dc-dc stage could provide a stable dc-link voltage to the inverter, which also enables new design possibilities, including the multi-MPPT operation and solar-plus-storage application. Thus, the two-stage grid-tied inverter has been widely used in the PV generation system.As the core component of the PV generation system, the reliability of the grid-tied inverter determines the overall robustness of the system. The two-stage grid-tied inverter system includes three parts: the dc-dc stage, dc-link capacitor, and dc-ac inverter. Thus, the reliability of the two-stage grid-tied inverter relies on the reliability of each part. The dc-dc stage is used to provide a stable dc-link voltage to the inverter. However, when the inverter stage provides constant power to the grid, the load of the dc-dc stage becomes the constant power load (CPL), which will deteriorate the stability of the dc-dc stage. The dc-link capacitor is used to attenuate the voltage ripple on the dc-link and balance the transient power mismatch between the dc-dc stage and the dc-ac stage. However, during the operation of the inverter system, the degradation of the capacitor will reduce the converter reliability, and even result in system failure. The inverter stage is connected to the grid through the output filter, and the LCL type filter has been commonly used due to its superior performance. The resonance of the LCL filter must be properly damped to enhance the inverter stability. However, the grid-side impedance will lead to the resonant frequency drifting of the LCL filter, which will worsen the stability margin of the inverter. Thus, the control design of the two-stage grid-tied inverter system must consider those reliability challenges. In this work, three control algorithms are proposed to solve the reliability challenges. For the dc-dc stage, an uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE) based robust voltage control scheme is proposed. The proposed voltage control scheme can actively estimate and compensate for the disturbance of the dc-dc stage. Both the disturbance rejection performance and the stability margin of the dc-dc stage, especially under the CPL, could be enhanced. For the dc-link capacitor, a high-frequency (HF) signal injection based capacitance estimation scheme is proposed. The proposed estimation scheme can monitor the actual dc-link capacitance in real-time. For the inverter stage, an adaptive extremum seeking control (AESC) based LCL filter resonant frequency estimation scheme is proposed. The AESC-based estimation scheme can estimate the resonant frequency of the LCL filter online. All the proposed reliability enhancing control algorithms could enhance the reliability of the two-stage grid-tied inverter system. Detailed theoretical analysis, simulation studies, and comprehensive experimental studies have been performed to validate the effectiveness

Advanced Solutions for Renewable Energy Integration into the Grid Addressing Intermittencies, Harmonics and Inertial Response

Numerous countries are trying to reach almost 100\% renewable penetration. Variable renewable energy (VRE), for instance wind and PV, will be the main provider of the future grid. The efforts to decrease the greenhouse gasses are promising on the current remarkable growth of grid connected photovoltaic (PV) capacity. This thesis provides an overview of the presented techniques, standards and grid interface of the PV systems in distribution and transmission level. This thesis reviews the most-adopted grid codes which required by system operators on large-scale grid connected Photovoltaic systems. The adopted topologies of the converters, the control methodologies for active - reactive power, maximum power point tracking (MPPT), as well as their arrangement in solar farms are studied. The unique L(LCL)2 filter is designed, developed and introduced in this thesis. This study will help researchers and industry users to establish their research based on connection requirements and compare between different existing technologies. Another, major aspect of the work is the development of Virtual Inertia Emulator (VIE) in the combination of hybrid energy storage system addressing major challenges with VRE implementations. Operation of a photovoltaic (PV) generating system under intermittent solar radiation is a challenging task. Furthermore, with high-penetration levels of photovoltaic energy sources being integrated into the current electric power grid, the performance of the conventional synchronous generators is being changed and grid inertial response is deteriorating. From an engineering standpoint, additional technical measures by the grid operators will be done to confirm the increasingly strict supply criteria in the new inverter dominated grid conditions. This dissertation proposes a combined virtual inertia emulator (VIE) and a hybrid battery-supercapacitor-based energy storage system . VIE provides a method which is based on power devices (like inverters), which makes a compatible weak grid for integration of renewable generators of electricity. This method makes the power inverters behave more similar to synchronous machines. Consequently, the synchronous machine properties, which have described the attributes of the grid up to now, will remain active, although after integration of renewable energies. Examples of some of these properties are grid and generator interactions in the function of a remote power dispatch, transients reactions, and the electrical outcomes of a rotating bulk mass. The hybrid energy storage system (HESS) is implemented to smooth the short-term power fluctuations and main reserve that allows renewable electricity generators such as PV to be considered very closely like regular rotating power generators. The objective of utilizing the HESS is to add/subtract power to/from the PV output in order to smooth out the high frequency fluctuations of the PV power, which may occur due to shadows of passing cloud on the PV panels. A control system designed and challenged by providing a solution to reduce short-term PV output variability, stabilizing the DC link voltage and avoiding short term shocks to the battery in terms of capacity and ramp rate capability. Not only could the suggested system overcome the slow response of battery system (including dynamics of battery, controller, and converter operation) by redirecting the power surges to the supercapacitor system, but also enhance the inertial response by emulating the kinetic inertia of synchronous generator

Improvement of Stability of a Grid-Connected Inverter with an LCL filter by Robust Strong Active Damping and Model Predictive Control

This study addresses development and implementation of robust control methods for a three-phase grid-connected voltage source inverter (VSI) accompanied by an inductive-capacitive-inductive (LCL) filter. A challenge of current control for the VSI is LCL filter resonance near to the control stability boundary, which interacts with the inverter control switching actions and creates the possibility of instability. In general, active damping is needed to stabilize the system and ensure robust performance in steady-state and dynamic responses. While many active damping methods have been proposed to resolve this issue, capacitor-current-feedback active damping has been most widely used for its simple implementation. There has been no clear consensus regarding design of a control system including capacitor-current-feedback active damping. This is due to the fact that simulation/experiment results are not congruent with the design analyses on which the control is designed. This study explains the incoherence between theory and practice when it comes to a capacitor-currents-feedback active damping system. Proposed capacitor-current-estimate active damping utilizing a developed posteriori Kalman estimator gives coherent simulation results as expected from the design analyses. This reveals that the highly oscillatory capacitor currents containing the inverter switching effects bring about uncertainty in the system performance. The switching effects are not incorporated in the analyses and control system design. Therefore, it is required to remove the switching noise from the capacitor currents in order to yield consistent results. It has been confirmed that the proportional-negative feedback of the capacitor current is equivalent to virtual impedance connected in parallel with the filter capacitor. In a digitally controlled system, the computation delay causes the equivalent resistance of the virtual impedance to become negative in the frequency range of fs/6 to fs/2, which produces a pair of open-loop unstable poles in RHP. This happens when the displaced resonance peak by active damping is in that region. Thus, an a priori Kalman estimator has been developed to generate one-sample-ahead state variable estimates to reconstruct the capacitor currents for active damping, which can compensate for the delay. The one-sample-ahead capacitor-current estimates are computed from the inverter-side and grid-side current estimates. The proposed method provides extended limits of the active damping gain that improve robustness against system parameter variation. It also allows strong active damping which can sufficiently attenuate the resonance. Grid condition is another significant factor affecting the stability of the system. In particular, a weak grid tends to provide high impedance. The system employing the proposed active damping method stably operates in a weak grid, ensuring robustness under grid impedance variation. The developed Kalman estimators offer an effective and easy way of determining the stability status of a system in addition to the functions of filtering and estimation. Stability analysis can be easily made since state variable estimates go to infinity when a system is unstable. As a promising approach, model predictive control (MPC) has been designed for the system. This study suggests that MPC including active damping can be employed for a grid-connected VSI with an LCL filter with good dynamic performance