Fractional Order and Virtual Variable Sampling Design of Repetitive Control for Power Converters

With the growth of electricity demand and renewable energy power source, power converter becomes a more and more significant component in electrical power systems. The requirement of the power converter controller is to produce an accurate and low-distorted voltage or current under different load conditions. Although the conventional controller can meet the requirement of some applications, it requires accurate knowledge of the system model and cannot provide a satisfactory result especially under nonlinear loads or sudden load change. Repetitive control (RC) presents an attractive solution to achieve excellent steady-state tracking error and low total harmonic distortion for periodic signals, and it is increasingly applied to power converter systems. However, there are still some limitations or requirements of RC when it is applied to power electronics system: first, RC requires the system sampling frequency is a fixed value and needs to be an integral multiple of the reference frequency; second, low controller sampling frequency results in low phase lead compensation resolution in RC, which leads to control inaccuracy; third, conventional RC does not have frequency adaptability to reference frequency fluctuation, and even a small reference frequency fluctuation can lead to severe performance degradation. To overcome the conventional RC limitations, two advanced design methods are proposed in the thesis: fractional order delay and virtual variable sampling. The method of fractional order delay approximates the non-integer delay part by building a finite impulse response filter. This improved method is not only able to be applied on a period delay unit but also on phase-lead compensation. The accurate period delay and phase lead compensation show a noticeable improvement in RC performance. Although fractional order delay can meet the requirement on most of the applications, it also has a minimal adjustable range on the reference frequency. To achieve an essential solution to this problem, the virtual variable sampling (VVS) method is developed. The VVS approximates a variable sampling unit instead of the fixed system unit for RC and its filters, in which RC is able to be frequency adaptive. Comparing with the method of fractional order delay, the VVS method can provide a much more extensive adjustable range on the reference frequency. Based on the system performance under the conventional controller, power converter always has uneven distortion distribution. To further improve the stability and eliminate harmonic distortions efficiently, two selective harmonic RC schemes are introduced - nk ± m order harmonic RC and DFT-based selective harmonic RC. However, these selective RC schemes also suffer from the particular requirement of system sampling frequency and low reference frequency adaptability. Applying VVS methods on these two schemes can effectively present an improvement on their frequency adaptability. To verify the proposed methods’ effectiveness, a complete series of power electronics applications are carried out. These applications include single-phase and three-phase DC/AC power converter, single-phase AC/DC power converter, and single-phase grid-connected power converter. The detailed system modeling and the proposed RC schemes are presented for each power electronics application

Parallel structure general repetitive controller for general grid-connected PWM converters

This study investigates parallel structure general repetitive control (PSGRC) and its error convergence rate by using exponential function properties. PSGRC offers a general repetitive control solution for power converters to mitigate power harmonics distortions. PSGRC with appropriate settings will lead to various RCs with various error convergence rates at interested harmonic frequencies, e.g. conventional RC, dual-model RC, and odd harmonics RC. As application examples, PSGRC was applied into general grid-connected pulse-width-modulation (PWM) converter systems. Experimental results show the effectiveness and advantages of PSGRC: three/single-phase grid-connected PWM converters can achieve zero-error current tracking and very fast current error convergence rate upon demand

Virtual variable sampling discrete fourier transform based selective odd-order harmonic repetitive control of DC/AC converters

This paper proposes a frequency adaptive discrete Fourier transform (DFT) based repetitive control (RC) scheme for DC/AC converters. By generating infinite magnitude on the interested harmonics, the DFT-based RC offers a selective harmonic scheme to eliminate waveform distortion. The traditional DFT-based selective harmonic RC, however, is sensitive to frequency fluctuation since even very small frequency fluctuation leads to a severe magnitude decrease. To address the problem, virtual variable sampling method, which creates an adjustable virtual delay unit to closely approximate a variable sampling delay, is proposed to enable the DFT-based selective harmonic RC to be frequency adaptive. Moreover, a selective odd-order harmonic DFT filter is developed to deal with the dominant odd order harmonic. Because it halves the number of sampling delays in the DFT filter, the system transient response gets nearly 50% improvement. A comprehensive series of experiments of the proposed VVS DFT-based selective odd-order harmonic RC controlled programmable AC power source under frequency variations are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method

Uncertainty and disturbance estimator design to shape and reduce the output impedance of inverter

Power inverters are becoming more and more common in the modern grid. Due to their switching nature, a passive filter is installed at the inverter output. This generates high output impedance which limits the inverter ability to maintain high power quality at the inverter output. This thesis deals with an impedance shaping approach to the design of power inverter control. The Uncertainty and Disturbance Estimator (UDE) is proposed as a candidate for direct formation of the inverter output impedance. The selection of UDE is motivated by the desire for the disturbance rejection control and the tracking controller to be decoupled. It is demonstrated in the thesis that due to this fact the UDE filter design directly influences the inverter output impedance and the reference model determines the inverter internal electromotive force. It was recently shown in the literature and further emphasized in this thesis that the classic low pass frequency design of the UDE cannot estimate periodical disturbances under the constraint of finite control bandwidth. Since for a power inverter both the reference signal and the disturbance signal are of periodical nature, the classic UDE lowpass filter design does not give optimal results. A new design approach is therefore needed. The thesis develops four novel designs of the UDE filter to significantly reduce the inverter output impedance and maintain low Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the inverter output voltage. The first design is the based on a frequency selective filter. This filter design shows superiority in both observing and rejecting periodical disturbances over the classic low pass filter design. The second design uses a multi-band stop design to reject periodical disturbances with some uncertainty in the frequency. The third solution uses a classic low pass filter design combined with a time delay to match zero phase estimation of the disturbance at the relevant spectrum. Furthermore, this solution is combined with a resonant tracking controller to reduce the tracking steady-state error in the output voltage. The fourth solution utilizes a low-pass filter combined with multiple delays to increase the frequency robustness. This method shows superior performance over the multi-band-stop and the time delayed filter in steady-state. All the proposed methods are validated through extensive simulation and experimental results

Uncertainty and Disturbance Estimator-Based Controller Equipped With a Time-Delayed Filter to Improve the Voltage Quality of Inverters

In this paper, a two-degrees-of-freedom control structure is proposed to minimize both total harmonic distortion and tracking error of inverter output voltage, adopting a resonant tracking controller and a modified uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE). Owing to the two-degree-of-freedom feature of the proposed control strategy, tracking and disturbance rejection tasks are decoupled and treated almost independently. A time-delay action is introduced into a commonly adopted low-pass UDE filter to minimize the output impedance magnitude around the odd harmonics, which is typical to nonlinear loads. Once the disturbance is properly rejected, a tracking resonant controller is designed to force the output of the nominal system to follow a sinusoidal reference with near-zero amplitude and phase error. The performance of the proposed control structure is fully verified by experimental results

Control of high performance single phase DC-AC inverter

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

Analysis of the Harmonic Performance of Power Converters and Electrical Drives

Power converters have progressively become the most efficient and attractive solution in recent decades in many industrial sectors, ranging from electric mobility, aerospace applications to attain better electric aircraft concepts, vast renewable energy resource integration in the transmission and distribution grid, the design of smart and efficient energy management systems, the usage of energy storage systems, and the achievement of smart grid paradigm development, among others.In order to achieve efficient solutions in this wide energy scenario, over the past few decades, considerable attention has been paid by the academia and industry in order to develop new methods to achieve power systems with maximum harmonic performance aiming for two main targets. On the one hand, the high-performance harmonic performance of power systems would lead to improvements in their power density, size and weight. This becomes critical in applications such as aerospace or electric mobility, where the power converters are on-board systems. On the other hand, current standards are becoming more and more strict in order to reduce the EMI and EMC noise, as well as meeting minimum power quality requirements (i.e., grid code standards for grid-tied power systems)

Design of module level converters in photovoltaic power systems

The application of distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) technology in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems is a hot topic in industry and academia. In the PV industry, grid integrated power systems are mainstream. The main objective for PV system design is to increase energy conversion efficiency and decrease the levelized cost of electricity of PV generators. This thesis firstly presents an extensive review of state-of-the-art PV technologies. With focus on grid integrated PV systems research, various aspects covered include PV materials, conventional full power processing DMPPT architectures, main MPPT techniques, and traditional partial power processing DMPPT architectures. The main restrictions to applying traditional DMPPT architectures in large power systems are discussed. A parallel connected partial power processing DMPPT architecture is proposed aiming to overcome existing restrictions. With flexible ‘plug-and-play’ functionality, the proposed architecture can be readily expanded to supply a downstream inverter stage or dc network. By adopting smaller module integrated converters, the proposed approach provides a possible efficiency improvement and cost reduction. The requirements for possible converter candidates and control strategies are analysed. One representative circuit scheme is presented as an example to verify the feasibility of the design. An electromagnetic transient model is built for different power scale PV systems to verify the DMPPT feasibility of the evaluated architecture in a large-scale PV power system. Voltage boosting ability is widely needed for converters in DMPPT applications. Impedance source converters (ISCs) are the main converter types with step-up ability. However, these converters have a general problem of low order distortion when applied in dc-ac applications. To solve this problem, a generic plug-in repetitive control strategy for a four-switch three-phase ISC type inverter configuration is developed. Simulation and experimental results confirm that this control strategy is suitable for many ISC converters.The application of distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) technology in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems is a hot topic in industry and academia. In the PV industry, grid integrated power systems are mainstream. The main objective for PV system design is to increase energy conversion efficiency and decrease the levelized cost of electricity of PV generators. This thesis firstly presents an extensive review of state-of-the-art PV technologies. With focus on grid integrated PV systems research, various aspects covered include PV materials, conventional full power processing DMPPT architectures, main MPPT techniques, and traditional partial power processing DMPPT architectures. The main restrictions to applying traditional DMPPT architectures in large power systems are discussed. A parallel connected partial power processing DMPPT architecture is proposed aiming to overcome existing restrictions. With flexible ‘plug-and-play’ functionality, the proposed architecture can be readily expanded to supply a downstream inverter stage or dc network. By adopting smaller module integrated converters, the proposed approach provides a possible efficiency improvement and cost reduction. The requirements for possible converter candidates and control strategies are analysed. One representative circuit scheme is presented as an example to verify the feasibility of the design. An electromagnetic transient model is built for different power scale PV systems to verify the DMPPT feasibility of the evaluated architecture in a large-scale PV power system. Voltage boosting ability is widely needed for converters in DMPPT applications. Impedance source converters (ISCs) are the main converter types with step-up ability. However, these converters have a general problem of low order distortion when applied in dc-ac applications. To solve this problem, a generic plug-in repetitive control strategy for a four-switch three-phase ISC type inverter configuration is developed. Simulation and experimental results confirm that this control strategy is suitable for many ISC converters

Design and Implementation of Internal Model Based Controllers for DC/ AC Power Converters

The aim of this thesis is to design and implement an advanced control system for a working three-phase DC to AC power converter. Compared to' the traditional PI controller used widely in industry, the new voltage controller can track the reference voltage with improved accuracy and efficiency in the presence of different kind of local loads, and also works well in the single phase voltage control. This voltage controller is combined with a power controller to yield a complete controller. An important aspect of this work is the hardware implementation of the whole system. Main parts ofthis thesis are: ???????? 1. Review ofH-infinity and repetitive control techniques and their applications in power converters. 2. Design of a new voltage controller to eliminate the DC component in the output voltages, and taking into account the practical issues such as the processing delay due to the digital signal processor (DSP) implementation. 3. Modelling and simulation of the converter system incorporating different control techniques and with different kinds of loads. 4. Hardware implementation and the two-processor controller. The parallel communication between the DSPs. 5. The main problems encountered in???????????????????? hardware implementation and programming. The software used to initialize DSPs, implement the discretetime voltage controller and other functions such ~ generations of space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) signals, circuit protections, analog to digital (AD) cOl)versions, data transmission, etc. 6. Experimental results the under circumstances of no load connected to the converter, pure three-phase resistive loads, three-phase unbalanced resistive' loads and the series resistor-inductor loads. /Imperial Users onl