A Novel Small Signal Modeling of Three-Phase Grid

Connected Inverter System

Tusar Kumar Dash, B. Chitti Babu, Member, IEEE

Abstract This paper presents the first stage of research
work which is intended to design a control technique for three
phase grid connected Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) in
Distributed Power Generation System. In this part of work a
novel small signal model of a three phase grid connected VSI has
been derived and its relevant transfer functions have been
deduced from it so as to analyze the system for designing a
controller and also bode plots have been plotted. The studied
system is modeled and simulated in the MATLAB-Simulink
environment.

Index Terms Three phase grid connected VSI, synchronous
reference frame, small signal model. Pulse width modulation
(PWM). Bode plot.
I. INTRODUCTION
Three phase VSIs are used to interface between dc and ac
systems in distributed power generation system applications.
As distributed power generation systems have been
emphasized due to current prediction of conventional sources
of power production, modeling of used converter has become
one of the research area now-a-days [1]. Different control
techniques have been applied to the three phase grid connected
VSI for the control of active and reactive power along with dc
link voltage. However, designing a controller with help of a
small signal model is a well-known practice in dc-dc
converter. In [2] a small signal model of a three phase grid
connected VSI has been opted and verified with help of digital
signal processing for photo voltaic application. State space
averaging method has been adopted for deriving the small
signal model of the three phase inverter. Small signal model
has been used in [3] for maximum power point tracking from
the photo voltaic arrays.
Transfer functions of the control variables need
to be identified for designing a control system. The transfer
functions are deduced using averaged switched modeling
technique [4]. In modern days power electronics converters are
more pronounced in almost all the applications. As switches
are involved in these applications, non-linearity occurs in the
system. So the power stage must be linearized so as to design a
linear feed-back control. A small signal model is derived and a
small perturbation is given around an operating point and then
linearized [5].

_____________________________
Tusar Kumar Dash and B.Chitti Babu are with the Department of
Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, INDIA.
(Email: tusar_dany85@rediffmail.com, bcbabunitrkl@ieee.org )


In this paper, a three phase grid connected VSI with LC
filter has been considered for modeling. As it is quite difficult
to design a controller in case of three phase ac system, so first
three phase ac system is transformed to a synchronous rotating
reference frame and the transformation is known as Parks
transformation [6]. The resulting model from this
transformation is known as large signal model which involves
dc quantities due to the transformation to the rotating frame.
Then small signal model of the three phase inverter has been
developed from it on the principle of perturb and observe [5].
II. MODELING OF 3- GRID CONNECTED INVERTER
The modeling of inverter involves two stages. First one is
power stage modeling which is also known as large signal
modeling and the second one is small signal modeling.
A. Power Stage Modeling
In this stage of modeling power circuit including inverter,
second order LC filter and grid are transformed in to rotating
reference frame.
Vdc
s1
s2
s3
s4
s5
s6
i
L
L
L
C C C
VBi
VAi
VCi
A
B
C
V Ag
VBg
VCg
iA
iB
iC
Rc Rc Rc

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of three phase grid connected VSI with LC filter

In Fig.1 a three phase VSI is connected to the grid through a
LC filter. V
Ai,
,V
Bi
,V
Ci
are the voltages at the inverter output
and V
Ag
,V
Bg
, V
Cg
are the voltages at the grid end. Applying
voltage balance equation
(
(
(

+
(
(
(

=
(
(
(

V
V
V
i
i
i
V
V
V
Cg
Bg
Ag
c
b
a
Ci
Bi
Ai
dt
d
L
(1)
where L= inductance of filter, and filter resistance is neglected
here.
Transforming the equation (1) into synchronous reference
frame (Appendix) equation (2) is opted.
(

+
(
(

+
(
(

=
(
(

i
i
V
V
i
i
V
V
d
q
qg
dg
q
d
qi
di
L
dt
d
L e
(2)



As the inverter output voltages is a function of dc link
voltage, they can be expressed as follows
V
d
d
V
V
dc
q
d
qi
di
(
(

=
(
(

,
| |
(
(

=
i
i
d d
q
d
q d
i
(3)

Where V
dc
is dc link voltage applied to the inverter and d
d
and
d
q
are the duty cycles corresponding to the d- and q-axes
respectively. By putting value of equation (3) in equation (2)
equations (4) and (5) can be obtained
V i
i
V d dg q
d
dc d
L
dt
d
L + = e
(4)
V i
i
V d qg d
q
dc q
L
dt
d
L + + = e
(5)

The compensating terms appearing in the equations (4) and (5)
are due to the transform voltage. From the above equations
power stage model can be deduced as given in Fig.2.
L
L
Vdc
i
i d d d
i d q q
V d dc d
iq
L e
Vdg
Rc
C
Rc
C
id
iq id
L e
V d dc q
Vqg
Z
Vqg
Z
Vdg

Fig.2 Power stage model of three phase grid connected VSI.

In Fig.2 R
c
is the damping resistor used to damp out the
oscillations occurring due to the resonance resulted from LC
filter. The values of L,C (filter capacitance) and damping
resistor R
c
have been referred from [7]. Power stage model is
helpful in getting a dc operating point so as to design a
controller for it.
( )
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
+ =
C
Rc
Z
e
2
2 1

B. Small Signal Model
The small signal model is then derived from the power
stage model by giving a perturbation and then linearizing
around an operating point.
An operating point is defined as follows
Dc supply voltage= V
dc

d-axis duty cycle= D
d
q-axis duty cycle= D
q

d-axis current = I
d

q-axis current = I
q

d-axis grid voltage= V
dg

q-axis grid voltage= V
qg


For deriving small signal model a perturbation is given around
the operating point which is given as follows
v V V dc dc dc

+ =

d
D D
d
d d
+ =

v V V
v V V
i I I
i I I
d
D D
qg qg qg
dg dg dg
q
q q
d
d d
q
q q

+ =
+ =
+ =
+ =
+ =


In the above new operating point, parameters with are
the small perturbed variables. By putting these perturbations in
equations (3), (4) and (5) equations (7), (8) and (9) are
obtained
i V
d
v D v
i
q dc
d
g d dg
d
L
dt
d
L

e =
(7)
Z dt
d
C
v
i
v qg
d
dg

+ =
(8)
i
d
i
d i D i D q
q
d
d q q d d
i

+ + + =
(9)


From equations (7), (8) and (9) small signal model is
derived as shown in Fig.3
i

vdc

i D
d d

i D q q i
d d
d

i d q q

V
d
v D dc d dc d

+
i d
i q
L e
L
Rc
C
Z
vqg
vdg

V
d
v D dc
q
dc q

+
i q
i d
L e
L
Rc
C
vqg

Z
vdg

Fig.3 Small signal model of three phase grid connected VSI
III. TRANSFER FUNCTIONS
The small signal model derived in Fig.3 is then used to
extract open loop transfer functions. The transfer functions of
interest are 1. Controls to the filter inductor currents 2.
Controls to the grid voltages.
For simplification in deriving transfer functions the grid
voltage has been oriented along d-axis. So V
dg
is of constant
amplitude as grid voltage is having constant amplitude and V
qg

=0. From Fig.3 concerned transfer functions are derived in
frequency domain as follows.
A. Control to d-axis current:
.
) (
) (
2

e Z L
s
s
s
s
V
d
i dc
d
d

=
(10)
L Z
Z
s
s
L s
V
d
i dc
q
d
e

=
2 2
.
) (
) (

(11)
where =inverter output frequency.

B. Control to q-axis current:

L
V
d
i
s
Z
s
s
dc
q
q
2
.
) (
)

e
=
(12)

C. Control to grid voltage transfer function

Z sL
Z
s
s
V
d
v
dc
d
dg
+
=
.
) (
) (

(13)

Bode plot of control to grid voltage transfer function is
given in Fig.4
-20
0
20
40
60
80
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
)
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
10
6
-180
-135
-90
-45
0
P
h
a
s
e

(
d
e
g
)
Bode Diagram
Frequency (Hz)

Fig.4 Control to grid voltage transfer function bode plot

As LC filter has been used between the inverter and grid, it
is prone to occurrence of resonance [8]. The resonant
frequency is given as follows
LC
1
0
=
e
(18)

In this paper resonant frequency f
0
is 993Hz considering the
values of L and C from Table.1. In Fig.4 resonance can be
observed i.e at the frequency of 993 Hz there is a phase drop
of and at the same time there is a peak in the magnitude
plot. However, a suitable damping resistor R
c
has been used
for damping out the oscillations at resonance.
TABLE-I
SYSTEM PARAMETERS
Parameter Values
Dc link voltage (V
dc)
600 volt
Inverter output frequency (f) 50 Hz
Filter inductance (L)
Filter capacitance(C)
Damping resistance(R
c
)
5.46mH
4.7F



IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper a three phase grid connected VSI was studied
and its power stage as well as small signal model were derived
and then transfer functions. From the study, the following
interpretations are made. The obtained Bode plot of control to
grid voltage the effect of resonance was observed. The small
signal model and transfer functions enunciated in this paper
will be helpful in designing a controller for the three phase
grid connected inverter system to ensure stable operating point
during uncertainty in the grid parameters such as sudden
increase in load, grid fault, and abrupt changes in the voltage
at PCC.
APPENDIX A
The transformation of three phases a-b-c is first done to two phase
stationary reference frame i.e - reference frame and then to d-q
reference frame which rotates at synchronous speed.
u
Va
Vb
Vc
axis o
axis |
Vo
V|
120
o
120
o
120
o
( ) u
o

120

Fig.A1 Transformation of three phases to stationary - reference frame.
(
(
(

(
(
(
(
(

+
+
=
(
(
(

V
V
V
V
V
V
C
B
A
*
2
1
2
1
2
1
) 120 cos( ) 120 cos( cos
) 120 sin( ) 120 sin( sin
3
2
0
u u u
u u u
|
o (A1)
ue
ue
axis d
axis q
axis o
axis |
Vo
V|
Vd
Vq

Fig.A2 Transformation of three phases to stationary - reference frame.
(
(

=
(
(

V
V
V
V
q
d
e e
e e
*
cos sin
sin cos
u u
u u
|
o
(A2)

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