Energy and Buildings 57 (2013) 6573

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Energy and Buildings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enbuild

Simulation model linked PV inverter implementation utilizing

dSPACE DS1104 controller
Z.A. Ghani a,b , M.A. Hannan a, , A. Mohamed a
a
b

Department of Electrical, Electronic & Systems Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
Faculty of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia, Melaka, Malaysia

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 9 May 2012
Received in revised form 2 August 2012
Accepted 13 October 2012
Keywords:
PV
dSPACE
Inverter
SPWM
Control algorithm

a b s t r a c t
This paper presents the simulation model linked prototype development of a photovoltaic (PV) threephase inverter utilizing the dSPACE DS1104 controller. The inverter model and control algorithm were
developed and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink. The control algorithm of the simulation model is linked
to the built inverter prototype by using the dSPACE DS1104 controller board. The control system employs
the PI controller to generate the PWM signals for IGBTs switching, thus producing and regulating the 50 Hz
sinusoidal ac output voltage. For the input sources, the inverter utilizes 25 units of real PV modules which
generate a dc output voltage of 435 V. Simulation results show that the controller managed to regulate
the rms output voltage of 240 V and 100% in magnitude of fundamental component. The test results
show that the inverter rms output voltage and current are stabilized at 240 V and 4.5 A respectively. The
total harmonic distortion (THD) of the voltage and current waveform are 2.5% and 3.5% respectively that
proved the efcacy of the developed control algorithm.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
There have been growing interests in harvesting and utilizing
alternative energy sources for furnishing part of the current and
future energy rising demand. Some of the energy sources are wind
energy and solar energy. In fact, the conventional energy source,
fossil is exhausting. PV is one of the important renewable energy
sources, especially for remote locations where utility power is
unavailable [1,2]. Moreover, this pollution-free and maintenancefree energy source has a long life span. Unlike the wind-generated
energy source, a PV energy source is a dc power source which
requires a converter such as an inverter for converting to an
ac power source [3]. Most of PV-related applications such as ac
loads and machines require inverters as the interfacing units. Generally, for high-voltage applications, inverters incorporate dcdc
boost converters [4]. The success of PV system applications are
related to the design and performance of inverters and controllers.
Opportunities still exist for the design engineers to improve on
inverters and controllers, since inverters failure remains one of
the primary causes of PV system failure [5]. The issue of inverter
self-consumption losses has impacted on its efciency [69].
Besides, other factors such as the impact of unbalanced loads on
inverter output voltage [10], nonlinearity, and low efciency of
the PV devices [1113], intermittent nature of PV energy source

Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 38921 7014.

E-mail address: hannan@eng.ukm.my (M.A. Hannan).
0378-7788/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2012.10.045

[14,15] and variation of dc input voltage [16], generation of electromagnetic interference, harmonics level [1724], high speed
and frequency capability for generating pulse-width modulation
(PWM) signals [25], and PWM dead-time effects [26] need to be
looked on. Considering the high cost of the PV, there should be a
balanced between the selection of inverter size as well capacity and
the total number of PV required [27,28]. Thus, the effectiveness of
the inverter control system, e.g. controller, control strategy, is the
key to the successful of the PV system applications.
Concerning the issue of self-losses which relates to the efciency of the inverter, an appropriate switching frequency selection
for the power devices must be considered in the system design.
High switching frequency eases the ltering design which in turns
enhances the quality of the inverter output waveform. In fact, this
alleviates the issue of high level of harmonic components in the
inverter output waveform. On the other hand, it leads to higher
power loss which reduces the inverter efciency. In addition, high
frequency tends to generate an electromagnetic interference (EMI)
which causes adverse effect to the system surrounding. Therefore,
the selection of suitable switching frequency is crucial and must
take into account the inverter output quality, power loss, efciency
and EMI generation.
In the PV-based inverter system, the issue of power intermittent nature of the PV must be considered in the inverter design.
This causes unstable in the level of inverter output power which
is undesirable especially for the sensitive and critical loads. Some
of the methods adopted to enhance the PV shortcoming are by
integrating a dcdc boost converter and back-up batteries into the

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Z.A. Ghani et al. / Energy and Buildings 57 (2013) 6573

Table 1
Summaries of the inverters parameters and their systems.
No.

Inverter parameters

Ref. [6]

Ref. [29]

Ref. [30]

Ref. [33]

Ref. [34]

Ref. [35]

Ref. [36]

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Voltage THD
Current THD
Power factor
Topology
Switching technology
Hardware implementation
System environment
Transformer

N/A
6.8
N/A
3-, 3-L
PWM
Simple
Progm
Yes

1.5
N/A
N/A
3-, 3-L
PWM
Complex
Progm
No

N/A
8.87
0.994
3-, 3-L
SPWM
Moderate
Progm
No

6.8%
N/A
Unity
1-, 5-L
SPWM
Complex
Progm
No

N/A
4.0
N/A
3-, 3-L
SVPWM
Moderate
Progm/Simulink
No

N/A
8.4
0.96
1-, 5-L
SPWM
Moderate
Progm
No

N/A
19.8
Unity
3-, 3-L
SPWM
Complex
Progm
No

N/A, not available; L, level; Progm, programming.

system. Therefore, the variations of the PV output dc voltage are

compensated which leads to a stabilized inverter output voltage.
Owing to these highlighted issues and problems concerning
inverters, the new approach of the PV-based inverter control system acquires such enhanced outcomes which depicted in Table 1. It
describes the summary of inverters parameters and their systems in
relation to the references, in terms of the output voltage and current
harmonics contents, power factor, topology, switching, implementation, system environment or platform, and utilization of step-up
transformers. Apparently, the design of inverters without the stepup transformer is more favorable as it improves the overall inverter
physical size, cost and weight. In view of the quality of the inverter
output waveforms, the proposed inverter demonstrates better THD
level for both voltage and current waveform. Although voltage in
[29] shows lower THD level, it has the shortcoming of acquiring
a complex hardware as well as control algorithm which denitely
increases the inverter cost and size.
Various types of controllers are employed in inverters, e.g.
analog circuit controllers, digital circuit controllers, digital signal
processors (DSP), microcomputers, microcontrollers and eld programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) [2935]. The DSP TMS320F2812
and FPGA are used in the control algorithm for the PV inverters considered in [3237]. The user needs software programming
knowledge for developing the inverter control algorithm and this is
a time consuming task. The dSPACE DS1104 controller enables the
user to employ the MATLAB/Simulink tools for the development
of control algorithm as well as simulation. With the availability
of the library blocksets, it simplies the programming task. The
codes of the successfully simulated model can be linked and loaded
directly to the dSPACE controller board for the real time hardware
operation.
In researches and developments, the exibility of a controller is
essential for variation of product parameters during the development stage. With this advantage together with the availability of
a graphical object-oriented package, the dSPACE-based system is
suitable to be utilized for the inverter controller platform. Users also
can develop the user-friendly control panel used for on-line monitoring and supervision [38]. The dSPACE system is quite popular
in controlling platform and is widely used in automation systems
and car manufacturing industries [38]. Alternatively, the dSPACE
system can be utilized as a control platform for the PV inverter
development.
Generally, the difculty level of the system implementation
is associated with the inverter topology, switching strategy, and
system environment or platform. Inverter topology with two or
three-level is simple to be implemented. In contrast, the multilevel
inverter, e.g. ve levels or more as in [33,35], required more complex control system, especially in the switching signals generation
and coordination. Moreover, the algorithm is quite difcult and the
system controller tends to experience a burden in carrying out the
system algorithm and computational. Considering the simplicity
and easiness of the system design and implementation, the proposed inverter acquires the advantage of short period of design

and implementation stage. Moreover, it is expedite with the integration of MATLAB/Simulink with the dSPACE DS1104 controller.
Importantly, this can be enhanced with the real-time simulation
or rapid control prototyping (RCP), where the system simulation is
carried out in the combination with the real inverter.
Another essential attribute of an inverter is the output power
factor. Inverter with unity power factor delivers power to a load
efciently. Advantageously, the proposed inverter and some of the
other inverters acquire this signicant feature, while others lack of
such feature.
This paper describes the prototype development of photovoltaic
three-phase inverter utilizing the dSPACE DS1104 controller. The
inverter model and control algorithm are developed and simulated
in the SimPowerSystem blockset environment and then linked to
the prototype inverter by utilyzing the dSPACE DS1104 controller
board.
Indeed, the paper presents the operation principle and control
algorithm of the PV-based inverter. This is essential due to the fact
that it is the core in the PV-based integrated buildings, both remote
and grid-connected buildings. Here, the PV-based inverter is effectively integrated and utilized for achieving the energy-efciency
type of buildings. Considering the signicant of the aforementioned
PV-based inverter, the PV sources can be fully utilized and integrated in specially design buildings where the available PV energy
can be easily harvested by using the proposed PV-based inverter.

2. PV inverter controller
2.1. dSPACE controller
A dSPACE DS1104 controller is suitable for inverter control platform as it enables the linking of the MATLAB/Simulink
inverter simulated model to the real hardware. Utilizing the MATLAB/Simulink Real-Time Workshop function, the Simulink model
is compiled, converted to the C-code, and linked to the real-time
dSPACE DS1104 processor board automatically [39]. For the linking process, user needs to include the dSPACE inputoutput (I/O)
interface blocks, e.g. DS1104ADC, DS1104DAC and DS1104BIT OUT,
into the Simulink models. With the application of the dSPACE ControlDesk graphical user interface (GUI) software, the monitoring of
the performance and behavior of the inverter in real time is made
possible. In fact, the controller parameters can be changed and the
performance can be observed in real time.
A simplied block diagram of the dSPACE DS1104 controller
consisting of two processors is shown in Fig. 1. The master processor is the PowerPC603 64-bit oating-point which runs at 250 MHz.
The slave processor is the 16-bit Texas Instruments TMS320F240
DSP microcontroller. This makes the dSPACE DS1104 controller
ideal for prototype development system for cost-sensitive rapid
control prototyping. It is also specially designed for the development of high-speed multivariable digital controllers and real-time
simulations in various elds [40].

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67

Personal
computer
dSPACE DS1104
Controller Board

PCI connector
Power PC 603 Communication Slave DSP-TI
Master Processor
TMS320F240
Memory
Memory
Timers
Serial peripheral
Interrupt controller
interface
ADC unit
4 capture inputs
DAC unit
PWM generator
Digital I/O
Incremental
Input/output
encorder interface

Fig. 3. Block diagram of the voltage control scheme implemented in dSPACE DS1104
controller board.

Input/output
Input/output connector

Hardware
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the dSPACE DS1104 controller board.

2.2. Control strategy

A deadbeat controller that utilized dSPACE DS1104 controller
in the high frequency link single-phase inverter is considered [41].
Alternatively, the digital proportional integral (PI) controller can be
employed to regulate the three-phase PV inverter ac output voltage.
Fig. 2 describes the block diagram of a dSPACE-controlled inverter
implemented in this work. The system consists of a dSPACE DS1104
controller, dcdc boost converter, inverter, load and voltage sensors.
As part of the voltage regulation feedback loop, three voltage
sensors are used for interfacing the inverter output voltages, va ,
vb and vc , with the dSPACE. With the specic voltage gains, these
sensors attenuate the voltages to adapt to the dSPACE working voltages. The inverter output voltages va , vb and vc with unity power
factor are assumed as in (1)(3).

va = V sin t

(1)


2

vb = V sin t 
3

2
3

vc = V sin t + 

(2)


(3)

where V is the voltage magnitude and is the output frequency.

The sensors scale down these voltages and feed them to the

ADC

Voltage sensors

Voltage regulator

Inverter

PWM generator for

inverter
PWM generator for
dc-dc boost converter
Digital I/O
dSPACE DS1104
controller board

va, vb, vc

PWM
Driver

IGBT

Filter

Dc output voltage
Dc-dc boost converter
PWM

Driver

IGBT
PV

Fig. 2. Block diagram of dSPACE-controlled inverter.

Load

analog-to-digital converter (ADC) channels of the dSPACE DS1104

for further signal processing. These signals are sampled and fed to
the voltage regulator block for voltage regulation. For standalone
inverter, the strategy is to regulate the output voltage supplied to
the load. This issue is addressed by the control strategy presented
in Fig. 3.
Utilizing the Parks transformation method, the sampled signals
are transformed from the abc stationary frame into synchronousrotating frame system, dq (direct-quadrature) [42]. Consequently,
the two components, d and q are regulated based on their
respective references which are dref and qref respectively. In this
transformation which assumes the balanced loads condition, the
50 Hz synchronization signal is employed derived from the phaselocked loop (PLL) block. With this transformation, the PI controllers
are able to operate effectively on the two components, reducing the
steady-state errors, thus, regulates the output voltage. Moreover,
the power with unity power factor is generated and transferred to
the load. The PI controller algorithm in time domain is described
by (4).


u(t) = Kp e(t) + Ki

e()d

(4)

where u(t) is the output of the PI controller, Kp and Ki are the gains
of the proportional and integral terms, and e(t) is the error voltage
which is the difference between the reference voltage and the measured one (dref d ). The output voltages as in (1)(3) are sampled
based on the sampling time. In every sampling time, the PI controller generates the output voltage, in such a way that the error
signal is kept to a minimum value. Thus, the system is capable of
keeping the output voltage as close as possible to the reference voltage. As a result the inverter output voltage can be controlled and
stabilized. This voltage regulation is made possible by the accomplishment of the PWM technique.
To obtain a sinusoidal shape ac output waveform, a sinusoidal
PWM (SPWM) switching technique is implemented in the inverter
control algorithm. The duty ratios of switching devices are modulated by the control signal which is the desired fundamental
frequency of the inverter output [43]. The sinusoidal modulating
signal of 50 Hz is compared to the triangular signal of 25 kHz to generate the switching signals for driving the IGBTs. This is the basic
operation of the PWM generator block as depicted in Fig. 3. The
frequency of the triangular signal establishes the inverter switching frequency at which the IGBTs are switched. In the generator,
a control parameter called modulation index, M, is responsible for
the magnitude of fundamental inverter output voltage. The modulation index in (5) is the ratio of the amplitude of modulating signal,
vabc , to the amplitude of carrier signal, vtri .
M=

AVabc
AVtri

(5)

where A is the amplitude of the voltage signal. Varying the amplitude of the modulating signal while keeping the triangular signal
amplitude constant, will cause the modulation index to change.
This causes the changes of the fundamental output line voltage,

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Z.A. Ghani et al. / Energy and Buildings 57 (2013) 6573

Start

Generate boost converter IGBT duty cycle to

supply required inverter voltage, PWMboost

Sense inverter output voltage, va,vb, vc

Transform to dq coordinate system, vd,vq

Compare to reference voltage, vdref, vqref

Is error zero?
(vd error = vdref-vd)
N

Is error is positive?

Increase inverter
IGBT duty cycle,
PWMinv

Maintain inverter
IGBT duty cycle,
PWMinv

N
Decrease inverter
IGBT duty cycle, PWMinv

IGBT duty cycle,

PWMinv

Fig. 4. Flowchart of the developed inverter control algorithm.

since it is proportional to the modulation index. This relationship

is described in Eq. (6).
Vline,rms = 0.612MVdc

(6)

where 0.612 is the conversion factor of phase voltage to line voltage.

To operate in linear range, the index should be in the range of 01.
Varying the index from 0 to 1 will in turn vary the output voltage
from 0 to 0.612Vdc . Increasing the value more than 1 which called
over modulation, resulted a higher output voltage magnitude, but
more harmonics appear in the output waveform compared to that
of linear region. For better output quality, the index is kept below
1.
As depicted in Fig. 2, the inverter uses the optocoupler-based
driver circuit for interfacing the PWM switching signals to the IGBT.
For effective inverter switching operation, it is essential that the
voltage levels of the generated PWM switching signals are suitable
for the IGBT working voltage.

regulation. In this frame, the voltages, vd and vq are compared to

their respective reference voltages, vdref and vqref . At this point, the
voltage comparison process generates an error signal which corresponds to the IGBT modulated duty cycle, PWMinv . A positive
error generates higher duty cycle, while negative error tends to
produce lower duty cycle. This process continues until it reaches
an equilibrium state, whereby a minimum voltage error level is
achieved.
3. Simulation model
Fig. 5 shows the developed MATLAB/Simulink inverter simulation model. The simulation was carried out for 0.1 s with sampling
time of 2 s. The dc input voltage, Vdc , of 400 V for the dc-dc boost
converter is supplied by the voltage source. The converter dc output
voltage, Vc , across the capacitor C is described in (7).
VC =

2.3. Inverter control algorithm

The control strategy is realized in the SimPowerSystem blockset
of the MATLAB/Simulink environment. The owchart of the developed inverter control algorithm is illustrated in Fig. 4. The output
of the inverter control algorithm is the IGBT modulated duty cycle,
the PWM. Initially, the boost converter IGBT duty cycle, PWMboost
is set as to provide the required dc voltage for the inverter input
stage. Then, the three-phase inverter output voltages, va , vb , and
vc are sensed and transformed to dq coordinate frame for voltage

V
1D

(7)

Theoretically, the IGBT duty cycle must be set in such a way

that the dc output voltage of this converter is high enough,
approximately 760 V, for the inverter to able to generate the ac rms
output line voltage of 415 V, providing the modulation index is set
to approximately 0.9. This is described by (6) in previous section.
Practically, the IGBTs switching losses need to be considered. The
overall operation is governed by the control system where the
controller samples the voltages of the inverter and then generates
the PWM signals for driving the IGBTs. With the control scheme

Z.A. Ghani et al. / Energy and Buildings 57 (2013) 6573

69

Fig. 5. Inverter system simulation model.

Fig. 6. dSPACE DS1104 RTI control system implementation of the PV inverter system.

implementation, the inverter is able to maintain constant phase

and line output voltage.
The implementation of the control system with the dSPACE
DS1104 RTI (Real-Time Interface) for the PV inverter system is
shown in Fig. 6. In this implementation, the utilized dSPACE inputoutput library blocks are DS1104MUX ADC, DS1104SL DSP PWM3
and DS1104BIT OUT. The DS1104MUX ADC samples the inverter
output voltages, va , vb and vc and converting to digital for signal
processing. The DS1104SL DSP PWM3 block generates the threephase PWM switching signals for the IGBTs, while DS1104BIT OUT
block generates the PWM switching signal for the IGBT of dcdc
boost converter.
In this experiment, in order to supply enough power for the
resistive load, the PV modules with a total power capacity of 3 kW
are used. The characteristic of the SolarTIFSTF-120P6 PV module
used in this work is depicted in Table 2. For this purpose, a total of

25 units of PV modules are used and the photo of them is shown

in Fig. 7. As a matter of utilizing the modules for maximum output voltage, they are arranged in series-connection conguration
which produces dc output voltage of 435 V.
Generally, the output voltage of the solar cell is a function of
the photocurrent that depends on the solar irradiation level during
its operation [4447]. Eq. (8) describes the behavior of the output
current of the solar cell, Ic . The generation of required PV voltage,

Table 2
Characteristic of PV module.
Symbol

Quantity

Value

Voc
Isc
Vmp
Imp
Pmp

Open circuit voltage

Short-circuit current
Voltage at maximum power
Current at maximum power
Maximum power

21.5 V
7.63 A
17.4 V
6.89 A
120 W

Fig. 7. 25 units of PV modules used in the experiment.

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Z.A. Ghani et al. / Energy and Buildings 57 (2013) 6573

va
vb
vc

500
400
300

Voltage (V)

200
100
0
-100
-200
-300
-400
-500
0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

Time (sec)
Fig. 9. Filtered three-phase output voltage waveforms.
Fig. 8. In lab inverter experimental set up.

VPV , and current, IPV , for the inverter input stage is achieved by
forming the module in series-parallel structure as in Eqs. (9) and
(10). The output power of the PV array, PPV , is the product of output
current and output voltage of PV represented in (11) [48].
IC = Iph I0 = Iph Isat [e(q/AKTc )(V +IRs ) 1]

(8)

where Iph is the light generated cell current, Io is the diode reverse
saturation current, Isat is the diode saturated current, q is the electron charge, A is the ideality factor, K is the Boltzmann constant, Tc
is the cell temperature and Rs is the internal resistance of stack.
VPV = NS [Vref (T Tref ) RS (T Tref )]

(9)

where Ns is the series module number, Vref is the PV reference voltage, is voltage temperature coefcient, T is the stack temperature
and Tref is the reference stack temperature.

IPV = NP Iref +

 G 
1000

(T Tref ) + ISC

 G

1000



(10)

where Np is the parallel module number, Iref is the PV reference

current, is current temperature coefcient and G is the irradiance.
PPV = IPV VPV

(11)

4. Experimental set-up
For verication of the simulated model, an inverter prototype
was build, tested and evaluated in laboratory which is shown in
Fig. 8. Among the equipment used in the experimental set-up are
ammeter, voltmeter, Tektronix digital storage oscilloscope, and
Fluke 434 power quality analyzer. The currents are measured by
using three ac current clamps Fluke i400S.

undesired voltage overshoots. It reveals a considerably good transient and steady-state performance of the inverter. The controller
manages to precisely track the voltage reference, quickly achieve
the steady-state values, and discriminates oscillation around the
operating point. These results demonstrate the efcacy of the control strategy and algorithm employing the PI controller. In the
three-phase system, which acquires high power capacity, the line
voltage characteristics, e.g. vab , are more signicant rather than
phase voltage, van . Signicantly, the rms line
voltage, ab is higher
than the phase voltage, van , by a factor of 3. Therefore, theoretically, the rms line voltage of the three-phase inverter is 415 V. The
waveform of line voltage ab is presented in Fig. 10. As can be seen,
the peak level of the inverter output line voltage is approximately
586 V which is equivalent to rms voltage of 415 V. Like the phase
voltage, the line voltage acquires a sinusoidal fundamental voltage
of 50 Hz with a higher power capacity.
Total harmonic distortion (THD) is one of the criterions which
portray the quality of the inverter waveforms. A lower percentage
of THD indicates higher quality of a waveform. According to the
standard Std IEEE-929-2000 [49], the THD of inverters output voltage and current waveforms must be less than 5%. Fig. 11 shows
the line voltage waveform THD of the simulated inverter which
is 0.01% and complies with the standard. The frequency spectrum
shows that the output waveform contains only the fundamental
component with 100% in magnitude. It indicates that most of the
harmonics components especially around the 25 kHz (500th harmonic order) switching frequency are ltered out from the inverter
output waveforms.

600
400

5. Result and discussion

In the SPWM scheme, the generated voltage waveform contains

unwanted harmonics components which appear as sidebands, centered around the switching frequency and its multiple [19]. Having
25 kHz for the switching frequency, these harmonic components
are easily ltered out by the smaller size LC low-pass lter. The ltered ac output voltage waveforms of the three-phase inverter are
shown in Fig. 9. It can be seen that the output voltage waveforms
are 50 Hz sinusoidal, balance, and displaced to each other by 120 .
Obviously the controller managed to accurately regulate the peak
output phase voltage of 339 V or rms voltage of 240 V without any

200

Voltage (V)

5.1. Simulation results

0
-200
-400
-600
0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

Time (sec)
Fig. 10. Output voltage waveform of line voltage, vab .

0.1

Z.A. Ghani et al. / Energy and Buildings 57 (2013) 6573

71

400
300

Voltage (V)

200
100
0
-100
-200
-300
-400

0.005

0.01

0.015

0.02

0.025

0.03

0.035

0.04

Time (sec)

Fig. 11. THD and harmonic spectrum of line voltage waveform, vab .

Fig. 14. Three-phase output voltage waveforms using real PV module.

ia
ib
ic

10
8
6

Current (A)

4
2
0

5.2. Experimental results

-2
-4
-6
-8
-10
0

are ltered out from the inverter output waveforms. The low THD
of both voltage and current waveform are mainly contributed by
the effectiveness of the components selection of the low pass lter
and the SPWM switching technique implemented in the inverter
control algorithm.

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

Time (sec)
Fig. 12. Filtered three-phase output current.

The current waveforms for the three-phase load are shown in

Fig. 12. Similar to the output voltage waveforms, the phase load current waveforms exhibit a constant peak level of approximately 7 A
or rms of 4.9 A. They are balanced sinusoidal waveforms of 50 Hz,
and 120 displacements to each other. Considering the phase relation of both load current and voltage waveform (Fig. 9), they reveal
in phase relationship, indicating a unity power factor feature which
acquire high efciency. As illustrated in Fig. 13, the THD of current waveform of the simulated inverter is 0.01% and in compliance
with the standard Std 929-2000. It can be clearly seen that, the frequency spectrum of the load current waveforms contain only the
fundamental component which signify that most of the harmonics components especially around the 25 kHz switching frequency

Fig. 13. FFT analysis for simulation showing the THD and harmonic spectrum of
phase current waveform.

The experimental results are presented in order to assess the

effectiveness of the proposed inverter model and control algorithm.
Moreover, it serves as a benchmark which relates the experimental
achievements to the simulation and modeling concepts.
The inverter output phase voltages waveforms are captured and
shown in Fig. 14. As can be seen, the output voltage waveforms are
stabilized at peak voltage level of approximately 339 V which is
equivalent to rms voltage of 240 V. The waveforms are balanced
and nearly sinusoidal with a fundamental frequency of 50 Hz. The
phase voltage waveform, va , vb and vc are 120 displaced of each
other as anticipated in the simulation. They exhibit some slight distortions in the waveforms which are shown by the tiny ripples and
unsmooth sinusoidal waveforms. This is due to the existence of the
small level of low order harmonics, e.g. 3th, 5th, and 7th harmonics, centered around the cut-off frequency of the lter which can
be clearly seen in the harmonic spectrum of Fig. 15. Consequently,
the THD of the output voltage waveforms is calculated to be 2.5%
and comply with the requirement of IEEE-2000.
Finally, the three-phase load current waveforms are depicted
in Fig. 16. Like the voltage waveforms, current waveforms are balanced and nearly sinusoidal with the peak level of approximately
6.4 A or rms of 4.5 A. As anticipated, the 50 Hz sinusoidal current

Fig. 15. THD of the three-phase output voltage waveforms.

72

Z.A. Ghani et al. / Energy and Buildings 57 (2013) 6573

generate the ac output power from the PV modules. The captures

experimental results show that the inverter controller produces
stable sinusoidal output voltage and current of 50 Hz which is
comparable to the simulation. The developed control algorithm
is effective for the generation of ac power from the available PV
source. Compare to the overall inverter system implementation
presented in Table 1, the proposed inverter is better in terms of the
generating quality PV power, unity power factor, system implementation and computation burden. Thus, the simulation model
and prototype implementation performed well in order to show
the usefulness of the PV power conversion into the regulated ac
output waveforms.

8
6

Current (A)

4
2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8

Acknowledgement
0

0.005

0.01

0.015

0.02

0.025

0.03

0.035

0.04

Time (sec)

The authors acknowledge the nancial support received under

the grant UKM-GUP-2011-038 and UKM-KK-FRGS0201-2010.

Fig. 16. Three phase output current waveforms.

References

Fig. 17. THD of the three-phase output current waveforms.

waveforms are 120 displaced to each other. Owing to the existence

of the 3th, 5th, and 7th harmonic components centered on the lter
cut-off frequency, the current waveforms show slight distortions
in the waveforms. As a result, the THD for the load current waveform is calculated to be 3.5% as depicted in Fig. 17 which complies
with the requirement of IEEE-2000. In view of the phase relation of
load current and voltage waveform, both waveforms are in-phase
or unity power factor condition, which implies an efcient of power
transfer.
In general, the above real hardware experimental results are
slightly different compared to that of simulation. Unlike simulation,
the experimental results might be inuenced by the uncontrollable nature of parameters, e.g. component tolerance variation and
circuit parasitic inductance and capacitance which affect the performance of the inverter especially the lter. Nevertheless, these
presented results are considered a good conformity between the
experimental and simulation.
6. Conclusion
The simulation model linked three-phase PV inverter prototype development utilizing the dSPACE DS1104 controller board
platform has been implemented. It has been simulated and experimentally tested in MATLAB/Simulink environment and in the
laboratory respectively. The simulation results of inverter output
voltage and current waveforms are stabilized at 1 p.u. proves that
the algorithm employing PI controllers are effective for the output
regulation. Utilizing dSPACE controller with the inverter prototype, the proposed inverter model control algorithm managed to

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