4492 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO.
11, NOVEMBER 2009
Control Design Guidelines for Single-Phase
Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Inverters With
Damped Resonant Harmonic Compensators
Miguel Castilla, Jaume Miret, Member, IEEE, José Matas, Luis García de Vicuña, and
Josep M. Guerrero, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—The injection of low-harmonic current to the elec-
trical grid is nowadays regulated by international standards. In
order to accomplish these standards, selective harmonic compen-
sation is carried out in grid-connected photovoltaic inverters by
means of resonant harmonic compensators. This paper gives a
systematic design procedure for selecting the gains and parame-
ters of these harmonic compensators. Other factors considered in
the design process include frequency deviation, grid synchroniza-
tion, and transient response. Both a design example meeting the
requirements of grid interconnection and selected experimental
results from a digital-signal-processor-based laboratory prototype
are also reported.
Index Terms—Current harmonic content, grid-connected in-
verter, linear current regulator, photovoltaic (PV) power system.
I. I NTRODUCTION
P HOTOVOLTAIC (PV) installations usually have a flexible
design [1], [2]. Solar PV arrays, dc/dc converters, and
inverters are combined in a distributed configuration to perform
the main functions, such as maximum-power-point tracking,
voltage amplification, and synchronous grid-current injection
[3]–[10].
The interconnection of PV inverters to the electrical grid is
regulated by international standards [11]–[13]. As a guidance
to ensure compatible operation, these standards include factors
relating to power quality, personnel safety, and equipment
protection. The quality of power provided by the PV inverter
is bounded by limits on voltage, frequency, and harmonics.
Deviation from these limits represents abnormal conditions and
may require disconnection of the nonislanding inverter from the
electrical grid [11].
In grid-connected inverters, the injection of low-amplitude
current harmonics is possible using selective harmonic compen-
sation. Several algorithms based on repetitive control theory can
be found in the literature to perform this task [14]–[18]. Excel-
lent results are provided, but at the expense of complex design
Manuscript received October 17, 2008; revised February 24, 2009. First
published March 16, 2009; current version published October 9, 2009. This
work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology under
Grant ENE2006-15521-C03-01.
M. Castilla, J. Miret, J. Matas, and L. García de Vicuña are with the De-
partment of Electronic Engineering, Technical University of Catalonia, 08800
Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain (e-mail: mcastilla@eel.upc.edu).
J. M. Guerrero is with the Department of Automatic Control Systems and
Computer Engineering, Technical University of Catalonia, 08036 Barcelona,
Spain.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2009.2017820
0278-0046/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE
and implementation. As an alternative, linear control schemes
with resonant harmonic compensators have been extensively
used [19]–[33]. Good enough results are given by these control
algorithms in single-phase and three-phase grid-connected PV
inverters [19]–[24]. Moreover, this selective harmonic compen-
sation approach has been successfully applied in other non-
PV applications, such as active pulsewidth modulation (PWM)
rectifiers [25], active power filters [26]–[29], uninterruptible
power supplies [30]–[32], and dynamic voltage restorers [33].
Selective harmonic compensation with linear control
schemes is now a mature control technology. It consists of
a bank of generalized integrators, i.e., second-order bandpass
filters tuned to resonate at a predefined frequency. In fact, each
generalized integrator is responsible for the attenuation of an
individual grid-current harmonic. Ideal generalized integrators
are used in [19]–[23]. These integrators exhibit theoretically
an infinite gain at the resonance frequency, ensuring a nearly
perfect harmonic elimination. However, the realization of ideal
generalized integrators is sometimes not possible due to finite
precision in digital systems. Thus, a damped generalized in-
tegrator is proposed in [30] which have limited gain at the
resonance frequency. This configuration can be realized in
digital platforms with a high accuracy and, moreover, it is well
suited for alleviating some instability problems identified in
ideal integrators [25], [29].
The design of resonant harmonic compensators is not well
documented in the literature [21], [22], [32]. The value of the
generalized integrator parameters is essential for the system
performance, so that a method for choosing these parameters
is actually necessary. In previous works, a time-consuming
trial-and-error method is normally carried out for the design
of generalized integrators [20], [30]. Although some design
considerations have been briefly discussed in [19], [23]–[26],
and [33], the control parameters have been finally tuned using
simulation or experimental results [30], [31]. In fact, there is no
systematic procedure in the literature for the design of damped
resonant harmonic compensators.
In this paper, we present a complete design-oriented study
for single-phase grid-connected PV inverters with damped res-
onant harmonic compensators. The effect of the compensator
characteristics on the inverter performance is analyzed in detail.
A set of design tradeoffs relating harmonic injection, frequency
deviation, grid synchronization, and transient response is iden-
tified. As a result, we propose a systematic procedure for the
CASTILLA et al.: CONTROL DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR PV INVERTERS WITH HARMONIC COMPENSATORS 4493

TABLE I
REQUIREMENTS FOR SINGLE-PHASE GRID-CONNECTED PV INVERTERS

Fig. 1. Single-phase grid-connected PV inverter. (a) Power circuit topology.

(b) Control diagram.
where n can take the values 3, 5, . . . , h, h being the highest
design of damped resonant harmonic compensators compliant current harmonic to be attenuated, and Kn is the n-harmonic
with the requirements on grid interconnection. This procedure gain. Notice that, in a situation in which no harmonic
constitutes the main contribution of this paper. attenuation is required, then h = 0 and the compensator
This paper is organized as follows. Section II includes both transfer function can be written as
the system description and the problem formulation. Section III
H2 (s) = 1. (3)
models the single-phase PV inverter. Section IV gives design
guidelines for the resonant harmonic compensator. Section V
proposes the control design procedure. A detailed design ex- B. Problem Formulation
ample is also provided. Section VI reports on selected exper- Table I shows the requirements and characteristics for PV
imental results from a laboratory prototype. Section VII gives inverter grid interconnection. Distortion limits for current har-
the conclusion of this paper. monics and frequency deviation are specifications reported
in [11]. Similar values have been adopted in standards [12]
II. G RID -C ONNECTED PV I NVERTER W ITH D AMPED and [13]. Most PV inverters designed for grid-interconnected
R ESONANT H ARMONIC C OMPENSATORS service operate close to unity power factor [11]. As a result, the
limit of the power factor angle ϕ is established assuming that
A. System Configuration
the displacement power factor cos ϕ must be in the range
Fig. 1 shows the single-phase grid-connected PV inverter.
The power circuit topology includes an LCL output filter in 0.999 < cos ϕ ≤ 1. (4)
order to attenuate the high-frequency harmonics injected by
In that case, the maximum power factor angle is ϕ = 2.6◦ .
the inverter. Series parasitic resistors are considered in both the
The limits of the phase margin pm are specified in order to
power components and the grid model.
guarantee both stable operation for different grid conditions
The control diagram, also shown in Fig. 1, is based on two
and good transient response during voltage sags and short-time
resonant harmonic compensators H1 (s) and H2 (s) [24]. The
interruptions (see Table I).
compensator H1 (s) is responsible for reference signal tracking.
The objective of this paper is to design the compensators
It consists of a damped generalized integrator tuned to resonate
H1 (s) and H2 (s) to meet the aforementioned requirements for
at the grid frequency fo [30]
grid interconnection. Taking into account that several solutions
K1 2ξωo s can be found for this design, we simplify the analysis by as-
H1 (s) = (1) suming the same harmonic gain K for both compensators, i.e.,
s2 + 2ξωo s + ωo2
K1 = K and Kn = K for n = 3, 5, . . . , h. Thus, the suitable
where ωo = 2πfo , K1 is the fundamental harmonic gain, and ξ values of K, ξ, and h will be systematically derived assuming
is the damping factor. that all the power component values and control parameters are
The compensator H2 (s) is responsible for the attenuation known as a starting point of the design process.
of the low-frequency harmonics injected into the grid [24].
In view of that, the compensator includes a bank of damped III. M ODEL OF A S INGLE -P HASE PV I NVERTER
bandpass filters tuned to resonate at odd multiples of the grid G RID -C ONNECTED T HROUGH AN LCL F ILTER
frequency [26]
This section presents a frequency-domain analysis of the

h single-phase inverter grid-connected through an LCL filter. The
Kn 2ξnωo s
H2 (s) = 1 + 2 + 2ξnω s + (nω )2
(2) resulting dynamic model of the grid current is essential for
n=3
s o o the design of the resonant harmonic compensators.
4494 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009

A. Open Loop Model TABLE II

PARAMETERS OF THE PV INVERTER SYSTEM
In the Laplace domain, the open-loop inverter system can be
modeled as (see Fig. 1)

ii (s) = G1 (s)Vi (s) + G2 (s)Vg (s) + G3 (s)d(s) (5)

io (s) = G4 (s)Vi (s) + G5 (s)Vg (s) + G6 (s)d(s) (6)

where the variables Vi (s), Vg (s), and d(s) denote small-signal

ac perturbations on the input voltage, the grid voltage, and the
duty cycle, respectively. Both Vi (s) and Vg (s) play the role of
external disturbances of the model and d(s) is the control action
disturbance. The transfer functions G1 (s) to G6 (s) are given by

(Lo + Lg )Cs2 + (rc + ro + rg )Cs + 1

G1 (s) = D (7)
d3 s3 + d2 s2 + d1 s + d0
rc Cs + 1
G2 (s) = − (8)
d3 s3 + d2 s2 + d1 s + d0
(Lo + Lg )Cs2 + (rc + ro + rg )Cs + 1
G3 (s) = Vi (9)
d3 s3 + d2 s2 + d1 s + d0
rc Cs + 1
G4 (s) = D (10)
d3 s3 + d2 s2 + d1 s + d0
Li Cs2 + (ri + rc )Cs + 1
G5 (s) = (11)
d3 s3 + d2 s2 + d1 s + d0
rc Cs + 1
G6 (s) = Vi (12) Using (5), (6), and (17), the dynamic model of the grid
d3 s3 + d2 s2 + d1 s + d0
current can be expressed as
where Vi and D are the steady-state values of the input voltage
and the duty cycle, respectively. Moreover, the coefficients d3 , io (s) = G7 (s)Vi (s) + G8 (s)Vg (s) + G9 (s)iref (s) (20)
d2 , d1 , and d0 can be expressed as
where G7 (s) is the input voltage to grid current transfer func-
d3 = Li C(Lo + Lg ) (13) tion, G8 (s) is the grid voltage to grid current transfer func-
d2 = [(rc + ro + rg )Li + (ri + rc )(Lo + Lg )] C (14) tion, and G9 (s) is the reference signal to grid current transfer
function. These functions are given by
d1 = Li + Lo + Lg + [ri rc + (ri + rc )(ro + rg )] C (15)
G1 (s)G6 (s)HS (s)P W M (s)Gd (s)
G7 (s) = G4 (s) − (21)
d0 = ri + ro + +rg . (16) 1 + T (s)

G2 (s)G6 (s)HS (s)P W M (s)Gd (s)

G8 (s) = G5 (s) − (22)
B. Closed-Loop Model 1 + T (s)

From Fig. 1, the duty cycle dynamics can be modeled as G6 (s)H1 (s)P W M (s)Gd (s)
G9 (s) = . (23)
1 + T (s)
d(s) = [H1 (s)iref (s) − HS (s)ii (s)] P W M (s)Gd (s) (17)
The PV-system loop gain T (s) can be written as
where HS (s) = H1 (s) + H2 (s), and P W M (s) and Gd (s)
are the transfer functions of the PWM modulator and the T (s) = G3 (s) (H1 (s) + H2 (s)) P W M (s)Gd (s). (24)
control processing delay, respectively. These functions can be
written as
1 IV. C ONTROL D ESIGN C ONSIDERATIONS
P W M (s) = (18)
Vm This section examines the fundamental transfer functions
−Td s derived above and discusses the effects of K, ξ, and h on
Gd (s) = e (19)
the inverter performance. The analysis is based on the inverter
with Vm and Td the amplitude of the PWM triangular signal parameter values listed in Table II. It is worth mentioning
and the computational delay time of one sampling period, that these parameters have been extracted from the laboratory
respectively [21], [28]. prototype.
CASTILLA et al.: CONTROL DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR PV INVERTERS WITH HARMONIC COMPENSATORS
Fig. 2. Bode diagram of the harmonic compensator H1 (s) with (a) constant damping factor ξ, (b) constant harmonic gain K, and (c) constant product Kξ.
Fig. 3. Bode diagram of the harmonic compensator H2 (s) with damping
factor ξ = 0.002 and harmonic gain K = 20.
A. Harmonic Compensators H1 (s) and H2 (s)
Fig. 2 shows the Bode diagram of the compensator H1 (s) for
different values of K and ξ. The following properties can be ob-
served: 1) the magnitude peak value is given by 20 · log K (dB);
2) the magnitude bandwidth and the phase shape are governed
by ξ; and 3) for constant value of the product Kξ, the magnitude
diagrams overlap for practically all frequencies, except for a
narrow range around the grid frequency.
Fig. 3 shows the Bode diagram of the compensator H2 (s) for
h = 0 and h = 13. In the first case, no bandpass filters are used
and a flat 0 dB magnitude behavior is observed. In the second
case, six filters are employed to attenuate the current harmonics
at frequencies 150 Hz, 250 Hz, 350 Hz, 450 Hz, 550 Hz,
and 650 Hz. Although not explicitly shown in this figure, the
features listed in the aforementioned paragraph are common to
each filter of the compensator H2 (s).
In view of this analysis, it seems reasonable to select a
high value of K in order to obtain a high attenuation of each
individual current harmonic, a low value of ξ in order to get a
4495
low bandwidth so that the selective harmonic compensation be
effective, and a high value of h in order to have enough filters
to attenuate the current harmonics. In next sections, the limits
for the values of K, ξ, and h are derived.
B. Close-Loop Transfer Functions T (s), G8 (s), and G9 (s)
The operation and performance of the resonant harmonic
compensators are easily deduced from the analysis of the
transfer functions T (s), G8 (s), and G9 (s).
Fig. 4(a) shows the Bode diagram of the loop gain T (s) for
h = 0 and h = 13. As it can be seen in this figure, the phase
at the crossover frequency decreases as h increases. In view
of that, the phase margin deteriorates as h increases. In fact, the
measured phase margin is 66.1◦ for h = 0 and 50.4◦ for h = 13.
Although not shown in Fig. 4(a), the measured phase margin
is 55.1◦ and 44.9◦ for h = 11 and h = 15, respectively, which
corroborate this statement. This is the main limitation of high
h values, which may give a poor grid current transient response
during voltage sags. Moreover, in the worse case situation, the
PV inverter may even become unstable.
Fig. 4(b) shows the Bode diagram of the grid voltage to grid
current transfer function G8 (s) for h = 0 and h = 13. It can be
noticed that, for h = 13, an additional attenuation is introduced
by means of magnitude notches centered at the harmonic fre-
quencies. In view of that, a low-harmonic distortion of the grid
current is expected for high values of h.
Fig. 4(c) shows the Bode diagram of the reference signal
to grid current transfer function G9 (s) for h = 0 and h =
13. Once more, for h = 13, six magnitude notches centered
at the harmonic frequencies can be observed, which greatly
reduce the harmonic injection. Moreover, it can be observed
that the magnitude and phase values are 0 dB and 0◦ at 50 Hz,
so that good grid voltage synchronization is possible at this
nominal grid operation. However, note that the phase degrades
significantly for the allowed ±1 Hz frequency deviation. In that
case, the suitable selection of the ξ value is essential to meet the
requirements reported in Table I.
4496
Fig. 4. Bode diagram of (a) loop gain T (s), (b) grid voltage to grid current transfer function G8 (s), and (c) reference signal to grid current transfer function
G9 (s). Damping factor ξ = 0.003, and harmonic gain K = 20.
C. Grid Voltage Synchronization
The resonant harmonic compensators give an excellent har-
monic rejection capability, as shown in Fig. 4. For that reason,
the reference signal is simply generated as
iref = kout vgrid
where kout is the output of the slow external dc-link voltage
loop. The design of this loop has been widely described in the
literature and will therefore not be considered here [2], [23].
Thus, kout is viewed as a constant sensing factor.
In that case, in which no phase deviation exist between the
reference signal and the grid voltage, the phase of the transfer
function G9 (s) at the grid frequency can be directly identified
as the power factor angle ϕ. Fig. 5 shows design curves for
this parameter including the specified limit of ±2.6◦ . Note
that the grid synchronization deteriorates as ξ and h increase,
particularly for maximum grid frequency (51 Hz). In particular,
the maximum values meeting the requirements of Table I are
ξ = 0.0085 and h = 7. In fact, the design of h at its highest
value is desirable in order to improve the harmonic attenuation.
However, for ξ, the lowest value is preferable for accurate
grid synchronization. From a theoretical point of view, the
minimum value of ξ is zero. The control scheme, however,
does not properly work with ξ = 0 due to the compensators are
given by H1 (s) = 0 and H2 (s) = 1. From a practical point of
view, we assume a minimum value of ξ = 0.001. An accurate
representation of the compensators H1 (s) and H2 (s) is also
possible with lower practical values of ξ but at the expense
of increasing the computational load of the fixed-point DSP
platform due to an increase of the required precision on the
bandpass filter algorithms.
D. Sensitivity to Grid-Impedance Variation
The grid inductance has a significant impact on the phase
margin. As a general rule, the phase margin deteriorates as the
grid inductance increases. Fig. 6 clearly shows this fact.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009
Fig. 6 basically shows two design curves for the K gain. Both
curves define the limit values of K that meet the phase margin
requirements for the grid inductance deviation (see Table I). In
particular, with K = 80, the phase margin is 60◦ at stiff grid and
52.9◦ at weak grid. Moreover, with K = 375, the phase margin
(25) is 41.5 at stiff grid and 30◦ at weak grid. Therefore, from the
phase margin requirement, the value of K should belong to the
range 80 < K < 375.
Taking in mind that the phase margin is seriously affected
by the grid inductance, a high value of K value is preferable
in order to obtain a fast transient response in the presence of
voltage sags and short-time interruptions.
E. Current Harmonic Rejection
The harmonic rejection capability of the resonant harmonic
compensators has been described above (see Fig. 4). Some
additional design considerations are detailed here once the
selection of ξ, h, and K has been widely discussed.
The attenuation of a generic current harmonic is mainly
governed by the magnitude of the grid voltage to grid current
transfer function G8 (s) at the frequency nωo . The shape of
this function, furthermore, is modulated by the phase margin,
as Fig. 7 clearly shows. For the lower phase margin, lower
magnitude of G8 (s) is given so that higher current harmonic
attenuation is expected. It is worth mentioning that the low
G8 (s) magnitude is obtained in nearly all the frequency range
of interest. In view of that, we can conclude that low phase
margin values are preferable for both fast transient response and
low-current harmonic injection.
As it was shown in Fig. 2(c), when the product Kξ is main-
tained constant, the Bode diagrams of the compensator H1 (s)
overlap for practically all frequencies, except for a narrow
range around the grid frequency. This interesting property is
shared by all the transfer functions that include low-bandwidth
generalized integrators. In the case of the loop gain T (s), when
the product Kξ is constant, the magnitude and phase diagrams
CASTILLA et al.: CONTROL DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR PV INVERTERS WITH HARMONIC COMPENSATORS
Fig. 5. (a) Power factor angle ϕ versus damping factor ξ and (b) power factor
angle ϕ versus highest resonant filter h(ξ = 0.001). Weak grid situation with
pm = 30◦ .
Fig. 6. Phase margin versus grid inductance with damping factor ξ = 0.001,
and highest resonant filter h = 7.
4497
Fig. 7. Bode diagram of grid voltage to grid current transfer function G8 (s)
with highest resonant filter h = 7 and stiff grid situation.
TABLE III
SOLUTION TO THE DESIGN EXAMPLE
overlap for nearly all frequencies outside the narrow ranges
around the resonant frequencies of the generalized integrators.
For that reason, the phase margin is preserved for constant
Kξ given that the crossover frequency is far from the higher
resonance [see Fig. 4(a)]. Therefore, for constant values of the
product Kξ, the phase margin is also constant.
From the point of view of harmonic attenuation, a low value
of the phase margin is desirable (see Fig. 7). With constant
Kξ, it is possible to obtain a low value of the phase margin
with high-K values (see Fig. 6) and, thus, low ξ values. As a
result, we can conclude that low ξ values are preferable for both
accurate grid synchronization and low-harmonic injection.
V. C ONTROL D ESIGN P ROCEDURE
This section proposes a systematic procedure for the design
of the control parameters K, ξ, and h. The method is based on
the design considerations explained and discussed above.
The design method proceeds as follows.
1) Choose the minimum value of ξ from a practical point of
view. It is necessary to guarantee that the compensators
(1) and (2) have an accurate representation in the DSP
platform.
2) Choose the maximum value of h meeting the specified
requirement for the power factor angle ϕ.
3) Choose the value of K that gives a 30◦ phase margin at
weak grid condition.
Table III lists the solution to the design example considered
in this paper. Once the control design is completed, the har-
monic distortion of the grid current must be measured at the
4498 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009
Fig. 8. Experimental grid voltage and current using the control parameters
shown in Table III. (a) Stiff grid situation with medium voltage distortion
(THD = 4.1%) and nominal frequency. (b) Weak grid situation with high-
voltage distortion (THD = 8.6%) and frequency deviation (fo = 51 Hz).
worse case condition and compared with the specified standard
limits. This last design step is carried out below.
VI. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
This section verifies experimentally the proposed control
design procedure. A complete set of measures including grid
synchronization, harmonic distortion, and transient response is
reported.
A. Laboratory Prototype and Test Setup
The grid-connected PV inverter shown in Fig. 1 has been
built using a 4.5-kVA SEMIKRON full-bridge inverter and a
fixed-point TMS320F2812 DSP control platform. The inverter
uses insulated gate bipolar transistor switches operating at
18-kHz switching frequency and with unipolar PWM modula-
tion. The control scheme has been programmed and translated
into the DSP platform. The discrete version of the resonant
compensators (1) and (2) has been derived using the Tustin
transformation, with a sampling frequency of 18 kHz. An
isolated voltage sensor is used to measure the grid voltage
vgrid . In that case, the gain kout expressed in (25) takes the
value kout = 26.9 mA/V. A Hall current sensor is employed to
measure the inverter current ii . A complete list of the laboratory
prototype parameters is given in Tables II and III.
An extensive set of experiments was carried out. First, the
output of the experimental prototype was connected to the lab-
Fig. 9. Experimental grid voltage and current using the highest harmonic filter
h = 13. Weak grid situation with high-voltage distortion (THD = 8.6%) and
frequency deviation. (a) fo = 49 Hz. (b) fo = 51 Hz.
oratory utility grid to emulate normal operation, i.e., stiff grid
situation with medium voltage distortion (THD = 4.1%) and
nominal frequency (fo = 50 Hz). Next, the prototype was con-
nected to an AGILENT programmable ac source to emulate ab-
normal conditions. A weak grid situation with Lgwk = 3.3 mH
and rgwk = 1.5 Ω was emulated by means of the ac source
output impedance. High-voltage distortion (THD = 8.6%) was
generated by clamping the sinusoidal output voltage waveform.
Periodic voltage sags and grid frequency deviations were easily
reproduced with the ac source. Selected experimental results
from these tests are reported and discussed below.
B. Grid Synchronization
The PV inverter has good grid synchronization using the
control solution listed in Table III. Fig. 8 shows this capability
for two test conditions. In both cases, the phase deviation
between the grid voltage and current meet the power factor
angle requirement shown in Table I.
The control parameters ξ and h have a significant effect on
the power factor angle ϕ, particularly when the grid frequency
deviates from its nominal value (see Fig. 5). This issue is
corroborated by the experimental results shown in Fig. 9. As it
can be seen, using h = 13 (the design solution is h = 7), a high
phase deviation between the grid voltage and current is obtained
for fo = 49 Hz and fo = 51 Hz. Both deviations widely exceed
the specifications listed in Table I.
CASTILLA et al.: CONTROL DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR PV INVERTERS WITH HARMONIC COMPENSATORS
Fig. 10. Measured grid current harmonic spectra using the control parameters shown in Table III. Nominal frequency with (a) stiff grid and (b) weak grid. Weak
grid with frequency deviation (c) fo = 49 Hz and (d) fo = 51 Hz.
C. Harmonic Distortion
The proposed control solution meets the requirements for
grid current harmonic distortion. Fig. 10 shows some selected
results for several test conditions. As it can be seen, the current
distortion increases according to both an increase in the voltage
distortion and a deviation in the grid frequency. Note that,
even in the worst case condition, the amplitude of each current
harmonic is lower than the specified distortion limit.
The capability of current harmonic rejection deteriorates
as the values of ξ and pm increase (see the discussion of
Section IV). The THD measures shown in Fig. 11 validate this
property. Note that the minimum current THD for the worst
case condition (weak grid situation with both high-voltage
distortion and frequency deviation) is obtained for ξ = 0.001
and pm = 20◦ .
D. Transient Response
The PV inverter exhibits fast transient response to voltage
sags when using the control solution listed in Table III. This
solution is based on fixing the pm = 30◦ at weak grid situation.
Fig. 12 shows the grid current transient response for periodic
4499
voltage sags. Moreover, shown in Fig. 12 is the transient
response for a design with pm = 60◦ . Note that, in the last case,
the recovery time (100 ms) is appreciably high in relation to the
result of the proposed control solution.
VII. C ONCLUSION
A systematic procedure for designing the control gains and
parameters of a single-phase grid-connected PV inverter with
damped resonant harmonic compensators has been presented
in this paper. A complete theoretical analysis is carried out
in order to evaluate the effect of the resonant harmonic com-
pensator characteristics on the inverter performance. A set of
design tradeoffs relating grid synchronization, harmonic in-
jection, and transient response is identified. Other considered
aspects in the design process include the PV inverter response to
grid frequency deviation and the sensitivity to grid impedance
variation. The design procedure is also formulated according
to the standard requirements for grid interconnection. Selected
experimental results from a digital signal processor-based lab-
oratory prototype are reported, and they verify the expected
features of the proposed design procedure.
4500 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009
Fig. 11. Measured grid current THD versus damping factor for constant phase
margin. Weak grid situation with high-voltage distortion (THD = 8.6%) and
frequency deviation (fo = 51 Hz).
Fig. 12. Experimental grid current transient response during periodic voltage
sags for (a) pm = 30◦ and (b) pm = 60◦ . Weak grid situation with high-
voltage distortion (THD = 8.6%) and frequency deviation (fo = 51 Hz).
As an interesting topic for future work, the effect of different
fundamental K1 and n-harmonic gains Kn could be investi-
gated. Moreover, the possibility of selecting ξ = 0 in a practical
environment (i.e., the use of ideal generalized integrators [19])
and the suitable control design procedure for this particular case
could be investigated.
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Miguel Castilla received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D.
degrees in telecommunication engineering from the
Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain,
in 1988, 1995, and 1998, respectively.
Since 2002, he has been an Associate Professor in
the Department of Electronic Engineering, Technical
University of Catalonia, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain,
where he teaches courses on analog circuits and
power electronics. His research interests are in the
areas of power electronics, nonlinear control, and
renewable energy systems.
4501
Jaume Miret (M’01) received the B.S. degree in
telecommunications and the M.S. and Ph.D. de-
grees in electronics from the Technical University of
Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain, in 1992, 1999, and
2005, respectively.
Since 1993, he has been an Assistant Professor in
the Department of Electronic Engineering, Technical
University of Catalonia, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain,
where he teaches courses on digital design and cir-
cuit theory. His research interests include dc-to-ac
converters, active power filters, and digital control.
José Matas received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. de-
grees in telecommunications engineering from the
Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain,
in 1988, 1996, and 2003, respectively.
From 1988 to 1990, he was an Engineer with
a consumer electronics company. Since 1990, he
has been an Associate Professor in the Department
of Electronic Engineering, Technical University of
Catalonia, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain. His research
interests include power-factor-correction circuits, ac-
tive power filters, uninterruptible power systems,
distributed power systems, and nonlinear control.
Luis García de Vicuña received the Ingeniero de
Telecomunicación and Dr. Ing. degrees from the
Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain,
in 1980 and 1990, respectively, and the Dr.Sci. de-
gree from the Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse,
France, in 1992.
From 1980 to 1982, he was an Engineer with
a control applications company. He is currently an
Associate Professor in the Department of Electronic
Engineering, Technical University of Catalonia,
Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain, where he teaches courses
on power electronics. His research interests include power electronics model-
ing, simulation and control, active power filtering, and high-power-factor ac/dc
conversion.
Josep M. Guerrero (S’01–M’04–SM’08) received
the B.S. degree in telecommunications engineering,
the M.S. degree in electronics engineering, and the
Ph.D. degree in power electronics from the Technical
University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain, in 1997,
2000, and 2003, respectively.
From 1998 to 2004, he was an Assistant Professor
in the Department of Automatic Control Systems
and Computer Engineering, Technical University of
Catalonia. In 2004, he became a Senior Lecturer
at the same university, where he teaches courses
on digital signal processing, control theory, microprocessors, and renewable
energy. Since 2004, he has been responsible for the Sustainable Distributed
Generation and Renewable Energy Research Group, Escola Industrial de
Barcelona. His research interests include photovoltaics, wind energy conver-
sion, and compressed-air devices applied to uninterruptible power supplies,
storage energy systems, and microgrids.
Dr. Guerrero is an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS and the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER
ELECTRONICS. He is involved in several IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
(IES) Committees, and he usually chairs and organizes sessions at IES and
IEEE Power Electronics Society conferences.