2014 Power and Energy Systems: Towards Sustainable Energy (PESTSE 2014)

A Grid Interfacing Scheme for Renewable Energy

Jagadeeswaran. S
M Tech in Power Electronics from
Amrita School of Engineering,
Coimbatore, India
e-mail: jaggu311286 @gmail.com
Sources
Prajof. P Sasi K. Kottayil
Research scholar at Indian Institute Department of Electrical and
of Technology, Bombay, India Electronics Engineering, Amrita
e-mail: prajof@gmail.com Vishwa Vidyapeetham University,
Coimbatore, India
e-mail: kk sasi@cb.amrita.edu
_

Abstract-This paper presents the development of a control [I. CONTROL STRATEGY

scheme for grid tied inverters of renewable energy sources (RES).
Hysteresis Current Control (HCC) is carried out in this work.
The paper presents results of computer simulation as well as
laboratory prototype developed. The experimental results using
the hardware developed, proves the simplicity and reliability of
the control scheme. Active power transfer through a grid
connected inverter from a solar PV panel is also tested. The
power delivered to the grid increases as the DC link voltage
increases. The inverter is also tested on grid interface on the
rotor side of a doubly fed induction generator.
Keywords- Hysteresis Current Control, renewable energy,
distributed generation, grid connection.
[n our proposed control strategy the RES is connected to a
voltage source inverter (VSI) as a DC source. If the RES
generates AC voltage, that can be connected to the VS[ after
rectifying it. The DC link capacitor acts as an isolator in
between the converters (the rectifier and the inverter)
providing the freedom for independent control of both the
converters. The power from some of the less stable RES
should be conditioned before connecting them to the VSI. The
basic aspect of the control strategy has been discussed in [5].
The DC linl( transfers the power from the RES to the grid. The
control scheme is shown in Fig 1.

I. INTRODUCTION 3.P"""e
l--"'I"--:fH"1 sert.. 1--"-�!I----t-:lW--;
Reactor
Renewable energy source (RES) based electric power
generation systems are very complex and expensive with L...-r-..... I. Ib k
controllers necessary to tackle the intermittency and variability
in the power input. Grid interfacing of these systems poses a
problem of quality power to the utilities if it is not regulated
and kept within the standards [1]. Various methods of grid Control
PuIs.. Comparator
interfacing and control of RES based generation systems are udPulse
Generator
discussed in [2, 3 and 4]. Hysteresis Current Control (HCC) is
one such method. Digital implementation of the control
schemes using micro controllers has been a significant Fig I: Control scheme
development in the recent past. HCC is easy for digital
implementation. Control schemes using HCC are proposed The inverter output current, in this control scheme, is
and discussed elaborately in [5, 14]. Simple programming of forced to follow the grid voltage. The grid voltage is
the logic in C language is all that is required. This paper converted to a unit vector template using a unity sine wave
presents how HCC can be implemented digitally in a simpler generator (basically an op-amp circuit designed for less than
way. The transfer of power into the grid is achieved without unity gain) and then this waveform is used as the reference
using a PI controller. current. The actual grid current is measured and compared
[n HCC the inverter output current is forced to follow the with the reference current which is the unit sine wave obtained
grid voltage in terms of the time phase. The advantage of the from the grid, and the pulses are generated according to the
method is that the preliminary conditions to be satisfied in error between the actual current and the grid current [8, 15].
order to achieve synchronization is fulfilled by default; that is, The unity vector templates are obtained from the grid
matching the phase and the frequency happens by default [12].
voltage, here the synchronizing angle, tklf the three phases is
The phase lead between the grid and the inverter voltages,
used to force the inverter output current to follow the grid
required for power transfer is also achieved by default. This
voltage. The unit vector templates are represented as
makes this control scheme the most reliable among other
control methods.
Ua = sinCe) (1)

978-1-4799-3421-8114/$3l.00 ©2014 IEEE

 A DC source is used in place of the RES. The inverter is
Ub =sin(B-2Jr) (2) interfaced with the grid using a coupling inductance. The
3 purpose of the simulation is to observe whether the active
power injected by the inverter into the grid increases with
Uh =sin(B+2Jr)(3) increase in the power delivered by the RES represented by the
3 DC source.
These unit vector templates are sampled and fed to the
microcontroller and compared with the actual grid currents la,
Ib and Ie sampled from the grid directly.

where, h is the hysteresis band provided. If all the three Fig 2: Simulation of the proposed control scheme

conditions of equations (4), (5) and (6) are satisfied then the
upper switches of the three phase inverter are switched on. The computer simulation is carried out for different
voltages and the results are observed. Fig 2 shows the
simulation diagram using MATLAB/Simulink modeling for
the control scheme proposed. The reference current waveform
Ia< (Ua-h) (7)
obtained from the grid voltage is shown in Fig 3. The actual
grid current waveform which is the inverter output current is
shown in Fig 4. This is obtained by forcing the inverter output
current to follow the reference current [9]. The effect of the
variation in DC source voltage on active power is provided in
Figs 5 and 6.

If the three conditions of equations (7), (8) and (9) are ]�'lr-Pi-.t'"'W'i'".-,;:-ft""H""'iie"i7l....,...
.. t-W'��:-;roow-i�
., -n-_�.,...,�_

satisfied, then the upper switches will be switched off and the _ o.s
� 0. 6 1
lower switches will be switched on.
lOA
In order to synchronize the RES to the grid the magnitude,
the frequency and the phase of the voltages on the two sides ��'l I,
-0.1. I
should match [6]. The control scheme presented here easily I
.:0..4
manages these aspects. The reference current is obtained from
the grid voltage. This helps the control scheme to generate
switching pulses for the inverter such that the inverter output
current is in the same phase and frequency as that of the grid
voltage. Fig 3: The reference current waveform
Apart from the synchronization, the inverter output voltage
should lead the grid voltage in order to achieve power transfer ]� �--'---�---'----�--'--r--�
from the RES to the grid. As far as this control scheme is
concerned the inverter output current is of the same phase as
that of the grid current and also lags the inverter output
voltage by an angle decided by the inductance in the circuit.
Thus by default the inverter output voltage leads the grid
voltage by the same angle. This makes the power transfer to
the gird possible [11].
The control scheme using these equations thus provides
switching pulses to the inverter in such a way that the inverter - ]� ���--��� ������������--�--�
o 0.02 0.04 O.O/i 0.08 0.1 0.]2 0.I4 0.16 U8 2
output current is forced to follow the reference current strictly.
Fig 4: The actual current waveform
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
The computer simulation proves that the control scheme
The control scheme is computer simulated using
proposed is reliable enough to be implemented in the hardware
MATLAB/Simulink tool. A three phase three leg inverter is
prototype. As this scheme is implemented without a PI
chosen to be controlled using the proposed control scheme [7].
controller to control the DC link voltage, the DC voltage kept converted to digital equivalents and the actual currents are
fluctuating when the load connected to the grid varied [10]. compared with reference currents. The comparison produced

70l , r
. ..; ....
r r ____ r
, tUb ••It...., ,-, U! 4i:Q$,
r .. .'
i, IfaI
"
(
.�!
1141 ...
the switching sequences accordingly.
The reference current being derived from the grid voltage,
60 Alliin P.on:r the respective line current of the particular phase voltage is in
��
..
phase with it and the frequency also is the same. The
waveforms obtained in Digital Storage Oscilloscope are
�40 shown in Fig 7.
30
Tek .n.. ClRSll'l
20
]0 ._--
O �"������������"�� SOllee
_ I O L---'----
- -'----
- -'----
- -'----
- --'------'------L---'-------'--
- -.J lID
o 0.02 0.04 0.O/i 0.03 0.] 0.]2 0.14 0.] 6 0.]8 02
Fig 5: Inverter output power for 11OV DC input ...V 1.34V

120 ---,--�--------------.---�--�----_, ClIsor 1

740mV
100 ...TIIM.M� , �r''l..,..'.
l....T�:�..."m,.':'''�-pIll .on ·. ' T·...'•
T , .. .·
.. .. T,M
• , III"M 2

� 80
..
•
� 60 CH�1"'i50.:;;O�m:'ijV,.....,C�H;l;'2'-l;2�'OOV�'--'-'-jM:t-¥.5'O�Om=s:-'-'-'��'-'-j;t,CH�1...,fl-"92�
16-�n-1313:18 1.41346tHz
40 Fig 7: Actual current and Reference current in the hardware
prototype

The fabricated prototype of the control scheme is tested for

different irradiation and also for different configurations of PV
panel.
Fig 6: Inverter output power for 190V DC input
A. 6PV modules in series
IV. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION The test results for different irradiation are presented in
A prototype of the proposed control scheme is fabricated for Table II. The power injected into the grid is found to increase
laboratory testing. The hardware implementation is carried out when the irradiation increases. The test results are shown in
Fig 8 and Fig 9. The observations are made using a Fluke
with the help of both analog and digital components. The
power meter.
control scheme is programmed into a dsPIC30f4011
microcontroller and the reference current essential for the TABLE IVI: TEST RESULTS OF INVERTER FED FROM 6 PV
MODULES IN SERIES
control scheme is obtained using the op-amp based unity sine
wave generator circuit and also the potential transducer. The
PV array
hardware prototype has the components given in the Table I.
Irradiation, output Power,
A Solar photovoltaic (PV) array is used as the RES for the Voltage, V Current, A
W/m2 voltage, W
testing of the hardware prototype [\3]. The prototype is tested V
under different levels of irradiance. As the irradiance increases 700 115 40 62 I 61 I 81 0.7 I 0.6 I 0.6
the power delivered to the grid should also increase. 1000 120 50 63 I 62 I 82 0.7 I 0.6 I 0.6
TABLE I: SYSTEM PARAMETERS

Parameters Rating
3-phase supply(r.m.s) 30V, 50Hz
Coupling inductance 100mH
Limiting resistance 300
Solar PV module capacity 68Wp

The grid voltage is stepped down to 4V using a potential

transducer and fed to the unity sine wave generator in order to
obtain the reference sine wave which is used as the reference
current in this algorithm. The unit sine wave obtained is then
level shifted and sampled using the microcontroller. The Fig 8: Measurements with 6 PV modules at an irradiation of 700
2
current is also sensed using current transducer and sampled at W/m

the same rate as the unit sine wave. The sampled values are
 also been interfaced with the grid using this scheme.
The microcontroller used had some limitations in
simultaneous sampling which made the accuracy suffer. If a
faster processor with more number of simultaneous sampling
ports is used efficiency of the algorithm in this control scheme
can be increased. A DC link voltage control using a PI
controller can control the active power flow effectively, thus
the system reliability can also be increased.

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Fig 9: Measurements with 6 PV modules at an irradiation of 1000
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W/m
B. 8 PV modules in series
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Rotor side of a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) has