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Lyapunov law based model predictive control scheme for grid connected three
phase three level neutral point clamped inverter

Conference Paper · June 2017

DOI: 10.1109/IFEEC.2017.7992091

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 Lyapunov Law Based Model Predictive Control Scheme for Grid Connected Three Phase Three Level
Neutral Point Clamped Inverter

Abdul Mannan Dadu and Tey Kok Soon Saad Mekhilef and Mutsuo Nakaoka
Power Electronics and Renewable Power Electronics and Renewable
Energy Research Laboratory Energy Research Laboratory
(PEARL) (PEARL)
University of Malaya, Malaysia University of Malaya, Malaysia
dadu_bpdb@yahoo.com and koksoon@um.edu.my saad@um.edu.my

Abstract—In this paper, Lyapunov law based model predictive The main contribution of this paper is the extension of finite
control scheme is proposed for the grid integration of 3L- control set model predictive control using Lyapunov control
neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter. Lyapunov law based cost law based cost function. The future NPC terminal voltage
function, which aims to select the optimal voltage vector using prediction closest to the unique voltage reference is obtained
system discrete model equations just once in each control cycle using Lyapunov control law based MPC. At the end of each
is able to reduce the current tracking error. Thus, low THD sampling time, the error optimization between the desired
symmetrical current is injected to the utility grid and dc-link current and actual reference is done by a cost function in terms
capacitor voltages are kept balanced at every operation. The of the predicted and the future load voltage. The proposed
proposed controller is convenient to control active/reactive control algorithm generates load reference voltage vector from
power with desired power factor by system operator. the measured load current and reference current to achieve
Keywords— Lyapunov model predictive control, Grid efficient reference tracking. The Lyapunov based FCS-MPC
connected three phase 3L- NPC inverter, Reference tracking uses the Lyapunov model equations just once in each control
error, Current THD. loop to obtain the inverter output vector by optimizing the error
between generated ideal vector and predefined available vector
I. INTRODUCTION of the inverter.
In the application of distributed power generation, grid tied
power converters are often adopted to deliver electrical load to II. THE GRID CONNECTED THREE PHASE 3L- NPC
the utility grid. The integration of renewable energy such as INVERTER SYSTEM MODEL
wind or photovoltaic resources can be achieved by the grid The grid connected three phase 3L- NPC inverter under study
interface. NPC inverter is well known multilevel inverter is shown in Fig. 1. The dc link voltage is being balanced to
widely used in power conversion system. NPC is suitable for reduce voltage stress. During grid connection with NPC
grid connected application due to it’s common DC bus, though inverter, the dc-link can suffer voltage variation. However, this
balancing the dc-link voltage is mandatory for normal operation variation can be kept minimum by applying proper control
[1]. At present, researchers are focusing on improvement of technique.
control method to inject quality power to the utility grid
especially on digital control like FCS-MPC [2-4]. This control m
technique is being attractive owing to the system constraints
and non-linearity inclusion, simplicity and straightforward Sx1 Sy1 Sz1
implementation. . FCS-MPC uses the predictive model of the
Sy2
system to predict the future behavior of the system. The selected C1
Sx2 Sz2 ix Lfx Rx vga
switching state based on cost function is directly applied to the x
inverters. Thus, modulation stage is absent. But high iy Lfy Ry vgb
io y
computational load is required to predict the future variables O
vdc z
cause higher tracking error in current and THD. Hence, C2 iz Lfz Rz
Sx3 Sy3 Sz3 vgc
functional MPC such as Luenberg observer and Runge-kutta
has been introduced to reduce the computational burden and
obtain convergence [5]. Meanwhile, Lyapunov function based Sx4 Sy4 Sz4
controllers for single phase grid connected inverter [6], three
phase micro-grid system [7], Bidirectional dc-ac converter [8] n
and four-switch-based three-phase grid-connected inverter [9]
are presented to facilitate the current control.
Figure 1: Grid Connected 3L-NPC Inverter Topology.

The authors thank the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia and

University of Malaya for providing financial support under Postgraduate
Research Grant (PPP) project no. PG338-2016A and Project no. FP061-2016
The grid current prediction for the system in Fig. 1. is obtained constrained with continuous voltage and the unavoidable
as [10] quantization error vector as follows.

L = − −R (1) (k + 1) = (k + 1) + (k + 1) (3)

Where L , R, are filter inductance and resistance respectively.
Vector i, vnpc and vg are grid current, inverter output voltage and
grid voltage respectively. The inverter terminal voltage
considering balanced dc link voltage is as expressed:
v =S , Where a = {x, y, z}
The switching function S of each leg for the switches is defined
by the following:
Where the continuous inverter output voltage vectors v (k +
1) are bounded by the finite set and δ(k + 1) is the quantization
error. The current error between the actual and desired value at
the (k+1) th sampling instant in the discrete-time domain is
expressed as.
i (k + 1) = (k + 1) − ∗ (k + 1)
= (k) − v (k) + 1 − (k) − ∗ (k + 1) (4)

− 1, S = on, S = on, S = off, S
S = 0, S = off, S = on, S = on, S
1, S = off, S = off, S = on, S
Applying Forward Euler’s method at time TS, the future line
current prediction of NPC inverter considering all possible
voltage vectors.
= off where, i∗ (k + 1) is the future reference current vector. An
= off algorithm for NPC inverter to synchronize with grid is needed
= on to track exact reference ∗ (k + 1) and to deliver sinusoidal
current. For this purpose, the L-MPC algorithm can be used
more accurately. Therefore, a control function is necessary for
converging the current tracking error i to zero asymptotically.
Taking the discrete Lyapunov function positively as

(k + 1) = v (k) − v (k) + 1 − (k) (2) LF{i (k)} = {i (k)} {i (k)} (5)

Applying similar method for the dc-link capacitor voltage as The rate of change of Lyapunov function from (4) and (5) can
discrete time variables can be written, assuming be expressed as.

V = v (k) + v (k), i.e., ∇LF{i (k + 1)} = LF{i (k + 1)} − LF{i (k)}

v (k + 1) = v (k) + (k) and = {i (k + 1)} {i (k + 1)} − {i (k)} {i (k)}

T = (k) − v (k) + 1 − (k) − ∗ (k +

v (k + 1) = v (k) − i (k)
2C
1) (k) − v (k) + 1 − (k) − ∗ (k + 1) −
Where, io is the dc-link midpoint current, C is the value of dc-
link capacitor and Vm, Vn the voltage across capacitors. {i (k)} {i (k)}
The current io is obtained from the inverter switching function
and the line currents (ix, iy, iz) as expressed by the following 1 T
equation: = (k + 1) + (k + 1) − v (k)
2 L

i (k) = S (k). i (k) + S (k). i (k) + S (k). i (k) RT

+ 1− (k)
L
S = 1 if S = 0 , otherwise S = 0 ; a = {x, y, z}
T
− ∗ (k + 1) v (k + 1) + (k + 1)
L
Therefore, there has no need to the measure current through
capacitors to predict the future dc-link capacitor voltages. RT
− v (k) + 1 − (k) − ∗ (k + 1)
III. LYAPUNOV CONTROL LAW BASED MODEL PREDICTIVE L
CONTROL SCHEME
Lyapunov model predictive control (L-MPC) scheme directly − {i (k)} {i (k)} (6)
based on predefined 27 switching state for generating 19
different voltage vector. The NPC terminal voltage vector
The rate of change of Lyapunov function ∇LF always needs to
be negative for converging tracking error to zero.
L-MPC
Therefore, the future discrete output voltage vector at the next
sampling instant assures the rate of change of Lyapunov
Measurement
function (6) is negative, which can be as follows. vdc , i(k), i*(k+1)
(k + 1) = − (k) + ∗ (k
+ 1) + v (k) (7) Calculating future reference voltage
using Lyapunov control law
As sampling time T is sufficiently small, assuming the future
reference current vector i∗ (k + 1) is equal to the present
g = inf
reference vector as ∗ (k + 1) = ∗ (k). The Lyapunov control
law (7) is used as reference voltage vector, obtained from
current reference ∗ (k + 1). For synchronization with grid For j = 1:27
voltage, the current reference requires symmetrical and
balanced at every moment. In this paper, symmetrical and
Prediction of inverter output
balanced reference currents are generated by tracking grid
voltage
voltage angle θ , the current amplitude I* by using the
following equations. Phase locked loops (PLLs) is used to track
the grid voltage angle [11]. DC lnk capacitors voltage
prediction
i∗ = I ∗ cos(θ + φ∗ ) , i∗ = I ∗ cos(θ − + φ∗ ) ,

Cost Function Calculation

i∗ = I ∗ cos θ + + φ∗ , I ∗ = I∗ + I ∗ ; Using Equation (8)
∗
φ∗ = arctg ∗ No
j >27
Adjustment of the reference can be set by system operator by Yes
tuning the active and reactive references to fulfill grid Cost function optimization and
connection requirement (GCR).
Switching State selection
In the L-MPC method, the reference voltage vectors are
calculated just once which depend on system parameters and Selected Switching State
reference currents in Fig.2. In the proposed control system, the Application
Lyapunov control law (7) is used in the cost function as a future
reference voltage vector (k + 1) to select the closest one
among 19 different voltage vector. The cost function for the End
proposed control method is written as
Figure 2: L-MPC Control Algorithm
g (k + 1) = (k + 1) − (k + 1) + γ |v (k + 1) −
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
v (k + 1)|
Simulation results for the proposed controller was carried out
in Matlab Simulink presented in this section. The parameters
= v _ (k + 1) − v _ (k + 1) + v _ (k + 1) − used for this simulation are as follows: Vdc = 350 V, C= 2.2 mF,
R= 5 ohm, Lf =5.5 mH, Vg= 200 V, fg =50 Hz, weighting factor
v _ (k + 1) + v _ (k + 1) − v _ (k + 1) + γ = 0.5 and sampling time 50 µs. The five levels in the phase
to phase output voltage of 3L-NPC inverter are obtained and the
γ |v (k + 1) − v (k + 1)| (8) dc-link capacitor voltage balancing remains stabilized shown in
Fig.3 (a).
Where γ is the weighting factor. The first term is being
achieved for the exact tracking reference to deliver symmetrical
and balanced currents to the grid and the second term is used to
keep the dc link capacitor voltages balanced.
 600 vxy 600 vxy
400 400
200 200
0 0
-200 -200
-400 -400
-600
200V/div -600
200V/div
350 vn vm 350 vn vm
300 300
250 250
200 200
150 150 50V/div
100 50V/div 100
50 50
0
vgx
0
Phase shift 450 vgx ix
300 Ɵg ix 300
200
200 100
100 0
0 -100
-100 -200
-200
100V/div,10A/div -300 100V/div,10A/div
-300
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Time
Time
(a) Figure 4: Grid voltages along grid currents with 450 phase shift.

300 vgx ix
200
100
0
-100
-200
-300
300 vgy iy
200
100
0
-100
-200
-300
300 vgz
200 iz
100
0
-100
-200
-300
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2

Time 100V/div,10A/div

(a)
(b)
0.6
Current Tracking error (Phase x)

Figure 3: (a) Grid voltages along grid currents with unity power factor (b) 0.5
Steady state voltages and currents waveforms of the grid connected NPC 0.4
inverter with unity power factor.
0.3
0.2
The harmonic content in the grid current should not exceed 5% 0.1
for the integrated grid of power converters according to the 0
international standards IEC6000-1-2-3 and IEEE 555. For the -0.1
operation of unity power factor, the current reference values are -0.2
∗ -0.3
= 10A and phase angle φ∗ = 0 by setting I ∗ = -0.4
10 A and I ∗ = 0 A.The proposed controller is validated by the -0.5
grid synchronization at every phases at unity power factor -0.6
200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
mentioned in Fig.3 (b). At present the demand of injecting Samples Number =2001
reactive power as well as with active power is the additional
requirement for the grid connected inverters. The phase angle (b)
450 shifted between grid voltage and injecting current has been Figure 5: (a) Grid current THD in phase x (b) Grid current tracking error in
applied by the operator (I ∗ = 10 I ∗ = 10 ) to the phase x.
controller illustrate in Fig. 4. During this operation, system
operation continues normally and dc-link voltage is being
balanced.
 In Fig. 5 (a) and Fig. 5 (b), due to fast controlling and accurate
reference tracking, the percentages of total harmonic distortion
(THD) of the line current using proposed control method is
0.61% with unity power factor and the current reference
tracking is bound within ± 0.4%.
V. CONCLUSION
Lyapunov law based MPC scheme has been proposed to control
a grid connected 3L-NPC inverter. This controller was
convenient to fulfill the requirement of grid connected inverters
imposed by international codes. Low THD current injection and
arbitrary power factor as well as balanced dc-link voltages were
obtained using the proposed controller. Thus, the controller was
able to handle the active/reactive power to the grid by ensuring
the desired amplitude and phase shift of the reference current.
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