An improved synchronous reference frame current control strategy for a photovoltaic grid-connected inverter under unbalanced and nonlinear load conditions

PLoS One. 2017 Feb 13;12(2):e0164856. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164856. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

In recent years, renewable energy sources have been considered the most encouraging resources for grid and off-grid power generation. This paper presents an improved current control strategy for a three-phase photovoltaic grid-connected inverter (GCI) under unbalanced and nonlinear load conditions. It is challenging to suppress the harmonic content in the output current below a pre-set value in the GCI. It is also difficult to compensate for unbalanced loads even when the grid is under disruption due to total harmonic distortion (THD) and unbalanced loads. The primary advantage and objective of this method is to effectively compensate for the harmonic current content of the grid current and microgrid without the use of any compensation devices, such as active and passive filters. This method leads to a very low THD in both the GCI currents and the current exchanged with the grid. The control approach is designed to control the active and reactive power and harmonic current compensation, and it also corrects the system unbalance. The proposed control method features the synchronous reference frame (SRF) method. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effective performance of the proposed method.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Electric Power Supplies*
  • Electricity
  • Electrodes
  • Equipment Design / instrumentation*
  • Renewable Energy*
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / instrumentation*

Grants and funding

The authors sincerely would like to express their appreciation to the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for supporting this work through GUP Grant (Vote No: 15H65) and Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) for providing funds to carry out the research reported in this paper.