A Grid-Connected PV System with Power Quality

Improvement Based on Boost + Dual-Level

Four-Leg Inverter

Jing Li
1
, Fang Zhuo
1
, Xianwei Wang
1
, Lin Wang
1
, Song Ni
2

1
School of Electrical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
2
Jiangsu Linyang Electronics Co., Ltd., China


Abstract-Comparing single-stage grid-connected photovoltaic
(PV) system with power quality improvement, in this paper, a
high-capacity three-phase four-wire grid-connected PV system
based on Boost converter + dual-level four-leg inverter is
proposed, which not only allows a wide range of input voltage, but
also compensates unbalance current of the local load comparing
three-phase three-wire PV system. This paper explains the control
principle of each power stage of the system and the unified control
strategy of combination of PV grid-connected generation and
active filtering in detail, and then the Bode plots of open loop gain
for current loop and voltage loop are shown to indicate stability of
the unified control according to the system equivalent model.
Simulation results on MATLAB/Simulink are presented to
demonstrate practicability of the unified control strategy.
Applying proposed topology and control method to a 100kVA
grid-connected PV system based on FPGA+DSP controller, the
experimental results are given to verify correctness of the whole
system.
I. INTRODUCTION
With conventional energy of the world is depleting gradually,
solar energy has been paid more attention because it is
renewable, cleaning, etc

[1]. And grid-connected photovoltaic
(PV) system can reduce investment outlay because it does not
need battery to store energy; it became a hot subject by now.
Moreover, the increasing use of power electronic devices and
nonlinear loads is known to cause serious problems in electric
power systems. Therefore, the technology that combines PV
grid-connected generation and active filtering is proposed and
develops rapidly [2].
So far, a lot of research on PV grid-connected system with
power quality improvement has been done

[3, 4, 5, 6]. However,
there are not many studies on the two-stage high-power such
system. In this paper, a novel high capacity grid-connected PV
system based on Boost converter +dual-level four-leg inverter
is proposed, which not only allows a wide range of input
voltage, but also is able to compensate unbalance current of the
local load. Both of PV grid-connected generation and active
filtering need to keep DC bus stable and the key of unified
control is generating the uniform current reference accurately.
This paper explains the control algorithm of each power stage
and the unified control strategy for combination of two
functions in detail. In addition, the unified control strategy can
suppress circulating current of dual-level inverter efficiently.
Then the system equivalent model is analyzed to indicate
stability of the unified control. Simulation results on
MATLAB/Simulink and experimental results of a 100kVA
grid-connected PV system with proposed topology and control
method based on FPGA+DSP controller are presented to
demonstrate correctness of the whole system.
II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION AND UNIFIED CONTROL
STRATEGY
The main circuit of the system is shown in Fig.1, which is
made up of PV arrays, Boost converter, dual-level four-leg
voltage source inverter, LCL filter and frequency transformer
which is not shown in Fig.1. In this system, a third- order LCL
filter [7] is used to attenuate the high-frequency ripple of the
current caused by switching action, and the inductor at the grid
side is the leakage inductor of frequency transformer. In
addition, R in Fig.1 is damping resistor to suppress the resonant
peak caused by resonant of LCL filter.
The two-stage topology makes the roles of each power stage
played in the system are more clearly: the former stage, Boost
converter, not only to achieve maximum power point tracking
(MPPT) [8] control, but also to keep the output voltage of PV
arrays stable, and the latter stage, dual-level four-leg inverter,
is in charge of grid-connected generating and active filtering.
Comparing three-phase grid-connected inverter and active
power filter, it can be seen that they have same topology and
similar control strategy. So, it is possible to realize both of the
two functions at the same time by a unified control strategy.
When system feeds active power to grid, the PWM inverter
generates active current with the same frequency and phase as
source voltage; when system suppresses the harmonics
introduced by unbalanced or nonlinear load, the PWM inverter
generates compensation current with the same value but
reversed phase as load harmonic current [9]. And from the
reference [9] knows that MPPT and harmonic suppression have
no affect each other. Therefore, to achieve combination of two
functions just needs to add the two current references directly.
Fig.1 presented the unified control diagram.
98!+?++3909$?.00 ?009 Tlll TllMC?009 436
















Fig.1 Main Circuit and Unified Control Diagram of System

A. Control of Boost Converter
In this paper, adjusting the output voltage of PV arrays
through Boost converter control so that MPPT can be
obtained. Because Boost converter connected to PV arrays, it
always works in continuous current mode then the inductor
current ripple can be reduced by using a large input inductor.
Accordingly, the output capacitor of PV arrays for filter can
be selected a small one to avoid the introduction of a large
capacitor and some problems caused by large capacitor [10].
The relationship between input and output voltage of Boost
converter is (1), whereU
dc
, U
pv
and D are the DC link voltage,
PV arrays output voltage and duty cycle, respectively. In this
system, U
dc
must be keeping at reference value, which is an
invariant. Therefore, there is a fixed relationship
betweenU
pv
and D . If perturb and observe method

P&O
[11] is adopted, the Boost converter realize MPPT as follows:
When MPPT algorithm detects that it needs to
increaseU
pv
, D should be reduced; when MPPT algorithm
detects that it needs to decreaseU
pv
, D should be increased.
In other words, by regulating the value of D it can adjust the
PV arrays output voltage.
/(1 ) U U D
pv
dc
= (1)
However, D must in a certain range of value. Because
large D means low maximum power point voltage of PV array,
this will reduce the efficiency of Boost converter and system.
B. Control of Inverter-Unified Control Strategy
In this paper, four-leg inverter is adopted because it is able
to control the neutral current directly comparing with
three-leg inverter with split dc link capacitor. To control the
system

[12], the unified control strategy employs two closed
loop of external DC bus voltage loop and inner inductor
current loop. In current loop, the feedback is the inductor
current at the inverter side.
Both of grid-connected generation and active filtering need
stability control of DC bus when the system realizes unified
control of two functions., it is the precondition of a stable
system, especially for harmonic suppression, fluctuations of
DC bus may result in under or over compensation.
First of all, the principle of DC bus keep stable is shown in
Fig.2, its essential is that regulating the value of fundamental
active current injected in inverter can maintain DC bus
voltage at reference value. When DC bus voltage is lower
than what it should be, it reduces the fundamental active
current injected in inverter
in
i as well as
dc
i will increase, so
does DC bus voltage is higher than what it should be. So that
the regulator output of voltage loop can be the reference of
active component of fundamental current. The DC bus control
is one part of MPPT, only the DC bus is stable the output
voltage of PV arrays can be kept at the maximum power point
voltage.
The system works in unified control mode during sunny
day, when the PV arrays offer active current to DC bus; the
system operates in active filtering mode automatically during
cloudy day or night, when the source supplies active current
to DC bus. From described above it is can be seen that the
energy of the system is bidirectional flow [13].
PLL
e
MPPT
PWM
MPPT
U
pv
i
pv
u
pv
i
in
i dc
i
d
*
dc
U
dc
U

Fig.2 DC Link Voltage Control of PWM Inverter
In the next place, the uniform current reference generation
is elaborated. As already mentioned above, the uniform
current reference can be obtained by adding harmonic





1 SPWM
2 SPWM
2 SPWM
1 SPWM
PWM
MPPT
MPPT
U
PV
i
PV
u
d
PV Arrays
dc
U
*
dc
U
+

PI
2 inv
i
1 inv
i
Dynamic
Current
Control
Dynamic
Current
Control
Refenence
Current
Calculation
Harmonic
Current
Detection
PLL
la
i
lb
i
lc
i
ln
i
Unbal anced
L o a d
sn
i
sc
i
sb
i
sa
i
437
compensation current reference to fundamental active current
reference directly. Inside the two left dashed border in Fig.3 is
how to get the current reference of fundamental active and
harmonic compensation separately: the former current
reference for three phase can be got by the regulator output of
external voltage loop multiplies to fundamental positive
sequence voltage
PLL
e , they are
*
pa
i ,
*
pb
i ,
*
pc
i and the active
component of neutral current reference is zero; the
compensation current reference can be got by harmonic
detection algorithm, which are
ca
i ,
cb
i ,
cc
i and
cn
i . Then the
current reference for three phase and neutral line are equal
to
*
pa
i ,
*
pb
i ,
*
pc
i and 0 add
ca
i ,
cb
i ,
cc
i and
cn
i .
As each four legs have separate current tracking reference
for two inverters [14] in the system, so, the unified control
strategy used in this paper can prevent the circulating current
[15] between the PWM inverters effectively. The right dashed
border in Fig.3 is the current sharing control of two modules.
In this paper, improved Time-domain based Transform
Algorithm [16] (TTA) is used to calculate harmonic current.
Its transform matrix and inverse transform matrix showed in
the dashed border of harmonic detection part in Fig.3.
III. ANALYSIS ON SYSTEM EQUIVALENT MODEL
In order to analyze stability of the control strategy,
equivalent model of the system must be known, it is shown in
Fig.4. The current loop is inside the dash line, while the
voltage loop is out of it. P regulator k
p
, which is inner loop
regulator, is used to guarantee speediness of current tracking;

PI regulator (1 1/ ) k T s
v v
+ , the external loop regulator, is used
to realize no err tracking of DC bus voltage. To guarantee
system stability, bandwidth of current loop should be larger
than that of voltage loop.
Transfer function of inductor current to inverter port
voltage is (2), where i
c
is feedback current, U is inverter port
voltage,
1
L , C and
2
L are LCL filters, R is damping resistor.
2
1
( ) 1
2
( )
( )
3 2 1 2 ( ) 0
1 2
1 2
L Cs CRs
i s
c
G s
L L
U s L L
e s
s
Cs CRs s
L L
+ +
= =
+
=
+ +
+
(2)
PWM converter is taken as a proportion regulator, which is
(3) [17], where
i
e is output of current loop regulator,
dc
U is
DC bus voltage,
T
U is peak value of triangle carrier.
( )
( ) 2
U
U s
dc
k
pwm
e s U
i T
= = (3)
The ratio coefficient from AC to DC is (4), Where
s
e is
rms of source voltage, I
dc
is inverters input current.
( )
3
( )
I s
e
dc s
k
dc
i s U
c
dc
= = (4)
Source voltage
s
e can be seen as disturbance to current loop,
so does the output current I
PV
of PV arrays to voltage loop.
Disturbance could be neglected by proper design of control
loop. And according to transfer functions above, open loop
gain of both current loop and voltage loop can be got.
In this paper, current and voltage unit feedback are used.
Other parameters are shown as following.
2 2
sin[ ( )]
3
l
k n
N

2 2
cos[ ( )]
3
l
k n
N

2
cos( ) n
N

2
sin( ) n
N

abc
U
labc
i
2 2
sin( )
3
l
n
N

2 2
cos( )
3
l
n
N

dc
U
1
2
ca
i
cb
i
cc
i
cn
i
PLL
Cos
Sin
*
dc
U
PI
*
pa
i
*
pc
i
*
pb
i
0
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
*
1 abcn
i
*
2 abcn
i
1 inv
i
2 inv
i
+
+

P
P
1 SPWM
2 SPWM
LPF

Fig.3 Frame of Uniform Current Reference Generation
ref
u
dc
u
1
(1 )
v
v
k
T s
+
*
p
i
*
ref
i
*
h q
i
+
pwm
k
s
e
i f
k
c
i 1
dc
sC
dc
u
vf
k
PLL
e
p
k
( ) G s dc
k
PV
I
U i
e
dc
I
( ) Gs
CurrentLoop
+

+
+
+

+
+

Fig.4 Frame of System Equivalent Model
438
0.5
1
L mH = , 0.185
2
L mH = , 1
T
U V = , 750
dc
U V = ,
50 C F = ,.
4
10 C F
dc
= , 0.008 k
p
= , 7.04 k
v
= , 0.01 T
v
= ,
10 f kHz
s
= .Through discussing above, bode plots of open loop
gain for current loop and voltage loop can be got, which are
shown in Fig.5 and Fig.6. It is can be seen that: with proper
regulator references, the control strategy will not only make
the system stable but also a better dynamic property.
0
20
40
60
80
M
a
g
n
it
u
d
e

(
d
B
)
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
-90
-60
P
h
a
s
e

(
d
e
g
)
Bode Diagram
Frequency (rad/sec)

Fig.5 Bode Plot of Current Loop with Open Loop Gain

-100
-50
0
50
100
M
a
g
n
it
u
d
e

(
d
B
)
Bode Diagram
Frequency (rad/sec)
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
10
5
-180
-150
-120
-90
P
h
a
s
e

(
d
e
g
)

Fig.6 Bode Plot of Voltage Loop with Open Loop Gain
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
System model is established on MATLAB/Simulink.
Simulation parameters are set as following: light intensity of
PV arrays is
2
2000 / W m , temperature is 25 C

, output power,
output voltage and output current at maximum power point
are100kW , 570V and 175A . Non-linear unbalance load is a
three-phase diode rectifier with resistance and inductance load,
a single phase diode rectifier is added between phase A and
neutral line, the resistance and inductance
are 20 L H
l
= , 10 R
l
= .
P&O is used for MPPT here. Step change of D is 0.01.
Simulation results are shown in Fig.7, they are tracking
waveforms of maximum power point power, maximum power
point voltage and current respectively, tracking results are
better.
In this paper, reactive power, harmonic and unbalance
current are all compensated. Simulation results of unified
control are shown in Fig.8. Fig.8(a) are waveforms of
grid-connected current with the same frequency and phase as
source voltage, source and load current of phase A, neutral
line current of grid and load respectively, the red waves are
source currents. Source current is almost sinusoidal and
neutral line current is near zero after compensation. Fig.8(b)
are three phase load current, three phase source current and
three phase current of one PWM inverter respectively. The
FFT analysis shows that THD reduced from 26.5% to 3.21%,
compensation results are well. Moreover, power flowing into
the grid and consumed by the load are just the same as the
output power of two inverter groups. So power generation and
harmonic control are decoupling.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
All the experimental results use the same parameters
mentioned above. Fig.9 presents the current of PWM inverter
for phase A. Fig.10 shows the neutral current of PWM
inverter. In these figures, the red wave is synchronous signal
and the line in the bottle is FFT analysis results, which
indicate that the current of phase A is made up of fundamental
current, 5
rd
and 7
rd
harmonics, the neutral current contains 3
rd
harmonics only. The experiment results show that the PWM
inverter can supply and track fundamental active current and
harmonic at the same time, that is to say, the system can
realize unified control.
0 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16
0
800
400
Voltage of PV
V
p
v
/
V
0 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16
0
100
200
Current of PV
t/s
I
p
v
/
A
0 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16
0
75
150
Power of PV
P
p
v
/
k
W

Fig.7 Simulation Results of MPPT
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
-400
0
400
V
s
/
V
,
I
s
/
A
Source Voltage and Source Current(a)
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
-180
0
180
I
s
a
,
I
l
a
/
A
Source Current and Load Current(a)
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
-50
0
50
t/s
I
s
n
,
I
l
n
/
A
Neutral Current

(a)
439
0 0.05 0.10 0.15
-100
0
100
I
l
/
A
Load Current
0 0.05 0.10 0.15
-180
0
180
I
s
/
A
Source Current
0 0.05 0.10 0.15
-180
0
180
t/s
I
i
n
v
/
A
Inverter-1 Current

(b)
Fig.8 Simulation Results of System Unified Control
t 10 / ms div
5
/
A
d
i
v
2
0
/
V
d
i
v
V
I
/ synchronous signal source voltage
( ) current of PWM inverter Phase A
FFT analysis

Fig.9 Current of PWM Inverter for Phase A
t 10 / ms div
5
/
A
d
i
v
2
0
/
V
d
i
v
V
I
/ synchronous signal source voltage FFT analysis
neutral current

Fig.10 Neutral Current of PWM Inverter
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper proposed a grid-connected PV system with
power quality improvement, based on boost + two-level
four-leg inverter. Especially, it is suitable to sunny areas
requiring high power output and power quality improvement
urgently. This article first elaborated on unified control
strategy of PV power generation and active power filter as
well as uniform current reference generation. Theoretical
analysis, simulation results on MATLAB/Simulink and part
of experiment results presented to verify the whole system
and its control strategy are correct.
In the future, we still keep studying and doing experiments
on this system. Therefore, more overall experimental results
of this system will be illustrated in following paper.
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