Abstract

To achieve proper grid synchronization the phase, amplitude and frequency of the inverter and grid are
important factors.This factors are required for the operation of grid connected power conditioning
equipments. In those applications an accurate and rapid detection of the grid voltage is essential to obtain
the correct generation of reference signals. The main aim of this paper is to simulate the grid tied inverter
and to apply the phase locked loop. In order to operate the inverter and the grid in synchronization, the
input angle of the grid voltage is achieved by using Phase Locked Loop in the dq-synchronous reference
frame.

This paper describes about the Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation(SPWM) technology which overcomes
the low performance of conventional pulse width modulation technique use for active filter. In this
method the desired output voltage is obtained by comparing the reference waveform with the triangular
‘Carrier Waveform’. Therefore by using SPWM method, the voltage source inverter can be controlled as
well as THD can be reduced to the limit of IEEE harmonic standard. The simulation results shows that the
inverter output voltage and grid voltage are in same phase and frequency.

Keywords- Grid Synchronization, PLL, SPWM, THD.

Introduction phase and magnitude. The proposed grid-tied

inverter uses transformation of three phase
As in the present days utilization of electrical signals into direct and quadrature axis for their
energy is increasing and the rate of increment of analysis. The transformation makes it easy to
generation of electrical energy is less as synchronize the inverted signal with grid by
compared with the rate of increment of obtaining phase angle signals from Phase
utilization. Hence, distributed generation of Locked Loop (PLL) block. The output of
electricity from various renewable sources is analyzed signals is given as input to the
need of time [1]. The generation of electricity sinusoidal PWM gate pulse generator. The
from renewable sources can be done by using PWM signals fire the MOSFET switches as per
sources such as water, air, solar irradiation, etc. the input signals. The block diagram of proposed
These sources are available in bulk amount in system is shown below in Figure 1. The PLL is
the nature and hence their adoption in the non-linear feedback system in which output AC
electricity generation is increasing throughout signal of inverter is maintained and
the world. The leading problem with the synchronized with grid [2]-[4].
renewable sources is that they are fluctuating in
nature. Hence, it is important to change their
characteristics before connecting to the grid. The
equipment’s used to change the characteristics
vary with the type of generation. Out of all
available renewable energy sources, solar and
wind energy is widely available in India. Out of
above, solar energy is becoming popular choice
among installers due to its stationary structure.
The control can be done by using various
equipments such as charge controller, inverter
etc. In this, inverter control is very much
important because generated energy is DC in
case of solar system. The aim of the design is to Figure 1: Block Diagram of Proposed system
synchronize incoming DC signal with grid in
Method use for inverter grid Synchronization

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 interactive operation may be a typical closed-
loop servo system where the instantaneous
phase-angle of the grid voltage, θ, is detected.
The block scheme of PLL designed in dq
synchronous-rotating coordinate system is
illustrated in figure 3. As seen from the figure,
the three-phase grid voltages Va, Vb, Vc are
measured and transformed into the stationary
reference voltages Vα and Vβ, then converted to
Figure 2: Block Diagram of conventional PLL
the rotating reference voltages Vd and Vq .Vd
and Vq appear as DC quantities. The PI worked
PLL is a feedback control system. It
as a loop filter of PLL is typically wont to
automatically matches the phase of a locally
control Vq parameter, and under ideal conditions
generated signal with the phase of input signal.
like no harmonics, balanced grid voltages, Vq
In grid connected system, PLL synchronizes the
value is zero while Vd is adequate to the utmost
instantaneous phase angle of inverter voltage
value of the grid voltage. On the opposite part,
with the phase angle of grid voltage to get power
the output of PI controller becomes the grid
factor close to unity. The block diagram of
frequency by adding feedforward angular
conventional PLL is given in figure 2[5].
It consist of PD, LF and VCO. The PD measures
the phase difference between the input and
reproduced output then generates a voltage
consistent with the phase difference between the
two signals. It is often analog or digital.

The LP may be a low pass filter (LPF) which

blocks all higher frequency signals and extracts
DC component. The filter regulates the
steadiness of the loop. If it's not designed Figure 3: Basic block diagram of the dq-PLL
correctly, then it can build oscillations around
the loop and enormous signals will appear on the frequency of the grid (where angular frequency,
tune line. This may end in VCO being forced to ωg=2πf and f is that the fundamental of the grid
comb over wide band of frequency. Hence, voltage waveform). θ is decided by the mixing
proper filter design is required. of angular frequency. The estimated phase-angle
is fed back to the αβ-dq transformation block.
The DC component is then amplified and passed Also, the grid voltage frequency, f are often
to VCO which might be a PI controller to get a determined during this system[7],[8].
frequency of output. The frequency is then
integrated to make the phase of output. If the Method use for inverter control
output frequency is locked with the input
frequency, the phase difference of PD is The voltage source inverter manipulated here
eventually driven to zero. As a result, phase of mainly adopts the sinusoidal PWM technique
output is locked with the input[6]. which uses the DC input voltage of constant
magnitude. Here the function of the converter
is to control the frequency and magnitude of DC
to AC converted output. So as to control the
PLL algorithm inverter, modulation strategies are used which
mainly determine the efficiency parameter of
The PLL algorithm that's wont to synchronize inverter like switching losses and harmonic
the phase of Voltage Source Inverter output reduction. In accordance with the sine function,
voltage with the utility grid voltage at the grid the inverter output voltage and frequency are

2
often controlled by using SPWM technique. In Figure 4: Block diagram of Pulse Width Modulation
SPWM technique each period is characterized
by constant amplitude pulses, but with different Controlling of Voltage Source Inverter
duty cycles[8]. Here so as to scale
back harmonic content and to regulate the output
The Proportional Integral controller which is used
voltage, width of the pulses are modulated. In
for three phase system is as shown in figure 5. The
SPWM to get the PWM signal, three sine waves
most important advantage of PI controller is that
and a triangular carrier of high frequency is
after the set point change there will be no any
employed. The sinusoidal waves of 120 deg
remaining control error. But on the other hand it
phase difference with one another are
has disadvantage that there is steady state error for
often considered because the reference
three phase system. But it is effective for single
signal supported the need of inverter output
phase system. As shown in figure 5. The filtered
frequency, the frequency of sinusoidal waves is
voltage is sensed and phase lock loop is used to
chosen.
determine the angular frequency from it. Here the
A wave with high frequency is taken into stationary dqo transformation is used to determine
account as triangular wave. By analyzing the the error signal and then these error signal is again
comparison between sinusoidal wave and converted into abc quantities. Then these signal is
triangular wave, generation of switching signal given to PWM generator. The main function of PI
takes place. When sine voltage exceeds the controller is to decrease the error signal which is
triangular voltage, comparator generates a pulse generated between actual current quantities sensed
and it is utilized in triggering of respective before the filter and reference signal after the filter.
inverter switches. And hence the voltage The reference generator block takes grid voltage in
regulation and harmonic reduction takes dqo reference frame (V od andV oq ) as input
place. Just in case of harmonics with several signal[10].
orders, it becomes difficult to eradicate
harmonics with SPWM technique, hence to After that they generate the reference current signal
beat from that problem LC filter is (i dref andi qref ). These reference signals are compared
synchronized within the circuit which is capable with the actual current signals.[10]
of eradicating higher order harmonics. Figure 4
shows the pulse width modulation technique. The active power (P) and reactive power (Q)
Comparator compares the carrier waveform with supplied to grid can be given in synchronous
the reference waveform and generates PWM reference frame as
signals[9].
P = 1.5(V od i d+V oq i q)
(1)

Q = 1.5(V od i q+V oq i d)
(2)

Where the V od , V oq ,i d , i q are the voltages and

currents after the filter in dqo reference frame

3
Figure.5. Proportional Integral controller block diagram

and P, Q are the active and reactive power voltage employing a Voltage Source Inverter .To
respectively. get rid of high frequency switching components
from the inverter output LC filter is employed. The
Assume filtered output of inverter is totally synchronized
V oq=0 ,∧hence (1)∧( 2) can be written as with grid and is therefore connected with grid.
Phase locked loop and dq current controller using
P = 1.5(V od i d ¿(3) PI controller also are implemented in Simulink.
Figure 6 shows the simulink model of Grid Tied
Q = 1.5(V od i q) (4)
Inverter. Here the PI controller is used to reduce the
i d = 2P/3V od error. Two loads are connected after the V- I
(5)
measurement block. The V-I measurement block
i q= 2Q/3V od (6) measures the three phase voltage and current. The
system parameters utilized in simulation are listed
These current signals are compared with actual in Table1.
quantities and given to the PI controller. As PI
controller requires feed forward path to improve Simulation Results
reference tracking, grid voltage is fed to it. Then
these signals are again transformed to abc frame Figure 7 shows the inverter output and grid voltage
on same axis. Yellow line indicates the inverter
and from SPWM, it is fed to the inverter switches. voltage whereas pink line indicates the grid voltage.
From waveform it is observed that the voltage of
System configuration
inverter and grid are same both in magnitude and
phase. This is the condition for inverter grid
Simulation of the entire system that's the facility
synchronization. Therefore by using dq PLL
electronics interface of renewable energy with grid method proper synchronization can be achieved.
and therefore the control methodology is completed Figure 8 shows the inverter output waveform.
using Simulink. The renewable energy is modeled Initially the breaker which is connected in series
by a DC voltage source which is converted into AC with first R-L load is open. Therefore the

4
.
Figure 6: MATLAB simulink model of grid tied inverter

Table 1: Simulation Parameters

Sr.No
Parameters Value
.
1. Three phase peak voltage 330V
2. DC supply 650V
3. Supply frequency fs 50HZ
4. Filter Inductance Lf 3mH
5. Inductor internal resistance Rf 0.05Ω
6. Filter capacitance 30μF
7. Capacitor resistance 0.5Ω
8. Load 1 R=30Ω, L=75mH
9. Load 2 R=10.29Ω, L=25.86mH

current is small upto 0.4 sec. But after 0.4 Sec the supplied by inverter to grid, inverter grid
breaker will be closed. Therefore second load is synchronized voltage and current are observed. The
added to the system and load current increases after simulation of simple voltage source inverter is
0.4 sec. studied and observed with its harmonic analysis.
The simulation result shows that initially the
According to IEEE standard 519 the THD value voltage waveform is not pure sinusoidal but when
should be less than 5%[11]. Figure 9 shows the filter is use, we get pure sinusoidal waveform.
THD value of inverter output voltage after
synchronization. The THD value is 0.76%. Then we used PI controller and SPWM Technique
for controlling of inverter. The advantage of PI
Conclusion controller is that there is no remaining steady state
error after a set point changed. The advantages of
In this paper the method use for synchronization i.e. SPWM are easy to implement and control, Lower
dq-PLL method, SPWM technique & PI controller power dissipation, lower switching losses etc. The
is discussed. From this paper the simulation results dq PLL method is used for real time following of
of inverter filtered output voltage, inverter non- grid phase angle and voltage. All simulation results
filtered output voltage, active and reactive power

5
confirmed that the output voltage of the SPWM grid and grid synchronization is successfully
controlled grid tied inverter are balanced with the achieved.

Figure 7: Grid and inverter output voltages on same axis

Figure 8: Inverter output current

6
Figure 9: THD analysis of inverter output voltage after synchronization

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