A Matlab/Simulink Model of a Grid Connected

Single-Phase Inverter
Giuseppe Marco Tina, Giovanni Celsa
Department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering
University of Catania
Catania, Italy

Abstract — The massive spread of distributed generation has There are many control strategy and the most used are the
created problems difficult to solve. Grid connected system models Voltage Oriented Control (VOC), the Current hysteresis
allows to perform simulations to study how these systems interact control (CHC), and several techniques that employed resonant
with the grid. In literature there are no complete model of single PI regulator [3] [9] [10].
phase grid connected systems. The aim of this work is the study
In this work, the VOC is used to command the inverter
and the complete description of a single phase grid connected
system in all its part: inverter, unipolar SPWM, inverter control because this strategy allows to control active and reactive
strategy, Phase Locked Loop and filter. The developed model has power flow separately.
been tested both numerically and experimentally. The To obtain the decoupling of the control channel it is necessary
implemented inverter control strategy allows to regulate the to perform a transformation from a stationary reference frame
active and reactive power flow separately. Therefore, the to a rotating reference frame synchronous with the grid
developed model is able to regulate the voltage of the point of voltage.
common coupling (PCC) through the reactive power control. Unlike the three-phase systems, in which the coordinate
transformation can be performed easily by using the Park
Keywords— single-phase inverter, grid connected, PLL, Park
transoform, filter.
transform (abc-dqo), in single-phase systems the
transformation is not immediate.
I. INTRODUCTION Single phase systems have only one phase variable while Park
The rapid expansion of photovoltaic systems has created transform (αβ-dq) requires at least two orthogonal phase
problems of network stability, voltage and frequency variables.
regulation, protections selectivity of the lines and power There are several method that allows to create a fictitious
quality. phase variable orthogonal to the real phase variable [7].
In this context, the models of grid connected PV system play The method used in this paper is to introduce a phase shift of
an important role since they allow to perform accurate 90° with respect to the real phase variable.
simulation and can be used to study how the PV systems To synchronize the rotating reference frame dq with the grid
interacts with the grid. voltage, a Phase Locked Loop has been used.
A grid connected PV system consists of two part: the dc and Furthermore, to filter voltages and currents fed by inverter. An
the ac. The dc part includes the PV array and the dc-dc electric filter between the inverter and the grid has been
converter (buck, boost, buck-boost, cϋk, sepic) for tracking the connect.
maximum power point. The ac part consists of inverter that The model was tested experimentally by comparing the
convert the dc power generated from PV array and feed it into measured power profiles with those maid in simulation.
the grid. II. AC MODEL OF GRID CONNECTED PV SYSTEM
In literature there are many articles dealing with the three-
phase grid connected inverter [1] while few are those focus on Fig.1 shows the block diagram of AC part of a single phase
grid connected PV system.
single-phase inverters. Among these there are not detailed
articles on the realization of a complete model, indeed some
articles have focused on the control strategies the coordinate Vdc
Single Grid
Grid
Phase VSI Filter
transformation [2] [3] [4], other on the filters [5] [6] and still
others on the PLL [7] [8]. Igrid Vgrid

The aim of this paper was the realization of a complete single- PLL
Inverter
phase grid connected inverter model. Unipolare
Control
SPWM
In order to regulate the power flow between the PV array and Strategy
θgrid
the grid, single phase inverter is controlled through Vdc
appropriate control strategies.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the AC part of the grid connected PV system
978-1-4673-9682-0/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: Nelson Mandela University. Downloaded on April 21,2024 at 09:13:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
It generally consists of 3 main parts: if vcontr < vtriang → S1 off and S2 on → VAN=0
 A dc/ac converter that has the objective to produce a Comparing -vcontrol with vtri can be found the logical signals to
sinusoidal ac output whose magnitude and frequency control the switches of leg B.
can be controlled.
if -vcontr > vtriang → S3 on and S4 off → VBN=Vdc
 A control unit that controls: if -vcontr < vtriang → S3 off and S4 on → VBN=0
 the active and reactive power flow between the The output voltage of inverter legs A and B with respect to
PV array and the grid; negative terminal of dc bus N are shown in Fig. 3.
 the synchronization of the inverter and the 1

connection to the grid; 0

 the power quality. -1

0
0.00
0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.02
2
 An output filter to limit the high order harmonics

VAN (V)
component in output current and voltage. Vd

A. Single phase inverter 0

0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.02

An inverter is a static converter used to convert the DC

VBN (V)
voltage and current into AC voltage and current with variable Vd

amplitude and frequency [11]. A full bridge inverter is shown 0

in Fig. 2. 0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01
t(s)
0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.02

Fig. 3. SPWM with unipolar voltage switching

S1 D2 S3 D4 The output voltage of inverter is the difference between the

Vdc/2 C1 voltages of two inverter legs with respect the point N.
A B 𝑣𝑜 (𝑡) = 𝑣𝐴𝑁 (𝑡) − 𝑣𝐵𝑁 (𝑡) (1)
Vdc n
and the maximum value of the fundamental harmonic voltage
Vdc/2 S2 D1 S4 D3
is equal to:
C2
(𝑉̂𝑜 )1 = 𝑚𝑎 𝑉𝑑𝑐 per ma≤1 (2)
N i i
Fig. 4. shows the output voltage of inverter.
Vd
Fig. 1. Single phase full bridge inverter

Each leg of the inverter consists of two power devices, Vo1

typically IGBT, and the respective free-wheeling diodes
connected in antiparallel.
Vo (V)

0
B. Unipolar Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM)
In order to generate currents and voltages variable in
amplitude and frequency, a modulation strategy has to be
applied. There are several modulation strategy which differ for
generation of devices driving signals, for the value of harmonic -Vd
0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.02
components in voltage and current and for the use of dc bus t(s)
voltage. Fig. 4. Inverter output voltage
The modulation strategy used in this work is the Unipolar
Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) [11]. The unipolar SPWM has the advantage to generate voltage
The legs A and B of the inverter are controlled separately and current with a double frequency harmonic contents
by comparing a repetitive triangular signals vtriang with two compared to bipolar SPWM. Moreover, for each switching the
control signals vcontrol and -vcontrol (Fig. 3). The control signals output voltage fluctuate between Vd and 0 or between 0 and –
are used to modulate the switch duty ratio and have a frequency Vd, while in bipolar SPWM the fluctuation are between Vd and
equal to the desired fundamental frequency of the inverter –Vd. For this reason the ripple current on the dc side is less
output voltage. The frequency of the triangular signals than that which would occur with the bipolar modulation.
establishes the frequency with which the inverter switches are
switched. III. VOLTAGE ORIENTED CONTROL
The comparison between vcontrol and vtriang results in the Implemented control strategy, called Voltage Oriented Control,
following logic signals to control the devices of leg A: allows to control active and reactive power flow separately.
The block diagram of the Voltage Oriented control strategy is
if vcontr > vtriang → S1 on and S2 off → VAN=Vdc shown in Fig.5 [1].

Authorized licensed use limited to: Nelson Mandela University. Downloaded on April 21,2024 at 09:13:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Vgrid PLL In the rotating reference frame the q component of voltage is
equal to zero when the rotating reference frame is
θ grid Iq_ref Vq_grid θ grid synchronized with the grid voltage (Fig.6) and active and
+ +
reactive power can be calculated as [13]:
Igrid Iα Iq Regolatore Vq V_control
1 𝑉𝑑 𝐼 𝑑
α-β - PI + d-q 𝑃 = (𝑉𝑑 𝐼𝑑 + 𝑉𝑞 𝐼𝑞 ) → (10)
2 2
Vd_grid 1 𝑉𝑑 𝐼𝑞
𝑄 = (𝑉𝑑 𝐼𝑞 − 𝑉𝑞 𝐼𝑑 ) → (11)
+ 2 2
Iβ d-q Id Regolatore Vd α-β Vβ
Delay 90°
- PI +
+ β
Vdc_ref + Id_ref
Regolatore
ω=dθ/dt
PI
Vdc Filtro elimina - q
d
banda
Igrid
Fig. 5. Block diagram of Voltage Oriented Control
Vd=Vgrid
A. Park transform (αβ-dq) φ1
Id
To control separately the active and reactive power flow it’s
necessary to compute a transformation from a stationary Iq θ
reference frame αβ to a dq grid voltage synchronous rotating
reference frame. This procedure is computed applying the α
Park transform (αβ-dq).
A single phase system has only one phase variable, while the
dq transformation needs at least two orthogonal variables.
For this reason it’s necessary to construct an additional
Fig. 6. Stationary and rotating reference frames
orthogonal variable from the original phase variable [7].
The phase variable of the single phase system can be taken as It is worth noticing that active and reactive power flow can be
the α component of αβ system. The orthogonal component β separately controlled. Active power can be controlled through
can be calculated simply by introducing a phase shift of 90° the d component of grid current while the reactive power can
with respect to the α component. be regulated by means the q component of grid current.
If Vα is a the grid voltage expressed by the following equation The inverse Park transformation (dq-αβ) can be easily
obtained by direct transformation matrix.
𝑉𝛼 = 𝑉𝑀 cos(𝜔𝑡 + 𝜙) (3)
where VM, 𝜙 and ω are the amplitude, phase angle and 𝑇𝑖𝑛𝑣 = 𝑇 𝑇 = (cos(𝜔𝑡) −sin(𝜔𝑡)
) (12)
sin(𝜔𝑡) cos(𝜔𝑡)
frequency, the orthogonal variable Vβ is:
B. Phase Locked Loop
𝑉𝛽 = 𝑉𝑀 sin(𝜔𝑡 + 𝜙) (4)
To apply the Park transformation to decouple the control of
Applying Park transformation to variable Vα e Vβ, after the flows of active and reactive power is necessary to estimate
mathematical elaboration can be obtained the variable Vd e Vq the phase of grid voltage.
in the synchronous reference frame [12]. There are several synchronization method and generally they
can be divided in two category: mathematical analysis method
(𝑉𝑉𝑑) = (−cos(𝜔𝑡)
sin(𝜔𝑡)
sin(𝜔𝑡)
cos(𝜔𝑡)
) (𝑉𝑉𝛼 ) (5) and PLL based method. Among them, the PLL techniques are
𝑞 𝛽
the most used [7]. The technique used in this work is called
𝑉𝑑 = 𝑉𝑀 cos(𝜙) (6) T/4 Delay PLL. The block diagram of PLL is shown in Fig. 7.
𝑉𝑞 = 𝑉𝑀 sin(𝜙) (7) ωnom
+
From eq. (6) and (7), it is worth noticing that the transformed Vq_ref = 0 - Regolatore + θ grid
quantities have become DC quantities. 1/s
PI ω grid
The same procedure may be performed to transform the grid +
current on the synchronous reference frame. θ grid
In the stationary reference frame active and reactive power can Vq
q-d Vα Vac grid
be calculated by eq.(8) and (9), respectively [13].
1 Delay 90°
𝑃 = (𝑉α 𝐼α + 𝑉𝛽 𝐼𝛽 ) (8) α -β
2 Vd Vβ
1
𝑄 = (𝑉α 𝐼𝛽 − 𝑉𝛽 𝐼α ) (9) Fig. 7. Block diagram of T/4 Delay PLL
2

Authorized licensed use limited to: Nelson Mandela University. Downloaded on April 21,2024 at 09:13:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
On the rotating frame, the q component of grid voltage V q is Qgrid
equal to zero when the rotating frame is aligned with the grid
voltage and the d component Vd is equal to the peak of grid Pgrid -
Iqref
Qref PI
voltage. X
regulator
+
To obtain this condition the q component of grid voltage is
regulated to zero by a PI controller and in this way a signal
cosφ φ tanφ
that faithfully reproduces the phase of the grid voltage can be arccos tan
found [7] [13].
Fig. 8. Block diagram of the reactive power control loop
C. Current control loop
IV. GRID FILTER
The block diagram of the used control strategy consists of two
control loops. The inner current control loop is used to control Inverter output voltage and current have a relevant harmonic
the grid current and the power quality: power factor and Total contents. In order to obtain a perfect sine wave of current and
Harmonic Distortion (THD) coefficient. voltage, a filter between inverter and grid is used.
The Id and Iq component of the grid current are compared with There are several filter and the simplest use passive element as
the respective reference component Idref and Iqref. These error capacitors and inductors. Filters commonly used in grid
are used by PI regulator to generate the control signals of the connected systems are [6]:
unipolar SPWM.  L-filter: a first order filter with attenuation
With the d component of grid current can be controlled the 20dB/decade over the whole frequency range.
active power flow of the system while with the q component  LC-filter: a second order filter that has better
can be regulate the reactive power flow. The reference d damping behavior than L-filter. This filter is not used
component of the grid current are generated through the because its resonant frequency becomes dependent
external voltage control loop while, generally, the reference q on the grid impedance.
component is equal to zero in order to maintain a unitary  LCL-filter: third order filter with attenuation
power factor. 60dB/decade. This filter provides better decoupling
D. Voltage control loop between the filter and the grid impedance and lower
switching frequency for the converter can be used.
The external voltage control loop is used to balance the active
power flow between the PV array and the grid through the An inverter controlled by unipolar SPWM produces currents
control of the dc bus voltage. and voltages with double frequency harmonics with respect
A continue active power flow between the PV array and the the switching frequency of the power devices.
grid is guaranteed keeping the dc bus voltage constant (eq. Therefore, if a high switching frequency is chosen, the higher
13). order harmonics will have a much higher frequency compared
𝑑 𝑃𝑃𝑉 −𝑃𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑑 with the fundamental frequency of the voltage fed by inverter.
𝐶𝑑𝑐 𝑉𝑑𝑐 = (13) For this reason, it was possible to use a simple filter L, which
𝑑𝑡 𝑉𝑑𝑐
has been sized using the equation expressing the cutoff
When PV power increase, the dc bus voltage raise. The frequency of a first order L-filter (eq. 14).
positive difference between the dc bus voltage and the
1
reference dc bus voltage is used by a PI regulator to generate 𝑓𝑐 = (14)
2𝜋𝑅𝐿
the reference Id current. In this case the reference Id current is
increased to raise the active power flow injected into the grid. where L is the filter inductance and R is the load resistance.
Differently, when PV power decrease, the dc bus voltage V. SIMULATION RESULTS
decrease too. The negative difference between the dc bus
voltage and the reference dc bus voltage is computed by PI to The AC part of a single phase grid connected PV system has
decrease the reference Id component and then the active power been implemented in Matlab/Simulink. Fig. 9 shows the block
injected into the grid. diagram of the Simulink model.
It is worth noticing that the measured dc bus voltage is filtered
through a notch filter because it contains a voltage ripple at
double frequency with respect the fundamental frequency of
the inverter output voltage.
E. Reactive power control loop
Generally the current Iqref is kept to zero in order to maintain a
unitary power factor. When it’s necessary to regulate the
reactive power flow, there is an additional control loop that
generates the reference current Iqref as a function of the active
power injected in the grid. Fig. 8 shows the block diagram of
the reactive power control loop.
Fig. 9. Block diagram of the reactive power control loop

Authorized licensed use limited to: Nelson Mandela University. Downloaded on April 21,2024 at 09:13:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
It consists of four main parts: single phase inverter, inverter The experimental system is composed of 12 modules
control strategy, filter and grid. connected in series. The rated power of the grid connected
Note that to improve the speed of the model, an average model system is 2,88 kW. The datasheet of the modules is shown in
of single phase inverter has been used. Table 1.
Two study case are proposed below. Table 1. Module MIS240 datasheet
In the first study case the inverter control strategy is tested. Nominal power Pnom 240 Wp
As can be observed in Fig. 10, the inverter active output power Efficiency η 14.5 %
perfectly follows the reference active power. Voltage at MPP Vmpp 31.71 V
1500
Current at MPP Impp 7.52 A
1000 Open Circuit Voltage Voc 38.82 V
Short Circuit Current Isc 8.20 A
500 Temperature coeff. Pnom γ -0.421 % / K
Temperature coeff. Isc 0.0531% / K
Pgrid (W)

α
0
Temperature coeff. Voc β 0.0531% / K
-500
The input of the model are the measured irradiance and the
P ref
-1000 P grid
measured temperature (Fig. 13).
Observing the profile of irradiation in Fig. 13 and the
-1500
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
respective profiles of the measured dc power in Fig. 14, it is
t(s) evident that the reference cell, with which radiance
Fig. 10. Comparison between Pref and Pgrid measurements are performed, is shaded systematically from
Fig. 11 shows the comparison between the reference reactive 13:20 to 14:15 and from 17: 00 onwards. This shade has a
power and the reactive power delivered/absorbed by the direct impact on the simulated power profile because the
inverter. Also in this case, it’s possible observe that the measure radiation is a input of the Simulink model.
reference power is perfectly tracked. 1200 60

1500
Q ref 1000 50
Q grid
1000
800 40
500
Irr(W/m )
(VAR)

TRM(°C)
600 30
grid

0
Q

400 20
-500
Systematic
200 shading of the 10
-1000 Measured irradiance
Measured temperature reference cell
0 0
-1500 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 t(h)
t(s)
Fig. 13. Block diagram of the reactive power control loop
Fig. 11. Comparison between Qref and Qgrid
When the goodness of the model is evaluated through index
In the second study case to validate the model, a simulation on
RMSE, in order to eliminate the problem of the measurement
the entire PV grid connected system has been performed. The
of irradiation, a smoothing function to the power profile
implementation of the grid connected PV system DC part has
simulated is applied.
been discussed in another paper [14].
Fig. 14 shows the comparison between the measured and the
The complete grid connected PV system is shown in Fig. 12.
simulated DC power. The index RMSE is equal to 2.72%.
3000

2500

2000

RMSE=2.72%
(W)

1500
PV
P

1000

P Pv simulated
500 P Pv simulated smoothing
P Pv measured
0
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
t(h)

Fig. 12. Simulink model of the grid connected PV system Fig. 14. Comparison between the measured and simulated DCpower

Authorized licensed use limited to: Nelson Mandela University. Downloaded on April 21,2024 at 09:13:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
The DC link voltage is shown in Fig. 15. This voltage is kept VI. CONCLUSIONS
constant by means the external voltage control loop in order to
The aim of this work has been the study and the complete
regulate the active power flow between the PV array and the
description of a single phase grid connected PV system. The
grid. DC link voltage Vdc has a ripple at twice the frequency of
system has been implemented in Matlab/Simulink and has
the fundamental of the voltage generated by the inverter. The
been tested experimentally by comparing the measured power
amplitude of this ripple is proportional to the current generated
profiles with simulated power profiles. The index RMSE
by the PV array.
between simulated and real values is always less than 3%.
608
601
Moreover, the implemented control strategy allows to control
607 600.8
600.6
the active and reactive power flow separately, hence the
606 600.4 developed model can be used to study the difficult problem of
Vdc (V)

600.2
605 600 voltage regulation.
599.8
604 599.6
REFERENCES
V (V)

599.4
603
dc

599.2
602 599
11.6 t(h) 11.8 [1] S. R. Nandurkar e M. Rajeev, «Design and Simulation of three phase
601 Inverter for grid connected Photovoltic systems,» Proceedings of Third
600
Biennial National Conference, 2012.
599
[2] S. Golestan, M. Monfared e J. M. Guerrero, «A Novel Control
Technique for Single-Phase Grid-Connected Inverters,» 2011
598
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informatics,
t(h) 2011.
Fig. 15. DC bus voltage [3] M.Monfared, M. Sanatkar e S. Golestan, «Direct active and reactive
In Fig.16 it’s possible to observe that grid voltage and grid power control of single-phase grid-tie converters,» IET Power
current are perfectly in phase since the system is maintained Electronics, vol. 5, pp. 1544-1550, 2012.
at unity power factor by means of the control strategy. It’s [4] B. Crowhurst, E. El-Saadany, L. E. Chaar e L. Lamont, «Single-Phase
Grid-Tie Inverter Control Using DQ Transform for Active and Reactive
important to note that the voltage and current are in phase Load Power Compensation,» 2010 IEEE International Conference on
during active power transient too. Power and Energy , 2010.
400 [5] H. Kim e K.-H. Kim, «Filter Design For Grid Connected PV Inverter».
200 [6] J. Lettl, J. Bauer e L. Linhart, «Comparison of Different Filter Types for
V grid (V)

Grid Connected Inverter,» PIERS Proceedings, Marrakesh, MOROCCO,

0
2011.
-200
[7] Y. Yang e F. Blaabjerg, «Synchronization in Single Phase Grid
-400
16.8 16.9 17 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 Connected Photovoltaic System under Grid Faults».
t(h) [8] S. Conti, S. Raiti e G. Tina, «Simulink Modelling of LV Photovoltaic
Grid-Connected Distributer Generation,» 18th International Conference
5 on Electricity Distribution, 2005.
Igrid (A)

0
[9] S. Jena, B. Babu, S.R.Samantaray e M. Mohapatra, «Comparative Study
Between Adaptive Hysteresis and SVPWM Current Control for Grid-
-5 connected Inverter System,» IEEE Students' Technology Symposium 14-
16 January, IIT Kharagpur, 2011.
16.8 16.9 17 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4
t(h) [10] J. F. Sultani, «Modelling, Design and Implementation of D-Q Control in
Fig. 14. Grid voltage and current Single Phase Grid-Connected Inverters for Photovoltaic System used in
Domestic Dwellings».
Fig.17 shows the comparison between the measure and the [11] N. Mohan, Power Electronics-A first Course, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
simulated active power. Also in this case the index RMSE is [12] R. Zhang, M. Cardinal, P. Szczesny e M. Darne, «A Grid Simulator with
very low and equal to 2,74%. Control of Single-Phase Power Converters in D-Q Rotating Frame,»
3000 IEEE Transaction on Industrial Electronics.
[13] W. Sripipat e S. Po-NgamInverters, «Simplified Active Power and
2500 Reactive Power Control with MPPT for Single-Phase Grid-Connected
Photovoltaic,» IEEE Transaction on Industrial Electronics.
2000 [14] G.M. Tina, G. Celsa «Matlab/Simulink Model of Photovoltaic
Modules/Strings Under Uneven Distribution of Irradiance And
RMSE=2,74% Temperature,» Renewable Energy Congress (IREC), 2015 6th
(W)

1500
International.
grid
P

1000 [15] N. Mohan, Power Electronics, Third Edition.

P grid measured
500 P grid simulated
P grid simulated smoothing
0
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
t(h)
Fig. 15. Comparison between the measured and simulated AC power

Authorized licensed use limited to: Nelson Mandela University. Downloaded on April 21,2024 at 09:13:36 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.