A New Phase Detecting Method for Power Conversion Systems

Considering Distorted Conditions in Power System

Sang-Joon Lee, Jun-Koo Kang, and Seung-Ki Sul

School of Electrical Engineering #024, Seoul National University

Kwanak P.O. BOX 34, Seoul, Korea (ZIP 151-742)
Tel : +82-2-880-7243 Fax : +82-2-878-1452
URL : eepe1.snu.ac.h E-mail : [email protected]

Abstract - In this paper, a new phase detecting method is voltage because its sensitivity causes large harmonics in the
proposed for PWM rectifiers and active filters reference signal and eventually severe harmonics in line
considering distorted utility conditions. The accurate current. There have been many studies on the control strategy
phase angle information of utility voltage is essential to of the power conversion system under distorted utility
the active power conversion systems tied to the utility line. condition. But only a few papers deal with the phase
The angle information can be easily corrupted by the detection problems under the distorted conditions [4,5].
distorted utility voltage such as voltage unbalance and In well balanced case of utility voltage, there are several
harmonics in waveform. Thus large harmonics may be methods to detect phase angle of the source. A zero crossing
caused in the current or voltage reference signal whose instant of line to line voltage is detected using analog circuit
phase angle is based on the detected voltage phase angle. in the "zero crossing PLL (Phase Locked Loop) " as shown in
First, focusing on the distorted utility condition, effects of Fig. 1. But zero crossing point is sensitive to the distortion of
the several phase angle detecting methods on the the waveform, and the variation of each phase is not
operation of PWM rectifiers and active filters are considered in angle detection. In Fig. 2, "synchronous d-q
investigated. Then a new voltage phase angle detector is frame PLL" detects phase angle in the d-q rotationary
proposed using voltage sequence detector and PI reference frame, which is synchronized to the input voltage
controller. Proposed method does not cause harmonics in frequency [4,5]. This is a simple and stable three-phase PLL
the reference signal by adequately eliminating unbalance system. But reference sinusoidal wave based on the detected
components and high-order harmonic terms in the utility angle can contain large harmonics when the voltage from
voltage. The basic principle of the proposed method is utility source is distorted. The effects of the high-order
described in detail. Experimental results prove the harmonics in utility is negligible because the bandwidth of
feasibility of the proposed strategy comparing with the the d-q frame PLL can be designed to cut off the high-order
conventional method. harmonics. But the voltage unbalance still deteriorates the
PLL system because it causes low-order harmonics, 3rd, 5th,
I. INTRODUCTION 7th and etc. Thus the conventional methods are not sufficient
to cope with various distortion of utility source.
In ac power conversion systems, the accurate phase angle
This paper investigates the problems of the several phase
information of utility voltage is essential, where current or
detection methods focusing on the distorted utility condition
voltage reference is synchronized with the phase of the utility
first. Then a new PLL system which has low sensitivity to the
voltage for power factor correction, activeheactive power
distorted voltage and fast detection dynamics is proposed.
control, harmonic current compensation, and so forth.
Using positive and negative sequence decomposition, effects
However there is no perfectly balanced source in real
of the voltage unbalance and some low-order harmonics in
situation, and waveforms of the utility voltage are also rich in
the utility voltage can be eliminated. The conventional and
harmonics because there are many factors that contribute to
proposed phase detecting methods are compared and
unbalance and harmonic distortions in industrial fields [1-31.
discussed through the experimental results. Also
Moreover it is reasonable to expect that the level of these
effectiveness of these methods is compared when these
harmonics will increase in the future. Therefore phase angle
methods are applied in active filter.
detector should be fast but robust to the distorted utility

0 1999 IEEE
0-7803-5589-X/99/$10.00 2167
 1
- Be, sinewave Synchronous d-q h e
S generator
Fig.2. Block diagram of synchronous d-q frame phase detector.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the zero crossing-type phase detector.
where rotating angle 'e = w t + e , , and 0, is arbitrarily
selected value. PI regulator in Fig2 controls the rotating
anglee, to follow the commandEJe = o regardless of utility
11. EFFECT OF DISTORTED UTILITY TO THE PLL SYSTEM voltage condition. Therefore in the ideal case, resulting
A. Voltage Unbalance detected phase anglee, and E q e in (3) become

Unbalanced voltage under faulty conditions can be

decomposed into two balanced three phase systems as e, =ot+e-z
2
Ede = 0, 1
(4)
cos(2wt +e, +e,)]r
Eqe = [Eim+ E:m +2EPmEnm
where

where subscript 'p' and 'n' denote the positive and negative and e,=@-".2
sequence variables respectively, and zero sequence term is
not considered. The above expression can be written in space Fig. 3 shows the problems of the synchronous d-q PLL
vector notation as [6,7] system under unbalanced condition. The utility voltage in Fig.
Eabr = E + E e-J(O'+en)
eJ(w'+eP) 3(a) has amplitude unbalance with 20% unbalance factor and
pm iwn (2) phase angle is shifted by +8 degree. PI controller
In the synchronous dq PLL system, rotationary dq axes drives into zero and Eqehas 2 0 ripple as shown in Fig.
voltage d'e and Eqe are obtained as 3(b). The detected anglee, and real phase
Edge= Ede+ jEq, = E,d(ep4r) + Ennr e-J(2wr+e.+e,) angle00 ( = a t + e p -') are shown in Fig. 3(c). As it can be
2
=(E,cos(0,-0,)+ Enmcos(2wt+0,+e,)) (3)
seen from Fig. 3(d), the resulting 3-phase sine reference
+ j ( E, sin(0 -0,) - En,,,sin(2ot +e, +0 ,)). signals are rich in low-order harmonics (results of FFT
analysis are presented in the experiments).

-m3-
(a) tirne(rns) I (b) tlma(rns)

Fig.3. Simulation results of the conventional input phase detector. (a) Unbalanced utility voltage. (b) Utility voltage in synchronous reference
frame. (c) Real and detected angle00 ,e,. (d) Sine references using detected phase angleee.
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w
2 g3.75

-203 -203 -2 -1.5

3 5 13 15
(a) ume(ms) (b) flme(ms) (d) Ume(ms)

Fig.4. Simulation results of the conventional input phase detector with harmonics of P-order. (a) Utility voltage with harmonics of 5", 7" and 1 1"
order. (b) Utility voltage in synchronous reference frame. (c) Real phase angle 8, and detected phase angle 8, . (d) 3-phase sinusoidal reference
signals using detected phase angle 8,.

with a positive sequence computation block and a second

B. Voltage
" Harmonics
order filter. To eliminate the voltage unbalance effects,
positive sequence components of the phase voltage are used
Total Harmonic Distortion(THD) in the utility voltage is
as an input of the PLL system. Using this block, the effect of
typically less than 5%. At industrial site, however, it
negative sequence components that causes 2w ripple
probably could be higher than 5% due to various nonlinear
loads [3]. Just as a case, the utility voltage in Fig. 4(a) has to and 'qe can be Positive sequence
7% of the S", 5% of the 7'h and 11" harmonics respectively components of utility can be expressed as
resulting THD 9.9%. In ideal case, PI controller
regulates Edeinto zero and Eqehas high order ripple voltage
as shown in Fig. 4(b). The detected anglee, and real phase
anglee, are shown in Fig. 4(c). As it can be seen from Fig.,
4(d), the resulting 3-phase sine and cosine functions have -.
harmonics whose order is same to that of input voltage. The
effects of high-order harmonics in the utility voltage can be ~

cut-off by lowering system bandwidth. But if the dynamics of -

-
PLL system is designed to cut-off low-order harmonics, PLL
system becomes too sluggish. From the simulation results of
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, it can be concluded that the conventional
system is prone to distortion of the utility voltage.
j-t n
111. PROPOSED PHASE DETECTION
STRATEGY where, a=--+ j- or a = e '
2 2
Digital implementation of ( 5 ) is possible by combining all-
A. Elimination of Unbalance Eflects pass 90" phase-shifter and constant gain.
Fig. 5 shows the proposed d-q synchronous PLL system
/

Sine table
Synchronous d-q frame
Positive sequence computation
Fig 5 Block diagram of the proposed phase voltage detection under utility distortion.

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 Second order Low pass Fi C
-- .
1o* 10' 102 1o3
Frequency (radsec)
Fig.6. The control block diagram of the proposed PLL system.
Fig.7. Bode plot of the proposed system.

B. Elimination of Harmonics Components

Iv. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Second-order low-pass filter is added to reduce the
effects of high-order harmonics of 5", 7", 1 l", etc as shown To c o n f m the effectiveness of the proposed PLL system,
in FigS. By eliminating the effects of voltage unbalance and some experimental comparison with the conventional PLL
high-order harmonics, the bandwidth of PLL system can be system have been carried out. Two distorted utility conditions,
increased for fast dynamics without distortion of reference i.e., voltage unbalance and voltage harmonics are tested
signal. The positive sequence voltage can be obtained using using the hardware of DSP TMS32OC40 based PWh4
(5). Ede in Fig. 5 has dc component and relatively high converter system. Control time interval of PLL system is
frequency ripples due to harmonics of 5", 7' and ll", etc 150~~.
which are dominant harmonics in real distribution systems.
Since Ede has high frequency ripple, low-pass filter can be A. Voltage Unbalance
designed to have relatively higher cut-off frequency which Fig. 8 shows the 3-phase voltage unbalance under power
minimizes the degradation of system dynamics. faulty conditions for the experiments. At fault instant, voltage
Fig. 6 shows the control block diagram of the proposed unbalance of 20% occurs and phase angle is shifted by +8
PLL system where positive sequence computation block is degree. Fig. 9 shows the performance of the conventional
not included and its Bode plot is shown in Fig. 7. PI synchronous d-q PLL systems with 100 rads system
controller is set to have bandwidth of 300 rads as shown in bandwidth. Voltage unbalance occurs at t = 30 ms, and q-
Fig.7. and d-axes rotationary frame voltages Eqe and Ede begin to
oscillate. Detected angle has +go shift to real phase angle
after about 100 ms. In Fig. 9(b) sinusoidal reference signal
has harmonics of Yd, 5th,7" and etc. But it is not serious. The
faster dynamics can be obtained by tuning gains of PI
controller in the phase detector. But it inevitably amplifies
the ripple component in the detected angle. Fig. 10 shows the
performance of the conventional synchronous d-q PLL
system with theoretically infinite system bandwidth, i.e.,
Ede = instantaneously. Then, detected angle largely
oscillates and large harmonics are observed in the sinusoidal
reference signal in Fig. 10(b). In the proposed method shown
in Fig. 11, the effects of voltage unbalance are eliminated by
the positive sequence computation. Therefore, 20 frequency
ripples are not shown in the estimated angle. Thus,
1 I bandwidth of the proposed PLL system method can be
Time (ms) 31.5
increased to 300 rads for fast dynamics. It takes only about 5
Fig.8. Voltage unbalance of 20 % for experiments. ms to reaches to +8 degree. There are small harmonics of Sth,
7' and etc. in the resulting sinusoidal reference signal which

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3.95 0
rn
t
-250
€250 - -1.4
0 Time (ms)

Time (ms) 150

Fig. 9. Input voltage phase detection with low PLL system dynamics (bandwidth of 100 radsec). (a) (From top to bottom) Three-phase voltage, q-
axis voltage, d-axis voltage and angle. (b) (From top to bottom) Sinusoidal reference signal sin ee, %harmonics contained in the reference signal.

(b)
Fig. 10. Input voltage phase detection in ideal case. (a) (From top to bottom) Three-phase voltage, q-axis voltage, d-axis voltage and angle. (b)
(From top to bottom) Sinusoidal reference signal sin Oe, YOharmonics contained in the reference signal.

0 Time-(ms) 150

-250

Fig. 11. Proposed method(bandwidth of 300 rads). (a) (From top to bottom) Three-phase voltage, q-axis voltage, d-axis voltage and angle. (b)
(From top to bottom) Sinusoidal reference signal sin Oe, 'YOharmonics contained in the reference signal.

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 Utility Utility
voltage voltage
(WV/diV) 0 (90 Vldiv) 0

Sine Sine
reference 0 reference 0
signal IFFkA+W*l signal
Time (ms) 50 Time (ms) 50

Fig. 12. PLL system comparison with bandwidth of 300 rads. (a) Conventional PLL system. (From top to.bottom) Utility voltage and sinusoidal
reference signal sin Be. (b) Proposed PLL system. (From top to bottom) Utility voltage and sinusoidal reference signal sin ee.

is based on detected angle. utility voltage. The feasibility of the proposed method has
been verified through the experimental results. This is useful
B. Voltage Harmonic Distortion to all active ac conversion system tied to ac line such as
PWM rectifier and active power filter.
In Fig. 12, utility voltage is 160 V (phase, peak) with 7% of
the 5", 5% of the 7" and 1Ith harmonic distortion. Fig. 12(a)
shows the conventional synchronous dq PLL systems with REFERENCES
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N0.4, pp.782-787,1992.
FFT result shows that sinusoidal reference has harmonics of [2] C.J. Melhorn, T.D. Davis, G.E. Beam, " Voltage sags; Their impact on
3% of the 5", 5% of the 7'h and 2% of 9"-, etc. Fig. 12(b) the utility and industrial customers ,"IEEE Trans. on Ind..Appl,Vol.34,
shows the proposed PLL systems with the bandwidth of 300 N0.3, pp.549-558,1998.
[3] G . Yalcinkaya,. M.H.J. Bollen. P.A. Crossley, " Characterization of
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distorted utility conditions, "IEEE Trans. on Ind. Appl.,Vol.33, No. 1,
shows that sinusoidal reference has very small harmonics of
pp.58-63,1997.
the 3rd,5" and 7'h3.Here second order even harmonic comes [5] J.W. Kolar, H. Ertl, K. Edelmoser, F.C. Zach, " Analysis of the control
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[7] P. Enjeti and P.D. Ziogas, "Analysis of a Static Power Converter under
In this paper, a new phase angle detection method has Unbalance: a Novel Approach," IEEE Trans. on Ind. Electron. vo1.37,
been proposed, which has fast and robust performances under no.1, pp.91-93, 1990.
distorted utility voltage condition. To achieve this, a new
voltage phase detector has been designed including positive
sequence computation block and second-order low-pass filter.
By blocking negative sequence component, the effects of
voltage unbalance are eliminated. The second-order low-pass
filter reduces the effects of high-order harmonics. Thus this
method does not cause harmonics in the resulting sinusoidal
reference signal by adequately eliminating the negative
sequence component and high-order harmonic terms in the

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