3rd IEEE International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG) 2012

10 kW Grid-Connected Three-Phase Inverter System:

Control, Simulation and Experimental Results

Evren ISEN Ahmet Faruk BAKAN

Department of Electrical Electronics Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Kirklareli University Yildiz Technical University
Kirklareli, TURKEY Istanbul, TURKEY
evren.isen@kirklareli.edu.tr fbakan@yildiz.edu.tr

Abstract— In this study, implementation of a 10kW three-phase inverters is the synchronization of the injected current with the
grid-connected inverter system is discussed. The system includes grid voltage. Zero crossing detection, the use of arctan()
a high voltage dc-link, a two-level inverter and filter inductances. function and Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) techniques are the
The high voltage dc-link is obtained from AC grid by means of a most preferred ones [9]. The phase angle information is also
transformer, a diode rectifier and filter capacitors. The two-level used for voltage and current transformation between reference
inverter is controlled with SVPWM technique, and L filter is frames and in the control algorithm.
used between the inverter and the AC grid. The system is
simulated in MATLAB/Simulink and, appropriate dc-link In this paper, implementation of a 10kW three-phase grid-
voltage, filter inductance and switching frequency values are connected inverter system is discussed. The two-level inverter
selected. The experimental results are presented from the is controlled with SVPWM technique in d-q reference frame,
laboratory prototype which is controlled by dSPACE DS1103 and L filter is used between the inverter and the grid. The grid
board to demonstrate the power control and harmonic synchronization of the inverter is realized with zero-crossing
performance. It is observed that at 9 kHz switching frequency, method including hysteresis. The system is simulated in
650V dc-link voltage and 10 kW output power, the total MATLAB/Simulink and, appropriate dc-link voltage, filter
harmonic distortion of the grid current is less than 3.4%, and inductance and switching frequency values are selected. The
power factor is higher than 0.99. experimental results are presented from the laboratory
prototype which is controlled by dSPACE DS1103 board to
Keywords- Three phase inverter, grid connected inverter,
dSPACE, SVPWM
demonstrate the power control and harmonic performance. It is
observed that at 9 kHz switching frequency, 650V dc-link
voltage and 10 kW output power, the total harmonic distortion
I. INTRODUCTION of the grid current is less than 3.4% for 3mH inductance value.
The energy obtained from renewable energy sources is
generally transferred to the grid due to the cost, life and II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
efficiency limitations of the storage systems. Various converter
topologies can be utilized between the energy source and dc- The system includes a high voltage dc-link, a two-level
link according to the source type [1]-[3]. The energy from dc- inverter and filter inductances. The input energy is supplied
link to the grid is generally transferred by means of an inverter. from AC grid. The high voltage dc-link is obtained from AC
Grid connected systems are designed according to power grid by means of a transformer, a diode rectifier and filter
quality, grid synchronization and anti-islanding issues defined capacitors. The dc energy is transferred to the grid with a two-
in the standards [4]-[6]. According to the standards, the total level IGBT inverter. The inverter is controlled with space
harmonic distortion (THD) of the grid current should be less vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) technique at constant
than 5%, and the injected current should be in synchronization switching frequency. In order to filter the inverter current, L
with the grid voltage. At low power levels single-phase filter is used between the inverter and the grid. The grid
inverters are used, and at high power levels three-phase frequency and voltage are 50Hz and 380V, respectively. The
inverters are preferred. output of the system is connected to the grid with a circuit
breaker. When the dc-link voltage reaches to nominal value the
Various control strategies and modulation techniques are circuit breaker is closed, control system starts to operate and
implemented in three-phase grid-connected systems [7],[8]. PWM signals are generated. The effective value of the phase
The SVPWM technique in d-q rotating reference frame is the current of the inverter is 15.15A at nominal output power.
most preferred one. SVPWM technique has important Filter inductance value is selected as 3mH, and the inverter
advantages in terms of constant switching frequency, optimum switching frequency is selected 9kHz which provides the THD
switching pattern, low harmonic content and high dc-link standards.
voltage utilization. The basic requirement for grid connected

This work was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research

Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under grant 110E212.

978-1-4673-2023-8/12/$31.00/
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 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG) 2012


Figure 1. Control block diagram of the grid connected inverter


III. CONTROL OF THE SYSTEM b
G G
The system control includes current control and grid v 3 (010) v 2 (011)
synchronization. In the developed system, the inverter is V
ref
controlled with SVPWM technique in d-q synchronous rotating
frame and the zero-crossing method is used for grid G G a,D
v 4 (110) vG 0 (000) 
synchronization. The block diagram of the current control v 7 (111) G
v1 (001)
algorithm is given in Fig. 1. The current control of the system
is realized in d-q synchronous rotating frame and the control is
constructed based on (1). The control algorithm includes two G G
PI regulators which eliminate current errors in d-q axis. The v 5 (110) v 6 (101)
grid currents are transformed into d-q axis. The current errors c
are applied to PI regulators. In order to compensate the effect Figure 2. Vector definitions in a three-phase voltage source inverter
of grid harmonics and to improve the performance of the PI
regulators, the d-q axis components of the grid voltage and
decoupling terms are added to the output of the regulators. The IV. SIMULATION STUDY AND RESULTS
reference output voltages of the inverter in d-q axis are The power circuit and control block of the system is shown
obtained. These voltages are transformed into - stationary in Fig. 3. The system is simulated with MATLAB/Simulink.
frame and applied to SVPWM block. The Embedded MATLAB Function block includes the control
algorithm written as m-file. The simulation parameters of the
system are given in TABLE I.
did
vd L  Z Liq  vgd
dt TABLE I. SIMULATION PARAMETERS
 
diq Output power (Pout) 10kW
vq L  Z Lid  vgq
 dt DC-link voltage (Vdc1+Vdc2) 650V

The SVPWM block produces inverter output voltage vector Filter inductance (L) 3mH
from vD, vE reference voltages and dc-link voltage. For a three- ESR of filter inductance (R) 20m
phase voltage source inverter, there are six active vectors and
two zero vectors as shown in Fig. 2. Depending on the Phase-to-neutral voltage (vs) 220V
reference voltage sector, two adjacent vectors and zero vectors Grid frequency (f) 50Hz
are applied in a switching period.
DC-link capacitors (C) 4x4800F
The grid angle is required to make transformation between
a-b-c, - and d-q axis. The zero-crossing method is used for Step time of the simulation 5s
grid synchronization. The grid voltages are measured and then
they are filtered to avoid disturbances. Grid angle/frequency is Current/voltage sampling time 20s
updated at the beginning of each half cycle, thus its dynamic Switching frequency (fsw) 9kHz
response to the frequency variation is not so strong [10].

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 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG) 2012


Figure 3. Simulink model of the system

The measured current and voltages are scaled depending on 40

the sensors’ gains used in the experimental prototype. Thus, the 30
control software is compatible and ready to use with the 20
/ 10 (V)

prototype. The simulation results are given in Fig. 4-Fig. 6. In

Fig. 4, d-q components of the grid current are given. The 10
gabc

reference value of d-axis current is 22A. q-axis current is set to 0

zero in order to eliminate the reactive power. Three-phase grid
(A), v

-10
currents and voltages are shown in Fig. 5. The currents are in
abc

the same phase with grid voltages. Only active power is -20
i

transferred to the grid. The harmonic spectrum of the grid -30

current is given in Fig. 6 in the range of 5kHz. The amplitudes
-40
of the harmonics are shown as the ratio to the fundamental 250 300 350
value. The THD value of the grid current is 3.44% which meets t (ms)
the 5% THD limit.
Figure 5. Three-phase grid currents and voltages
25

20

15
i , i (A)
q

10
d

250 300 350

t (ms)

Figure 4. d-q components of the grid current Figure 6. Harmonic spectrum of the grid current

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 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG) 2012

V. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AND RESULTS

The 10kW laboratory prototype of the system is shown in
Fig. 7. The system includes a transformer, a diode rectifier, dc-
link capacitors, two-level inverter, output L filters and a circuit
breaker. The control of the inverter is realized with DS1103
control board. CLP1103 connector panel is used to connect the
output of the transducers to the DS1103 control board and
PWM outputs to the signal isolation board. The design
specifications of the system are given in TABLE II.
The algorithm developed in Simulink is converted to C
code and loaded to the DSP which exists in the DS1103 control
board by means of RTI (Real-Time Interface). The control 
structure of the inverter is shown in Fig. 8. The measured
voltages and currents are adapted to Simulink with ADC Figure 9. Single phase grid voltage and current waveforms
blocks that are included in DS1103 toolbox. The control
software is developed as an m-file with an Embedded Matlab
Function block. The generated PWM signals are applied to the
inverter with DS1103_DSP_PWM block.

TABLE II. DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS OF THE SYSTEM

Transformer 3x25A
IGBT Module (IPM) PM50CL1A120
Diode Rectifier Fuji 6RI30G-160/ 30A,1600V
Filter Inductance 3mH, Ferrite Core
Control Board dSPACE DS1103
DC-link Capacitor 4 x 4800 F /450V
Voltage Sensors LEM LV25-P
Current Sensors LEM LA25-NP



Figure 10. Three-phase grid voltage and current waveforms

The inverter is operated at 9kHz switching frequency with

SVPWM technique. The dead- time is 3s. The grid phase
current and voltage is shown in Fig. 9. The voltage scale
(Ch1) is 100V/div. The current is measured with TCP303
current probe (Ch2) and the the current scale is 10A/div. In
Fig. 10, three-phase grid currents and voltages are given. All
currents are balanced and synchronized with grid voltages.
The measured THD value is 3.59% and power factor is higher
than 0.99.

Figure 7. Laboratory prototype VI. CONCLUSION
In this study, a 10kW three-phase grid connected inverter is
simulated in MATLAB/Simulink, and implemented with
DS1103 control board. The input energy is supplied from AC
grid, and the energy is transferred to the grid with two-level
inverter. L filter is utilized between the inverter and the grid to
filter the output current. The three phase inverter is controlled
with SVPWM technique at 9kHz switching frequency. The
THD value of the grid current is 3.44% and 3.59% in the
simulation and experimental study, respectively. The power
factor is achieved to be higher than 0.99. The simulation results
are verfied with the experimental results. In order to improve
the system efficiency, switching frequency must be decreased
but it makes L filter value higher. Therefore, LCL filter is more
effective than L filter in terms of switching frequency and L
Figure 8. Control structure of the inverter in Simulink filter value.

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 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG) 2012

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