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4th Annual Applied Science and Engineering Conference IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1402 (2019) 033098 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1402/3/033098

An improved control method to reduce harmonic level for a

single phase grid-connected flyback micro-inverter of a small
scale solar PV

F Ronilaya1,*, S Djulihenanto1, A Murdani2, I Siradjuddin1, E Rohadi3, R A

Asmara3 and S Nurhadi1
1
Electrical Engineering Department, State Polytechnic of Malang, Malang, Indonesia
2
Mechanical Engineering Department, State Polytechnic of Malang, Malang, Indonesia
3
Information Technology Department, State Polytechnic of Malang, Jl. Soekarno-Hatta
No 9, Malang 65142, Indonesia.

*ferdian@polinema.ac.id

Abstract. One of an attractive solution for PV ac-module is flyback-type micro inverter since it
has a number of advantages include simple control, stable current injection and potentially low-
priced technique. But, it has high voltage ripple in the DC-link that may cause high harmonic
distortion. Hence, a smooth DC voltage is required in order to maintain the total harmonic
distortion within standard level. DC link voltage can be smoothened by using capacitor.
However, the size of this capacitor is large and hence affects the weight and size of the inverter
package. This paper proposes a control method to reduce harmonic level for flyback-type micro-
inverter. MPPT (maximum power point tracker) technique used in this study is perturb & observe
because it is the simplest online MPPT method with high efficiency. Several experiments are
carried out to examine the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the
proposed method can reduce the harmonic level significantly and can be used as an alternative
solution.

1. Introduction
A solar PV is characterized by a large degree of intermittency. Thus, for a standalone solar PV systems
need large energy storage which typically has short lifetime and costly. For grid-connected solar PV
systems, energy storage is not required and can give noteworthy cost reduction [1]. The main component
of grid-connected solar PV is an inverter. There are various topologies of inverter that can be used to
transfer power to the grid, i.e.: centralized and micro-inverter. When partial shading occurs, micro-
inverter has better performance compared with that of centralized inverter since the micro-inverter is
installed in every single PV module [2-6].
One interesting inverter topology is the flyback-based micro-inverter due to simple current control,
the number of components is relatively low and potentially low in cost [7]. Flyback type micro-inverters
are operated with discontinuous conditions (DCM) [8,9]. In DCM operations, the AC output current can
be controlled without adding an AC output current sensor, because it operates as a voltage controlled
current source [10,11]. Therefore, current sensors that are isolated and expensive on the secondary side
are eliminated, resulting in a significant reduction in costs.
In most applications, micro-inverter is usually connected to a single phase distribution network. The
power profile delivered from the inverter is time varying with 100 Hz of frequency for a 50 Hz grid

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4th Annual Applied Science and Engineering Conference IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1402 (2019) 033098 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1402/3/033098

system. But, it should be noted that, the power at DC side of the inverter should be constant and it can
be obtained by using parallel capacitor [3]. This capacitor is used as low pass filter to smooth the voltage.
To maximize the power extraction of a solar PV system, maximum power point tracker (MPPT)
module is usually used. Various MPPT technologies have been proposed. The MPPT algorithm mostly
uses a conventional method. It employs a modulated current in an open loop approach [12]. Besides, the
conventional method is based on the assumption that the DC-link voltage is smooth. Thus, it will
increase the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the injected current [13-15]. Zengin proposes a new
method so called Volt-second-based Control Method [16]. The purpose of his study is to reduce the
THD resulted by the flyback-type micro-inverter. The control parameter employed is the magnitude of
the modulated current. As a comparison, we propose a new method to optimize the power extraction
and decrease the THD level by using phase control instead of magnitude control of the modulated
current.

2. Flyback micro-inverter analysis

The circuit of a flyback micro-inverter is given by Figure 1. It comprises DC side switch (IGBT1) and
two AC side switches (IGBT2 and IGBT3). Based on the polarity of the 50 Hz sinusoidal waveform,
IGBT2 and IGBT3 work alternately. If the IGBT1 is on, then the current energizes the magnetizing
inductance, Ln. When IGBT1 is off, the energy stored in Ln is delivered to the grid via IGBT3 and D1
depending on toff value. DCM occurs when ton + toff is less than the IGBT1’s switching period, Tf. The
highest ratio of the duty cycle (Dm) is given as follows:
kV pg
Dm  (1)
kV pg  Vin
where Vpg is peak voltage of the utility grid, Vin is the PV voltage and k is the turn ratio of the flyback
transformer.

Figure 1. Flyback-type micro-inverter circuit.

One of the advantage of the flyback inverter is that the DCM operation may provide a simple open loop
control without current sensor even though high peak current occurs at primary side of the inverter [8, 9].
But, if the DC voltage in the DC link fluctuates it will generate distortion on the output current and thus
increase the harmonic level vin(t). From Figure 1, if the IGBT1 is on then the magnetizing current, in(t),
will increase linearly as given by the following formula:
dI n (t ) Vin (t )
 (2)
dt Ln
The peak value of magnetizing current ln. peak (t ) is expressed as follows:

vin (t )
I n. peak (t )   t on (t ) (3)
Ln
If we modulate the duration of turn-on time with sinusoidal signal, the absolute value of the magnetizing
current can be determined. The equation of duty ratio is expressed as follows:

2
4th Annual Applied Science and Engineering Conference IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1402 (2019) 033098 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1402/3/033098

d (t )  Dn | sin t | (4)
where Dn is the maximum value of duty ratio which is given by MPPT algorithm.  is the grid frequency
in rad/sec. Thus, the duration of turn-on time is
t on  d (t )  T f (5)
Substituting Equation (5) into (3), we can get
T f vin (t )d (t )
I n. peak (t )  (6)
Ln
If IGBT1 is off, the magnetizing current is delivered to the secondary side of the HF transformer
depending on the turns ratio, k. Hence, the secondary peak current is given as follows:
kT f vin (t )d (t )
I d . peak (t )  (7)
Ln

Figure 2. (a) Magnetizing current (b) Current transferred to the grid.

The slope at the bottom as described by Figure 2(b) is determined by the following formula:
dI d (t ) k 2Vg (t )
 (8)
dt Ln

It is assumed that the grid voltage, vout(t), is pure sinusoid and is given as follows:
v out (t )  Vm sin t (9)
Vm is the amplitude of the grid voltage, vout(t). From Equation (7) to (9), the time required to reset the
magnetizing current can be determined as follows:
T f vin (t )d (t )
toff (t )  (10)
kVm sin t
Based on Figure 2(b), the average value of low frequency AC current can be determined by averaging
the triangle current waveform as given by the following Equation:
1 id . peak (t )toff (t )
iout (t )   (11)
Tf 2
Substituting Equation (7) and (10) into (11), we get:
T f Vin2 (t )d 2 (t )
iout (t )  (12)
2Vm Ln sin t

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4th Annual Applied Science and Engineering Conference IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1402 (2019) 033098 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1402/3/033098

3. The proposed control method

Equation (12) depicts that the duty cycle and DC voltage at the PV side may influence the current
delivered to the grid. Besides, the voltage at PV side can also affect the grid current. In the standard
control techniques, the voltage at PV side is constant, and hence the duty cycle function d(t) is modulated
in order to get rectified sinusoidal current waveform. But, this condition may cause current distortion.
The control technique uses a duty phase shifter (t), which is the phase angle between vout(t) and d(t).
Hence, we can modify Equation (4) as follows:
d (t )  Dn | sin t   (t ) | (13)
Substituting Equation (13) into (12), the current delivered to the grid can be found as follows:
T f Vin2 (t ) Dn2 sin 2 (t   (t ))
iout (t )  (14)
2Vm Ln sin t
The phase angle (t) is determined using algorithm as given by figure 3.

Figure 3. Block diagram control for calculating duty multiplier.

From Figure 3, we can determine (t) by using the following Equation:

 d
 (t )  k (t )  K p  Ki  dt  K d (15)
 dt 
k(t) is the output value determined MPPT algorithm. In this paper, MPPT algorithm used is P&O
technique. The proposed method is simulated using Matlab/Simulink. Figure 4 (a) shows the DC voltage
at the solar PV output. Figure 4(b) is the response of duty ratio, d(t) whereas Figure 4(c) depicts the PV
current delivered to the grid.

Figure 4. Waveform DC voltage at PV side, Dt = Duty ratio d(t), Igrid = Grid current iout(t).

4. Results and discussion

Figure 5 shows the investigated circuit including the proposed control design whereas Figure 6 depicts
the conventional design as comparison. Several experiments are carried out to verify the effectiveness of
the design and the circuit is modelled using Matlab/Simulink. The circuit parameter used in the simulation
is shown by Table 1 and Figure 7 is the irradiance model used in the experiments. Figure 8 and 9 depict

4
4th Annual Applied Science and Engineering Conference IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1402 (2019) 033098 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1402/3/033098

the active and reactive power responses, respectively. These figures comply that the proposed method
provide less reactive power than that of the conventional method. Hence, it can increase the power factor
of the inverter operation. The THD profiles of the two control methods are given by Figure 10 and 11.
The conventional method gives 6.13 % THD and the proposed method provides better THD profiles with
4.55 %.

Figure 5. The flyback micro-inverter with the Figure 6. The flyback micro-inverter with the
proposed control method. conventional control method.

Table 1. Micro-inverter specifications.

Parameter Value
Voltage input 18 V (DC)
Voltage output 220 Vrms
Frequency 50 Hz
Maximum Power 120 W
Switching frequency 10 kHz
Inductance Magnetizing 3 mH
Filter L/C/L 0,28 mH/ 3uF/ 1 mH

Figure 7. Solar irradiance.

Figure 8. Active power responses.

5
4th Annual Applied Science and Engineering Conference IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1402 (2019) 033098 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1402/3/033098

Figure 9. Reactive power responses.

Figure 10. THD of grid current for the conventional control method.

Figure 11. THD of grid current for the proposed control method.

5. Conclusion
An improved control method to reduce harmonic level for a single phase grid-connected flyback micro-
inverter has been presented. To verify the effectiveness of the design, several experiments are performed
and the results are compared with that the conventional method. The results show that the proposed
method may increase the power factor and can reduce THD level from 6.13 % to 4.55 %.

Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the State Polytechnic of Malang for supporting
this work.

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4th Annual Applied Science and Engineering Conference IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1402 (2019) 033098 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1402/3/033098

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