• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.712-718
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• 2013

This paper proposes a control method for reducing the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the grid current of three-phase grid-connected inverter systems when the grid voltage is distorted. The THD of the grid current caused by grid voltage harmonics is derived by considering the phase delay and magnitude attenuation due to the hardware low-pass filter (LPF). The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality theory is used in order to search more easily for the minimum point of the THD. Both the gain and angle of the compensation voltage at the minimum point of the THD of the grid current are derived with the variation of cut-off frequencies of the hardware LPF. Simulation and experimental results show the validity of the proposed control methods.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.853-862
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• 2018

Frequency coupling in the phase domain is a recently reported phenomenon for phase locked loop (PLL) based three-phase grid-inverter systems. This paper investigates the mechanism and stabilization method for the frequency coupling to the stability of grid-inverter systems. Self and accompanying admittance models are employed to represent the frequency coupling characteristics of the inverter, and a small signal equivalent circuit of a grid-inverter system is set up to reveal the mechanism of the frequency coupling to the system stability. The analysis reveals that the equivalent inverter admittance is changed due to the frequency coupling of the inverter, and the system stability is affected. In the end, retuning the bandwidth of the phase locked loop is presented to stabilize the three-phase grid-inverter system. Experimental results are given to verify the analysis and the stabilization scheme.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1347-1356
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• 2018

In a three-phase system, three-phase AC signals can be translated into two-phase DC signals through a coordinate transformation. Thus, the PI regulator can realize a zero steady-state error for the DC signals. In the control of a three-phase grid-connected inverter, the phase angle of grid is normally detected by a phase-locked loop (PLL) and takes part in a coordinate transformation. A novel control strategy for a three-phase grid-connected inverter with a frequency-locked loop (FLL) based on coordinate transformation is proposed in this paper. The inverter is controlled as a current supply. The grid angle, which takes part in the coordinate transformation, is replaced by a periodic linear changing angle from $-{\pi}$ to ${\pi}$. The changing angle has the same frequency but a different phase than the grid angle. The frequency of the changing angle tracks the grid frequency by the negative feedback of the reactive power, which forms a FLL. The control strategy applies to non-ideal grids and it is a lot simpler than the control strategies with a PLL that are applied to non-ideal grids. The structure of the FLL is established. The principle and advantages of the proposed control strategy are discussed. The theoretical analysis is confirmed by experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.324-340
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• 2014

Recent developments in power electronics technology have spurred interest in the use of renewable energy sources as distributed generation (DG) generators. The key component in DG generators is a grid-connected inverter that serves as an effective interface between the renewable energy source and the utility grid. The multifunctional inverter (MFI) is special type of grid-connected inverter that has elicited much attention in recent years. MFIs not only generate power for DGs but also provide increased functionality through improved power quality and voltage and reactive power support; thus, the capability of the auxiliary service for the utility grid is improved. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the various MFI system configurations for single-phase (two-wire) and three-phase (three- or four-wire) systems and control strategies for the compensation of different power quality problems. The advances in practical applications and recent research on MFIs are presented through a review of nearly 200 papers.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.419-427
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• 2016

This paper proposes a design method of LCL-filter for a grid-connected three-phase inverter using a discontinuous PWM (DPWM) method. When using a DPWM method, many harmonic voltages are generated in the inverter output compared to a continuous PWM (CPWM) method. Therefore, an optimized grid-connected filter design is required for a DPWM method. The proposed design method provides generalized formula to design accurate LCL-filter without trial and error procedures. An inverter side inductance is designed by analyzing the current ripple injected to the grid. The Optimized parameters of LCL-filter can be designed by analyzing the total harmonic distortion (THD) and the ripple attenuation factor of the output current. The proposed LCL filter design method is demonstrated by simulation and experimental results.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.72-77
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• 2015

Three-level diode clamped multilevel inverter, generally known as neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter, has an inherent problem causing neutral point (NP) potential variation. Until now, the NP potential problem of variation has been investigated and lots of solutions have also been proposed. This paper presents a neutral point voltage control technology using the anti-windup PI controller and offset technology of PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to control the variation of NPC 3-phase three-level inverter neutral point voltage. And the proposed algorithm is tested and verified using a PLL (Phase Locked Loop) in order to synchronize the phase voltage from the line voltage of grid. It significantly improves the voltage balancing under a solar fluctuation conditions of the inverter. Experimental results show the good performance and effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2221-2230
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• 2016

Voltage and frequency stability issues occur in existing centralized power system due to the high penetration of renewable energy sources, which decrease grid absorptive capacity of them. The grid-connected inverter that mimics synchronous generator characteristics with inertia characteristic is beneficial to electric power system stability. This paper proposed a novel three-phase four-wire grid-connected inverter with an independent neutral line module that mimics synchronous generators. A mathematical model of the synchronous generator and operation principles of the synchronverter are introduced. The main circuit and control parameters design procedures are also provided in detail. A 10 kW prototype is built and tested for further verification. The primary frequency modulation and primary voltage regulation characteristics of the synchronous generator are emulated and automatically adjusted by the proposed circuit, which helps to supports the grid.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.549-553
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• 1999

This paper describes a design method of grid-connected photovoltaic power generation systems with three phase inverter. A 3-phase 50kW photovoltaic power generation system including a DC/AC inverter is designed and made in order to investigate the system performance for grid connection. Also the control scheme of a three phase current-controlled PWM inverter is presented by using d-q transformation. The experimental waveforms show that the proposed system has stable behavior with an unit power factor in utility-interactive operation.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.451-462
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• 2016

Photovoltaic energy conversion becomes main focus of many researches due to its promising potential as source for future electricity and has many advantages than the other alternative energy sources like wind, solar, ocean, biomass, geothermal etc. In Photovoltaic power generation multilevel inverters play a vital role in power conversion. The three different topologies, diode-clamped (neutral-point clamped) inverter, capacitor-clamped (flying capacitor) inverter and cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter are widely used in these multilevel inverters. Among the three topologies, cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter is more suitable for photovoltaic applications since each pv array can act as a separate dc source for each h-bridge module. This paper presents a single phase Cascaded H-bridge five level inverter for grid-connected photovoltaic application using sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique. This inverter output voltage waveform reduces the harmonics in the generated current and the filtering effort at the input. The control strategy allows the independent control of each dc-link voltages and tracks the maximum power point of PV strings. This topology can inject to the grid sinusoidal input currents with unity power factor and achieves low harmonic distortion. A PID control algorithm is implemented in Arm Processor LPC2148. The validity of the proposed inverter is verified through simulation and is implemented in a single phase 100W prototype. The results of hardware are compared with simulation results. The proposed system offers improved performance over conventional three level inverter in terms of THD.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.547-550
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• 2017

This paper presents a loss analysis and compares three pulse width modulation (PWM) methods applied in a three-phase grid-connected bidirectional inverter for an energy storage system. The losses in switching devices and output low pass filters are theoretically analyzed by using PWM control techniques. Grid-connected bidirectional inverters are designed by using PWM techniques, and the designed inverters are simulated to verify the analysis results.