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Power Quality Improvement using Four leg grid

interfacing inverter for grid connected
Distributed generation system
CONFERENCE PAPER APRIL 2012

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2 AUTHORS:
Ilavarasi Veeran

C. Christober Asir Rajan

Pondicherry Engineering College

Pondicherry Engineering College

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IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT

Power Quality Improvement in Grid connected

system using Four leg VSI
V.Ilavarasi
PG Student, Department of EEE
Pondicherry Engineering College
Puducherry, India
ila_ilam@hotmail.com

Abstract This paper suggests a new method that consists of a

four leg inverter that is capable of simultaneously compensating
problems like power factor, current imbalance and current
harmonics, and also of injecting the energy generated by
renewable energy power sources. The fourth leg of inverter is
used to compensate the neutral current of load. The grid
interfacing inverter can thus be utilized as: 1) power converter to
inject power generated from RES to the grid, and 2) shunt APF
to compensate current unbalance, load current harmonics and
load reactive power demand. The inverter is actively controlled in
such a way that it draws/supplies fundamental active power
from/to the grid. All of these functions may be accomplished
either individually or simultaneously. This new control concept is
demonstrated with extensive MATLAB/Simulink simulation
studies.
Index Terms Active power lter (APF), distributed
generation (DG), power quality (PQ), renewable energy (RE)
and Voltage source Inverter (VSI).

I. INTRODUCTION
The widespread use of non-linear loads is leading to a
variety of undesirable phenomena in the operation of power
systems. The harmonic components in current and voltage
waveforms are the most important among these.
Conventionally, passive filters have been used to eliminate line
current harmonics. However, they introduce resonance in the
power system and tend to be bulky. So active power line
conditioners have become popular than passive filters as it
compensates the harmonics and reactive power simultaneously
[1]. The active power filter topology can be connected in
series or shunt and combinations of both. Shunt active filter is
more popular than series active filter because most of the
industrial
applications
require
current
harmonics
compensation. Different types of active filters have been
proposed to increase the electric system quality; a generalized
block diagram of active power filter is presented in [2]. The
classification is based on following criteria.

C.Christober Asir Rajan

Associate Professor, Department of EEE
Pondicherry Engineering College
Puducherry, India
asir_70@pec.edu

a. Power rating and speed of response required in

compensated system
b. System parameters to be compensated (e.g. current
harmonics, power factor , voltage harmonics)
c. Technique used for estimating the reference
current/voltage.
Current controlled voltage source inverters can be utilized
with appropriate control strategy to perform active filter
functionality. The electrical grid will include a very large
number of small producers that use renewable energy sources,
like solar panels or wind generators. One of the most common
problems when connecting small renewable energy systems to
the electric grid concerns the interface unit between the power
sources and the grid, because it can inject harmonic
components that may detoriate the power quality. However,
the extensive use of power electronics based equipment and
non-linear loads at PCC generate harmonic currents, which
may detoriate the quality power [3],[4]. In [5] an inverter
operates as active inductor at a certain frequency to absorb the
harmonic current. A similar approach in which a shunt active
lter acts as active conductance to damp out the harmonics in
distribution network is proposed in [6].
Generally, current controlled voltage source inverters are
used to interface the intermittent RES in distributed system.
This paper suggests a new method that consists of four leg VSI
that is capable of simultaneously compensating problems like
power factor, current imbalance and current harmonics, and
also of injecting the energy generated by renewable energy
power sources with a very low THD. Even when there is no
energy available from the power source the Voltage source
inverter can still operate, increasing the power quality of the
electric grid. Thus the grid interfacing inverter is effectively
utilized to perform the following functions
a. Active power injection
b. Current harmonics compensation at PCC.
c. Current unbalance and neutral current compensation in
3-phase 4-wire system.

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d. Load reactive power demand support.

In three phase application with three leg inverter, if the load
requires a neutral point connection a simple approach is to use
two capacitor to split the dc link and tie the neutral point to the
midpoint of two capacitors. In this case the unbalanced loads
will cause the neutral currents that flow through the fourth wire
distorting the output voltage. Another drawback is the need for
excessively large dc link capacitors. The important parameters
of VSIs are the level of dc link voltage, value of interface
inductor and hysteresis band. These parameters must be
carefully selected to provide satisfactory performance while
tracking reference currents [7], [8]. In [9] a control strategy
based on p-q theory is proposed where load current and
inverter current sensing are required to compensate load an
harmonics.
II. SYSTEM TOPOLOGY AND OPERATING PRINCIPLE
The proposed system consists of RES connected to the dclink of a grid-interfacing inverter as shown in Fig. 1. It is
assumed that a non-linear unbalanced load consisting of a
three phase and single phase diode rectifier is connected to a
three-phase balanced source voltages. The voltage source
inverter is a key element of a DG system as it interfaces the
renewable energy source to the grid and delivers the generated
power. The RES may be a DC source or an AC source with
rectier coupled to dc-link.

Fig.2 Single Phase Equivalent Circuit of the system and VSI

In equation (1), iLf is the fundamental component and iLh

harmonic component of load current. Since the harmonic
component of load current should not be transferred to the
supply side, the inverter has to inject a current whose
magnitude should be equal to harmonic component.
We should have,
iLah = iInva

A
B

Grid

Unbalanced

loads
In

In

External Hyteresis
Current control

Lsh
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8

Renewable Energy
Source

iS = iLaf

(4)

Vc

Reference current Ia
Ib
generation
Ic

Iinvn

Vb

Ic

Iinvc

Va

Ib

Iinvb

Transformer

Ia

Iinva

Distribution

From equation (2) and (3), we get

Non linear

Delta - Star

(3)

PCC

Four leg Grid Interfacing inverter

Vdc

Fig.1 Schematic of Proposed Distributed Generation system

Generally, the power circuit of shunt APF consists of a three

phase Voltage Source PWM Inverter (VSI) using IGBTs
coupled at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) via coupling
inductance. The active filter compensates the harmonics
generated by nonlinear loads by generating the same harmonic
components in the opposite phase. Harmonics are thus
cancelled and the result is a non-distorted sinusoidal current.
Each leg of VSI consists of two IGBT. The single phase
equivalent circuit of the system is shown in Fig.2. Load current
can be written as
iLa = iLaf + iLah
(1)
iLa= iInva + iS
(2)

If iLah > iInva switch2 should be OFF and switch 1 should

be ON so the current generated by dc capacitor iInva is equal to
iLh.
If iLah < iInva switch2 should be ON and switch 1 should be
OFF so the current iInva should be transferred to the ground in
order to have iInva= iLah..
III.

CONTROL STRATEGY

The main aim of the proposed approach is to inject the

power from RES and also to make the voltage source inverter
to function as an APF. There are many control approaches
available for the generation of reference source currents for the
control of VSI system in the literature [10], [11]. The block
diagram of the control scheme is shown in Fig. 3. The control
strategy applied to the grid side inverter consists mainly of two
cascaded loops. Usually there is a fast internal current control
loop, which regulates the grid current and an external voltage
loop which controls the DC-link voltage [12]. Conduction and
switching losses of diodes and IGBTs in inverters increase
voltage ripple in DC-link which affects the performance of the
filter. These effects controlled by a feedback loop where PI
regulator compares the DC-link voltage with a reference
voltage. The control scheme approach is based on injecting the
currents into the grid using hysteresis current controller.

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Vdc
VOLTAGE

Vdc*

Vdc

REGULATOR

LPF

Current errors are obtained by comparing reference grid

currents ( Ia *, Ib *, Ic *) with actual grid currents ( Ia, ,Ib , Ic ).
These current errors are given to the hysteresis current
controller.

Im
Ia
Ia*

Ua

P1

+
UNIT
VECTOR

Ub

Ib*

TEMPLATE

+
Ic*

Uc

NOT

P4

P3
NOT

Ic
-

P6

NOT

P2

In
P7

NOT

P8

Current Controller

Fig.3 Block diagram representation of control scheme

A. Voltage control of DC capacitor

The DC link voltage regulates balanced power flow in the
grid system so the DC link voltage is maintained constant
across the capacitor. A PI controller is used to maintain the
DC link voltage at specified value. The DC link voltage is
sensed and compared with reference value and the error is
passed through a PI controller.
(5)

Thus the output of dc link voltage regulator results in current

Im .

(6)

Ua

Sin

Ub

Sin

2
3

(7)

Uc

Sin

2
3

(8)

The multiplication of current Im with unit vector template

( Ua ,Ub ,Uc) generates reference grid currents (Ia *, Ib *, Ic *).
The instantaneous values of reference grid currents are
computed as
I a * = I m . Ua

(9)

I b * = I m . Ub

(10)

Ic = Im. . Uc

(14)

(15)

(16)

Icerr = Ic - Ic
Inerr = In - In

C. Switching Control of IGBTs

Switching pulses are generated using hysteresis current
controller. There are various current control methods for active
power filter configurations but hysteresis method is preferred
among other current control methods because of quick current
controllability, easy implementation and unconditioned
stability [13].The conventional current control scheme is the
hysteresis method where the actual filter currents are compared
with their reference currents with a predefined hysteresis band
in their respective phases. Thus the actual currents track the
reference currents generated by current control loop. The
switching pattern of each IGBT is formulated as,
If (Ia* - Ia ) = +hb then the upper switch S1 will be ON in the
phase a leg of inverter.
If (Ia* - Ia ) = -hb then the lower switch S4 will be ON in the
phase a leg of inverter.
Where, hb width of hysteresis band. Similarly switching pulses
are derived for other three legs.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

B. Current Control of VSI

Unit vector templates are generated as

(13)

P5

Hysteresis

Vdcerr = Vdc * - Vdc

Iaerr = Ia * - Ia
Iberr = Ib - Ib

Ib
-

In*

To verify the proposed control approach to achieve the multi

function of four leg inverter simulation study is carried out
using MATLAB/Simulink. The block diagram of the designed
system is shown in Fig.4. A Four leg current controlled voltage
source inverter is actively controlled to achieve balanced
sinusoidal grid currents with unity power factor despite of
unbalanced non linear loads at PCC. The supply voltages are
assumed to be a balanced three-phase voltage sources with the
magnitude of 30V. The System Parameter is given in Table I
shown .
TABLE I SYSTEM PARAMETER

(11)

The neutral currents present if any due to the loads

connected to the neutral conductor should not be drawn from
the grid. Thus reference grid neutral current is considered as
zero and can be expressed as
In * = 0

(12)

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An unbalanced 3 phase 4 wire non linear load whose

unbalance, harmonics and reactive power need to be
compensated is connected at PCC. The waveforms of grid
voltages (Va,Vb,Vc), grid currents (Ia, Ib, Ic), load currents (Ila,
Ilb, Ilc) and inverter currents (Iinva, Iinvb, Iinvc) are shown in Fig.6.

Fig.4 Block diagram representation of designed system

A DC voltage equivalent to RES is connected across the dc

link of the grid interfacing inverter The inverter is effectively
controlled to inject compensation current that cancel out
source current harmonics. This utilizes the control circuit
shown in Fig.5 In this control circuit the Proportional and
Integral gains of PI controller are KPVdc = 0.28 and KIVdc =
0.01

Fig.6 Grid Voltages, Grid Currents, Unbalanced load Currents and Inverter
Currents

Initially the grid interfacing inverter is not connected to the

network; therefore the grid current is identical to the load
current profiles shown in Fig.6. The load power demand is
entirely supplied by grid alone. At t=0.32s the grid interfacing
inverter is connected to the network. At this instant inverter is
made to inject compensating current as a result the source side
harmonics is reduced. The grid currents starts changing from
unbalanced non linear to balanced sinusoidal currents Thus
once the inverter is in operation the grid only supplies
fundamental current. At t=0.52s the active power from RES is
increased to evaluate the system under variable power
generation from RES. This can be clearly noticed by increased
magnitude of inverter current. At t=0.72s the power from RES
is reduced. The corresponding change in the inverter and grid
currents can be seen from the Fig.6.
Fig.5 Control circuit

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(a) without Inverter

Fig.9 Grid, Load and Inverter Neutral Currents

(b) with Inverter

Fig.7 Grid voltages and current

Fig.7 shows gird voltages and current with and without Four
leg grid interfacing inverter. From Fig.7a it can be observed
that the grid voltage and current are in phase which shows that
the unity power factor is maintained. Fig.8 shows the dc link
voltage across the grid interfacing inverter maintained at
constant level in order to facilitate active and reactive power
flow.

Fig.8 DC link Voltage

Fig.9 shows the simulation results of neutral currents for

grid, load and inverter. It can be noticed that as the inverter
supplies the load neutral current demand the grid neutral
current becomes zero after t=0.32s. The load neutral current
due to single phase loads is effectively compensated by the
fourth leg of the inverter such that the current in grid side
neutral conductor is reduced to zero.

Active and reactive powers of grid (P grid, Qgrid), load (Pload,

Qload) and inverter (Pinv, Qinv) are shown in Fig.10. Where
positive values of grid active-reactive powers and inverter
active-reactive powers imply that these powers flow from grid
side towards PCC and from inverter towards PCC respectively.
Negative values of load active-reactive powers imply that
these powers are drawn by the load. The active and reactive
power flows between the inverter, load and grid during
increase and decrease of energy generation from RES can be
noticed from Fig.10. Initially the grid interfacing inverter is
not connected to the network so the entire load power demand
is supplied by the grid alone. At t=0.52s the inverter starts
injecting active power generated from RES. Since the
generated power is sufficient to meet the load demand the
active power supplied by the grid becomes zero. Moreover the
grid interfacing inverter also supplies the load reactive power
demand locally.
At t = 0.72s the power available from RES is reduced. The
corresponding change in the inverter and grid real and reactive
power can be seen from Fig.10.The active and reactive power
flows between the inverter, load and grid during increase and
decrease of energy generation from RES can be noticed from
Fig.10. When there is no power generation from RES the grid
interfacing inverter acts as an Active power filter enhancing
the quality of power. During this period the inverter consumes
a small amount of active power to maintain the dc-link voltage
and to overcome the losses associated with inverter while most
of the load reactive power need is supported by inverter
effectively. When RES power is sufficient to supply the
demand the grid interfacing inverter can simultaneously be
utilized to inject power generates from RES to PCC and to
improve the quality of power (current unbalance
compensation, current harmonics compensation , load reactive
power support, neutral current compensation) at PCC. Thus
from the simulation results it is evident that the three phase
three leg current controlled voltage source inverter can be
effectively utilized to compensate current harmonics and also
enables the grid to supply sinusoidal power at UPF.

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power generated from RES to PCC and to improve the quality

of power at PCC. Thus the proposed controller precisely
manages any variation in real power at dc link and effectively
feeds it to the main grid. The current harmonics caused by non
linear load connected at PCC are compensated effectively such
that the grid currents are always maintained sinusoidal at unity
power factor. This approach thus eliminates the need for
additional power conditioning equipment to improve the
quality of power at PCC. Thus the load neutral current is
prevented from flowing into the grid side by compensating it
locally from the fourth leg of the inverter.
REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]

Fig.10 Active and Reactive Power flow

[4]

The total harmonic distortions (THDs) of phase a, b and c

load currents are noticed as 13.47%, 29.21% and 14.81%
respectively. After compensation the grid current THDs are
reduced to 1.16%, 1.08% and 1.01% for a, b and c phases
respectively which is shown in Fig.11.

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

Fig.11 Grid Current Harmonic Spectrum

[13]

V. CONCLUSIONS

[14]

This paper presented a control of an Three phase Four leg

grid interfacing inverter improve the quality of power at PCC
for a 3 phase 4 wire system. It has been shown that the grid
interfacing inverter can simultaneously be utilized to inject

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