Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194

www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Modeling and analysis of current harmonic distortion from

grid connected PV inverters under different operating conditions
Yang Du a,⇑, Dylan Dah-Chuan Lu a, Geoffrey James b, David J. Cornforth c
a
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, The University of Sydney, Australia
b
Division of Energy Technology, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Sydney, Australia
c
School of Design, Communication and IT, University of Newcastle, Australia

Received 17 November 2012; received in revised form 10 April 2013; accepted 13 May 2013
Available online 8 June 2013

Communicated by: Associate Editor Arturo Morales-Acevedo

Abstract

Due to the fast growth of photovoltaic (PV) installations, concerns are rising about the harmonic distortion generated from PV invert-
ers. High current total harmonic distortion (THD) occurs when PV inverters operate under light load conditions due to low solar inso-
lation. A general model modified from the conventional control structure diagram is introduced to analyze the harmonic formation
process. Causes of the current harmonics are summarized and its relationship with output power levels is analyzed. The field measure-
ment for current harmonics is carried out at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) microgrid to
validate the analysis results. In particular for two-stage inverter, unlike previous papers that assume the DC-link voltage is constant, the
DC-link voltage ripple is identified as the source of a series of odd harmonics. A mew periodic time-varying model is proposed by includ-
ing the DC-link voltage ripple into the conventional current control loop model. This model is able to simulate the characteristics of the
harmonic components and show their dependence on the DC-link voltage ripple.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: DC-link voltage ripple; Harmonics; Matlab/Simulink; Microgrid; PV inverter

1. Introduction 2011). Australia also promises to achieve 20% power gener-

In several countries including Australia, an increasing
number of PV generation systems are connected to the dis-
tribution network as a result of strong government sup-
port. The PV market is growing rapidly (30–40%), and its
price is constantly decreasing (Razykov et al., 2011). Many
countries are trying to increase the penetration of renew-
able energy. The US plans to meet up to 20% of electricity
demand with solar technologies by 2030 (Brinkman et al.,
⇑ Corresponding author. Address: School of Electrical and Information
Engineering, The University of Sydney, Room 329, Bldg. J03, NSW 2006,
Australia. Tel.: +61 0401538737.
E-mail address: yang.du@sydney.edu.au (Y. Du).
ation from renewable energy by 2020 (Clean_energy_coun-
cil, 2009).
The power electronics interface is essential to connecting
renewable energy sources to the grid. This interface has two
main functions: extracting the maximum amount of power
from the PV modules (Du and Lu, 2011; Bennett et al.,
2012); and conversion of direct current (DC) power to an
appropriate form of alternative current (AC) power for
the grid connection (Beser et al., 2010). Renewable energy
sources such as solar energy cannot be manipulated in the
same way as conventional power sources, so the operating
conditions of PV inverters vary according to the solar inso-
lation (Lu and Nguyen, 2012). However, utility standards
and manufactures’ data sheets are only concerned with
the full load condition.

0038-092X/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2013.05.010
 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194
PV systems incorporate power electronic interfaces,
which generate a level of harmonics (Papaioannou et al.,
2009), potentially leading to current and voltage distor-
tions. The harmonics of current or voltage waveform are
the summation of various higher frequency sinusoidal com-
ponents that are an integer multiple of the fundamental fre-
quency. These harmonics have a large impact on
operational efficiency and reliability of the power system,
loads and protective relaying (Jain and Singh, 2011). Due
to the fast growth of PV installations, concerns are rising
about harmonic distortion introduced by PV inverters to
the grid.
The degree of current THD, as a percentage of the fun-
damental current, varies significantly with the real power
output of the inverter (Chicco et al., 2009). The current
THD becomes higher at a low power output level, espe-
cially for generated power below 20% of the rated power,
such as during morning or evening time. Many researchers
have reported this phenomenon and tried to find the
causes. The quantisation and resolution effects of the mea-
surement devices in the control system has been pointed
out as one of the causes (Infield et al., 2004). Another
explanation is that the closed-loop current controls, which
are intended to minimize the harmonic components, stop
working at a low power output level (Chicco et al.,
2009). Some researchers have suggested that the DC-link
voltage regulation is highly related to the reference current
resolution (Wu et al., 2011). However, the comprehensive
and systematic analysis of the formation process of the har-
monics in the PV inverter output current is missing.
The conventional model of current control structure
(Twining and Holmes, 2003) is widely used to design the
control loop and to analyze the control stability. However,
there is no harmonic information included in this model,
and the effects of the control scheme on the harmonic per-
formance cannot be found by using this model. A general
model modified from a conventional control structure dia-
gram is introduced in Section 2 to analyze the harmonic
formation process. The ‘harmonic impedance’ concept
(Twining and Holmes, 2003) is used to quantitatively calcu-
late the harmonic amplitude caused by each source. This is
important because of the growing concern of harmonics
generated by these devices, and their effect upon other
equipment.
The current harmonics are measured from PV inverters
installed in the CSIRO microgrid. The field measurements
show that, under different operating conditions, the abso-
Fig. 1. Block diagram of (a) single-stage inverter and (b) two-stage inverter.
183
lute amplitude of the harmonic component changes are rel-
atively small compared with THD changes. This solves the
confusion about the high THD concerns under low power
levels. More detailed discussion is given in Section 4. The
analysis results in Section 3 are validated by comparison
with measurement from actual PV inverters.
A series of odd harmonics are fund which cannot be
completely explained by the factors usually examined in
such cases. The DC-link voltage ripple is identified to be
the causes of these harmonics, a time-varying model is pro-
posed in Section 5 to analyze this phenomenon.
To analyze and design the PV inverter, the DC-link volt-
age is assumed as constant in the conventional model of a
PV inverter. However, this is not always the case. For sin-
gle-phase grid connected inverters, the AC instantaneous
output power exhibits a pulsation at the double-line fre-
quency. Under steady insolation conditions, the DC output
voltage of the PV modules is controlled to be constant at
the maximum power point (MPP). Hence, the power pulsa-
tion caused by single-phase power generation is converted
into the static stored energy on the decoupling capacitor,
and voltage ripple at the double-line frequency can be
found at the DC-link (Shimizu et al., 2006). By using large
electrolytic capacitors, the ripple can be reduced but not
eliminated. However, the electrolytic parts have far more
limited life than the applications (Lahyani et al., 1998),
and need to be avoided.
In a single-stage inverter as shown in Fig. 1a, a large
power decoupling capacitor has to be used to realize an effi-
cient MPPT process. Hence, the constant DC-link voltage
assumption can be adapted for modeling the inverter, and
this model is linear. However, the two-stage inverter as
shown in Fig. 1b, the power decoupling capacitor is placed
at the high voltage DC-link. In this topology, a larger volt-
age ripple is allowed to present across a DC-link in order to
minimize the decoupling capacitor (Hu et al., 2010), hence
the constant DC-link voltage assumption is not valid.
The harmonic transfer through three-phase bridge con-
verters is investigated in (Jiang and Ekstrom, 1997), and it
is found that the voltage second harmonic on a DC-link
produces a third harmonic on the AC side. However, the
fifth, seventh, and a series of odd harmonics are also found
in the output current frequency spectrum caused by the
DC-link voltage ripple (Wang et al., 2011). The explana-
tion of this phenomenon cannot be found in previous
research. Many methods have been proposed to eliminate
the current harmonics caused by the DC-link ripple
184 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194
without analyzing the harmonics formation process. A spe-
cifically designed PWM control algorithm (Enjeti and Shi-
reen, 1992) is proposed to compensate the DC-link voltage
ripple. In (Brekken et al., 2002), a control technique that
allows for 25% ripple voltage without distorting the output
current waveform is proposed. The cutoff frequency in this
design is 10 Hz, and it could attenuate the voltage ripple in
the control loop, but the system dynamic performance is
degraded. All these works aim to eliminate the effects of
the DC-link voltage ripple. However, the analytical model
for qualitative information and an understanding of the
relationship between the DC-link voltage ripple and the
output current harmonics is still missing.
A new model of PV inverter is presented that provided
detail relating to the harmonics produced by the DC-link
voltage ripple. The conventional linear model of a grid con-
nected PV inverter is modified by adding the representation
of the DC-link voltage ripple. The modified model becomes
a periodical time-varying system. A simulation model is
developed based on the modified model by using Matlab/
Simulink.
This paper is organized as follows. A general model with
harmonic information is introduced in Section 2. In Sec-
tion 3 This model is used to analyze the harmonic distor-
tions under the ‘harmonic impedance’ concept. The field
measurement results are shown in Section 4 which are been
used to explain the high THD phenomenon and validate
the analysis result. In Section 5 the double-line frequency
voltage ripple on the DC-link is identified as the cause of
a series of odd harmonics. A time-varying model is pro-
posed to analyze this phenomenon. Simulation results
and conclusions are given in Sections 6 and 7 respectively.
2. General model of PV inverter
Since there is no harmonic information included, the
conventional model cannot be used to answer the question
that ‘how does harmonics changes under different power
levels.’ After re-examine the harmonic formation process,
a general model of PV inverter is introduced by adding
two harmonic sources to the conventional model.
2.1. Full bridge PV inverter with current control
Fig. 2 shows an example PWM inverter framework with
current feedback control. It is the most common structure
used by the commercial products. The inverter includes
four power switches, an output inductor and a DC-link
capacitor CDC. VDC is the DC-link voltage which presents
two cases: with or without voltage ripple. The two different
cases are treated separately in Sections 3 and 5. Vinv and Vg
are the output voltage of the full-bridge inverter and the
grid voltage, lout is the inverter output current. The grid
connected inverter output terminal is connected with the
fixed grid voltage, and the inverter input voltage is the pre-
ferred control variable to provide MPP tracking. Only the
input voltage and output current can be controlled, hence a
Iout
VDC Vinv
CDC Vg
PWM
Iout
PI PLL Vg
Iref
Iref
Fig. 2. PWM inverter framework with current-controlled feedback loop.
current control scheme is used. The inverter is connected to
the grid via a filter. In this paper an inductor is used for
simplicity of analysis. A feedback control with the PI con-
troller is used for the PWM inverter to force the output
current lout to track a reference output current lref. The
phase angle of lref is obtained from the grid voltage Vg
via a phase locked loop (PLL). The amplitude of the refer-
ence current |Iref| is generated by the voltage control loop
depending on the maximum power point tracking process.
The design of the voltage control loop varies between dif-
ferent inverter topologies. The generation of |Iref| can be
found in Twining and Holmes (2003); Zhao et al. (2011).
2.2. Conventional model of current regulation scheme
Fig. 3 shows the conventional control structure diagram
of the current-controlled inverter. This model can be ana-
lyzed by using conventional linear analysis methods. It
can help the designer to tune the controller (Armstrong
et al., 2005) and investigate the control performance and
stability (Maknouninejad et al., 2011). The close loop
transfer function is given by following equation:
GPI GPWM Ginv Gf Gf
I out ¼ I ref  Vg ð1Þ
1 þ GPI GPWM Ginv Gf 1 þ GPI GPWM Ginv Gf
where GPI, GPWM, Ginv and Gf are the transfer functions for
the PI controller, PWM, inverter and filter, respectively. In
this model, only the fundamental waveforms are consid-
ered, harmonic information is needed for the harmonic dis-
tortion analysis.
2.3. The modified model with harmonic information
The modified model based on a conventional current
control structure diagram for a PWM inverter with har-
 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194 185

Grid Voltage
Vg

Iout
GPI GPWM Ginv Gf

Iref

Fig. 3. Conventional control structure diagram of the current-controlled inverter.

Feedback PI control PWM Inverter Filter

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5
PI
Vinv a

Iout
S5
Switch
Grid Voltage
Harmonics
+Vg harmonics
Vswitch harmonics

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5
Iref GPI GPWM Ginv Gf Iout

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5

Fig. 4. Model of current-controlled PWM inverter with harmonic information.

monic information is shown in Fig. 4. This figure shows the
positions and types of harmonic sources which need to be
added. The upper trace shows how the output current S5
is generated based on a reference current by the full bridge
inverter with current control. The second trace shows the
model of current regulation scheme involving the harmon-
ics information. Compared with Fig. 3, in the PWM sec-
tion the switch harmonic source Vswitch harmonics is added
to form a pulse waveform from the sinusoidal signal. This
harmonic source can introduce the character of the PWM,
such as the switching frequency and the type of PWM. The
output current depends on the voltage difference between
grid voltage and inverter output voltage. Hence, the grid
voltage harmonic source is added at the inverter section
in Fig. 4. The waveform of each stage is sketched in the
lowest trace in Fig. 4 and is described as follows:
– S1 is the error signal between the reference current and
the inverter output current, S1 = Iref  Iout = Iref  S5.
– S2 is the amplitude modulation ratio, S2 = S1GPI,
where the transfer function of the PI controller is
GPI = kp + ki/s. kp is the proportional gain and ki is
the integral gain.
– S3 is the gate signal generated by the PWM generator.
S3 = S2GPWM + Vswitch harmonics, where GPWM = 1/Cpk
and Cpk is the peak value of the carrier signal.
– S4 is the inverter output voltage Vinv, S4 = S3Ginv. S3 is
scaled by the DC-link voltage, Ginv = VDC. It is worth
noting that the VDC can be either a constant or a time
varying signal, both cases are treated separately in Sec-
tions 4 and 5.
– S5 is the inverter output current Iout. S5 = (S4  Vg)Gf -
 Vg is the grid voltage and may involve voltage harmon-
ics Vg harmonics. S4  Vg is the voltage difference across
the output filter. Where, Gf = 1/(Ls), where L is the
inductance of the filter.
This general model can be used to analyze harmonic dis-
tortion for both with or without voltage ripple on the DC-
link.
3. Output current harmonics analysis
For the single-stage inverter with a very large capacitor,
the DC-link voltage can be assumed as a constant. The
close-form solution of the output current harmonic distor-
tion can be derived under the ‘harmonic impedance’ con-
cept. This concept is based on the well-established linear
technique, it is used in this section to investigate the har-
monic variation under different power levels.
The model in Fig. 4 is linear when VDC is a constant
value and therefore different frequency components can
be analyzed separately. The output signal is the superposi-
tion of all signals, however, for summating harmonic com-
ponents at the same frequency, the phase angle of each
harmonic component needs to be considered. Each har-
186
Table 1
Harmonics represented under ‘harmonic impedence’ concept.
Harmonics in the output current
Grid background voltage I out g harmonics ¼ 1þGPI GPWM Ginv Gf V g
Switch harmonics I out switch harmonics
monic component of output current Iharmonics from the PV
inverter can be calculated as an individual harmonic source
Vharmonics divided by its harmonic impedance Zharmonics.
V harmonics
I harmonics ¼
Z harmonics
The harmonic sources include grid voltage harmonics,
switch harmonics, reference current harmonics, etc. The
harmonic impedance can be obtained by calculating the
gain of a close-loop transfer function at the harmonic fre-
quency. This impedance provides a simple measure of har-
monic sensitivity of a current regulation scheme (Twining
and Holmes, 2003). The DC voltage variation also changes
the harmonic impedance. The DC-link voltage ripple can
be another harmonic source which will be treated in Sec-
tion 5. The harmonic distortion caused by each source is
calculated separately as follows; the relationship between
each distortion and the output power level is given.
3.1. Grid background voltage distortion
The output current is generated by the voltage difference
between the inverter output voltage Vinv and the grid volt-
age Vg across a filter. If the grid voltage contains harmon-
ics, it becomes a harmonics source for the output current.
The field measurement results show that the grid voltage
harmonics may vary from one location to another but they
do exist at all times, especially the low order harmonics
which are hard to filter out. A number of control methods
to suppress the current distortion caused by the grid volt-
age harmonics are proposed (Abeyasekera et al., 2005;
Wang et al., 2010).
According to Fig. 4 the harmonic of output current
caused by the grid voltage harmonics and the harmonic
impedance are listed in Table 1. It can be seen in (3) that
current harmonics due to the grid voltage distortion has
no relationship with the inverter output power level. One
realistic example of calculating the harmonic components
caused by the grid voltage distortion is given in Section 6.
3.2. Switch harmonics (high frequency)
The unipolar PWM is chosen as an example for analysis
and simulation. The switch harmonics generated by the
unipolar PWM are at double switch frequency. According
to Fig. 4, the harmonic component in the output current
caused by switch harmonics and the harmonic impedance
are shown in Table 1. This switch harmonics which appear
Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194
Harmonic impedance
 
G
f 1þG G Ginv Gf 
harmonics (3) Z g harmonics ¼  PI GPWMf
 (4)
 
G G 1þG G Ginv Gf 
¼ 1þGPI GinvPWMfGinv Gf V switchharmonics (5) Z switch harmonics ¼  PIGinvPWM
Gf  (6)
at high frequency can be filtered out easily, however, this
requires an appropriate design otherwise it will cause
power losses and stability problems.
It can be found from (5) that the switch harmonics is not
ð2Þ related to the reference current. In other words, if the
Vswitch harmonics is constant, the harmonic components will
not change as the inverter output power level varies.
3.3. DC-link voltage variation due to MPPT
As shown in Fig. 1a, the PV array output directly con-
nects with the DC-link in the single-stage PV inverter.
The input voltage of the interfacing converter is the pre-
ferred control variable to provide MPP tracking (Suntio
et al., 2010). The DC-link voltage varies according to the
I–V curve of the PV modules. For other inverter configura-
tions, there is also the possibility of changes in the DC-link
voltage.
Based on (1), this variation has no effect on harmonic
sources, but the inverter transfer function Ginv will change,
hence, the harmonic impedance also will change. Accord-
ing to the PV I–V curve, the voltage maximum power point
which equals to VDC decreases as the PV generated power
decreases, so the harmonic component caused by grid volt-
age will increase. This conclusion is verified by the simula-
tion result of a realistic example which is shown in
Section 6.
3.4. Other causes of harmonics
Quantization and resolution effects, limitations of sens-
ing accuracy, and positioning of the sensor have all been
mentioned as causes of harmonics by other researchers.
Fig. 5. Harmonic spectrum of signal from PLL block.
 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194
Table 2
Harmonic variation as PV output power decrease.
Factors Grid voltage distortion Switch harmonics
Harmonic amplitude Constant Approximately constant
According to (3) (5)
The reference current can contain harmonics both from the
front voltage control loop in a dual loop control algorithm
or from the PLL block. In the simulation result, the har-
monic spectrum is measured directly at the output of the
PLL block as shown in Fig. 5. This harmonic distortion
appears at a very high frequency, and it may be filtered
out easily by the output filter. The dead time of the switch-
ing signal also causes harmonics in the output current
(Seung-Gi and Min-Ho, 1991).
3.5. Harmonic variation as PV output power decrease
The possible causes of the harmonics which summarized
in this section is been investigated individually. Since the
model is linear, only one cause is adjusted and all the other
causes remain unchanged. Some general conclusions for
harmonic distortion when the inverter output power is
decreasing are listed in Table 2.
The switch harmonics and PLL caused harmonics only
appears at high frequency. The high order harmonics can
be attenuated by the filter of the inverter, hence it will cause
very limited impact to the power system. The utility only
regulates the low order harmonics, for example less than
the 50th order. As analyzed in this section, the harmonic
amplitude will increase when the output power of the inver-
ter decreases. This is mainly caused by the DC-link voltage
variation.
4. Measurement of harmonic distortion at the CSIRO
microgrid
A field measurement is carried out at the CSIRO micro-
grid to validate the aforementioned correlation between
harmonic distortion and PV output power levels. The phe-
nomenon of high THD values at low power levels is
explained, and the harmonic amplitude of several low
order harmonics is shown.
The CSIRO microgrid laboratory is located at the
CSIRO Energy Centre, Newcastle, Australia. This micro-
grid consists of distributed generation sources, on-site stor-
age, a single point of common coupling to the utility grid
and real-world loads in the form of offices, labs and work-
shops (Cornforth et al., 2011).
A total of 13 PV inverters which operate at different
power output levels are connected to the grid in parallel
by distribution over the three phases. Actual waveforms
are captured at 8000 samples per second and THD is calcu-
lated from the equation:
187
DC-link voltage variation PLL
Increase VDC decrease) Decrease proportional to PAC
Fig. 16 Fig. 5
PV
modules
http://batchgeo .com/map/net -zero-energy -buildings
Fig. 6. Locations and orientations of some PV generators.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
P1 2
n¼2 I n
THD ¼  100% ð7Þ
I1
where I1 is the magnitude of the fundamental frequency
(50 Hz) component of the current, and In is the nth order
harmonic current. All the data are recorded at the same
moment, and therefore the PV generators share the same
ambient temperature and solar insolation. The different
power levels are caused by the different orientations of
some PV systems. Fig. 6 shows locations and orientations
of some PV generators. The measurement was carried out
in the middle of a cloudy day, the daily global solar expo-
sure was 4.8 kWh/m2 and the ambient temperature was
26 °C.
Table 3 shows the measurement results which include:
PV output power, inverter rated power, ratio of actual
power output and rated power (P/Pr), and THD of the cur-
rent calculated by using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) up
to 50th order harmonics. The inverters are commercial
products with single-stage topology from SMA (SMA,
2005), which are numbered from 35 to 47, and their name-
plate capacity is either 1000 W or 1500 W, as indicated in
the third row of the table. According to the datasheet, this
type of inverters use the same topology as shown in Fig. 2.
The measurement system’s digital outputs are 16-bit, which
represents a potential 65,536 different values across the cur-
rent measurements range. For this PV inverter the quanti-
sation effect is minimal. As shown in Fig. 7, the data can be
divided into three groups based on power levels, represent-
ing full load, half load and light load conditions.
It can be seen from Fig. 7 that THD of the inverter with
low power output is up to around 20 times higher than the
inverter with high power output. It is also been highlighted
in Table 3 as bold values. This phenomenon is reported in
Infield et al. (2004); Chicco et al. (2009); Du et al. (2011);
Hernandez et al. (2011).
188 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194

Table 3
PV output power and current THD.
Inverter no. 38 43 46 37 40 41 47 39 35 42 45 44 36
PV output power (W) 654 1481 46.7 655 1450 1450 93.5 1465 1465 1434 109.1 46.8 639
Rated Power (W) 1000 1500 1000 1000 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500 1000 1000
P/Pr (%) 65.40 98.74 4.68 65.5 99.67 99.67 6.23 97.7 97.7 95.6 7.27 4.68 63.9
Current THD (%) 2.59 2.74 20.77 1.85 2.11 4.19 35.93 4.77 2.55 3.37 17.52 21.74 1.87

90-100 P/Pr(%) 60-70 P/Pr(%) less than 10% P/Pr

Current THD (%)

Inverter No.

Fig. 7. Current THD of the PV inverter under different operating condition.

THD is the ratio which refers to instantaneous funda-

mental components. The higher THD shows that the wave-
form is more different to a pure sinusoidal waveform than
the one with lower THD. The voltage THD is widely used
in utility standards to regulate voltage distortion, however,
extra attention needs to be paid when using current THD.
In the Australian standard (AS_4777-2005) and IEEE 929-
2000 standard (IEEE_929-2000), the current THD is lim-
ited to less than 5% and compliance tests specify full power.
Instead current THD, the total demand distortion
(TDD) is used to regulate current harmonics in IEEE
519-1992 (1992). The current TDD is calculated as below:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
P1 2
n¼2 I n
TDD ¼  100% ð8Þ
IL Fig. 8. Low order harmonic component amplitudes under three different
power levels.
where IL is the maximum demand load current. The equa-
tions for THD and TDD differ only in the denominator.
Unlike the denominator of THD, IL is a constant value changes. Hence the high current THD at low power levels
for certain device or appliance. The term TDD is intended shown in Fig. 7 may not be a serious problem unless the
to regulate the harmonic amplitude regard to its power sinusoidal shape of the current waveform is required for
capacity. It is understandable that the larger electrical de- some applications, such as metering and protection.
vice can be allowed to generate more harmonic distortion Although there is no standard specify the waveform distor-
than the smaller one. These two types of regulations ap- tion requirement for the inverter under part-load opera-
pears in the standards by using THD and TDD are actually tion, there is a possibility that the harmonic amplitude
referring the same parameter – the amplitude of harmonics. violates the harmonics limitation. Analysis of harmonic
For example, the sum of harmonic amplitudes of 5% THD distortion for the inverter under different operating condi-
measured at full load condition is exactly equals to 5% tion is needed.
TDD for the same device. Ultimately, the utility only in- The low order current harmonic components amplitude
tend to regulate the harmonic amplitudes of each device are measured for three different power levels which are
with considering their power capacity to ensure the grid indicated by P/Pr (65.4%, 11.5% and 4.68%) as shown in
performance. Fig. 8. The harmonic amplitude changes as the power level
The harmonic amplitude is calculated to evaluate the changes. It can be seen that the 3rd and 7th harmonic
harmonic distortion. It is shown in Figs. 7 and 8 that amplitudes increase, in absolute terms, as the power level
although the current THD is many times higher than it is decreases. The field measurement results show the same
under full-power operation, the changes of harmonic abso- trend as the analysis results which are given in the end of
lute amplitude are relatively small compared with the THD Section 3. Hence, the analysis result is validated. DC-link
 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194
voltage variation due to MPPT is the major cause of the
harmonic amplitude increase. But the 5th harmonic ampli-
tude decreases. This may be caused by the quantization and
resolution effects of the measurement. This paper intends
to explain the harmonic variation trend under different
power levels, the quantitative analysis will be carried out
in the future work.
5. Model of PV inverter with the DC-link voltage ripple
It can be seen from the previous section that only the
grid voltage harmonics could possibly cause low order har-
monics in the output current. However, there is a series of
odd harmonics appears in the output current especially for
the two-stage inverter, although there is no harmonics pre-
sents in the grid voltage. This phenomenon is also reported
in Darwish et al. (2011); Wang et al. (2011) which indicate
that there is an unidentified harmonics sources apart from
these causes which summarized in Section 3. However fur-
ther analysis has not been provided. For two-stage inverter,
there is a design flexibility that allow relatively large ripple
on DC-link, since it will not affect the MPPT efficiency. In
the situation where a double-line frequency voltage ripple
appears on the DC-link, this ripple could be the cause of
current harmonics and this needs to be verified. The cur-
rent control loop is analyzed to identify the characteristics
of the output current spectrum.
5.1. Amplitude of the DC-link voltage ripple
In single-phase inverters, a voltage ripple at double-line
frequency can be found on the DC-link. This is because of
the unbalance of the instantaneous DC input and AC out-
put power. The AC output instantaneous power, PAC, con-
tains a pulsation at double-line frequency. The DC output
power of PV modules is controlled to be relatively constant
at MPP for a given solar insolation. Hence, the power pul-
sation caused by the single-phase power generation is con-
verted into static storage energy on the decoupling
capacitor CDC.
The double-line frequency oscillation of the output
power will introduce a ripple voltage on the DC-link volt-
age with the same frequency but phase-shifted. Fig. 9
shows the waveforms of output power and DC-link voltage
in one line period. The DC-link voltage waveform is com-
posed of a double-line frequency voltage ripple on top of a
relatively constant voltage VDC. The peak to peak value of
the DC-link voltage ripple, Vrip, derived as Eq. (12) in
Krein et al. (2012), is used and rearranged as (9) in this
paper.
Po
V rip ¼ ð9Þ
2pfC DC V DC
where f is the utility frequency 50 Hz, CDC is the DC-link
capacitor, and Po is the inverter output power. The atmo-
spheric variables such as the solar insolation and the ambi-
ent temperature can affect the voltage ripple amplitude.
189
Capacitor
discharging
2P o
PAC
Po
0
Capacitor
discharging
Vmax
Vrip
Vmin
VDC
≈
0
0 π/ 2 π 3π/ 2 2π
Fig. 9. Waveform of output power and DC-link voltage within one line
period.
According to Eq. (9) that the voltage ripple amplitude de-
pends on both Po and VDC. For the single-stage inverter,
the capacitor voltage and PV voltage are the same. Since
the VDC is cancelled out in Eq. (9) for this case, the voltage
ripple varies as PV current changes. For the two-stage in-
verter, the DC-link voltage is controlled separately by the
second stage. The voltage ripple Vrip decreases as the out-
put power level Po decreases. This section focuses on ana-
lyzing the harmonic caused by a certain amount of voltage
ripple.
5.2. Model of inverter with the DC-link voltage ripple
Fig. 10 shows the model of the inverter which is based
on Fig. 4 and has taken into account the DC-link voltage
ripple. The inverter transfer function Ginv in Fig. 4 is
replaced by the section under the triangle shading which
is a sinusoidal signal Vrip at double-line frequency on top
of the DC component VDC. Since the voltage ripple is
time-varying, the transfer function for this section cannot
be derived. In McGrath and Holmes (2009) the authors
point out that close-form solutions cannot be derived when
the harmonic ripple components are not neglected. How-
ever, numeric solutions can be evaluated for any particular
operating condition by using this model.
The harmonic characteristics of the output current in
Fig. 10 can be identified by qualitatively analyzing the sim-
plified loop model. The section under the triangle shading
is also known as the amplitude modulation, the feedback
loop with unit delay is shown in Fig. 11, where Z1 denotes
the delay of a unit sample period. Compared with Fig. 10,
in this simplified model several linear blocks are left out.
Due to the system linearity, the signal frequency character-
istics will remain the same. An analysis method in sound
processing research (Kleimola et al., 2011) is used to ana-
lyze this simplified time-varying system. Two discrete-time
sinusoidal signals Iref[n] = cos (xon) and Vrip[n] = cos (2xo-
190 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194

Switch Grid Voltage

Harmonics +Vg harmonics

S4
S1 S2 S3 S5
Iref GPI G PWM Gf I out

Vrip V DC

Ginv

Fig. 10. Model of inverter with the DC-link voltage ripple.

y½n ¼ cosðxo nÞ½cosð2xo nÞ þ V DC   cosðxo ½n  1Þ

y[n]
Iref [n]=cos(w0 n)
-1
V DC
Z  ½cosð2xo ½n  1Þ þ V DC ½cosð2xo nÞ þ V DC 
Vrip [n]=cos(2w0 n)
Fig. 11. Amplitude modulation in unit delay feedback.
n) are used as an example. The output signal y[n] can be
written as the reference signal cos (xon) minus the delayed
output signal y[n  1] then multiplied with the amplitude
modulation section under the triangle shading, which is
cos (2xon) + VDC.
y½n ¼ ½cos ðxo nÞ  y½n  1½cos ð2xo nÞ þ V DC 
¼ cosðxo nÞ½cos ð2xo nÞ þ V DC   y½n
 1½cosð2xo nÞ þ V DC 
The initial condition, y[n] = 0, for n 6 0, xo is the angu-
lar velocity of a signal at the fundamental frequency, VDC
is a constant value. It worth noting that, in practice, the
delay element requires memory, at any point in time n,
we need to store y[n  1] so that it can be used in the com-
putation y[n]. The y[n  1] is:
y½n  1 ¼ ½cosðxo ½n  1Þ  y½n  1  1½cosð2xo ½n  1Þ
þ V DC  ¼ cosðxo ½n  1Þ½cosð2xo ½n  1Þ þ V DC 
 y½n  2½cosð2xo ½n  1Þ þ V DC 
Substitute (11) into (10)
y½n ¼ cosðxo nÞ½cosð2xo nÞ þ V DC   cosðxo ½n  1Þ
 ½cosð2xo ½n  1Þ þ V DC ½cosð2xo nÞ þ V DC 
þ y½n  2½cosð2xo ½n  1Þ þ V DC ½cosð2xo nÞ
þ V DC 
This feedback expression can be expanded into an infi-
nite summation of products given by:
 ½cosð2xo ½n  1Þ þ V DC ½cosð2xo nÞ þ V DC 
þ cosðxo ½n  2Þ½cosð2xo ½n  2Þ þ V DC 
 cosðxo ½n  3Þ½cosð2xo ½n  3Þ þ V DC 
 ½cosð2xo ½n  2Þ þ V DC ½cosð2xo ½n  1Þ
þ V DC ½cosð2xo nÞ þ V DC  ð13Þ
This amplitude modulation in a feedback loop generates
a series of odd harmonics. The first product term in (13) is
analyzed as an example. According to Euler’s formula, this
term can be expressed as the sum of sinusoids with angular
velocity xo and 3xo, which is the fundamental and 3rd
harmonics.
y½n ¼ cosðxo nÞ½cosð2xo nÞ þ V DC 
1 1
¼ cosðxo nÞV DC þ cosð3xo nÞ þ cosðxo nÞ ð14Þ
2 2
ð10Þ
5.3. Output spectrum formation via frequency shifting and
summation
According to the modulation property of Fourier trans-
form that multiplication in the time domain is equivalent to
convolution in the frequency domain, the output spectrum
of Fig. 11 is evaluated. The convolution process can be
illustrated by taking the under shading section in Fig. 11
as an example, which transforms to a convolution integral
in the frequency domain:
yðxÞ ¼ I ref ðxÞ  ½V rip ðxÞ þ V DC 
ð11Þ Z þ1
¼ I ref ðlÞV rip ðx  lÞdl þ V DC
1
Z þ1
 I ref ðlÞdl ð15Þ
1
Fig. 12 illustrates this process graphically, Fig. 12a is the
representation of (14) in the frequency domain, the output
ð12Þ spectrum of Fig. 12a is used as the input signals for
Fig. 12b which simulates the recursive process of the feed-
back loop. The upper trace shows the input signal Iref(x)
spectrum, the second trace shows the spectrum of
Vrip(x) + VDC. The next three traces show the positively,
 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194 191

-3w -w DC w 3w -5w -3w -w DC w 3w 5w

Spectrum of I ref (w)

Spectrum of V rip (w)+VDC

Iref (w) convolved with Vrip (+w)

Iref (w) convolved with VDC

Iref (w) convolved with Vrip (-w)

Spectrum of output y (w)

-3w -w DC w 3w -5w -3w -w DC w 3w 5w

(a) (b)
Fig. 12. Output signal spectrum of amplitude modulation formed via frequency shifting and summation.

none and negatively shifted input spectrum, while the lower
trace shows the superposition of the frequency-shifted
spectrum.
It can be seen in Fig. 12b that the resulting spectrum
consists of 3rd and 5th harmonics. Further expanding
(13) and substituting with sinusoidal signals leads to the
conclusion that the resulting spectrum is an infinite sum-
mation of odd harmonics. The frequency domain convolu-
tion can be transformed back to the time domain and then
the Fourier series can be obtained for the output signal.
However, it is not practical to use (13) to determine a
closed-form analytical solution in the feedback loop,
because of the infinite summation. This verified the hypoth-
esis that the DC-link voltage ripple causes a series of odd
harmonics.
6. Simulation results
The simulation of the single-phase PV inverter is shown
in Fig. 13. This model, developed by using the Matlab/Sim-
ulink SimPowerSystems toolbox, comprises components
such as the power stage (full-bridge inverter) and elements
such as inductors, capacitors and resistors. The program-
mable voltage source is used to simulate the AC grid with
the ability to inject the voltage harmonic distortion. The
current control scheme is used to ensure the output current
tracks the reference. The simulation result of this schematic
diagram is verified to match the experiment result (Trigg
and Nayar, 2006). The specifications for the Simulink
model are shown in Table 4. The inverter used in the sim-
ulation is been designed to be similar to the one used for
measurements. The parameters which can be obtained
from the product specification are chosen for this simula-
tion, such as the power capability, input and output volt-
age. However, the inverters installed in the CSIRO
microgrid are commercial products and the control param-
eters stored inside the internal processor are not available
to the public. The realistic values for these parameters
are chosen, and a sensitivity analysis shows that different
control parameters do not greatly affect the harmonic
characteristics.
The simulation of the modified model in Fig. 10 is
shown in Fig. 14. In order to allow for reproducible
research, the Simulink models are available from the corre-
sponding author upon request. The harmonic sources can
be set independently, and the comprehensive effects of all
harmonics can be analyzed through a graphical user inter-
face (powergui). The switch harmonics are simulated by a
series of high frequency sinusoidal signals for the switch
frequency 20 k Hz. The grid harmonics are simulated by
a series of low frequency sinusoidal signals. In Fig. 14 only
the first three odd harmonics are added, but it can be easily
192 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194

Fig. 13. Conventional simulink model for PV inverter.

grid voltage harmonic distortion is set as zero, hence the

Table 4
Specifications of the 1 kVA inverter. low order harmonic caused only by the DC-link voltage
ripple. The other parameters are set as shown in Table 4,
Parameter Label Value Unit
and the DC-link ripple is 47.3 V in this case. Fig. 15b shows
Rated Power Pr 1 kVA
that the simulation result of proposed model matches well
Rated output frequency f 50 Hz
Rated output voltage Vg 240 V with the inverter simulation result Fig. 15a which has been
DC-link capacitance CDC 100 lF proved matches the experimental results (Trigg and Nayar,
DC-link voltage VDC 600 V 2006). A series of odd harmonics can be found in Fig. 15,
Filter inductance L 8.35 mH and this validates the characteristics of the harmonic spec-
Switch frequency fsw 20 kHz
trum described in Section 5. This simulation result proves
Proportional gain kp 0.06 N/A
Integral gain ki 800 N/A the DC-link voltage ripple generate a series odd harmonics
in the output current. Both models are run in Matlab/Sim-
ulink on the same computer, the modified signal model is
expanded to any frequency and set separately based on the 20 times faster than the model in Fig. 13.
local power quality. The amplitude of the DC-link voltage By using the modified model, the effect of the DC-link
ripple can be calculated based on (9) or measured directly voltage variation on the harmonic impedance which is
from the DC-link. PLL harmonics can be set as the results mentioned in Section 3.3, is verified. The DC-link voltage
shown in Fig. 5. has been set as three different valves (a. VDC = 400 V, b.
A comparison of the switch model simulation in Fig. 13 VDC = 500 V, c. VDC = 600 V) and the DC-link voltage
and the modified signal model in Fig. 14 is carried out. The ripple is set as zero. Substituting the parameters from
reference current Iref is set as 5 A for both models and the Table 4 into the loop transfer function (3):

Fig. 14. Simulink model for proposed current control scheme.

 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194 193

Fig. 15. Simulation results from conventional model and proposed representation.

Bode Diagram light load conditions, the VDC decrease as long as Pac
-20
decreases, so the harmonic components caused by the grid
-30 voltage should increase.
Magnitude (dB)

System: a
-40 Frequency (Hz): 150
System: b
Frequency (Hz): 150
Magnitude (dB): -50.4
Magnitude (dB): -52.4
-50

-60 System: c 7. Conclusion

Frequency (Hz): 150
Magnitude (dB): -54.1
-70
In this paper, a general model which modified from a
-80 conventional control structure diagram, has been intro-
90 duced to analyze the harmonic formation process. By using
this model the conclusion is found that several low order
a
45 harmonic amplitudes increase when PV inverter output
Phase (deg)

b
c power decrease. This conclusion has been validated by
0 the field measurement results. This model can be used to
design an inverter with better power quality performance.
-45
For example, if the harmonic amplitudes at low power lev-
els need to be reduced, the designer should focus on atten-
-90
10
2
10
3 uation of the harmonic distortion from the grid voltage
Frequency (Hz) rather than other harmonic sources, or increasing of the
DC-link voltage.
Fig. 16. Bode plot of current control scheme under different DC-link
The main finding of this work is a new time-varying
voltage.
model that is capable of analyzing the harmonic character-
istics of a two-stage inverter and showing their dependence
s on the DC link voltage. Since this paper is mainly focused
I out gharmonics ¼ Vg harmonics
8:35  103 s2 þ 36s þ 4:8  105 on analyzing the variation and characteristic of the har-
ð16Þ monics, a detailed quantities analysis of the harmonic for-
mation process will be addressed in future work.

The Bode diagram of (16) is shown in Fig. 16. The loop

gain can be read from Fig. 16, and the harmonic impedance Acknowledgements
is the reciprocal of this gain. The harmonic impedance for
the DC-link voltage levels a, b, c are 331, 416 and 506 The authors are grateful for the assistance of Mr. Tim
respectively. The harmonic components are calculated for Moore who supervised the experimental work supporting
the three different voltage levels, by assuming the 3rd har- this study and to Dr. John Ward for critical remarks.
monic component is 1% Vg (230V  1 = 2.3 V). As shown The work presented in this paper was funded by CSIRO
in (4), the 3rd harmonic components in the output current under an OCE scholarship. The CSIRO Microgrid was
are 2.3/331 = 6.95  103A, 2.3/416 = 5.52  103 A and partly funded by the Australian Department of Environ-
2.3/506 = 4.54  103 A respectively. In other words, the ment, Water, Heritage and the Arts under Grant No.
large DC-link voltage (c. VDC = 600 V) shows a better per- RDG 08-29. The authors would like to thank the anony-
formance at attenuating the grid voltage distortion. For mous reviewers for their helpful comments.
194 Y. Du et al. / Solar Energy 94 (2013) 182–194
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