D

Journal of Energy and Power Engineering 7 (2013) 2156-2163

DAVID

PUBLISHING

A Real-Time Power Controller for Grid-Connected

Inverters in LV Smart Microgrids
Kourosh Sedghisigarchi1, Yadollah Eslami2 and Asadollah Davari3
1. Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, California State University, Northridge 91330, USA
2. Department of Engineering Technology, West Virginia University Institute of Technology, Montgomery 25136, USA
3. Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, West Virginia University Institute of Technology, Montgomery 25136, USA
Received: January 24, 2013 / Accepted: June 07, 2013 / Published: November 30, 2013.
Abstract: This paper presents a real-time power flow controller for VSIs (voltage source inverters) interfaced to low voltage
microgrids. The proposed controller is modular, flexible, intelligent, inexpensive, portable, adaptive and designed to positively
contribute in low voltage microgrids in which the lines R/X ratio is greater than the transmission lines. Therefore, the proposed control
strategy is developed for operation in distribution lines. The controller strategy is different from the conventional grid-connected
inverters which are designed based on transmission line characteristics. This controller, using a Texas Instrument general purpose DSP
(digital signal processor), is programmed and tuned using MATLAB/SIMULINK in order to enhance self-healing, reliability and
stability of the grid. This general purpose controller makes proper decisions using its local measurements as the primary source of data.
The controller has the capability of communicating with the adjacent controllers and sharing the information if/when needed. The
power flow output of the inverter is tested for both islanded and grid-connected modes of operation. The inverter positively contributes
to active and reactive power supply while operating in grid-connected mode. The proposed control method has been implemented on a
Texas Instrument DSC (digital signal controller) chip and tested on a hardware test bench at the Alternative Energy Laboratory at
WVUIT (West Virginia University Institute of Technology). The systems experimental results verify the validity and efficiency of the
proposed controller.
Key words: Distribution generator, inverter, LV (low voltage) microgrid, power flow controller, digital signal controller.

1. Introduction
Proper integration of DGs (distributed generators) to
the grid at LV (low voltage) levels promises a reliable,
efficient, modular and secure microgrid [1].
Distributed generators interfaced to LV grids can be
divided into two major categories: inverter-based and
non-inverter based ones. Advances in power electronic
devices make inverter based DGs, such as fuel cells,
photovoltaic arrays and storage, devices more flexible
than constant output power generators.
The balance between the supply and demand must be
satisfied in both islanded and grid-connected modes to

Corresponding author: Yadollah Eslami, Ph.D., assistant

professor, research fields: digital circuits and systems and smart
microgrids. E-mail: yadollah.eslamiamirabadi@mail.wvu.edu.

ensure stable operation of a microgrid. To achieve this

goal, the inverter of each grid-connected DG must be
controlled coordinately to participate efficiently in low
voltage power networks such as microgrids [1].
Stable operation of microgrid becomes more
substantial when it is islanded and dependent only on
its own DGs. Fast, intelligent and coordinated control
of advanced DC/AC inverters is required to guarantee
the voltage and frequency stability of isolated
microgrids. Advances in power electronic devices
enhance microgrids efficiency, power quality, voltage
stability, reactive power support and loss reduction. A
modular and applicable platform for decentralized
control applications requires proper control strategies.
The active and reactive power control schemes
proposed in literature for inverter based DGs are

A Real-Time Power Controller for Grid-Connected Inverters in LV Smart Microgrids

mostly based on the assumption that the power lines are

inductive (R/X << 1) [2-9]. The proposed control
methods for high voltage levels are not feasible for the
LV networks [10-12], in which the lines are highly
resistive. In fact, the line resistance to the line reactance
ratio is a large number (R/X >> 1). The power flow
control methods presented in Refs. [11, 12] use a
virtual inductance or virtual frequency-voltage frame
to achieve this goal. Integration of single phase electric
vehicles to unbalanced LV microgrids is discussed in
Ref. [13].
Today, inverter based DGs operate at unity power
factor in grid-connected mode. In fact, they contribute
only to active power control, which may end up
lowering the power factor at the PCC (point of
common-coupling) [8, 9].
This paper presents a real-time power flow portable
controller for VSIs (voltage source inverters) that are
interfaced to low voltage microgrids. This modular
controller can be programmed by decentralized control
algorithms in order to enhance self-healing, reliability
and stability of the grid. The main objective is to be
able to implement and test decentralized control
algorithms on this controller.
The power flow control strategies for distributed
generators operating in both islanded and connected to
LV networks are presented. The DSC (digital signal
controller) based controller uses a PLL (phase-locked
loop) to synchronize the distributed generator with the
grid while operating in the islanded mode. After
synchronization, the active and reactive output powers
to the grid are controlled. The controller measures the
inverter output voltage and current as well as the
voltage at the point of common-coupling and sends the
proper switching signals to the grid-connected inverter.
The control schemes are simulated for the non-unity
power factor in MATLAB/Simulink.
Control power flow strategy for inverter based
distributed energy resources operating at LV networks
are introduced [14]. The developed model is simulated
in
MATLAB/Simulink
[15]
using
the

2157

SimPowerSystems toolbox [16]. The proposed control

method has been implemented on a Texas Instrument
DSC chip and tested on a hardware test bench at the
Alternative Energy Laboratory at WVUIT (West
Virginia University Institute of Technology). The
systems experimental results provided in Section 4
verify the validity and efficiency of the proposed
controller.

2. Active/Reactive Power Control in LV

Networks
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of a DC source
distributed generator connected to the low voltage
microgrid using a VSI (voltage source inverter) [17]. A
transformer is needed to isolate and amplify the output
AC voltage of the inverter as shown in Fig. 1.
The DG in Fig. 1 is able to operate in both isolated
and grid-connected modes. While the DG is not
connected to the grid, it supplies power only to its local
load. After synchronization and closing of the breaker,
both the DG and grid provide power to the available
loads (in this case local load). The interconnected DG
needs to be properly controlled in order to supply the
required active and reactive power. The output current
of the DG and active/reactive power outputs to the grid
can be expressed as Ref. [18]:
I = (V1-E)/(R + jX)
(1)
P = Re (V1I*)
(2)
Q = Im (V1I*)
(3)
Inverter output voltage (V1) and grid voltage (E)
vectors specified in Fig. 2 can be written:
V1 = V1
E = E0
Pdg = P + PL
Qdg = Q + QL

(4)
(5)
(6)

where:
Pdg, Qdg: inverter active and reactive power;
PL, QL: load active and reactive power;
P, Q: active and reactive power flow to grid.
P = (V1/(R2 + X2)) [R(V1 - Ecos) + XEsin] (7)
Q = (V1/(R2 + X2)) [X(V1 - Ecos) - REsin] (8)
In HV (high voltage) transmission lines where (X >>

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A Real-Time Power Controller for Grid-Connected Inverters in LV Smart Microgrids

Fig. 1 An inverter based DG system interfaced to LV electric network.

V1

jXI
RI

I
Fig. 2 Phase diagram of inverter voltage and grid voltage.

R), and assuming a small value for angle (sin = ;

cos = 1), Eqs. (7) and (8) can be simplified to Ref.
[17]:
P = (V1E/X)
(9)
Q = (V1 - E)V1/X
(10)
Therefore, the DG active and reactive output power
flows to the grid (P, Q) can be controlled by phase
angle () and voltage magnitude (V1 - E) differences.
However, in low voltage distribution lines (where
R >> X) the active/reactive power control equations in
HV transmission line networks described in Eqs. (5)
and (6) are not applicable anymore. Using the line data
for the LV networks given in Ref. [11], Eqs. (2) and (3)
can be simplified to:
P = V1(V1 - E)/R
(11)
Q = (-V1E/R)
(12)
As shown in Eqs. (11) and (12), the output active
power depends on the voltage magnitude difference (V1

- E). On the other hand, the reactive power is a function

of the phase angle difference between V1 and E (). The
above equations may not be accurate enough for the
control purposes of distribution lines in which R/X ratio
is close to 1 or not large enough. The methods
suggested by Refs. [12, 13] are possible alternatives for
these types of low voltage electric networks.

3. Inverter Control Strategy

Fig. 1 displays the overall closed loop system for an
inverter based DG which was developed in
MATLAB/Simulink using the SimPowerSystems
toolbox. In this development, DC output voltage is
converted to an AC voltage using a voltage source
inverter. The output AC voltage is filtered using a low
pass filter (L-C-L) to obtain a pure 60 Hz sinusoidal
signal.
The proposed controller is designed to operate in
both islanded and grid-connected modes. In standalone
or islanded mode, the DG provides electric power to its
own local load. In this case, the DG output voltage is
equivalent to the local load voltage which needs to be
kept within the standard margins [9]. The inverter
output voltage remains synchronized with the grid at
the point of common connection. In grid-connected

A Real-Time Power Controller for Grid-Connected Inverters in LV Smart Microgrids

mode, the output active and reactive power of the

inverter is controlled based on Eqs. (11) and (12).
Also, the DG active and reactive power outputs to
the LV grid are controlled using the grid connected
controller sub blocks shown within the dashed line in
Fig. 1. The VSI (voltage source inverter) control modes
are proposed by the first author in Ref. [17].

4. Hardware Implementation
The Delfino F28335 control card by Texas
Instruments [19] is used to implement the controller.
The card uses a TMS320F28335 digital signal
controller which is a powerful DSC in the TI C2000
family. The control card provides 16 analog inputs with
12-bit resolution and up to 12.5MSPS (mega samples
per second) capability per input [20]. It also provides
up to 88 programmable digital input/output pins, with
plenty of internal modules that simplify its use in many
control applications, especially in the smart grid
control application. There are three reasons for
choosing this board for the implementation:
First, it is a small and cheap DSC board in
comparison with the other DSCs available from TI.
Second, it includes sufficient input/output pins and
internal modules to implement any controller of
reasonable size for smart grid applications. Third, it is
supported by the Embedded Coder package [21]
available from Mathworks for MATLAB and Simulink.
This package converts a MATLAB or Simulink model
into a C program that can be loaded into the DSC
memory by using Code Compose Studio [22], the TI
provided IDE package for interfacing to its DSCs. This
last feature makes the design, modification and
debugging process of any model in Simulink fast and
easy. The Simulink model used for this experiment is
shown in Fig. 3. The DSC resources used in this
application are three analog inputs (A0 to A2) and one
ePWM (enhanced pulse width modulation) module
(two ePWM output signals). The analog inputs are used
to read the inverter current and voltage and the grid
voltage into the controller, as shown in Block A of Fig.

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3. The DSC analog inputs amplitude range is limited to

0 V to 3 V, and it is one of the limitations of the analog
inputs of this DSC. To address this limitation, the
transducers from the Lab-Volt test bench are used to
convert the grid and inverter voltages and currents to a
low voltage within 2.5 V. Then, a custom designed
circuit is used to further attenuate the transducer
outputs by a factor of 2 and then add a bias voltage
(Vbias = 1.34 V) to adjust them to the appropriate range
of 0 V to 3 V. The input signals are then sampled at a
rate of 10 kHz and with 12-bit accuracy.
The DSP board comes with six ePWM modules,
which are powerful blocks for the inverter control
applications. For this experiment, only one ePWM
module is used. The module produces the sawtooth
carrier signal internally and just needs a sinusoidal
input to produce the PWM IGBT drive signals as
indicated in Block B of Fig. 3.
The amplitude and the frequency of the internal
sawtooth are programmable; hence, the block can be
used for various output frequencies and modulation
indices.
A simplified diagram of the hardware setup at our
Alternative Energy Laboratory is illustrated in Fig. 4.
This test bed is built of Lab-Volt modules including an
IGBT inverter, a data acquisition unit, smoothing
inductors, capacitors, a transformer, current/voltage
sensors and resistive and inductive loads as shown in
Fig. 5. A synchronization relay is located between the
grid voltage and the inverter.
Once the output voltages are synchronized, the
breaker closes using the normally open and normally
closed relays on the Lab-Volt protection relay bench
and the synchronization relay. The test bed system
parameters are given in Table 1.

5. Case Study
The system has been tested for various load types,
sizes and different set point values. The test results for
two case studies are given as follows:
Case 1: Pref = 16 W and Qref = 8 V,

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A Real-Time Power Controller for Grid-Connected Inverters in LV Smart Microgrids

Fig. 3 The developed SIMULINK model used for hardware test.

Fig. 4 Single line diagram of the hardware setup.

Fig. 5 Hardware setup at alternative energy lab of WVUIT.

A Real-Time Power Controller for Grid-Connected Inverters in LV Smart Microgrids

Table 1 Hardware setup parameters.

Q controller parameters
P controller parameters
Line parameters
LC filter
DC voltage input

Ki = 0.02
Ki = 0.02
R = 600
Lf = 0.4 H
Vdc = 136 V

Kp = 0.001
Kp = 0.2
L = 0.26 H
Cf = 4.4 uF

Fig. 6 Inverter and grid output voltages in synchronization

mode.

local load: RL = 600 (resistive load);

Case 2: Pref = 5 W and Qref = 10 V,
local load: RL = 36 , L = 1.6 H (inductive load).
Fig. 6 shows the inverter output voltage and the grid
voltage in synchronization mode. Fig. 7 shows the grid
(E1) and inverter output voltage (E2) graphs in grid
connected for case 1.
As Expected, the inverter output active power (P2)
has reached its set point value (Pref = 16). Summation
of P1 and P2 minus the line losses (RI2) is equal to load
active power (P3). The inverter output reactive power
has been transferred 100% (Q2 = -Q1 + QXL) to the grid
since the local load is purely resistive and Q3 = 0.

2161

In case of a resistive-inductive (RL) local load, both

inverter active and reactive power have reached their
set point values as demonstrated in Fig. 8. The load
current has an 82 phase shift with respect to the load
voltage since the load is highly inductive; therefore P3
is a small number while Q3 is a large value. The load
reactive power has been supported by both the grid and
inverter.
The output voltage, current and power rms values for
the inverter, grid and load are indicated using the
Lab-Volt digital meter. As expected, the inverter
output voltage varies at the point of connection while
controlling the power output. The voltage variation
should be limited within standard margins to avoid
undesired interruptions.

6. Conclusions
This paper proposes a general purpose power flow
controller for inverter based distributed energy
generators connected to low voltage networks. Active
and reactive control techniques of DGs in both
grid-connected and standalone modes of operation for
LV networks are developed. The distributed generator
inverter uses a PLL to achieve synchronization and to
control the active and reactive power outputs of the DG
connected to the LV grid.
The models are developed in MATLAB/Simulink
using the SimPowerSystems toolbox and tested for
unity and non-unity power factor scenarios. The

Fig. 7 Graph and digital display screens for purely resistive local load (R = 600 ).

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A Real-Time Power Controller for Grid-Connected Inverters in LV Smart Microgrids

Fig. 8 Graph and digital display screens for RL local load (R = 36 , X = 1.6 H).

proposed control method has been implemented on a

C2000 Texas Instrument digital signal controller and
tested on the small scale test bed at the Alternative
Energy Lab of WVUIT for both resistive and inductive
local loads. The experimental results confirm the
validity and accuracy of the proposed method.

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