Comparative Analysis of Low-pass Output Filter for Single-phase Grid-connected Photovoltaic Inverter

Hanju Cha and Trung-Kien Vu

Department of Electrical Engineering, Chungnam National University Daejon, Korea hjcha@cnu.ac.kr, vukien@gmail.com
Abstract - Nowadays, the LCL-filter type becomes an attractive grid interfacing for grid-connected Voltage Source Inverter (VSI). LCL-filter can render the current harmonics attenuation around the switching frequency by using smaller inductance than L-filter. Moreover, system using LCL-filter does not depend on the grid impedance and has a better output response while comparing with LC-filter. Firstly, an analysis and design procedure of output LCL-filter for single-phase grid-connected Photovoltaic (PV) inverter system is presented in this paper. Due to the theoretical analysis, a comparison between the designed LCL-filter with L-filter and LC-filter based single-phase gridconnected PV inverter system is carried out. The comparison results are given to validate the theoretical analysis and effectiveness of filters.

I.

INTRODUCTION

To eliminate the current harmonics around the switching frequency and comply with the standards (i.e IEEE 1547), the grid-connected inverter for renewable energy source requires an output low-pass filter to interface with the grid. Ideally, the filter with low cut-off frequency and high attenuation at the high switching frequency is better to eliminate switching ripple effectively.

Fig. 1 (a) Equivalent circuit diagram and (b) model of LCL-filter

However, the filter design needs the trade-off when considering the switching loss/efficiency and fundamental voltage drop. In the literature, L-filter, LC-filter and LCL-filter designs have been proposed and have the following properties. Firstly, although a single inductor L-filter is popular and simple use, it has a low attenuation and high inductance value. The voltage drop across the inductor makes a poor system dynamics, hence causing a long-time response. By using L-filter, the inverter switching frequency must have a high value in order to sufficiently attenuate the harmonics [1]. Secondly, since the L-filter achieves low attenuation of the inverter switching components, a shunt element is needed to further attenuate the switching frequency components. A capacitor is selected to produce low reactance at the switching frequency and presents high magnitude impedance within the control frequency range. The LC-filter is suited to configurations where the load impedance across the capacitor is relatively high at and above the switching frequency. To reduce the losses and cost, the capacitance should be high and then, the inductance can be reduced. But a very high capacitance is not recommended since the system may face with inrush current, high reactive current fed on capacitor at the fundamental frequency, possible resonance phenomenon at the grid side, etc. If a system is connected to the grid via LC-filter, the resonance frequency varies over time as the inductance value of the grid varies [2]. Thirdly, comparison with the previous filter topologies, LCL-filter produces better attenuation at the inverter switching frequency. LCL-filter can provide a better decoupling between the filter and the grid impedance. A lower ripple current distortion across the grid-side inductor since the current ripple is reduced by the capacitor. LCL-filter can provide a good attenuation ratio even with small L and C

978-1-4244-4783-1/10/$25.00 2010 IEEE

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values. However, the three-order LCL-filter design has to consider various constraints, such as the resonance phenomenon, the current ripple through inductors, the total impedance of the filter, the current harmonics attenuation at switching frequency and the reactive power absorbed by capacitor, etc. In this paper, after the LCL-filter theoretical analysis and design, a comparison between the designed LCL-filter with L-filter and LC-filter based Photovoltaic (PV) inverter system is carried out. The simulation and experimental comparison results are given to validate the theoretical analysis and show the effectiveness of filter design methodology. II. LCL-FILTER ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

Fig. 3 LCL-filter equivalent circuit (considering only switching harmonic component)

The LCL-filter equivalent circuit diagram is shown in Fig.1 (a) and its equivalent model is shown in Fig.1 (b), where V1 and V2 are inverter and grid voltage, L1, L2, R1, R2 are the filter inverter-side and grid-side inductor and its equivalent resistors, respectively. A damping resistor R3 is in series with capacitor Cf. Based on the equivalent model of LCL-filter in Fig.1 (b), the transfer function of LCL filter using the inverter current as feedback can be derived by assuming that the value of R1 and R2 are small enough to be neglected:
i2(s) v1(s) R3C f s + 1

The main LCL-filter design steps are summarized in Fig. 2. There are some limits on the parameter values such as [3]: - The total inductance should be less than 0.1 (p.u). Because it results in the ac drop voltage during operation. Otherwise, a higher dc-link voltage will be required and this results in higher switching losses. - The capacitance is limited by the reactive power factor (normally this factor is less than 5%). - The resonant frequency should be in range:
10 0 res sw 2

to avoid resonance problems, where 0

is the utility frequency (rad/s), res is the resonant frequency (rad/s) and sw is the switching frequency (rad/s). - The damping element losses cannot be high as to reduce efficiency. A. Filter Inductance Calculation

G(s) =

3 2 L1L2 C f s + L1 + L2 R3C f s + L1 + L2 s

(1)

The resonant frequency is res =

L1 + L2 L1L2 C f

(2)

Assuming the system has unity power factor and the unipolar Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is adopted, the total filter inductance can be calculated by considering the maximum current ripple in the switching period Ts as following [4]:
L= Vdc (1 ma )ma 4 I rated f ripple s

(3)

where Irated is the rated utility current; ripple is the maximum ripple magnitude percentage (5% - 25%); Vdc is the dc-link voltage; L is the total filter inductance; fs is the switching frequency (Hz); ma is the modulation index. By adding a capacitor, the total filter inductance is divided into two parts: the inverter-side inductance L1 and grid-side inductance L2. These inductance values have the following relationship:
L1 = aL2

(4)

where a (a1) is the inductance index can be calculated by using the switching harmonic current attenuation ratio [5].
Fig. 2 LCL-filter design flow chart

As shown in Fig. 3, the switching harmonic current attenuation ratio can be defined as:

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i = 2 = i1

(1 + a )r a (1 r ) r
r =
r 1+ a

r r a 1+ a r

(1 r )

r 1+ a

(5)

C. Damping Resistance Calculation The LCL-filter can contain a damping resistor to avoid the resonance phenomenon. The damping resistance R3 should be one third of the filter capacitor and resonant frequency as:
R3 = 1 3res C f

where
1

2 L2C f sw
=

is constant

(6)

(9)

rippleVrated 0 2 2 Vdc f sw

is constant

(7)

III.

SINGLE-PHASE GRID-CONNECTED PV INVERTER SYSTEM

ripple is the maximum ripple magnitude percentage (5% 25%); Vrated is the rated utility voltage; is the reactive power factor(<5%), 0 is utility frequency (rad/s). B. Filter Capacitance Calculation The filter capacitance Cf can be determined by considering the reactive power absorbed in filter capacitor as following:
Qre = 2 2 0Vrated 0Vrated

The block diagram of single-phase grid-connected PV inverter system is shown in Fig.4 (a) and equivalent current control block diagram is shown in Fig.4 (b), with rated power Prated = 3 (kW), rated RMS line-to-line voltage is Vrated = 220 (V), dc-link voltage Vdc = 400 (V), switching frequency fsw = 10 (kHz) and the rated current Irated = 13.64 (A).
Filter frequency responses 200

where Qre is the reactive power absorbed by filter capacitor; Prated is the rated power. The more capacitance, the more reactive power flowing into capacitor, the more current demand from filter inductor and switches so that the overall filter inductor current will tend to increase. Hence the efficiency will be low. But the capacitance cannot be too small because a large inductance causes a high voltage drops across the filter inductor.

Magnitude (dB)

Cf =

Prated

(8)

L filter 100 Un-dam ped LC filter Dam ped LC-filter Un-dam ped LCL-filter Dam ped LCL-filter

-100

-200 -90 -180 Phase (deg) -270 -360 -450 10

2

10

10

10

10

Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 5 Frequency responses of filters

Closed-loop system frequency responses 50 0 Magnitude (dB) -50 -100 -150 -200 180 0 Phase (deg) -180 -360 -540

L filter Un-dam ped LC filter Dam ped LC-filter Un-dam ped LCL-filter Dam ped LCL-filter

Fig. 4 (a) Block diagram of single-phase grid-connected PV inverter system and (b) equivalent current control block diagram

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 6 Frequency responses of closed-loop system using different filters

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4 x 10 Root locus of system using L-filter

3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -6000
4

equation (1) in case of LCL-filter. G f (s ) = L-filter, G f (s ) = filter.

1 R 3Cf s + 1

1
Ls

in case of

Imaginary Axis

(a)

Ls LC s 2 + R C s + 1 3 f f

in case of LC-

-4000

-2000

2000
4

4000

Real Axis
Root ped LC-filter x 10 locus of system using un-dam 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -5000
3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -5000 ped LC-filter x Root locus of system using dam 10

(b)

(c)

0 Real Axis

5000

5000

Root4locus of systemusing undam ped LCL-filter x 10 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -5000

3 2 1 0 -1 -2

Real Axis 4 ped LCL-filter xRoot locus of system using dam 10

(d)

(e)

0 Real Axis

5000

-3 -5000

0 Real Axis

5000

The frequency responses of filters are shown in Fig.5. The bandwidths of filters are almost same below the resonant frequency res. With damping resistor, the resonance phenomenon is almost eliminated. Fig.6 shows the frequency response of the closed-loop system corresponding to each filter. The peak of system resonance frequency is reduced by using a suitable damping resistance. Increase the damping resistance can depress the resonant peak but tends to reduce the attenuation. Fig.7 shows the root locus diagram of closed-loop system using L-filter, un-damped and damped LC filter, un-damped and damped LCL filter, respectively. Without damping resistor, the system using LC-filter and LCL-filter are on the boundary of stability. The system will be moved into the stable region by using a suitable damping resistance. Furthermore, the stability of closed-loop control is ensured with control algorithm. IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

Imaginary Axis

Fig. 7 Root locus diagram of closed-loop current control system by using (a) L-filter, (b) un-damped LC-filter, (c) damped LC-filter, (d) un-damped LCLfilter and (e) damped LCL-filter

Imaginary Axis

Imaginary Axis

Imaginary Axis

Adopting Irm = 4%.Irated and Qre = 2.5%.Prated, we can calculate the filter inductances L1 = 2.038(mH), L2 = 0.896(mH), the filter capacitance Cf = 4.11(F), the resonance frequency res = 19772(rad/s) or fres = 3.1468(kHz) and the damping resistance R3 = 4.1(). For filter comparison, in this paper, we choose the inductance of L-filter is L = 2.934(mH); the inductance and capacitance of LC-filter are L = 2.934(mH) and Cf = 4.11(F). The single-phase grid connected PV inverter control system diagram is shown in Fig.4 (a) and its current control block diagram is shown in Fig.4 (b), where: - G c (s ) = K p +
Ki s

is the PI controller transfer function;

By using the system parameters shown in the previous section, simulation model of 3kW single-phase PV inverter system with grid connection is shown in Fig. 8. The inverter current waveform is shown in Fig.9 (a) and the grid currents using L-filter, LC-filter and LCL-filter are shown in Fig.9 (b), (c), (d) respectively. Fig 9 (e) ~ (h) are zoomed in from Fig.9 (a) ~ (d). Fig. 9 shows that with small inductance value, the L-filter cannot eliminate the current ripples completely. By using a capacitor as a shunt component, LC-filter and LCLfilter have good ripple eliminations. Fig.10 (a), (b), (c) and (d) show the frequency analysis and THD values of the inverter current and grid currents using Lfilter, LC-filter and LCL-filter, respectively. L-filter cannot reduce the harmonics as well as LC-filter and LCL-filter do. V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

- Gi(s) = Kinv is the transfer function of the inverter. Assuming the switching frequency is high enough to neglect the inverter dynamics, the PWM inverter can be represented by a gain for simplicity of analysis (due to relatively high switching frequency). - Gf(s) is the transfer function of filter as shown in

The overall system of the 3kW single-phase grid-connected PV inverter is shown in Fig. 11 [6].

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All pass filter

I alpha ialpha

[theta ]

theta m

[m] PWM Generator

[Igrid ] From Igrid

Igrid I beta ibeta Theta

vd cm d

d Vcm d

[theta ] [Vpeak ]

vq cm d v peak

Signal(s ) Puls es

[Vgrid ]
A

Current control

Command Voltage Generator

g B

Vgrid

Grid voltage Grid voltage

[Igrid ]
Igrid Grid current Grid current

v peak

[Vpeak ] [Vdc ]
v

[Vgrid ] From Vgrid

Vgrid Theta

[theta ]

+ -

DC Voltage Source

+ A B B B B1 A A A1

[PWM ]
PWM PWM voltage

Single phase PLL

IGBT Inverter

Filter

Current & Voltage Measurement [theta ]

Theta

Scope

Fig. 8 Matlab/Simulink simulation model of 3kW PV inverter using low-pass filter

Fig. 9 (a) Inverter current and grid current by using (b) L-filter, (c) LC-filter (d) LCL-filter with their zoomed in waveforms (e)~(h)

Selected signal: 5.999 cycles. FFT window (in red): 2 cycles 5 0 -5 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 Time (s) 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09

Selected signal: 5.999 cycles. FFT window (in red): 2 cycles 5

-5 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 Time (s) 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09

Fundamental (60Hz) = 6.595 , THD= 11.95% 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Fundamental (60Hz) = 6.559 , THD= 9.02% 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Mag

(a)

(b)

500

1000 1500 Frequency (Hz)

2000

2500

Mag

500

1000 1500 Frequency (Hz)

2000

2500

(a)

(b)

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Selected signal: 6 cycles. FFT window (in red): 2 cycles 5

5

Selected signal: 6 cycles. FFT window (in red): 2 cycles

-5 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 Time (s) 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09

-5 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 Time (s) 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1

Fundamental (60Hz) = 6.23 , THD= 5.16% 7 6 5 4

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Fundamental (60Hz) = 6.013 , THD= 3.79%

Mag

(c)

(d)
3 2 1 0

500

1000 1500 Frequency (Hz)

2000

2500

Mag

500

1000 1500 Frequency (Hz)

2000

2500

(c) (d) Fig. 10 Frequency analysiss and THDs of (a) inverter current, (b) grid current using L-filter, (c) grid current using LC-filter, (d) grid current using LCL-filter

Fig. 11 Experimental prototype of 3kW single-phase grid-connected PV inverter (b) Fig. 12 (a) Inverter current and (b) grid current using L-filter

(a)

The current controller (using PI controller) is adopted fully in software with a 32-bit fixed-point DSP TMS320F2812 and the PWM pulses are generated through the internal pulse generator of the DSP. The experimental results are shown in Fig. 12 Fig. 13. In Fig. 12(a), the inverter current is shown in channel 2 and its frequency spectrum is shown in channel M. The grid current using L-filter and its frequency spectrum are shown in Fig. 12(b) at channel 3 and channel M, respectively. The grid current using L-filter almost has no ripple and harmonic mitigation.

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others in case of the same inductance, capacitance and damping resistance values. Furthermore, the used methodology in this paper can be extended to three-phase and applied to such distributed generation application as microturbine, fuel cell, wind power, etc. REFERENCES [1] E-Habrouk M., Darwish M.K., Mehta P., "Active power filters: a review", IE Proceedings-Electric Power Applications, Vol. 147, Iss. 5, pp. 403-413, 2000. [2] Akagi H., "Active harmonic filters", Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 93, Iss. 12, pp. 2128-2141, 2005. [3] Marco Liserre, Frede Blaabjerg, Steffan Hansen, Design and Control of an LCL-Filter-Based Three-Phase Active Rectifier, IEEE Transactions on Industry Application, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 1281-1291, 2005. [4] Hyosung Kim, Kyoung-Hwan Kim, Filter design for grid connected PV inverters, IEEE International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies (ICSET2008), pp. 1070-1075, 2008. [5] Y.Lang, D.Xu, Hadianamrei S.R, H.Ma, "A novel design method of LCL type utility interface for three-phase voltage source rectifier", Proc. of PESC'05, pp. 313-317, 2005. [6]Cha, Hanju and Lee, Sanghoey, Design and Implementation of Photovoltaic Power Conditioning System Using a Current Based Maximum Power Point Tracking, Industry Application Society Annual Meeting (IAS2008), pp. 1-5, 2008.

(a)

(b) Fig. 13 Grid current using (a) LC-filter and (b) LCL-filter

The grid currents using LC-filter and LCL-filter are shown in Fig. 13(a) and Fig. 13(b), respectively. The grid currents, as shown in channel 3, has a good current ripple reduction and channel M shows the harmonic. By using the LCLfilter, the grid current ripple elimination and the harmonic mitigation are better than LC-filter. The damping resistor has no effect on the ripple reduction but the oscillation mitigation. VI. CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, a LCL-filter design process for single-phase grid-connected PV inverter has been described. The filter design considers on the constraints of parameter determinations and the overall process can be done by stepby-step equations solving. The design procedure ensures that the parasitic of the filter components are kept as low as possible. And a feature comparison of LCL-filter with L-filter and LC-filter has been investigated and its result shows that the LCL-filter has a better effective performance than the

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