A Novel Load Sharing Control Technique for Paralleled Inverters

Jingtao Tan,Hua Lin, Jun Zhang and Jianping Ying

Delta Power Electronics Center 238 Minxia Road, Caolu Industry Zone, Pudong, Shanghai, 201209, China Tel: 86-21-58635678, Fax: 86-21-58630003, Email tan,jingtao@delta,com.cn Abstract -A new control technique have been developed, which allows paralleled inverters to share linear or nonlinear load in a distributed ac power supply system. All paralleled inverters have the Same power reference, and are forced the output power to follow the same reference by using a PI controller in each inverter unit, so that all paralleled inverters can share the Same output power. The approach has significant advantages over existing methods, including the ability to improve reliability and reduce interconnection bus. Principle and scheme of the load-sharing technique is analyzed. The experimental resdlts of B three-unit prototype system show that the proposed scheme is correct. novel load sharing control technique for parallel inverters is put forward.
11. ANALYSIS OF POWR FLOW CONTROLPRINCIPLE

A. ConvenlionalPower Flow Confrol Theory

A model of two inverters parallel connection is shown in Fig.1, in which the inverter connects with the load via a filtering inductance. As well know, the complex power at the terminal vo in Fig.1 due to the ith ( i=l,or2) inverter is given by[''

I. INTRODUCTION
Continuous power supply systems have become increasingly important, especially for applications with sensitive and critical loads. A common practice to obtain a continuous power supply is to use a centralized unintempted power supply (UPS) system. This, however, is inflexible and can he unreliable for distributed loads. As the system load grows, the UPS needs to be replaced with a higher capacity one. Also, if the U P S fails, the entire system is affected. The reliability as well as the power capability of the supply system can he increased by replacing a single UPS unit with multiple, smaller UPS units in parallel, resulting in a so-called distributed power system (DPS). A DPS has many desirable features such as expandability, modularity, maintainability, redundancy, and increased reliability. The technically challenging aspect of the DPS, however, is the load sharing among the parallel-connected inverters. Without a proper control scheme, each unit cannot share the load properly. Also, the load sharing is affected by nonuniformity of the units, component tolerances and variations in the connecting line impedances. Although many methods of operating inverters in parallel can be found in the literature, there is yet no satisfactory method to achieve a truly distributed power supply system ['"I. We think a good DPS should meet the demands as follows: (1) Circulation current between paralleled inverters is almost zero; (2) Dynamic and static performance of the DPS is no lower than the single UPS, such as low THD (total harmonic distortion) and precision of output voltage; (3) High reliable parallel configuration. As will be discussed in details by following sections, a

Equations (I) and (2) indicate that if power angle small, the real power flow power angle

is

4 i:; mostly dependent

on the

p i . On the contrary, the reactive power flow

Q,

is mainly influenced by the amplitude of the inverter

voltage V, . This is a general conclusion on power flow control in the power supplies system.

Fig.1 Principle Diagram of Inverter Parallel Connection

Therefore, according the above conclusion, in order to control the power flow of inverter units in the parallel system, we should take meawnss to control the amplitude and phase angle of the output voltage of all inverter units effectively. Fig2 and Fig.3 are two kinds of system, which can meet these demands. Fig2 is an open loop control structure while Fig.3 is a clo:ied loop control structure. Obviously, whether in open or in close control structure, to change the amplitude VmJ and phase angle @, of the

0-7803-7754-0/03/$17.00 82003 IEEE

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voltage reference, can control the amplitude angle

V, and phase
INVETER
1
I

p i of the output voltage of the ith inverter.

INVETER
2

.--.*,i

Fig.4 Parallel SyStem of invencr units with the load voltage feedback

Fig.2 Parallel system of inverter units using open Iwp contml

"QY

Fig.5 Parallel system of inverter uni$ with current control Imp

Fig3 Parallel syStem of inverter units with the output voltage as feedback

Based on the above analysis, a general method on power flow control of inverter parallel system can be summarized as follows: (1): To change the phase angle 'ZJi of the voltage reference, can control the real power flow inverter. (2): To change the amplitude

e from the ifh

Q, from the

V,, of the voltage

reference, can control the reactive power flow ith inverter. B. ModifiedPower Flow Control Theory

High performance inverters have some important features, such as high voltage regulation precision, and low total harmonic distortion with various loads. Thus, the inverters are typically operated under feedback control to realize the desired output waveform. However, it should he noted that the load voltage is usually used as feedback to construct closed loop control in the inverter. Thus, a parallel system of inverter units is shown in Fig.4. It is distinct f r o m the parallel system shown in Fig.3, in which the output voltage of the inverter is used as the feedback.

Now, the problem is how to control the power flow Of inverter unit in Fig.4. Although, no matter what control strategy is adopted in Fig.3, the conclusion about the relationship between voltage reference and power flow is unchangeable, different conclusions will get when different control strategies is used in Fig.4. Load voltage and inductor current dual-bops control is a typical control strategy for inverters. Parallel system of inverter units based on the control strategy is shown in FigS. Power flow control principle on the parallel system is discussed as follows. In Fig.5, the IVR is the instantaneous voltage regulator, which enforces the load voltage to follow the voltage reference tightly. The output of IVR is supplied as the inductor current reference of the CR. The CR is the current regulator, which enforces the inductor current to follow the inductor current reference tightly. Generally, the load voltage v, and the voltage can he expressed as: references of the ith inverter vmln

v, = V,, sin
Where:

wt

v , = ~ V,eln ~ sin( cot

+ 'ZJ ")

is the angle frequency of the load voltage,

'ZJn is the phase difference between the voltage reference

of the nth inverter unit and the output voltage,

v, is the

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amplitude of the load voltage and

v , ,

is the amplitude of

A. Disiribuied Logic Confguraiion

Parallel system of inverter units has different kinds of parallel configuration, such is the central control configuration, the maser-slave control configuration, the distributed logic control contiguntion and independent control configuration. Considering the cost, reliability and complexity of implementation,, the distributed logic configuration shown in Fig.6 is adopted in the paper. It has only two interconnection buses to transfer the related information among all the paralleled inverter units. The phase bus is used to transfer the phase angle information, so that the voltage references of all the paralleled inverter units have the same frequency and phase angle. The power bus is used to transfer the active power reference information, so that the voltage references of all the paralleled inverter units have the same active power reference.

the iih voltage reference.

In additional, to simplify the analysis, some assumptions are given: ( I ) The N R is a proportional controller; the proportional gain is K, .
(2) "he CR has very perfect performance, so that the inductor current can follow the current reference completely. Thus, the mathematical model of the nth inverter unit in Fia.5 can he exmessed as:
I

+ ,i
ILn

= K , *[V,, *sin(ui+@.)-V,

*sinoil
(3)

= 54" From the equation (3) and (4). we have:

--

(4)

ai,"-K,sin(wf+@,) aVM"

Obviously, when the amplitude increment of the voltage reference is AV,+, the increment of the inductor current

A& can he expressed as:

(7) LY,AV,~/, sin( 01 + @ " ) Usually, Q n is very little, so the Airefiin equation (7)

Ai,,"

n+ 1 I
NVETE

predominately produce active current in the load voltage

vo .

Similarly, when the phase angle increment of the voltage reference is A@", the increment of the inductor current A i , can he expressed as:

Ai,@ = K,Vamp,AQ cos( 01

reactive current in the load voltage vo .

+Qn)

(8)

I
B. Load Sharing Conhol Scheme

Load

So the Ai,+ in equation (8) predominately produce

Based on the above analysis, in Fig.5, a general method
on power flow control of inverter parallel systcm as follows:

Fig.6 Parallel syslem of inverter based on dirhibuted logic configuration

(1) To change 'the phase angle

Qi

of the voltage

reference can control the reactive power flow Qi from the ifh inverter. (2) To change the amplitude V,, of the voltage

reference can control the active power flow

inverter.
111. LOAD SHARING SCHEME

6 from the iih

Control block diagram for realizing the proposed load sharing control scheme is shown in Fig. 7. It is augmented on the dual-loops inductor current control scheme shown in Fig. 5. R m is the real-means-square (RMS) voltage regulator, which ensures the RMS of the load voltage to have high precision. The output of RVR is regard as the active power reference P, , which is transferred to the power bus to get the average value of all the active power reference in the paralleled system.

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(9)
PR is the active power regulator. is supplied as

the input of the active power regulator. The output of PR is used as the amplitude of the voltage reference. As discussed in the above, to change the amplihlde of the voltage reference can control the active power flow of the inverter unit; so, the active power regulator can control the , + to follow the active power output of active power P

reference effectively. Hence, the operational principle of the proposed loadsharing scheme can be expressed as follow: (1) Active Power sharing: Using the same active power reference. All the paralleled units own the same active power reference p,h,. PR is used to control the output of active power to follow the power reference. Thus, all the units output the same active power. (2) Reactive Power sharing: Using PLL (phase locked loop) control

ehWe

Active Power Bus

Fig.7 Control block diagram of ule load-sharingscheme

All the units transfer their Phase angle value to the phase bus respectively. The phase bus extracts the maximum value of the phase angles and transfer back to the inverter units as the input of PLL. Thus, the PLL ensure the voltage phase reference is the same in the paralleled system and when the active power is sharing, the reactive power is almost sharing in the paralleled system too. (3) Adaptive control of the load voltage feedback coefficient In the paralleled system, all the controllen are implemented by s o h a r e , so the control parameters between parallel inverter modules has no difference. But, in general, it has differences bemeen System panmeters of all the paralleled units, such as the load voltage feedback

coefficient

K,,, , which

relies on the parameters of the

hardware. Due to the disagreement of the coefficient, is the Same One, the the load feedback of the unit is disagreement. Hence, the RMS values of the load voltage feedback between all units

v ,

are disagreement. It is possible that, the error e, in some units is positive and

e, in the other units is negative when

V, o VIn.This means it is impossible to let all the error

e, equal zero in the same time. Because there exists an
integrator Sectionin the RVR controller, the R V will ~ be in

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the positive saturation state or in the negative saturation state. Thus, the system cannot run in a right state. To overcome this problem, an adaptive controller is adopted. The adaptive control law is:
(10) = Kshme -n' ) + an adaptive controller. K,,, is the proportional coefficient of the adaptive controller. The product of K , and K,, is used as the actual feedback
Km

respectively. It is obvious that the paralleled system has not only good current-sharing performancm: hut also low THD and high precision of load voltage.

(eh,

K , is

coefficient. Obviously, when feedback coefficient is less than when than

Chum > P, ,
K , . On the

the actual other hand,

eh, < Pn, the actual feedback coefficient is bigger

K , . Using the control
law will ensure the system to

mn in the right state.

IV. EXPERMENTAL RESULTS

Fig.8 Static response of the parallel syskm wiul full resistive load

In order to verify the proposed load-sharing scheme, a parallel system with three inverter units has been built. The control unit is implemented based on TMS320F240. The parameters of the unit list as in Table 1.
Table 1: Parameters of inverter unit

Some experimental results are shown in Fig3 to Fig.15, , are the load where uo is the load voltage and i, ,i2 and i currents of the three inverter units respectively.
A. Static Performance

Fig.8 and 9 are the static responses of the parallel system with the full resistive load and the full rectifier load respectively. In Fig3 and 9, the load currents i, ,i, and i3 are almost the same. Hence, the proposed scheme has good load-sharing performance. Under different load conditions, the THD of load voltage, the RMS precision of load voltage and the precision of load current sharing defined in Equation (1 1) are shown in Fig.10.

AI%=- AI."=
I,

x 100% = I

1 1 xloo%

a x

E%

1 m

lax

l a

I,,

(11) Where I,, I , and I , o . is the RMS value of the actual load current of a certain inverter, the expected load current (average load current) and the rated load current,

Fig.10 Characteristics of the parallel system with resistive load

B. Dynumic Pe$ormance
Fig.12 and 13 are the dynamic responses of the parallel

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system when abruptly increasing the load from null to full

Fig.12 Dynamic response ofthe paralleled system with the resistive load abruptly increasing fromnull 10 full

Fig.14 Dynamic response of the parallel system with the resistive load abruplly decreasing from full to null

Fig.13 Dynamic response of the parallel system with Le rectifier load abruptly decreasing 6om null to full

responses Of the Fig.14 and are the paralleled system when abruptly decreasing the load from full resistive load and the full rectifier load to null respectively. Fig.12 to Fig.15 show that even if the load changing abruptly, the parallel system still has good current-sharing performance.

Fig.15 Dymamic xspome afthe paallel system with therectifierload

abruptly decreasing from full IO null

REFERENCES
[I]Xie LiHua, Su YanMin, Control o f Inverter Parallel Operation, Power Electronics, Vo1.34, No.4, pp.1-3. 121 David I Perreadt, Roben L Sclden and John G Kassakian, Frsquency-Based Current-Shanng Techniques for Parallcl Power Converten, IEEE Transactions on Power Elecmnicr 1998, Vo1.13, N o 4 pp.626-634. PI Heim Van Der Braeck, Ulrich Boeh, A Simple Mehod for Parallel Operation oflnverten, IEEE 1998, pp.144-150. [4l Yu Meng, ShanXu Dum, Yong Kang and Jian Chen, Research on Voltage Source Inverten With Wireless Parallel Operation. [5l A Tuladhar, H Jin, T Unger and K Much, Parallel Operation o f Single Phase lnvener Modules with No Control Intercome~tims, IEEE 1997, pp.94-100.

V. CONCLUSIONS
A novel current sharing scheme for paralleled inverter is proposed, The parallel system has characteristics as follows: (I): Reliable configuration (2): Simple communication (3): Good effect of current sharing (4): Low THD with nonlinear load ( 5 ) : High precision of load voltage RMS

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