IET Power Electronics

Research Article

Fundamental frequency switching strategy for

grid-connected cascaded H-bridge multilevel
inverter to mitigate voltage harmonics at the
point of common coupling

ISSN 1755-4535
Received on 1st December 2015
Revised on 10th April 2016
Accepted on 24th May 2016
doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2015.0970
www.ietdl.org

Mehdi Hajizadeh , Seyed Hamid Fathi

Power Electronics and Drives Research Laboratory, Electrical Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, 424 Hafez
Ave, Tehran 15914, Iran
E-mail: m_hajizadeh@aut.ac.ir

Abstract: Cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter with isolated dc sources is a suitable choice as an interface between grid
and distributed generation (DG) sources. The main duty of the interface inverter is to adapt voltage of the grid and DG
source while active and reactive power exchange is also controlled by it. Conventional fundamental frequency
switching methods have been studied so far only for quality improvement of the inverter output voltage. However, for
the grid-connected applications, voltage quality at the point of common coupling (PCC) is more important than the
inverter output voltage. This study presents a modified harmonic mitigation fundamental frequency switching method
for the grid-connected cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters. The goal is to calculate optimum switching angles of the
inverter which satisfy the standard limits for the total harmonic distortion and harmonic contents of the voltage
waveform at PCC considering specifications of the grid. This is also to be achieved with minimum required amount of
the coupling impedance. Genetic algorithm optimisation program based on the modified switching method is
employed for a sample system including a three-phase cascaded H-bridge seven-level inverter connected to a
harmonic polluted grid. Computer simulation using Simulink/MATLAB is performed, the results of which confirm
effectiveness of the proposed method.

Introduction

Multilevel inverters are featuring many advantages compared with

the conventional three-level inverter in power quality, output
harmonic spectra, power and voltage rates, efciency, stress on the
switches, electromagnetic interference and so on. Nowadays, there
are many applications for multilevel inverters, such as exible ac
transmission system equipment, electrical drives, battery energy
storage systems, uninterruptible power supplies, renewable energy
resources and distributed generation (DG).
There are three conventional structures for multilevel inverters:
diode clamped [1], ying capacitor [2] and cascaded H-bridge
(CHB), multilevel inverter with isolated dc sources [3]. In
comparison to the others, CHB multilevel inverter has advantages
such as absence of extra clamping diodes or voltage balancing
capacitors and easy extension of the number of output voltage
levels. It consists of a series of H-bridge (single-phase full-bridge)
inverter units supplied by isolated dc sources. With these isolated
sources, CHB multilevel inverter can be used as an ideal interface
between an ac grid and a DG or a renewable energy power supply
which usually consist of several separate power sources [4, 5].
A main group of switching strategies operates at fundamental
component frequency in which switching devices turn on and off
only once per cycle to overcome the switching loss problem. This
results in higher efciency of the inverter. Also they give us better
control ability on the specied harmonics of the inverter output
voltage. Selective harmonic elimination pulse-width modulation
(SHEPWM) [6] and optimal minimisation of the total harmonic
distortion [7] are popular samples of the mentioned switching
methods. Harmonic mitigation method is also included in
this group, which is used to mitigate harmonic contents of the
inverter output voltage to comply with the standard allowable
limits [8, 9].
These conventional fundamental frequency switching methods
have been considered for the inverter output voltage waveform in

IET Power Electron., 2016, Vol. 9, Iss. 12, pp. 23872393

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016

many studies, regarding its quality as well as the fundamental

component. However, for the grid-connected systems, voltage
quality at the point of common coupling (PCC) is more important
than the inverter output voltage so the results of the conventional
switching methods will not be useful here anymore. SHEPWM
switching method has been also studied for identical parallel CHB
multilevel inverters connected to the grid in [10], in which by
injecting denite amount of a specic harmonic by one of the
inverters and absorbing the same amount by the other one, the
resultant amount of that specic harmonic is eliminated at PCC
voltage waveform. From the point of the voltage quality, the
method slightly reduces amount of the line voltage total harmonic
distortion (THD) at PCC but it is not supposed to satisfy standard
limit of the grid code. However, other individual harmonics of the
PCC voltage waveform have not been considered in that study as
well.
This paper presents a modied harmonic mitigation fundamental
frequency switching method for the grid-connected cascaded
multilevel inverters. The goal is to calculate optimum switching
angles of the inverter which mitigate the THD and all individual
harmonic contents of the voltage waveform at PCC, instead of the
voltage waveform at the inverter output, according to the standard
allowable limits of the grid code. Thus, the method is novel of its
kind among the conventional fundamental frequency switching
methods in which optimisation is directly applied on the equations
of the voltage waveform at PCC.
The proposed method considers specications of the equivalent
voltage and impedance of the grid as well as the required coupling
impedance. The method can also be applied throughout different
operating ranges of the inverter. The operating range of the
inverter is determined by the range of the exchanged power
between the grid and inverter.
In addition to conventional fundamental frequency switching
methods such as SHEPWM, modied harmonic mitigation
method, which is supposed to be proposed in this paper, also

2387

includes non-linear transcendental equations and constraints.

Solving this kind of equations is the major problem in obtaining
switching angles and several methods have been suggested so far.
New methods in this area are based on evolutionary algorithms.
These methods not only can nd exact solution for some ranges of
modulation indices which are feasible, but also nd optimum
solutions for other values of modulation indices. These methods
can be used for problems with any number of inverter levels. Due
to being simple and more applicable, genetic algorithm, i.e. GA is
one of the mentioned methods that has been widely used in
literature [11]. It is also a good choice at the presence of
non-linear equality and inequality constraints. In addition, particle
swarm optimisation [12], colonial competitive algorithm [13],
shufed frog leaping algorithm [14] and bee algorithm [15] have
been introduced in this regard.
In this paper, rst, the modied harmonic mitigation switching
method is introduced. In the following, a GA optimisation
program, based on the modied method, is presented and then
employed for a sample system including a three-phase CHB
seven-level inverter connected to a fth-harmonic polluted ac grid
and the results are presented. Optimum switching angles,
throughout specied operating ranges of the inverter, are
calculated considering specications of the equivalent voltage and
impedance of the grid as well as coupling impedance. In order to
get the results, the program is run several times with different
amounts of the coupling impedance increased step by step from
zero. Thus, the program can also determine minimum required
amount of the coupling impedance. Finally, computer simulation
results obtained for the sample system via Simulink/MATLAB are
presented to conrm the proposed methods effectiveness.
As the GA program takes several seconds to get the results for any
operating point of the inverter, the optimum switching angles are
obtained ofine, used as a look-up table, in this paper. However,
in real-time applications with variable parameters of the grid, one
can apply a fast analytical method with the capability of fast
online calculations based on the equations of the modied
switching method developed in this study.

2 Modified harmonic mitigation switching

method
Suppose that a three-phase CHB multilevel inverter is connected to
an ac grid at the PCC bus via coupling impedance and exchanges
power with the grid. Fig. 1 shows the equivalent circuit of the system.
In a balanced condition, the system can be studied by its
single-phase model as shown in Fig. 2. ZInv and ZGrid are the
coupling and equivalent grid impedances, respectively.

Fig. 2 Single-line diagram of a three-phase multilevel inverter connected to

an ac grid

According to Fig. 2, for any operating point of the interface

inverter with specic active and reactive powers, i.e. PC and QC,
fundamental component of the inverter output voltage has
specied amplitude and phase angle, i.e. V1 and , respectively.
Fig. 3 shows fundamental component waveforms of the grid and
inverter output phase voltages in which the grid voltage waveform is
supposed to be the reference one with the phase angle of zero.
Voltages of the inverter dc sources are equal to Vdc and are
assumed to be constant. Thus, the Fourier-series expansion of the
inverter output voltage waveform is


1
S


4Vdc

cos (nak ) sin (nvt + nd)
VInv (vt) =
np k=1
n=1

(1)

where k is the kth switching angle of the inverter.

Amplitude of the inverter output voltage nth harmonic will be


S
4Vdc

cos (nak )
Vn =
np k=1

(2)

Therefore, amplitude of the inverter output voltage fundamental

component is


S
4Vdc

cos (ak )
V1 =
p k=1

(3)

Normally, the fundamental component of the inverter output voltage

is dealt with in per unit, called modulation index, which is dened as

2V1 p
m=
4S Vdc

(4)

According to Fig. 2, the fundamental component of the PCC voltage,

considering those of the inverter output and the grid voltages, will be
VPCC1 =

ZGrid
ZInv
V d+
V 0
ZGrid + ZInv 1
ZGrid + ZInv grid

(5)

Also, if the grid voltage contains nth harmonic with the amplitude
and phase angle of Vn(grid) and jn, respectively (as shown in

Fig. 1 Three-phase CHB multilevel inverter connected to an ac grid

2388

Fig. 3 Fundamental components of the multilevel inverter output and

connected grid phase voltages

IET Power Electron., 2016, Vol. 9, Iss. 12, pp. 23872393

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016

Fig. 4a), the nth harmonic of PCC voltage will be determined by the
both inverter and grid voltages nth harmonics, as given by (6).
Zn(Inv) and Zn(Grid) are the nth harmonic of the coupling and
equivalent grid impedances, respectively

VPCCn =

Zn(Grid)
Zn(Inv)
V nd +
V
w (6)
Zn(Grid) + Zn(Inv) n
Zn(Grid) + Zn(Inv) n(grid) n

However, according to Fig. 4b, if the waveform of the grid voltage is

free of the nth harmonic, PCC voltage at the nth harmonic will be
determined only by the nth harmonic of the inverter output voltage
as given in the following equation

VPCCn =

Zn(Grid)
V nd
Zn(Grid) + Zn(Inv) n

(7)

As a result, by considering (3) and (6), for any operating point of the
interface inverter with specied amplitude and phase angle of the
output voltage fundamental component, i.e. V1 and , equations of
the modied harmonic mitigation method at PCC can be written as
S


k=1

Fitness Function: THD = 100


199 2
n=5 VPCCn
VPCC

n = 5, 7, 11, . . . , 199
Subject to
cos (ak ) = S m

k=1





VPCC5 

 L5
V 
PCC




VPCC7 

 L7
V 





VPCC5 

 L5
V 
PCC




VPCC7 

 L7
V 

PCC

(9)

PCC

...




VPCC199 

 L199
V 

(8)

PCC


199 2
n=5 VPCCn

THDVPCC LTHD

VPCC

a1 a2 . . . aS

...




VPCC199 

 L199
V 
PCC

LTHD


p
2V1 p
,m=
2
4S Vdc

As (8) implies, the goal of the method is to achieve switching angles

of the inverter which mitigate the THD and specic harmonic
contents of the voltage waveform at PCC, while amplitude and
phase angle of the fundamental component of the inverter output
voltage reach to the specied values V1 and , respectively. It
should be noted that the triplen harmonics do not appear in the
line voltage. Generally, 65 non-triple harmonics, up to 199th, are
considered in the studies [16]. Considering higher order harmonics
does not have signicant effect on the results.
Limits in (8) are specied for grid voltage THD and harmonic
contents by standards, which are dependent on the grid voltage
level. Thus, harmonic producers are obliged to comply with these
requirements by limiting their load harmonics.

PCC1

Interface inverters (shown in Fig. 2) usually exchange a specic

range of power between the DG and ac grid. In order to control
PCC voltage quality throughout the operating range of the inverter
by the modied harmonic mitigation method, smooth set of
switching angles should be calculated as (8). For solving the
problem and getting the optimum switching angles for any point
of the inverter operating range, GA optimisation program can be a
useful tool at presence of non-linear equality and inequality
constraints.
According to (9), THD of PCC voltage is dened as the tness
function of the program. THD is minimised such that only
amounts below the specied standard allowable limit are accepted.
Equality constraint in (9) ensures satisfaction of the specied
amplitude of the fundamental component of the inverter output
voltage. Also, inequality constraints guaranty that the harmonic
contents of the PCC voltage are below the standard allowable limits

S

cos (ak ) = S m


V

2.1 Using GA optimisation for the proposed switching

method


p
2V1 p
a1 a2 . . . aS , m =
2
4S Vdc
Usually, amplitude of the PCC voltage fundamental component ((5))
is obliged to remain constant, equal to the grid voltage amplitude,
throughout the operating range of the inverter. Thus, for any point
of the range with specic amount of the inverter input power,
i.e. PC, amplitude and phase angle of the fundamental component
of the inverter output voltage, i.e. V1 (dealt with modulation
index) and can be determined by simultaneously solving (10)
and (11). These parameters are the required data for getting the
optimum results of (9) (see (10) and (11) at the bottom of the
next page)
Fig. 5 shows the main owchart of the modied harmonic mitigation
method as a GA optimisation program applied to the system shown
in Fig. 2. At the rst step, considering operating range of the inverter
input power, range of the modulation index amounts with related
phase angles of the inverter output voltage is calculated by solving
(10) and (11) simultaneously.

V V
V12
 cos (w(Z +Z ) )  1 grid  cos (w(Z +Z ) + d)
PC = 
Grid
Inv
Grid
Inv


ZGrid + ZInv
ZGrid + ZInv 

(10)

2

ZGrid V12 + ZInv Vgrid
+ 2ZGrid ZInv V1 V grid cos (wZ Grid wZINV + d)




= Vgrid

grid
Z

Grid + ZInv

(11)

 
 = V

IET Power Electron., 2016, Vol. 9, Iss. 12, pp. 23872393

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016

2389

Fig. 4 Equivalent circuit of the system

a Both inverter and grid voltages contain nth harmonic
b Grid voltage is free of the nth harmonic

In the following, GA parameters such as population and

generation are selected and initial switching angles are generated
considering solution of the prior modulation index with related
phase angle. However, for the minimum amount of the modulation
index as the rst operating point of the inverter, initial switching

angles are randomised. In the next step, by minimising the THD

of PCC voltage, as the tness function of (9), below the standard
allowable limit, the optimum switching angles are found such that
the harmonic contents of the PCC voltage are conned by the
specied standard limits. Also, amplitude and phase angle of the
fundamental component of the inverter output voltage approach
the aforementioned determined values V1 and , respectively. In
the following step, calculated switching angles are memorised. For
each modulation index with related phase angle, the program has
been run several times with different settings, and the best
solutions have been selected based on the minimum tness
function. Also, harmonic contents and THD values of the PCC
voltage are calculated.
As shown in Fig. 5, the sequence is repeated for each calculated
amount of the modulation index of the inverter.
It should be considered that the program can be run several times
with different amounts of the coupling impedance, increased step by
step from zero, until to get the results. Therefore, it is also possible to
determine minimum required amount of the coupling impedance
which makes it possible to get the optimum switching angles
throughout the operating range of the inverter.
In this paper, the switching angles are obtained ofine by the
program. the GA algorithm takes several seconds to get the results
for each modulation index with related phase angle by a PC with
Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU and 4.00 GB installed memory. The
angles are loaded in an Advanced Virtual RISC (AVR)
microcontroller as a look-up table. Thus, for each modulation
index related to an operating point of the inverter, AVR nds
switching angles from the look-up table. However, in real-time
applications with variable parameters of the grid, based on the
equations of the modied switching method developed in Section
2, one can apply a fast analytical method with the capability of

Table 1 Grid parameters

Rms of the phase voltage
5th harmonic of the voltage in per cent
equivalent resistance
equivalent inductance

230 V
5%
0.4
0.8 mH

Vg
h5
Rg
Lg

Table 2 Inverter parameters

Type

Three-phase, cascaded, H-bridge,

seven-level
IGBT, 0.001

switch type, internal

resistance
DC sources voltage

100 V

Table 3 Standard IEEE-519 allowable voltage harmonics

Bus voltage at PCC

Individual voltage distortion, %

THD, %

3.0
1.5
1.0

5.0
2.5
1.5

69 kV and below
69161 kV
161 kV and above

Table 4 Minimum required amount of the coupling inductance for

different ranges of the inverter input power
Inverter input power range, kW

Fig. 5 Flowchart of the GA optimisation program of the modied harmonic

mitigation method applied to the system

2390

020
220
420
820
1220
1620
20

Minimum coupling inductance, mH

1.2
1.1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5

IET Power Electron., 2016, Vol. 9, Iss. 12, pp. 23872393

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016

Fig. 6 Rms of the inverter output and PCC phase voltage fundamental
components (volts)

fast online calculations [17] or an optimisation method combined

with a trained articial neural network [14, 18].

3 Employing the modified switching method for a

sample system
Modied harmonic mitigation method as the mentioned GA
optimisation program is applied on a sample system including a
three-phase CHB seven-level inverter connected to a harmonic

polluted ac grid (as shown in Fig. 1). The grid parameters are
given in Table 1. Connection is performed via a coupling reactor,
the resistance of which is assumed to be 10% of its reactance.
Also, the inverter parameters are presented in Table 2.
IEEE-519 voltage standard is considered as the basis for allowable
limits of the THD and harmonics. The limits are given in Table 3.
Range of the inverter input power is supposed to be zero to 20 kW.
Also, for getting the program results, the PCC voltage amplitude is
obliged to remain constant, equal to the grid voltage amplitude,
throughout the operating range of the inverter.
Table 4 shows the minimum required amounts of the coupling
inductance for the sample system in order to get the optimisation
program results throughout different ranges of the inverter input
power. According to Table 4, the amount for the selected range of
the inverter input power is 1.2 mH.
Fig. 6 shows root mean square (rms) amounts of the fundamental
components of the inverter output and PCC phase voltages with
respect to the input power of the inverter. The results are extracted
for the sample system by solving (10) and (11) simultaneously.
As shown in Fig. 6, amount of the fundamental component of the
PCC voltage remained constant equal to the grid voltage amplitude,
i.e. 230 V rms, while the amplitude of the fundamental component of
the inverter output voltage signicantly changed with respect to the
input power of the inverter. Variation of the inverter modulation
index as (4), by using data in Table 2, is shown in Fig. 7a with
respect to the input power of the inverter. Fig. 7b also shows
phase angle of the inverter output voltage fundamental component.
As expected, the amounts of the inverter input power has
signicant effect on the phase angle.

Fig. 7 Parameters of the inverter output voltage fundamental component

Fig. 8 Optimum switching angles of the inverter of the sample system

obtained by

a Modulation index
b Phase angle

a Modied harmonic mitigation method

b Conventional harmonic mitigation method

IET Power Electron., 2016, Vol. 9, Iss. 12, pp. 23872393

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016

2391

Fig. 10 Sample system simulated in Simulink/MATLAB for employing the

proposed switching method

switching angles of the modied harmonic mitigation method,

shown in Fig. 8a, THD amount of the PCC line voltage is under
5% throughout the operating range of the inverter which satises
standard allowable limit given in Table 3. However, by the
switching angles of the conventional harmonic mitigation method,
presented in Fig. 8b, THD amount of the PCC line voltage at the
sample system violates standard limit of 5% in a signicant
portion of the modulation index.
Percentage of 5th , 7th , 11th and 13th sample harmonics at the
PCC line voltage of the sample system with respect to the
operating range of the modulation index for the modied and
conventional harmonic mitigation switching methods are shown in
Figs. 9b and c, respectively. As it is seen in Fig. 9b, by the
optimum switching angles of the modied harmonic mitigation
method, individual harmonic contents are under 3% throughout the
operating range of the modulation index which satisfy standard
allowable limit of 3% given in Table 3. However, as shown in
Fig. 9c, by the switching angles of the conventional harmonic
mitigation method, individual harmonic contents are usually more
than those for the modied method. Also, amount of the 5th
harmonic violates standard limit of 3% in a portion of the
operating range of the modulation index.

Fig. 9
system

Harmonic characteristics of the PCC line voltage of the sample

a THD amount for the modied and conventional harmonic mitigation methods
b Individual harmonic contents for the modied method
c Individual harmonic contents for the conventional method

In the following, results of the modied harmonic mitigation

method, as the mentioned GA optimisation program, are presented
for the sample system using the operating range of the modulation
index presented in Fig. 7a. Fig. 8a demonstrates optimum
switching angles of the inverter with respect to the operating range
of the modulation index.
Fig. 8b also shows optimum switching angles of a CHB
seven-level inverter, for the whole range of the modulation index,
which is obtained by the conventional harmonic mitigation method
related just to the inverter output voltage as studied in [9].
Fig. 9a shows a comparison between THD amounts of the PCC
line voltage of the sample system resulted by the optimum
switching angles of the modied and conventional harmonic
mitigation methods with respect to the operating range of the
modulation index. As it is seen, by the smooth set of the optimum

2392

Fig. 11 Inverter output line voltage

a Waveforms
b Harmonic spectrum

IET Power Electron., 2016, Vol. 9, Iss. 12, pp. 23872393

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016

angles of the inverter to satisfy the standard limits for the THD
and individual harmonics of the PCC voltage waveform
throughout the operating range of the inverter, determined by the
input power range. The voltage quality requirements are also to be
achieved with the minimum ltering cost. A GA optimisation
program, based on the modied switching method, has been
applied on a sample system including a three-phase CHB
seven-level inverter connected to the harmonic polluted grid. The
results of the method have been presented and then used by a
computer simulation program which veries the proposed
methods effectiveness. The modied switching method can be
used for systems with different parameters of the power grid and
the interface inverter and also with various ranges of the inverter
input power in ofine applications. Also developed equations of
the method will be base of the fast online calculations.

Fig. 12 PCC line voltage

a Waveforms
b Harmonic spectrum

Simulation and verification

To verify the results of modied harmonic mitigation method,

computer simulation by using Simulink/MATLAB is performed
for the sample system with the same parameters introduced in
Section 3. Block diagram of the simulated system is shown in
Fig. 10.
Input power of the inverter is also selected 20 kW as the operating
point of the system in simulation. According to the results of the GA
optimisation program of the proposed method shown in Fig. 8a,
optimum switching angles of the inverter for this operating point
are 11.50, 25.19 and 55.13, respectively.
Figs. 11a and b demonstrate three-phase waveform of the inverter
output line voltage and its harmonic spectrum, respectively, using
the mentioned optimum switching angles.
Also, Figs. 12a and b demonstrate three-phase waveform of the
PCC line voltage and its harmonic spectrum, respectively. As
shown in Fig. 12b, all harmonic contents and THD are under the
standard allowable limits given in Table 3, i.e. 3 and 5%,
respectively. In addition, the amplitude of the PCC line voltage is
563.3 V which is equal to 230 V, rms of the grid phase voltage, as
requested.

Conclusion

For the grid-connected applications of the multilevel inverters,

quality of the voltage waveform in common coupling point is
more important than the inverter output voltage. This paper
presented a modied harmonic mitigation fundamental frequency
switching method for the grid-connected cascaded multilevel
inverters considering specications of the equivalent voltage and
impedance of the grid. The goal is to calculate optimum switching

IET Power Electron., 2016, Vol. 9, Iss. 12, pp. 23872393

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016

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