Grid-Connected

Photovoltaic Plants
An Alternative Energy Source, Replacing Conventional Sources

L
arge photovoltaic (PV) plants are being built all over the world, com-
ENRIQUE ROMERO-CADAVAL, monly having ratings up to 1 MW and reaching the level of 250 MW. These
BRUNO FRANOIS, plants could be an alternative energy source, replacing conventional
MARIUSZ MALINOWSKI, sources and solving humanitys energy dilemma. However, the associ-
and QING-CHANG ZHONG ated electronic systems, mainly inverters used for interfacing with the
grid, have to solve some problems related to the operation in the elec-
tric distribution system. They should be reliable, robust, and manageable. This
article presents and discusses the most critical points existing in actual inverters,
summarizing, explaining, and proposing approaches to solve or mitigate them.
Today, governments and public organizations are concerned about producing ener-
gy with technologies that are as clean as possible [1]. As a consequence, the guidelines
for future energy production are established according to the Kyoto protocol [2], which,

IMA
GE
LIC
ENS
ED
BY Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MIE.2014.2362211
INGRA
MP
UBL Date of publication: 19 March 2015
ISH
ING

18 IEEE industrial electronics magazine March 2015 1932-4529/152015IEEE

 Top Five by Power
300 Power Description and Location Commissioned
America Asia Europe Agua Caliente Solar Project
250 MW 2012
Arizona, Yuma County, United States
250
Charanka Park, Patan
214 MW District PV Power Plant, India, 2012
Charanka
200
Golmud PV Power Plant,
200 MWp 2011
China, Golmud
Mesquite Solar I, United States,
150 150 MW 2011
Sonora Desert, Arizona
145 MWp Solarpark Neuhardenberg, Germany 2012
100 128 MW Solarpark Templin, Germany 2012
Centrale Solaire De Toul-
115 MW Rosires, France 2012
50
106 MW Perovo I-V PV Power Plant, Ukraine 2011
97 MW Sarnia PV Power Plant, Canada 2009
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 91 MW Solarpark Briest, Germany 2011
(a) (b)

FIGURE 1 The nominal power (in MW) of PVGPs classified by the continent where they are installed [4] and the top-ten large-scale PVGPs.

for European countries, inspires the 20-
20-20 target [3]. The energy production
technologies based on hydro, wind, PV,
and geothermal energies are considered
clean and renewable alternatives to
the unclean conventional technologies
based on fossil fuels and nuclear fission.
Among the clean technologies, PV has
experienced significant growth in recent
years, close to 60% in Europe.
PV generation plants (PVGPs) are
becoming economically viable, even
without government subsidies. The
PV plant capacity is increasing con-
tinuously all over the world, reach-
ing values of hundreds of megawatts
(Figure 1) [4], thus making these plants
a crucial part of future electric energy
systems and smart grids. They are be-
coming an important agent in active
distribution grids as they are distrib-
uted energy sources, and they need
special control structures [1].
These large/medium PVGPs oper-
ate as distributed energy resources
mostly in rural areas where the re-
quired surface is available. They are
connected to radial distribution grids
as shown in the example in Figure 2.
Frequency and voltage control have
always been essential to operating a
power system. However, since the liber-
alization of the electricity supply indus-
try, the resources required to achieve
this control have been treated as ser-
vices that the system operator has to
obtain from network stakeholders, usu-
ally known as ancillary services. Large
grid-connected PVGPs should contrib-
ute to deliver this service, especially if
they have to operate in isolated mode.
Ancillary services are components
of electric services that are required
to support the reliable delivery of elec-
tricity and operation of transmission
systems [5]. These services contribute
to frequency stability [e.g., frequency
regulation and operating reserves, in
different timescales (Figure 3)], power
balance (e.g., scheduling and dispatch
of balancing energy), voltage control
(e.g., tap changer control and reactive
power control), restoration of supply
(e.g., black-start capability and island
operation), or system management
(e.g., power quality assurance, opera-
tion, and asset management).
To maintain power system reliability,
the natural intermittent characteristics of
primary renewable energy must be taken
into account, requiring a precise estima-
tion of their ancillary service provision
in advance. If necessary, other utilities,
such as energy storage systems (ESSs) or
fast generators, must be planned. Hence,
the integration of PVGPs into an electri-
cal system implies the extension of the
actual hierarchical power management
system, which takes into account differ-
ent time scales and economic dispatch.
It has to pave the way to develop new
interactions between real-time pricing,
physical constraints, and demand re-
sponse-based loads.
At the present, and even more in a
future smart grid scenario [6], PVGPs
can receive operation references,
mainly active and reactive power refer-
ences to generate/consume energy for
delivering ancillary services, from the
corresponding electric system agent.
PVGP central control systems will have
to translate these global references
into individual operation references
for each inverter within the plant, tak-
ing into account the actual state of all
the inverters and the weather forecast.
Therefore, inverters will be the main de-
vices that must be able to interact with
the grid and with the ESS for providing
these services in the required way.
This article presents new solutions
that enable PVGPs inverters to pro-
vide these ancillary services with the
right topology, additional systems,
power or current ratios, control algo-
rithms, and communication systems.
Control of Grid-Connected
PVGP Inverters
During the last few years, pulse-width
modulated (PWM) converters have

March 2015 IEEE industrial electronics magazine 19

 Example of PVGP Grid Integration Used for Discussion

Substation

iGrid

Distribution Line Distribution Line

iL1 iL2
iPGP

Users Before PVGP Users After PVGP

Linear and Nonlinear Loads Linear and Nonlinear Loads
u (V) i (A) u (V) i (A)
20,000 10 20,000 10
15,000 15,000
10,000 5 10,000 5
5,000 5,000
0 0 0 0
5,000 5,000
10,000 5 10,000 5
15,000 15,000
20,000 10 PVGP 20,000 10
u1 u2 u3 u1 u2 u3
i1 i2 i3 i1 i2 i3

FIGURE 2 An example of a distribution grid where a PVGP is connected. (Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)

drastically increased their importance
on the market of energy conversion
for PV applications. Two technology
breakthroughs enabled these remark-
able developments:
innovations in the field of power elec-
tronics, which brings improvements
in efficiency (reduction of switch-
ing losses), power density, power
Failure Occurs
10 0 10 20
Minutes
FIGURE 3 The time association of frequency regulation and operating reserves after a contin-
gency occurs.
quality, common-mode voltage, and
electromagnetic interference, etc.
innovations in the field of control
schemes, which contain now many
sophisticated control functions
(Figure 4), e.g., inner current/power
and outer dc-link control [7][9], max-
imum power point tracking (MPPT) [4],
monitoring and grid synchronization
Frequency Response
Reserve
Spinning and Nonspinning
Reserve
Replacement Reserve
30 40 50
space vector modulated (DPC-SVM),
[10], proper operation at significant-
ly distorted grid [11], islanding/anti-
islanding operation [4], active power
feed-forward [12], [13], outer control
loop for active/reactive power to sup-
port power system, etc. [14], [15], en-
ergy storage, harmonic compensation,
or synchronous generator emulation.
Power and Current-Based
Control for PVBP Inverters
Various inner control algorithms have
been proposed in recent works for
this type of dc/ac PWM converters
for megawatt PV applications [7], [8],
[16], but many of them are still being
developed, and they have not found
a place in industry. Therefore, this
article only describes the methods
that are most promising or attractive
for industrye.g., voltage-oriented
control (VOC), direct power control
or predictive controlbased on the

20 IEEE industrial electronics magazine March 2015

 Transformer Grid

uin iin dc/dc udc dc/ac Output Filter

ia,b,c

On/Off
Converter Converter

ua,b,c
ua,b,c
Modulator Modulator

ia,b,c
Current Special Control
Current/ Functions for Proper
Control
Power Operation at Distorted ua,b,c
APFF ua,b,c ia,b,c
Control Grid

MPPT
dc-Link
Outer Power Grid Monitoring, Synchronization, Power
Voltage
Commands Estimation, Grid Parameters Estimation,
Control
Islanding/Anti-Islanding Operation

Alternative Active Functions: Energy

External
Storage, Harmonic Compensation,
Communication
Synchronous Generator Emulation

FIGURE 4 The general control structure of a grid-connected PV plant.

simplified system scheme shown in

Figure 5. ia L ua
The conventional VOC uses closed-
loop current control in the rotating ref- ib L ub
erence frame. A characteristic feature uDC
dc/dc dc/ac
for this current controller is the process- ic L uc
Converter Converter
ing of signals in two coordinate systems
(Figure 6), after converting three-phase
SA SB SC
measured values to the equivalent two-
phase system a - b and then to the Control System
rotating d - q coordinate system via a
a - b/d - q block [16], [17].
As the d - q frame rotates with the FIGURE 5 A simplified dc/ac PWM converter scheme to facilitate the discussion of the control
same speed as the electrical quanti- algorithms.
ties, the projected coordinates are dc
signals. In the voltage oriented d - q
frame, the ac grid current vector i is
-Axis
split into two rectangular components (Fixed)
i = 6i d, i q@ . The component i q deter- xis
q-A ing)
mines indirectly the reactive power, ta t i xis
(Ro i d-A ing)
whereas i d decides indirectly the ac- t
ta
tive power flow. Thus, the reactive and (Ro
active power can be controlled inde- u u = ud
iq
pendently. The unity power flow (UPF) id
U = t -Axis
condition is met when the grid current
(Fixed)
vector, i, is aligned with the grid volt- i u
age vector u, which means that the
q -axis current should be set to zero in FIGURE 6 The coordinate transformation of the line current and voltage from the stationary
a - b coordinates to the rotating d - q coordinates.
all cases while the reference current
i d is set by the dc-link voltage control-
ler and controls the active power flow. transformation are used to generate An important drawback of VOC
The output signals from proportional- switching signals via a space vector is the high algorithm complexity
integral (PI) controllers after a dq/ab modulator [Figure 7(a)]. (many coordinate transformations are

March 2015 IEEE industrial electronics magazine 21

 udc ic ib ia udc ic ib ia
SA SB SC SA SB SC

Modulator U Modulator
US US US US abc

abc udc_ref +
PR PR
dq dq i i
Udc i
USd USq
udc_ref + i
PI PI + +
PI
i_ref i_ref
id iq idc_ref
Udc iq x

id_ref + id
+ x
PI
iq_ref = 0 cosU sinU
(a) (b)

udc ic ib ia ua ub uc udc ic ib ia ua u b uc
SA SB SC SA SB SC

abc State Selection abc

Modulator and Minimization
US US i i u u of Cost Function i i u u

J = i_ref i_p+
U p = (ui + ui) + Predictive Model
udc_ref i_ref i_p
dq q = (ui ui) i, (k + 1) = i, (k) +
i_ref i_ref i_p i_p
USd USq udc Ts
+ [u (k) uS, (k)]
L ,
udc_ref PI PI PI
p q
udc q x

pref p
+ x
PI x sinU
+ qref = 0 cosU
(c) (d)

FIGURE 7 Control system schemes: (a) VOC in the synchronous rotating coordinate system, (b) VOC in the stationary coordinate system, (c) DPC-SVM, and
(d) model-predictive control (MPC).

needed) as well as the sensitivity to
grid voltage distortion. The last draw-
back can be eliminated [11], but it sig-
nificantly complicates the algorithm.
The VOC can also be realized in the
stationary a - b coordinate system but
PI controllers cannot be used for cur-
rent regulation because they result in
a steady-state error. However, this can
be solved by replacing PI current regu-
lators with proportional/resonant (PR)
controllers, which consist of a propor-
tional gain and a resonant integrator.
The transfer function of a PR controller
contains a pair of conjugate poles tuned
at the fundamental grid frequency ~,
which allows perfect tracking of sinu-
soidal signals without any error [13].
A basic block diagram of the VOC
in the stationary coordinate system is
shown in Figure 7(b), and it is based on
an inner current control loop with PR and
an outer voltage control loop with PI. The
commanded dc-link voltage u dc* is com-
pared with the measured u dc voltage.
The error is delivered to the PI control-
ler, which generates the amplitude of the
commanded current i dc_ref . Next, this
current is multiplied by the angle of the
line voltage u L as cos ^~t h and sin ^~t h
to get i a_ref and i b_ref . These reference
current signals in the stationary coor-
dinate system are compared with the
measured grid currents i a and i b, and
the errors are delivered to the PR control-
ler. The outputs of the PR controller are
directly (without transformation) used to
generate switching signals by an SVM.
An interesting feature of this control
is the proper operation under distorted
grid voltages by connecting multiple
PR compensators, which are tuned at
specific high-order harmonics, e.g., fifth
and seventh, in parallel [13], [18], [19].
Another less well-known method
is DPC-SVM, which uses inner loops
of active and reactive power control
[Figure 7(c)] [20]. The commanded
reactive power q ref (set to zero for
UPF operation) and active power p ref
values (delivered from the outer PI-
dc voltage controller) are compared
with the estimated q and p values,
respectively. The errors are delivered
to PI controllers to eliminate steady-
state errors because they are dc quan-
tities. The output signals from the PI
controllers after transformation from
the stationary to synchronous rotat-
ing coordinates are used to generate
switching signals by an SVM.
Recently, a very popular control
scheme called model-predictive control

22 IEEE industrial electronics magazine March 2015

(MPC) [Figure 7(d)] has been applied
to control inverters. It is based on the
mathematical model of the controlled
system and the calculation (prediction)
of future values of the state variables. It
is assumed that the system can repre-
sent a finite number of states in every
time period [21][25]. Thus, the model
must be as accurate as possible be-
cause the control performance is highly
dependent on the parameters. Using
measured values of grid currents, their
values in the forthcoming sampling can
be calculated with respect to the avail-
able control states. This must be done
for all switching states in each iteration
of the algorithm.
Some features of predictive control
are very interesting, e.g., fast dynamics
and the capability of dealing with multi-
ple constraints, which is very attractive
especially for high-power converters
operating at a very low switching fre-
quency (5001,000 Hz). Unfortunately,
MPC has some drawbacks, e.g., variable
switching frequency (causing difficulties
for the design of the LCL and EMI filter),
high sampling frequency needed for
digital implementation (demand of fast
microprocessor), and sensitivity to pa-
rameter variations of the grid filter, etc.,
which cause difficulties in implementing
MPC in industry. All of these drawbacks
can be eliminated when a constant
switching frequency is applied, but it
significantly complicates the control
algorithm [26]. The advantages and fea-
tures of the control schemes described
earlier are summarized in Table 1.
Active PV Generators
with Embedded ESSs
Electrical systems must ensure a bal-
ance between production and con-
sumption at all times while maintaining
a satisfactory voltage. Historically, grid
reliability was mainly ensured by hav-
ing excessive capacity in the system
with unidirectional flow from centrally
dispatched large power plants to dis-
persed consumers. Dispatched produc-
tion refers to sources of electricity that
can be dispatched at the request of sys-
tem operators. They are able to change
their power production upon demand.
The large-scale development of in-
termittent PV sources causes a large
amount of variable power [27]. Renew- vary, and it is essential to first char-
able energy-based generators with in- acterize the required need and com-
termittency decrease the reliability of a plementary performances they must
power system. As the percentage of in- offer. Typically, an energy reserve must
termittent generation capacity increases be provided to the electrical system
and becomes more significant, an ad- and can be implemented by long-term
ditional uncertainty is appearing in the energy storages. Moreover, the supply
real-time management of the electrical of power with fast dynamics is also
system balance between demand and mandatory to smooth the generated
generation. This requires increasing PV power, compensate the power gap,
amounts of conventional power reserve and absorb instantaneous high power
capacity that can be available immedi- peaks. At the present state of the art,
ately (spinning reserve) and of plants a high-energy storage unit delivering
capable of providing ancillary services high power with fast dynamics in a
(frequency response and voltage con- reduced volume does not exist, and a
trol, for example), which are required mix of storage technologies has to be
to manage the electrical power system considered [29]. Lead-acid batteries for
securely [28]. long-term energy storage devices and
However, an electrical generation ultracapacitors for fast dynamic power
system depending entirely on the re- regulation are realistic and economic
newable energy sources is not reliable choices today [30], but other technolo-
because the availability of the renew- gies can also be considered [31], such
able energy sources cannot be con- as fuel cells, REDOX batteries [32], [33],
stantly ensured. or flywheels [34].
Because of the intermittency of PV Storage devices can be used to store
power generation, PVGPs cannot be or release electrical power like an en-
used as a stable, reliable, and control- ergy buffer. Therefore, they can help
lable power source and cannot provide to solve problems due to renewable
ancillary services like conventional energys intermittent availability and
generators. One solution is to upgrade fast transients. A PVGP combined with
the PVGP with an embedded ESS and an ESS can be considered an active PV
a local energy management system generator for the grid since it can sup-
(LEMS) for the coordination of inner ply ancillary services like a conven-
power flows. Storage technologies tional generator. Moreover, it can be
TABLE 1 The ADVANTAGES AND FEATURES OF CONTROL SCHEMES FOR a dc/ac CONVERTER
IN PV APPLICATIONS.
VOC VOC DPC-SVM MPC
[FIGURE 7(a)] [FIGURE 7(b)] [FIGURE 7(c)] [FIGURE 7(d)]
Operation in stationary NO YES YES/NO YES
coordinate system
Power control YES YES NO YES
indirect
Power controldirect NO NO YES NO
Constant switching YES YES YES NO
frequency
Low algorithm NO YES/NO YES/NO YES
complexity
Low computation YES YES YES NO
intensity
Low sensitivity to line YES YES YES NO
inductance variation
Low sensitivity to line THD of NO YES YES NO
voltage distortion line current
Power YES NO NO YES
factor
March 2015 IEEE industrial electronics magazine 23
dispatched and then provide a power
reference, which is demanded by the
grid operator [35].
A general structure that has been
widely used in isolated power systems
for integrating the ESS is based on the
direct connection of a battery bank to
the dc-bus of the grid-connected invert-
er. A PV controller is used to extract the
maximum power from PV panels and
send it to the battery bank. However,
the stochastic nature of the PV power
output and power demand leads to fast
charge/discharge actions of batteries
and fast battery aging.
To enable more efficient use of bat-
teries, ac- and dc-coupled power elec-
tronic converters can be considered to
have control abilities of the exchanged
powers with the batteries thanks to
the development of power electronics.
In an ac-coupled hybrid power generator
(HPG) structure, all sources are connect-
ed to the main ac network [Figure 8(a)]
[35]. A communication network is re-
quired to implement the coordination of
this set. In a dc-coupled HPG, all sources
are connected to a common inner dc
bus before being connected to the grid
through a main inverter [Figure 8(b)]
[36]. One advantage is that the battery
bank is connected to the dc bus via a dc/
dc converter, which can be used to im-
plement an optimized charge/discharge
operation mode. The second advantage
is that a supercapacitor bank is added
and is also connected to the dc bus via
another dc/dc converter. Hence, fast
power compensation can be performed.
The PV array is connected to the dc bus
via a PV converter. Apart from these two
coupling structures, a mixed structure
can be also used [Figure 8(c)] with some
advantages taken from both of dc- and
ac-coupled structures.

dc dc dc dc dc dc

dc ac dc ac dc ac
PV Panels PV Panels PV Panels

dc dc dc dc dc

dc ac dc dc ac
Batteries Batteries Batteries

dc dc dc dc

dc ac dc dc
Ultracapacitors Ultracapacitors Ultracapacitors

(a) (b) (c)

FIGURE 8 The various structures of the hybrid ESS embedded in PVGPs: (a) ac coupled, (b) dc coupled, and (c) mixed structure. (Photos courtesy
of Wikimedia Commons.)

PV Power
iPV L1 iL1
Electrical Grid
dc
uPV
dc Grid Connection
PV Panels Battery Power TPV Inverter
: 3 kW
L2 iBAT idc Lg,Rg Transformer
Communication Network

dc udc dc
uBAT
dc ac
UC Power TBAT
Lead-Acid Batteries TINV
48 V, 106 Ah L3 iUC
dc
uUC
dc

Ultracapacitors TUC
48 V, 36 kWmin
uUC uBAT uPV iUC iBAT iL1 idc vs is
Pgc_ref Qgc_ref

Control System of the PV-Based Active Generator SOCBAT

FIGURE 9 An example of a grid-connected active PV generator with control.

24 IEEE industrial electronics magazine March 2015

 Spv_ref Sbat_ref Suc_ref SINV_ref

Switching Control
PWM PWM PWM PWM

mpv_ref m
bat_ref muc_ref minv_ref

Automatic Control

Closed Loop Closed Loop Closed Loop

upv_ref Corrector iL1_ref Corrector upv_con_ref 1 udc_ref Corrector Duty ug_mes

+ CC1 + CC1 + CC Cycle
udc

udc_mes idc_ref
upv_mes iL1_mes uDC_mes

Closed Loop
ibat_ref Corrector ubat_con_ref 1
+
CL2 udc

udc_mes
ibat_mes
vg_ref
Closed Loop
iuc_ref Corrector uuc_con_ref 1 Grid
+ CL3 Current
udc
Controller

iuc_mes udc_mes

upv_ref ibat_ref iuc_ref idc_ref ig_ref

1 udc_mes Grid
1 1
Power
ipv ug_mes
ubat uuc Control

Power
Control
ppv_ref pbat_ref puc_ref pdc_ref pag _ref qag _ref

Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3 ModeMode

Mode
Power Balancing Algorithms

Power Control Unit

Operating Mode pgc_ref qgc_ref

March 2015 IEEE industrial electronics magazine 25

FIGURE 10 A global control scheme of an active PV generator.
 Figure 9 outlines the main required
devices to design a dc-coupled active
PV generator HPG prototype. The grid
connection is performed by a three-
phase inverter. Chokes and capacitors
are used to filter the modulated electri-
cal waveforms.
To ensure an optimal operation and
coordination, an LEMS of the active
PV generator must calculate and send
control signals to each power electron-
ic converter to enable:
the production of power demand
for the grid operator
the management of renewable en-
ergy intermittency
the management of storage state of
charges
the power system protection
the provision of grid ancillary
services.
For example, a hierarchical struc-
ture of the control system is shown in
Figure 10 and has four stages:
the switching control (SC)
the automatic control (AC)
the power control
the mode control (MC).
The SC stage implements the mod-
ulation technique to each converter
and generates the switching signals.
The AC stage implements control algo-
rithms to meet the current or voltage
references. The power control stage
calculates these references according
to power references from the MC level
and measured values. The MC level
decides the operating mode for the
whole hybrid generator according to
the availability of the PV production,
the state of each storage unit, and the
actual power demand from the grid.
The power reference for the PV
generator, p PV_ref ^ t h, is classically cal-
culated from a maximum PV power-
tracking algorithm. The inner power
balancing shows that powers from
the PV, p PV ^ t h, the battery, p BAT ^ t h,
the ultracapacitor, p UC ^ t h must be
decreased by the required power to
regulate the dc bus, p dc ^ t h, and con-
stitutes the total generated power [37]
p ag (t) = p BAT (t) + p UC (t) + p PV (t)
- p dc (t) .
With a grid-following strategy
[Figure 11(a)], the reference for the
power to be generated by the invert-
er is deduced by using the measured
power and contributes to the regula-
tion of the dc bus
p ag_ ref ^ t h = p| BAT ^ t h + p| UC ^ t h
+ p| PV ^ t h - p dc_ref ^ t h . (2)
Then, the required power refer-
ence from the grid operator is provid-
ed by the storage units by taking into
account the available PV power
p sto_ref (t) = p gc_ref (t) - p| PV^ t h . (3)
A simple method to dispatch the pow-
er between batteries and ultracapaci-
tors is used with a low-pass filter [38].
Ultracapacitors are controlled to supply
the required transient power from stor-
age units.
With a source-supplying strategy
[Figure 11(b)], the power from the
storage units is adjusted according to
the sensed PV power to regulate the
dc bus. The required power reference
fixed by the grid operator is directly
provided by the inverter.
With both strategies, the PV gen-
erator can be dispatched by the grid
operator since it is now able to deliver
the prescribed active and reactive
powers (p gc_ref ^ t h, q gc_ref ^ t h), but only
(1)
the source-supplying strategy is able
to work a without a connection to the
grid because the dc bus is regulated
by the inner power. This strategy is
preferred since autonomous, or iso-
lated, operation is possible and may
be used to store PV energy without a
grid connection. Another advantage
is the possibility to stay connected
in case of grid ac undervoltage be-
cause the dc bus voltage is autono-
mously regulated by inner sources
(PV panels and storage units). Hence,
real and reactive power generation

pdc_ref pag_ref
pBAT_ref puc_ref
pPV
)

pBAT puc
)
)

pBAT_ref puc_ref pdc_ref pag_ref

+ + _
+ pBAT
)

+ + pPV
)

dc Bus Power Regulation

_ psto_ref _
+ +
pPV
)

dc Bus Power
_ psto_ref _ Low-Pass Regulation
+ + Filter and
Slope Limiter

Low-Pass Coordination of
Filter and Storage
Slope Limiter pgc_ref
Coordination of
Storage
pgc_ref

(a) (b)

FIGURE 11 The operation strategies: (a) the grid-following strategy and (b) the source-supplying strategy.

26 IEEE industrial electronics magazine March 2015

is possible to help the electrical net-
work in this situation.
An experimental test is presented
in Figure 12 using this strategy, having
a step change in the reference power
to be injected into the grid ^ p gc_refh .
During the test, the batteries cannot
immediately supply all the surplus pro-
duction when the PV power production
changes or when the PV production de-
creases quickly, so the ultracapacitors
help to perform the power balancing.
Ancillary Services: Active,
Reactive, and Harmonic Control
As previously discussed, most PVGPs
operate as current sources and inject
into the grid the energy produced by
PV cells tracking the maximum power
point (MPP) [4]. The electronic convert-
ers generate a reference current that is
sinusoidal, in phase with the grid volt-
age, and with the required root mean
squared value to achieve the operation
in the MPP.
If the PVGPs want to become an alter-
native to conventional energy sources,
they also have to provide ancillary ser-
vices [1], [39], [40] including the control
of active power [39], reactive power
[39], [41], and compensation of harmon-
ics [42], [43]. To achieve this, most of
the distribution system operators are
establishing various codes to regulate
how these plants should operate.
If it is assumed that the distribu-
tion grid voltage is sinusoidal, then
1 PN
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
(a)
FIGURE 13 (a) The nominal power, PN, (b) a nonactive current (p.u.) that can be produced depending on ratio of the power generated by the
PVGP, PG (p.u.) to (a).
Pgc_ref
FIGURE 12 The experimental performances of an active-based generator.
the following current components can
be defined, according to power defini-
tions given by IEEE Standard 519 [44]:
an active or direct current compo-
nent, i P , that is related to the aver-
age active power (P)
a reactive or in-quadrature compo-
nent, i Q, related to the fundamen-
tal reactive power (Q)
a harmonic component, i H , related
to the harmonic power (H).
Usually, only the active current com-
ponent is controlled in conventional
PVGPs, and the others are set to zero.
In a smart grid context, where ac-
tive distribution grids are a strategic
priority [45], PVGPs offer a unique
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
PG 0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
March 2015 IEEE industrial electronics magazine 27
t
Ch1 (200 W/div):
Generated Active Power
Ch2 (200 W/div):
Power from Supercapacitors
Ch3 (200 W/div):
Power from Batteries
Ch4 (200 W/div):
Power from PV Panels
opportunity to increase the operation
possibilities of energy generators as
they are distributed sources that have
free capacity (because most of the
time, they operate under its nomin-
al power, mainly during nights) to be
used to help grid management.
If we consider an ideal PV genera-
tion day where the maximum power
reaches 90% of the nominal power
ratio of the inverter, we can discount
the active component from the nom-
inal current obtaining the available
current (nonactive current), I NA, giv-
en by (4)
I 2NA = I 2N - I 2P = I 2Q + I 2H . (4)
+INA
INA
1
(b)

PVGPs offer a unique opportunity to increase the
operation possibilities of energy generators as they
are distributed sources that have free capacity to be
used to help grid management.
In the proposed case of Figure 13(a), I NA
[Figure 13(b)] could reach values that,
depending on the time of the day, vary
from 40 to 100% of the nominal current. In
the Active PV Generators with Embed-
ded ESSs section, it was discussed how
the active component can be controlled
by using an ESS; in this section, the atten-
tion is focused on how this nonactive cur-
rent component availability can be used
to generate other current components,
such as reactive or harmonic ones.
By controlling the reactive compo-
nent, it is possible to stabilize the grid by
controlling the grid frequency [41] or volt-
age [46] at the point of common coupling
(PCC) where the PVGP is connected. By
controlling the voltage at this point, it is
also possible to prevent overvoltages and
reduce grid losses [47]. Grid losses can be
reduced further if an optimization strate-
gy is applied in multibus systems [48].
Therefore, the reactive component
can be used during abnormal grid or
transient states, mainly during or after
faults, to compensate voltage sags
[49]. In three-phase balanced voltage
sags, the PVGP should inject react-
ive power to raise the voltage in all
phases. In one- or two-phase faults,
the main concern of the PVGP is to
equalize voltages by reducing the sym-
metric negative and, if possible, the
homopolar (or zero) sequences [46].
PVGPs can generate a harmonic com-
ponent to prevent the effects of the cur-
rent harmonic produced by nonlinear
loads connected to the grid, operating
as integrated active power filters [42],
[43], [50], [51]. PVGPs could even com-
pensate current unbalance [50] or con-
trol the leakage or earth current [52],
avoiding the propagation into the grid.
For example, in the case presented in
Figure 14, the current produced by the
PVGP is not sinusoidal because it con-
tains the harmonic components de-
manded by the load, achieving in this
way a sinusoidal current flowing into the
grid (and so a harmonic compensation).
In some cases, dual or collaborative
topologies are used, associating the dif-
ferent current components under con-
trol to different converters [50], [51].
When the active, reactive, and
harmonics components that the PVGP
should generate are greater than the
available nonactive components, some
kind of priority has to be established.
This operation priority could be depend-
ent on the status of the grid, being differ-
ent in normal and abnormal states [53].
The possibilities of a PVGP as a man-
ageable distributed generation are much
more interesting than conventional cen-
tralized energy resources. For example,
in the proposed initial system of Figure 2,
a PVGP could generate the reactive pow-
er for controlling the voltage at the PCC
or to compensate the reactive power
consumed by the connected loads. The
PVGP can also generate the harmonic
component needed to compensate the
harmonics components of currents
i L1 and i L2, which prevent these har-
monic currents from flowing from the
substation. By properly controlling the
PVGP, we can assure that the current
demanded from the grid, i grid, will be
sinusoidal and in phase with the sub-
station voltage, achieving a unity power
factor, reducing distribution losses, and
preventing any undesirable effect on the
substation transformers.

(a) (b)

FIGURE 14 An example of injecting the harmonic component: (a) harmonic injection turned off, and (b) harmonic injection turned on. The curves
from top to bottom represent the phase-to-neutral grid voltage, inverter current, local load current, and current flowing to the substation.

28 IEEE industrial electronics magazine March 2015

Grid-Friendly Connection of PVGP
Through Synchronverters
As previously discussed, most PVGPs
operate as current sources to inject
the energy produced into the grid.
When the penetration level of the PVGP
reaches a certain level, it should also
provide ancillary services. As demon-
strated in the Ancillary Services: Ac-
tive, Reactive, and Harmonic Control
section, these can be achieved by con-
trolling the current injected into the
grid. Another way is to control the grid-
connected inverters to behave like con-
ventional synchronous generators so
that PVGPs can interact with the grid in
a friendly way [1], [54][56], [71][77].
Synchronverters [54][56] are invert-
ers that mimic synchronous generators.
As shown in Figure 15(a), the basic idea
is to embed the mathematical model
of a synchronous generator [57][59]
given below as the core of the controller
for the inverter in the general scheme
(Figure 4)
Z switches of the inverter in the general
] ip = 1 (Tm - Te - D p io )
J
= pM f i f i, R
]
[ Te sin i
= io M f i f R
, (5)
]e sin i
]Q
\ = - io M f i f i, R
cos i
where Tm is the mechanical torque
applied to the rotor, Te is the electro-
magnetic torque, e is the three-phase
generated voltage, i is the rotor angle, applied to regulate the frequency and
Q is the reactive power, J is the mo- voltage of the synchronverter through
ment of inertia of all the parts rotating the frequency droop coefficient D p and
with the rotor, D p is the friction coeffi- the voltage droop coefficient D q, which
cient, p is the number of pairs of poles are defined, respectively, as
of the magnetic field, i is the stator cur-
rent, i f is the field excitation current, DQ
D p = DTo D q = (7)
M f is the maximum mutual inductance Di l DV l
between the stator windings and the
field winding, and io is the angular speed according to the desired change of real
of the machine. The vectors R sin i and power (torque DT h with respect to the
Rcos i are defined, respectively, as change of the frequency Dio and the de-
R V sired change of the reactive power DQ
Ssin i W with respect to the change of the volt-
R
sin i = SSsin e i - 2r oWW, age DV. Note that the friction coeffi-
3
S W cient D p actually performs the function
Ssin e i - 4r oW
S 3 W of frequency droop control, so there is
TR XV no need to introduce an extra loop to
Scos i W
R
regulate the frequency, which simplifies
cos i = SScos e i - 2r oWW . (6) the control structure and the associat-
3
S W ed parameter tuning process.
Scos e i - 4r oW
S 3 W The controller of a synchronverter
T X shown in Figure 15(a) has two chan-
The generated voltage e is convert- nels. The upper channel has a cascad-
ed into PWM pulses to turn on/off the ed structure, where the inner loop is
the frequency loop (with the feedback
scheme (Figure 5). The inductor current gain D p) and the outer loop is the real
is measured and fed back to the math- power loop (with the feedback com-
ematical model as the stator current, as ing from the current i via the torque
shown in Figure 15(a). This closes the Te) . For a given time constant of the
loop between the controller and the frequency loop x f , the virtual moment
power part of the inverter. On top of of inertia J is
this, the matured frequency droop and
voltage droop control strategies are J = x f D p . (8)

SP
Dp
r PI n
PLL
r
Reset g T
Dp
Pset Tm
P 1 1

n Js Pset 1 Tm 1 1
s
Js s
n
c
From/to the Power Part

Te Te
Formulas Formulas e
Q of e, Q, Te
Q of Te, Q, e PWM
e Generation Qset i S is 1 vg
1 Mf if C
Qset 1 Mf if i 1 LS + R
Ks Ks
ig
SQ 2
Amplitude vfb
Dq Dq vn
vm Detection

vr vg

(a) (b)

FIGURE 15 The controllers for the synchronverters: (a) the original version [54], [56] and (b) the improved version without the need for a dedi-
cated synchronization unit [62].

March 2015 IEEE industrial electronics magazine 29

 some changes (highlighted in red) to
TABLE 2 EXAMPLES OF COMMERCIAL HIGH POWER dc/ac CONVERTERS FOR PVGPS [18].
the original synchronverter. This has
taken advantage of the inherent syn-
PARAMETER ABB PVS800- DANFOSS SATCON SIEMENS SINVERT SMA
MWS, PV800- CENTRAL PV PRISM PVS 600 SERIES SUNNY chronization property of synchronous
IS* INVERTERS* PLATFORM TO PVS2 400* CENTRAL generators. As a result, a self-synchronized
EQUINOX*
synchronverter can synchronize with the
Power up to 1.25 MW up to 1.5 MW up to 1.25 MW up to 2.4 MW up to
up to 2 MW* 1.6 MW
grid before it is connected to the grid and
stay synchronized with the grid after it is
dc voltage range 525825 V 455950 V 525825 V 570750 V 583820 V
525850 V* connected to the grid, without the need
of a dedicated synchronization unit.
Max dc voltage 1,000 V 1,000 V 1,000 V 820/1,000 V 1,000/
1,100 V* 1,100 V
Output ac voltage 20 kV 430 V* 320 V* 370 V* 20 kV Conclusions
400 V* PVGPs connected to the grid are in-
Maximum 97.8% 98%* 98.5%* 98.6%* 98.2% creasing both in the number of installa-
efficiency 98.8% tions and also in the rated power of each
Harmonic <3% <3% <3% <3% plant, becoming a significant part of the
distortion electric generation mix and offering an
Independent 2 2 4 2 important opportunity to change the
MPPT
present distribution grid to a more intel-
*Converter without MV separation transformer. ligent and efficient operation.
In this article, a comprehensive over-
This channel regulates the (imagin- voltage control, real power control, and view of control structures and their abil-
ary) frequency of the generated volt- reactive power control are all integrated ity to implement active distribution grid
age e and creates the phase angle i in one compact controller with only four functions has been presented, with the
for the control signal e. The lower parameters. Figure 16 demonstrates the aim of providing ideas for future improve-
channel has a cascaded structure, frequency regulation capability of a syn- ments and research activities in the field.
with the inner loop to regulate the chronverter tested in the lab, where the Some of these methods and functions
voltage and the outer loop to regulate real power output of the syncrhonverter described in this article are already used
the reactive power. This channel regu- automatically changed according to the by commercial MW-rated PVGP convert-
lates the field excitation M f i f to con- change in the frequency. ers, as shown in Table 2. Other func-
trol the amplitude of the generated A phase-locked loop (PLL) is adopted tions are being considered for the next
voltage. For a given time constant of to obtain the grid frequency and phase generation of smart inverters, opening
the voltage loop x v, the parameter K so that the synchronverter is able to for industrial electronic researchers an
can be chosen as [57][59] synchronize with the grid. However, interesting working field that will change
PLLs are difficult to tune and often cause in the near future the electric grid from
K = io n x v D q, (9) problems [60], [61]. The PLL in a syn- the one we know currently.
chronverter can be removed to achieve The current research and industry
where io n is the nominal angular fre- a self-synchronized synchronverter [62], trends for power electronics convert-
quency. Hence, the frequency control, as shown in Figure 15(b), after making ers used in PVGPs focus on several im-
portant aspects including costs, losses,
failure rate, weight, and volume [63].
1,060 50.15 The design of power electronic con-
verters and passive elements must be
1,040 50.10 optimized to decrease losses and in-
crease efficiency. Possible solutions are
Grid Frequency (Hz)

1,020 50.05 based on new topologies [64] and new

semiconductor components such as
P (W)

1,000 50.00 silicon carbide (SiC) components [65],

[66], the elimination of transformer and
980 49.95 direct operation in the medium-voltage
(MV) grid, the replacement of low-fre-
960 49.90 quency passive components by high-fre-
quency transformers and inductances
940 49.85 [16], the fast and precise GMPPT [67],
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Time (s) and new modulation methods [68].
Other very important trends, espe-
FIGURE 16 The frequency regulation of a synchronverter. cially in industry, include modular and

30 IEEE industrial electronics magazine March 2015

redundant systems for proper post-
fault operation, highly reliable and
commercially available topologies [69],
enhanced energy storage technologies,
and the integration of PV plants into
smart grids, including additional func-
tions such as grid support (V, f, Q con-
trol), fault ride through, and harmonic
compensation [69], [70].
Biographies
Enrique Romero-Cadaval (ercada-
val@ieee.org) received his M.Sc. de-
gree in industrial electronic engineer-
ing from the Escuela Tcnica Superior
de Ingeniera Industrial, Universidad
Pontificia de Comillas, Madrid, Spain,
in 1992, and his Ph.D. degree from the
Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz,
Spain, in 2004. In 1995, he joined the
University of Extremadura, where he
teaches power electronics and con-
ducts research within the Power Elec-
trical and Electronic Systems Research
and Development Group in the School
of Industrial Engineering. He has par-
ticipated in several projects dealing
with power electronics applied to
power systems, power quality, active
power filters, electric vehicles, smart
grids, and renewable energy resourc-
es. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.
Bruno Francois (bruno.francois@
ieee.org) received his Ph.D. degree from
the University of Science and Technol-
ogy of Lille, France, in 1996. He is a pro-
fessor in the Department of Electrical
Engineering of the cole Centrale de
Lille and a researcher at the Laborato-
ry of Electrical Engineering and Power
Electronics. After studying high-voltage
multilevel converters, he contributed
to the implementation of ancillary ser-
vices in the primary local control sys-
tems of various renewable generators
for power system integration. He is cur-
rently working on the advanced energy
management systems of smart grids
through the use of new technologies
such as communication networks, ac-
tive renewable generators, controllable
loads, and storage systems.
Mariusz Malinowski (malin@
isep.pw.edu.pl) received his Ph.D.
and D.Sc. degrees in electrical engi-
neering from the Institute of Control
and Industrial Electronics, Warsaw
University of Technology, Poland, in
2001 and 2012, respectively. He has
authored more than 130 technical
papers. He received the IEEE Indus-
trial Electronics Society David Irwin
Early Career Award for outstanding
research and development of modu-
lation and c ontrol for industrial elec-
tronics converters in 2011. He has
participated in several scientific and
industrial projects related to the appli-
cation of power electronics converters
for renewable energy resources. His
work in this article was financed by
the National Science Center, Poland,
as a part of project DEC-2012/05/B/
ST7/01191. He is currently a professor
with the faculty of engineering at War-
saw University of Technology and a
Fellow of the IEEE.
Qing-Chang Zhong (zhongqc@iit.
edu) received his Ph.D. degree in con-
trol engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong
University in 2000 and his Ph.D. degree
in control and power engineering from
Imperial College London in 2004. He is
the McGraw Endowed Chair Professor
in energy and power engineering at the
Illinois Institute of Technology and a Dis-
tinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Power
Electronics Society. He is an associate
editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Au-
tomatic Control, IEEE Transactions on
Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on
Control Systems Technology, IEEE Journal
of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power
Electronics, and the European Journal
of Control. He is the coauthor of three
monographs, including Control of Power
Inverters in Renewable Energy and Smart
Grid Integration (Wiley-IEEE). His research
focuses on power electronics, advanced
control theory, and their applications. He
is a Senior Member of the IEEE.
References
[1] Q.-C. Zhong and T. Hornik, Control of Power
Inverters in Renewable Energy and Smart Grid
Integration. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2013.
[2] United Nations Environment Program. (1997).
Kyoto protocol. [Online]. Available: http://
www.kyotoprotocol.com/
[3] European Commission. (2009). The EU cli-
mate and energy package. [Online]. Available:
http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/package/
index_en.htm
[4] E. Romero-Cadaval, G. Spagnuolo, L. G.
Franquelo, C. A. Ramos-Paja, T. Suntio, and W.
M. Xiao, Grid-connected photovoltaic genera-
tion plants, IEEE Ind. Electron. Mag., vol. 7, no. 3,
pp. 620, Sept. 2013.
March 2015 IEEE industrial electronics magazine 31
[5] A. S. Chuang and C. Schwaegerl, Ancillary
services for renewable integration, in Proc.
CIGRE/IEEE PES Joint Symp. Integration of Wide-
Scale Renewable Resources into the Power Deliv-
ery System, 2931 July 2009, p. 1.
[6] V. Calderaro, V. Galdi, F. Lamberti, and A. Piccolo,
A smart strategy for voltage control ancillary ser-
vice in distribution networks, IEEE Trans. Power
Syst., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 494502, Jan. 2015.
[7] M. Kazmierkowski, R. Krishnan, and F. Blaab-
jerg, Control in Power Electronics. New York:
Academic Press, 2002.
[8] B. Wilamowski and D. Irwin, Industrial Elec-
tronics Handbook. New York: Taylor & Francis,
2011.
[9] M. Malinowski. (2001). Sensorless control strate-
gies for three-phase PWM rectifiers. Ph.D. thesis,
Warsaw Univ. of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.
[Online]. Available: www.isep.pw.edu.pl/icg
[10] R. Teodorescu, M. Liserre, and P. Rodrguez,
Grid Converters for Photovoltaic and Wind
Power Systems. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-IEEE Press,
2011.
[11] M. P. Kazmierkowski, M. Jasinski, and G. Wrona,
DSP-based control of grid-connected power
converters operating under grid distortions,
IEEE Trans. Ind. Inform., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 204
211, 2011.
[12] M. Jasinski. (2005). Direct power and torque
control of ac-dc-ac converterfed induction
motor drives. Ph.D. thesis, Warsaw Univ. of
Technology, Warsaw, Poland. [Online]. Avail-
able: www.isep.pw.edu.pl/icg
[13] S. Stynski. (2011). Analysis and control of mul-
tilevel acdcac flying capacitor converter fed
from singlephase grid. Ph.D. thesis. Warsaw
Univ. of Technology. [Online]. Available: www.
isep.pw.edu.pl/icg
[14] SKYTRON. Power plant control for utility-scale
photovoltaic installations. [Online]. Available:
http://www.skytron-energy.com
[15] J. M. Guerrero, M. Chandorkar, T.-L. Lee, and
P. C. Loh, Advanced control architectures for
intelligent microgridsPart I: Decentralized
and hierarchical control, IEEE Trans. Ind. Elec-
tron., vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 12541262, Apr. 2013.
[16] M. Malinowski, M. P. Kazmierkowski, and A.
Trzynadlowski A comparative study of con-
trol techniques for pwm rectifiers in ac adjust-
able speed drives, IEEE Trans. Power Electron.,
vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 13901396, Nov. 2003.
[17] B. T. Ooi, J. W. Dixon, A. B. Kulkarni, and M.
Nishimoto, An integrated ac drive system us-
ing a controlled current PWM rectifier/inverter
link, in Proc. IEEE-PESC Conf., 1986, pp. 494501.
[18] H. Abu-Rub, M. Malinowski, and K. Al.-Hadad,
Power electronics for renewable energy
systems, transportation and industrial ap-
plications, in Photovoltaic Energy Conversion
Systems, S. Kouro, B. Wu, H. Abu-Rub, and F.
Blaabjerg, Eds. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2014, ch. 7.
[19] R. Teodorescu, F. Blaabjerg, M. Liserre, and P. C.
Loh, A new breed of proportionalresonant
controllers and lters for gridconnected volt-
age-source converters, IEE Proc. Electric Power
Appl., vol. 153, no. 5, pp. 750762, Sept. 2006.
[20] M. Malinowski, M. Jasinski, and M. P. Ka-
zmierkowski, Simple direct power control of
three-phase PWM rectifier using space-vector
modulation (DPC-SVM), IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.,
vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 447454, Apr. 2004.
[21] J. Rodriguez and P. Cortes, Predictive Control of
Power Converters and Electrical Drives. Hobo-
ken, NJ: Wiley, 2012.
[22] J. Rodriguez, J. Pontt, C. A. Silva, P. Correa, P.
Lezana, P. Cortes, and U. Ammann, Predictive
current control of a voltage source inverter,
IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 495
503, 2007.
[23] M. P. Kazmierkowski, Current control techniques
for three-phase voltage-source PWM convert-
ers: A survey, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 45,
no. 5, pp. 691703, 1998.
[24] P. Cortes, M. P. Kazmierkowski, and R. M. Ken-
nel, Predictive control in power electronics
and drives, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55,
no. 12, pp. 43124324, 2008.
[25] S. Kouro, P. Cortes, R. Vargas, U. Ammann, and
J. Rodriguez, Model predictive controlA
simple and powerful method to control power
converters, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 56,
no. 6, pp. 18261838, 2009.
[26] P. Antoniewicz. (2009). Predictive control of
three-phase ac/dc converters. Ph.D. thesis,
Warsaw Univ. of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.
[Online]. Available: www.isep.pw.edu.pl/icg
[27] B. Robyns, A. Davigny, B. Franois, A. Henneton,
and J. Sprooten, Electricity Production from Re-
newables Energies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2012.
[28] A. D. Peacock, D. Jenkins, M. Ahadzi, A. Berry,
and S. Turan, Micro wind turbines in the UK
domestic sector, J. Energy Build., vol. 40, no. 7,
pp. 13241333, 2008.
[29] X. Yu and K. Strunz, Combined long-term and
short-term access storage for sustainable en-
ergy system, in Proc. 2004 IEEE Power Engi-
neering Society General Meeting, 10 June 2004,
vol. 2, pp. 19461951.
[30] STORE Project press release. (2014). [Online]. Avail-
able: http://www.endesa.com/en/saladeprensa/
noticias/energy-storage-plants-STORE-Project
[31] M. A. Guerrero, E. Romero, F. Barrero, M. I. Milans,
and E. Gonzlez, Overview of medium scale en-
ergy storage systems, in Proc. Compatibility and
Power Electronics (CPE09), 2009, pp. 93100.
[32] G. Wang, M. Ciobotaru, and V. G. Agelidis, Mini-
mising output power fluctuation of large photo-
voltaic plant using Vanadium Redox Battery stor-
age, in Proc. 6th IET Int. Conf. Power Electronics,
Machines and Drives (PEMD 2012), Marzo, 2729
Mar. 2012, pp. 16.
[33] GILDEMEISTER energy solutions. (2015). In-
telligent storage systems based on vanadium
redox flow technology. [Online]. Available:
http://energy.gildemeister.com/en/
[34] Beacon Power, LLC. (2014). Fiber Carbon Fly-
wheels. Beacon power. [Online]. Available:
http://beaconpower.com/carbon-fiber-flywheels/
[35] P. Li, P. Degobert, B. Robyns, and B. Francois,
Implementation of interactivity across a resil-
ient microgrid for power supply and exchange
with an active distribution network, presented
at the CIRED Seminar 2008: SmartGrids for Dis-
tribution, Frankfurt, June 2008.
[36] H. Fakham, D. Lu, and B. Francois, Power control
design of a battery charger in a hybrid active PV
generator for load-following applications, IEEE
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 95104, 2011.
[37] H. Kanchev, D. Lu, F. Colas, V. Lazarov, and B.
Francois, Energy management and power plan-
ning of a microgrid with a PV-based active gen-
erator for smart grid applications, IEEE Trans.
Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 45834592, 2011.
[38] D. Lu, H. Fakham, T. Zhou, and B. Francois, Ap-
plication of Petri Nets for the energy manage-
ment of a photovoltaic based power station
including storage units, Renew. Energy, vol. 35,
no. 6, pp. 11171124, 2010.
[39] F. Blaabjerg, R. Teodorescu, M. Liserre, and A. V.
Timbus, Overview of control and grid synchro-
nization for distributed power generation sys-
tems, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 5,
pp. 13981409, 2006.
[40] M. Altin, O. Goksu, R. Teodorescu, P. Rodriguez,
B.-B. Jensen, and L. Helle, Overview of recent
grid codes for wind power integration, in Proc.
12th Int. Conf. Optimization Electrical Electronics
Equipment, May 2010, pp. 11521160.
[41] J. T. Bialasiewicz, Renewable energy systems
with photovoltaic power generators: Opera-
tion and modeling, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.,
vol. 55, no. 7, pp. 27522758, 2008.
[42] Y.-K. Lo, T.-P. Lee, and K.-H. Wu, Grid-connect-
ed photovoltaic system with power factor cor-
rection, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 5,
pp. 22242227, 2008.
32 IEEE industrial electronics magazine March 2015
[43] V. Minambres-Marcos, E. Romero-Cadaval, M. A.
Guerrero-Martinez, and M. I. Milanes-Montero,
Three-phase single stage photovoltaic inverter
with active filtering capabilities, in Proc. 38th
Annu. Conf. IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
(IECON 2012), pp. 52535258.
[44] IEEE Standard Definitions for the Measurement
of Electric Power Quantities Under Sinusoidal,
Nonsinusoidal, Balanced, or Unbalanced Condi-
tions, IEEE Std. 1459-2010 (Revision of IEEE Std.
1459-2000), 2010, pp. 150.
[45] SmartGrids. (2013). SmartGrids European Tech-
nology Platform. [Online]. Available: http://www.
smartgrids.eu/
[46] A. Camacho, M. Castilla, J. Miret, J. C. Vasquez,
and E. Alarcn-Gallo, Flexible voltage support
control for three-phase distributed generation
inverters under grid fault, IEEE Trans. Ind. Elec-
tron., vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 14291441, 2013.
[47] Y. Ueda, K. Kurokawa, T. Tanabe, K. Kitamura,
and H. Sugihara, Analysis results of output
power loss due to the grid voltage rise in grid-
connected photovoltaic power generation sys-
tems, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 5,
pp. 27442751, 2008.
[48] A. Cagnano, E. Tuglie, M. Liserre, and R. A.
Mastromauro, Online optimal reactive power
control strategy of PV inverters, IEEE Trans.
Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 45494558,
2011.
[49] J. C. Vasquez, R. A. Mastromauro, J. M. Guer-
rero, and M. Liserre, Voltage support provided
by a droop-controlled multifunctional invert-
er, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 56, no. 11,
pp. 45104519, 2009.
[50] X. Wang, F. Zhuo, J. Li, L. Wang, and S. Ni, Mod-
eling and control of dual-stage high-power
multifunctional PV system in dqo coordi-
nate, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60, no. 4,
pp. 15561570, 2013.
[51] E. Romero-Cadaval, M. I. Milans-Montero, E.
Gonzlez-Romera, and F. Barrero-Gonzlez,
Power injection system for grid-connected
photovoltaic generation systems based on two
collaborative voltage source inverters, IEEE
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 56, no. 11, pp. 4389
4398, 2009.
[52] D. Barater, G. Buticchi, E. Lorenzani, and
C. Concari, Active common-mode filter for
ground leakage current reduction in grid-
connected PV converters operating with arbi-
trary power factor, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.,
vol. 61, no. 8, pp. 39403950, 2014.
[53] E. Romero-Cadaval, A. Moreno-Muoz, J. J. G.
de la Rosa, V. M. Miambres-Marcos, R. J. Re-
al-Calvo, and J. M. Sierra-Fernndez, Active
functions implementation in smart inverters
for distributed energy resources, in Proc. 8th
Int. Conf. Compatibility and Power Electronics
(CPE13), 2013, pp. 5257.
[54] Q.-C. Zhong and G. Weiss, Static synchronous
generators for distributed generation and re-
newable energy, in Proc. IEEE PES Power Sys-
tem Conf. Exhibition, 2009, pp. 16.
[55] L. Zhang, L. Harnefors, and H. P. Nee, Power-
synchronization control of grid-connected
voltage-source converters, IEEE Trans. Power
Syst., vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 809820, 2010.
[56] Q.-C. Zhong and G. Weiss, Synchronverters:
Inverters that mimic synchronous genera-
tors, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 4,
pp. 12591267, 2011.
[57] A. E. Fitzgerald, C. Kingsley, and S. D. Umans,
Electric Machinery. New York: McGraw-Hill,
2003.
[58] J. H. Walker, Large Synchronous Machines: De-
sign, Manufacture and Operation. London, U.K.:
Oxford Univ. Press, 1981.
[59] P. Kundur, Power System Stability and Control.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.
[60] L. Harnefors, M. Bongiorno, and S. Lundberg,
Input-admittance calculation and shaping for
controlled voltage-source converters, IEEE
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 3323
3334, 2007.
[61] D. Jovcic, L. Lamont, and L. Xu, VSC trans-
mission model for analytical studies, in Proc.
IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meet-
ing, July 2003, vol. 3, pp. 17371742.
[62] Q.-C. Zhong, P.-L. Nguyen, Z. Ma, and W. Sheng,
Self-synchronized synchronverters: Inverters
without a dedicated synchronization unit, IEEE
Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 617
630, 2014.
[63] J. Kolar, J. Biela, Waffer, T. Friedli, and U. Bad-
stubner, Performance trends and limitations
of power electronic systems, in Proc. 6th Int.
Conf. Integrated Power Electronics Systems (CIPS
2010), Nuremberg, Germany, 1618 Mar. 2010,
pp. 120.
[64] S. Kouro, M. Malinowski, K. Gopakumar, J. Pou,
L. G. Franquelo, B. Wu, J. Rodriguez, M. Perez,
and J. I. Leon, Recent advances and industrial
applications of multilevel converters, IEEE
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 57, no. 8, pp. 2553
2580, 2010.
[65] H. Abu-Rub, M. Malinowski, and K. Al.-Hadad,
Recent advances in power semiconductor
technology, in Power Electronics for Renewable
Energy Systems, Transportation and Industrial
Applications, J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis, and H.P.
Nee, Eds. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2014, ch. 4.
[66] R. Burkart and J. W. Kolar, Comparative
evaluation of SiC and Si PV inverter systems
based on power density and efficiency as
indicators of initial cost and operating rev-
enue, in Proc. 14th IEEE Workshop on Control
and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL),
2326 June 2013, pp. 16.
[67] A. Bidram, A. Davoudi, and R. S. Balog, Con-
trol and circuit techniques to mitigate partial
shading effects in photovoltaic arrays, IEEE J.
Photovolt., vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 532545, 2012.
[68] L. Asiminoaei, P. Rodriguez, F. Blaabjerg, and
M. Malinowski Reduction of switching losses
in active power filters with a new generalized
discontinuous-PWM strategy, IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 467471, 2008.
[69] F. Blaaabjerg, Power electronics in renew-
ablesStatus and perspective, in Proc. 3rd
Seminar Power Electronics in Renewable Energy
Sources and Drives, Warsaw, Poland, 2527 Feb.
2014, pp. 111.
[70] A. Vezzini and F. Baumgartner. (2010). Latest
in PV inverter & trends. [Online]. Available:
https://home.zhaw.ch/~bauf/pv/talks/120326_
Trends_PV_Inverter_photon_bauf_via1.pdf
[71] H.-P. Beck and R. Hesse, Virtual synchronous ma-
chine, in Proc. 9th Int. Conf. EPQU, 2007, pp. 16.
[72] J. Driesen and K. Visscher, Virtual synchro-
nous generators, in Proc. IEEE Power Energy
Society General MeetingConversion and Deliv-
ery of Electrical Energy in the 21st Century, 2008,
pp. 13.
[73] K. Visscher and S. W. H. De Haan, Virtual synchro-
nous machines (VSGs) for frequency stabilisation
in future grids with a significant share of decen-
tralized generation, in Proc. IET-CIRED Seminar
on Smart-Grids Distribution, 2008, pp. 14.
[74] C. Sao and P. Lehn, Autonomous load shar-
ing of voltage source converters, IEEE Trans.
Power Delivery, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 10091016,
2005.
[75] J. Vasquez, J. Guerrero, A. Luna, P. Rodriguez,
and R. Teodorescu, Adaptive droop control
applied to voltage-source inverters operating
in grid-connected and islanded modes, IEEE
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 56, no. 10, pp. 4088
4096, 2009.
[76] Q.-C. Zhong, Robust droop controller for accu-
rate proportional load sharing among inverters
operated in parallel, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.,
vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 12811290, 2013.
[77] M. Ashabani and Y. A.-R. I. Mohamed, Novel
comprehensive control framework for incor-
porating VSCs to smart power grids using bidi-
rectional synchronous-VSC, IEEE Trans. Power
Syst., vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 943957, 2014.