Improved DC Bus Voltage Control of Single-Phase Grid-Connected Voltage Source Converters for Minimising Bus Capacitance and Line Current Harmonics

TL;DR

This paper introduces an improved control scheme for single-phase grid-connected voltage source converters that reduces DC bus capacitance and line current harmonics while enhancing transient response and robustness.

Contribution

It proposes a novel DC bus voltage control method using a PI controller with a low pass filter and an extended symmetrical tuning approach, improving performance over conventional schemes.

Findings

Reduced DC bus capacitance and fluctuation during load changes

Increased loop bandwidth without line current distortion

Validated effectiveness through simulation and experiments

Abstract

There is a trade-off between transient performance and line current distortion of the DC bus voltage control of single-phase grid-connected voltage source converters. This paper presents an improved DC bus voltage control scheme of such converters using a proportional-integral controller in series with a first-order low pass filter. The extended symmetrical tuning method was adopted in the design of a regulator parameter, which greatly reduced the oscillating component at the double line frequency. The proposed control methodology allowed the loop bandwidth to increase without distorting the line current. Consequently, the DC bus voltage fluctuation or DC bus capacitance was reduced with a shorter settling time during a step load, compared with the conventional scheme. The proposed voltage scheme was found to be robust to the grid voltage variation and was less susceptible to the line voltage harmonics. Simulation and experimental results of a 1.5 kVA PWM rectifier verified the proposed methodology.