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Abstract— Grid-connected voltage source converters (VSCs) are the VSC because of overcurrent, in order to protect the IGBTs.
the heart of many applications with power quality concerns due Moreover, most faults are unbalanced and result in unbalanced
to their reactive power controllability. However, the major voltage dips, which produce current harmonics and unbalance
drawback is their sensitivity to grid disturbances. Moreover, that also cause current protection to trip.
when VSCs are used in DG applications, voltage unbalance may
be intolerant. The current protection may trip due to current Many controllers have been developed to deal with grid
unbalance or due to overcurrent. In this paper, a vector current voltage unbalance for a VSC system connected to the grid
controller for VSC connected to the grid through LCL-filter is through L-filter [5] - [8]. In [9], LCL-filter is considered along
developed with the main focus on producing symmetrical and with grid voltage unbalance. Moreover, a dual controller, that
balanced currents in case of unbalanced voltage dips. comprises one controller in the positive and one controller in
Implementing this controller helps the VSC system not to trip the negative sequence frame, has been implemented. The
during voltage dips. reference negative sequence currents are set to zero. One case
of voltage unbalance has been discussed showing the response
Keywords- DG, LCL-filter, power quality, VSC, vector current only in the grid current.
control, voltage dips.
In this paper, a vector current controller for VSC connected
I. INTRODUCTION to the grid through LCL-filter is developed with the main focus
on reducing current unbalance in case of different unbalanced
Voltage source converters (VSCs) are now widely used in voltage dips. The idea of implementing the controller in
many grid-connected applications including STATCOMs, positive synchronous reference frame with feed-forward of
UPFCs, DVRs and as active interfaces for distributed negative voltage (first introduced in [7]) is adopted and
generation (DG) systems (for instance photovoltaics, wind, fuel modified for the system with LCL-filter. The performance of
cells and microturbines). Benefits of using a VSC are this controller is compared with a dual vector controller (DVC)
sinusoidal grid currents and high controllability of both active regarding the VSC side current unbalance and the grid side
and reactive power. To make the VSC operating towards the current unbalance. This comparison is done by calculating the
grid, an inductor is needed in each phase to limit and to control amount of unbalance, which is the ratio of negative sequence to
the currents. For DG systems, the output voltage of the grid- positive sequence components, for each current and for
connected VSC needs often to be stepped up to the distribution different types of unbalanced voltage dips at the grid.
level. Therefore, a step-up transformer should be used and the
leakage inductance of the transformer will be equivalent to the
II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
needed series inductance. However, high frequency current
harmonics are generated due to PWM switching of the VSC, A scheme of the investigated system is shown in Fig. 1.
which may affect the EMC sensitive loads connected to the The VSC of rated power 69 kVA is connected to 400 V grid
same bus. The isolation of transformers is sensitive to high via LCL-filter, which has the parameters provided in Table I.
dv/dt. Therefore, the VSC voltages should be filtered. This can The inductor on the grid side represents the leakage inductance
be done by inserting a reactor (inductor) towards the VSC and of the transformer needed to match the grid requirement. Its
shunt-connected capacitors between the reactor and the inductance value is a ratio of the inductance at the VSC side.
transformer. Hence, LCL-filters are utilized to interface the The ratio is higher than one in order to limit the high frequency
VSC to the grid, which have the potential of improved grid harmonics in the VSC current. The choice of the LCL-filter
current harmonics [1]-[4]. parameters depends on the system rating. The criterion that is
described in [4] and [10] has been used to choose the
The major drawback of using VSC is its sensitivity to parameters. In this paper, the DC side has been assumed to
voltage disturbances, e.g. voltage dips. A voltage dip is a short have a constant DC voltage equal to 650 V. This assumption is
duration drop in voltage that is normally due to a fault. For a reasonable if the DC capacitance Cdc is high [2].
VSC, a sudden decrease in grid voltage normally causes an
increase in the current, as the control attempts at maintaining
the power to the DC link constant. This can lead to tripping of
= i1 − i2 (3)
dt Cf Cf 60
where 40
Gain [dB]
0
uc is the capacitor phase voltage;
u is the VSC phase voltage; −20
The controller constants kp1, kp2, and kp3 are fractions of the The negative sequence, in dqp-frame, can be calculated as
corresponding dead-beat gains, kDB1, kDB2, and kDB3, as
e dqn ( p ) (t ) = 1
2
(e dq (t ) − e dqp (t − T 4)) (11)
L R
kp1 = k1kDB1 = k1 2 + 2 The latter will be seen as a constant signal in the negative
Ts 2
rotating plane dqn, which utilizes the opposite angle for the dq-
C (8) transformation. This technique is applied to the current vectors
kp2 = k2 kDB2 = k2 f
Ts
as well, to be able to look at positive and negative sequence
currents resulting due to the voltage imbalance.
L R
kp3 = k3 kDB3 = k3 1 + 1
Ts 2 The voltage imbalance due to unbalanced voltage dips is
considered here. Three different dips are applied; one is due to
To compensate for the time delay due to the calculation a single phase fault, another is due to double phase fault, and
time, Smith predictor is used [14], which attempts to remove the third is due to double phase to ground fault. The phasor
the effect of the delay time from the closed loop control system diagram of voltage dips resulting from the three different faults
so that the controller can be designed as if no time delay was is shown in Fig. 3. The dip magnitude Edip, which is the
present. Hence, the Smith predictor is implemented in a way magnitude of the remaining voltage during the dip, is chosen
analogous to a state observer, which means running a model of such that all dips have the same positive sequence component.
the plant parallel to the plant itself. The predicted current The active current reference is chosen to be 1 pu while the
equation is then calculated in the dq-frame as: reactive current reference is set to zero to produce unity power
factor at the grid side. The resulting positive sequence current
R
T
L1
( )
iˆ1dq ( k + 1) = s u*dq ( k ) − u cdq ( k ) + 1 − 1 − jω Ts iˆ1dq ( k )
L1 (9)
is shown in Fig. 4. This current is the same for all dips apart
from the transients at the start and the end of the dip. This
transient time is produced mainly due to the delay introduced
ps ( 1dq
+ k i ( k ) − iˆ ( k − 1)1dq ) by the sequence detection algorithm.
where kps is the observer gain that compensates for the error E3=E3,dip E3 E3
between the actual and the predicted currents.
E3,dip E3,dip
Theoretically, choosing dead-beat gains for the controller E1, dip E1 E1=E1,dip E1=E1,dip
should result in fast transient response. However, this is not E2,dip
possible in cascaded controllers, since the operation of the E2,dip
controllers should be decoupled. To choose the proper gains,
E2=E2,dip E2 E2
the stability of the complete system has been examined looking (a) (b) (c)
at the pole location on the unit disc [13]. The controller
Figure 3. Voltage dips due to (a) single phase fault, (b) double phase fault,
parameters stated in Table II are chosen to produce an adequate and (c) double phase to ground fault.
[12], given by −2
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
2 2
i2dn + i2qn 2
ri = ×100 (12) d−component
is 132 % in this case. For a dip due to double phase fault with 0
q−component
40% remaining voltage, shown in Fig. 7, ri = 89 %. In this case, −1
the negative sequence currents are shown in Fig. 8. For the last
case, which is a dip due to double phase to ground fault, −2
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
ri = 69 %. The voltage and negative sequence current are Time [s]
shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10, respectively.
Figure 6. Negative sequence of VSC current (upper) and grid current
2 (lower): 10 % voltage dip due to single phase fault.
Converter current [p.u.]
1.5
d−component
1 1
0.5 0.8
q−component
0 0.6
−0.5 0.4
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Grid voltage [p.u.]
0.2
2
0
Grid current [p.u.]
1.5 d−component
−0.2
1
−0.4
0.5 q−component −0.6
0
−0.8
−0.5
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 −1
Time [s]
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Figure 4. Positive sequence VSC current (upper) and grid current (lower) in Time [s]
dq-frame.
Figure 7. Grid voltage: 40 % voltage dip due to double phase fault.
2
Converter current [p.u.]
1
d−component
1
0.8
0.6 0
0.4
Grid voltage [p.u.]
−1
q−component
0.2
−2
0 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
−0.2
2
−0.4
d−component
Grid current [p.u.]
1
−0.6
−0.8 0
−1
−1 q−component
0.6 d 1 1 (15)
u cdq = i1dq − i + jωu cdq
0.4 dt Cf Cf 2dq
Grid voltage [p.u.]
0.2
In steady state and dqn-frame, the foregoing equations are
0 read as follows:
−0.2
− R1 1 1
−0.4 i + jωi1dqn − u cdqn + u dqn = 0 (16)
L1 1dqn L1 L1
−0.6
−0.8
− R2 1 1
i + jωi 2dqn − u + e =0 (17)
−1
L2 2dqn L2 cdqn L2 dqn
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Time [s] 1 1 (18)
i − i − jωu cdqn = 0
Cf 1dqn Cf 2dqn
Figure 9. Grid voltage: 55 % voltage dip due to double phase to ground
fault.
For the grid currents to be symmetrical, the negative
2 sequence components in dq-frame should be nullified; i.e.
Converter current [p.u.]
−1 q−component
( )
u*dqn = u cdqn 1 + ω2 Cf L1 + jR1ωCf u cdqn (19)
−2
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
This is implemented using positive sequence grid and
capacitor voltage vectors within the controller equations and
2
the negative sequence capacitor voltage vector is fed-forward
to calculate the negative part of the VSC reference voltage
Grid current [p.u.]
d−component
1
vector, as suggested in Fig. 11.
0
iˆ1dq
−1
q−component
−2 i1dq
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Time [s] u dqp
P3
Figure 10. Negative sequence of VSC current (upper) and grid current
(lower): 55 % voltage dip due to double phase to ground fault.
u*cdq
i 2dq P2 dqp
*
IV. PROPOSED CONTROLLER FOR BALANCED CURRENTS i1dq
i*2dq
PI1
A. One controller in the positive sequence frame with feed edq
forward for the negative sequence (NSFF)
u cdqp
Since the main interest of the controller is to deal with u*dq
u cdqn (19) dqn
frame and dqn-frame, and then two parallel controllers, one for
each frame, can be implemented as shown in Fig. 12 [8]. To 1
−1
i*2dqp (k )
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Time [s]
Positive Figure 13. Negative sequence of VSC current (upper) and grid current
i 2dqp (k )
sequence u* (k )
vector dqp dqp (lower): NSFF and 10 % voltage dip due to single phase to ground fault.
i1dqp (k )
current 1.5
edqp (k ) 0.5
u*áâ (k ) 2
*
uabc (k )
+
0
3 −0.5
i*2dqn (k )
−1
i 2dqn (k ) Negative
u*dqn (k ) dqn
−1.5
sequence 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
i1dqn (k ) vector
current
u cdqn (k ) controller 1.5
Grid currents [p.u.]
1
edqn (k )
0.5
0
Figure 12. Dual vector controller.
−0.5
−1
C. Results −1.5
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
The first proposed controller, to achieve balanced currents Time [s]
in case of grid voltage unbalance, using the feed forward of the
negative sequence capacitor voltage (NSFF) is tested in case of Figure 14. VSC current phasors (upper) and grid current phasors (lower)
balanced current control.
unbalanced voltage dips. The VSC negative sequence current is
nullified, for the three introduced different voltage dips, while 1
Converter current [p.u.]
phase VSC and grid currents are also shown in Fig. 14. When −1
the dual controller, DVC, is implemented with the same
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
the grid current is nullified during the dip, while the negative
Grid current [p.u.]
0.5
sequence of the VSC current is reduced to less that 5 %.
0
−0.5
−1
0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Time [s]
Figure 15. Negative sequence of VSC current (upper) and grid current
(lower): DVC and 10 % voltage dip due to single phase to ground fault.