International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Vol. 5, No.

3, June 2013

Design and Research on the LCL Filter in Three-Phase PV

Grid-Connected Inverters
Xu Renzhong, Xia Lie, Zhang Junjun, and Ding Jie

 the series resistor.

Abstract—Aiming at the problem of filtering in the
three-phase PV grid-connected inverters, the mathematics
models for L filter and LCL filter are established. The values of II. PRINCIPLE OF LCL FILTER
capacitances and inductances are calculated by analyzing the
related constraint conditions for the main parameters of LCL The classical topological structure is shown in Fig. 1.
filter. There are two ways to increase the value of damping This topology is general use in three-phase PV
resistor of the filter capacitor. The impacts on the stability and
filtering property, in both ways, are analyzed. The simulation
grid-connected inverters. Where U dc is the voltage of DC
result indicated that the LCL filter achieve the best bus, I dc is the current of DC bus, S1~S6 six-switch made up
performance than L filter and LC filter. Under the prerequisite
of increasing system stability, parallel resistor is even more three-phase inverter, L1 , Cs , L2 made up third-order LCL
advantageous than series resistor. And the validity of
theoretical results is confirmed.
filter[1].
D Idc

K1
Index Terms—LCL Filter, Series damping resistors (SDR), S1 S3 S5 Ia La1 La2
parallel damping resistors (PDR), harmonic. PV Ib Lb1 Lb2 Ua
Ub
Udc C Ic Lc1 Lc2 Uc

S4 S6 S2

I. INTRODUCTION CS

Fig. 1. Topological structure of three-phase PV grid-connected inverters wit

With the energy crisis and environment revolution are h LCL filter
becoming more and more serious, renewable power
generation system is drawing more and more attention. We For easy to study, equivalent single-phase circuit of LCL
vigorously developed clean energy such as wind, and solar filter is analyzed instead of three-phase circuit. The inverter
power. The control technology of grid-connected inverter is is voltage-mode. So the simplified circuit model of Fig.1 is
the key technology in renewable power generation. In the shown as Fig. 2.
grid-connected inverter, the all-controlled power electronic L1 R1 R2 L2
devices IGBT and GTO are be used, which is modulated by
the high frequency PWM. As the result, the du/dt and di/dt I1 I2
are ever large. Due to the presence of some vagrant Rs
Upwm
Ic

parameters, the current included high order harmonic flow

CS
into the power grid, which made the harmonic pollution. The
most common filter is L in the grid-connected inverter. In
Fig. 2. Circuit diagram of LCL filter
order to decrease current ripple, the inductance have to be
increased. As a result, the volume and weight of the filter The internal resistances of inductance and capacitance are
increased. Although the structure and the parameter of the LC negligible. The transfer-function of the I 2 to U pwm is given
filter are easy, the filtering effect is not good because of the
uncertainty of network impedance. LCL filter had an as
inherently high cut-off frequency and strong penetrating I2 1
G( s)   3 (1)
ability in low frequency. So LCL filter has come into wide U pwm s L1L2C  ( L1  L2 )s
use in the inverter. What is the most difficult is that how to
select the parameter and control resonance.
where I 2 is the output current of LCL filter, U pwm is the
In this paper, with the three-phase PV grid-connected
inverters topology, firstly analyze the inductance, the ration output voltage of PWM.
of two inductances, selecting the filter capacitor and The transfer-function of L filter is given as
resonance resistance. Based on these theories, a LCL filter is
I2 1
designed. The simulation result proved that the LCL filter G( s)   (2)
achieve the best performance, and indicated the impacts on U pwm Ls
the stability and filtering property from the parallel resistor or
The first-harmonic, low order harmonic and high order
harmonic current could be got by decomposing the output
Manuscript received October 15, 2012; revised November 26, 2012 current of inverter. As shown in Fig. 2, the current ripple is
The authors are with the National Energy Solar Center (EPRI), China.
(e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], decreased because of inductance L1 that the current flow
[email protected], [email protected]).

DOI: 10.7763/IJCEE.2013.V5.723 322

 International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Vol. 5, No. 3, June 2013

through. The capacitance is features low resistance to high Therefore, f is as bigger and X c is as smaller as better or
order harmonic, but the inductance is features high resistance,
so the high order harmonic can only flow through capacitance. both the f and X L 2 is as smaller as better.
Then the left current of first-harmonic and low order P is defined as the rated output power of three-phase
harmonic flow through inductance L2 into power grid. grid-connected inverter cos  is power factor, U is rated
The bode diagram of L and LCL filters is shown in Fig. 3 network voltage, and f is driven frequency.
Then (3) could be got form the constraint 1).

4 fPL
 5% (3)
3U 2 cos 
2U dc / 3  U
imax  (4)
2 Lf
2P
imax  *(0.1 ~ 0.2) (5)
3U cos 
(4) and (5) could be got from constraint 2) and
Fig. 3. Bode diagram of LCL filter reference[3][4]:
The constraints 2)~5) show that the values of L and C are
As shown in Fig. 3, in the range higher than resonance as bigger as better.
frequency, the attenuation rate of LCL filter is －60dB/dec Considering the above constraints, the value
682uH<L<796uH could be got by calculating. The response
and the L filter is －20dB/dec. In the high frequency range
rate is considered, and L is certainty as 720uH. According to
the LCL filter achieves the better performance than L filter. the reference [1], the recommended values of L1 and L2 are
In the low frequency range the LCL filter achieves the between 4-6. Thus, L1 is 0.6mH, and L2 is 0.12mH.
performance as the same as L filter, and the inductance of
LCL could be considered L1 plus L2[2]. B. Filter Capacitance
Therefore, in the high frequency range the LCL filter has How to design the capacitance parameters is another key
the good attenuation characteristics. To achieve the same question. If the X c got too much, the high frequency
filtering effect of the case, the LCL filter core is smaller and
lower cost. harmonics that flow through the shunt capacitor branch is not
enough. As a result, the great high-frequency harmonic
current flow into the grid. If the X c got too small, which
III. THE DESIGN OF FILTER PARAMETERS will lead to the great reactive current flow though the
capacitor branch, thereby increasing the inverter output
A. Filter Inductor current, and increasing system losses.
Given the condition of DC bus voltage and AC output According to experience, when the resonant frequency of
voltage, the bigger the L is, the smaller ripple would be got. filter capacitance and inductor is inside the range 1/4 to 1/5
But the tracking speed of current is reduced. And given the carrier frequency, the filtering performance is the best. The
condition of the current, the bigger the L is, the greater the resonant frequency of LCL filter could be described as
weight and volume, and the higher cost. Under the premise of
the cost saving, how to design the inductance parameters for 1 L1  L2
the best effect is the key question. Based on great reference f 
2 L1 L2C
[1][2][3], the constraints could be got as .
1) The voltage drop of the filter inductor is smaller than
Generally, the resonant frequency is bigger than the 10
5% of the network voltage under the rated circumstances.
times the power frequency and smaller than 1/2 times the
2) The peak to peak amplitude of harmonic current will be
switching frequency.
controlled within 10%~20% of the rated value of the inverter.
1
3) The inrush current of inverter should be as small as C (6)
possible. 4 f 2 L
2

4) In order to achieve the best performance of LCL filter,

in the low frequency range the current should be as smooth as In order to avoid the power factor of grid-connected
possible, and in the high frequency range the attenuation rate inverter is over lower, the reactive power that is absorbed by
of should be as fast as possible. filter capacitance should not exceed 5% of the rated active
5) Let the high order harmonic flow through the power. Where,
capacitance, and the low order harmonic flow through the P
C (7)
inductance.
6 fEm2
1
Xc  ; X L 2  sL2 Considering the (6) and (7), in this paper C is 375uF.
cs

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 International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Vol. 5, No. 3, June 2013

C. Damping Resistance and the series resistor could be described as

As shown in Fig. 3, because the LCL filter exists resonance, 1
the some order harmonic current that come from the PV XR  R  (10)
grid-connected inverters may be due to sudden increases CS
rapidly. What is more, that will cause the output current out Due to the value of series resistor is larger than the parallel
of control. For this reason, adding the damping resistance into resistor, when the resistor is series connection, the
filter to suppress the resonances. Generally, it is resistor. The high-frequency harmonic current flow though capacitance is
block diagrams of series damping resistor and parallel greater than parallel. Therefore, the filter has better effect of
damping resistor are shown respectively in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. suppressing the high frequency. The spectrum characteristics
L1 L2 are shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, and the above point of view
was further proved and verified [5]-[8].
I1 R I2
Upwm
Ic

IV. SIMULATION
C
Matlab/Simulink power system toolbox software is used to
Fig. 4. Block diagram of series damping resistor simulate the power system. In this paper, the simulation
modes for the LCL filter of the PV gird-connected inverter
L1 L2 are designed. Where, the system rated power is 250kW, the
line voltage is 270V, the switching frequency is 2K, the
I1 I2 fundamental frequency is 50Hz. Then the values of
C
R parameters could be calculated. The L1 is 600uH, L2 is
Ic

Upwm
120uH, C is 200uF, and the damping resistor R is 0.3Ω.
In this paper, the simulation modes for L filter, LC filter
Fig. 5. Block diagram of parallel damping resistor and LCL filter are designed. The presented simulation results
were obtained. The harmonic current waveforms of Ia are
The transfer function of series damping resistor is
shown in follow diagrams.
I2 sCR  1
G( s)   3 (8)
U pwm s L1L2C  s ( L1  L2 )CR  s ( L1  L2 )
2

The transfer function of parallel damping resistor is

I2 R
G( s)   3 (9)
U pwm s L1L2CR  s L1L2  sR( L1  L2 )
2

The bode diagrams are shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7.

Fig. 8. Harmonic diagram of L filter

Fig. 6. Bode diagram of series resistor

Fig. 9. Harmonic diagram of LC filter

Fig. 7. Bode diagram of parallel resistor

Both the series resistor and parallel resistor are good at

filtering. Which one is better?
The parallel resistor could be described as:
R
XR 
1  CSR Fig. 10. harmonic diagram of LCL filter

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 International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Vol. 5, No. 3, June 2013

As shown in Fig. 8, the THD is 1.45% with L filter; as 1) The simulation result indicated that the LCL filter has
shown in Fig. 9, the THD is 1.46% with LC filter; as shown in best high frequency attenuation characteristics, so the LCL
Fig. 10, the THD is reduced markedly just 1.45% with LCL filter achieves the best performance than L filter and LC
filter. Around the resonant frequency, the harmonic current filter.
are sudden amplified many times, which will cause the filter 2) With the same the premise of the suppressing resonance,
instability even out of control. Therefore, it is need install LCL filter would get better filtering effect when the damping
damping resistor on capacitor. In order to compare the effect resistor is parallel connected rather than series.
of series and parallel damping resistor simulated respectively, All these features indicate that it is the best design the PV
and the harmonic waveforms are shown as followed: gird-connected inverters with LCL filter parallel-connected
damping resistor, especially for small and medium-power
inverter PV gird-connected inverters.

REFERENCES
[1] F. Liu, X. Zha, and S. Duan, “Three-phase inverter with LCL filter
design parameters and research,” Electric Power Systems, March 2010,
pp. 110-115
[2] X. Zhang, Y. Li, Z. Lin, H. Xu, “LCL filter of voltage-type PWM
rectifiers, active damping control,” Electric Drive, vol. 37, no. 11, pp.
22-25, 2007.
[3] C. Zhang and X. Zhang, PWM rectifier and its control, Beijing:
Mechanical Industry Press, 2003
Fig. 11. Harmonic diagram of LCL filter with series resistor [4] C. Zhang, Y. Ye, and A. Chen, “Based on the output current control of
grid-connected solar power inverter,” Electric Power Systems, vol. 22,
no. 8, pp. 41-45, 2007.
[5] M. Liserre, F. Blaabjerg, and S. Hansen, “Design and control of an
LCL-filter-based three phase activerectifier,” IEEE Transactions on
Industry Applications, vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 1281-1290, 2005
[6] W. A. Hill and S. C. Kapoor, “Effect of two—level PWM sources on
plant power system harmonics,” in Proc. IAS 1998 Conference, St
Louis (USA), October 1998, pp. 1300-1303
[7] M. Liserre, R. Teodorescu, and F. Blaabjerg, “Stabihty of photovohaic
and wind turbine grid connected inverters for a large set of grid
impedance values,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 21,
no. 1, pp. 263-272, 2006.
[8] T. C. Y. Wang, Z. Ye, G. Sinha et al., “Output filter design for a
grid-interconnected three phase inverter,” in Proc. IEEE Power
Fig. 12. Harmonic diagram of LCL filter with parallel resistor
Electronics Specialist Conference, 2003.

When the damping resistor is series connected, THD is

0.27%, as shown in Fig. 11. When the damping resistor is Xu Renzhong was born in 1980. He obtained his
Master's degree from Hefei University of Technology
parallel connected, THD is 0.14%, as shown in Fig. 12.
(China) in 2008 and worked for State Grid Electric
Power Research Institute in 2009, and in 2012 he
worked in China Electric Power Research Institute.
His current research interests are power electronics,
photovoltaic power generation, microgrid.
Fig. 13. Current waveform without filtering

Xia Lie was born in 1982, who received his Master's degree from Nanjing
University of Science and Technology (NUST). He worked for State Grid
Electric Power Research Institute, and in 2012 worked in China Electric
Fig. 14. Current waveform after filtering by LCL filter Power Research Institute. His research direction of photovoltaic power
generation.
Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 are the current waveform without
filtering and after filtering by LCL filter. Obviously, current Zhang Junjun received her Master's degree from Hefei University of
Technology(China). She Worked for State Grid Electric Power Research
after filtering by LCL filter, the distortion is lower. Institute, and in 2012 worked in China Electric Power Research Institute.
Her research direction is photovoltaic power generation.
V. CONCLUSION
Ding Jie worked for China Electric Power Research Institute. His research
From the analysis and experiment, it is well known that: interests are photovoltaic power generation , New energy system.

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