Microgrid Power Electronic Converters: State of The Art and Future Challenges
Microgrid Power Electronic Converters: State of The Art and Future Challenges
Microgrid Power Electronic Converters: State of The Art and Future Challenges
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I. INTRODUCTION
Fossil fuels are running out and current centralised power
generation plants are inefficient with a significant amount of
energy lost as heat to the environment, in addition to
producing harmful emissions and greenhouse gases.
Furthermore, current power systems, especially in developing
countries, suffer from several limitations such as high cost of Fig. 1. A Schematic Diagram of a Microgrid
expansion and efficiency improvement limits within existing turbine) into 50/60 Hz AC power that is injected into the grid
grid infrastructure. Renewable energy sources can help and/or used to supply local loads. Of these , they have been
address these issues, but it can be a challenge to get stable extensively used for photovoltaic [4], fuel cell [5] and wind
power from these sources as they are variable in nature. based generation systems [6]. Converters are also used to
Distributed generators (DG), including renewable sources, connect to batteries and flywheel energy storage systems or
within microgrids can help overcome power system connect high-speed micro turbine generators to the grid.
limitations, improve efficiency, reduce emissions and manage
II. MODES OF OPERATION OF MICROGRID CONVERTERS
the variability of renewable sources. A microgrid, a relatively
new concept, is a zone within the main grid where a cluster of Normally, converters are used to connect DG systems in
electrical loads and small micro generation systems such as parallel with the grid or other sources, but it may be useful for
solar cell, fuel cell, wind turbine and small combined heat and the converters to continue functioning in stand-alone mode,
power (CHP) systems exist together under an embedded when the other sources become unavailable to supply critical
management and control system with the option of storage loads. Converters connected to batteries or other storage
devices. Other benefits of generating power close to electrical devices will also need to be bidirectional to charge and
loads include the use of waste heat locally, saving the cost of discharge these devices.
upgrading the grid to supply more power from central plants, A. Grid Connection Mode:
In this mode of operation, the converter connects the
reducing transmission losses and creating opportunities for
power source in parallel with other sources to supply local
increasing competition in the sector which can stimulate
loads and possibly feed power into the main grid. Parallel
innovation and reduce consumer prices [1, 2].
connection of embedded generators is governed by national
Power electronic converters are used in microgrids to standards [7-9]. The standards require that the embedded
control the flow of power and convert it into suitable DC or generator should not regulate or oppose the voltage at the
AC form as required. Different types of converter are needed common point of coupling, and that the current fed into the
to perform the many functions within a microgrid, but it is not grid should be of high quality with upper limits on current
the aim of this paper to review all of these possible types of total harmonic distortion THD levels. There is also a limit on
converter, many of which are covered in textbooks and other the maximum DC component of the current injected into the
publications [3]. The paper will primarily focus on converters grid.
used to connect DG systems including micro CHP and The power injected into the grid can be controlled by
renewable energy sources to an AC grid or to local loads, as either direct control of the current fed into the grid [10], or by
illustrated in Fig 1. They convert DC (photovoltaic, batteries, controlling the power angle [11]. In the latter case, the
fuel cells) or variable frequency AC (wind and marine voltage is controlled to be sinusoidal. Using power angle
control however, without directly controlling the output THD is relatively high. Ideally, this drawback could be
current, may not be effective at reducing the output current overcome by increasing the feedback controller gain in a
THD when the grid voltage is highly distorted, but this will current controlled grid connected converter. But this can
be an issue in the case of electric machine generators, which prove to be difficult to achieve in practice while maintaining
effectively use power angle control. This raises the question good stability [20].
of whether it is reasonable to specify current THD limits, Other filter topologies have also been proposed. For
regardless of the quality of the utility voltage. example, Guoqiao et al. [21], proposed an LCCL filter
In practice, the converter output current or voltage needs arrangement, feeding back the current measured between the
to be synchronized with the grid, which is achieved by using two capacitors. By selecting the values of the capacitors to
a phase locked loop or grid voltage zero crossing detection match the inductor values, the closed loop transfer function of
[12]. The standards also require that embedded generators,
the system becomes non-resonant.
including power electronic converters, should incorporate an
The size and cost of the filter can be very significant.
anti-islanding feature, so that they are disconnected from the
Filter size can be reduced by either increasing the switching
point of common coupling when the grid power is lost. There
are many anti-islanding techniques; the most common of frequency of the converter or reducing the converter voltage
these is the rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) technique step changes. However the switching frequency, which is
[13]. limited by losses in the power electronic devices, tends to
B. Stand-Alone Mode reduce as the power ratings of the devices and the converters
It may be desirable for the converter to continue to supply increase. This means that high power 2-level converters could
a critical local load when the main grid is disconnected, e.g. have disproportionally large filters.
by the anti-islanding protection system. In this stand-alone Alterative converter topologies, which can help reduce the
mode the converter needs to maintain constant voltage and size of the filter, have been the subject of recent research.
frequency regardless of load imbalance or the quality of the Multi-level converters have been proposed including neutral
current, which can be highly distorted if the load is non- point clamped shown in Fig. 3a [22] and cascaded converter
linear. shown in Fig. 3b [23]. Multi-level converters have the
A situation may arise in a microgrid, disconnected from advantage of reducing the voltage step changes, and hence
the main grid, where two or more power electronic converters size and the cost of the main filter inductor for given current
switch to stand-alone mode to supply a critical load. In this ripple, at the expense of increased complexity and cost of the
case, these converters need to share the load equally. The power electronics and control components [24]. Additionally,
equal sharing of load by parallel connected converter since the switching frequency of commercial power
operating in stand-alone mode requires additional control. electronic devices tends to reduce and their rated voltage
There are several methods for parallel connection, which can tends to increase as their current ratings increase; practical
be broadly classified into two categories: 1) Frequency and multi-level converters devices may be underrated. For
voltage droop method [14], 2) Master-slave method, whereby example, a practical high power multi-level converter may
one of the converters acts as a master setting the frequency use a relatively low switching frequency device with a
and voltage, and communicating to the other converters their voltage rating greater than necessary to meet the current
share of the power [15]. rating requirement.
C. Battery Charging Mode An alternative to the multi-level converter is to use an
In a microgrid, due to the large time constants of some interleaved converter topology as illustrated in Fig 4. A grid
microsources, storage batteries should be present to handle connected converter based on this topology has already been
disturbances and fast load changes [16]. In other words, designed, built and tested by the authors, and further
energy storage is needed to accommodate the variations of publications on this will follow. Interleaving is a form of
available power generation and demand. The power paralleling technique where the switching instants are phase
electronic converter could be used as a battery charger thus shifted over a switching period. By introducing an equal
improving the reliability of the microgrid. phase shift between parallel power stages, the output filter
capacitor ripple is reduced due to the ripple cancellation
III. CONVERTERS TOPOLOGIES effect [25, 26]. Additionally, by using smaller low current
Most of the current commercially available power devices, it is possible to switch at a higher frequency, and
electronic converters used for grid connection are based on therefore the inductors and the overall filters requirement
the voltage-source 2-level PWM inverter as illustrated in Fig. would be smaller. The number of channels in an interleaved
2 [10, 17]. An LCL filter is commonly used, although L converter is a compromise between complexity and filter size.
filters have been also used [18, 19]. An LCL filter is smaller Other possible converter topologies, which are worth
in size compared to a simple L filter, but it requires a more investigating for this application, include current source
complex control system to manage the filter resonance. converters [27] (Fig. 5a), and matrix converters [28] (Fig.
5b). The matrix converter is particularly appealing when the
Additionally, the impedance of L2C in Fig.2 tends to be
power source is AC, e.g. high frequency turbine generator or
relatively low, and provides an easy path for current
variable frequency wind turbine generator. Using a matrix
harmonics to flow from the grid, which can cause the THD to
converter, the cost of the AC/DC conversion stage and the
go beyond permitted limits in cases where the grid voltage
requirement for a DC link capacitor or inductor could be connected, (iii) due to the non-linear characteristic of this
saved. Combinations of the above converters may be also modulation technique, the controller cannot actively control
possible, e.g. an interleaved multi-level converter or an the oscillations of the output filter and hence passive damping
interleaved matrix converter, perhaps with soft switching. becomes essential (iv) poor quality of output current means it
has to be used with other techniques such as repetitive
feedback to improve the output current quality [17]. Due to
these shortcomings, it is not preferred for microgrid inverters
where high quality output current and good transient response
are essential requirements.
Not surprisingly, most grid connected converters use
pulse width modulation (PWM), either carrier based on using
space vector modulation (SVM) which has the advantage of
ease of implementation using a microprocessor. Third
harmonic injection is often used to reduce the required DC
link voltage headroom, thus allowing a lower switching
Fig. 2. Two Level Grid Connected Inverter with LCL Filter frequency to be used. Space vector modulation strategies
have also been developed to minimize switching losses or
eliminate certain harmonics. In multi-level and interleaved
Va
converters, the number of SVM states increases significantly,
vdc
Single
with many redundant states, which create further
2
a Phase opportunities for device switching strategies to reduce or
GRID
b Output
g c redistribute the losses within the converter and eliminate
certain harmonics [29, 30].
Pulse density modulation (PDM) is another possible
vdc Vb
2
S 21 S 22 S 23
power flow into the grid is based on power angle control. The
S31 S32 S33 reference signals need to be synchronized with the grid, as
I dc
mentioned earlier.
It is common to use the d-q transformation (see Fig .6) to
(a) (b) translate the measured AC signals of voltage and current to
Fig 5 a) Three- Phase Current Source Converter, b) Matrix Converter DC, which simplifies controller design and implementation
using a microprocessor based controller [32]. But, such an
IV. MODULATION STRATEGIES approach assumes that the measured signals are pure
There are a variety of modulation techniques that can be sinusoids and that the grid is balanced, which in practice is
used in power electronic converters in general, including often not the case. A slight imbalance as well as harmonic
pulse width modulation (PWM), hysteresis modulation and distortions are often present, which act as disturbances that
pulse density modulation (PDM). cause a deterioration of the output current THD.
Hysteresis modulation is perhaps the simplest to The alternative is to have a separate controller for each
implement in practice, but it has many shortcomings: (i) phase, with direct control of the sinusoidal output current. But
variable switching frequency in the fundamental cycle and direct feedback of the output grid current of an LCL filter on
hence spread harmonic spectrum (ii) increased current error if its own can be inherently unstable, and it is necessary to have
the middle point of dc-link and system neutral are not another feedback loop of the capacitor current (see Figs 1 and
7) or the current in the main inductor L1 [10, 17, 33]. One of between different modes seamless. As mentioned earlier,
the challenging aspects of this controller structure is that it is however, this control method does not directly control the
not possible to have a high outer loop gain using a simple current injected into the grid and meeting the THD standards
compensation or PID controller. Resonant controllers [34] may be challenging if the grid voltage THD is relatively high.
and virtual inductance [35] could be used to help increase the Often, metering of power is incorporated as a function in
outer loop gain, and, hence, improve disturbance rejection. commercial controllers, which can be remotely interrogated
Other types of controllers, including optimal control via Ethernet, CAN bus or wireless connection.
strategies[36], state-feedback approach [20], and sliding
mode controllers [37] have also been proposed. e jwt
An alternative is to use feedforward schemes to
compensate for grid voltage harmonics [17] or inverter dead
time [38] at the expense of extra complexity and cost.
Repetitive or cyclic feedback has also been proposed: the e − jwt
output current is compared with the demanded current on a Fig 6: The basic idea of the d-q transformation approach
cycle by cycle basis, and accordingly, the effective reference
current demanded from the inverter is modified to
compensate for the disturbances. However, repetitive
feedback was found in practice to lack robustness and to be + 1 1 − 1
sensitive to parameter uncertainty [39]. PWM
− L1 s Cs L2 s