Control Design and Experimental Verification of a Multi-Function SinglePhase Bidirectional PWM Converter for Renewable Energy Systems

Dong Dong, Timothy Thacker, Rolando Burgos, Dushan Boroyevich, Fred Wang and *Bill Giewont Center for Power Electronics Systems The Bradley Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA 24061 E-Mail: dongd@vt.edu *VACON, Inc. 3181 Black Gap Road Chambersburg, PA 17202, U.S.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of VACON, Inc., and their donation of a TBWOODS X4 motor drive to conduct the experimental demonstration.

Keywords
Converter control, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), Renewable energy systems, Single-phase system.

Abstract
This paper proposes a multi-function control system for single-phase bidirectional PWM converters for renewable energy system applications. A common inner ac current-loop between the different modes helps to facilitate a seamless transition between them, where several individually designed outer loops alternatively perform the different regulation tasks, namely ac voltage, dc voltage, and dc current. The frequency-response based design procedure for the proposed control system is presented in detail for all the converter operating modes, and its performance is verified experimentally using a DSP-controlled 7 kW 120 V ac 300 V dc laboratory prototype.

Introduction
In recent years, due to the growing concern over energy shortage and environmental pollution, the concepts of distributed generation (DG) systems, smart grid systems, and dc-based hybrid power systems have become progressively more popular, especially with the decreasing costs of various clean renewable energy sources like wind, bio-mass, solar, and fuel-cell systems. These DG systems would be connected to the utility grid under normal operating conditions; but additionally, these systems have the capability to sustain a local system by sourcing power directly from the renewable energy sources and energy storage devices if necessary. Distributed hybrid power systems (DHPS) consist of ac and dc subsystems connected to various load types, where the DG resources can be either dc or ac systems [1]. The critical component for such a system is the bi-directional pulse-width-modulation (PWM) converter that connects the dc and ac subsystems and these to the utility grid. Fig. 1 illustrates a possible single-phase DHPS with energy storage on the dc side and other renewable energy sources throughout the system.

Ldc

Fig. 1: Single-phase AC/DC interactive renewable energy system Using this system configuration, the converter in the DHPS should operate in the following modes: 1. Stand-alone inverter mode: When the grid is lost, the converter regulates the ac bus voltage and frequency feeding the ac loads while drawing energy from the renewable energy sources or energy storage on the dc side. The renewable energy sources on the ac side act as current sources in this case. 2. Grid-tied inverter mode: When the grid is present, the converter acts as a current source, injecting or sinking power from the grid to balance the power flow between the dc and ac subsystems, while one of the dc sources regulates the dc bus voltage. 3. Rectifier mode: When the grid is present, the converter regulates the dc bus voltage to sustain the dc loads while all the dc side energy sources operate as current sources. 4. Battery-charger mode: When the grid is present, the converter charges the energy storage elements, such as batteries.

Modes of OperationModeling and Control Structure

Before the control structure is implemented and designed, the converter system needs to be modeled. Specifically, the full-bridge multi-functional PWM converter in question is shown in Fig. 2, and its switching model is described in (1) and (2).

Fig. 2: Multi-functional single-phase bidirectional converter

vAB idc

sab vdc s ab iac

(1) (2)

By applying the moving average operator on a switching cycle basis to (1) and (2) the average model is obtained as (3) and (4), vAB d ab vdc (3)

idc

d abiac

(4)

where vAB is the terminal voltage of the full bridge, sab is the switching function, and dab is the average duty cycle. Notice that if vdc is constant, the terminal voltage is only a function of the duty cycle. The differential equations describing the average model of this full-bridge converter may then be derived as follows:

diac v AB  vac dt v dv Cac ac iac  ac Z ac dt v dv Cdc dc ibattery  dc  idc Z dc dt dibattery Ldc vdc  vbattery dt L

(5) (6) (7) (8)

The average model and small-signal model for different modes can be derived combining (3) through (8). Note that during grid-tied mode, the dynamics of the ac capacitor can be ignored, just as the dynamics of the dc capacitor can be ignored during stand-alone mode. For the battery-charger mode, the dynamics of the battery voltage are very slow compared to the dc-link voltage, and can be ignored too. Also, like the single-phase boost power factor correction (PFC) circuit [7], for rectifier and battery-charger mode, there is no small-signal model that can cover its operation from dc up to half of the switching frequency due to the time-variant nature of the converter which is never in steady state per se. The control structure is selected to be a double-loop feedback system as shown in Fig. 3. The inner loop is used to regulate the ac line inductor current, in order to achieve a fast dynamic response for input disturbances, while the outer loop regulates different control variables depending on the operating mode, such as the ac voltage, dc voltage or dc charging current.

Fig. 3: Multi-functional single-phase converter control structure

Generic Inner AC Current Loop Design and PLL Implementation

As seen, all operating modes are built around the same inner loop, since it can be demonstrated that the same current loop compensator can be designed and shared by all modes. Specifically, for the gridtied inverter mode the small-signal transfer function from control-to-current can be simply obtained from the average model given by (35) and applying a small-signal perturbation as follows:

Gid ( s )

~ iac ~ d ab

Vdc

1 sL

(9)

For the stand-alone inverter mode, the transfer function from control-to-current is obtained directly from the average model described by (36) and applying a perturbation; this yields:

Gid ( s)
Although the stand-alon

~ iac ~ d ab

Vdc

1  sZ ac Cac Z ac  sL  s 2 LZ ac Cac

(10)

~ v ac ~ idc
~ v dc

~ ~ v d d abv dc dc ab ~ ~ d ab iac  d abiac ~ ~ v i sL

ac ac

(11) (12) (13) (14)

Z dc ~ idc sZ dc Cdc  1

The control-to-current loop transfer function can then be expressed as

2 d ab Z dc ~  sL) iac sZ dcCdc  1

(

~ d ab Z dc iac  vdc )d ab sZ dc Cdc  1

(15)

Now supposing that the 120 Hz ripple superimposed on the averaged dc voltage is very small,

vdc Vdc  vripple | Vdc  d ab Z dciac

(5) can be simplified to

(16) (17)

Vdc  vripple | Vdc

2  sZ dc Cdc d Z dc  sL  s 2 Z dc LC dc
2 ab

Gid ( s )

~ iac ~ d ab

Vdc

(18)

This same derivation can be applied when the converter is connected to the grid on battery-charger mode; hence the same transfer function is used in both operating modes. Now, the current compensator can be designed based on (9), (10) and (18); but the varying nature of the resultant transfer function must be considered given that it changes under varying load conditions, actual operating mode, and even the converter operating point itself. A comprehensive linear design can still be carried out however if the control-to-current transfer function is closely examined under different conditions. Specifically, the Bode plots shown in Fig. 46 show that for the stand-alone inverter and rectifier modes the different load conditions only change the low frequency response of the converter, that is, below the resonance point. Under different operating points however, the low frequency response and the resonance frequency shift in the rectifier mode. It should be noticed that when compared with the stand-alone inverter mode, the resonance frequency of the rectifier mode is always lower than that of the inverter because of the much larger dc-link capacitor when compared to the ac line capacitor in the inverter mode.

Fig. 4: Bode plot of control-to-current transfer function in stand-alone inverter mode under different load levels

Fig. 5: Bode plot of control-to-current transfer function for three operating modes with different load levels for the rectifier mode

Fig. 6: Bode plot of control-to-current transfer function for three modes with different duty cycles in rectifier mode. From the above Bode plots, it can be seen that for all the different operating modes and different operating conditions, the system has the same frequency response beyond the resonant frequency. Consequently, if the current loop controller is designed to achieve a very high cross-over frequency, all of the small signal transfer functions of the different modes can be simply reduced to:

Gid ( s )

~ iac ~ d ab

Vdc

1 sL

(19)

This reduced small-signal model is only dependent on the dc-link voltage and the line inductor value. This means that the different modes of operation will have different phase or gain at lower frequencies, but the same bandwidth and phase margin can be achieved for all modes in the middle to high frequency range. The design of a single ac current controller for all of the operating modes is then possible, with the only requirement being that the bandwidth be large enough to cover all modes of operation. The difference between the low frequency responses can be dealt with by the use of a properly designed compensator. Since the inverter mode represents the worst condition, the current loop compensator is designed for this case. Under light load or no load conditions, the current PID compensator has the following structure.

H i ( s)

( s  z1 )( s  z2 ) s ( s  p1 )( s  p2 )

(20)

The zeros in (20) are placed around the resonance to compensate the drop in phase, and the poles are used to attenuate the high frequency response. The integrator and proportional gain K are used to achieve the desired gain and bandwidth for the current loop. A feed-forward loop is also applied to measure the dc-link voltage and decouple the plant gain from Vdc as shown in (19). Finally, the Bode plot of the combined current loop compensator, sensor filter and digital delay is shown in Fig. 7. RemarkAll the control modeling and design previously presented is based on the use of an ideal PLL. In this case, a PLL with nearly ideal characteristics was used as presented in [9]. The block diagram of this PLL is shown in Fig. 8, but for its detailed implementation the reader is referred to the aforementioned reference.

200 Magnitude (dB) 100 0 -100 -200 -300 1800 1440 Phase (deg) 1080 720 360 0 -360 10
2

Compensated Current Loop

stand_inverter 200W T_grid_inverter T_grid_rectifier 200W d=0.9

10

10

Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 7: Compensated inner current loop in all modes

Fig. 8: Stationary frame single-phase PLL

Outer-Loop Controller Design

A. Stand-Alone Inverter Mode The outer loop in this case is an ac voltage loop; as such, the ac-current to ac-voltage transfer function is as follows (assuming the load is resistive):

Gvi ( s )

~ v ac ~ iac

Rac 1  sRac Cac

(21)

The outer loop compensator used is shown in (22).

H1 ( s)

( s  z1 )( s  z 2 ) s ( s  p1 )( s  p2 )

(22)

A single integrator is placed to achieve zero steady state error, the zeros are placed around the crossover frequency to achieve a high phase margin, while the poles are placed to attenuate high frequency noise components and maintain stability. The compensated outer loop is shown in Fig. 9.
Open-Loop Bode Editor for Open Loop 1 (OL1) 100 Magnitude (dB) 0 -100
G.M.: 8.37 dB

-200 Freq: 2.49e+003 Hz

Unstable loop

1440 ase (deg) 1080 720 360 0 -360 P.M.: 43.9 deg -720 0 10
Freq: 522 Hz

10

10 Frequency (Hz)

10

Fig. 9: Compensated outer voltage loop at stand-alone inverter mode B. Rectifier Mode The voltage loop in this case is designed using the assumption that the current loop is already in place and can accurately track the current reference. Since the voltage loop is very slow, we can take the rms value as the steady state operating point and use the power balance to model the voltage loop as used for boost PFC circuits [8]. The power-balance equation is as follows, VacRMSI acRMS Vdc I dc (23)

where the left side of the equation is the input power, and the right side is the output power. The voltage controller can then be modeled as follows based on the control configuration shown in Fig. 3.

I acRMS

Vc

VacRMS K

(24)

In (24), Vc represents the output of the voltage loop, and K is the scaling factor of the PLL. Combining these two equations yields

V 2 acRMS Vc K
~ idc

Vdc I dc
2

(25)

Then, applying a small signal perturbation to (25) gives:

2 I dc ~ V ~  I dc v ~ vac  acRMS v c dc Vdc KVdc Vdc ~ v dc ~ vc VacRMS Rdc KVdc 2  sC dc Rdc

2

(26)

If a resistive load is connected, the outer loop transfer function then becomes: (27)

where the outer loop compensator has the following structure.

H 2 (s)

( s  z1 ) s ( s  p1 )

(28)

In (28), the integrator is placed to achieve infinite loop gain at dc thus eliminating the dc errors. One zero is placed to cancel the plant pole and another pole is placed after the crossover frequency to attenuate the loop gain at 120 Hz. C. Battery-Charger Mode Compared to the rectifier mode, the battery-charger mode differs in the outer loop control variable. Since both modes have the same pulsating power characteristics, the outer loop modeling method is similar. The outer loop transfer function is then given by

~ idc ~ v c

VacRMS KVdc

1 1 I dc sLdc Vdc 1  s 2 Ldc C dc

(29)

The compensator is designed based on the above small-signal transfer function. The outer loop compensator is shown in (30),

H 3 ( s)

1 s ( s  p1 )

(30)

where the integrator is used to achieve infinite loop gain at dc, thus eliminating steady state errors, and one pole is placed after the crossover frequency to attenuate the loop gain at 120 Hz. The compensated outer loop transfer function for rectifier and battery-charger mode is shown in Fig. 10.

Open-Loop Bode Editor for Open Loop 1 (OL1) 50

Open-Loop Bode Editor for Open Loop 1 (OL1) 50 Magnitude (dB) 0 -50 -100 G.M.: 30.6 dB -150 270 Phase (deg) 180 90 0 -90 P.M.: 67.4 deg -180 -1 10
Freq: 6.35 Hz Freq: 57.8 Hz Stable loop

Magnitude (dB)

0
G.M.: Inf Stable loop

-50 Freq: Inf -45 -90 -135 -180 -1 10

P.M.: 50.5 deg Freq: 17 Hz

10

10 Frequency (Hz)

10

10

10

10 Frequency (Hz)

10

10

Fig. 10: Compensated outer current Loop at rectifier and battery-charger mode The control design is then finalized based on the control structure presented in Fig. 3. Correspondingly, simply changing the outer loop controller achieves the actual transfer between operating modes, in what looks like a simple ac current step transient for the inner current loop. The procedure for mode transition is shown in Fig. 11. It can be seen that the grid-tied inverter mode is the base transfer state. Between any two modes the system should always first change to the grid-tied inverter mode to ensure a truly seamless transition, since the current-loop compensator was designed for this operating mode. For the transient between grid-tied mode and stand-alone mode, a well designed islanding detection and resynchronization method needs to be implemented.
1. AC current zero-crossing 2. Sense back the DC-link voltage Vo, and Set Vo as the initial reference value 3. Switch in the outer loop controller 4. Ramp up the reference to the desire value 1. Grid is back 2. PLL detects phase and adjusts the phase of reference 3. reconnect the break 4. Switch in PLL and Switch out Outer loop controller

Grid-tied Rectifier Mode Grid-tied Inverter Mode Stand-alone Inverter Mode

1. Detect loss of grid from PLL, and turn off break 2. AC current zero-crossing 3. Sense back the AC voltage, and calculate the initial phase 4. Set initial phase into voltage reference 5. Switch out PLL and Switch in Outer loop controller

1. Sense back the output of outer loop I, and Set I as the initial current magnitude reference value 2. Switch out the outer loop controller 3. Ramp up the reference to the desired value

Grid-tied Charger/ Discharger Mode

1. AC current zero-crossing 2. Sense back the DC-link Voltage Vo 3. Look up the charge profile to obtain charge current value Ib 4. Switch in the outer loop controller 5. Ramp up the charge current reference from zero to Ib

Fig. 11: Procedures for transition between different modes

System Test Setup and Experimental Verification

An experimental evaluation was conducted using a 7 kW single-phase PWM inverter controlled with a DSP-FPGA digital control system. The converter used a 1.2 mH ac line inductor, a 75 F ac capacitor, a 1.5 mH dc charging inductor, a 7.4 mF dc-link capacitor, and a Nilar NiMH battery pack. Fig. 12

through Fig. 20 show the results obtained. Specifically, Fig. 12 shows the transient response from noload condition to full-load (5 kW) condition under stand-alone mode. As seen, the output voltage is regulated at 120 V rms and the transient response is fast and without oscillations. Fig. 13 to 15 show the converter operating in grid-tied inverter mode with an ac voltage of 120 V rms, and with an ac current of 15 A rms, while operating respectively with full capacitive, unity, and 180q power factor angles. These results show how reactive power compensation can be easily achieved by this controller. Fig. 16 shows the load transient between no-load and full-load (4.5 kW) under rectifier mode. The load step was applied using a solid-state switch on dc side to connect and disconnect a dc load. As observed, the dc-link voltage can be regulated at 300 V without problems under different loads while also handling large load transitions. Fig. 17 and Fig. 18 show the operation under battery-charger mode under 2 kW condition with different power factor angles, evincing how the dc current can be controlled to charge the battery pack regardless of the latter. Finally, Fig. 19 and Fig. 20 show the mode transitions between grid-tied charging mode to inverter mode, and from unity power factor inverter mode to leading power factor inverter mode respectively. As seen, the performance of the converter under all operating modes was found to exhibit an excellent performance with a well determined dynamic response and stability region.

AC line current AC load current

AC line current

AC bus
Fig. 12: No-load to full-load at stand-alone inverter mode. AC current [10A/DIV], AC voltage [100V/DIV]

Grid voltage
Fig. 13: 90o Power factor (pure reactive power mode) at gridtied inverter mode. AC current [5A/DIV], AC voltage [100V/DIV]

Grid voltage
Fig. 14: Unity power factor (generative mode) at grid-tied inverter mode. AC current [5A/DIV], AC voltage [100V/DIV]

AC current

AC current

DC charging DC bus

DC bus Grid voltage DC load

Fig. 16: No-load to full-load at rectifier mode. AC current and dc load current [10A/DIV], AC voltage [200V/DIV], DC-link voltage [100V/DIV]

AC current Grid voltage

Fig. 17: Unity power factor charging at battery-charger mode. AC current and dc charging current [10A/DIV], AC voltage and dc-link voltage[100V/DIV]

Grid voltage
Fig. 15: 180o Power factor (regenerative mode) at grid-tied inverter mode. AC current [5A/DIV], AC voltage [100V/DIV]

DC charging DC bus AC current Grid voltage DC bus

DC charging AC current

DC charging AC current

DC bus

Grid voltage

Grid voltage
Fig. 20: Mode transition from leading power factor inverter mode to unity power factor inverter mode. AC current and dc charging current [10A/DIV], AC voltage and dc-link voltage[100V/DIV]

Fig. 18: 60o Power factor charging at battery-charger mode. AC current and dc charging current [10A/DIV], AC voltage and dc-link voltage[100V/DIV]

Fig. 19: Mode transition from charging mode to inverter mode. AC current and dc charging current [10A/DIV], AC voltage and dc-link voltage[100V/DIV]

Conclusion
This paper proposed a complete modeling and control design method for a bi-directional, single-phase PWM converter for distributed renewable energy system applications. A simple control structure was used to cover all of the required operating modes, including a bidirectional battery-charger mode, which can be readily extended for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) applications. The resultant control structure was very simple and presented a robust response even for extreme load steps between no-load and full-load conditions. The transition between modes was also seamlessly achieved, as predicted, due to the common inner current-loop that all operating modes have. The proposed control system was exhaustively tested and verified experimentally using a 7 kW laboratory prototype achieving an excellent performance.

References
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