2014 International Conference on Power System Technology (POWERCON 2014)
2014
Application of Model Current Predictive
Control in Low Voltage Ride Through of
Photovoltaic Station
JIA Lihu, ZHU Yongqiang, GUO Wenrui, WANG Yinshun
 the orders, which can not only reduce the other reactive
Abstract—As the large amount of new energy accessed to the
power system, the transient cut off of the new energy from the
grid will have an inevitable influence on the power system, at the
same time, various faults of the power system will have bad
impact on the new energy system. This paper makes the
photovoltaic generation system as the research object, and the
research mainly focused on the low voltage ride through ability of
photovoltaic station when the grid occurs three-phase short
circuit fault and heavy load disturbance, which means the
grid-connected inverters can not only keep on operation
uninterrupted, but also injects the reactive current into the system,
which can provide voltage support for the power system during
the period of grid fault. Based on the foundation of traditional
control strategy of low voltage ride-through of photovoltaic power
station, a new control strategy of low voltage ride-through of
photovoltaic inverter based on model current predictive control
(MPC) is proposed in this paper. The discrete-time model of the
inverter, filter, and load are used to predict the future behavior of
the output currents for each of the eight possible switching states.
This control method used the cost function to choose a switching
state that minimizes the error between the output currents and
their references. This control strategy has some advantages, such
as, control system design is relatively simple, output currents can
follow their references order quickly, so it has a good dynamic
characteristic. Finally, three-phase short circuit fault and heavy
load disturbance simulations have been carried out on the
PSCAD/EMTDC platform, the simulation results show that
during the low voltage of the system, the PV plant can support the
voltage by providing reactive power. During the heavy load access
into the system suddenly, grid-inverters can control the
photovoltaic station inject certain reactive current into the power
system and provide power for the heavy load nearby according to
This work was supported in part by the Fundamental research funds for the
Central Universities and State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power
System with Renewable Energy Sources open fund project.
JIA Lihu, was with North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206,
China. e-mail: jialihu@ncepuedu.cn.
ZHU Yongqiang, was with North China Electric Power University, Beijing
102206, China. e-mail: zyq@ncepu.edu.cn.
GUO Wenrui, was with North China Electric Power University, Beijing
102206, China. e-mail: guofrank@163.com.
WANG Yinshun, was with North China Electric Power University, Beijing
102206, China. e-mail: yswang@ncepu.edu.cn.
POWERCON 2014 Paper No CP2529
Chengdu, 20-22 Oct.
equipment investment, but also improve the transient stability of
the power system. According to the study in this paper, the
proposed method has been proved effective.
Index Terms—Cost function, grid-connected inverters, low
voltage ride through, model current predictive control,
photovoltaic plants.
I. INTRODUCTION
D riven by the pressure of solving energy shortage crisis and
protecting the environment, a consensus has been reached
by researchers and policy makers around the world that new
energy resources mainly represented by solar power and wind
power should be developed and exploited vigorously. The
larger the scale of new energy connected to the grid, the heavier
the influence is exerted on the power grid. The connection and
disconnection of photovoltaic power station with a large energy
volume will exert a great influence on the stability of the power
system, and on the other side power electronic devices broadly
implemented in new energy power stations are vulnerable
during power system faults[1], [2]. As a consequence,
photovoltaic power station with a large energy volume is
required of being capable to conduct low voltage ride-through
according to the latest grid connection standard released by the
State Grid Corporation of China.
PV inverter is the key equipment for photovoltaic power
station to realise low voltage ride-through. An LVRT control
strategy implemented on a single-stage non-isolated PV
inverter achieving LVRT by coordinating active power and
reactive power is proposed [3], but the aforementioned control
strategy adopts the traditional double closed-loop control
strategy, the control circuit contains multiple PI controller,
therefore, regulating parameters is difficult in practical
engineering.
In the reference [4], it presents a new LVRT SPLL
(software phase locked loop) technique which is simpler and
faster, and designs a grid-connected PV (photovoltaic) inverter
based on the SPLL technique and relative control strategy.
Without giving consideration to circumstances of voltage sag
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over 20%, stability and reliability of the control algorithm
under serious fault cannot be guaranteed.
On the basis of [5-9], this paper adopts model current
predictive control strategy (MPC) on the control of PV inverter
for grid connection, which improves the traditional LVRT
method remarkably, and gains desirable dynamic responses
that distributes active power and reactive power according to
the situation of grid voltage sag rapidly and supports the
voltage of the grid-connection point. What’s more, linear
current controller and PWM modulation module is abandoned
in the aforementioned control strategy, so the control algorithm
is simple, realised with digital signal processing(DSP) and
conducted in engineering practice are easy.
II. LVRT REQUIREMENTS OF PV POWER STATION
Technical Requirement for grid connection of PV power
station mentions: PV power station should satisfy requirements
of LVRT as shown in Fig.1. a) When voltage of
grid-connection point of PV station drops to 0, PV power
station should be able to stay online and in continuous
operation for 0.15s; b) when voltage of grid-connection point of
PV station drops below curve 1, PV power station can be
switched out from the grid [10].
inductor, and circuit element labeled with R is the equivalent
resistor.
g1 g3 g5
ia R eA
U dc
a ~
ib R eB
b eC
~
c ic R
~
g4 g6 g2
Fig. 2 Structure of Grid-connected inverter
According to the Kirchhoff’s voltage law, dynamic current
equation of the inverter can be described as follows:
dik
L ukN  Rik  ek  unN (1)
dt
where k=a, b, c. ik represents the output current of inverter for
grid connection; ukN represents output voltage of inverter for
grid-connection; unN represents voltage between neutral point
of grid voltage and the negative electrode of the DC ; ek
represents the three phase grid voltage . Assuming that the grid
voltage is symmetrical, then we get the equation ea+eb+ec=0.
Now we analyze relationship between output voltage
vectors and switch status of the three phase inverter for
grid-connection [15]. Every set of bridge has two switch status
including case that upper leg of the bridge switches on and the
case that the lower leg of the bridge switches on, so that the
inverter has 23=8 switch status, which can be described using
single polar two-value logic switch function

­1, if S1 on and S 4 off

ga ® (2a)
¯0, if S1 off and S 4 on
­1, if S3 on and S6 off
Fig. 1. LVRT capacity requirements of photovoltaic plants gb ® (2b)
¯0, if S3 off and S6 on
III. SYSTEM MODEL AND PREDICTIVE CURRENT CONTROL ­1, if S5 on and S 2 off
STRATEGY gc ® (2c)
Model current predictive control strategy is based on the fact ¯0, if S5 off and S 2 on
that only a finite number of possible switching states can be Output voltage of inverter˖
generated. In addition, system model can predict the behaviors u U dc ( g a  ag b  a 2 g c ) (3)
of limited control variables under various switch status [11-15]. 2
For the selection of the appropriate switching state to be applied, j S
In equation (3), a e . 3
a selection criteria must be defined. This selection criteria is
expressed as a cost function that will be evaluated for the Converted from three phase static axis abc to two phase
predicted values of the variables to be con-trolled. Prediction of static axis DE , we get,
the future value of these variables is calculated for each ­ 2 1 1
possible switching state. The switching state that minimizes the °uD ( g a  gb  g c ) ˜ U dc
quality function is selected in the next period.
° 3 2 2 (4)
®
Fig.2 shows the main circuit of the PV inverter for grid ° 2
connection. The circuit element labeled with L is the filtering °̄uE 2 b
( g  g c ) ˜ U dc

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 2014 International Conference on Power System Technology (POWERCON 2014) Chengdu, 20-22 Oct. 2014

The relationship between switch status and output voltage of and reactive power Q are respectively:
the inverter is shown in Fig.3. 3 3
E P ed id , Q  ed iq (8)
2 2
V3 V2 It can be concluded that the instantaneous active power and
the instantaneous reactive power of the inverter is only
g (0

determined by components of output current of inverter on axes

)
10
10

g (1

V0 d and q which are represented by idǃiq respectively, which

)

V4 g ( 00
0) V1
g (011) g (100) makes it possible to achieve decoupling control of active power
g (1
11) D and reactive power of inverter by controlling idǃiq.
01)

V7 After transformation of coordinates dq / DE , reference of

g (1
g (0

01)

*
V5 active current and reactive current id* ǃ iq that needed to be
V6
* *
Fig. 3 Relationship between switch states and output voltage
poured into the grid can be converted to reference iD ǃ iE in

Performing abc / DE conversion on equation (1), we get two phase static coordinates DE .
­ diD § iD* · § cosM  sinM · § id* ·
°° L dt uD  eD  RiD ¨ *¸ ¨ ¨ ¸
¨ i ¸ © sinM cosM ¸¹ ¨ i* ¸
(9)
(5)
® ©E¹ © q¹
° L diE uE  eE  RiE Value function is chosen as follows:
°̄ dt
c [iD*  iD ( k 1) ]2  [iD*  iE ( k 1) ]2 (10)
In the equation, uD ǃuE are components of output voltage of
where iD (k 1) ǃ iE (k 1) in the function are predictions of the
the inverter projected on axis D and E ; iD ǃ iE are
next sampling period.
components of output current of the inverter projected on axis
D and E ; eD ǃ eE are components of voltage of IV. CONTROL STRATEGY OF LVRT OF PV INVERTER
grid-connection point of the inverter projected on axis When grid voltage fluctuates between 0.9 p.u. and 1.1 p.u,
D and E ˗ the power system stays in normal operation; when grid voltage
drops below 0.9 p.u., the control model of the PV inverter
During the time period( tk , tk 1 ), perform discretization on switches to LVRT control from the normal control when the
(5), we get fault occurs. The reference of predictive current in normal
control is based on outer loop voltage, whereas the reference of
­ iD (k  1)  iD (k ) LVRT control is set by customer directly.
°L TS
uD (k )  eD (k )  RiD (k ) According to requirements of LVRT of PV power station
° (6) [10], dynamic reactive current Iq poured into the power system
®
i
°L E ( k  1)  iE (k ) by PV power station should trace the voltage variation of grid
uE (k )  eE (k )  RiE (k )
°¯ TS connection point in real time, and should meet the following
conditions,
where TS tk 1  tk is the sampling period. ­ Iq t 1.5 u (0.9  U G ) I N (0.2 d U G d 0.9)
It can be deduced from equation (6), ° (11)
® Iq t 1.05 I N (U G  0.2)
­ § RTS · TS ° Iq 0 (U G  0.9)
°iD (k 1) ¨1 L ¸ iD (k)  L > (uD (k)  eD (k))@ ¯
° © ¹ ˄7˅ where UG is the per unit value of the voltage of the grid
®
°i (k 1) §1 RTS · i (k)  TS ª(u (k)  e (k))º connection point of the PV power station; IN = rated installed
¨ ¸E
°¯ E L¬ ¼
E E
© L ¹
capacity of the PV power station / ( 3 u rated voltage of the
Under condition of balanced three phase voltage, applying grid connection point).
orientation control with grid voltage vectors, we orient axis d of The reactive current poured into the grid can be calculated
synchronously rotating coordinates dq to the direction of vector based on voltages of grid connection point, and both the active
Es which is synthesized by grid voltage, then we get the current and the reactive current should not exceed 1.1 times of
following equations: ed=|E|,eq=0. According to the the rated current, which can be described by the following
instantaneous power theory, the instantaneous active power P

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 2014 International Conference on Power System Technology (POWERCON 2014) Chengdu, 20-22 Oct. 2014

inequality: connection point of PV power station is carried out on the

2 2 PSCAD/EMTDC platform, and feasibility and validity of the
i  i d 1.1I N
d q (12) proposed LVRT control strategy based on model current
LVRT control strategy based on model current prediction prediction is also verified. The capacity of the PV station is
* 1MW, the output voltage of the converter is 0.4kV, then it
manipulates id* ǃ iq mainly according to the voltage sag of the
connected to the grid through a 1000kVA/10kV transformer.
grid connection point. To avoid current increase, we apply LGJ-240/40 is chosen for the overhead line, and the length is
limiting amplitude control [16-18]. The block diagram of 10km.
LVRT control based on model current prediction is described in k (3)
Fig.4,
S
*
i
d
iq* predictive current control
iD* ga
dq / DE gb cost 
iE* predictive Grid
function g Fig. 6 Structure diagram of PV grid-connected system
c
T iD , E ( k )
model iD , E ( k  1)
B. Three phase short circuit fault
Three phase short circuit fault occurs on 10kv bus at 0.5s, and
lasts for 0.1s. the relay protection devices clears the fault at 0.6s,
and the system recovers. Before the fault occurs, the PV power
Fig. 4 Diagram of photovoltaic inverter control station operates with rated power output, and the power factor
is 1.
Fig.5 presents the control flow diagram of model current
predictive control, in which the programming in simulation is
completed using interface of language C in PSCAD/EMTDC.

uDˈE f ( S a , Sb , S c , Vdc )
(a) Instantaneous voltage and current
( k  2) ( k +1) ( k +1) ( k +1)
at grid connection point
iD ˈE f (iDˈE , uDˈE , eDˈE )

iDˈE * f (id * , iq * , M )

c (iD*  iD ( k  2) ) 2  (iE*  iE ( k  2) ) 2

if c (i ) d gop

(b) Comparison of active power at grid connection point

Fig. 5 Control flow of model current predictive control

V. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONTROL STRATEGY

A. Parameters in the simulation
In this paper, as shown in Fig.6, simulation cases of both
three-phase grounding fault and large load disturbance of grid

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 2014 International Conference on Power System Technology (POWERCON 2014)
(c) Comparison of reactive power at grid connection point
Voltage(p.u)
.
(d) Comparison of voltage at grid connection point
Fig. 7 Comparison of parameters
before & after LVRT control
Due to the limiting amplitude effect of the inverter, the
output current of the inverter stays basically unchanged in
comparison to the value before the voltage sag occurs, whereas,
the phase between voltage and current changes remarkably, as
shown in Fig.7(a), because of the reactive power poured into
the grid through the control of LVRT to sustain the grid
voltage.
The capacity of the PV power station in the simulation
model is 1MW, of which the compensating capacity is 1MVAR.
To clearly explain the effect of voltage support of the PV power
station to the grid, the active current reference is set by id*
and the reactive current reference is set by iq*  1 following
the priority of reactive power, which means the active current
value is zero. It can be seen from Fig.7(b)(c), after the
application of LVRT control strategy, the volume of reactive
power improves from 0MVAR to 0.65 MVAR, and active
power reduces from 0.9MW to 0MW. In the meantime, the PV
power station offers no active power to the grid, and becomes
reactive power compensating device completely. Furthermore,
active power and reactive power will recover rapidly and be
back the steady-state value as soon as the fault is excluded.
As shown in Fig.7(d), after the application of the LVRT
control strategy, inverter can regulate the power rapidly
according to the current reference given, which offers voltage
support to the grid and improves the voltage of the grid
connection point from 0.683p.u. to 0.703p.u..
POWERCON 2014 Paper No CP2529
Chengdu, 20-22 Oct. 2014
C. Grid connection point voltage with heavy load
At 0.5s, the active load at the terminal of the 10kV bus
doubles abruptly, and keeps that volume without further change.
Before the change of the load volume, the PV power station
operates at the rated power capacity with unity power factor.
After LVRT control strategy was carried out, comparison of the
waveforms of the voltage and power is shown as Fig.8.
(a) Comparison of active power at grid connection point
(b) Comparison of reactive power at grid connection point
0 ,
(c) Comparison of voltage at grid connection point
Fig. 8 Comparison of parameters before & after
LVRT control
After load variation, the output of active power will reduce
and the output of reactive power will increase if the LVRT
control of active and reactive power is applied, as shown in
Fig.8(a),(b), and both the active power and the reactive power
of the inverter will trace the reference value.
As shown in Fig.8(c), after load is put into operation, the
voltage of the 10kV bus will drop below 0.91p.u. if LVRT
control strategy of power is not applied; in contrary, the bus
voltage can be raised to 0.937p.u. ,and voltage support will be
offer to the grid by PV power station if the LVRT control
strategy is applied. It can be seen from the simulation example,
during the voltage sag period, the PV power station can offer
reactive power to the grid in a very short time, which functions
as voltage support to the grid. Because of the limited volume of
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 2014 International Conference on Power System Technology (POWERCON 2014)
the PV power station, reactive power offered to the grid is also
limited. However, during grid disturbance or fault period,
regardless of the output characteristics of the reactive power,
PV power stations offers voltage support to the grid in some
degree, which improves the transient stability of the power
system.
VI. CONCLUSION
A predictive current control strategy and its practical
implementation in LVRT of grid-connected PV station has
been presented. It has been shown that the proposed method
control were very effective, and it can also offers desirable
dynamic responses that will contributes to fast control of
inverter for grid connection. Three phase short circuit fault and
heavy load disturbance have been carried out on the
PSCAD/EMTDC platform, from the simulation result, it can be
seen that by applying the control strategy during the fault
period, the PV power station can improve its LVRT ability and
offer the grid with some reactive power, which supports voltage
in local field and cuts the volume of devices of traditional
reactive compensation. What’s more, by using such control
strategy, system will recover and be back to the normal
operation rapidly, and the transient stability of the PV power
station will be improved, which has vital practical significance.
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