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Ricardo J. S
(1) ISR Dept
U
3
e-mail: rjsl
bstract Now
onventional so
gines as sour
pply and isol
creasing oppo
ncerns. To fa
ergy have been
ystems that u
vironmentally
used for a gr
neration to fee
this work, a s
ower generatio
stem as a sour
stem is a DC
C/AC power
chnique, able t
step-up trans
propriate RM
pply the loads
he presented r
atlab/Simulink
r different kind
Keywords- F
uality
The use of
ngines and lea
ue to environm
ears other kind
ovide solution
M INVE
ASE HI
Sousa Lima
(1
t. of Electrical
University of C
030-290 Coim
lima@isr.uc.p
adays, environ
olutions that u
rces of energy
lated power g
osition due to
ace these issu
n studied in th
use fuel cells
y safe and very
reat number of
ed isolated sing
ystem for a sta
n is presented
rce of electrica
voltage, which
converter tha
to generate an
sformer increa
MS value and a
with high qua
results corresp
k platform, us
ds of loads wit
Fuel Cells; PWM
I. IN
energy sourc
ad-acid batter
mental and eco
ds of electrica
ns to face these
ERTER
HIGH Q
1)
, Andr M. S
l and Compute
Coimbra, Plo
mbra (Portuga
pt, adealmeida
nmental issues
use lead acid
y for both un
generation sys
o environmen
es, alternative
e last few year
as electric
y efficient. This
f applications
gle-phase electr
and-alone sing
d. The system i
l energy. The o
h is then appl
at uses a sui
AC output vol
ases the AC o
passive AC filt
ality power.
pond to the s
sing the SimPo
th high quality
WM Inverters; P
NTRODUCTION
ces such as
ies are facing
onomical prob
al sources hav
e problems.
ERS FO
QUAL
S. Mendes
(2)
er Engineerin
II
al)
a@isr.uc.pt
are of most co
batteries and
ninterruptible
stems are fac
ntal and econ
e sources of
rs.
energy sourc
s kind of syste
such as in the
ric loads.
gle-phase high
is based on a f
output voltage
lied to the inp
itable PWM
ltage.
output voltage
ter is used in o
system simula
owerSystems t
energy standa
Passive Filters;
N
internal comb
g a great opp
blems. In the la
ve been studi
OR ST
LITY P
ng
oncern.
d diesel
power
cing an
nomical
electric
ces are
ems can
e power
quality
fuel cell
e of this
put of a
control
e to an
order to
ation in
toolbox,
ards.
; Power
bustion
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ast few
ied and
Fu
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vo
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vo
pe
TAND-
POWE
A. J. Marqu
(2) Dept. of
U
3
e-mail: amsm
One of thes
uel cells are
ower without p
most the same
hemical substa
nd a product o
ectrical source
Most wides
asses of fuel c
pplication in tr
gh temperatu
ationary electr
PEMFCs ar
making them a
mote-site app
e used in s
eneration.
The major
pplications is
specially with
the use of
ansform the D
ppropriated AC
According t
haracteristic o
ystems, the t
oltage should n
40
th
order). In
oltage harmon
ercent of the n
-ALON
ER GE
ues Cardoso
(2
f Electrical an
University of C
3030-290 Coim
mendes@ieee
se new electri
electrochem
process of bur
e as battery. T
ances are use
of the chemic
es environmen
spread invest
cells: low tem
ransport and s
ure ones su
rical power ge
re quiet, appl
possibility fo
plications. The
tand-alone si
problem relat
related to th
the harmonic
f inverters wi
DC output vo
C voltage to b
to the Europe
of electricity
otal harmoni
not be greater
n Table I, are
nics on deliver
nominal voltag
NE SIN
ENERA
2)
, Anbal T.
nd Computer E
Coimbra, Plo
mbra (Portuga
e.org, ajmcard
ical sources i
mical devices,
rning. Fuel cel
The difference
d, such as hy
al reaction is
ntally safe and
tigation is ca
mperature fuel
stationary low
uch as MCF
eneration appli
icable to very
or individual r
ese kinds of e
ingle-phase h
ted with pow
he quality of
c distortion pr
ith PWM co
oltage of the f
e applied to g
ean norm EN
supplied by
ic distortion
r than 8% (inc
presented the
ry points till o
ge [2].
INGLE
ATION
de Almeida
(1
Engineering
o II
al)
oso@ieee.org
s fuel cells sy
generating
lls use chemic
e is that in them
ydrogen and o
water, makin
d very efficien
arrying out o
cells PEMF
w power sourc
FCs and SOF
ications [1].
y low size m
residential an
electrical sour
high quality
wer quality fo
f the output v
resented. This
ontrol techniq
fuel cells syst
eneral loads.
50160 about
y public distr
(THD) of th
cluding harmo
e maximum va
rder 25, expre
E-
N
1)
g
ystems.
electric
cal way,
m other
oxygen;
ng them
nt.
on two
FCs for
ces, and
FCs for
modules,
d small
ces can
power
or these
voltage,
s is due
ques to
tems in
voltage
ribution
he grid
onics up
alues of
essed in
TABLE I. VOLTAGE HARMONICS VALUES ON DELIVERY POINTS TILL
ORDER 25, EXPRESS IN PERCENT OF THE NOMINAL VOLTAGE [2]
Odd
Even
Non Multiple of 3 Multiple of 3
Order h
Relative
Voltage
(%)
Order h
Relative
Voltage
(%)
Order h
Relative
Voltage
(%)
5 6.0 3 5.0 2 2.0
7 5.0 9 1.5 4 1.0
11 3.5 15 0.5 6 ... 24 0.5
13 3.0 21 0.5
17 2.0
19 1.5
23 1.5
25
The voltage harmonics values for orders above 25 are not
presented because they are usually of small magnitude.
In order to minimise the effects of harmonics, it is needed
to combine output passive AC filters with appropriated PWM
control techniques. In this work, an inverter system that can use
a PEMFC as DC source is simulated in Matlab/Simulink
platform, using the SimPowerSystems toolbox according to the
scheme presented in Figure 1. It uses a high-precision control
of a single-phase PWM inverter with constant voltage and
frequency at output terminals. This control strategy uses a
capacitor current feedback with a phase-locked loop (PLL)
compensator that minimises the steady-state error of the output
voltage [3].
Results corresponding to the single-phase PWM inverter
system simulation for different kinds of loads with high quality
energy standards are presented.
The simulations were made for three kinds of loads:
resistive load, full wave rectifier with an output capacitor filter
for a load resistor and single-phase induction motor. The
selections were made taking into consideration the typical loads
presented on individual residential and small remote-site
applications.
Resistive loads are presented in a great variety of residential
loads such as lamps, ventilation heaters, radiators, etc.; full
wave rectifiers are presented in switching DC power supplies
used in computers, LCD TVs, etc.; and single-phase induction
motors are presented in washing machines, freezers, air
conditioners, water pumps, etc.
The results obtained will be compared with the data from
Table I to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme for
high quality power generation.
II. STRUCTURE OF THE INVERTERSYSTEM
The proposed structure for the inverter system is based on a
single-phase PWM inverter, composed by four IGBT power
switches, a step-up power transformer and a LC output filter.
The inverter has a DC voltage source input with a constant
value of 48V, corresponding to the most common output
voltage of the fuel cell systems.
The inverter output voltage is then applied to the step-up
power transformer to provide an appropriated AC output
voltage.
Figure 1. Block diagram of the single-phase PWM inverter system
This AC voltage is then filtered through the LC filter to
obtain a high quality output AC voltage of 230VRMS/50Hz to
be applied to the load. The structure of the proposed system is
showed in Figure 1.
III. CONTROL STRUCTURE DESCRIPTION
The control structure of the single-phase PWM inverter
system is based on a principal control block and a secondary
control block, as presented in Figure 1. The main control block
is composed by two loops; the capacitor current feedback loop
and the voltage feedback loop (Figure 2). The secondary
control is composed by a PLL compensator loop (Figure 3).
The voltage feedback control loop is responsible for the
control of both magnitude and phase angle of the output
voltage generated by the inverter.
The capacitor current feedback loop is responsible for
providing low output impedance against load variations and
nonlinear load conditions, due to its decoupling effect [4]. The
advantages of this controller are described in [5], as well as the
importance of the inverters closed-loop output impedance
characteristic reported in [6].
An important aspect that needs to be considered is the fact
that the current in the capacitor usually has many high
frequency harmonics, generating a large amount of ripple in the
current waveform. For that reason, the current signal cannot be
directly applied to the controller and must be first filtered
through a low pass filter with second order Butterworth pole
location.
The output voltage and capacitor current feedback loops,
both uses a P type controller for the control blocks Gv(z) and
Gc(z). These controllers need a very high gain values for
reducing the steady-state error.
Figure 2. Output voltage feedback and capacitor current feedback controls
Figure 3. PLL compensator control
The PLL compensator is used in the control loop to
minimize the steady-state error and to allow the use of lower
gains in the P controllers of the main control.
Attending to the relationship between the output voltage
and the capacitor current, if the output voltage is given
by v

cos , the quadrature and direct voltage components

can be obtained from v

and i

as follows:

cos (1)

sin (2)
where is the phase angle of the output voltage and

is
the angular frequency of the output voltage. The variables
v

and v

can be transformed using the rotation matrix given

by:

cos

sin

sin

cos

(3)
where

is the phase angle of the reference voltage. If the

difference between the phase angles of both reference voltage
and the output voltage is small, due to the action of the main
voltage and current controllers, than the follow equation can be
used:

and

(4)
According to (4)

means the magnitude of the output

voltage and

has the information about the phase angle

difference. If the phase angle error is small, both

anu

can be approximated as DC values and the error of the output

voltage can be minimized using a PI type controller.
The presented PLL compensator has two PI type controllers
given in Figure 3 by G
cm
(z) for the magnitude regulation and
G
cf
(z) for the phase angle regulation.
The input compensation voltage, obtained from the PLL
compensator, is given by

cos

, where

is the
magnitude and

is the phase angle of the compensation

voltage. This compensation voltage is then applied to the main
controller as it can be seen in the Figure 2.
The output voltage

of the main control is the reference

voltage for the single-phase PWM inverter.
IV. COMPUTATIONAL SIMULATIONANDRESULTS
In this section, simulation results accomplished in
Matlab/Simulink platform, through the use of the
SimPowerSystems toolbox are presented. The model was built
according to the block diagram presented in Figure 1.
The simulations carried out were prepared for three
different types of loads: resistive load, full wave rectifier with
an output capacitor filter for a load resistor and single-phase
induction motor. In the several simulations performed, the load
level variation was considered.
In all the simulations a discrete solver with a fixed-step
integration of 5s was used. The reference output voltage used
was v

cos

t with a frequency of 50Hz and the

frequency of the carrier of the PWM generator was 6 kHz.
Figure 4(a)-(b) shows the voltage and current load
waveforms for a resistive load, respectively. As it can be
observed in the Figure 4(b), at t = 0.51s the load current
increases 10 times as a consequence of a load value change. In
spite of this variation, the load voltage waveform remains
similar to the reference one.
The corresponding voltage and current spectrograms
normalized relatively to the fundamental component amplitude
are presented in Figure 5, for both load resistance values.
Figure 5(a)-(b) shows the load voltage and current
spectrograms, respectively, for a load resistance of 115 while
Figure 5(c)-(d) shows similar spectrograms for a load
resistance of 11.5.
In the Table II and Table III some measurements and power
quality factors, related with both load voltage and load current
are presented.
(a) (b)
Figure 4. Load voltage (a) and current (b) waveforms for a resistive load
with a variation from 115 to 11.5
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 5. Load voltage ((a),(c)) and load current ((b),(d)) spectrograms
normalized relatively to the fundamental component amplitude for a resistive
load of 115 ((a), ( b)) and 11.5 ((c), (d)).
TABLE II. MEASUREMENTS OF THE LOAD VOLTAGE AND CURRENT
Load Type Voltage [V
rms
] Current [A
rms
]
R=115 231.552 2.014
R=11.5 226.036 19.638
TABLE III. OUTPUT POWER QUALITY FACTORS
Load Type R=115 R=11.5
Power Factor 1 1
Displacement Factor 1 1
Active Power [W] 466.241 4439.01
Apparent Power [VA] 466.241 4439.01
T.H.D.
[%]
Voltage 1.2 1.4
Current 1.2 1.4
The obtained load voltage and load current waveforms
results when an inverter feeds a full wave rectifier with a
resistive load and a 250F capacitor load filter are presented in
Figure 6(a)-(b), respectively. In this simulation test, at t=0,51s
the rectifier load resistance value changes from 400 to 18.
The corresponding load voltage and load current spectrograms
are shown in Figure 7(a), (c) and Figure 7(b), (d), respectively.
Table IV and Table V present the load measurements and
power quality factors results, respectively, for each resistance
value of the load rectifier.
(a) (b)
Figure 6. Load voltage (a) and load current (b) waveforms, for the full wave
rectifier with a DC capacitor filter and a load resistor with a variation value
from 400 to 18, at t=0.51s.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 7. Load voltage ((a),(c)) and load current ((b),(d)) spectrograms for a
full wave rectifier with a DC capacitor filter and load resistor with
400 ((a), (b)) and 18 ((c), (d)).
TABLE IV. MEASUREMENTS OF THE LOAD VOLTAGE AND CURRENT
Load Type Voltage [V
rms
] Current [A
rms
]
Rectifier Load
C=250F, R=400
233.916 2.172
Rectifier Load
C=250F, R=18
232.115 19.317
TABLE V. OUTPUT POWER QUALITY FACTORS
Load Type
Rectifier Load
C=250F,
R=400
Rectifier Load
C=250F,
R=18
Power Factor 0.506 0.731
Displacement Factor 0.971 0.855
Active Power [W] 257.167 3276.6
Apparent Power [VA] 508.163 4483.82
T.H.D. [%]
Voltage 2.1 5.4
Current 163.7 60.8
In Figure 8(a)-(b) the load voltage and load current
waveforms, for the single-phase induction motor of 1kW, with
start capacitor of 254,7F are presented. At t=1s a step load
change from no-load to full load was introduced.
The load voltage spectra are shown in Figure 9(a),(c), for
no-load and full load, respectively. The corresponding current
spectra are shown in Figure 9(b),(d), for no-load and full load,
respectively.
Table VI and Table VII present some load measurements
and power quality factors results, respectively, for each load
condition.
TABLE VI. MEASUREMENTS OF THE LOAD VOLTAGE AND CURRENT
Load Type Voltage [V
rms
] Current [A
rms
]
Motor No-Load 233.849 2.301
Motor Full Load 227.574 5.97
TABLE VII. OUTPUT POWER QUALITY FACTORS
Load Type
Motor
No-Load
Motor
Full Load
Power Factor 0.04 0.84
Displacement Factor 0.04 0.84
Active Power [W] 20.872 1138.39
Apparent Power [VA] 537.979 1358.56
T.H.D. [%]
Voltage 0.5 1.4
Current 0.7 1.5
(a) (b)
Figure 8. Load voltage (a) and current (b) waveforms for a single-phase
induction motor with load variation from no-load to full load
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 9. Load voltage ((a),(c)) and load current ((b),(d)) spectrograms for a
single-phase induction motor under no-load conditions ((a), (b)) and full load
conditions ((c), (d)).
As it can be seen from Figure 4(a) and Figure 6(a) the
transient response of the control scheme is efficient, even with
an abrupt change in load from approximately 2A to 20A, since
the load voltage presents no significant waveform distortion.
From Figure 8(a) it is also verified that the transient
response of the control scheme is efficient with the load change
in the case of the single-phase induction motor.
From the values of the load voltage measurements indicated
in the Tables II, IV and VI it can be seen that with the current
load value increase, the output voltage suffers a decrease of
approximately 5V, except in the case of the full wave rectifier
with a DC capacitor filter and load resistor due to the presence
of the capacitor filter. This decrease of the output voltage is
related to the voltage drop in the windings of the step-up
transformer.
According to Table III and Table VII it can be seen that the
T.H.D. value of the load voltage corresponding to the cases of
the resistive load and the single-phase induction motor is low.
It can also be observed that the increase of the T.H.D. value
with load increase is small. However, from Table V, for the full
wave rectifier case, the value of T.H.D. of the load voltage
presents a more pronounced increase, when compared to the
previous cases, but it still presents acceptable values.
In all the studied cases, the T.H.D. of the output voltage of
the system is less than 8%, which is the maximum value
allowed for the grid voltage according to EN50160.
From Figure 5(a),(c), Figure 7(a),(c) and 9(a),(c) it can be
seen that the spectrograms of the load voltage present the 3
th
,
5
th
, 7
th
and 11
th
harmonics with small amplitudes. These
harmonics are not eliminated because of the cut-off frequency
of the LC filter that is greater than the frequency of this
harmonics.
However it can be seen that the 3
th
, 5
th
, 7
th
and 11
th
harmonics components present lower values than the ones
pointed in Table I.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the system output filter,
the Figure 10(a)-(b) show the voltage waveforms at output
terminals of both step-up transformer and LC filter,
respectively, for a resistive load of 11.5.
In the Figure 11(a)-(b) the corresponding spectrograms of
the previous mentioned voltages are presented. The RMS and
T.H.D. values for those voltages waveforms are presented in
the Table VIII.
As it can be seen from Figure 11, the spectrum of the output
voltage of the step-up transformer has high frequency
components around the 12 kHz, due to the commutation
frequency of the IGBT inverter power switches. In this case a
voltage T.H.D value of 64.6 % (Table VIII) is obtained at the
set-up power transformer output terminals.
Analysing the voltage output filter spectrogram
(Figure 11(b)), it can be seen that those components are fully
eliminated and consequence of that the output voltage applied
to the load presents a low T.H.D value of only 1.4%
comparatively with the 64.6% obtained at the output step-up
power transformer.
TABLE VIII. RMS AND T.H.D. VOLTAGE VALUES
Step-up power
transformer output
terminals voltage
Filter output
terminal
voltage
RMS [V] 267.5 226.036
T.H.D. [%] 64.6 1.4
(a) (b)
Figure 10. The voltage waveforms at step-up power transformer output
terminals(a) and filter output terminals (b) for a resistive load of 11.5
(a) (b)
Figure 11. Spectrograms of the step-up transformer output voltage (a) and
filter output voltage (b) for a resistive load of 11.5
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this work a control strategy for a single-phase PWM
inverter for stand-alone single-phase power generation
applications, feed by a fuel cell as a DC voltage source was
analysed. Simulations for linear and non-linear load types
typical in individual residential and small remote-site
applications were developed, in order to evaluate the
effectiveness of a high-precision control of a single-phase
PWM inverter. This control allows applying constant values of
both voltage and frequency to the load terminals, based on a
capacitor current feedback with a phase-locked loop (PLL)
compensator that minimises the steady-state error of the output
voltage.
In general the presented control scheme shows good results
in the specific applications that were studied.
The selected output LC filter demonstrates his efficiency,
since it allows reducing drastically the value of the T.H.D of
the output voltage with any of the simulated load types.
The T.H.D. value of the output voltage of the inverter
system for all the load types simulated is small and beneath the
maximum value of 8% pointed in the European Norm
EN50160 for the grid voltage. This demonstrates the
effectiveness of the control for this kind of applications
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors want to acknowledge the Foundation for
Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal, who sponsor the
research and the project: POCI/ENR/59422/2004.
REFERENCES
[1] Anibal T. de Almeida, Andreas Jahn, Dora Vaz, Espoir Bouvier, Fuel
Cell Services Guidebook for Users, 2006
[2] IEP - Portuguese Institute of Energy, Voltage Characteristics of
electricity supplied by public distribution systems EN50160, 2001
[3] Chung, S. K.; Shin, H. B.; Lee, H. W. (2005), Precision control of
single-phase PWM inverter using PLL compensation, IEE Proc.-Electr.
Power Appl., Vol 152, N 2, p. 429-436
[4] Ryan, M. J.; Lorenz, R. D. (1995), A high performance sine wave
inverter controller with capacitor current feedback and back-EMF
decoupling, IEEE PESC Conf. Rec., p. 507-513
[5] Zargari, N. R.; Ziogas, P. D.; Joos, G.(1990), A two switch high
performance current regulated DC/AC converter module, IEEE IAS
Annual Meeting, p. 929-934
[6] Vukosavic, S.; Peric, L.; Levi, E.; Vuckovic, V. (1990), Reduction of
the output impedance of PWM inverters for uninterruptible power
supplies, IEEE PESC, p. 757-762