Grid Connected Inverter Lab

Lab assignment material.

This lab course is about grid-tied inverters. These power electronics converters are key components for renewable power generation, in particular solar photovoltaics (PV) systems like on Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 PV plant, connected to the electricity grid using grid-tied inverters (source: SMA Commercial PV)

In this lab, you’ll learn how to model & control a grid-connected inverter (see Learning objectives for an extended description).

Lab outline

• 1. Context & Objectives
  • 1.1. Technical context
  • 1.2. Learning objectives
• 2. Introduction to the Grid Connected Inverter
  • 2.1. Preamble: AC Power transmission
  • 2.2. System under study
  • 2.3. Simulink wiring
  • 2.4. PMW: moving average value
• 3. Modeling the Inverter
  • 3.1. Average inverter voltages
  • 3.2. Transforms
  • 3.3. dq inverter modeling
• 4. Control of the Inverter
  • 4.1. Structure of the controller
  • 4.2. PLL for grid sync
  • 4.3. PI control design
  • 4.4. Control testing
• 5. Robustness of the controller
  • 5.1. Imperfect knowledge of the grid filter
  • 5.2. Harmonics in the grid voltages
  • 5.3. Imbalanced three-phase voltages

Appendices

• Report & Presentation
  • Report
  • Presentation
• References
  • Grid codes and standards
• Glossary