A Control Design Approach for Three-Phase Grid-Connected Renewable Energy Resources

This paper presents a method to design a control system for a three-phase voltage source converter (VSC) that connects a renewable energy source to the utility grid through an output
L
-type or
LCL
-type filter. The well-known
abc
/
dq
transformation method creates coupling terms that are visible and can readily be canceled in the
L
-type filter. Such terms, however, are very complicated when an
LCL
filter is used. This paper, first revisits the derivation of the decoupling control method for an
L
-ype output filter and then, for the first time, derives the decoupling terms for an
LCL
-type filter. Having successfully decoupled the real and reactive power loops, feedback controllers are presented and designed to achieve desirable performance. The proposed controller provides active damping of the
LCL
resonance mode, robustness with respect to grid frequency, and impedance uncertainty. Moreover, a new controller is designed to improve the startup transient of the system. The methodology used in this paper is inspired from the feedback linearization theory and it provides a clear design method for the nonlinear systems. Simulation results are presented to confirm the analytical results.