Analysis and Design of Current Control Schemes for LCL-Type Grid-Connected Inverter Based on a General Mathematical Model

For the LCL-type grid-connected inverter, there are basically three current control schemes, namely the grid current control, the inverter-side inductor current control, and the weighted average current control. This paper builds a general mathematical model to describe the three current control schemes. In this model, the grid current is an equivalent target control variable, the capacitor current feedback serves as a damping solution, and the computation and pulse-width modulation delays are taken into account. Based on the general mathematical model, a comparative analysis of different control schemes is carried out in terms of the grid current stability. It reveals that when the inverter-side inductor current is controlled, the grid current shows the same stability as the inverter-side inductor current; but when the weighted average current is controlled, both the grid current and the inverter-side inductor current are critically stable even though the weighted average current can be easily stabilized. Moreover, the general mathematical model also provides a unified perspective to design different control schemes, which makes the controller parameter tuning more straightforward and effective. In this way, a set of controller parameters which yields high robustness against the grid-impedance variation can be selected for all the three current control schemes. Finally, a 6-kW prototype is built, and experiments are performed to verify the theoretical analysis.