Experimental Verification of Grid Inverter Operation in Urban Environment

This study offers experimental testing of commercial and laboratory inverters, utilized in a laboratory prototype of an urban microgrid. Operation of grid inverters supplied by PV arrays in urban environments, encounters challenges such as partial shading and soiling. Emulation of the current-voltage characteristics of PV arrays enables repeated and reliable testing of inverter operation under irregular supply conditions. It has been shown that finding the maximum power point can be challenging under conditions of partial shading and soiling. Additionally, meeting the grid quality standards for the delivered power represents a challenge. Satisfying these requirements can be achieved through careful design of LCL filters at inverter output terminals, but further improvement can be achieved only through an adequate selection of the primary controller. To further improve the quality of grid currents, the possibility of applying innovative control algorithms has been demonstrated for laboratory inverters. Application of sliding mode controllers, besides ensuring system robustness, can prevent overshoots and fault responses from the current protection circuit by introducing a specific anti-windup structure.