Controlling a power converter as a photovoltaic power source and compensator in smart-grids

In this paper it is presented a system controller for a power converter connoted to a photovoltaic system and in a smart grid. This system controller has been developed in order to transmit all the produced active power of the photovoltaic system to the grid. However, it was also developed to use the power converter as reactive power compensator. Most of the time the photovoltaic system it is not producing its rated value. In this way, the power converter can also be used as a reactive power compensator in order to exploit the apparent power of the power converter. A single-stage three-phase power converter is used. To control this converter a sliding mode approach is used. This allows obtaining a fast and robust controller. A maximum power point tracking algorithm associated to the sliding mode controller is used. Several numerical simulations are presented in order to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed system.