A review of passive filters for grid-connected voltage source converters

LCL filter is the common interface between the Pulse Width Modulated Voltage Source Converter (PWM VSC) and the utility grid due to high harmonic attenuation capability and reduced size of the passive elements. The present paper investigates the most promising passive damping methods for the LCL topology but also propose an overview of high order filters capable to offer even more attenuation than the LCL filter at a reduced size. This is the case of more recently introduced LCL topology with tuned traps. However, it is shown that by decreasing the size of the passive elements the robustness of the filter also is decreased. Thus, a comparison of the filter features including the robustness towards grid impedance variation, harmonic attenuation capability and losses in the damping circuit became interesting from a practical implementation point of view. The design of the proposed filters is validated by simulation and experimental results and covers two scenarios: high and low/medium power applications.