A single-stage active damped LCL-filter-based grid-connected photovoltaic inverter with maximum power point tracking

In this paper, a simple single-phase grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) inverter topology consisting of a three-level inverter, an LCL filter, and a new current feedback method for active damping is considered. A dynamically rapid method is used for tracking the maximum power point (MPP) of photovoltaic arrays, known as ripple correlation control. The algorithm uses the current and voltage low-frequency oscillations as the perturbation signals, which are introduced in the output of PV array due to the sinusoidal power being injected into the single-phase utility grid, to enable operation at MPP. The capacitor of the conventional LCL filter is split into two parts and the current flowing between these two parts is used as the feedback for regulation of grid current being injected. By doing so the V - I transfer function of the grid connected inverter system degrades to first-order one from third order function. Due to which, wide control-loop bandwidth can be achieved with a large proportional control-loop gain ensuring good stability. Proportional-resonant (PR) current controller is suggested to provide power to the line with unity power factor and the PV inverter offers much less total harmonic distortion. The entire system has been numerically simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK platform and the performance results are presented for variation in insolation levels and grid voltage profile showing the effectiveness of the proposed system.