skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Advanced Photovoltaic Inverter Control Development and Validation in a Controller-Hardware-in-the-Loop Test Bed

Abstract

Penetration of solar photovoltaic (PV) installations into the grid has increased in recent years. In the past, photovoltaic installations have not included grid-support functionality. Grid support functions including Volt-VAR (VVAR), Frequency-Watt (FW), Volt-Watt (VW), frequency/voltage-ride through, as well as other inverter functions such as anti-islanding are recommended by standards such as IEEE 1547 to allow PV inverters to contribute to acceptable operation and stability of distribution systems with high penetrations of PV and to ensure predictable response of the PV inverters. First, low-level and high-level grid support inverter control functions were developed and tested in simulation. The developed controller is able to integrate advanced controller functions in a coordinated approach, avoiding any conflict between the different control objectives. The algorithms were then programmed on an off-the-shelf embedded controller that included a dual-core CPU and FPGA. The details of the high-level grid support function and the lower level switching control will be presented. Second, this programmed controller is tested using a controller-hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) test bed setup using an FPGA-based real-time simulator. The CHIL setup has the capability to run at a 500 nano-second time-step to accommodate the 20 kHz switching frequency of the developed controller. The advanced control function and CHILmore » test bed details provided here will aide future researchers to design, implement, and test advanced inverter functions for PV inverters.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
OSTI Identifier:
1476704
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-5D00-68511
Journal ID: ISSN 2329-3721
DOE Contract Number:  
AC36-08GO28308
Resource Type:
Conference
Journal Name:
IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2017; Conference: Presented at the IEEE Energy Conversion Congress & Expo (ECCE), Cincinnati, Ohio (United States), 1-5 Oct 2017; Journal ID: ISSN 2329-3721
Publisher:
IEEE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; 24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION; PV inverters; CHIL; controller-hardware-in-the-loop; test bed setup

Citation Formats

Prabakar, Kumaraguru, Chakraborty, Sudipta, Shirazi, Mariko, and Singh, Akanksha. Advanced Photovoltaic Inverter Control Development and Validation in a Controller-Hardware-in-the-Loop Test Bed. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1109/ECCE.2017.8095994.
Prabakar, Kumaraguru, Chakraborty, Sudipta, Shirazi, Mariko, & Singh, Akanksha. Advanced Photovoltaic Inverter Control Development and Validation in a Controller-Hardware-in-the-Loop Test Bed. United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCE.2017.8095994
Prabakar, Kumaraguru, Chakraborty, Sudipta, Shirazi, Mariko, and Singh, Akanksha. 2018. "Advanced Photovoltaic Inverter Control Development and Validation in a Controller-Hardware-in-the-Loop Test Bed". United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCE.2017.8095994. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1476704.
@article{osti_1476704,
title = {Advanced Photovoltaic Inverter Control Development and Validation in a Controller-Hardware-in-the-Loop Test Bed},
author = {Prabakar, Kumaraguru and Chakraborty, Sudipta and Shirazi, Mariko and Singh, Akanksha},
abstractNote = {Penetration of solar photovoltaic (PV) installations into the grid has increased in recent years. In the past, photovoltaic installations have not included grid-support functionality. Grid support functions including Volt-VAR (VVAR), Frequency-Watt (FW), Volt-Watt (VW), frequency/voltage-ride through, as well as other inverter functions such as anti-islanding are recommended by standards such as IEEE 1547 to allow PV inverters to contribute to acceptable operation and stability of distribution systems with high penetrations of PV and to ensure predictable response of the PV inverters. First, low-level and high-level grid support inverter control functions were developed and tested in simulation. The developed controller is able to integrate advanced controller functions in a coordinated approach, avoiding any conflict between the different control objectives. The algorithms were then programmed on an off-the-shelf embedded controller that included a dual-core CPU and FPGA. The details of the high-level grid support function and the lower level switching control will be presented. Second, this programmed controller is tested using a controller-hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) test bed setup using an FPGA-based real-time simulator. The CHIL setup has the capability to run at a 500 nano-second time-step to accommodate the 20 kHz switching frequency of the developed controller. The advanced control function and CHIL test bed details provided here will aide future researchers to design, implement, and test advanced inverter functions for PV inverters.},
doi = {10.1109/ECCE.2017.8095994},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1476704}, journal = {IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE)},
issn = {2329-3721},
number = ,
volume = 2017,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Tue Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Conference:
Other availability
Please see Document Availability for additional information on obtaining the full-text document. Library patrons may search WorldCat to identify libraries that hold this conference proceeding.

Save / Share: