The low-voltage ride through condition (LVRT) attracts wider attention with the increased power of central grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems. The conventional double-loop-based control strategy designed for the nominal voltage is slow and potentially unstable under the LVRT operation. In this article, a novel sliding-mode control-based feedback linearization is proposed to improve response speed of the PV system under LVRT condition. To increase the robustness of the control to parameter variations, sliding-mode control is combined with the feedback linearization in this article. Further, the complete linearization of the PV system can be achieved over the whole operating range. Moreover, the dc-link voltage operating point of the PV panel can be dynamically adjusted based on the drop depth of the grid voltage, which will reduce the load changes during the LVRT and subsequently ensure the ac current levels to stay within the design limits in any fault situation and enhance the LVRT capability of the central grid-connected PV system. Finally, a 100-kW PV inverter is built to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy for LVRT.

In this paper, a practical passivity-based control (PBC) with active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) is proposed to improve performance of the Vienna rectifier under unbalanced grid conditions. In general, the traditional double-loop control based on positive and negative sequence transformation is used in Vienna rectifier under unbalanced grid conditions. However, it could not fundamentally solve the additional time delay caused by the second harmonic filter and loss of performance caused by a linear weighted sum of proportional integral (PI) con-troller. What’s more, the complexity of the controller is high for the positive and negative sequence currents need to be controlled separately. The PBC is a nonlinear controller based on energy dissipation and it has strong robustness to interference. Further, the line voltage based PBC in inner current loop can deal with the voltage unbalance effectively and easily without negative sequence transformation. To improve the disturbance rejection ability, the ADRC is ap-plied in outer voltage loop, which could overcome PI’s drawbacks of step overshoot and slow response. Under un-balanced grid conditions, the proposed control strategy has good performance, easy implementation and less con-suming time with PBC control in inner current loop, and it has strong robustness and fast track performance with ADRC control in outer voltage loop. The detailed mathematical model, control principle and controller design of the Vienna rectifier are thoroughly analyzed. In addition, simulation results based on SIMULINK are also given in the paper. Finally, a downsize 5kW Vienna rectifier prototype is built to validate the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

This paper proposes an improved three-stages cascading passivity-based control (PBC) for a grid -connected LCL converter in unbalanced weak grid condition. In general, the traditional double-loop control based on positive and negative sequence transformations is used in grid-connected converter control in unbalanced weak grid condition. However, it is time consuming for second harmonic filtering, and positive and negative sequence currents need to be controlled separately. The PBC has strong robustness to interference, and the line voltage based PBC can deal with the voltage unbalance effectively and easily without negative sequence transformation. But the traditional PBC needs six variables and three damping coefficients for the grid-connected LCL converter in unbalanced grid condition, and it has the disadvantage of difficult implementation. The improved PBC can realize the same control effect with three-stages cascading PBCs of two variables and one damping coefficient, and it has the advantages of easy implementation, good performance and high stability. First, the modeling and controller design are detailed described. Then the SIMULINK simulation results demonstrate the benefits of the improved control strategy. Finally, a grid-connected LCL converter prototype of 5kW is built and the experimental results verify the correctness and effectivity of the improved three-stages PBC strategy.

This study proposes a practical control strategy of passivity based control (PBC) of the power conversion system (PCS) used in the energy storage system. First, the differential equations based on the Kirchhoff voltage and current laws are listed in the study, and the mathematical model in Euler–Lagrange form is also given. On the basis of the PBC theory, the system passivity of the PCS is demonstrated, the implementation of differential equations based on the damping injection principle is deduced, and simulation results in SIMULINK are also given. The PBC strategy has the advantages of high stability globally in a nonlinear system, and strong robustness to the system parameters deviation and external interference. Finally, a PCS prototype of 10 kW, which is made up of ac–dc converter and dc–dc converter, is built and the experimental results verify the correctness and effectivity of the proposed solution.

With the increase in renewable energy generation, microgrid has put forward higher requirements on the power density and performance of the photovoltaic inverter. In this paper, the dynamic process of inverter based on the cascode Gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) for the photovoltaic (PV) application is analyzed in detail. The parasitic inductors and capacitors have been considered in our proposed equivalent model, which can explain the phenomenon that the crossover time of the voltage and current is prolonged by the parasitic parameters. The influence of the parasitic parameters is identified through theoretical analysis. By analyzing the influence of parasitic parameters, the design process of high-frequency inverter can be optimized. A 500 W inverter based on the cascode GaN HEMT is built, and the correctness of theoretical and simulation analysis is verified by the experimental results.