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.

The loads of dc–dc converter (DDC) are mostly constant power loads (CPLs) in dc microgrid. Due to the negative impedance characteristic, CPLs may lead to the nonpassive factor in DDC. Thus, it may result in DDC, not operating reliably at the desired operating point. In this article, a nonlinear controller based on passivity-based stability theory is proposed for the DDC with CPL, which will improve the stability of the converter. Through damping and interconnection injecting, the alternating component passivity-based controller (PBC) is designed to realize the unified control of output voltage and inductor current. It could realize the passivation of alternating component. Furthermore, this controller can solve the problem of traditional PBCs to control inductor current or output voltage only. Moreover, a power observer is adopted, which could fast estimate the variation of the CPL and improve the adaptability of DDC when CPL changes. The proposed controller not only ensures the stability of DDC under large variation of CPL, but also features fast dynamic response with accurate tracking over wide operating range. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed controller are verified by simulation and experimental results.

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.

DC-DC converters with constant power loads are mostly used in DC microgrids. Negative impedance and large disturbances of constant power loads may lead to the instability of DC-DC converters. To address this issue, a nonlinear control strategy consisting of an improved passivity-based controller and nonlinear power observer is proposed in this paper. First, an improved passivity-based controller is designed based on the port-controlled Hamiltonian with dissipation model. By proper damping and interconnection injecting, the fast dynamic response of output voltage and stability of the DC-DC converter is achieved. Second, the constant power load is observed by a nonlinear power observer, which is adopted to estimate the power variation of the constant power load within a small settling time and improve the adaptability of the DC-DC converter under power disturbance. Finally, the simulation and experimental results are presented, which illustrate the proposed control strategy not only ensures the stability of the DC-DC converter under large disturbances, but also can track the desired operating point with low voltage overshoot in no more than 10 milliseconds.

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.