2021 IEEE International Conference in Power Engineering Application (ICPEA), 8-9 March 2021

A Single-Phase Grid-Connected Inverter using

Phase Control Method
Nasim Ahmed Md. Ziaur Rahman Khan
Institute of Information and Communication Technology Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
nasimahmed@pg.iict.buet.ac.bd zrkhan@eee.buet.ac.bd

Abstract—The design of a single-phase grid-connected This paper proposes a control architecture for GCI which
inverter (GCI) using the phase-control technique is presented is simple to design. It also has low harmonic contents. In
here. The circuit has fewer harmonics and a simpler design Bangladesh, there are plenty of opportunities for building a
than traditional GCI technology. The performance of GCI has solid renewable energy harvesting infrastructure. This GCI
a direct influence on the entire distributed generation system. model can easily be deployed in current smart-home, peer-to-
The control architecture of GCI must ensure the capability of peer electricity sharing micro grid-based architecture. The
matching inverter output voltage and frequency with
2021 IEEE International Conference in Power Engineering Application (ICPEA) | 978-1-7281-8546-0/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICPEA51500.2021.9417760

proposed control algorithm is very easy to deploy in any

continuously fluctuating grid voltage and frequency. The low-cost single-chip microcontroller-based system.
dynamic sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique (SPWM)
has been used to control the power switches of the inverter. II. INVERTER DESIGN
The finished design is simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK to
ensure output results. In a GCI system, a synchronization algorithm is required
to integrate the inverter output voltage with the utility grid
Keywords—single-phase inverter, GCI, Phase-control voltage. A phase-locked loop (PLL) is selected to conduct
technique, Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL), H-bridge, SPWM. the grid synchronization. PLL, even in the case of higher-
order harmonics, can easily define the phase angle of the grid
I. INTRODUCTION voltage. The H-bridge inverter topology is deployed in this
There are three main functions of the GCI such as control method. An LC filter is applied in this architecture. To get
the power flow between grid and inverter, providing power the accurate amplitude of the voltage, it is performed by
with low harmonics to the grid, and implementing grid multiplying an accurate modulation index with dynamically
synchronization. The most essential feature of the grid for generated SPWM values. The block diagram of the GCI
the incorporation of renewable resources is inverters. To controller can be shown in Fig. 1. The proposed GCI system
convert direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC), is modeled and simulated to verify the effectiveness of its
inverters play the most pivotal role. Typically, electrical control structure and to determine its performance
energy is preserved as DC in the energy storage device. This parameters using MATLAB/SIMULINK libraries.
DC energy should be converted into AC before injecting it A. Phase Locked Loop (PLL)
into the utility grid. The GCI varies to just a few degrees
from the traditional inverter. GCIs constantly retain grid A phase-locked loop (PLL) is a control device that
synchronization as well as regulation of power flow into the produces an output signal, the phase of which refers to the
grid. The inverter is said to be synchronized with the grid input signal phase. It mainly comprises a voltage-controlled
when it produces equal, in-phase grid voltage and frequency. oscillator (VCO) and phase detector. The oscillator produces
Many works have been reported on three-phase grid- a periodic signal, and the phase detector compares the input
connected inverters [1] while few focuses on single-phase and VCO signal. Fig. 2 and 3 represent the PLL block
inverters. Some of these works have been aimed at the diagram and its output for a certain phase of the grid voltage.
controller design [2] – [4], others on the filters [5, 6], and
Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL) [7, 8]. Various control
mechanisms have been suggested in the literature to maintain
better power exchange with the grid while reducing the
harmonic components in the inverter output voltage and
current. Among these strategies, current hysteresis control
(CHC) [9] – [12], voltage-oriented control (VOC) [13] – [17]
and proportional-resonant (PR)-based control [18] are most
popular. The CHC is very easy to deploy and it uses a
hysteresis band, which is followed by an inverter output
current. Though it has many great features such as simple,
robust, automatic current limiting, high dynamic response
and good stability, the switching frequency of this method is
variable and depends on sampling frequency and system
parameters.
This fluctuating switching frequency makes it difficult to
design and implement a stable filter [9] – [12]. The PR-based
control method has major disadvantages, such as rapidly Fig. 1. Block diagram of proposed system.
decaying response, sensitivity issues, and instability of the
phase shift in current sensors.

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 Fig. 3. PLL angle of grid voltage.

Fig. 2. Block diagram of PLL circuit.

Fig. 4. SPWM Generation.

B. SPWM Generation
In the proposed sine wave inverter, an H-bridge driving
configuration is used. If this H-bridge is driven with an
SPWM signal, an SPWM can be found on the load. After
filtering that, a pure sine wave is easily be found across the
load. This is the concept of a sine wave inverter.
In terms of SPWM, the primary distinction between a
stand-alone inverter and a grid-connected inverter is the
lookup table. In a standalone inverter, the lookup table is
static or fixed, whereas in a grid-connected inverter the Fig. 5. Circuit diagram of the system without load.
PWM value comes from PLL output. After generating
dynamic SPWM samples which are using for threshold value
of PWM signal, are applying in gates of four switches. The
proposed method uses bipolar PWM rather than unipolar
PWM. In the unipolar PWM method, the output voltage
fluctuates between +Vd and 0 or between 0 and -Vd, wherein
in bipolar PWM the variation occurs between +Vd and -Vd.
Fig. 4 shows the SPWM generation technique. The PWM
switching frequency has been chosen 3 kHz. This reduces
high harmonics distortion in output wave. There are no fixed
numbers of samples for the sine table.
Though a large number of samples produce a better
resolution of the pure sine wave, they also consume more
memory and demand high price microcontroller.
C. H Bridge (a)
An H bridge is built with four switches. To drive the H-
bridge, four signals are needed. There are two signals (S1
and S4) at 50 Hz in a push-pull configuration, and the other
two (S2 and S3) are SPWM signals (3 kHz). Fig. 5 and 6
show the circuit diagram and the four signals of H-bridge
circuit. The upper arms of the bridge are switched by a 50Hz
signal, and the lower arms are switched by 20 kHz
modulated signals. In this work, MOSFET has been used for
the switching device.

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 connecting to the grid, there is another inductor of 50mH has
been connected by series with the inverter output terminal.
Fig. 7 represents the final synchronized output after the LC
filter step.
E. Adjust Modulation Index
To get the exact amplitude of the grid voltage, there must
be a multiplied measured modulation index with SPWM
sample values. Fig. 8 (a) represents the grid and the inverter
voltage amplitude at 60% modulation index. In this
condition, the grid voltage is greater than the inverter
voltage. Fig. 8 (b) represents the grid and inverter voltage
amplitude at a 90% modulation index. In this condition, the
inverter voltage is greater than the grid voltage. In this
(b) experiment, 80% of the modulation index produces a
Fig. 6. Control signals of S1, S4 in (a) and S2, S3 in (b). perfectly equal inverter voltage.

Fig. 9. Generalized Circuit Diagram.

III. GRID CONNECTION

Fig. 7. Inverter voltage.
Unlike a current source that can be connected to the grid
in parallel directly, a voltage source cannot be connected to
the grid in parallel without impedance. It will create a huge
circulating current between the voltage source and the grid.
The designed inverter acts as a voltage source to the grid. To
connect this inverter and grid, impedance is needed. In this
work, an inductor has been selected, which is a non-
dissipative energy storing element, will try to match the two
voltage sources. Inverters with this inductor form a current
source and are connected to the grid. Fig. 9 shows the
designed inverter connection to the grid.

V =V +V (1)

= +L (2)
(a)

Vinv = Vm sin + . cos (3)

i = V V dt (4)

" = sin (5)

There are many control methods to regulate the inverter

output current injection to the utility grid. The proposed
system uses the phase-control method to inject inverter
current to the grid. From equations [1-5], it is shown that
both the grid voltage and current are in phase with inverter
(b) voltage. The proposed system takes the leverage of the
popular power system formula, which has been shown in the
Fig. 8. Grid and Inverter voltage at 60% in (a), 90% in (b) modulation
system parameters context in equations 6 and 7.
index.
#$%& #'
D. LC Filter P= sin * (6)
()
Before getting the final output, an LC filter has been
+ ,-./ 0 , 1 ,
applied in the circuit. In this experimental setup, a 10uF Q= (7)
2
capacitor and 177mH inductor has been used. Before

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 To deliver active current to the grid, the inverter needs to
generate a voltage same as grid voltage, but it has to lead the
grid voltage by some angle. By adjusting this angle, this
active current can be increased or decreased. Fig. 10 shows
the phasor diagram of active current transfer to the grid. Both
the Vg and Vinv voltages are almost same but Vinv leads Vg by
angle ∂.
To deliver lagging reactive current to the grid, the
inverter needs to generate a higher voltage than grid voltage
but both are aligned in phase.
To deliver leading reactive current to the grid, the
inverter needs to generate a lower voltage than grid voltage
but both are aligned in phase.
Fig. 12. Inverter Transfer Reactive Current into the Grid.

IV. RESULT
In this experiment, the voltage THD and current THD of
inverter are measured as 1.50% and 7.76%. Fig. 11 shows
the harmonics of system parameters. The Inverter model uses
the SPWM scheme, which is a widely accepted technique
and the switching frequency is 3 kHz. The GCI power rating
is 1KVA and the DC voltage of this system is 400V. In Fig.
12, Inverter supplies its excess energy into the grid because
its load demand is 5A, but it produces 10A, so it feeds 5A
into the grid. The phase angle difference between the grid
and the inverter current is 180 degrees. Alternatively, the
Fig. 10. Phase Diagram of Active Current Transfer. inverter injects lagging reactive current to the grid.
V. CONCLUSION
A single-phase grid-tied inverter has been designed,
developed, and simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK by using
the phase-control technique. Due to the low harmonics
distortion, and simplicity, this control method is suitable for
grid-connected inverter. Modeling and simulating the
suggested GCI system is to establish the validity of its
control structure and to measure its output parameters to
assess its performance using MATLAB/SIMULINK
(a) libraries. Finally, the MATLAB/SIMULINK observations
have been demonstrated to justify the control mechanism of
the implemented system. Eventually, based on the strengths
of the proposed phase controller algorithm, it is established
that this control scheme is the right way to execute the GCI.
The suggested control method is easy to deploy in any
affordable system on chip (SoC) microcontroller-based
system.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
(b) The authors would like to acknowledge the opportunity
Fig. 11. Harmonics of the output parameters of the inverter (a) voltage (b)
and the infrastructural support provided by the Department
current. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) to carry
out this research.
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