Practical Implementation of Adaptive SRF-PLL for Three-Phase Inverters Based on Sensitivity Function and Real-Time Grid-Impedance Measurements

Abstract

Rapidly increasing demand for renewable energy has created a need for the photovoltaic and wind farms to be placed in various locations that have diverse and possibly time-variant grid conditions. A mismatch between the grid impedance and output admittance of an inverter causes impedance-based stability issues, which appear as power quality problems and poor transient performance. Grid synchronization with phase-locked loop (PLL) introduces a negative-resistance-like behavior to inverter output admittance. High control bandwidth of the PLL makes the system sensitive to impedance-based stability issues when the inverter is connected to a weak grid that has high impedance. However, very conservative tunings lead to overly damped dynamic responses in strong grids, where the control performance and power quality can be improved by applying higher PLL control bandwidths. Continuous evaluation of grid conditions makes it possible to avoid the risk of instability and poor dynamic responses, as the inverter output admittance can be re-shaped online to continuously match the grid conditions. The present work proposes method for adaptive control of the PLL based on the real-time measurements of the grid impedance, applying pseudo-random binary sequence (PRBS) injections. The method limits the PLL bandwidth in weak grids to avoid stability issues and increases the control bandwidth in strong grids to improve voltage-tracking, and thus overall control performance. The method is verified through simulations and experimental laboratory tests in a kW-scale system. The results show that optimizing the PLL bandwidth with respect to the grid conditions is highly beneficial for system performance and stability.