Design and simulation of a single-phase inverter with grid support functions

Abstract

As a result of the ambitious decarbonization goals set globally, substantial efforts are put towards the electrification of many sectors, including transportation, leading to an increased demand in electricity. Meanwhile, the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity must also decrease to meet these goals. Consequently, there is a considerable number of zero-carbon renewable energy sources that are integrated to the power system every year, many of which are connected via power-electronics converters. Inverter-based resources like photovoltaic, wind power and battery storage present many challenges for the operation and stability of the electrical grid, at all voltage levels. Utilities and system operators, among others, have worked towards the development of interconnection standards and test procedures for these types of resources in order to mitigate the impact of their increasing penetration on the power system. With regards to these challenges, this master’s thesis focuses on a low-voltage grid-connected single-phase inverter for the interconnection of photovoltaic resources at the residential level. More specifically, the objective is to study and design an inverter system that will provide a fast and robust dynamic response with good power quality over a wide-range of operating conditions and also contribute to grid stability through the implementation of grid support functions. The theory behind the relevant inverter system components will be discussed and their respective mathematical models will be presented in order to develop design procedures for the output filter and current controller. Furthermore, the implementation of a grid synchronization mechanism and grid support functions will be presented. In addition to theoretical analysis, every component and the resulting system will be modeled and simulated in the Matlab/Simulink environment to validate their performance. Simulation results will demonstrate that the designed inverter successfully complies with the aforementioned criteria.

Date	31 May 2023
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Handy Fortin Blanchette (Supervisor)