Reduction of Current Harmonic Distortion in Three-Phase Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Inverters via Resonant Current Control

TLDR

Resonant current control is widely used to reduce harmonic distortion in grid‑connected distributed generators, but its effectiveness degrades under abnormal grid voltages such as harmonics and imbalances, and existing advanced solutions that address this issue impose significant computational overhead. The study aims to analyze the shortcomings of standard resonant current control under abnormal grid conditions and to propose a low‑complexity control scheme that mitigates harmonic distortion without adding computational burden. The authors develop a computational‑lightweight resonant current control strategy and validate it experimentally on a three‑phase PV inverter.

Abstract

The resonant current control has been extensively employed to reduce the current harmonic distortion in a wide range of grid-connected distributed generation applications, including photovoltaic (PV) inverters, wind and water turbines, and fuel-cell inverters. However, the performance of these systems is deteriorated when the utility grid voltage experiences abnormal conditions such as voltage harmonics and imbalances. Several advanced control solutions have been recently introduced to cope with this problem but at the cost of a significant increase in the control computational load. This paper first analyzes the limitations of the standard resonant current control operating under abnormal grid conditions and then introduces a control scheme that improves the current harmonic distortion in such adverse conditions without increasing the computational load of the standard current control. This theoretical contribution is validated by means of selected experimental results from a three-phase PV inverter.