1

Enhanced Decoupled Double Synchronous

Reference Frame Current Controller for
Unbalanced Grid Voltage Conditions
Manuel Reyes, IEEE Member, Pedro Rodriguez, IEEE Senior Member, Sergio Vazquez, IEEE
Member, Alvaro Luna, IEEE Member, Remus Teodorescu, IEEE Senior Member, Juan Manuel
Carrasco, IEEE Member.

Abstract In the last years, restrictive grid codes have arisen

to ensure the performance and stability of electrical networks,
which are experiencing a massive integration of renewable
energy sources and distributed generation systems, that are
normally connected to the grid through electronic power
converters. In these codes the injection of positive- and negativesequence current components is becoming necessary for fulfilling,
among others, the low voltage ride-through requirements during
balanced and unbalanced grid faults. However, the performance
of classical dq current controllers, applied to power converters,
under unbalanced grid voltage conditions is highly deficient, due
to the unavoidable appearance of current oscillations. This paper
analyses the performance of the double synchronous reference
frame (DSRF) controller and improves its structure by adding a
decoupling network for estimating and compensating the
undesirable current oscillations. Experimental results will
demonstrate the validity of the proposed decoupled DSRF
(DDSRF) controller.
Index Terms AC-DC power conversion, power electronics,
current control

I. INTRODUCTION

HE fast penetration of renewable energy sources (RES)

and distributed generation systems are changing the
requirements for the grid connection of such systems, which is
normally performed through power converters [1]-[4].
The increasing integration of renewable energy sources into
the electrical networks has led to the development of new grid
Manuscript received March 15th , 2010. Accepted for publication February
20th, 2012. Copyright 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is
permitted. However, permission to use this material for any other purposes
must be obtained from the IEEE by sending a request to pubspermissions@ieee.org. This work was supported in part by the Andalusian
Government, Junta de Andaluca, under the project TIC-02991 and in part by
the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the project ENE201129041-C02-01.
Manuel Reyes, Sergio Vazquez and Juan Manuel Carrasco are with the
Department of Electronical Engineering, University of Seville, Seville 41092,
Spain (e-mail: manreyes@gmail.com).
Pedro Rodriguez is with Abengoa Research, 41014, Seville, Spain (e-mail:
pedro.rodriguez@research.abengoa.com)
Alvaro Luna is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical
University of Catalonia, Terrassa-Barcelona 08222, Spain (e-mail:
luna@ee.upc.edu).
Remus Teodorescu is with the Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg
University, 9220 Aalborg East, Denmark (e-mail: ret@et.aau.dk).

codes oriented to ensure a proper performance under abnormal

grid conditions [5]-[7]. Reliability, efficiency and safety are
becoming the objectives of the control algorithms developed
by engineers and researchers [8], [9].
Particularly, the low voltage ride-through capability of RES
and the associated control of front end power converters are
one of the most complex technical issues to be improved [10][13]. The appearance of unbalanced grid voltage conditions,
that can be easily caused by voltage sags, give rise to
uncontrolled oscillations in the active and reactive power that
is delivered to the grid. However, this effect can be mitigated
by injecting a proper set of unbalanced currents which are
calculated by a specific algorithm.
Once that the current references have been generated, the
current controller must provide full capability for injecting the
positive- and negative-sequence that compounds the desired
unbalanced currents. However, this objective cannot be
accurately achieved by using the conventional current
controllers implemented in the industry. In this way, resonant
controllers [14], [15], hysteresis current controllers [16], [17],
direct power control methods [18], [19], model based
predictive control [20], [21] or other techniques [22]-[24] can
be used for controlling the operation of grid connected power
converters under generic grid conditions.
Nevertheless, this paper is focused on synchronous dq
reference frame based solutions. This technology is interesting
for the industry because it is well-known and it has been
extensively implemented. This is mainly due to the direct
relationship between the active and the reactive power with
the dq current components, which permits to design simple
strategies for determining the current reference which is
necessary for injecting a certain active and reactive power
[25].
The first works that were devoted to control both positiveand negative-sequence currents using synchronous controllers,
proposed the implementation of a single PI current controller,
on the positive-sequence synchronous reference frame.
However, this was not an optimal solution in terms of
performance [26]. Later, by the end of the 90s, other works
introduced two control loops, one for the positive-sequence
and another one for the negative-sequence reference frame
[27]. This structure is also known as double synchronous

2
reference frame (DSRF). However the interaction between
current vectors and reference frames with different sequences
gives rise to oscillations in the dq signals obtained from the
Park transformation [28]. As long as these oscillatory signals
cannot be suitable controlled by PI controllers working on
conventional synchronous controllers, solutions oriented to
reduce these oscillations, based on the implementation of
filters, were introduced in [27], [29], [30].
In this paper, the implementation of a decoupled DSRF
(DDSRF) which is devoted to eliminate the 2 cross-coupled
oscillations produced by the injection of positive- and
negative-sequence currents to the grid, is presented in section
II.B. This new structure is based on a DSRF regulator,
however it is able to estimate the existing oscillations and
compensate them with a sequence cross-decoupling network.
The positive and negative reference frames are decoupled
from each other so that the errors in the PI controllers in the
DSRF are free from oscillations improving its performance.
Finally, in section III, several experimental tests have been
performed in order to demonstrate the validity of the
theoretical results.
II. CURRENT CONTROLLERS FOR UNBALANCED
CURRENTS INJECTION
A. Double Synchronous Reference Frame (DSRF)
One of the most conventional solutions for the control of
grid-connected converters are the dq synchronous current
controllers. This technique is based on the implementation of
controllers that lay on rotating reference frames which are
synchronized with the frequency component to be injected. If
the fundamental component of the grid current must be
injected, the synchronous reference frame (SRF) is
synchronized with the fundamental positive-sequence voltage
phase angle ( ). The main advantage of using a SRF is that
the measured ac currents and voltages of the proper sequence
are transformed into dc magnitudes, in the so-called dq frame,
by using Parks transformation [28].
As long as dc
magnitudes are involved, classical control techniques can be
used so that a PI controller can be designed in order to achieve
the desired performance.
cos( ) sin( )
0 1
(1)
e J =
; J = 1 0 .

sin(

)
cos(

However, under unbalanced grid voltage conditions,

negative-sequence voltage appears and the control of negativesequence currents may become necessary. In this case, two dq
synchronous controllers synchronized with the respective
angular position of each sequence ( + and ) would be
needed. This is the so-called DSRF structure that can be seen
in Fig. 1. In this figure the L factor of the scheme is the dq
decoupling term, where L is the main grid connection inductor
in Table I. Other harmonics components are not considered in
this analysis.
+

Fig. 1. Double synchronous reference frame (DSRF) current controller.

The unbalanced grid voltage can be written as:

cos (t + + )
cos ( t + )
+

(2)
v g = vg + vg = Vg

sin t + +

+ Vg

sin t +

where and have been expressed as:

+ = t + +
+

(3)

= t + .
In a similar way, the current vector can be described by:
cos (t + + )
cos ( t + )
(4)

+ I
.
i = i
+ i
= I +
sin t + +
sin t +

In Fig. 2.a, the positive- and negative sequence components

of the grid voltage and the current are represented.
From the expressions above and from Fig. 2.a, it should be
noted that the initial phase in the positive-sequence voltage
(+) does not have to be the same that the corresponding one
in the negative-sequence case ( -). As a consequence, the
positive-sequence dq current (idq+) is obtained in (5) by
applying (1) over i , using the positive-sequence voltage
angular position +. Similarly, the negative-sequence dq
current (idq-) is calculated in (6) by applying (1) over i , using
the negative-sequence voltage angular position :

i + id cos ( ) + iq sin ( )
= (5)
i +dq = e J i = d+ +
{iq id sin ( + ) + iq cos ( + )

DC term

= i
{

+
dq

DC term

J +

1 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 4 4 4 4 4 43
AC term

+e
i
1 42 43

dq

AC term

+
+

+
i id cos ( ) + iq sin ( )
= (6)
i dq = e J i = d +
{iq id+ sin ( + ) + iq+ cos ( + )
1 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 4 4 4 4 4 43
DC term

AC term

= i
{

dq

DC term

where:

J +

+e
i ,
1 42 43
AC term

+
dq

3
id+ = I + cos ( + + )

(7)

iq+ = I + sin ( + + )
id = I cos ( )
iq = I sin ( ).

As it can be expected, from (7) and Fig. 2.b it can be proven

that idq+ is the projection of the i + over v +, while idq is the
projection of the i over v . Within these conditions, the
positive instantaneous active and reactive powers are directly
related to the positive-sequence dq components and the same
can be concluded for the negative-sequence case [25].
Actually, this is one of the main advantages of implementing
the current controller using this dq technique.
If another angle had been applied using the Parks
transformation, the relationship between the active and
reactive power and the dq components, in both positive- and
negative-sequences, would have been more complex and this
advantage provided by the synchronous frames would have
disappeared [31]. Therefore, an accurate synchronization
system must be used for achieving a good synchronous current
controller performance [32], [33].
Nevertheless, it can be observed in (5) and (6) that the
DSRF controller has an inherent drawback: the cross-coupling
between the dq axis signals in both synchronous reference
frames. This cross-coupling effect causes a 2 ac term
overlapping the dc signals on the dq axes. This oscillation is
determined by the difference between the angular positions of
each synchronous frame:
+ = t + + ( t + ) = 2t +
(8)
+ = t + (t + + ) = 2t

= + ,

where is the fundamental grid frequency and the constant

is defined as the initial phase shift between the positiveand negative-sequence voltage phase angle.

a)
b)
Fig. 2. a) Positive- and negative-sequence components of the grid voltage and
injected current. b) dq components of the positive- and negative-sequence
current vector.

The positive-sequence frame rotates counter clockwise

meanwhile the negative-sequence one rotates clockwise. From
the positive-sequence reference frame point of view, the
negative-sequence is rotating at double frequency and vice
versa.
Several simulations using Matlab have been performed to
illustrate the effect of the cross-coupling between the positive
and negative reference frames. The schematic of the converter
can be seen in Fig. 3 and the main parameters values are
summarized in Table I. In this study case, the simulation
model is based on the real power converter that will be later
used for obtaining the experimental results.
As it is depicted in the figure, the current is injected to the
grid through a LC filter. In parallel with the C of this filter, a
RLC branch tuned at 10Khz has been connected for damping
the ripple of the output current at the switching frequency. The
output of the filter is connected finally to the grid through a
1:1 delta-wye isolation transformer. The phase voltages are
fixed by the grid. In this case the dc-link voltage is fixed to
750V by an external source. The update of the control
algorithm and the switching frequency of the power converter
have been both set to 10kHz.

Fig. 3. Schematic of the power converter including the main connection inductor, input filter, transformers and sensors.

a)

a)

b)
Fig. 4. Current references for a grid-connected converter in the synchronous
*+
frames: a) positive-sequence (id and iq*+); b) negative-sequence (id*- and
iq*-).

b)
Fig. 6. Current errors using the DSRF: a) in the positive-sequence reference
+
+
frame (id and iq ); b) in the negative-sequence reference frame (id - and
iq-).

a)

a)

b)
Fig. 5. Measured currents using the DSRF: a) in the positive-sequence
reference frame (id+ and iq+); b) in the negative-sequence reference frame (idand iq-).

b)
Fig. 7. Injected dq currents with the DSRF: a) in the dq positive reference
frame (id+ and iq+) under id*+ 4A step current at t=0s; b) in the dq negative
reference frame (id - and iq-) where no current reference command was
provided. Current references are represented by dashdot lines.

As indicated in the figure, all the control system in the

experimental setup has been implemented in a 1003 dSpace
real-time platform.
Considering the aforementioned conditions, a simulation
test has been carried out using the DSRF control algorithms.
In Fig. 4 the reference currents that should be injected using
the DSRF PI controller are shown.
The obtained currents, expressed on the dq+ and dq- axes,
are the ones shown in Fig. 5. As it has been explained, the
injection of any positive-sequence current gives rise to
2 oscillations on the negative reference frame and vice versa.
These oscillations originate a 2 steady-state error in the
current tracking that cannot be cancelled out by the PI
controller, due to its limited bandwidth, as it is shown in Fig.
6. Thus, the control of positive- and negative-sequence dq
currents for injecting or absorbing the desired active or
reactive power under unbalanced grid voltage conditions
degrades its performance.
The performance of the DSRF current controller has been
tested experimentally using the three-phase three-wire inverter
of Fig. 3. In this 1st test, the unbalanced conditions have been
produced by connecting one of the phases of the converter to
the neutral point of the transformer at the converter side.

Initially, the inverter is not injecting any current. Then, a

step in the current reference command is applied, setting id+ =
4A. The dq currents measured by the dSpace are shown in Fig.
7. As it can be concluded from Fig. 7 the DSRF controller is
able to track the dc positive-sequence current, but 2
oscillations appear in the negative-sequence. As long as there
is no dc current to track the negative-sequence, there are no
oscillations in the positive-sequence controller in steady-state
conditions.
TABLE I
EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS.
Parameter

Description

Value

fs
fsamp
f
L
C
Lf
Cf
Rf
Cdc
Vdc
Kp
Ki
S
Vg
BW

Switching frequency
Sampling frequency
Grid frequency
Grid connection inductor
Filter capacitor
10kHz filter inductor
10kHz filter capacitor
10kHz filter resistor
Dc-link capacitance
Dc-link voltage
Proportional constant
Integral constant
Nominal power of the converter
Nominal grid phase voltage
Bandwidth

10kHz
10kHz
50Hz
6mH
5F
100H
2.5F
0.5
4700F
750V
0.797p.u.
277.22p.u.
5.5kVA
230Vrms
661Hz

5
B. Decoupled DSRF
The oscillations in the measured dq currents under
unbalanced conditions, when using a DSRF controller, must
be avoided in order to achieve a full capability for injecting
the desired active and reactive power during a grid fault. The
DDSRF introduced in this paper minimizes this undesirable
effect by estimating the amplitude and phase of the 2
oscillation.
From (5) and (6), it can be concluded that the amplitude of
the oscillation in the positive-sequence measured current
matches the dc value of the dq negative-sequence current
component and vice versa. This cross-coupling effect between
both sequences can be noticed in Fig. 5. Actually, the
amplitude of the negative-sequence current in the
experimental results shown in Fig. 7 is equal to 4A, like the
mean value of the positive-sequence injected current. On the
other hand, the oscillation phase was determined previously in
(8) by detecting the angular position of each reference frame.
Therefore, it is feasible to use a cross-decoupling network,
like the one in (9), to make the measured current from both
reference frames independent from each other. This approach
is similar to the one applied for PLLs in synchronization
applications [34].

J ( )
J ( )

i +dq ' = idq+ + e

idq e
i
(9)
{
{
{dq
+

DC term

term
term
1 4 4 2 4DC43
1 4 4 2 4DC43
AC term

Cross-Coupling Term
+

J ( )
J ( )
+
i dq ' = idq + e
idq+ e
i
.
{
{
{dq
DC term
DC term
DC term
1 4 4 2 4 43 1 4 4 2 4 43

AC term

Cross-Coupling Term

In Fig. 6, it could be observed that the error in the DSRF PI

controller was an oscillation with zero dc value. The PI
controller achieves the tracking of the dc value due to its
infinite dc gain, but it cannot avoid the 2 ripple. In the
proposed DDSRF case, the decoupling-network will estimate
and eliminate the oscillation from the measured current while
the PI controller will track the dc value.
The implementation of the proposed DDSRF controller is
shown in Fig. 8. Instead of using filtering techniques, the
mean value of the dq current for the cross-coupling term in (9)
is obtrained from the current reference. As long as the PI
achieves the tracking of the current dc value, the dq current
reference will be equal to the dc value of the oscillating
current in steady-state conditions. This means that, if the PI is
having a zero dc error, the amplitude of the oscillations will be
equal to the dq current reference of the opposite sequence in
steady-state conditions. This fact can be observed in Fig. 7.
Nevertheless, the cross-decoupling cannot be designed
based on the supposition that the controller is working
properly. If any perturbation introduces an error, the
oscillations would not be fully cancelled out, because the
current reference would not match the dc value of the
measured current. This problem is solved by adding
information about the tracking error to the cross-decoupling
network. If the current error appears, this dc

Fig. 8. DDSRF current controller based on the current reference.

error should be subtracted to the reference to obtain the exact

value of the current amplitude in the synchronous frame. It
should be also filtered because the 2 oscillations would also
appear in the current error if the cancellation is not perfect.
Once the amplitude has been estimated, the complete
oscillation is calculated by applying the Parks transformation
to the angular position difference of both frames, obtained by
using a DSRF PLL [34].
The final expression for the implemented DDSRF is:

J ( )
J ( )
i +dq ' = idq+ + e
idq e
idq * idq
{
{
(10)
1 4 2 43
+

DC term

term
1 4 4 2 4DC43
1 4 4 4 2 4DC4term
43
AC term

Cross-Coupling Term

J +

i dq ' = idq + e
idq+ e
idq+ * idq+ .
{
{
1 4 2 43
DC term
term
1 4 4 2 4DC43
1 4 4 4 2 4DC4term
43
AC term
Cross-Coupling Term

The low-pass (LP) filter for obtaining the current error

mean value does not need a high selectivity, as it is free from
oscillations in steady-state conditions. The cut-off frequency
of the LP filter is set to:
(11)
= / 2
f

The same simulations that were described in section II for

the classical DSRF controller have been performed using the
proposed DDSRF. The decoupled currents used by the PI
controller in each reference frame are shown in Fig. 9. The
errors between the desired current references and the
decoupled currents are shown in Fig. 10.
If these results are compared with the ones obtained for the
DSRF in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, it can be concluded that the
DDSRF achieves a better performance and the 2 oscillations
are eliminated.
The transient error is caused by the deviation in the
estimation of the dc value by the decoupling-network under a
current reference step. The maximum peak of the error will be
limited to the amplitude of the oscillation.

6
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

a)

b)
Fig. 9. Decoupled currents using the DDSRF: a) in the positive-sequence
+
+
reference frame (id and iq ); b) in the negative-sequence reference frame (idand iq-).

a)

b)
Fig. 10. Current errors using the DDSRF: a) in the positive-sequence
+
+
reference-frame (id and iq ); b) in the negative-sequence reference-frame
(id- and iq-).

a)

b)
Fig. 11. Decoupled dq currents with the DSRF: a) in the dq positive
reference frame (id+ and iq+) under id*+=4A step current at t=0s; b) in the dq
negative reference frame (id - and iq-) where no current reference command
was provided. Current references are represented by dashdot lines.

An experimental test similar to the one performed in Fig. 7,

with the set-up characterized by the parameters in Table I, has
also been performed using the DDSRF. The resulting
decoupled currents for the decoupled controller are shown in
Fig. 11.

A. Experimental Set-up
Several experimental tests have been performed with the
aim of demonstrating the validity of the proposed controllers
in a real system.
In the sections above, the DSRF and the proposed DDSRF
were implemented on the three-phase converter of Fig. 3,
whose parameters were detailed in Table I. The unbalanced
conditions were introduced by means of producing a shortcircuit at the converter terminals.
In this section, two more complex tests are presented. The
scheme of the experimental setup used for the tests is shown in
Fig. 12. The power converter follows the structure shown in
the detailed scheme of Fig. 3.As a difference with the structure
depicted in Fig. 3, in this case two transformers are used in the
experiment.
This set-up is connected to the main grid through a wyewye transformer with a transformation ratio equal to one. The
primary winding of the transformer is connected to a standard
400V 50Hz network. The secondary of this transformer counts
on two different taps for each phase, as depicted in Fig. 12.
These taps are distributed in such a way that at the output of
the transformer two voltage levels can be obtained: the
nominal one and the half of the nominal (230V phase to
ground or 115V phase to ground).
Thanks to these taps, it is possible to generate a voltage sag
at any phase, dropping the voltage from its nominal value to
the half. It should be clarified in this point that these voltage
drops are not performed by means of a direct change in the
taps, but a real short-circuit is created. This maneuver is
carried out at the maneuver block, which contains different
kind of switches, as it will be discussed later in the detailed
Fig. 13.
The output of the maneuver block is connected to a deltawye transformer, where the shape of the sags are changed
having different amplitudes and phase values at the
converters terminals than the ones measured at the primary
windings [35]. With this configuration a voltage drop in one
phase at the input of the delta-wye, becomes a type C sag at
the Y output of the transformer [36]. Likewise, a two phase
drop at the delta input becomes a type F sag at the output.
Finally, the power converter is connected to the delta-wye
transformer, through a LC filter and a 10kHz filter. In the
following the description of the process that permits obtaining
a voltage drop of 50% in one of the phases is described.

Fig. 12. Experimental set-up for the 2nd and 3rd test.

7
by means of dashdot lines.

a)
a)

b)

c)
d)
Fig. 13. Operations for generating the voltage sag in one-phase: a) open
circuit condition; b) connection to the 230V phase to ground voltage through
P1; c) connection of the contactor, S1, and subsequent short-circuit
generation; d) Trip of the protection, P1, and limitation to the 50% of the
nominal value.

In Fig. 13 the distribution of the secondary windings and the

switches and protections that are necessary for generating the
sag are shown. It should be pointed out that the connection
element at the 220V output (P1) is a magnetothermic
protection, meanwhile S1 is a controllable switch, a contactor
in this case.
In Fig. 13.b, the position of P1 and S1 are the ones
necessary for having the full voltage at the output of the wyewye transformer. When the sag has to be generated, it is just
necessary to close the contactor S1. In these conditions S1 and
P1 are both closed during several few ms, and hence a shortcircuit appears. This situation is presented in Fig. 13.c. In this
case the output phase-to-ground voltage is equal to 110V.
Due to the fact that P1 is a magnetothermic, it acts as a
protection for the short-circuit. Hence, after several ms it trips,
leaving P1 opened meanwhile S1 is still connected. When this
happens, the phase to ground voltage remains permanently at
110V.
By means of using this same mode of operation the 50%
sag can be generated in any of the phases, as well as
generating simultaneous drops in different phases. In fact in
this paper a 50% voltage drop in one single phase for the 2nd
test and a 50% voltage drop in two phases for the 3rd test have
been generated (a three phase sag has not been performed due
to the fact that it is not an unbalanced fault). In these
conditions the performance of the current controllers has been
tested.
In these experiments different dq current references
commands have been applied in order to compare the crosscoupling in the controlled signals using the described
techniques. In the positive-sequence reference frame, constant
4A id*+ and -2A iq*+ are always required. In the negativesequence reference frame, a step command from 0A to 2A is
provided to id* at t=0s and another step from 0A to -2A is also
provided to iq* at t=0s. Current references will be represented

b)
Fig. 14. Measured dq currents with the DSRF: a) in the dq positive reference
+
+
*+
frame (id and iq ) under id =4A and iq*+=-2A constant current commands;
b) in the dq negative reference frame (id - and iq-) where a step command from
0A to 2A is provided to id*- at t=0s and another step from 0A to
-2A is also applied to iq*- at t=0s. Current references are represented by
dashdot lines.

The dq currents which are presented have been captured by

the dSpace real-time system, meanwhile the final injected
stationary abc currents have been measured with an
oscilloscope.
B. One-phase to Ground Fault Through a Delta-wye
Transformer
In this test, a 50% voltage sag is applied to a single phase at
the output of the wye-wye transformer of Fig. 12. According
to the nomenclature proposed in [35] and [36], these
conditions give rise to a B type sag. However, when the sag
passes through the delta-wye transformer, a type C voltage sag
appears at the secondary windings, and hence at the power
converters terminals.
In this experiment, the converter is injecting an initial value
of d and q positive-sequence currents, when a command step
is applied to the d and q negative-sequence currents.
If the DSRF controller is chosen, the PI controller cannot
avoid the appearance of the 2 oscillations, as it is
demonstrated in Fig. 14.
However, the DDSRF controller compensates the 2
oscillations in the dq frame despite these voltage conditions,
as it can be seen in Fig. 15, where the dq decoupled currents
used for the controller in the dSpace are shown.
As it has been stated before, there is a cross-coupling effect
during the transient response because of the estimation error of
the dc value of the current.
The real currents injected with the DDSRF (ia, ib and ic) in
the stationary abc frame, equivalent to the dq currents in Fig.
15, and the grid voltage at the terminal of the converter (vga,
vgb and vgc) are shown in Fig. 16. It should be noted that the
currents are unbalanced because positive- and negativesequence are injected. The main contribution of the DDSRF
lays on its capability for controlling the dq currents of each
sequence independently, in order to provide positive or
negative instantaneous active and reactive power in the aim of
modifying the grid conditions according to a controller set in a
higher control level, which is out of the scope of this paper.

a)

a)

b)
Fig. 15. Decoupled dq currents with the DDSRF: a) in the dq positive
+
+
reference frame (id and iq ) under id*+=4A and iq*+=-2A constant current
commands; b) in the dq negative reference frame (id - and iq-) where a step
command from 0A to 2A is provided to id*- at t=0s and another step from 0A
to -2A is also applied to iq*- at t=0s. Current references are represented by
dashdot lines.

b)
Fig. 17. Decoupled dq currents with the DDSRF: a) in the dq positive
+
+
reference frame (id and iq ) under id*+=4A and iq*+=-2A constant current
commands; b) in the dq negative reference frame (id - and iq-) where a step
command from 0A to 2A is provided to id*- at t=0s and another step from 0A
to -2A is also applied to iq*- at t=0s. Current references are represented by
dashdot lines.

Fig. 16. Grid voltage (vga, vgb and vgc), with a 100V/div scale and injected
currents by the DDSRF (ia, ib and ic) with a 2A/div scale in the abc
stationary frame corresponding to a constant id*+=4A and iq*+=-2A current
reference together with a id*- step from 0A to 2A and a iq*- step from 0A to
-2A at t=0s (time axis limits are represented from -40ms to 60ms with a
10ms/div scale).

Fig. 18. Grid voltage (vga, vgb and vgc), with a 100V/div scale and injected
currents by the DDSRF (ia, ib and ic) with a 2A/div scale in the abc
stationary frame corresponding to a constant id*+=4A and iq*+=-2A current
reference together with a id*- step from 0A to 2A and a iq*- step from 0A to
-2A at t=0s (time axis limits are represented from -40ms to 60ms with a
10ms/div scale).

C. Two-phase to Ground Fault Through a Delta-wye

Transformer

The real currents injected with the DDSRF (ia, ib and ic) in the
stationary abc frame, equivalent to the dq currents in Fig. 17,
and the grid voltage at the terminal of the converter (vga, vgb
and vgc) are shown in Fig. 18. The controller is also able to
provide the desired unbalanced currents under these
unfavorable conditions.

Finally, a two-phase to ground fault has been applied under

the same conditions and stimulus than in the previous III.B
section. In this case, the operation described in Fig. 13 is
performed over two of the phases. This gives rise to an E type
sag at the output of the wye-wye transformer, that later
becomes a F type at the converter terminal, due to the
propagation through the delta-wye transformer. This involves
another phase shift between the phase voltages, which can be
seen in the top part of Fig. 18.
Also in this experiment, the dq positive-sequence and
negative-sequence currents are successfully decoupled by the
DDSRF controller. This fact can be checked in Fig. 17.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
The use of dq synchronous controllers under unbalanced
grid voltage conditions has a significant drawback: the
appearance of 2 cross-coupled oscillations in the dq currents
when positive- and negative-sequence are injected. Although
these oscillations cannot be compensated by the PI controller
in each reference frame, it has been demonstrated that they are
determined by the crossed influence of both reference frames.

9
The DDSRF current controller proposed in this paper
estimates the amplitude and angular position of the crosscoupled oscillation using a decoupling-network based on the
current reference applied to the converter. As it has been
explained, information about the PI error has been added to
the decoupling-network with the aim of avoiding dependence
with the controller. The contribution of this controller is that
positive- and negative-sequence active and reactive power can
be controlled independently.
Experimental results have been obtained under different
grid voltage conditions demonstrating the capability of the
controller to compensate these oscillations.
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Manuel R. Reyes (S06-M11) was born in Seville, in Spain, in 1981. He
received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in telecommunications engineering from
the University of Seville (US), Spain, in 2005 and 2007 respectively.
In 2004, he joined the Power Electronics Group, US, working in R&D
projects. Currently, he is a predoctoral researcher pursuiting his PhD degree in
electronic engineering. His research interests include electronic power
systems; Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS); distributed power
generation and the integration of renewable energy sources.
Pedro Rodrguez (S99-M04-SM'10) received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees
in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC),
Spain, in 1994 and 2004, respectively. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher at
the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
in 2005, and at the Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University
(AAU) in 2006.
He joined the faculty of UPC as an Assistant Professor in 1990, where he
became the Director of the research center on Renewable Electrical Energy
Systems (SEER) in the Department of Electrical Engineering. He was also a
Visiting Professor at the AAU from 2007 to 2011, acting as a co-supervisor of
the Vestas Power Program. He still lectures Ph.D. courses at the AAU every
year. From 2011, he is the Principal Research Scientist on Electrical
Engineering and a member of the Scientific Director Board of Abengoa
Research, although he is still joined to the UPC as a part time Professor. He
has coauthored one book and more than 100 papers in technical journals and
conference proceedings. He is the holder of seven licensed patents. His
research interests include integration of distributed generation systems, smart
grids, and design and control of power converters.
Sergio Vazquez (S'04, M'08) was born in Seville, Spain, in 1974. He received
the B.S, M.S. and PhD degrees in industrial engineering from the University
of Seville (US) in 2003, 2006 and 2010, respectively.
In 2002, he was with the Power Electronics Group, US, working in R&D
projects. He is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of
Electronic Engineering in the US. His research interests include power
electronics systems, modeling, modulation and control of power electronics
converters applied to renewable energy technologies.
Alvaro Luna (S07, M'10) received the B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD degrees in
electrical engineering in 2001, 2005 and 2009, respectively, from the
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain. He joined the
faculty of UPC in 2005, where he is currently an Assistant Professor. His
research interests include wind turbines control, PV systems, integration of
distributed generation and power conditioning.
Remus Teodorescu (S96-A97-M99-SM02) received the Dipl. Ing. degree
in electrical engineering from Polytechnical University of Bucharest,
Bucharest, Romania, in 1989 and the Ph.D. degree in power electronics from
the University of Galati, Galati, Romania, in 1994.
From 1989 to 1990, he was with Iron and Steel Plant Galati. He then moved to
the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Galati, where he was
an Assistant and has been an Assistant Professor since 1994. In 1996, he was
appointed Head of the Power Electronics Research Group, University of
Galati. In 1998, he joined the Power Electronics and Drives Department,
Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark,
where he is currently a Full Professor. He is the coordinator for Green Power
Research Group and Laboratory with focus on design and control of grid
converters for renewable energy systems. He has published more than 60
papers and one book. He has coauthored more than 100 technical papers 12 of
them published in IEEE Transactions, 2 books and 5 patents.
Dr. Teodorescu is a Senior Member of IEEE, an Associate Editor for IEEE
Transactions of Power Electronics Letters and chair of IEEE Danish
IAS/IES/PELS chapter. He is the co-recipient of the Technical Committee
Prize Paper Awards at IEEE IAS Annual Meeting 1998, and Third-ABB Prize
Paper Award at IEEE Optim 2002.
Juan M. Carrasco (M'97) was born in San Roque, Spain. He received the
M.Eng. and Dr.Eng. degrees in industrial engineering from the University of

Seville (US), Seville, Spain, in 1989 and 1992, respectively. From 1990 to
1995, he was an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electronic
Engineering in the US where he is currently an Associate Professor.
He has been working for several years in the power electronic field where he
was involved in the industrial application of the design and development of
power converters applied to renewable energy technologies. His current
research interests are in distributed power generation and the integration of
renewable energy sources.