Comparison of PWM Methods for Current

Harmonic Reduction in a Non-Ideal Grid

Abel Ferreira, Adriano Carvalho, António Martins, Filipe Pereira, Vı́tor Sobrado

Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

Email: {abelf, asc, ajm, filipep, vitors}@fe.up.pt

Abstract—The work focus the design and performance eval- VOC for a grid-tied Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) con-
uation of a Voltage Oriented Control method, applied to a verter is based on coordinate transformation between station-
grid connected Voltage Source Converter, under several PWM ary three axis abc and synchronous rotating dq reference
techniques. The simulated and laboratory implementation results
show that under a polluted grid, the third harmonic injection has frames. The relationship (1) can be obtained in dq reference,
the best performance in terms of grid current harmonic. by Clarke-Park transformation (2).
Index Terms—Continuous and discontinuous modulation, har-
did
monics, pulse width modulation. uCd = Rid + L + uGd − ωLiq
dt (2)
diq
I. Introduction uCq = Riq + L + uGq + ωLid
dt
Wind is one of the most abundant renewable energy sources
present in nature. Wind power systems solutions have been The VOC scheme is shown in Fig. 1 and is characterized by
widely developed in recent years. having three control loops to control the grid power flow and
The most used power electronic solution to connect a wind the DC link voltage through the VSC.
turbine to the grid is composed by two Voltage Source Con-
verters (VSC) in a back-to-back topology, sharing a common
DC link, raising some challenges. The DC link voltage must
be carefully regulated in order to have a robust and a high
efficiency system in terms of operation.
Various VSC control methods have been proposed to bal-
ance the power flow from DC link to the grid. The control
methods can be classified as voltage-based like Direct Power
Control (DPC)[1] and Voltage Oriented Control (VOC), as
well as flux-based algorithms, inspired by the motor control
methods, like Virtual Flux Oriented Control (VFOC)[2] and
Virtual Flux-DPC (VF-DPC)[3].
The purpose of this paper is to model a VSC-VOC and
study the performance of the most common used pulse width
modulation methods used in a VSC in terms of harmonic
pollution in grid line currents. First, the VSC-VOC method
is described and modelled and then is used to comparing the Fig. 1: Voltage Oriented Control scheme
most known PWM methods. Finally, laboratory test results are
illustrated to verify the capabilities of the modulation method. Since the current control loops are decoupled, active (Id )
and reactive (Iq ) component are independently managed [4].
II. Voltage Oriented Control used in three phase Voltage
In order to satisfy the imposed current set points Id∗ and Id∗ , the
Source Converter
respective controllers change the VSC output voltage in order
A. Control Method Description to reach the input reference.
In VOC the VSC is modelled as a AC voltage controlled The DC link voltage is regulated imposing a reference in the
source (Uc ). The principle of operation is explained by conect- active current component (Id∗ ). A voltage variation in the DC
ing the VSC to the grid via a line impedance (RL). If the link is compensated by changing the AC line active currents,
voltage source is controlled either in amplitude or in phase, the in such a way, that the DC link is kept at the established
active or reactive power flow to the grid is modified. Referring value. The analysed system is characterized by having lower
to Fig. 1, the converter voltage is fully defined by (1). power and so, is pretended to produce only active power.
d[iabc ] To accomplish this requirement the reactive current reference
[uCabc ] = R[iabc ] + L + [uGabc ] (1) component (Iq∗ ) was imposed 0A.
dt

978-1-4799-0224-8/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 538

B. Grid Synchronization Method
The most challenging requirement inherent to a good perfor-
mance of a grid-tied VSC is highly related with the accurate
information inherent to grid voltage phase. This knowledge
can be acquired by Zero Crossing Detections (ZCD) or Phase
Locked Loop (PLL) algorithms. Under balanced three phase
systems, the most common and reliable state of the art PLL
is the synchronous reference frame (SRF-PLL) [5].
The SFR-PLL is a feedback control system that adjusts an
internal generated signal (θg ) in order to align the rotating
dq frame with the grid phase, in such a way that cancels
the grid reactive component (ugq ). Once cancelled, the PLL
architecture determines the amplitude (ugd ), phase angle (θg ),
and frequency of the dominant component of an input signal
(ωg ). The PLL stragy used is presented in Fig. 2 and consists
of three basic functional blocks: phase detector (PD), a Low
Pass Filter (LPF) and Voltage Control Oscillators (VCO)).
Fig. 2: PLL scheme strategy used
The PLL filter’s bandwidth is a trade-off between dynamics
of locking the input phase and robustness, high immunity to
signal disturbances. Since the grid has very low dynamics,
the filters bandwidth design was focused only to have high
immunity to grid harmonic pollution. From the several tests
performed, a 5Hz filters bandwidth retrieved high immunity
to grid voltage THD.
C. Current Controller Design
As Fig. 1 shows, the voltage control loops are decoupled,
meaning that variations in one component do not perturb
the other. The transfer function between the applied voltage
reference UC j and the respective j ∈ (d, q) components were
obtained by (2) and present in (3).
Ij 1
Gi (s) = = (3)
UC j R + sL
According to (3) a PI controller is an appropriate one to
control id and iq . The design of their parameters based on
Internal Model Control (IMC) is presented in (5) [6].
ki
G PI (s) = k p + (4)
s
ki = αR
(5)
k p = αL
where α(rad/s) is the current controller bandwidth where the
pole of G PI is placed. The bandwidth α should be selected
smaller than a decade below the sampling frequency.
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D. DC Voltage Controller Design
The DC link must be modelled in order to design the
parameters of the voltage control loop. The DC link, modelled
as a pure capacitor, is presented in Fig. 1 as well as the DC
input and output power flow.
The capacitor is an energy storage device modelled by (6)
and the time derivative of the stored energy must be equal to
the difference between the power from the wind generator and
the one injected into the grid (7).
Ec = 12 Cv2DC (6)
dEc
= PS G − PDC
dt 2
1 dvDC (7)
C = PS G − PDC
2 dt
The dynamics of the DC voltage is nonlinear with respect to
vDC . For an accurate control model, it was made a linearization
of (7), replacing v2DC by W, resulting in the process model Gv
presented in (8).
1 dW √
C = 3.UgLL id − PS G
2 dt √
2 3UgLL (8)
W
Gv (s) = =
Id Cs
As before, a PI controller can accurately control the DC
voltage. Their parameters were calculated in such a way
that DC voltage compensation has a fastest response to the
reference and perturbations (PS G ). In order to evaluate the
dynamics in the DC-link voltage, were considered that the
inductor value has a small value and so, neglect the variations
in the reactive current component suffered by the DC voltage
fluctuations.
III. Pulse Width Modulation Method
The non-existence of the neutral point in three wire systems
provides a degree of freedom in determining the zero states of
the inverter switches. The degree of freedom appears because
the phase currents are dependent only on the voltage of the
VSC. Therefore it is possible to insert an additional zero-
sequence signal (ZSS) of third harmonic frequency, which
does not produce voltage distortion uCa , uCb , uCc and without
affecting low frequency components of the load currents. The
ZSS modulation component is added between grid neutral (N)
and DC link middle point and is only visible in un0 or ua0 ,
ub0 or uc0 . The current ripple, average switching frequency,
and current harmonics are parameters that are optimized by
changing the ZSS.
There are some ZSS present in the state of the art and
can be divided in continuous or discontinuous modulation
(DPWM). The most known continuous methods are sinusoidal
with third harmonic reference (with 1/4 or 1/6 amplitude of
fundamental) and the symmetrical placement of zero vectors
(SVPWM). Detail on implementation of the PWM methods
are explained in [7]. Discontinuous modulation methods are
formed by unmodulated π/3 rad segments and shifting from
0 to π/3 the nonswitching periods of the sectors results in
different types of modulation. The descriptions of different
kinds of modulation are presented in next sections.
A. Third Harmonic Zero Sequence Signal PWM (THIPWM)
The biggest limitation of the three phase inverter with a si-
nusoidal modulation
√ is the reduced rms value of the output line
3
voltage of 2 2 U DC . Since the linear region of the modulation
√
can be increased by injection of a third harmonic frequency
component, in several applications, avoids the VSC operating
in over-modulation mode, avoiding the resultant low frequency
base band distortion. The normal sinusoidal modulation (9) can
be extended by including the third harmonic component (10).
Fig. 3: Waveforms for phase a without third harmonic injection
∗
uCa = U DC Mcosωc t (red), the one-quarter third harmonic component (green) and
uCb = U DC Mcos (ωc t − 2π/3)
∗
(9) modulator reference (blue)
∗
uCc = U DC Mcos (ωc t + 2π/3)
∗
uCa = U DC [Mcosωc t + M3 cos3ωc t]
∗
uCb = U DC [Mcos (ωc t − 2π/3) + M3 cos3ωc t] (10)
∗
uCc = U DC [Mcos (ωc t + 2π/3) + M3 cos3ωc t]
where M and M3 are the modulation indexes of the funda-
mental reference and the third harmonic respectively.
M3 can be chosen to make the peak magnitude of the
reference waveforms defined in (9) occur where the third
harmonic is zero (ωc t = π/6). This would assure the maximum
possible value for the fundamental component in a linear
range.
du∗ca
= −MU DC sinωc t − 3M3 U DC sin3ωc T = 0 (11)
dωc t Fig. 4: Space Vector representation of a three-phase VSC
which for ωc t = π/6 results in M3 = −M/6.
Under these conditions the maximum √possible modulation
index M for a linear range of PWM is 2/ 3 = 1.155, showing The most popular SVM method is the three phase SVM with
an increase of 15% in modulation index. The third harmonic symmetrical zero states (SVPWM). There are two phase SVM
injection with 1/4 of the fundamental component leads to a methods also called discountinuous PWM (DPWM). Both are
reduced harmonic distortion, [8], resulting in an increase of presented in next subsections.
only 12% of the modulation linear range. Figure 3 shows the 1) Three phase SVM with symmetrical zero states: This
fundamental modulator reference for phase leg a without third- type of modulation is based on the assumption that the three
harmonic injection, with one-six amplitude third harmonic voltage vectors of VSC are selected in function of the modula-
injection and one-quarter magnitude third harmonic injection. tion index and the converter phase angle. A switching period
of this PWM type is presented in Fig. 6a. The particularity
B. Space Vector PWM of this method is the spacing zero vectors (SVPWM)are equal
Space Vector modulation (SVM) was proposed by offering and have a residual sampling time from the active voltage VSC
significant advantages over natural PWM in terms of perfor- vectors (12)[4].
T s − t1 − t2
mance. SVM is identified as an alternative method for identi- t0 = t7 = (12)
fication of pulse placement as an additional degree of freedom 2
that can be exploited to achieve harmonic performance gains. The resultant SVPWM developed modulator curve is presented
The principle of SVM is based on the fact that are only eight in Fig. 5.
possible switch combinations for a three phase VSC, of which The ZSS that is added to a fundamental frequency modula-
two states are redundant, and the remaining are considered tion curve is obtained by the three voltages in the abc reference
stationary vectors in αβ plane as shown in Fig. 4[4]. frame.
The VSC output voltage can be formed by summation of a 2) Two phase SVM: This type of modulation is based on the
number of these space vectors within one switching period. assumption that only two phases are switched over a switching
Depending on the vectors chosen and the times that are period like is presented in Fig. 6b. As can be seen, only b and
active different modulation patterns can be formed with dif- c phase legs are switching in the presented switching period.
ferent performance in terms of losses and harmonic mitigation. Moreover, depending on the operating sector, each phase leg

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Fig. 5: Waveforms for phase a without ZSS(blue), the ZSS (a) Waveforms for phase a without ZSS(blue),
signal (green) and SVWM modulator reference (red) the ZSS signal (green) and DPWM1 modulator
reference (red)

Fig. 6: Vector placement in a switching period for a (a) (b) Waveforms for phase a without ZSS(blue),
conventional SVPWM and (b) discontinuous method (t0 = t7 ). the ZSS signal (green) and DPWM2 modulator
reference (red)

of VSC is clamped to the lower or upper DC bus during for

2π/3 rad of the fundamental phase. This type of modulation
has a reduction of switching losses by 33%[4].
Depending on the the instants that the phase legs are
clamped and correct selection of the VSC voltage vectors can
be formed different modulator curves.
A careful examination of the DPWM1 and DPWM2 mod-
ulation waveforms of Fig. 7 indicates that there exists a π/6
rad phase-angle distance between their DC-rail clamped π/3
rad segments.
(c) Waveforms for phase a without ZSS(blue),
IV. Simulation Results the ZSS signal (green) and DPWM3 modulator
reference (red)
The VOC method was simulated in Matlab-PSIM environ-
ment. The goal of the simulation is to evaluate the harmonic Fig. 7: Phase leg a PWM reference waveforms for third
production of the control algorithm with different modulation harmonic injection (M=0.9)
methods, with operating conditions which are as close as pos-
sible to the reality of the laboratory. However, the simulation
is divided into two parts: first the VOC method was evaluated The impedance between the VSC and the grid has a low value.
under an ideal grid with a zero total harmonic distortion (THD) Then, the VSC operates with very closer modulation indexes
and finally, the system was tested under the real grid operating to change the power flow (limited by the rated power). So, to
conditions, shown in table I. test the harmonic production of the control method plus the
The harmonic production is highly dependent on the line modulation method it was only considered the rated power
RL parameters. From the system parameters presented, the flow.
line impedance is given by (13). The presented control method allows the VSC to operate as
q a rectifier or in inverter mode, sharing the same performance
|Z| = R2 + (ωg L)2 = 1.34Ω (13) in dynamics, distortion and immunity to load perturbations

541
TABLE I: Simulation and Experimental System Parameters
Item Symbol Value Unit
Rated Power PN 6.6 kW
Grid Line-Line voltage UgLL 200 V
Grid frequency fg 50 Hz
Grid line resistance Rg 0.115 Ω
Grid line inductance Lg 4.25 mH
DC link reference voltage U DC 400 V
DC link capacitance C 2 mF
Switching Frequency f sw 10 kHz
Power factor cosφ 1 -
Fig. 8: Voltage grid signals acquired in laboratory

[4]. The rectifier mode is more approachable to implement in TABLE II: Line currents distortion under several modulation
laboratory, having been chosen. techniques with ideal and non-ideal grid conditions.
Were studied the harmonic content in the grid lines for all Ideal Grid Non-ideal Grid
Modulation Type
the modulation techniques and were computed the THD and THD WTHD THD WTHD
the weighted total harmonic distortion (WTHD) factors (14). Simple Sine PWM 1.14% 0.01% 3.08% 0.57%
v 1/6 Third PWM 1.03% 0.00% 3.05% 0.57%
t ∞ !2
X vh 1/4 Third PWM 1.02% 0.01% 3.04% 0.57%
T HDvk (%) = 100 Space Vector PWM 1.02% 0.01% 3.55% 0.71%
h=2
v1 DPWM1 1.63% 0.04% 3.72% 0.71%
v (14)
t∞
X vh !2 DPWM2 1.56% 0.05% 3.69% 0.71%
WT HDvk (%) = 100 DPWM3 1.48% 0.02% 3.63% 0.71%
h=2
v1 h

A. VOC Method under Ideal Grid Conditions

The VOC control method was simulated with the parameters
presented in table I adding the fact that the grid is ideal with
zero THD. Since the grid is ideal, obviously all the harmonic
content of the line currents are originated by the control
loops and the modulation techniques used. To accomplish this
task the system was examined at the rated power. The total
harmonic distortion as well as the weighted THD (WTHD)
are presented in the table II.
The results show that the continuous method have lower har-
monic distortion than the discontinuous ones. Evaluating the
THD and WTHD factors, the continuous techniques doesn’t
produce lower order harmonics and the resultant distortion
factors are originated by the higher order harmonics of the
PWM. On the other hand, the discontinuous modulators pro-
duce harmonic content in lower harmonics order, increasing
the distortion factors.
The injection of the third harmonic with 1/4 of magnitude Fig. 9: Presence of the main harmonics in the current lines in
into the sinusoidal modulator leads to the lowest harmonic a non-ideal grid
content for the presented techniques.
B. VOC Method under Real Grid Conditions the modulation technique the WTHD in a non-ideal grid has a
In this simulation tests the ideal grid was replaced by significant increase due to the presence of low order harmonics
the real grid model of the laboratory, acquired by a digital in the grid line voltages. By adding a ZSS signal into the
oscilloscope. The grid model is presented in Fig. 8 and the sinusoidal pattern reduces the 7th , 9th , 11th and 13th harmonic
most significant current harmonics are presented in the Fig. 9. amplitudes. The SPWM and THIPWM techniques ensure as
The grid is characterized by having a THD equal to 3.4%. well a small reduction in the 5th harmonic in opposition to the
With a non-ideal grid and examining the system with the remaining approaches. All the techniques produce an increase
same parameters but with this new condition, the results are of the amplitude of the third harmonic in the grid line currents.
necessary different and presented in table II and in Fig. 9. The continuous modulation techniques have better perfor-
With a harmonic polluted grid it is notorious that the THD mance in terms of the harmonic content in line currents.
increases for all the modulation methods. Independently of The sine PWM and THIPWM modulators have the lower

542
 harmonic content with very similar results. Both have the
same WTHD factor meaning that produce essentially the same
lower harmonics. What distinguishes them are the higher
frequency ones that characterizes the switching frequency and
its multiples making the THIPWM with 1/4 of magnitude
the most interesting approach to apply with the presented
conditions.

V. Laboratory Experimental Results

In the course of work, the modulation methods have been
tested in the laboratory. Sharing the same operating conditions
of the table I, the converter has been tested with different
Fig. 11: Waveforms for PWM in phase a without ZSS (yel-
modulation methods, and the THD of the grid line currents
low), the ZSS signal (red) and DPWM3 modulator reference
provided by those methods are present in table III.
(blue) and the grid line current (green).
TABLE III: Line currents distortion under several modulation
techniques with ideal and non-ideal grid conditions.
modelling, the system was simulated in the Matlab-PSIM
Laboratory Results environment with several modulation methods.
Modulation Type
THD WTHD The tests performed show that, for the same switching
Simple Sine PWM 3.21% 0.89% frequency, the continuous modulation methods provide a lower
1/6 Third PWM 3.07% 0.77% harmonic content in the grid currents. The discontinuous
1/4 Third PWM 3.06% 0.83% methods, having lower switching losses, allow the increasing
Space Vector PWM 4.09% 1.34%
of the switching frequency in order to reach the same losses
DPWM1 4.62% 1.71%
of the other methods. In presence of an ideal grid, the
DPWM2 4.58% 1.70%
reduction of the amplitude of the side-band harmonics of
DPWM3 4.46% 1.59%
the carrier frequency can reduce significantly the THD of
the grid currents. On the other hand in the presence of a
From the above methods, as resulted in simulation envi-
polluted grid, the discussed discontinuous methods don’t have
ronment, the THIPWM with 1/4 of magnitude keeps the best
the performance as optimistic as the continuous methods. From
performance under non-ideal grid conditions. In Fig. 10 is
both simulations and laboratory implementation with a non-
presented the laboratory results in terms of grid line currents,
ideal grid, the best modulation technique is the injection of
as well as the modulation pattern used.
a third harmonic component with a 1/4 of magnitude of the
modulation index.
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The VSC-VOC method was carefully modelled to provide
fast and robust results to manage the grid power flow. After

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