• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.334-341
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• 2019

This study proposes the control strategy for the seamless mode transfer of indirect current controlled parallel grid-connected inverters. Under the abnormal grid condition, the grid-connected inverter can convert the operation mode from grid-connected to stand-alone mode to supply power to the local load. For a seamless mode transfer, the time delay problems caused by the accumulated control variable error must be solved, and the indirect current control method has been applied as one of the solutions. In this study, the design of control parameters for the proportional-resonant-based triple-loop indirect current controller and the control strategy for the seamless mode transfer of parallel grid-connected inverters are described and analyzed. The validity of the proposed mode transfer method is verified by the PSiM simulation results.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.195-204
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• 2015

In this paper, the development of a cost-effective active power filter/uninterruptible power supply (APF/UPS) system with seamless mode transfer is described. The proposed scheme employs a pulse-width-modulation (PWM) voltage-source inverter and has two operational modes. First, when the source voltage is normal, the system operates as an APF, which compensates for the harmonics and power factor while boosting the DC-link voltage to be ready for the disturbance, without an additional DC charging circuit. A simple algorithm to detect the load current harmonics is also proposed. Second, when the source voltage is out of the normal range (owing to sag, swell, or outage), it operates a UPS, which controls the output voltage constantly by discharging the DC-link capacitor. Furthermore, a seamless transfer method for the single-phase inverter between the APF mode and the UPS mode is also proposed, in which an IGBT switch with diodes is used as a static bypass switch. Dissimilar to a conventional SCR switch, the IGBT switch can implement a seamless mode transfer. During the UPS operation, when the source voltage returns to the normal range, the system operates as an APF. The proposed system has good transient and steady-state response characteristics. The APF, charging circuit, and UPS systems are implemented in one inverter system. Finally, the validity of the proposed scheme is investigated with simulated and experimental results for a prototype APF/UPS system rated at 3 kVA.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.349-355
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• 2019

A grid-connected inverter with critical loads should be able to supply a stable voltage to critical loads at mode change and during clearing time while detecting unintentional islanding. This study proposes a mode transfer method for a grid-connected inverter with critical loads. The proposed method, which integrates the grid-connected and islanded mode control loops into one control block, provides an autonomous and seamless mode transfer from the current control to the voltage control. Therefore, the proposed scheme can supply a stable voltage to critical loads at mode change and during clearing time. Experimental results are provided to validate the proposed method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.251-265
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• 2018

To enable a master-slave control independent microgrid system (MSCIMGS) to supply electricity continuously, the microgrid inverter should perform mode transfer between grid-connected and islanding operations. Transient oscillations should be reduced during transfer to effectively conduct a seamless mode transfer. This study uses a typical MSCIMGS as an example and improves the mode transfer strategy in three aspects: (1) adopts a status-tracking algorithm to improve the switching strategy of the outer loop, (2) uses the voltage magnitude and phase pre-synchronization algorithm to reduce transient shock at the time of grid connection, and (3) applies the hybrid-sensitivity $H_{\infty}$ robust controller instead of the current inner loop to improve the robustness of the controller. Simulations and experiments show that the proposed strategy is more practical than the traditional proportional-derivative control mode transfer and effective in reducing voltage and current oscillations during the transfer period.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.201-207
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• 2013

This paper propose seamless transfer operation between grid-connected and stand-alone mode in the three-phase inverter for microgrid. The inverter operates grid-connected mode and stand-alone mode. Grid-connected mode is the inverter connected to grid and stand-alone mode is to deliver energy to the load from inverter at grid fault. When conversion from gird-connected to stand-alone mode, the inverter changes current control to voltage control. When grid restored, the inverter system is conversion from stand-alone to grid-connected mode. In this case, load phase and grid phase are different. Therefore, synchronization is essential. Thus Seamless transfer operation stand-alone to grid-connected mode. In this paper, propose sealmless transfer operation between grid-connceted and stand-alome mode, and this method is verified through simulation and experiment.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.254-264
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• 2019

This paper proposes an indirect current control technique based on a proportional resonant (PR) approach for the seamless mode transfer of utility interactive inverters. Direct-current and voltage hybrid control methods have been used for inverter control under grid-connected and islanded modes. A large bandwidth can be selected due to the structure of single-loop control. However, this results in poor dynamic transients due to sudden changes of the controller during mode changes. Therefore, inverter control based on indirect current is proposed to improve the dynamic transients by consistently controlling the output voltage under all of the operation modes. A PR-based indirect current control topology is used in this study to maintain the load voltage quality under all of the modes. The design processes of the PR-based triple loop are analyzed in detail while considering the system stability and dynamic transients. The mode transfer techniques are described in detail for both sudden unintentional islanding and islanded mode voltage quality improvements. In addition, they are described using the proposed indirect control structure. The proposed method is verified by the PSiM simulations and laboratory-scale VDER-HILS experiments.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.200-206
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• 2016

In the microgrid, inverters for energy storage system are generally constructed in a parallel structure because of capacity expandability, convenience of system maintenance, and reliability improvement. Parallel inverters are required to provide stable voltage to the critical load in PCC and to accurately share the current between each inverter. Furthermore, when islanding occurs, the inverters should change its operating mode from grid-connected mode to stand-alone mode. However, during clearing time and control mode change, the conventional control method has a negative impact on the critical load, that is, severe fluctuating voltage. In this study, a parallel operation control method is proposed. This method provides seamless mode transfer for the entire transition period, including clearing time and control mode change, and has accurate current sharing between each inverter. The proposed control method is validated through simulation and experiment.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1821-1832
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• 2016

This study presents a strategy using the synchronized output regulation method (SOR) for controlling inverters operating in stand-alone and grid-connected modes. From the view point of networked dynamic systems, SOR involves nodes with outputs that are synchronized but also display a desirable wave shape. Under the SOR strategy, the inverter and grid are treated as two nodes that comprise a simple network. These two nodes work independently under the stand-alone mode. An intermediate mode, here is named the synchronization mode, is emphasized because the transition from the stand-alone mode to the grid-connected mode can be dealt as a standard SOR problem. In the grid-connected mode, the inverter operates in an independent way, in which the voltage reference changes for generalized synchronization where its output current satisfies the required power injection. Such a relatively independent design leads to a seamless transfer between operation modes. The closed-loop system is analyzed in the state space on the basis of the output regulation theory, which improves the robustness of the design. Simulations and experiments are performed to verify the proposed control strategy.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.194-200
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• 2014

In DC micro-grid system energy storage systems (ESS) are responsible for storing energy and balancing power. Also, control target of the bidirectional DC-DC converter(BDC) for ESS should be changed depending on the operating mode. During the grid connected mode, the BDC controls the battery current or voltage. When a grid fault occurs, the BDC should change the control target to regulate the DC-bus. The BDC with conventional control method may experience large transient state during the mode change. This paper proposes a control method of BDC for ESS. The proposed control method is able to provide autonomous and seamless mode transfer by a variable current limiter. To validate the proposed concept, simulation results using PSIM and experimental results from a 2kW prototype are provided.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.233-238
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• 2018

This paper proposes a seamless MPPT operation mode transfer method of photovoltaic system. The photovoltaic system consists of a DC-DC boost converter, a DC-Link, and a 3-level neutral point clamp (NPC) type inverter. The PV voltage fluctuates due to the output characteristics of the solar pane1 depending on the irradiation amount and the temperature. The photovoltaic system requires seamless MPPT mode transfer method that the discontinuity does not occur in order to supply the stable power to system without affecting the fluctuation of the PV voltage. MPPT operation is divided into two modes by the voltage reference. Under the condition that the PV voltage is below 650V, the DC-DC boost converter performs MPPT through duty control based on perturb & observe (P&O) method, and the inverter conducts DC-link voltage and grid current controls in synchronous reference frame. On the other hand, when the PV voltage exceeds above 650V, inverter performs MPPT in accordance with the variation of DC-link voltage control while the converter stops operating. Two MPPT operation modes is smoothly transferred through the proposed method that DC-link voltage or grid current commands are appropriately adjusted from the certain criteria. The feasibility of the MPPT operation mode transfer method is verified using a 10kW solar photovoltaic system, experimental results have good performances that the fluctuation of PV current is reduced to 100%.