Impedance stability assessment of active damping strategies for LCL grid-connected converters

Abstract

The use of LCL filters is a well accepted solution to attenuate the harmonics created by the pulsewidth modulation (PWM). However, inherently LCL filters have a resonance region where the unwanted harmonics are amplified, which can compromise instability. Active damping strategies are implemented as a countermeasure. This paper analyses the robustness of the closed-loop dynamics when different active damping strategies are implemented. Due to their readiness and simplicity, the following schemes are considered: 1) filtered capacitor voltage feed-forward and 2) notch filters in cascade with the main current controller. The impedance/admittance stability formulation is used to model the system, which has been proven to be very convenient for the assessment of robustness. The design case study shows that the filtered capacitor voltage feed-forward provides a more robust implementation than the one based on a series notch filter. Experimental tests are provided, which prove the accuracy of the analysis and verifies the findings.