IET Power Electronics

Research Article

ISSN 1755-4535
Sliding mode harmonic compensation Received on 31st October 2014
Revised on 27th January 2015
strategy for power quality improvement of a Accepted on 26th February 2015
doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2014.0833
grid-connected inverter under distorted grid www.ietdl.org

condition
Sung-Wook Kang, Kyeong-Hwa Kim ✉
Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro,
Nowon-gu, Seoul 139-743, Korea
✉ E-mail: k2h1@seoultech.ac.kr

Abstract: A novel sliding mode harmonic compensation (SMHC) scheme is proposed for the enhanced power quality in
distributed generation systems under distorted grid condition. The harmonic pollution caused by non-linear loads in
electrical networks brings about distorted grid voltage, power losses and heating in electrical equipments. The
proposed SMHC scheme is composed of a harmonic detector and a sliding mode harmonic current controller based on
the integral sliding mode control. By using the fourth order band pass filter, the proposed harmonic detector can
effectively extract harmonic components without phase delay. These harmonic components can be notably suppressed
by adopting the sliding mode harmonic current controller with fast dynamic response. Whereas the conventional
sliding mode schemes have been developed to control the entire current value, the proposed SMHC scheme controls
only the harmonic components by dividing inverter voltage model into the fundamental and harmonic models. Since
the fundamental component in charge of power flow is controlled by proportional-integral controller, the chattering can
be quite reduced. The proposed scheme is a non-selective harmonic compensation, which reduces the computational
burden than the conventional selective schemes. The validity of the proposed scheme is demonstrated through
simulations and experiments using 2 kVA laboratory prototype grid-connected inverter.

1 Introduction use the resonant controller or the proportional-resonant (PR)

As the capability of renewable energy is growing rapidly, the
improvement of power quality has become a very important issue
in distributed generation (DG) systems. The harmonic pollution
caused by non-linear loads in electrical networks brings about
distorted grid voltage, power losses and heating in the electrical
equipment [1]. To limit the amount of harmonic current injected
into utility grid to be below the specified values, the harmonic
restriction standards such as IEEE-519 or IEC 61000-3-2 have
been published [2].
When the generated electrical energy from renewable energy
resources is delivered to grid through the grid-connected inverter,
the inverter should be operated with high performance in the sense
of a fast dynamic response, robustness to disturbance and zero
tracking error. In most of grid-connected operation, the inverter is
primarily designed to control the DC-link voltage as well as
inverter output current. In addition, the inverter should provide
supplementary control functions such as the compensation method
for harmonic, imbalance and reactive power under specific
condition.
The proportional-integral (PI) control method is widely used to
control the grid-connected inverter because it is simple and has
zero steady-state error using the DC quantities in d- and q-axis.
However, the PI controller naturally has some disadvantages
which are inability to track a sinusoidal reference and poor
disturbance rejection capability. Thus, the PI control is not a
suitable way to compensate the harmonic voltage and current.
To achieve a high power quality of DG, several research works on
the harmonic compensation strategies have been investigated. The
harmonic compensation methods are classified as two major
groups, namely, selective [1–7] and non-selective schemes [8–15].
Several selective harmonic compensation techniques employ the PI
control in the rotating reference frame of each harmonic. Others
controller either in the stationary or rotating reference frame.
The PI-R current controllers in the rotating reference frame have
been proposed for selective harmonic compensation in an active
power filer or in a grid-connected inverter [1–4]. The PR current
controllers have been researched for harmonic compensation with
LCL filter [5–7]. These harmonic controllers are designed to
compensate each harmonic term selectively. These schemes are
known to be more flexible than non-selective methods, resulting in
a good harmonic mitigation performance. However, these methods
increase the computational burdens of controller because they
require the implementation of separate controllers for each
harmonic component.
As an alternative way, non-selective harmonic compensation
strategies such as the repetitive control [8–12], predictive control
[13–15] and sliding mode control (SMC) have been presented.
The repetitive control scheme is a simple solution that can reject
periodic harmonics.
An active power filter has been designed using the repetitive
control to compensate the harmonic current by composing infinite
number of resonant peaks in the frequency response [8]. The
harmonic compensation using the discrete-time plug-in repetitive
controller has been presented for a shunt active power filter to
compensate the reactive power and imbalance [9]. To improve the
total harmonic distortion (THD) performance of the inverter
through the harmonic elimination, a repetitive control scheme is
analysed in the viewpoint of the frequency response [10]. The
hybrid PI control and repetitive control scheme in the synchronous
reference frame (SRF) has been proposed to reduce the harmonics
in the inverter output currents [11]. The improved repetitive
control scheme using one-sixth of the system fundamental period
delay time has been introduced for the harmonic suppression with
fast transient [12]. Nevertheless, the repetitive control scheme
gives slow response and performance degradation in disturbance

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rejection under non-periodic harmonics because of the delay
requirement.
The predictive control scheme ensures fast dynamic response and
high accuracy. Deadbeat control scheme was introduced to the direct
power control for low THD and imbalance compensation [13]. An
active power filter using the predictive control has been
implemented in four-leg grid-connected inverter to compensate the
unbalanced condition [14]. For improved robustness under the
parameter change and the fault condition in grid voltage, a
deadbeat current control has been studied to obtain low THD [15].
However, the predictive control scheme may provide an instability
problem caused by parameter variations.
An SMC has been employed for a grid-connected inverter since
this method features fast dynamic response, good disturbance
rejection and robustness under parameter variations. Several SMC
schemes have been proposed for voltage and current control in
power electronics converters [16–23].
A number of research works that combines SMC with the
conventional control have been introduced for harmonic
compensation. The active and reactive power control using the
SMC combined with the PI control has been investigated for fast
load-voltage regulation and unbalanced voltage compensation [20].
To regulate the load voltage rapidly under unbalanced and
distorted voltage, the voltage controller has been designed based
on the combination of SMC and PR control strategy [21].
To enhance the transient and steady-state responses in a
stand-alone mode, the sliding mode repetitive control scheme is
employed for the elimination of periodic harmonic disturbance
[22]. Multiresonant SMC scheme has been implemented to reduce
tracking error and THD under grid-connected mode [23]. Even
though SMC scheme is an attractive way of reducing harmonics
under distorted grid voltage condition, the undesired chattering
phenomenon is a main drawback of SMC, causing low power
quality and instability of systems.
In this paper, a novel sliding mode harmonic compensation
(SMHC) scheme is proposed to improve the power quality in a
grid-connected inverter under distorted grid voltage. The proposed
SMHC scheme consists of a harmonic detector and a harmonic
current controller based on the integral SMC (ISMC). Since the
harmonic detector is achieved by the fourth order band pass filter
(BPF) in the stationary reference frame, the harmonic components
can be extracted exactly without phase delay. Unlike the
conventional existing methods, the inverter voltage equation is
decomposed of the fundamental and harmonic components in the
proposed scheme. Based on the obtained models, while the
fundamental component of the current is controlled with the PI
controller, the harmonic components are suppressed by the ISMC
scheme. As compared with the conventional SMC scheme which
Fig. 1 Configuration of a grid-connected inverter and the simplified equivalent circuits in the SRF
a Configuration of a grid connected inverter with an L filter in DG system
b d-axis equivalent circuit
c q-axis equivalent circuit
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deals with the entire current, the proposed SMHC scheme only
controls the harmonic current, which helps to reduce the chattering
phenomenon. The proposed SMHC scheme is a non-selective
harmonic compensation method which can significantly reduce
major harmful harmonics with robustness and fast dynamic
response. The computational burden of processor is relatively
decreased as compared with the conventional selective method
such as the resonant control. To verify the effectiveness of the
proposed SMHC scheme, a 2 kVA laboratory prototype
grid-connected inverter has been constructed using digital signal
processor (DSP) TMS320F28335 [24]. The performance of the
proposed scheme has been proven through the simulations and
experimental results.
2 Modelling of inverter and ISMC
Fig. 1a shows the configuration of a grid-connected inverter with an
L filter in DG system. Considering the utility grid and the output of a
three-phase voltage source inverter as ideal voltage sources, Figs. 1b
and c show the simplified equivalent circuits of a grid-connected
inverter in the SRF. According to these figures, the voltage
equations of a grid-connected inverter in the SRF can be obtained
as follows
di dq
udq = Ri dq + L + vLi qd + vdq (1)
dt
where udq = [ud uq]T, idq = [id iq]T, iqd = [ − iq id]T, vdq = [vd vq]T, the
subscript ‘dq’ denotes d- and q-axis frame, u and i are the inverter
output voltage and line current, respectively, L is the filter
inductance, R is the filter resistance, ω is the grid angular
frequency and v is the grid voltage.
A SMC scheme with variable structure forces the system state
trajectory onto the sliding surface in the state space. The main
control objective is to track along predefined trajectory. Once on
the sliding surface, the control structure is changed
discontinuously in accordance with the switching rule to maintain
the system on the sliding surface. At this stage, the system is in
the sliding mode, which means that the controlled system is robust
to external disturbances [17, 25].
Using an additional integral term of error in the sliding surface to
eliminate the steady-state error, the sliding surface can be expressed
as follows


S = e + K1 e (2)
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where S is the sliding surface, e is the system error between the components are regulated as zero by the SMC, thereby reducing
reference and actual values and K1represents the coefficient of the the uncertainty that the SMC should deal with.
sliding surface. Fig. 2 shows the control block diagram of the proposed SMHC
If the system error reaches the sliding surface, it is obtained as scheme. The overall control scheme consists of the DC-link
voltage controller, harmonic detector and the current controller.
dS de The current control strategy is divided into two parts which are the
S= = + K1 e = 0 (3) fundamental current control and the harmonic current control. The
dt dt
fundamental current control is in charge of the electrical energy
From (3), the system error dynamics in the sliding mode can be transfer from DG to grid. The reference value in this control loop
described as is obtained from the outer loop DC voltage controller. On the
other hand, the harmonic current controller is implemented to
de eliminate harmful low order harmonics in the presence of distorted
= −K1 e (4) grid. The harmonic components in the output currents and grid
dt
voltages are extracted through the harmonic detector and the
The coefficient of the sliding surface should be selected to meet the SMHC is designed using the extracted harmonic components.
required system transients. In the sliding mode, the system error
exponentially approaches to zero with the time constant of 1/K1. 3.1 Proposed harmonic detector
A Lyapunov approach is generally used in a SMC strategy to drive
the switching control function from the sliding mode existence Fig. 3 shows the configuration of the proposed harmonic detector. To
condition. If the quadratic Lyapunov function W is selected as extract the harmonic currents exactly without phase delay, the
harmonic detector is implemented using the fourth order BPF in
1 the stationary frame. The three-phase inverter currents are
W = S2 ≥ 0 (5) transformed into the values in the α- and β-axis and these currents
2
iαβ are processed through the BPFs to obtain only the fundamental
the time derivative of W can be obtained as follows components.
To extract the harmonic components in the α- and β-axis without
dW dS phase delay, the fundamental components are subtracted from iαβ as
=S ,0 (6) follows
dt dt

The switching control function can be selected from the stability i abh = i ab − i abf (7)
condition that the time derivative of W is negative.
where iαβh = [iαh iβh]T, iαβ = [iα iβ]T, iαβf = [iαf iβf ]T, the subscript ‘αβ’
denotes α- and β-axis using the Clarke’s transformation, and the
3 Proposed SMHC scheme subscript ‘f’ and ‘h’ denotes the fundamental and the harmonic
quantities, respectively.
To improve the power quality under distorted voltage condition, the The transfer function of the second order BPF can be described as
harmonic currents in the output of a grid-connected inverter should follows
be compensated. Generally, the harmonic components in DG system
are not significant as compared with the fundamental component. In Kbpf bs
the proposed scheme, while the fundamental component of the HBPF = (8)
current is controlled with the PI controller, the harmonic s2 + bs + v2c

Fig. 2 Control block diagram of the proposed SMHC scheme

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Fig. 3 Proposed harmonic detector
a Block diagram
b Bode plot of the fourth order BPF
where β is the bandwidth, ωc is the centre frequency and Kbpf is the
filter gain. In this paper, the fourth order BPF is implemented by
cascading two second order BPF s in a digital manner. For the
digital implementation, (8) is discretised using the bilinear
transform method where the Laplace operator s is replaced as [26]
2 1 − z−1
s= (9)
T 1 + z−1
where T is the sampling period. Fig. 3b shows the magnitude and
phase characteristic of the fourth order BPF. Even if the grid
frequency varies slightly, the designed BPF can extract the
fundamental component well with small attenuation in magnitude.
If the currents in the α- and β-axis are transformed to the SRF, the
DC currents superimposed with the harmonic components are
obtained. In this case, the harmonic components can be extracted
by the low pass filter (LPF) in the SRF. However, using the BPF
in the α- and β-axis can extract the harmonic components more
accurately under the distorted voltage than using the LPF in the SRF.
In a grid-connected mode, the inverter requires the grid phase
angle to operate with the synchronisation to grid voltage where the
grid phase angle is generally obtained through the phase-locked
loop (PLL) scheme. The SRF-PLL is normally used in DG system
because of the simplicity and stability. The SRF-PLL method
generates the distorted phase angle under the disturbances such as
the harmonic distortion and imbalance, which results in an
incorrect generation of reference signal by the controller because
of the distorted phase angle [27].
Fig. 4 shows the comparison results of the calculated harmonics in
a-phase current between two methods when different PI controller
gains are used for the SRF-PLL. For simulation, the sampling
period is set to 100 μsec. For the LPF, the cut-off frequency and
damping ratio are selected as 10 Hz and 0.7, respectively. The
bandwidth and centre frequency are chosen as 20 Hz and 60 Hz,
respectively, for the BPF. Fig. 4a shows the calculated harmonic
currents using the fourth order LPF in the SRF with different PI
gains. In these figures, iah is the actual harmonic current in a-phase
and iah,LPF represents the detected harmonic current using LPF.
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While the harmonic detection works well in the left-hand side
figure, the right-hand side figure shows a deteriorated harmonic
detection result because of the distorted phase angle by the
SRF-PLL.
This can be explained by Fig. 4c, which represents the process
obtaining the harmonic components in three-phase currents. When
the LPF is employed in the harmonic calculation, the measured
currents are transformed to dq values using the phase angle
information. If the SRF-PLL generates the distorted phase angle θ,
it may introduce further distortion in currents during dq
transformation. On the contrary, since the proposed harmonic
detection based on the BPF is normally implemented in the α- and
β-axis as shown in the right-hand side figure of Fig. 4c, it does not
require the phase angle information to calculate the harmonic
currents. Thus, even if the phase angle is distorted severely, the
harmonic currents can be obtained exactly. The results of the
harmonic detection based on the BPF are shown in Fig. 4b where
iah,BPF represents the detected harmonic current using BPF. Unlike
Fig. 4a, the harmonic currents are extracted effectively irrespective
of distortion in phase angle of the grid.
In this paper, to detect the harmonic components accurately under
the distorted voltage condition, the fourth order BPF is implemented
in the α- and β-axis.
3.2 Proposed sliding mode harmonic current controller
An ISMC scheme is employed to reduce tracking error effectively,
while retaining the disturbance rejection capability. By using the
proposed harmonic detection scheme based on the BPF, all the
harmonic components can be extracted without phase delay. To
achieve stable operation of the grid-connected inverter with less
chattering, the PI controller regulates the fundamental component
of the inverter current, while the harmonic currents are suppressed
to zero by the ISMC.
For this purpose, the grid voltages vdq and the inverter output
currents idq in the SRF are defined as follows
vdq = V dq + vdqh (10)
i dq = I dq + i dqh (11)
where Vdq = [Vd Vq]T, vdqh = [vdh vqh]T, Idq = [Id Iq]T, idqh = [idh iqh]T
and V and I represent DC quantities, respectively. By substituting
(10) and (11) into (1), the voltage equations can be rewritten as
d
udq = R(I dq + idqh ) + L (I + idqh ) + vL(I qd + iqdh )
dt dq
+ (V dq + vdqh ) (12)
where Iqd = [−Iq Id]T and iqdh = [−iqh idh]T.
From (12), the inverter output voltage equation is decomposed as
follows
dI dq
U dq = RI dq + L + vLI qd + V dq (13)
dt
di dqh
udqh = Ri dqh + L + vLi qdh + vdqh (14)
dt
where udq = Udq + udqh, Udq = [Ud Uq]T, udqh = [udh uqh]T, U is the
inverter output DC voltage in the SRF and udqh represents the
inverter output voltage which is introduced to control the harmonics.
To generate the q-axis current reference, the DC-link voltage is
controlled using the PI control as follows
 
K
i∗q = − Kpv + iv (VDC
∗
− VDC ) (15)
s
where the symbol ‘*’ denotes the reference quantity, VDC is the
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Fig. 4 Comparison results of the calculated harmonics in a-phase current
a Harmonic calculation using LPF with different PI gains
b Harmonic calculation sing BPF ith different PI gains
c Harmonic calculation process

DC-link voltage and Kpv and Kiv represent the proportional and harmonic model in (14). Considering the system disturbances
integral gains, respectively. because of the parameter variations or uncertainty, (14) can be
To control the main power flow in the fundamental component, rewritten as follows
the PI current controller is designed using (13) as the conventional
method. The output of the PI current controller can be expressed as
di dqh
  udqh = Ri dqh + L + vLiqdh + vdqh + f dq (17)
K dt
U ∗dq = K pc + ic (i ∗dq − i dq ) (16)
s
    where fdq = [ fd fq]T represents the system disturbance. From (17), the
Kpc 0 Kic 0 ∗ ∗ current dynamics can be expressed as follows
where K pc = , K ic = , U ∗dq = [ Ud Uq ]T
0 Kpc 0 Kic
Kpc and Kic are the PI controller gains, respectively, and Ud∗ and
Uq∗ are the controller outputs in d- and q-axis, respectively.To di dqh R udqh vdqh f dq
= − i dqh − vi qdh + − − (18)
alleviate the harmonic currents, the ISMC is designed using the dt L L L L

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The sliding surface for the harmonic control is chosen as follows Table 1 System parameters of the experimental setup

t Rated power 2 kVA Filter resistance 0.5 Ω

DC-link voltage 420 V Filter inductance 7 mH
S dq = x + K 1 x dt = 0 (19) DC-link capacitor 5500 μF Grid voltage 380 V
−1 Switching frequency 10 kHz Grid frequency 60 Hz

dS dq dx
= + K 1x = 0 (20)
dt dt
 
K1 0 sgn(Sdq) = [sgn(Sd) sgn(Sq)]T, K2 is a switching control gain and sgn
where K 1 =
0 K1 (.) is the switching function.
Sdq = [Sd Sq]T, x = i ∗dqh − i dqh is the harmonic current error, and K1 To obtain the switching control gain using the Lyapunov stability
is the coefficient of the sliding surface. To mitigate the harmonics, theory, the Lyapunov function is selected as
the harmonic reference current i ∗dqh is set to zero. The sliding
control inputs are composed of two inputs which are the V = 0.5S Tdq S dq ≥ 0 (24)
equivalent control input and the switching control input as follows
The time derivative of V can be obtained as
u∗dqh = ueq + usw (21)
T
V̇ = 0.5(Ṡ dq S dq +S Tdq Ṡ dq )
where ueq = [ud,eq uq,eq]T, usw = [ud,sw uq,sw]T and ueq and usw are the
equivalent control input and the switching control input in the SRF,  T  
1 1 1 1
respectively.The equivalent control input ueq can be obtained from = 0.5 f dq − K 2 sgn(S dq ) S dq +0.5S Tdq f dq − K 2 sgn(S dq )
L L L L
(18) using the conditions of fdq = 0 and Ṡ dq = 0 as
1  1

= Sd fd −K2 sgn(Sd ) +Sq fq −K2 sgn(Sq ) , 0

udqh = Ridqh + vLi qdh + vdqh + K 1 Lx (22) L L
(25)
The switching control input usw to maintain the states on the sliding
surface is a discontinuous function and can be expressed as follows Since the time derivative of V should be negative for the stability, the
switching control gains can be selected as follows
usw = K 2 sgn(S dq ) (23)  
K2 .  fd  (26)
where  
 
  K2 .  fq  (27)
K2 0
K2 =
0 K2 In (26) and (27), fdq includes the parameter variations or uncertainty

Fig. 5 Experimental setup of DG system

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because of harmonics. These switching control gains should be Table 2 Comparison of the THD of three-phase inverter currents
larger than the magnitude of disturbances to guarantee the
Without compensation, With compensation,
robustness. % %
Even though a SMC strategy guarantees robustness, fast dynamic
response and good disturbance rejection, the undesired chattering THD of a-phase current 7.99 2.25
because of the switching control input may bring instability THD of b-phase current 7.92 2.29
problems to systems. To solve this phenomenon, a boundary layer THD of c-phase current 7.78 2.29
around the sliding surface is used in the switching function as

Fig. 6 Comparative simulation results of the inverter output currents under distorted grid voltage condition
a Three-phase distorted grid voltages
b Three-phase inverter currents without harmonic compensation scheme
c Three-phase inverter currents with the proposed SMHC scheme

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Fig. 7 Transient response of the proposed SMHC scheme
a Three-phase grid voltages
b Three-phase inverter currents

Fig. 8 Performance of the proposed SMHC scheme under sudden change of the grid impedance at 0.4 s

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 ⎧
follows ⎪ 1, if S . l THD of three-phase inverter currents are listed in the left-hand
⎨ side column of Table 2. Fig. 6c shows three-phase inverter
S
sgn(S) = , if |S | ≤ l (28) currents with the proposed SMHC scheme. It is observed that the
⎪
⎩l
−1 , if S , −l current waveforms are much more sinusoidal as compared with
Fig. 6b because the proposed scheme eliminates the harmonic
where l is a width of boundary layer. components effectively. The THD values of currents with the
Using the proposed SMHC input (21) with the PI control input in proposed scheme are listed in the right-hand side column of
(16) and decoupling control term, the inverter reference voltages can Table 2. It is clearly shown that THD values can be reduced
be givens as follows significantly with the proposed SMHC strategy.

u∗dq = (U ∗dq + vLI qd + V dq ) + u∗dqh (29)

Since the harmonic voltages and currents which are obtained through
the harmonic detector are dealt with in the proposed SMHC method,
only the fundamental components are considered as decoupling
terms as shown in Fig. 2.
The proposed SMHC method can substantially eliminate mainly
harmful low order harmonics with robustness and fast dynamics.
Furthermore, the proposed harmonic compensation method only
treats the harmonic component while the PI controller takes charge of
major power flow in the grid-connected inverter. Thus, the chattering
phenomenon can be reduced than the conventional SMC scheme
which deals with the entire current. Moreover, the computational
burden of the processor is relatively decreased as compared with the
conventional selective harmonic compensation method.

4 Simulation and experimental results

To evaluate the performance of the proposed SMHC scheme, the

simulations and experiments have been done. Fig. 5 shows the
experimental setup of DG system. The overall DG system consists
of a DSP based controller, three-phase grid-connected inverter
with an L filter, a transformer and magnetic contactor for
grid-connected operation. The whole control algorithms including
the proposed SMHC strategy are implemented by 32-bit
floating-point DSP TMS320F28335 for 2 kVA laboratory
prototype three-phase grid-connected inverter [24].
The inverter reference voltages are applied using the symmetrical
space vector PWM method. The sampling period is set to 100 μsec
both in the simulations and experiments, which yields the
switching frequency of 10 kHz in the symmetrical space vector
PWM method. The intelligent power module is employed for
three-phase grid-connected inverter. The inverter phase currents
are detected by the Hall-effect devices and are converted through
internal 12-bit A/D converters, where the resolution of current is
18/211 [A].
To isolate between the grid-connected inverter and grid,
three-phase wye-delta double winding transformer is employed.
For simulations and experiments, the q-axis fundamental current
reference is set to 7.5 A and the d-axis fundamental reference
value is set to zero. The system parameters of the experimental
setup are listed in Table 1.
Even though the proposed scheme is a non-selective harmonic
compensation method, the magnitude of main harmful low order
harmonic components in the fifth and the seventh are used as a
performance index to evaluate the proposed SMHC method in the
simulations and experiments.
Fig. 6 shows comparative simulation results of the inverter output
currents under distorted grid voltage condition. The simulation is
developed using the PSIM software. For distorted condition, 20%
of the fifth and the seventh harmonics, respectively, 10% of the
eleventh and the thirteenth harmonics, respectively, are injected to
the grid voltage, which results in THD of 31.7%. Fig. 6a shows
the resultant distorted three-phase grid voltages. Fig. 6b shows
three-phase inverter currents without the proposed harmonic
Fig. 9 Experimental results under the distorted grid voltage without
compensation scheme. The PI decoupling control in the SRF is harmonic compensation scheme
used with the gains of Kpc = 9.3 and Kic = 7000, which yields the
a Actual three-phase grid voltages
system bandwidth of 1000 rad/sec and the damping ratio of 0.7. b Three-phase inverter currents
As is shown in this figure, the inverter currents are severely c q-axis current response
distorted because of the distorted grid voltage. In this case, the d Harmonic currents in dq-axis

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 To demonstrate that the proposed scheme has a fast dynamic be obtained by using the proposed harmonic detector. These
response, Fig. 7 shows the transient response of the proposed waveforms clearly show the actual a-phase current is quite
SMHC strategy when the normal grid voltages are suddenly non-sinusoidal and distorted. Fig. 10b shows the FFT result of
distorted at 0.3 s in Fig. 7a. Even in the presence of large voltage a-phase current in Fig. 9a. Even though small even order
disturbance injected to grid, the harmonic currents can be harmonic and triplen harmonics are observed because of slight
suppressed instantly by the proposed scheme as is shown in Fig. 7b. imbalance in actual grid voltage, the main harmonic components
To prove that the proposed scheme has the robustness with respect are in the fifth and seventh order. It is clearly shown in Fig. 9
to uncertainties in supply impedance, Fig. 8 shows the performance through Fig. 10 that the PI control method has a limited capability
of the proposed SMHC scheme when the grid impedance is suddenly to suppress harmonics.
changed at 0.4 s to the inductance of 3 mH and the resistance of
0.5 Ω. Even in this case, the proposed scheme can still compensate
the harmonics except for initial transient period.
Fig. 9 shows the experimental results under the distorted grid
voltage without the harmonic compensation scheme. Fig. 9a
shows the measured actual three-phase grid voltages in the
laboratory configuration. The actual grid voltages are highly
distorted with major harmful low order harmonic components. The
currents are regulated only by the PI controller with the same
gains as the simulation conditions. Fig. 9b shows three-phase
inverter current responses and Fig. 9c shows the q-axis current
response. As can be shown, the actual q-axis current cannot
properly track the reference value using the PI controller under
such a distorted grid condition. Fig. 9d shows the extracted
harmonic currents idh and iqh in d- and q-axis. As a result of poor
disturbance rejection capability by the PI controller, the harmonic
currents are significantly large, where the main harmonic
component is in the sixth order since the fifth and the seventh
harmonics in the stationary reference frame are transformed to the
sixth harmonic in the SRF through the Park’s transformation.
Fig. 10 shows the harmonic characteristics in a-phase current
without the harmonic compensation scheme. Fig. 10a shows actual
a-phase current and the extracted fundamental current using the
BPF. It is observed that a pure sinusoidal fundamental current can

Fig. 11 Experimental results under the distorted grid voltage with the
proposed SMHC scheme
Fig. 10 Harmonic characteristics in a-phase current without harmonic
a Three-phase inverter currents
compensation scheme b q-axis current response
a Actual a-phase current and extracted fundamental current c Harmonic currents in dq-axis
b FFT result of a-phase current d Switching control inputs of the proposed SMHC scheme

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1470 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015

Fig. 12 Harmonic characteristics in a-phase current with the proposed
SMHC scheme
a Actual a-phase current and extracted fundamental current
b FFT result of a-phase current
c Each harmonic portion in a-phase current
Fig. 11 shows the experimental results when the proposed SMHC
scheme is used to compensate the harmonic currents under the same
grid voltage in Fig. 9a. Fig. 11a shows three-phase inverter current
Fig. 13 Transient performance of the proposed SMHC scheme
IET Power Electron., 2015, Vol. 8, Iss. 8, pp. 1461–1472
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015
responses. As compared with Fig. 9b, the inverter current has
more sinusoidal waveforms similar to the simulation results in
Fig. 6c. Figs. 11b and c show the q-axis current response and the
extracted harmonic currents idh and iqh. As a result of an effective
suppression of the harmonic components by the proposed scheme,
the harmonic currents are significantly decreased than Fig. 9d and
the q-axis current can be regulated to the reference better with a
small tracking error. Fig. 11d shows the switching control inputs
usw in (21) of the proposed SMHC scheme. Since the proposed
method treats only the harmonic components rather than entire
phase currents, the chattering is effectively decreased than the
conventional SMC method.
Fig. 12 shows the harmonic characteristics in a-phase current with
the proposed SMHC scheme. Fig. 12a shows actual a-phase current
and the extracted fundamental current. Owing to an effective
suppression of harmonics, the a-phase actual current is much
closer to sinusoidal fundamental current. Fig. 12b shows the FFT
result of a-phase current in Fig. 12a. It is clearly observed that the
fifth and the seventh harmonic components are considerably
reduced as compared with Fig. 10b. Fig. 12c shows the each
harmonic portion in a-phase compared with IEC 61000-3-2
standard.
To prove the transient performance, Fig. 13 shows the transient
response when the conventional PI control scheme is changed to
the proposed scheme. Before the proposed scheme, a-phase
current is highly distorted and the harmonic component is large.
However, as soon as the proposed scheme starts, the harmonic
component is quickly reduced and a-phase current becomes much
closer to sinusoidal. Moreover, the RMS value of the a-phase
harmonic current is also decreased as shown in Fig. 13.
As a result, the proposed SMHC method has a good disturbance
rejection capability with fast dynamic response and less chattering
in the presence of the distorted grid voltage condition.
5 Conclusions
In this paper, a novel SMHC scheme has been presented to enhance
the power quality in a grid-connected inverter when the grid is
polluted by non-linear loads in DG system. The proposed scheme
is composed of the harmonic detector and the sliding mode
harmonic current control. The harmonic detector is implemented in
a digital manner using the fourth order BPF in the stationary
reference frame. The sliding mode harmonic current control can
effectively suppress the harmonic currents generated by distorted
grid voltage. Since only the harmonic currents are treated by the
ISMC scheme while the fundamental current is regulated by the PI
control, the chattering because of uncertainty can be considerably
reduced. The proposed scheme has a good disturbance rejection
capability with fast dynamic response. Moreover, the
computational load is quite small. The simulation and
experimental results verify that the proposed SMHC scheme can
effectively reduce main harmful low order harmonics which are in
the fifth and the seventh order of three-phase system. As a result,
the proposed scheme is an attractive solution to control a
grid-connected inverter under distorted grid voltage condition.
6 Acknowledgment
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Programme
through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded
by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2014R1A1A2056436).
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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015