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An Adaptive Control for UPS to Compensate Unbalance and Harmonic

Distortion Using a Combined Capacitor/Load Current Sensing

Article  in  IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics · May 2007

DOI: 10.1109/TIE.2007.891998 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 54, NO. 2, APRIL 2007
An Adaptive Control for UPS to Compensate
Unbalance and Harmonic Distortion Using a
Combined Capacitor/Load Current Sensing
G. Escobar, Member, IEEE, P. Mattavelli, Member, IEEE, A. M. Stanković, Fellow, IEEE,
Andrés A. Valdez, Student Member, IEEE, and Jesus Leyva-Ramos, Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper investigates the control of an uninter-
ruptible power supply (UPS) using a combined measurement of
capacitor and load currents in the same current sensor arrange-
ment. The purpose of this combined measurement is, on one hand,
to reach a similar performance as that obtained in the inductor
current controller with load current feedforward and, on the other
hand, to easily obtain an estimate of the inductor current for
overcurrent protection capability. Based on this combined current
measurement, a voltage controller based on resonant harmonic
filters is investigated in order to compensate for unbalance and
harmonic distortion on the load. Adaptation is included to cope
with uncertainties in the system parameters. It is shown that
after transformations the proposed controller gets a simple and
practical form that includes a bank of resonant filters, which is
in agreement with the internal model principle and corresponds
to similar approaches proposed recently. The controller is based
on a frequency-domain description of the periodic disturbances,
which include both symmetric components, namely, the negative
and positive sequence. Experimental results on the output stage of
a three-phase three-wire UPS are presented to assess the perfor-
mance of the proposed algorithm.
Index Terms—Adaptive control, nonlinear systems, uninter-
ruptible power supply (UPS) systems.
I. I NTRODUCTION
T HE PROBLEM of designing an appropriate uninterrupt-
ible power supply (UPS) control strategy that fulfills
requirements such as voltage regulation, total harmonic distor-
tion, output impedance, transient response, operation with non-
linear/distorted unbalanced loads, and robustness to parametric
uncertainties is challenging. The growing importance of UPS
systems has motivated a flourishing development of different
Manuscript received May 6, 2005; revised September 29, 2005. Abstract
published on the Internet January 14, 2007. This work was supported in part
by the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT)
under Grant SEP-2003-C02-42643 and in part by the Bilateral Laboratory
France–Mexico of Applied Control (LAFMAA) under Grant MOPOFA-2004.
G. Escobar, A. A. Valdez, and J. Leyva-Ramos are with the Division of
Applied Mathematics, Research Institute of Science and Technology of San
Luis Potosí (IPICYT), San Luis Potosí 78216, Mexico (e-mail: gescobar@
ipicyt.edu.mx; avaldez@ipicyt.edu.mx; jleyva@ipicyt.edu.mx).
P. Mattavelli is with the Department of Electrical, Mechanical and Manage-
ment Engineering (DIEGM), University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy (e-mail:
mattavelli@uniud.it).
A. M. Stanković is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA (e-mail: astankov@
ece.neu.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2007.891998
0278-0046/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE
839
control schemes found in the literature [1]–[10]. Some con-
trollers rely on single voltage loop using proportional–integral
(PI), dead-beat [2], or sliding-mode controllers as compensators
(see [3] and [4] for a brief survey on conventional control
techniques for UPS). Other solutions proposed in the literature
include a nested connection of output voltage and inductor cur-
rent control loops, usually two PIs or possibly a PI plus a high-
gain controller like a sliding-mode controller [5]. Although
these techniques are able to ensure a good transient response,
the distortion on the output voltage due to nonlinear loads is
typically not compensated completely.
In general terms, we can say that the implementation of
the proposed controllers usually involves measurements of the
output voltage and either the capacitor current or the inductor
current, and in some cases, they even require measurements
of the current load with the idea of attenuating the effect of
disturbances in the load. The capacitor voltage is introduced
in those controllers in a second voltage loop to alleviate im-
perfections in the response due to parameter uncertainties and
load disturbances as well. Therefore, based upon the current
signals used in the feedback control, we can distinguish two
types of controllers, namely: 1) those based on the inductor
current and 2) those based in the capacitor current sensing.
Excellent results using the latter approach have been reported
in [6]–[8]. These works show that the performance of a UPS can
be considerably improved if the capacitor current is effectively
controlled. This is clear from the fact that while the output
voltage is typically the controlled output, its time derivative is
proportional to the capacitor current. It has been shown also
that a capacitor current feedback topology will exhibit better
dynamic stiffness (inverse of the output impedance), which is
a key metric in UPS’s performance, than a controller based
on inductor current feedback. Moreover, since the capacitor
current is small and alternate in nature, it may be sensed with
a small and inexpensive current transformer, and thus it can be
considered a low-cost alternative that has a potential to exhibit
outstanding performance. However, as neither the load current
nor the inductance current is measured, this controller is unable
to detect any anomaly arising on the load side. For instance, if
a short circuit appears, the capacitor current is maintained at
the desired reference theoretically, while the inductance current
will grow unlimited, with the unavoidable destructive effects.
A solution for this protection issue consists in adding low-cost
sensors on the load side, with the unavoidable intrinsic circuitry.
840 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 54, NO. 2, APRIL 2007

Fig. 1. Current sensor array to obtain the combined current.

In this paper, an alternative solution is proposed for the

control of a UPS system to overcome such a disadvantage
while preserving a good performance and guarantee balanced
sinusoidal output voltages despite of the presence of nonlinear
and unbalanced loads. This solution involves the use of a
combined measurement of both load and capacitor currents, Fig. 2. Three-phase three-wire UPS inverter system.
which is performed by a single current sensor arrange for each
phase, as seen in Fig. 1, thus preserving the number of current compensator has a very similar structure as those controllers
sensors as in other approaches. This measurement provides presented in [15] and [16], which include a bank of resonant
a linear combination, i.e., a weighted sum, of both currents, filters as the main harmonic compensation element and were
which is then used as the feedback variable in the control derived following other approaches. The solution proposed
loop. Notice that, in the particular case where both weights are here is based on a new more rigorous theoretical framework
unitary, this combined current is simply the inductor current. following nonlinear control design techniques and based on the
On the other hand, assigning a zero weight to the load current frequency-domain representation of the disturbances. Finally,
leads to the capacitor current case. So it is expected that a the proposed control scheme has been implemented and tested
good performance, which is close to the capacitor current-based in a 1.5-kVA three-phase inverter. The experimental results are
controller, can be obtained if a smaller weight is assigned to the presented here.
load current compared to the one for the capacitor current. In
addition, an estimate for the inductor current can now be easily
II. S YSTEM C ONFIGURATION AND
reconstructed using the information contained in the combined
P ROBLEM F ORMULATION
current measurement, which can now be used for overcurrent
protection. The basic setup for the three-phase three-wire inverter dis-
Adaptive refinements have also been added to the controller cussed in this paper is shown in Fig. 2.
to cope with parametric uncertainties. By using the frequency- The system dynamics in fixed frame coordinates are de-
domain descriptions of some unknown signals (disturbance), scribed by
the solution presented here is able to perform precise voltage
diC E di0
tracking (even with nonlinear loads). It reduces the effects of L = −vC + u − L − r(iC + i0 ) (1)
unbalance and harmonic distortion, which is similar to other dt 2 dt
frequency-domain techniques, such as synchronous frame har- dvC
C = iL − i0 = iC (2)
monic control [9], [10]. For such purpose, the system dynamics dt
is modeled using stationary frame quantities and the load cur- im = αiC + βi0 (3)
rents (disturbance) with slowly varying phasors. Both sequence
components, i.e., positive and negative, are considered so that where
the unbalanced case can be treated. The proposed controller L inductance;
realizes a partial inversion of the system and adds the needed C capacitance;
damping. The resulting system contains a disturbance term due E voltage source;
to uncertainties in the system parameters, which is addressed r parasitic inductor resistance;
via adaptation. Due to the complexity of this controller, a α, β weights for iC and i0 , respectively;
simple rotational transformation is proposed so that the compu- vC capacitor voltages ∈ IR2 ;
tation complexity can be significantly reduced. Similar to other u control vector ∈ IR2 ;
frequency-domain techniques, a group of selected harmonics iL inductor currents ∈ IR2 ;
is taken into account for parameter adaptation and voltage i0 load currents ∈ IR2 ;
regulation, and thus the proposed approach can be classified iC capacitor currents ∈ IR2 ;
as selective, since only a selected set of harmonics is targeted im combined currents ∈ IR2 .
for compensation. The resulting scheme is directly connected Parameters L, C, r, and E are all assumed unknown constants.
to the previous work [13], [14] where the inductor current The continuous signal u represents the actual control input
is used instead. A key observation here is that the resulting and is used to generate the switching sequence to control the
ESCOBAR et al.: ADAPTIVE CONTROL FOR UPS TO COMPENSATE UNBALANCE AND HARMONIC DISTORTION 841

switching devices using a sinusoidal pulsewidth-modulation The controller design is based on the following expression
(PWM) technique at a relatively high frequency. Parameters for the error model:
α and β are the known weights to form the combined current  
im = αiC + βi0 . Current i0 is an unbalanced periodic signal dĩm E ∗
L =α u − ṽC − vC − rĩm − rim
which can be expressed as the combination of a fundamental dt 2
component (at a fixed frequency w0 ) and its harmonics of  
Ldi0 Ldim
higher order, that is, i0 can be represented as − (α − β) ri0 + −
dt dt

 
i0 = eJ kw0 t I0,k
p
+ e−J kw0 t I0,k
n
dṽC
αC = ĩm (8)
k∈H dt
   
J w0 t cos(w0 t) − sin(w0 t) 0 −1 ∆ ∗ ∆
e = , J = (4) where the increments are defined as ṽC = vC − vC and ĩm =
sin(w0 t) cos(w0 t) 1 0 ∗
im − im , with vC and im as defined before.
where w0 represents the fundamental frequency, and vectors In the known parameters case, and following the ideas of the
p
I0,k n
, I0,k ∈ IR2 are the kth harmonic coefficients for the positive energy shaping plus damping injection design technique [11],
and negative sequence representation, they are also assumed un- the following controller that guarantees perfect tracking, i.e.,
known constants (or slowly varying); H = {1, 3, 5, 7, 11, . . .} ṽC → 0 and ĩm → 0, is proposed:
is the set of multiples of the harmonic components considered.
αE ∗
Its time derivative, used later in the control derivation, is u = −R1 ĩm − R2 ṽC + αvC + rim
given by 2
 

  di0 dim
di0 + (α − β) ri0 + L +L
= J kw0 eJ kw0 t I0,k
p
− e−J kw0 t I0,k
n
. (5) dt dt
dt
k∈H
where R1 and R2 are two design parameters to add the required
The control objective is to track a balanced voltage refer- damping. Notice that most terms of the above controller are
ence, i.e., intended to cancel the corresponding terms in the error model.
∗ Now, based on the structure of the above controller, the
vC = eJ w0 t [Vd , 0]
following controller is proposed:
which is a purely balanced sinusoidal vector signal, i.e., it
αE
contains only fundamental component, in spite of the presence u = −R1 (im − i∗m ) − R2 ṽC + αvC
∗
+ r̂i∗m
of harmonic disturbances. Notice that its time derivative is 2

∗ ∗
simply v̇C = J w0 vC . Here, and in what follows, (·)∗ will be dî0 di∗m
+ (α − β) r̂i0 + L̂ + L̂
used to denote references and (·) will be used for values in dt dt
the equilibrium. Thus, the control objective implicitly includes
two problems, namely: 1) reference tracking in the fundamental
is used to represent the estimated value of (·), and
where (·)
harmonic and 2) disturbance attenuation of the output voltage ∆
response to higher harmonics mainly introduced by the load im has been replaced by i∗m = αJ wĈvC ∗
+ β î0 . Notice that, in
current. this controller, all unknown terms have been replaced by their
The equilibrium point of the overall system by forcing estimates.
∗
vC = eJ w0 t [Vd , 0] is given by The main idea behind the controller design consists in lump-
ing all periodic uncertainties in a single term φ̂ as follows:
∗ ∗
im = αJ w0 CvC + βi0 v C = vC . (6)
αE ∗
u = −R1 im − R2 ṽC + αvC + φ̂ (9)
Note that, to guarantee perfect voltage tracking, it suffices 2
to force the combined current im to follow a reference signal
∆
im , as given by (6), which, unfortunately, depends on the where φ̂ = R1 i∗m +(α − β)(r̂i0 + L̂dî0 /dt)+ r̂i∗m + L̂di∗m /dt.
unavailable signal i0 and unknown parameter C. The error dynamics, after applying controller (9) to the error
model (8), reduces to
III. P ROPOSED C ONTROLLER
dĩm
Let us write the system dynamics (1) and (2) in terms of the L = −(α + R2 )ṽC − (r + R1 )ĩm + φ̃ (10)
dt
combined current im , this yields dṽC
    αC
dt
= ĩm (11)
dim E di0
L =α u − vC − rim − (α − β) ri0 + L
dt 2 dt ∆ ∆
where φ̃ = (φ̂−φ) and φ = R1 im +(α−β)(ri0 + Ldi0 /dt) +
dvC rim + Ldim /dt. Notice that, this is a linear time-invariant
αC = im − βi0 . (7)
dt system perturbed by a periodic disturbance φ̃.
842 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 54, NO. 2, APRIL 2007

According to (4), the periodic signals φ and φ̂ can be de-

scribed as follows:

 p 
 
eJ kw0 t Φpk + e−J kw0 t Φnk
∆
φ= φk + φnk =
k∈H k∈H

 
 
eJ kw0 t Φ̂pk + e−J kw0 t Φ̂nk
∆
φ̂ = φ̂pk + φ̂nk =
k∈H k∈H

where vectors Φpk , Φnk ∈ IR2 are the kth harmonic coefficients
for the positive and negative sequence representation of the
disturbance φ, and Φ̂pk , Φ̂nk are their corresponding estimates.
Out of which the error signal φ̃ = (φ̂ − φ) are expressed as

 p 
 
eJ kw0 t Φ̃pk + e−J kw0 t Φ̃nk
∆
φ̃ = φ̃k + φ̃nk =
k∈H k∈H

∆ Fig. 3. Block diagram of the proposed controller.

where the parameter errors are defined as Φ̃pk = (Φ̂pk − Φpk ) and
∆
Φ̃nk = (Φ̂nk − Φnk ). together with the disturbance rejection objective since it is
The adaptive laws are obtained by following a Lyapunov proven that φ̃ → 0, i.e., the harmonic compensation issue
approach where the energy storage function is is solved.
To facilitate the implementation of the adaptive laws, the
αLC|ṽ˙ C |2 (α + R2 )|ṽC |2 following transformations are proposed:
W = +
2 2 φ̂pk = eJ kw0 t Φ̂pk φ̂nk = e−J kw0 t Φ̂nk . (13)

1  p 2  2 
+ Φ̃k + Φ̃nk (12) The adaptation laws can thus be written as
2γk
k∈H
˙p
where γk , k ∈ H are positive design constants, and | · | repre- φ̂k = −γk ṽ˙ C + J kw0 φ̂pk (14)
sents the module of a vector, thus |X|2 = X  X. ˙n
Its time derivative along the trajectories of (10) gives φ̂k = −γk ṽ˙ C − J kw0 φ̂nk . (15)

2 The transfer function expressions of the above adaptation

Ẇ = −α(r + R1 )C ṽ˙ C laws are


 
+ ṽ˙ C eJ kw0 t Φ̃pk + e−J kw0 t Φ̃nk −γk s(s + J kw0 )
φ̂pk = ṽC
k∈H s2 + k 2 w02

1  ˙ p  p  ˙ n   −γk s(s − J kw0 )
+ Φ̃k Φ̃k + Φ̃k Φ̃nk φ̂nk = ṽC
γk
k∈H
s2 + k 2 w02

which is made negative semidefinite by proposing the following where s is the complex variable out of which the adaptations
adaptation laws: are reduced to
−2γk s2
˙p ˙n φ̂k = φ̂pk + φ̂nk =
Φ̂k = −γk e−J kw0 t ṽ˙ C Φ̂k = −γk eJ kw0 t ṽ˙ C s2 + k 2 w02
ṽC

˙p p
˙n n
where the facts Φ̂k = Φ̃˙ k and Φ̂k = Φ̃˙ k are appealed. Since = −2γk ṽC +
2γk k 2 w02
ṽC . (16)
2
Ẇ = −α(r + R1 )C ṽ˙ C , as a first conclusion we have that s2 + k 2 w02
ṽ˙ C → 0 and is bounded. Then invoking standard LaSalle’s The final expression for the controller is
theorem arguments [12] assuming ṽ˙ C ≡ 0, we obtain an in- 
variant set described by (α + R2 )ṽC = φ̃, in addition Φ̂pk , Φ̂nk αE

are constant ∀k ∈ H, which implies in its turn that φ̃ is a time- u = −R1 im − R2 + 2 γk ṽC
2
varying bounded signal. However, ṽC is a constant and bounded k∈H

signal; therefore, the only possible solution is ṽC → 0 which
2γk k 2 w2

∗ 0
in its turn implies φ̃ → 0, and moreover Φ̃pk → 0 and Φ̃nk → 0. + αvC +
s2 + k 2 w02
ṽC . (17)
p
˙p n
˙n
Notice that we have used the fact that Φ̃˙ k = Φ̂k and Φ̃˙ k = Φ̂k .
k∈H

Remark 1: The proposed controller thus guarantees stable Fig. 3 presents the block diagram of the proposed controller
perfect tracking of the output voltage toward its sinusoidal (17). Notice that this structure is composed of two proportional
reference since ṽC → 0 as t → ∞, this objective is fulfilled terms acting over the voltage error ṽC and the combined current
ESCOBAR et al.: ADAPTIVE CONTROL FOR UPS TO COMPENSATE UNBALANCE AND HARMONIC DISTORTION 843

im as expected, plus a bank of resonant filters of the form

2γk k 2 w02 /(s2 + k 2 w02 ), ∀k ∈ H acting over the voltage error
ṽC dedicated to the harmonic compensation.
Remark 2: Notice that this form of the resonant filters corre-
sponds to the “cosine wave transfer function” and not to the
usual “sine wave transfer function,” as reported in previous
works [15], [16]. This is due to the fact that the time derivative
of the capacitor voltage was not available, nor the capacitor
current, instead the capacitor voltage has been considered as
the input signal to the resonant filters, which introduces a phase
shift of 90◦ .
Remark 3: Notice that the same result is obtained if
the inductor parasitic resistance is neglected. This is due to the
fact that the resonant filters introduce an infinite gain at the
harmonics under compensation, thus zeroing the steady state
error caused by the parasitic resistance at those harmonic
frequencies.

IV. E STIMATION OF iL
The estimation of iL is carried out indirectly by estimating
the capacitor current iC first. Then, based on the knowledge
of the estimated îC , the combined current im and the weights
used, namely, α and β, it is possible to solve for iL from (2)
and (3).
Since the capacitor current iC is defined as C times the time
derivative of the capacitor voltage vC , an estimate for iC can
be obtained by using a limited bandwidth time derivative as
follows:
Cs
îC = vC (18)
τs + 1
where 1/τ represents the bandwidth of the filter, which is
selected big enough, to guarantee a good tracking of iC .
The estimate îL is solved from (2) and (3), yielding
îm + (β − α)îC
îL = (19)
β used to build im are the closed-loop hall-effect CLN-50 current
where îm is a filtered version of im using the following low-
pass filter:
1 to the inverter output as a nonlinear load. A resistor of 150 Ω is
îm = im . (20)
τs + 1
Since the higher order harmonics in iC have been truncated
in îC due to the limited bandwidth of the estimator, then the
higher order harmonics of im should be also eliminated before
computation of îL in (19) to avoid unnecessary distortion.
The estimate of iL can now be used in a surveillance block
to guarantee a safer operation of the inverter system.
It is clear that a much smaller β compared to α would
produce a faster response, as im is dominated mainly by iC ;
however, notice from (19) that extremely low values of β
make the above estimator very sensitive to variations on the
parameter C. Thus, values for parameters α and β should
Fig. 4. Load current (only one phase). (Top) Current signal i01 in time
domain (x-axis: 200 ms/div and y-axis: 5 A/div) and (bottom) its corresponding
frequency spectrum (x-axis: 62.5 Hz/div and y-axis: 20 dB/div).
be carefully selected to establish a tradeoff between speed
response and sensitivity.
V. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
A three-phase three-wire prototype has been built using the
following parameters: L = 1 mH, C = 25 µF, E = 320 V,
switching frequency fsw = 10 kHz, and output voltage ampli-
tude 110 V with a fundamental frequency w0 = 377 r/s (f0 =
60 Hz). Notice that the LC filter has been tuned at approx-
imately 1 kHz, i.e., to filter the switching effects. Therefore,
the compensation is limited to harmonic components of the
fundamental lower than 1 kHz. The controller is implemented
in the dSPACE card model ACE1103 with a sampling rate
fixed to 14.28 kHz. The sampling instant has been synchronized
with the PWM so that the current im is sampled at the middle
of switch-on time. Thus, the average value of im is obtained
without low-pass antialiasing filters in the loop. The sensors
sensors from LEM. In each CLN-50, both conductors, for iC
and i0 , have been wired as to obtain α = 10 and β = 1. A
voltage source composed by a three-phase diode rectifier with a
dc capacitor of 235 µF feeding a resistor of 100 Ω is connected
connected in between two phases to produce unbalance. Fig. 4
shows (top plot) the time response for one of the load currents
and (bottom plot) its corresponding frequency spectrum. Notice
that the load current is composed mainly by odd harmonics of
the fundamental f0 , namely the first, third, fifth, and seventh
components. These harmonics are precisely the components
considered for compensation, that is, the bank of resonant
filters includes filters tuned at the first, third, fifth, and seventh
harmonics of the fundamental f0 .
The proposed controller (17) has been implemented. How-
ever, to guarantee a safer operation, bandpass filters (BPFs)
have been used instead of resonant filters. The latter have
infinite gains at the resonant frequency, whereas the BPFs
844 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 54, NO. 2, APRIL 2007

Fig. 5. Bode plot of the error dynamics −φ → ṽC using the proposed
controller (black) with harmonic compensation and (gray) without the harmonic
compensation. (Top) Magnitude (x-axis in hertz and y-axis in decibels) and
(bottom) phase shift (x-axis in hertz and y-axis in degrees).

Fig. 6. Output voltage steady-state response (only one phase). (From top to
∗ (t), the actual output voltage v (t), and the
have limited gains due to a damping term introduced in the bottom) The reference voltage vC C
denominator of the transfer function written as follows: error ṽC (t) (x-axis: 4 ms/div and y-axis: 100 V/div).

vo Ak k 2 w02 /Qk
= 2 ∀k ∈ H (21)
vi s + skw0 /Qk + k 2 w02

where Ak and Qk are positive design parameters representing

the desired gain and the quality factor of the kth BPF, respec-
tively; vi and vo are the input and output signals of the filter.
Notice that, in the case of an ideal resonant filter, Ak → ∞.
Further, notice that the original gain γk in the resonant filters
has been replaced by Ak /Qk . The controller design parame-
ters were selected as follows: R1 = 0.5, R2 = 0.5, A1 = 40,
Q1 = 35, A3 = 10, Q3 = 20, A5 = 10, Q5 = 12, A7 = 10,
and Q7 = 12. Fig. 5 shows the Bode plot of the closed-loop
error dynamics established from the periodic disturbance −φ
to the output voltage error ṽC , i.e., formed by (10), (11) and
(16), and for the above parameters. Notice that the controller
introduces notches, with a given phase shift, centered at the
selected harmonics, that is, at the odd harmonics, namely, first,
third, fifth, and seventh. It is important to remark here that the
closed-loop system remains stable. All this means that, if the
disturbance contains components at those selected harmonics, Fig. 7. Output voltage steady-state response vC (t) in black and correspond-
∗ (t) in gray (only one phase). (Top) Conventional controller
ing reference vC
the response to those components is practically eliminated on
based on iC measurements and (bottom) proposed controller with harmonic
the output error, and the remaining part, if any, will have the compensation (x-axis: 4 ms/div and y-axis: 100 V/div).
phase shift shown in the phase plot of the Bode plot. For
comparison, the response of the proposed controller without the Fig. 7 shows a comparison between the responses of the ac-
bank of resonant filters (or BPFs), i.e., without the harmonic tual output voltage using the proposed controller (bottom plot),
compensation has been included as well (in gray). and a conventional controller using the measurement of iC
Fig. 6 shows, for one phase, (from top to bottom) the time and without harmonic compensation (top plot). Notice that the
∗
responses of the output voltage reference vC , the actual output performance of the proposed controller significantly exceeds to
voltage vC (t), and the tracking error ṽC (t), using the pro- the conventional one, even though for the latter, the gains have
posed controller based on im and with harmonic compensation. been adjusted to reach the best possible response. In the same
Notice that the actual voltage vC (t) (middle plot) is almost a plots, the corresponding voltage references (in gray) have been
sinusoidal signal and has an excellent tracking over its reference included to put in evidence the better tracking reached with
∗
vC (top plot), and thus the error ṽC (t) is made relatively small. the proposed controller. Fig. 8 shows the frequency spectrum
The responses of the other two phases are very similar and are of (top plot) the conventional controller and (bottom plot) the
omitted here for the sake of space limitation. proposed controller. Notice that, in the proposed controller,
ESCOBAR et al.: ADAPTIVE CONTROL FOR UPS TO COMPENSATE UNBALANCE AND HARMONIC DISTORTION
Fig. 8. Frequency spectrum of the output voltage vC (t). (Top) Conventional
controller based on iC measurements and (bottom) proposed controller with
harmonic compensation (x-axis: 62.5 Hz/div and y-axis: 20 dB/div).
Fig. 9. (Top plot) Steady-state response of the three output voltages vC1 , vC2 ,
and vC3 (x-axis: 4 ms/div and y-axis: 100 V/div) and (three bottom plots)
distorted and unbalance load currents i01 , i02 , and i03 (x-axis: 4 ms/div and
y-axis: 10 A/div).
the third, fifth, and seventh have been eliminated almost com-
pletely due to the harmonic compensator, leading to an output
voltage vC mainly composed by a fundamental component
despite of the highly distorted load current.
Fig. 9 shows, for the proposed controller, the steady-state
response of the output voltages for the three phases vC1 , vC2 ,
and vC3 (top plot), which are balanced and almost sinusoidal,
despite of the distorted and unbalance load current. The last
three plots represent the three-phase load currents i01 , i02 ,
and i03 .
Fig. 10 shows the transient response of the output voltage vC
(upper plot) when the nonlinear unbalanced load is connected
845
Fig. 10. Transient responses during the connection of the nonlinear and
unbalanced load. (Top) The output voltage vC (x-axis: 20 ms/div and
100 V/div) and (bottom) load current i0 (x-axis: 20 ms/div and y-axis: 5 A/div).
Fig. 11. Transient responses during the disconnection of the nonlinear and
unbalanced load current. (Top) The output voltage vC (x-axis: 20 ms/div and
100 V/div) and (bottom) load current i0 (x-axis: 20 ms/div and y-axis: 5 A/div).
to the inverter under the proposed controller. The corresponding
current load i0 is shown in the bottom plot (only one phase is
shown for the sake of space limitations). Notice that, after a
relatively small transient, the voltage keeps the desired sinu-
soidal shape and amplitude. Fig. 11 shows the corresponding
transient response after disconnecting the load.
Fig. 12 shows a detail of the current iL and its estimate
îL in the steady state (only one phase) using the estimator
(19). Notice that the estimate îL is very close to the actual
current iL , and, thus, it can be especially useful for overcurrent
protection purposes. To test the usefulness of the estimate îL ,
a load is connected to the inverter demanding a current peak
exceeding the upper limit fixed at 8 A. Once the controller
realizes that the estimate îL has gone beyond the 8 A, the
846
Fig. 12. (Top) Actual inductor current iL (x-axis: 4 ms/div and y-axis:
5 A/div) and (bottom) its estimate îL (x-axis: 20 ms/div and y-axis: 5 V/div)
(only one phase).
Fig. 13. Turn-off process due to a load current amplitude exceeding the upper
limit fixed at 8 A. (From top to bottom) The output voltage vC (x-axis:
40 ms/div and 100 V/div), actual inductor current iL (x-axis: 40 ms/div and
y-axis: 10 A/div), and its estimate îL (x-axis: 40 ms/div and y-axis: 10 V/div)
(only one phase).
controller disables the switching process. Due to this action,
the semiconductor devices in the inverter are protected, and,
moreover, the output voltage and currents are zeroed. Fig. 13
shows the transient responses of (from top to bottom) the output
voltage vC , the actual inductor current iL , and its estimate îL
during the turn-off process of the inverter after the controller
detects an inadmissible load condition.
VI. C ONCLUDING R EMARKS
In this paper, an adaptive controller is proposed for a three-
phase inverter, which compensates for unbalance and har-
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 54, NO. 2, APRIL 2007
monic distortion. In other words, a controller is designed to
allow the inverter to deliver an almost sinusoidal and bal-
anced voltage, despite of a distorted and unbalanced load
current. The controller is based on a weighted measurement
of load and capacitor currents on the same current sensor,
thus maintaining the number of sensors as in a conventional
controller. In these current sensors, a larger weight is asso-
ciated to the capacitor currents; hence, the performance was
very close to that of a controller based on capacitor current
measurements, but with the advantage that information about
the load current was also available. Therefore, it was possible
to design a simple estimator for the inductor current, which
could then be used for protection purposes. Another interest-
ing observation was that, due to suitable transformations, the
proposed controller is reduced to a controller with structure
very close to the conventional one plus a bank of resonators,
thus facilitating the implementation. Finally, experimental
results are presented to exhibit the improved performance
of the proposed controller in comparison with the conven-
tional one.
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ESCOBAR et al.: ADAPTIVE CONTROL FOR UPS TO COMPENSATE UNBALANCE AND HARMONIC DISTORTION 847

G. Escobar (M’00) received the Ph.D. degree
from the Laboratory of Signals and Systems (L2S),
Supélec, Paris, France, in 1999.
From August 1999 to June 2002, he was a Visiting
Researcher at Northeastern University, Boston, MA.
In July 2002, he joined the Division of Applied
Mathematics, Research Institute of Science and
Technology of San Luis Potosí (IPICYT), San
Luis Potosí, Mexico, where he holds a Professor–
Researcher position. His research interests include
modeling and control of power electronic systems,
especially active filters, inverters, and electric drives.
Andrés A. Valdez (S’05) was born in San Luis
Potosí, Mexico, in 1978. He received the B.S. de-
gree (with honors) in electronic engineering from
the Technological Institute of San Luis Potosí, San
Luis Potosí, in 2003, and the M.S. degree in control
and dynamical systems from the Research Insti-
tute of Science and Technology of San Luis Potosí
(IPICYT), San Luis Potosí. He is currently working
toward the Ph.D. degree in control and dynamical
systems in the Division of Applied Mathematics,
IPICYT.
His main research interests include control of power electronic systems.

P. Mattavelli (S’95–A’96–M’00) received the Dr.

(with honors) and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engi-
neering from the University of Padova, Padova, Italy,
in 1992 and 1995, respectively.
From 1995 to 2001, he was a Researcher at the
University of Padova. In 2001, he joined the De-
partment of Electrical, Mechanical and Management
Engineering (DIEGM), University of Udine, Udine,
Jesus Leyva-Ramos (S’78–M’82) received the M.S.
Italy, where he has been an Associate Professor of
degree in electrical engineering from the California
electronics since 2002. His research interests include
Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 1978, and the
analysis, modeling, and control of power converters,
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the
digital control techniques for power electronic circuits, active power filters, and
University of Houston, Houston, TX, in 1982.
high-power converters.
He was an Associate Professor at the Iberoamer-
Dr. Mattavelli is a member of the IEEE Power Electronics, IEEE Industry
icana University, Lomas de Santa Fe, Mexico, a
Applications, and IEEE Industrial Electronics Societies, and the Italian Associ-
Radiofrequency and Microwave Engineer at the Jet
ation of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (AEI).
Propulsion Laboratory, a Teaching Fellow at the Uni-
versity of Houston, the Dean of Professional Studies
and Engineering at the ITESM-SLP, Mexico, and a
A. M. Stanković (S’88–M’91–SM’02–F’05) re- Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí,
ceived the Dipl.Ing. and M.S. degrees from the Uni- Mexico. Currently, he is the Head of the Division of Applied Mathematics,
versity of Belgrade, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1982 Research Institute of Science and Technology of San Luis Potosí (IPICYT),
and 1986, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from San Luis Potosí. His research interests include modeling of switch-mode dc–dc
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, converters, robust control, and linear systems.
in 1993, all in electrical engineering. Dr. Leyva-Ramos is a member of Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, the
Since 1993, he has been with the Department of Mexican Academy of Sciences, and the Mexican Academy of Engineering.
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern
University, Boston, MA, where he is currently a
Professor. His research interests include modeling,
analysis, estimation, and control of energy process-
ing systems.
Dr. Stanković is a member of the IEEE Power Engineering, IEEE Power
Electronics, IEEE Control Systems, IEEE Circuits and Systems, IEEE Industry
Applications, and IEEE Industrial Electronics Societies. He was an Associate
Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY
during 1997–2001 and presently serves the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER
SYSTEMS in the same capacity.

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