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Chapter

Power Electronic Converters for

Microgrids
Wenlong Ming

Abstract

Power electronic converters are indispensable building blocks of microgrids.

They are the enabling technology for many applications of microgrids, e.g., renew-
able energy integration, transportation electrification, energy storage, and power
supplies for computing. In this chapter, the requirements, functions, and operation
of power electronic converters are introduced. Then, different topologies of the
converters used in microgrids are discussed, including DC/DC converters, single-
phase DC/AC converters, three-phase three-wire, and four-wire DC/AC converters.
The remaining parts of this chapter focus on how to optimally design and control
these converters with the emerging wide-bandgap semiconductors. Correlated
tradeoffs of converter efficiency, power density, and cost are analyzed using
Artificial Neural Networks to find the optimal design of the converters.

Keywords: power electronics, DC/AC, DC/DC, control, topology, wide-bandgap

semiconductor, multi-objective design

1. Introduction

Power electronic converters are essential building blocks in a microgrid, which

enable the connection into microgrids of renewable energy resources, energy stor-
age systems, and electric vehicles (EVs), [1–3]. A power electronic converter con-
sists of power semiconductor switches, passive components (inductors, capacitors,
transformers, etc.), and a control unit to manage the power conversion and power
flow. The main role of power electronic converters is to convert power from one
form to another. In addition, power electronic converters can achieve flexible
control of active/reactive power fed into the microgrid [4], maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) of photovoltaic (PV) cells [5], and wind turbines [6]. The flexible
controllability of power electronic converters in microgrids also enables high-level
computation and optimization of the microgrid operation and management [7, 8].
Typical power electronic converter-based microgrids are shown in Figure 1.
This shows a hybrid AC/DC microgrid, which consists of an AC microgrid and a DC
microgrid interconnected by an interfacing converter. The microgrid works in grid-
connected mode when the utility grid is connected to the AC bus and in stand-alone
mode when the utility grid is disconnected.
In an AC microgrid, power electronic converters are used to convert DC power
(from PV cells, batteries, EVs, etc.) or variable frequency AC power (from wind
turbines) into 50/60 Hz AC power so that the power can be fed into the AC bus and
supply loads. In a DC microgrid, power electronic converters are used to convert
AC power or DC power with different voltages into DC power with the same

1
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

Figure 1.
Power electronic converters in microgrids.

voltage as the DC bus of the DC microgrid. As shown in Figure 1, power electronic

converters can also be used as the interface between AC and DC microgrids to
manage the power flow [9].
Power electronic converters in microgrids use various topologies, according to
different applications. Based on the input and output power, power electronic
converters can be classified as DC/DC converters and DC/AC converters. DC/DC
converters convert the input DC voltages and currents into controlled output DC
voltages and currents. DC/AC converters convert DC inputs into controlled AC
outputs or vice versa. In microgrids, the DERs can be either DC power or variable
AC power.
The control of the power electronic converters ensures that the microgrid func-
tions well in all circumstances [9–11]. In the grid-connected mode when a microgrid
is connected to the utility grid, converters in the microgrid operate in grid-feeding
mode to provide active and reactive power from distributed generators to the
microgrid [12]. In the stand-alone mode when a microgrid is isolated from the
utility grid, converters in the microgrid operate in grid-forming or grid-supporting
modes to provide AC voltage and frequency support to the microgrid [13]. Besides,
converters connected to the energy storage systems and EVs also need to work in
battery charging mode to charge the batteries [14]. The different operation modes
of power electronic converters require different control algorithms. Converters in
the microgrid need to switch between different operations modes according to the
status of the microgrid and distributed generators [15, 16].
The design of power electronic converters attempts to meet the system require-
ments of efficiency, power density, costs, and reliability [17]. However, these fac-
tors usually contradict each other. For example, an increase in reliability usually
implies higher equipment costs. The power density of a converter can be increased
by increasing the switching frequency, which, however, inevitably brings increased
switching losses and reduces the overall efficiency. Therefore, tradeoffs must be
made between these factors, which requires a multi-objective optimization to find
the Pareto-optimal solutions so that the designers can choose the most suitable
solution to meet the requirements of a specific application [18].
The rest of this chapter is organized as follows. Firstly, topologies of power elec-
tronic converters for microgrids are introduced, including their working principles
and applications. Then, an advanced design methodology of power electronic

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converters based on multi-objective optimization considering the cost, efficiency, and

power density is presented. Finally, the control algorithms of power electronic
converters for different operation modes in the microgrid are summarized.

2. Converter topologies

2.1 DC/DC converters

DC/DC converters are used to create either a higher or lower constant DC

voltage at the output without being affected by possible fluctuations of the DC
input voltage or of the load current. These converters are essential for the operation
of devices in various industry areas such as renewable energies, automotive, battery
chargers and aerospace.
They use semiconductors that behave like switches that are opened and closed to
convert an input voltage level into a different one, applying a series of control
signals. Generally, the way the voltage is converted is by forcing energy to be stored
in an inductor or capacitor When the polarity is reversed, the energy stored is
discharged creating a voltage at the converter output.
Among the different control methods, the most popular one is pulse width
modulation (PWM), which regulates the output voltage through adjusting the on
and off times of the semiconductors. A Duty Ratio D is defined as the ratio between
the on and off time of the semiconductors in a switching period. The output voltage
is regulated by controlling the value of D, which is between 0 and 1 [19].

2.1.1 Buck converter

The buck converter is shown in Figure 2. creates an output voltage that is lower
than the input voltage Vin. The average output voltage Vo is a function of the duty
ratio according to the expression:

V o ¼ D V in (1)

The voltage Vo is controlled by varying the duty ratio D of the switch S. This is a
linear relationship for ideal conditions. When the switch is on, the diode is reverse
biased and so the input current flows through the inductor L. When the switch is
off, the diode conducts so the energy stored in the inductor passes through the
diode supplying part of this stored energy to the load. The capacitor at the output is
used to keep the average value of the output voltage constant [20].

2.1.2 Boost converter

The boost converter in Figure 3 shows the circuit topology, where the main
function is to obtain a higher DC voltage at the output than its input DC voltage. It
contains at least one semiconductor switch and elements to store energy.

L +
+ V S
- in C R Vo

Figure 2.
Buck converter.

3
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

L +
+ Vin S C R Vo
-
-

Figure 3.
Boost converter.

When the switch S is closed, the inductor stores energy from the source, at the
same time the load R is fed by the capacitor (C). When the switch is open, the only
path of the current is through the diode, and current flows to the capacitor and the
load [21].

V in
Vo ¼ (2)
1 D

Since the output voltage is inversely proportional to (1 D), a higher duty ratio
gives a higher output voltage.

2.1.3 Buck-boost converter

A buck-boost converter is used if the desired output voltage may be higher or

lower than the input DC voltage.
Figure 4 shows a buck-boost converter, which is a cascaded connection between
a buck converter and a boost converter. In steady-state, the ratio between the input
and output voltages is the product of the ratios of both converters as:

Vo D
¼ (3)
V in 1 D

When the switch is closed, the input provides power to the inductance and the
diode is reverse biased. When the switch is open, the energy stored in the induc-
tance is transferred to the output while the input does not provide power to the
load. As in the previous converters, in steady-state the capacity of the output
capacitor is large enough so that the output voltage Vo is constant [22]. The output
voltage is reversed inside.

2.2 DC/AC single-phase converters

A DC/AC converter also known as an inverter is capable of transforming DC

into AC. A single-phase inverter is shown in Figure 5. It is often used, for small
loads and power supplies.
Single-phase inverters are fundamental parts of solar PV generating systems that
convert from DC into AC, allowing the power generated to be supplied to a network
with fixed voltage and frequency [23]. Another application is in battery storage

+
+ Vin S L C
- R Vo

Figure 4.
Buck-boost converter.

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+
S1 S3
iL L ig
Vin CDC C vg

S2 S4
-

Figure 5.
Singe-phase DC/AC inverter.

systems, which are able of accumulating energy for later use when there is not enough
solar resource to cover the load demand, using a single-phase inverter to obtain the
voltage level and the frequency necessary to be connected to the main grid [24, 25].
Single-phase inverters when connected to the grid under unbalanced conditions,
can propagate second-order harmonics from AC to DC side. The power for the grid
side Pg is defined as:

VI ð1 þ cos 2ωtÞ VI VI
Pg ¼ V g Ig ¼ VI cos 2 ωt ¼ ¼ þ cos 2ωt (4)
2 2 2

V g and Ig represent the grid voltage and current respectively, meanwhile, the
angular grid frequency f is defined as ω ¼ 2πf . As second-harmonics are present in
the DC side, large DC capacitance is required to support second-order ripples [26].

2.3 Three-phase DC-AC converters

The principle for operating three-phase DC-AC converters is similar to that of a

single-phase converter. The essential difference is that instead of having a single
modulated signal, there are three sinusoidal modulated signals out of phase 120°
between them. These signals are compared with a triangular signal for the control of
the switches at three phases. The voltage signals obtained in the phases with respect
to the neutral are identical to those of the single-phase modulation, but instead of
having a single signal, there are three signals out of phase by 120°. Therefore, the
same theory can be applied for single-phase converters.
A conventional two-level three-phase inverter consists of six switches generat-
ing an output voltage with two values with respect to the negative terminal of the
input capacitor as shown in Figure 6 [27].
The development of 3-level or multilevel technology has been influenced by the
development of new wide-bandgap materials for the construction of semiconduc-
tors as IGBT and MOSFET, allowing high voltage and current operation and higher
switching frequency obtaining lower harmonic distortion at the output [28].

+
S1 S3 S5
iLa La

iL b Lb
Vin CDC
iL c Lc

S2 S4 S6 Ca Cb Cc
-

Figure 6.
Three-phase two-level DC/AC inverter.

5
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

+
S1 S5 S9

Vin /2 CDC S2 S6 S10

i La L a
iLb Lb
Vin o
i Lc Lc

S3 S7 S11 Ca Cb Cc
Vin /2 CDC-
S4 S8 S12
-

Figure 7.
Three-phase three-level DC/AC neutral-point-clamped inverter.

A popular three-level inverter is the Neutral Point Clamped Converter. This

inverter can be considered as the origin of the recent multi-level inverter and has
been widely studied and applied. The topology is shown in Figure 7.
In this type of inverter, each leg consists of four switching devices clamped by
two diodes. The DC bus voltage is divided by two capacitors connected with the
clamped diodes, granting the neutral point (o). The output voltage in each phase
can take three levels, Vin/2, 0, and Vin/2.
The diodes connected to the midpoint are the elements that set the blocking
voltages of the switches to a fraction of the DC bus voltage; therefore, they are the
key elements of this topology. This topology can be extended to more levels but the
number of switching devices used is greatly increased [29].

2.4 Three-phase four-wire converters

Three-phase four-wire converters consist of three half-bridges that distribute

phases A, B, and C, and an additional leg allows the path of the neutral currents.
One of the most attractive applications of these inverters is electric vehicle EV
chargers, allowing both charging the EV in the grid to vehicle G2V mode and
vehicle to grid mode V2G. The V2G mode can generate an autonomous network by
obtaining energy from the EV battery to the grid when there are high energy
demands or blackouts, being EV chargers susceptible to power quality problems
when there is an imbalance due to loads in the grid [30].
Ideally, the operation of a distribution system is that all the loads that are
connected are of the same magnitude which results in the balanced operation of the
system. However, any practical system is always operating in unbalanced condi-
tions, leading to overheating, losses and malfunction in transformers, protection
systems and cables connected to the network.
Three common topologies being used in microgrids for four-wire systems are
Split DC-Link, four-leg three-phase inverter, and independently-controlled
neutral leg.

2.4.1 Three-phase four-wire inverter with Split DC-link capacitor

This basic typology consists of only six switches S1-S6 as seen in Figure 8.
containing a neutral point being clamped to the DC bus inverter, resulting in two
voltage levels through the DC-link capacitors.
Zero-sequence current causes voltage ripple at the midpoint of the inverter,
therefore large capacitors are required to reduce the voltage ripples. To share the

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Power Electronic Converters for Microgrids
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+
S1 S3 S5
C+ iLa La Loada

iLb Lb Loadb
N
Vin
iL c Lc Loadc
C-
S2 S4 S6 Ca Cb Cc
-
iN

Figure 8.
Three-phase four-wire DC/AC inverter with split DC-link capacitors.

input DC voltage evenly, the voltages of the two divided DC link capacitors must be
controlled [31].
One of the disadvantages of this typology is that large neutral currents, are
reflected in voltage ripple in the capacitors.

2.4.2 Three-phase four-wire DC/AC inverter with neutral leg

Figure 9 shows the configuration of this inverter, where switches S1-S6 feed the
ABC phases, while switches SN1 and SN2 provide the neutral current line. An
advantage of this converter is that the capacitor does not need to be bulky to reduce
the second-order ripples in the DC-link, but its control strategy is more complex
than the previous converter. Additionally, there is a 15% gain in AC output voltage
with respect to the DC voltage. As the additional leg cannot be controlled indepen-
dently, the control complexity of maintaining balanced voltages on the AC lines as
well as maintaining the neutral point can be experienced great stress on the DC
terminals causing electromagnetic interference (EMI) [32].

2.4.3 Three-phase four-wire DC/AC inverter with an independently-controlled

neutral leg

Similar to the three-phase neutral leg inverter, the topology in Figure 10 is

configured with eight switches in total, being S1-S6 for ABC phases and SN1-SN2 for a
neutral current path to the mid-point between the two DC link capacitors. A large
amount of capacitance is not required as there are no high current levels through the
DC link capacitors.
This topology is highly preferred for use in unbalanced load conditions since the
current flowing through the inductor allows the DC link to remain neutral.

+
SN1 S1 S3 S5
iLa La Loada

LN iLb Lb Loadb
N
Vin CDC
iLc Lc Loadc

SN2 S2 S4 S6 Ca Cb Cc
-
iN

Figure 9.
Three-phase four-wire DC/AC inverter with the neutral leg.

7
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

+
SN1 S1 S3 S5
C+ iLa La Loada

LN iLb Lb Loadb
N
Vin
iLc Lc Loadc
C-
SN2 S2 S4 S6 Ca Cb Cc
-
iN

Figure 10.
Three-phase four-wire DC/AC inverter with an independently-controlled neutral leg.

Its control strategy also allows the phases to be controlled independently as well
as the neutral leg, avoiding stress on the DC link and other interferences. Another
aspect is that by not presenting neutral current through the DC link capacitors;
small capacitors can be used and power density will be increased [32].

3. Design of wide-bandgap semiconductors based power electronics

converters

3.1 Benefits of wide-bandgap semiconductors

Wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium

nitride (GaN) have superior material properties for power electronics compared to
conventional Silicon (Si) as shown in Figure 11. The semiconductor properties have
been characterized by the electric field, energy gap, electron velocity, melting
point, and thermal conductivity.
Power switches based on WBG semiconductors have better switching and con-
duction performance over a wide range of temperatures in comparison to Si-based
devices. For instance, they have a faster switching speed, lower switching losses,
higher breakdown voltages, and higher operating temperatures. Therefore, WBG
devices are considered promising solutions for high-efficient power electronics
designs. These properties enabled the devices to achieve better performance for

Figure 11.
The properties (and implications for operation) of Si, SiC, and GaN.

8
Power Electronic Converters for Microgrids
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101019

applications that require high voltage operation, high temperature, and high
switching frequency.

3.2 Design challenges of WBG power converters

A well-designed power electronic converter should have high efficiency, small

volume, and lightweight, low cost, and low failure rate. However, the challenge is the
trade-off between these performance measures. For example, if a design is focused
only to achieve higher efficiency, which impacts the power density, reliability, and
cost. The performance parameters must be simultaneously optimized, such as maxi-
mizing efficiency while reducing volume, reliability, and cost as much as possible.
Typical technical performance measures are efficiency, volume, cost, and reliability
as depicted in Figure 12. These measures are mainly determined by the design of the
converter including selections of topology, modulation scheme, components, and
layout. By carrying out the careful design of the converter, the converter will have
high power density, as well as reduced volume, weight, and cost.

3.3 Multi-objective design of WBG power converters

Multi-objective design is used to optimize the efficiency and volume of WBG

power converters. To achieve this, Pareto fronts are determined. A Pareto front is the
absolute limit of performance trade-off for a given set of converter specifications
(topologies, control schemes, and components). Detailed mathematical modeling of
the converter components is required for determining the Pareto fronts.

3.3.1 Modeling of power loss and volume of the inverter

In a single-phase inverter, the DC-link current is composed of both DC compo-

nents and second-order ripple current. The second-order ripple current is occurred
due to the unbalanced nature of single-phase systems. The conventional DC/AC
inverter (see Figure 5) requires additional active or passive components to reduce
the magnitudes of second-order ripple current. Instead, differential inverters can
reduce the ripple current without adding extra components. As a result, Differential
inverters are popular solutions for applications where reduction of second-order
ripple current is critical and hence the differential inverters are modeled in this study.
Figure 11 shows the GaN switch-based differential inverter topology used to
study the multi-objective design. The differential DC/AC inverter topology is

Figure 12.
The trade-off between design and performance parameters.

9
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

developed using two bidirectional DC/DC buck converters. In this study, the objec-
tives are to optimize the efficiency and power density of a DC/AC buck inverter. To
start with, the efficiency and power density of four major components within an
inverter are modeled including the power GaN FETs, inductors, capacitors, and heat
sinks. Their efficiency and power density are further determined by the variables
including switching frequency f sw , the inductor ripple ∆iL , the switch area Asw , and
the junction temperature ∆T j . Therefore, it is of great importance to model the
efficiency and power density based on these variables for each component.

3.3.2 Power GaN FETs

The power loss models of the GaN FETs are based on the on-state resistance
RDS,on , the output capacitance Coss and the thermal junction-to-case resistance RθJC
of the switches. The output capacitance Coss represents the parasitic capacitance of
the power GaN FETs. The value of Coss is provided in the datasheet of GaN FETs.
When the energy is stored into the output capacitor, current discharges through the
body diode causes power loss [33]. These variables are scaled by their reference
values with respect to the area of the switch. The switching loss of the inverter is the
sum of the turn-on and turn-off loss of all the switches [33]. The switching loss of the
higher side switches PSH ,sw ðH ¼ 1, 3Þ (see Figure 13) is obtained as,

V in f sw ΔiLa
PSH ,sw ¼ Iout sin ðωtÞ þ icomp ðtCR þ tVF Þ
2 2
(5)
ΔiLa
þ Iout sin ðωtÞ þ icomp þ ðtVR þ tCF Þ
2

Where, icomp is the second-order current component and ΔiLa is the inductor
current ripple. tCR and tCF are the rise and fall times for the current in the switch. tVR
and tVF are the rise and fall times for the voltage in the switch.
The switching loss of the lower side switch PSL ,sw ðL ¼ 2, 4Þ can be derived as:

V SD f sw ΔiLa
PSL ,sw ¼ Iout sin ðωtÞ þ icomp þ ðtCR þ tVF Þ
2 2
(6)
ΔiLa
þ Iout sin ðωtÞ þ icomp ðtVR þ tCF Þ
2

DC/DC DC/DC
converter 1 converter 2
+ idc
S1 S3
Cascode La
structure va
Vin vb
Lb Ca Cb
S2 S4
_
DC-link capacitor Power decoupling

Figure 13.
Structure of a differential DC/AC buck inverter.

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From (5) and (6), the total switching losses Ptot,sw of the inverter are calculated
as the sum of PSH ,sw and PSL ,sw . The switching losses of higher side switches depend
on the input voltage V in , and lower side switches depend on the diode voltage V SD .
Hence, the lower side switches produced lesser switching losses compared to the
higher side switches as V SD is much smaller than V in .
The conduction loss depends on the RMS current flowing through the switch
I RMS,sw , the on-state resistance RDS,on and the change in junction temperature ∆T j .
It will be varied according to the duty cycle of the switches S1 S4 . After
applying the mathematical simplifications, the total conduction loss Ptot,cond can be
written as:
( !
∗
RDS,on ∗
Asw Δi2La

I2out sin 2 ðωtÞ þ i2comp þ

Ptot,cond ¼ 1 þ ΔT j
Asw 12
!) (7)
2
Δi Lb
þ I2out sin 2 ðωt þ π Þ þ i2comp þ
12

The power losses of the output capacitance Coss, depend on the input voltage and
the switching frequency as:
∗
Coss Asw
Ptot,Coss ¼2 ∗ V 2in f sw (8)
Asw

The reverse recovery loss of the lower side switches is not negligible for cascode
devices. The total reverse recovery loss Ptot,rr is calculated as:
∗
Q rr Asw
Ptot,rr ¼2 ∗ V in f sw (9)
Asw

The gate losses depend on the switching frequency, the gate-source voltage V GS
and the gate charge Q g . The total gate loss of four switches Ptot,g is calculated as:
∗
Q g Asw

Ptot,g ¼4 ∗ V GS f sw (10)
Asw

In cascode GaN FETs, the current flowing through the body diodes of the lower
side switches incur the conduction loss during the reverse recovery time trr [32].
The total power loss Ptot,bd of the body diodes can be written as,

Ptot,bd ¼ 2V SD f sw trr Iout ð sin ðωtÞ þ sin ðωt þ π ÞÞ þ 2icomp (11)

The volume of the switches can be calculated as:

volsw ¼ 4hsw Asw (12)

Where, hsw is the height of the switch package.

3.3.3 Output inductors

The inductor power loss consists of the core loss and the AC and DC resistance
loss which can be expressed as [34].

11
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

Pind ¼ aL1 f αsw ΔiβL þ aL2 f sw ΔiγL þ aL3 I2out ΔiλL

AC_loss DC_loss
(13)
core_loss

Where, aL1 , α, and β are the Steinmetz coefficients; aL2 and aL3 are the constants
which are used to approximate the values of DC winding resistance; γ and λ are the
real values used to reduce the non-linearity. The approximated inductor volume is
calculated as:

volind ¼ aL4 LI2peak þ aL5 LIpeak þ aL6 Ipeak (14)

Where, aL4 , aL5 , and aL6 are the polynomial coefficients of the inductor which
must be a positive value. L is the inductor value. Ipeak is the peak current of the
inductors.

3.3.4 Output capacitors

The power loss of the capacitor is calculated as:

I2RMS,C tan δ
Pcap ¼ (15)
2π f 2ω C

Where, IRMS,C is the RMS current flow through the capacitor, tan δ is the loss
factor, f 2ω is the frequency of second-order ripple power and C is the value of the
capacitance. The total volume of the capacitors volcap is calculated as:

volcap ¼ aC1 CV 2C þ aC2 CV C þ aC3 V C (16)

Where, aC1 , aC2 and aC3 are the polynomial coefficients of the capacitors which
must be positive values. The voltage V C is the voltage across the capacitor.

3.3.5 Heat sinks

The volume of the heat sink is calculated as:

∗ ∗
RθJC Asw

V θSA
volheat sink ¼ ΔT j PD þ RθCS (17)
PD Asw

Where, V θSA is the volumetric resistance, PD is the power dissipated by the GaN
∗
FETs, ΔTj is the temperature difference between the junction and the ambient, RθJC
is the thermal resistance from junction to the case of the semiconductor, and RθCS is
the thermal resistance from the case to the mounting surface of the semiconductor.

3.3.6 Formulation of the multi-objective model

To formulate the multi-objective model, the total power loss Ptot,loss and volume
voltot are calculated as:

Ptot,loss ¼ Ptot,sw þ Ptot,cond þ Ptot,Coss þ Ptot,rr þ Ptot,g þ Ptot,bd þ Pind þ Pcap (18)

voltot ¼ volsw þ volind þ volcap þ volheat sink (19)

Using (18) and (19), the objective function and inequality constraints can be
obtained as:

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minimize f ðPtot,loss , voltot Þ

subject to f sw, min ≤ f sw ≤ f sw, max
Asw, min ≤ Asw ≤ Asw, max
ΔiL, min ≤ ΔiL ≤ ΔiL, max
ΔT j, min ≤ ΔT j ≤ ΔT j, max (20)

From (20), the optimal value of the power loss and volume of the inverters is
determined following the iterative process shown in Figure 14. The optimized
efficiency and power density of the design are then calculated. The outcome of the
multi-objective design is the Pareto-front showing the optimized efficiency and
power density of the designed inverter.

3.4 Performance evaluation

The multi-objective design approach was implemented in MATLAB/Simulink

and examined a 1 kW GaN-based inverter. The performance of the inverter was
examined in terms of efficiency and power density. The minimum and maximum
values of the design variables used for the multi-objective design are given in
Table 1. The values of design variables are selected from industrial design
standards.
A 900 V GaN FET manufactured by Transphorm was used. A P11T60 series of
high current toroid type fixed inductors designed by MPS Industries were used. A
MKP1848C series of polypropylene film capacitors from Vishay BC Components

Inialise the inverter specificaons and the design

space constants

Select the boundary of the design constraints

Define the input values of the design parameters

Start the iteraon

Repeat for different values

Calculate the power loss and volume

Power loss model Volume model

Semiconductor loss Switch and heat sink

Inductor loss Inductor
Capacitor loss Capacitor

Calculate the efficiency and power density

Figure 14.
Flow chart of multi-objective design.

Design variable Min. value Max. value

Switching frequency fsw 30 kHz 200 kHz

Current ripple ΔiL 0.1 Iout,max 0.45 Iout,max

Switch area Asw 0.94 A*sw 1.07 A*sw

Change in temperature ΔTj 1 °C 25°C

Table 1.
Design constraints of the inverter.

13
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

was used. The values of the maximum output current Iout,max, and reference
switching area A*sw are 6.15 A and 45.6 mm2. The values of the inductor are
L = 390 μH, the capacitor is C = 48 μF and the switching frequency is fsw = 100 kHz.
These are selected according to the outcome of the multi-objective design approach.

3.4.1 Performance evaluation

The Pareto-front performance of efficiency and power density of the power

inverter is generated by the multi-objective design and is given as the green curve in
Figure 15.
One design based on the Pareto-front performance was chosen to validate the
method. The selection of efficiency and power density was made based on different
applications. For instance, the selected efficiency and power densities are 98.4%
and 4.6 kW/dm3 which are typical for PV inverters. For the corresponding design,
the power loss and volume are obtained as 15.93 W and 218.32 cm3. The breakdown
of power loss and volume of each component is given in Figure 16. With the total
power loss, switches contribute 52%, inductors contribute 33% and capacitors con-
tribute 15%. Likewise, with the total volume, heat sinks and switches contribute
34%, inductors contribute 34%, and capacitors contribute 32%.

3.4.2 Experimental verification

A prototype of the inverter was built using the components sized using the
multi-objective design. The prototype is shown in Figure 17(a). The prototype was

Figure 15.
Efficiency vs. power density.

Figure 16.
Power loss and volume.

14
Power Electronic Converters for Microgrids
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101019

Figure 17.
(a) Hardware prototype, and (b) efficiency and power loss.

operated at different output power levels to obtain the efficiency and power loss
and the result is given in Figure 17(b). The efficiency was measured by a Yokogawa
WT1806E precision power analyzer. It was observed that the maximum efficiency
of the prototype is 98.02%. The power density was 4.54 kW/dm3 from the volume
of the inverter which is given in Figure 17(a). Therefore, the efficiency and power
density match the results obtained by the proposed design approach in Section
3.4.1. The errors of efficiency and power density obtained from both are only 0.38%
and 0.06 kW/dm3 respectively.

4. Converter control

For the converter system, an important question is how to design a good con-
troller for the system so that the system can run stably while meeting the required
performance indicators. In this section, typical approaches to the control of both
DC/DC and DC/AC power electronic converters used in microgrids are presented.
The control of converters usually has a hierarchical control structure (see
Figure 18). The switching-level, converter-level, and application-level control
are introduced in this section. For the switching-level control, typical pulse-width
modulation (PWM) methods are introduced. For the converter-level control, the

System-level
control
1) Status Monitoring 2) Operation mode selection 3)Optimal reference settings

Application-level DC/DC DC/AC

control Diagnostics Converter Converter Operating mode/
and fault Operating mode/ Reference command
detection Reference command

DC Voltage Grid Forming Grid Feeding Grid supporting

Control Control Control Control

Converter-level
Current control PLL, αβ ↔ dq Current control
control
(PI Control) Transformations (PI+Resonance control)

Switching-level
Modulator Modulator
control
(PWM/phase-shift
(SPWM/SVPWM )
PWM )
Switching logic Switching logic
& Dead time & Dead time
Hardware-level
control Gate drives & device protection

Figure 18.
Hierarchical control of power electronic converters.

15
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

design of the current controller is discussed. For the application-level control,

control modes used for different applications are discussed.

4.1 Control of DC/DC converters

4.1.1 Switching-level control

PWM is the most used technique to control switching power devices in DC/DC
converters. For example, to control a conventional buck DC/DC converter, a mod-
ulation wave vm is generated from the control loop and compared with the
sawtooth-wave carrier vc as shown in Figure 19. The driving signal s (0 or 1) is sent
to the driver according to (21).

If vm > vc , s ¼ 1
If vm < vc , s ¼ 0 (21)

The larger the modulation wave, the larger the duty cycle, and thus the higher
the output voltage. For other types of DC/DC converters such as the Dual-active-
bridge (DAB) converter, the phase-shift PWM is favored to achieve zero-voltage-
switching (ZVS) to reduce the losses [35].

4.1.2 Converter and application-level control

The DC/DC converters are used in the field of DG integration such as solar PV
systems [36]. They transfer the power from DGs to DC microgrids. Types of
DC/DC converters include buck, boost, and buck-boost converters.
Figure 20 shows a general control schematic for controlling the output
voltage of a DC/DC converter. A double-loop controller is used for the DC/DC

TPWM
Vc

Vm

t
0
s

1
t
0

Figure 19.
PWM modulation scheme.

DG Converter idco

vdco Load

Vc PWM

Vm idco vdco
– *
PI + PI
–
+ Vdco
controller controller

Figure 20.
Output DC voltage control.

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converter. The control mode is to control the output DC voltage. The output
from the voltage controller is the reference for the current controller. The modula-
tion wave V m is calculated from the current PI controller. Then, the PWM signal
can be generated by the modulator as discussed in 4.1.1 to drive the power
electronic switches.
For parallel-connected DC/DC converters in low-voltage DC microgrid. Droop
control is also popular for DC/DC converters to achieve autonomous equal power-
sharing. A virtual resistance RV can be used to automatically distribute the power
among the parallel converters. The droop curve and the control scheme are shown
in Figures 21 and 22.
For PV energy integration, the DC/DC converter can be used for the MPPT
control [37] as shown in Figure 23. A DC/DC converter is connected between the
PV array and the load to trace the maximum powerpoint. In this case, the controller
controls the input power through an MPPT algorithm. The output of the MPPT
algorithm is a DC voltage reference. The input DC voltage of the DC/DC is then
controlled according to this reference.
The load at the output side can be the passive load or the active load such as an
AC/DC converter for connecting the PV system to an AC grid. In this case, the grid
side AC/DC converter is responsible for regulating the DC link voltage.

Vdc*
*
Vdco
*
Vdco1

I dco idco

Figure 21.
Droop cure for virtual resistance-based control.

DG Converter idco

vdco Load

PWM
idco vdco
*
PI PI Vdco
controller controller

RV
Virtual resistance based droop control

Figure 22.
Virtual resistance-based control schematic.

17
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

Converter
idc

PV arrayy
vPV vdc Passive load
or active load
iPV

MPPT PWM
algorithm vPV
PI
* controller
vPV

Figure 23.
Input DC voltage control for MPPT application.

4.2 Control of DC/AC converters

4.2.1 Switching-level control

Typical DC/AC converters used for connecting distributed generators (DGs) to

the distribution networks are two-level (2 L) and three-level (3 L) converters, as
shown in Figure 24.
Figure 25(a) and (b) show the sinusoidal PWM (SPWM) based modulation for
2 L and 3 L converters, respectively.
For the PWM modulation of 2 L converters in Figure 25(a), the switching on
and off of a IGBT device is determined by the comparison between the sinusoidal
modulation wave (red dash line) and the carrier (gray triangle wave). For the
modulation of 3 L converter in Figure 25(b), the carrier disposition (CD) based
modulation is commonly used. The CD modulation algorithm can be further

+
2
1
UdcP

+ ix iPN+

x o
ix iPN-
x Udc
UdcN
3
- -

2 4

(a) (b)

Figure 24.
SPWM for 2 L-converters, (a) a 2 L-converter, and (b) waveform of SPWM.

upper carrier
1
1
2 3 4
0 0 wct
1 wct 1 2

-1 -1
lower carrier

(a) (b)

Figure 25.
SPWM for 3 L-converters, (a) a 3 L converter, and (b) waveform of SPWM.

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categorized as phase disposition (PD) and phase opposite disposition (POD)

methods. For the PD modulation, triangle carriers over and down the zero reference
have the same phase (as shown in Figure 25(b)), whereas the phase of the lower
carrier is opposite to the upper carrier for POD modulation. It can be observed that
the phase voltage vxo switches between U2dc and 0 when the modulation wave (red
dash line in Figure 25(b)) is positive, and between 0 and U2dc when modulation
wave is negative.

4.2.2 Converter-level control

The decoupled current controller of the converter-level control is shown in

Figure 26. Through the coordinate transformation from static frame (i.e. abc
frame) to the synchronous rotating frame (i.e. dq frame), the active and reactive
power is decoupled and can be controlled independently. Also, the control loop
presents linear characteristics on the dq frame. Hence, the voltage-oriented vector
control strategy is commonly adopted. The dq current controllers are based on PI
regulators. The parameters of the PI regulators can be designed based on a second-
order transfer function for a linear system. The decoupling terms ωLiq and ωLid
are added to decouple the current components at the d-axis and q-axis. Voltage
feedforward edq is used to improve the dynamic performance of the current con-
troller.
For the grid-connected converters, the PLL is required to achieve synchroniza-
tion to the grid frequency. The design of PLL in the αβ frame is presented in
Figure 27. The vector cross product is used to extract the error between the real
phase angle of the grid voltage and the estimated phase voltage. The error passes
through the PI regulator so that it can be eliminated.
The controller presented in Figure 26 regulates positive-sequence current and
works effectively if the voltage of the connected grid is balanced. However, if the
voltage imbalance occurs, both positive-sequence and negative-sequence currents

ed
+
id* PI
+
+- -
id dq ma*
wL
* mb*
i wL
q
+ abc mc*
iq +-
PI
++
eq θe

Figure 26.
Decoupled current controller at dq frames.

cos(· )
ω θe
vabc × +
PI ¶
+
abc ×

sin(· )

Figure 27.
PLL for grid synchronization.

19
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

will exist. Dual current controller regulating both positive-sequence and negative-
sequence currents will be needed as shown in Figure 28.
The ultimate objective of using such dual current control to regulate currents of
both sequences is to either i) achieve balanced output current [38], or ii) cancel the
2nd order power ripple caused by the interaction of positive-sequence current and
negative-sequence voltage [39]. For i), balanced three-phase currents can be
obtained by setting negative-sequence current references to zero. However, the
interaction of positive-sequence current and negative-sequence voltage will result
in a 2nd order power ripple at the grid side although the currents are controlled
balanced through i):

p ¼ P0 þ Pc2 cos ð2wtÞ þ Ps2 sin ð2wtÞ

q ¼ Q 0 þ Q c2 cos ð2wtÞ þ Q s2 sin ð2wtÞ (22)

This power ripple could increase odd AC harmonics to the grid. Thus, the
approach for ii) is injecting proper negative-sequence current to counteract such a
power ripple. The expected injecting currents are expressed as:
p∗ p p 3 12
id vnsd vnsq P0∗
2 3 2 3
vsd vsq
6 p∗
6 iq 7 2 6 vpsq p
vnsq vnsd 7
7 6 7 6 ∗7
vsd 6Q 7
6 07
7¼ 6 n
6 7 6 7
p p 7
7 3 6 vsq vnsd
6 n∗ 6 ∗7
6i
4 d 5 4 vsq vsd 75
6 P 7
4 s2 5
p p
inq ∗ vnsd vnsq vsd vsq ∗
Pc2
p p 3 12
vnsd vnsq P0∗
2 3
vsd vsq
6 p p
vnsq vnsd 7
7 6 ∗7
6 vsq vsd
26 6Q 7
6 07
¼ 6 n (23)
7
p p 7
3 6 vsq vnsd
6 7
4 vsq vsd 75
6 07
4 5
p p
vnsd vnsq vsd vsq 0

Where, Ps2∗ and Pc2∗ are the sine and cosine terms of the 2nd order power ripples.
h i
p p p
In this scheme, the positive-sequence components Fαβ ¼ V αβ Iαβ and the
negative-sequence components Fnαβ ¼ V nαβ Inαβ need to be extracted from F αβ ¼

p
½ V αβ Iα⠊. Fαβ and Fnαβ can be obtained by misplaced subtraction as:

Positive-sequence edp
+
idp* PI
+
+- - ma*
i p
wL dq ++
d
p*
mb*
i wL ++
q
+ abc mc*
i p +- ++
q PI
++
eqp θep
n
Negative-sequence ed
i n* ++
d
+- PI
idn
+
wL dq
iqn* wL
- abc
iqn +-
PI
++
eqn θen

Figure 28.
Dual current controller for positive and negative sequence control.

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Power Electronic Converters for Microgrids
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101019

p 1
Fαβ ðtÞ ¼ Fαβ ðtÞ þ jFαβ ðt T=4Þ
2
1
Fnαβ ðtÞ ¼ Fαβ ðtÞ jFαβ ðt

T=4Þ (24)
2

Thus, the phase angles θpe and θne in Figure 28 can be obtained by phase locking
p
the Vαβ and Vnαβ separately.
In addition to the current controller in Figure 26, more control blocks can be
added to reduce the harmonics that are generated by the nonlinear characteristics of
converters. For example, carrier-based PWM methods can introduce the odd har-
monics (i.e. 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th), and the DC drift of neutral point voltage can
cause even harmonics (i.e. 2nd and 4th). Therefore, the reduction of harmonics is
required for converters. This can be achieved using the resonant (RES) controller
[40]. The combined PI-RES controller at dq frames is shown in Figure 29.
A Nth order RES controller tuned at dq frames can compensate the (1-n)th and
(1 + n)th harmonics in the stationary frame. For example, a 6th order RES controller
can compensate the 5th and 7th harmonics. More RES controllers can be paralleled
with the PI controller according to the compensating requirements.

4.2.3 Application-level control

At the application-level control, the control modes of the converters can be

classified into three modes: grid-forming, grid-feeding, and grid-supporting modes
[41]. The characteristics of the three modes are illustrated in Figure 30.
Converters in grid-forming mode should provide the AC voltage (reactive
power) and frequency support (active power) for an AC grid. They act as voltage
sources with low output impedance. The grid-forming converters can be also oper-
ated without being connected to the main grid.
Converters in grid feeding are operated as current sources and generate constant
active and reactive power to the demand. However, as the operation of grid-feeding
converters depends on at least one grid-forming converter, this type of converter
cannot work without being connected to the main grid.
As for the microgrid, the power capacity of the DGs is limited. Thus, choosing
one as the grid-forming converter may not be a good choice. Power-sharing

Resonant controller

kn s
s + (nω ) 2
2

vd
+ +
id* PI + +
+- -
id dq ma*
wL
mb*
iq* wL
+ abc mc*
iq +-
PI
+ ++
+ θe
kn s
vq
s + (nω ) 2
2

Resonant controller

Figure 29.
PI-RES current controller.

21
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

Grid- f Grid- f Grid-

forming feeding supporting f
*
f
f*

Pmin Pmax P Pmin P* Pmax

P
P
Pmin P* Pmax
Vs Vs
Vs
*
V s
Vs*

Qmin Qmax Q Qmin Q Q

Qs* Qmax Qmin Q* Qmax

Figure 30.
Characteristics of three types of converter control.

methods to share the burden to each DG are preferred for the distribution networks
integrated with renewable energies. To this end, the converters can work under
grid-supporting mode and have a joint contribution to the voltage and frequency
support. The basic power-sharing methods include centralized methods, master–
slave methods, and distribution methods such as the droop methods [42]. The
droop methods can automatically distribute the power to the DGs according to the
droop curves, thus, communication is not required. Droop control for the grid-
supporting converters is a promising power control strategy in the distribution
network.
For the grid-forming converter control in Figure 31, the reference frequency f 0∗
is given for the synchronization. The control is performed at dq frames. Feedback
control is used to guarantee that the output voltage is equal to the given value. The
outputs from the voltage PI controllers are the references for the current controller
as mentioned in the previous section. The grid-forming mode is normally not used
when being connected to the main grid, in which condition the grid-forming func-
tion is always performed by the synchronous generator of the power plants.
The control schematic for the grid-feeding converter is shown in Figure 32. The
outer loop is the PI-based active and reactive power control loop. The active power
and reactive power are calculated by the measured Iabc and V abc . The outputs of the
power control loops are the given values of the current control loops. Synchroniza-
tion is required in this scheme, which is achieved using the PLL. The obtained phase
angle θe is used for the transformation of voltage and current. The grid-feeding

DG Converter PCC

Load

abc
dq

Vs = va2 + vb2 +vc2

id iq
Vs
Decoupling cos(θe ) – V*
mabc + s
PWM dq current PI
sin(θe )
controller
*
θe f
2π ³

Figure 31.
Grid-forming control schematic.

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DG Converter PCC

Load
iabc vabc

abc abc
dq dq
vd vq
Power
id calculation
iq P
– P*
Decoupling Q +
mabc –
PWM dq current PI + Q*
controller

θe
PLL

Figure 32.
Grid-feeding control schematic.

Converter PCC

Load
abc abc
dq dq

Power
Vs = vd2 + vq2
id iq calculation
Vs P
Decoupling cos(θe ) – – P*
+
mabc –
PWM dq current PI kp
sin(θe ) + *
controller Vs Q
–
θe + Q*
2π ³ – kq
*
f

Figure 33.
Grid-supporting control schematic.

converter is always fed by the DGs which have more stochastic characteristics such
as the PV and wind farms [41].
For the grid-supporting converter shown in Figure 33, the control scheme is the
combination of the grid-forming and grid-feeding control methods. The kp,q is used
to adjust the droop slope. The converter behaves more like a voltage source if kp,q
increases. Otherwise, if kp,q decreases, the converter has more characteristics of the
current source. The operation points ( f ∗, P ∗ ) and (V ∗, Q ∗ ) in Figure 33 are
regulated by the secondary controller (system-level controller) [41].

5. Conclusion

Renewable energy resources, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles (EVs)
are emerging in microgrids. A great many of the new energies are not naturally AC

23
Microgrids and Local Energy Systems

sources and cannot be connected to the grid. Power electronic converters build a
bridge for the connection between renewable energies and microgrid.
Converter types include DC/DC and DC/AC converters. For the DC/DC con-
verters, typical topologies are a buck, boost, and buck-boost converters. For the DC/
AC converters, three-phase two-level and three-level converters are most widely
used. In particular, the three-phase four-leg converters are used for the unbalanced
load conditions. The neutral leg and current are independently controlled so that
the dc capacitors can be choosed smaller to achieve lower cost and volume.
WBG devices have been used in the power converters. The design of WBG
power converters should consider efficiency, volume, and weight, cost, and failure
rate. To maximum these performance indices, the multi-optimization method is
utilized. The optimized design solution is found according to the Pareto-front curve.
To illustrate the design method, the optimization of efficiency and power density is
particularly analyzed and validated through a prototype.
Control is an essential part of the power conversion. The typical control methods
are discussed from the switching-level layer to the application-level layer following
a hierarchical structure. PWM is a common modulation method. The current con-
trollers are performed on the dq frame to achieve independent control of active and
reactive power. Also, different control modes, such as grid-feeding, grid-forming,
and grid-supporting control, are presented to accommodate different applications.

Author details

Wenlong Ming
The School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. Distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution - NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction for
non-commercial purposes, provided the original is properly cited. –NC

24
Power Electronic Converters for Microgrids
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101019

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