Application of a Fuzzy Self-tuning PI Controller in a

Grid-Connected PV Generation System

Yao Zhi-qing1, Zhang Qian2, and Liu Xi-mei2

1
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
Xuchang Relay Research Institute, Xuchang, China
zhiqingy@xjgc.com
2
Automation and Electronic Engineering Institute
Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China
zq0407310118@163.com

Abstract. This paper presents the mathematical model of the pv array and
analyzes the structure of a three-phase grid-connected PV generation system
(GCPS). In order to get better waveforms of grid current, a fuzzy self-tuning PI
controller is introduced into the GCPS, and it can tune the PI controller
parameters automatically according to changes of system parameters. In order
to realize the maximum power transmission with unit power factor of the
GCPS, the maximum power point track (MPPT) control and the control on
active power and reactive respectively with fuzzy PI controller are also used.
Finally a pv array model and a MPPT model are developed, and the proposed
GCPS is simulated in PSCAD/EMTDC. The simulation results show that the
fuzzy self-tuning PI controller for the GCPS is effective.

Keywords: fuzzy PI controller, self-tuning, MPPT, GCPS, pv array,

PSCAD/EMTDC.

1 Introduction
Renewable energy sources have been being gradually exploited and developed for the
past few years. Solar energy is one of the most important renewable energy sources,
and also is an important kind of dynamic energy in PV power generation systems. With
the cost reduction for power products in pv systems, the three-phase grid-connected PV
generation system (GCPS) has been applied widely in many countries [1]. But many
problems are still to be solved, and plenty of studies on the three-phase GCPS have
been being done [2-4], in which control research on GCPS is very important, and many
control methods have been applied in order to improve the performance of GCPS such
as grid current waveforms, grid voltage waveforms and so on [5-6].
In order to realize the maximum power transmission with unit power factor of the
GCPS, the maximum power point track (MPPT) control and the control on active
power and reactive respectively are used. With the variation of solar irradiance and cell
temperature, the pv array will output different maximum powers under the control of
MPPT, which changes system parameters, so the traditional fixed-parameter PI
controller can not satisfy the dynamic and static states performance of GCPS well.

L. Jiang (Ed.): International Conference on ICCE2011, AISC 112, pp. 823–834.

springerlink.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
824 Z.-q. Yao, Q. Zhang, and X.-m. Liu

Based on problems above, a fuzzy self-tuning PI controller is introduced into the

GCPS in this paper, and it can tune the PI controller parameters automatically
according to variations of solar irradiance and cell temperature. Finally a pv array
model and a MPPT model are developed, and the proposed GCPS is simulated in
PSCAD/EMTDC. The simulation results show that the fuzzy self-tuning PI controller
for the GCPS is effective.

2 Mathematic Model of pv Array

The equivalent circuit of pv module is given by figure 1.

Rs

Iph I0 I

D V

Fig. 1. Equivalent circuit of a PV module

In Fig. 1 the output current I is given by Eq. 1

 V + IRs 
I = I ph − I 0 exp( ) − 1  (1)
 AVT 
Where
VT = m(k T q ) (2)

I ph = I sc
G
[1 + α T (T − Tref )] (3)
Gref
3
 T    1 1 
I 0 = I RS   expq Eg  −  k A (4)
 Tref    Tref T  

 V  
I RS = I SC exp OC  − 1 (5)
  AVT  
In equations above, Isc is the short circuit current under standard test conditions of Tref =
25 ℃ and solar irradiance Gref = 1000 w/m2; Voc is the open circuit voltage under
 Application of a Fuzzy Self-tuning PI Controller 825

standard test conditions; I is the output current of a pv module; V is the terminal

voltage of a pv module; Iph is the short circuit current of a given solar irradiance; I0 is
the saturation current of the diode; G is the solar irradiance; VT is the thermal potential
of a module, where m is the number of series pv cells in a pv module, k = 1.38e-23 J/K
is the Boltzmann’s constant, q = 1.6e-19 C is the coulomb constant; αT is the
temperature coefficient of short circuit current; Eg is the band-energy gap; A is the ideal
constant of the diode; Rs is the inherent resistance which can be given by the voltage
and current at the maximum power point of a pv array.
A pv array is composed of multiple pv arrays in series and in parallel which can
increase the current and voltage of the system, and also increase the power
transmission of the system. The output current of the pv array with Ns modules in
series and Np modules in parallel can be described by Eq. 6

 V + IRs 
I = N P I ph − N P I 0 exp( ) − 1 (6)
 AN SVT 
P = VI (7)

3 The Structure of Three-Phase GCPS

Fig. 2 gives a typical three-phase GCPS structure which consists of pv array, dc link,
three-phase voltage source inverter(VSI), three-phase step-up transformer, filter and
three-phase electrical source. The DC energy of pv array charges DC capacitance and
is transformed into the AC energy with the base frequency of 50Hz transmitted into the
power grid.

Fig. 2. Structure of the three-phase GCPS

4 The Control of Three-Phase GCPS

4.1 Maximum Power Point Tracking Control (MPPT)

The maximum power point track control of the pv array has lots of methods such as
constant voltage tracking, perturb and observe algorithms, incremental conductance
method, fuzzy logic control and so on. Output voltage of the pv array can change
quickly according to the sudden change of solar irradiance through incremental
conductance method, so that the voltage at the maximum power point is achieved.
The incremental conductance method is introduced as shown in Fig. 3 [7].
826 Z.-q. Yao, Q. Zhang, and X.-m. Liu

Fig. 3. Flow chart of IncCond method

4.2 The Traditional Control of VSI

In order to achieve active power contol and reactive power control on pv VSI
separately, a transformation in the synchronous d–q reference frame is introduced
[8],the transformation relationship is shown in Eqs. (8) and (9).

  2   2 
 coswt cos wt π cos wt π
 xd    3   3  x 
  2  2   2   
a

 xq  sinwt sin  wt π sin  wt π  xb 

  3   3   3    (8)
 c 
 x0  1 1 1 x

 2 2 2 
 

 
 
 a
x  cos wt sin wt 1 xd 
    2   2   
 xb  =  cos wt − π  sin wt − π  1 xq  (9)
x    3   3   
 c   2   2   x0 
 cos wt + 3 π  sin wt + 3 π  1
     
 Application of a Fuzzy Self-tuning PI Controller 827

Three-phase symmetrical sinusoidal variables[xa xb xc]T in the three-phase a,b,c

symmetrical reference frame can be transformed into direct current variables [xd xq x0]T in
the synchronous d-q reference frame by equation (8) and vice versa as shown in Eq. (9).
Power controller as upper controller regulates active power and reactive power of
GCPS and gives d-q axies current references id* and iq* needed by current controller.
Inner-loop current controller gives d-q axies voltage references vd* and vq* needed by
pv inverter. And PWM generator gives trigger pulse of inverter. In d-q reference
frame, considering that the transformer winding has Y-Δ connection and the voltage of
the primary side leads that of the secondary side by 30 degree, the mathematic model
of inverter is given as Eq. (10).

 did N1
 L dt + Rid = N Ed − vd − wLiq
 di
2
(10)
 L q + Riq = N1 Eq − vq + wLid
 dt N2
Eq. (9) can be reduced into Eq. (10)

 N1
vd = N Ed − wLid − Δud
 2
 (11)
v = N1 E + wLi − Δu
 q N 2 q d q

Where

  ki  *
(
Δud =  k p + s  id − id )
  
 (12)
(
Δu =  k + ki  i* − i
 q  p s  q q
)
In Eqs. (9)-(11) Ed and Eq are the d-q axies components of the grid voltage, id and iq are
those of the inverter AC side current, vd and vd are those of the inverter AC side
voltage, N1/N2 is transformer ratio, kp and ki are proportional gain and integral gain of
the PI controller. The control structure of the GCPS is given as shown in Fig. 4, where
the controller chooses the traditional PI controller.

Fig. 4. The control structure of the GCPS

828 Z.-q. Yao, Q. Zhang, and X.-m. Liu

4.3 Fuzzy Self-tuning PI Control

The fuzzy control algorithm has been widely applied in many fields. It does not need to
build the mathematic model of controlled plant exactly and has the ability of good
robustness and anti-disturbance, but it can not eliminate steady state error of the system
and is difficult to get the high control precision. PI controller has a simple structure and
a good stability and reliability, and especially it can be used to build the deterministic
control system with accurate mathematical model. PI parameters are tunned usually on
the base of the received mathematical model, but in practical applications many
controlled plants have complex mechanisms, highly nonlinear characters and time-
varying uncertainties et al, so in the pi control many requirements are needed for
example pi parameters to be tunned not only do not need to rely on the controlled plant
mathematic model, but also can be regulate on line in order to realize real-time control.
The fuzzy self-tunning pi controller is introduced in which fuzzy control is combined
with pi control, and it overcomes shortness of fuzzy controller and pi controller.
In the three-phase grid-connected PV generation system, changes of outer-loop pi
control parameters hardly influence the maximum power transmission while those of
inner-loop pi control parameters have opposite influences, so in outer-loop control the
fixed-parameter pi controller is chosen and in inner loop control the fuzzy self-tunning
pi controller is chosen. The structure of fuzzy self-tunning pi controller is shown in
Fig. 5, where e is error, ec is error rate as shown in Eq. (13).
e − e pre
ec = (13)
Ts

Fig. 5. The structure of fuzzy self-tunning pi controller

e and ec are treated as the input of fuzzy controller, Δkp and Δki as the output of
fuzzy controller. The gain update process is described as

k p = k p' + Δk p
 (14)
ki = ki' + Δki
Where
 Application of a Fuzzy Self-tuning PI Controller 829

kp, ki is the final gain of fuzzy self-running pi controller

Δkp,Δki is the output of fuzzy controller
kp’, ki’ is the gain of fixed-parameter pi controller
The membership functions of e, ec, Δkp and Δki are given in fig. 6. The fuzzy grade
can be expressed as NB, NM, NS, ZE, PS, PM, PB, and the corresponding discrete
universe of discourse of e can be expressed as [-0.5Iref, -0.3Iref, -0. Iref, 0, 0.1Iref, 0.3Iref,
0.5Iref], and the discrete universe of discourse of ec is [-0.1, -0.06, -0.02, 0, 0.02,
0.06ei, 0.1]. Δkp and Δki change from -50%Δkp,i to 50%Δkp,i. Fuzzy rules are given in
table 1 and table 2. There are many defuzzification methods, and this paper chooses the
centroid method where the center of gravity is chosen as the final output [9,10].

Fig. 6. The membership function

Table 1. Fuzzy rules table of Δkp

Δ ec
kp NB NM NS ZO PS PM PB
e
NB PB PB PM PM PS ZO ZO
NM PB PB PM PS PS ZO NS
NS PM PM PM PS ZO NS NS
ZO PM PM PS ZO NS NM NM
PS PS PS ZO NS NS NM NM
PM PS ZO NS NM NM NM NB
PB ZO ZO NM NM NM NB NB

Table 2. Fuzzy rules table of Δki

Δ ec
ki NB NM NS ZO PS PM PB
e
NB PB PB PM PM PS ZO ZO
NM PB PB PM PS PS ZO NS
NS PM PM PM PS ZO NS NS
ZO PM PM PS ZO NS NM NM
PS PS PS ZO NS NS NM NM
PM PS ZO NS NM NM NM NB
PB ZO ZO NM NM NM NB NB
830 Z.-q. Yao, Q. Zhang, and X.-m. Liu

The control of pv inverter(VSI) is given in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 in detail, where

reference of reactive power is set to zero in order to realize the maximum power
transmission with unit power factor of the GCPS.

Fig. 7. Power controller

Fig. 8. Inner-loop current controller

5 Simulation Results
Because there are not pv array model and MPPT model in PSCAD/EMTDC master
library, a pv array is developed according to Eqs. (1)-(7) and a MPPT model is also
developed as descriped in section A. According to the proposed three-phase GCPS
structure as Fig. 2, a three-phase GCPS is simulated in PSCAD/EMTDC and the
simulation picture is shown in Fig. 9, where the pv array parameters are given in table
3, grid frequency is 50Hz, grid phase-to-phase voltage is 380V and carrier frequency is
7050kHz.
 Application of a Fuzzy Self-tuning PI Controller 831

Fig. 9. Simulation picture of the three-phase GCPS

Table 3. Pv array parameters

Shor circuit current 3.8A

Open circuit voltage 21.1V
Reference temperature 25℃
Short circuit temperature
coefficient
0.00063 / ℃
Energy gap 1.1 eV
Ideal factor 1.5
Series number of pv cell in pv
36
module
Number of pv module in
10
series
Number of pv module in
9
parallel
Vpmax,ref 17.1V
Ipmax,ref 3.5A

Fig. 10 shows the three-phase GCPS system responses under different control
methods when the solar irradiance changes from 1000w/m2 to 300w/m2 at the time of
2s, where Ppv is pv array output, Pinv is active power generation of inverter and Qinv is
ractive power generation of inverter. The maximum power of pv array is about 5300W
at the solar irradiance of 1000w/m2 and the temperature of 25℃, and that of pv array is
about 1500W at the solar irradiance of 300 w/m2 and the temperature of 25℃.
Fig. 11 shows current responses of the three-phase GCPS system under different
control methods when the solar irradiance changes from 1000w/m2 to 300w/m2 at the
time of 2s. The grid current at 300 w/m2 has great harmonic which leads current
waveform to be far away from sinusoidal waveform under the fixed-parameter PI
control method, while the grid current has a better sinusoidal waveform under the
fuzzy self-tunning PI control method than the former.
832 Z.-q. Yao, Q. Zhang, and X.-m. Liu

(a)response under fixed-parameter PI control

(b)response under fuzzy self-tunning PI control

Fig. 10. Three-phase GCPS system response for sudden change in solar irradiance
 Application of a Fuzzy Self-tuning PI Controller 833

(a) response under fixed-parameter PI control

(b)response under fuzzy self-tunning PI control

Fig. 11. Grid current response for sudden change in solar irradiance

6 Conclusion
In this paper a transformation in the synchronous d-q reference frame is introduced to
realize the control on active power and reactive power seperately, and incremental
conductance method can track the maximum power output of pv array. The fuzzy
self-tuning PI controller is used in inner-loop current control on VSI, which can
regulates paprameters of PI controller automatically according to changes of solar
irradiance. Through the comparison of simulation results between the traditional PI
controller and fuzzy self-tunning PI controller, it can be seen that the three-phase
GCPS with fuzzy selt-tunnng PI controller can receive better sinusoidal grid current.

Acknowledgment. The paper was supported by Natural Science Foundation of

Shandong Province (No.Y2008G14).
834 Z.-q. Yao, Q. Zhang, and X.-m. Liu

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