An FPGA Hardware-in-the-Loop Approach for Comprehensive Analysis and Development of Grid-Connected VSI System

Power electronic converters are used for an efficient and controlled conversion of power generated from renewable energy sources and can interface generated power to the grid. Among available power converters, voltage source inverters (VSIs) have been widely employed for grid-connected applications due to better controllability with higher efficiency. Although various conventional, as well as modern control techniques, have been developed for grid connected VSI system, there is a need to select suitable control technique based on application and control requirements. Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) is considered as a realistic approach for the development of system and control due to the inclusion of an actual hardware system. In this paper, a HIL approach is adopted for the comprehensive analysis and development of a grid connected VSI system using a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The control techniques must deal with trade-off, based on the features and limitations. Therefore, a grid-connected VSI system is developed considering employment of two different conventional control techniques: hysteresis current control (HCC) and PI-based space vector modulation (PI-SVM), as well as finite state model predictive control (FS-MPC) as a modern control technique for investigation considering different parameters. All three control systems are developed through a digital simulator of Xilinx that is integrated with MATLAB-Simulink, while considering an FPGA based system development and testing through FPGA HIL co-simulation methodology.