Remote Control of Power Fed to the Grid in a Small Distributed Generation System
Farhana S. Lina, M. T. Iqbal
Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland
ABSTRACT
The steadily growing share of converter connected
distributed generations have been receiving more
attention in the last few years because of their high
efficiency and superior reliability. This paper presents a
novel remote power control method of a small single
phase grid connected inverter using a DC-DC converter
and an ADR101 serial data acquisition card. Before grid
connection characteristics of the inverter are
programmed for a desired input DC voltage versus
output power. Input dc voltage of the inverter is
adjusted by controlling the DC-DC converter. A PC
receives the required output power signal from a
dispatch center via the Internet. The PC measures the
power being fed by the inverter to the grid and uses an
ADR101 to control the dc-dc converter to adjust the
power flow to the grid. This paper presents the control
scheme and test results of a 250W grid connected
inverter.
Index Terms— DC-DC converter, Grid-tie inverter,
distributed generation.
1. INTRODUCTION
World wide demand for electrical energy and fossil- fuel are
increasing. In Canada the demand is growing at an annual
rate of approximately 2.6%. In America the rate is about
2.4%, and in developing countries it is approximately 6%
[1]. How can these energy demands be met responsibly and
safely? Part of the solution is to increases use of distributed
generations (DG) such as wind turbine, micro-hydro,
photovoltaic systems etc.
Distributed power generations have many advantages.
For example, they can provide power to a remote location
without the need of transporting electricity through
transmission lines from a central plant, therefore, reducing
the power losses. They could also work to improve the load
profile, therefore, reducing on-peak charges [2].
Various technologies are available for DG, including
turbine generators, internal combustion engine/generators,
micro-turbines, photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, and fuel
cells. The application of those technologies to advanced
power generation systems portends the most significant
advancement in energy efficiency, conservation and
environmental protection for the next decade [3].
Distributed generation systems are connected to the grid
978-1-4244-3508-1/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE
using power electronics such as grid-tie inverters. Recently,
increased research efforts have been focused on both the
control and the topologies of grid-connected inverters. The
aim of this paper is to present a novel remote power control
method of a 250W single phase grid connected inverter
using a dc-dc converter and using an ADR101 serial data
acquisition card.
In section II the proto-type system DC-DC converter
configuration is illustrated; in section III grid-connected
inverter is presented, in section IV the remote power control
method is discussed; in section V the proposed power
control strategy is explained in detail; in section VI the
experimental setup is given and in section VII some results
are presented to show the performance of the proposed
control strategy.
2. DC-DC CONVERTER
Converter-connected DG systems may behave as a
controlled resistive impedance for harmonic voltage
components in the utility grid if a suitable control strategy is
implemented [4, 5, 6]. Converter-connected DG units can
also be implemented with a harmonic current compensation
function [7, 8]. If the polluting current of an adjacent
nonlinear load is measured and added to the control loop,
the power electronic converter is able to compensate for the
harmonic components of the nonlinear load [9]. In a
distributed power generations like a wind turbine, the output
power is controlled and conditioned by a high power DC-
DC converter, so that the electric characteristic of the DC-
DC converter should match that of the wind turbine. As the
result the DC-DC converter can be used to adjust power
output of a distribution generation system. Owing to the
above requirements, a DC-DC converter configuration and
control strategy should be different from those of the
conventional converter. In order to meet the system
operation requirements, a system needs to be interfaced
through a set of power electronic devices. The interface is
very important as it affects the operation of the DG system
as well as the power grid. In addition, different controllers
for the interfacing power electronics circuits in DG also
need to be designed for the overall system to improve its
performance and to meet certain operational requirements,
such as output voltage control, active power output control,
reactive power output control, peak-load shaving control,
etc. A DC-DC power converter, manufactured by VICOR
1008
ComPac is used in this work. This power converter supplies
power and provides a optimal power solution to meet the
voltage, noise, and transient protection input requirements
of commercial, industrial, military, and telecommunications
applications [10]. Its normal operating input voltage range is
21V to 32 V, 13 amps. The Master Disable input is optically
isolated and incorporates a reverse polarity protection diode.
It also has a single output and voltage trimming
arrangement. The converter rated output voltage is 48V and
the voltage trimming rage is ±10% of the rated output
voltage (48V to 52.8V).
Figure 1: Block diagram of the DC-DC converter
3. GRID CONNECTED INVERTER
Grid connected inverters have allowed the spread of
Distributed Generation (DG) [11] which consists of a great
number of small and medium generation systems. The
systems are connected to the distributed grid to feed a
dedicated consumer or to support the grid itself. It is
important to emphasize that the aforementioned alternative
energy sources generate electric power in a form that the
present power distribution grid cannot accept. Indeed,
sources such as photovoltaic cells or fuel cells supply DC
electric energy while the present distribution grid accepts
AC electric energy only. Therefore specific grid-connected
inverters are necessary for the DC to AC conversion. In
cases of wind power generation systems, a rectifier is used
to convert the AC voltage from wind turbine generators to
DC voltage. The frequency and amplitude of the AC voltage
from the wind turbine generators vary in time due to the
random nature of wind and therefore the grid connected
inverter is required. Figure 2 shows the system
configuration of a grid-connected generation system. The
generation system is connected to the grid by a DC-DC
power converter and a single phase DC-AC power [12]
inverter. The grid tie inverter is also connected with a dump
load and it has been used for braking power generation to
avoid inverter damage when power is not needed by the
grid. The dump load is automatically turned on when DC
input of the inverter is higher than 52V. As the inverter is
programmed for input voltage versus output power, it is
characterized so the installed power curve can be changed
and adjusted according to the installed wind turbine [13].
The communication is done via a hyper terminal through
1009
serial cable connected to the inverter. This requires some
calculations to change the steepness of the curve. The
steepness is expressed as a number of voltages per ampere.
DC-DCConverter Power Controlled Inverter
Diode rectifier
DC
Power Dump Load
Source
I L
Vcon
N
Iref
Controller
Figure 2: Grid connected inverter topology and control
4. REMOTE POWER CONTROL METHOD
The proposed remote power control system is PC based and
the input power fed by the inverter to the grid is controlled
by the control voltage (Vcon) using ADR101. Inverter output
current (I) is measured by a current transducer (Figure 2).
The output of the current transducer is sent to the analog
input of the data acquisition card ADR101. Subsequently,
the result of the ADR is a digital signal which is sent to the
digital to analog converter (DAC). The analog output of
DAC is connected to Vcon of DC-DC converter to be sent to
the grid in order to adjust the grid power. Output reference
current signal, Iref, comes from the Internet or existing data
files in PC and indicates the total power.
5. POWER CONTROL STRATEGY
The grid tie inverter converts the DC output power of the
DC-DC converter to AC power. The single phase bi-
directional watt-hour meter records the total generated
energy supplied to the grid. The meter is a solid-state,
single-phase residential electricity meter that provides
utilities with unparalleled digital accuracy, reliability,
serviceability and cost-effectiveness [14].
Current transducer (LTS 15-NP) is a closed loop multi
range (0 to ± 15 amps) current sensor which detects the
output primary current of the grid tie inverter and converts it
to analog output voltage Vout. Analog output voltage can be
calculated by using the following equation:
IP ………. (1).
V out = 2 .5 ± ( 0 .615 × )
I PN
Where, Vout=output voltage IP=primary current
measuring range and IPN=primary nominal rms current.
ADR 101 is a low cost serial data acquisition and
control interface device. This device has two analog inputs
(0-5VDC) and 8 digital I/O lines individually programmed
as output. ADR101 can be easily used with Qbasic and
TURBO C programs [15]. The analog input voltage Vout of 6. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
ADR is adjusted by a Qbasic control algorithm.
Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), AD558 consists of
Based on the block diagram discussed above, the
four major functional blocks, fabricated on a single experimental setup for this study was setup as shown in
monolithic chip. Figure 3 shows the functional block figure 5.
diagram and connection diagram of the DAC. The main D-
to-A converter section uses eight equally-weighted laser- The control voltage was calculated according to
trimmed current sources switched into a silicon-chromium equation (2).
thin-film R/2R resistor ladder network to give a direct but
unbuffered 0 mV to 400 mV output range. The transistors Decimal output ………….. (2).
Vcon = Vin ×
that form the DAC switches are PNPs; this allows direct 255
positive-voltage logic interface and a zero-based output Where, Vcon=control voltage, Vin=input voltage, Decimal
range. The high speed output buffer amplifier is operated in Output=outputs from the ADR101 data acquisition card,
the non inverting mode with gain determined by the user- 255 is a constant value for the card.
connections at the output range select pin. The gain-setting
application resistors are thin-film laser-trimmed to match
and track the DAC resistors and to assure precise initial
calibration of the two output ranges, 0 V to 2.56 V and 0 V
to 10 V. All reference, output amplifier and logic
connections are made internally. As the controlled voltage,
Vcon range is 0 to 5 volts, the 0 to 10 volts output range has
been chosen with required power supply of +11.4 V to
+16.5 V. A 0-10 V output range requires a power supply of
+11.4 V to +16.5 V.

Figure 5: Circuit diagram of the proposed System

Power curve adjustment:

Figure 3: DAC functional block diagram and 0-10 V Start-up voltage=24 V DC (representing a DG system)
output range connection diagram Power fed to the grid at 51V output is 180 W
Difference between start till end voltage=(51-24)=27 V
The TCP/IP link is used to access an ADR card on a Current at 180 W at 51 V DC=3.5 A
remote computer. The client program (ADRSockclient is the The steepness of the curve=27 V/3.5 A=7.7 V/A
client that runs on the remote computer) accepts a command Control was implemented in Qbasic.
parameter, transmits it across the network to the server A flow chart of control code is showed in figure 6 it is
program (ADRSocSrv is the server that runs on the basically a proportional controller.
computer hooked up to the ADR card) which issues it to the
ADR card.
The control block diagram of the proposed remote
power control system is shown in figure 4.
9 V to 12 V 5V

SERVER

ADR101 DC/DC
TCP/IP Converter Grid Tie Inverter
CLIENT (Analog/
AD558 (model no: (Type:
Digital/ UWT-I-250 ST-KIT) Kilo-Watt
RS232 (Complete VI-MCW4-CU)
Vin DC: 24-54V Meter
RS232 Interface) 8 bit DAC) Vin: 24V,13 A Output to the grid
Vout: 48 max:250 watt
v,200W

A1 A0
Phase current, I

24 V

Current
Centron Single Transducer
(LTS 15-NP)
phase bi-
directional
Grid
Watt-hour
Meter
(Type: C1S)

Figure 4: Block diagram of proposed system Figure 6: Flow chart of the control code

1010
 7. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The proposed remote power control system is PC based and
the input power fed by the inverter to the grid is controlled
by the controlled voltage (Vcon) using ADR101. Table 1
summarizes the experimental results. It shows that when the
control voltage is 0 the DC-DC converter output voltage is
44.1 V and there is no power supplied to the grid. With the
increase of control voltage to 3.11 V, the output voltages
increase to 49.9 V and power generated to the grid is 51 W.
And similarly for 4.66 V control voltage output is 52.9 V
and power to the grid is 87 W.
TABLE 1: Experimental results
Ref. Vcon DC-DC Inverter output
Power (V) Converter to grid (W)
(W) Output (V)
0 0 44.1 0 [6] N. Pogaku, and T.C. Green, Harmonic mitigation throughout a
60 3.11 49.9 51
90 4.66 52.9 87
The result shows that the proposed simple power control
methodology is working to control the output power fed by
the inverter to grid. The algorithm can be easily customized
based on the requirements. This system offers a low cost
control system for remote generations. Lab test are still
ongoing to incorporate the proposed methodology for power
control over the internet.
8. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents a novel remote control technique of a
small grid-connected inverter. The results show that the
output voltage of DC-DC converter is increased with the
increase of control voltage. The proposed system has
presented good performance and capability for remote
power control of a small grid connected inverter. The
illustrated technique is also capable of remotely monitoring
the system performance of the grid tie inverter and power
control via the Internet from a dispatch center. A successful
implementation of this system can be used to control
remotely located distributed power generation system.
9. ACKNOWLADGEMENT
This research is supported by the Atlantic Innovation Fund
Canada and Memorial University of Newfoundland.
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