A New Approach Based on Flatness Control to
Improve Reliability of Parallel Connected Inverters
A. Shahin, Senoir Member, IEEE,
S. Eskander
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering- Mansoura University
Mansoura, Egypt
ahmed.shahin@univ-lorraine.fr
Abstract— In this paper, a global study in terms of control
architecture is applied to parallel voltage-source inverters
topology with common DC bus under healthy and faulty
operation mode, which represents very interesting
advantages for industrial applications. By paralleling several
units, the power supply system is able to meet high power
requirements and the possibility of maintenance during the
operation without interruptible supply operation. However,
a special precaution is required for such parallel systems to
avoid the negative effect of the circulating currents in such
configuration, caused essentially by the asynchronous
switching operations of the Pulse Width Modulations
(PWM) specified to each unit or existence of faults or
unbalanced conditions during the operation. To deal with
this crucial problem, a one loop with high bandwidth and
low voltage THD controller based on the flatness technique
is proposed to a non-isolated power supply composed by N
units. The objective of proposed controller is to take some
advantages of the flat proprieties in both healthy and faulty
mode of any inverter in the parallel system, to ensure
reliable operation and to ensure both reduction of the
circulating currents and high power quality at the Point of
Common Coupling (PCC). The algorithm is theoretically
analyzed with the proposed control method and validated by
the experimental results.
Index Terms— Flatness Control, Parallel Inverters, Power
Sharing, Circulating Currents, Power Balancing.
I. INTRODUCTION
The parallel connection of three phase inverters is
used to increase the system capacity and it is a well
known solution for large inverter systems when the
capacities of switching devices are limited or constrained
by economic considerations [1]. Parallelism could be
crucial in systems with high reliability requirements, such
as machine drive systems [2], rectifiers [3], and
distributed generation systems [4]. Paralleling of inverters
allows a reduction of the components size, especially the
inductive ones. By segmenting the total power among the
parallel inverters, the global efficiency become better and
the stress of the individual inverter can be reduced, then,
the number of inverters in parallel in terms of reliability
and cost optimization can be achieved [5], [6]. However,
the major concern for parallel operation is the circulating
currents in the conduction paths resulting at the common
connection of the DC/AC terminals of each inverter
which can occur during healthy and faulty mode. A
978-l-4673-7151-3/15/$31.00 ©2015 European Union 5546
H. Moussa, J.-P. Martin, B. Nahid-Mobarakeh,
Senoir Member, IEEE, S. Pierfederici.
GREEN - ENSEM
University of Lorraine,
Nancy, France
serge.pierfederici@univ-lorraine.fr
definition of the phenomenon is detailed in [7]-[10] and it
is found that the circulating currents consist of not only
the zero-sequence circulating currents, but also the
nonzero-sequence circulating currents. Commonly, it is
proven that the circulating currents are essentially
generated from the difference of the switching operation
associated with the individual units or when one or more
units are in faulty mode. Commonly, the advised
solutions in the literature are based on the modification of
the pulse width modulation operation [11]. Beside these
solutions, some other works propose the association of the
modified switching techniques with physical solutions
[12]. This paper proposes a new control method based on
differential flatness control technique for non-isolated
power supply composed of N parallel inverters with LC
output filter. The main interest of this control method is
the possibility to define the behavior of the state variables
system in the steady state as well as in transients for both
DC and AC applications. The flatness technique enables
the highest dynamic response, [13], [14]. The proposed
control method enable a reliable operation of the parallel
system when one or more inverters of the parallel system
are in faulty mode based on some advantages of the flat
proprieties to ensure reliable operation and to ensure both
reduction of the circulating currents and high power
quality at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC).
Furthermore, the flatness property allows knowing the
behavior of the state variables of the system undergone
the study by knowing the instantaneous behavior of the
planned flat outputs by which the system is proven to be
flat [15], [16].
II. S T R U C T U R E D E S C R I P T I O N AND M O D E L I N G
Fig. 1 (at the last page) shows a typical configuration
of n-parallel three-phase inverters connected to the load
by an LC filter and connected to the power supply by the
input filter. The system consists of n-parallel boost
inverters with one input capacitor and one LC output
filter. The common point at the output filter represents
also the conduction path of the circulating current
between the parallel inverters. The sums of the currents
drawn by the load are equal to zero. Also, sums of the line
currents and the AC-capacitive currents are null, as
defined by (1) and (2):
+ Uh + ii. О (1)
 Lk=i(iak + Ì-Ък + lek — 0) (2)
Then the sum of the capacitive currents is zero and the
sum of the capacitive voltage is constant. For the given
system, the initial value of the three capacitive voltages is
zero and the zero sequence voltage is always zero.
Regarding (2), the sum of the homopolar components is
null, i.e. Efc=i 'ofc = O' s o > m e s t a t e variables related to
the line currents can be reduced by one for each unit and
the homopolar current component of the first inverter can
be give as t 01 = — X"=2'ok- I n order to establish the
control laws in the continuous domain, the parallel
voltage-source inverters model is transformed from the
three-phase static frame into a synchronous Park frame
— (Vcd\ = ( ° (i>\(vcd\ j_(Yk=iidk\ _j_/kd
at\VcJ~ \-ы 0)\Vcq) cf\Z^=1iqk) cf\iLqj
(3)
Then, the model of output currents for each inverter in
the parallel system may exist and the implementation of
the control law does not use inductive current
measurements. The dq components of the output currents
of the first inverter and the inductive currents of the
remaining modules K' , with к £ {2, ..., n}, can be written
as following:
d~t(idql) =
\^ zlij{0+TAvq])~T1\vcJ (4)
where, the values Vok, Vdk and Vqk are the controlling
voltages of (n-1) inverter.
III. CONVERTER CONTROL STRATEGY
In this section, a one-loop flatness-based controller
(FBC) is presented for the parallel system of n inverters.
In fact, the behavior of the system of state variables can
be planned thanks to given reference trajectories. For the
control of differential flat systems, one concentrates on
generating feasible trajectories rather than trying to force
the system trajectory to converge toward a given
operating point. The proposed control method of the
system undergone the study relies on the electrostatic
energy loop which allows controlling the output voltage
of a three-phase voltage network. The electromagnetic
energies of the output inductances are negligible
compared with the electrostatic energies. Some properties
and advantages of the Flatness-Based approaches and
their applications as a control system are detailed in [15].
5547
A. Introduction to Flatness Control System
The concept of flat systems was introduced by Fliess
et al. [13] using the formalism of differential algebra. If
the system has a state xe R", and an input MG Rm, then the
system is flat if an output y<= Rm can be found in the form
given by (6). One major advantage of the differential
flatness system is that, due to (6), the system state and
input variables can be directly expressed, without
integrating any differential equation in terms of the flat
outputs and their derivatives [13].
=
'y ф(х,и,й,..., u®)
* = ФЬ'У- ■■■*У(Г)) (6)
ji = ip{y,y, ...,y(r+V)
with rank(0) = m, rank(c>) = n and rank(i/0 = m.
B. Flatness Control System
It is proposed to control the dq electrostatic energies
stored in the capacitances of the output LC filter. In fact,
this choice should lead to a better dynamical behavior
regardless the load perturbations when the three-phase
inverter supplies constant power load systems. To meet
the control objectives, we define the flat outputs as the
energy and the currents errors. According to the control
objectives, we propose to define the candidate flat outputs
vector у as follow: у = \yc,yzk\", as given by (7), where
the first flat output component y c = [у^,У ч ] с represents
the electrostatic energy stored in the AC capacitor of the
output LC filter as given by (8) which represents the
candidate flat output vector as a function of y c = фус(х).
The system state vector is x = \Vcd, Vcq\ , where у and yc
in regarding the voltages sign are defined by:
Ьс Уz (7)
-£H'
I' sign(Vcd)V?d
byC{x) (8)
\sign(Vcq)Vcq
The second flat output vector yzk is given as
following: yzk = [yzok.yzdk.yzqkf which represent the
current errors referred to the first inverter in this
application, this flat vector have to be zero for the healthy
operation mode of the parallel system, but it can be used
to detect the faults of the parallel system when one or
more inverters are disconnected under normal or faulty
mode according to its measured value which can be
indicator for the faulty inverter.
The current error vector is used to minimize the
circulating current between the parallel system and to
balance the currents (consequently the powers) between
the first inverter and a kth inverter, with yzk £ R3V к Ф
i, к = {n\i}\ (in this case г=1),where:
VzokX1 /W f hk \ <-.
Vzk Угйк 1 = idi ~ idk 1 = 4>yzk(.x)
Vzqk/ vw ^ l-qi—l-qk '
(9)
 С. Model of Control for Healthy System Ф&а&е.УсУсУА.УА)
(13)
The control of yc to its planed reference as detailed Ч>сиЛУс,Ус,Ус,Ухк,Ухк)
later will provide voltage regulation of the AC voltages of
the capacitive bus. The control of yzk to their respective d ó
references will ensure the control of the circulating dk
current and the distribution of load power between the Ttìldkl
' ąk \,<Рй1а^Ус.Ус.УсУгк,%к) - Żąk,
parallel modules. Derivatives of the voltage vector
( 4>diBk№ \
[Vcd, Vcq\ can be expressed as a function of the flat output <Ршт(Ус,Ус.%,Угк,Угк) (14)
vector, as following:
\<Ра1ч1(Ус-Ус,Ус,У2к,Угк))

£ (Vcd\ /0 w\ <Pvcd(ya)\ j _ I (Lj=i

Lj=i_ldj
Lq
(10)
The currents \idl, i„A can be expressed as a function of
both the first flat output vector of energy yc = \Уа,Уа\1
and its derivative yc and the second flat output vector for
current error vector yzk = \у20к,Угйк,Угак\1 ■
If the first inverter is considered as the reference
inverter, the expression of the current is defined by (11),
with к Ф i, к = {n\i} .
The input control vector u—^vdl,vql,
Vqk] 'which represents the voltage of each inverter can be
found by using the currents expression given by (11), the
line currents \idi,iqi) of the reference inverter (the first
one) and their respective derivatives given by (13), both
are found as function of the candidate flat output vector
and by substituting in (4), the input control vector of the
reference inverter is given by (15). Applying the same
analysis, the input control vector of the (n-1) remaining
inverters using (5) and the derivatives of line currents
hdqk g l v e n by (14) is given by (16):

i (sign(yd) Уа/рУа/Cf + 2fc=2 zdk + lLd

" \ SÌgn(yq)yq/^2yq/Cf + Efc=2 Zqk + hq
(Vdi\ _ . (<Р<илЛ
\Vqi) - Ll \<PdiJ
LA 2)tó) + (0
V \ (sign(ya)j2yją\ _ (ефсУсУ2к) Фум(Ус,УсУсУгк,Угк)
(15)
-4ZL o \sign(yq)j2y~7Cf <Р1ЧХУСУС,У zk) 4>Уа1(УсУсУс,Угк,Угк)
(11)
The expression of the line current ioaqk, к E {2,..,n} /Vdi^x L
Г-г л
k
which represents the remaining inverters currents can be 1к ФШлк - Lk 0 <Piak
derived using (9) and by substituting from (11) for the XVdiJ '-•к \Ч>:ąk>
currents (idi, iqij which are found as function of the -w —
candidate flat output vector у = [УсУгк]1 and the
derivative of the energy vector yc as given by (12). The
current derivatives of the reference inverter can be + \ìPvcd = ФуЛ1с(Ус.Ус,%,Ул,Угк) (16)
obtained by (13) using (11) and the voltage derivatives XP*,,) \4>VqK(yc,yc,yc,yZk,yZk);
given by (10). The derivatives of the remaining line
currents i0dqk; is given by (14): D. Model of Control for Faulty System Conditions
If one or more than one inverter of the parallel system
<Piokb>zk) are disconnected under normal or faulty conditions
(РыЛУсУсУж) ■ Ч>1йк{УсУсУгк) | (12) (including the reference one), the previous analysis is
%kJ \еч±{У<;УсУх)-гЧк) \<PiJyc,ycyzk) always valid and the system order will be reduced
according to the number of the operating inverters. The
states vector* given by (6) will be reduced by 2f, where /
à_àdi\
is the number of the faulty unit (i.e. x*= R" for the line
it Vail
currents state vector) and the input vector и will be
I (щпЩУа sign(yd)yd Iy . reduced by 3f (i.e. и е Rm~ ' for the input control vector).
ù)CfVcq
The current expression given by (11) assuming that the
first inverter is considered as the reference one, will be
sign{yq)yq sign(yq)yq referred to other inverter by example the second when the
'щ ~ 'ŁIJ ~ uCfVcd first one is fully disconnected and consequently (9) will
\ be referred to the new reference inverter. When one
inverter or more of the parallel system is disconnected,
V d
\ //у. . ^ the current error vector between the reference inverter and
Zik+ ki
L 7t о <л\
that faulty inverter \zdk qk )-
l
k=2 dk, zqk L

d -<л O'
V- which assumed to be zero in normal case, becomes equal
\ \fe> \\и
) ki ~ 1щ * °>CfVcd
I) to the reference inverter currents (i.e. zdk = idi,zqk = iqi ).

5548
 In the case of a healthy or a faulty mode of the parallel
system of any unit, the current expression (11) and its
derivative (13) always can be verified and the current
balance exists; the left and right hand side of the
expression are balanced for any value of z& and zqi under
both operation mode and the number of the parallel units
n. Thus, the flatness conditions are verified for the normal
or reduced state and the input vector with the candidate
flat output vector у = [yc,yzjc]£, regarding the new vector
yzk, which is associated with the input control vector;
u = [Vdi,Vqi,-Vok,Vuk, VąkY for the purposes of
controlling the output voltage and regulation of the
circulating currents between the parallel units, with the
proposition that the measured variables follow perfectly
their respective references. Knowing that the references of
the flat output component yc are calculated as following:
dVdc
(21)
Lk=lVdkldk + Vqklqk)
va
E. Control Law and Linearization
From the previous analysis as proved by the relations
(10)-(19), the dynamical system described by (3) and (4)
can be considered as a flat system according to the
definition of the flat system given by (6). To ensure the
control of both trajectories of the energy yc and current
error yzk to their respective reference trajectories ycref
and yzkref for healthy or faulty mode; a technical input-
output linearization is used for expressing the derivative
of the flat output components у = [УсУгкУ- Firstly, this
technique consists in introducing a fictitious control
variable yc = [YdiYqY f° r m e energy output vector, these
control laws are given in the following forms such that:

C/d_ref\ с "ref (Уа = Yd

/c_ref (17) (22)
\yą_ref) V2 ЬЧ = Yq
These control laws are deduced from (23) and (24)
where Vcdref = Vcqref = Vrmsy[T/2 and Vrms represents
which allow an asymptotic convergence and minimizing
RMS value of the voltage reference of the output filter, the error to zero between the measured trajectories for
where the references of the flat output component yzkref both energy and current error vectors referred to their
are forced to be null for the healthy mode to minimize the respective reference trajectories. Applying any stable
circulating currents; zokref = zdkref = zqkref 0, dynamic to yc = [Yd,YqY leads to tracking convergence,
where the load currents and power is equally shared to ensure that energy vector yc = \Ус1,Уа\1 follows its
between the parallel units. But under normally or faulty reference trajectories yc rej- = \yd ref,yq гег]( and for the
disconnection of any inverter, its respective currents idj calculation of the fictitious control variables. Two given
and iąf becomes zero; where / is the number of the faulty control laws of order three are associated with the
unit. Then, both concerning flat output components components of the energy vector y c as following:
[zdf ref> zqf ref] between that/these disconnected inverters
and the reference one and their respective derivatives are
no more zero. According to (12) and (14), these flat (Uef - Yd) + fell {Kef - У a) + fe12 {VOref ~ И») +
output components concerning that/these disconnected fei3 S(ya_ref - Уа) dT = 0 (23)
inverters will equal the respective dq currents of the
reference inverter and their values will be an indication as (yqref - Yq) + fcll (Kef ~ ft) + k ^ {v^ref ~ У«) +
fault detector for that/these disconnected inverters.
Aia S(yą_ref - Уа) dr = Q (24)
The last step to rule on the flatness of the studied
system is the formulation of the input vector и = [Vdi, The integral term is introduced to ensure a zero static
Vqv ■■■ Voki Vdk> VqkY a s a function of the references of the
error in the steady state and compensate the effects
t
candidate flat output yref = [yc ref, yzk ref] , and their introduced to the controller by errors of modeling. A
respective derivatives. The input control variable vector fictitious control variable Yzk = [Yzok'Yzdk'Yzqk Y c a n b e
which are deduced from relations (15), (16) and (17), can found and expressed by the same way for the energy
be rewritten in form of input vector и of (6) as following: vector and applied to current error vector such that:

(Vdi\ _ l^Vdl\ycref.ycrl,rycrer'yzkref.yzkref)\ YzOk

Vqi Yzk Yzdk vfc Ф i, к e {n\i} (25)
^ ' VPvqi(yc_ref Ус ref ■Ус ref Vzkref Szkref))
Zqk Yzqk

'rvok (yzkj-ef- Vzk_ref)
TpVdK(yc_ref.ycreryc_ref.yzk_ref.yzk_ref) I (19)
iqk)
v r VqK [ У с г е р Vcjref • 9c_refi У т.к. ref < Vzkjref ) I
The dynamic behavior of the input DC voltage and
input current can be investigated thanks to the following
differential equations with the hypothesis that, variations
of the DC voltage are compensated by the controllers:
Vin = L ^ + rLiL + VD
To ensure that the current error vector yzk =
[yzok.yzdk.yzqkf follows its planed reference yzkref as
indicated in section D, which is assumes to be zero in the
normal case for the given conditions and equals to the
currents of the reference unit in the abnormal case, laws
of the second order are associated with the components of
the vector yzk, the current error control law becomes:
(yzkref - Yzk) + k21 (yzkref - Vz) +
(20) "•22 ref ■ yzk) dT = 0 (26)

5549
 To simplify (23), (24) and (26), a variable £ is moreover, such a formulation allows respecting the
introduced by (27) and (28) to express the difference conditions of the flat output derivatives at initial time and
between flat output vector у = [yc,yZfc]£, their respective in steady state. In fact, at these instants, these derivative
reference components, their derivatives and the control values have to be zero. So, a new reference trajectory of
1
vector Yc = [Yd,YqY- the flat output vector yref , — [УсгеГГУ2гегГ\ is planed
with the aid of second order filter becomes:
£
Ус "*" 11 ^Ус "*" 12^УС "*" "-13£yc =
0 (2')

T T
1 - е ic -e ic j {Ус_геГ
£yz + k21eyz + k22£yz = 0 (28) efj \

Ycjnit) + Ycjnit (34)

where : еУс = ycref - yc and eyzk = yzkref - yzk.

To determine values of the gains of (27) and (28), an ^zk_rer_f

1-е T
*> T^e 4/ ){yzk_rer
optimum choice is obtained by matching these gains to a
characteristic polynomial pis) as indicated by (29) to get Yzkjnit) + VzkjTiit (35)
the desired prespecified root locations as following:
where t and tinitc/j represent the time and initial time
Vis) = is + Vi)is2 + 2. f. шп. s + o>l) (29) for both reference trajectories respectively and т 1с , т2у are
the time constants of the planed reference trajectories for
By comparing the control law given by both (27) and the electrostatic energy and current error.
(28) with the characteristic polynomial pis) indicated by
(29), therefore, the gains associated with the control laws IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
are defined by:
To validate the proposed control method, a model
'fc n = 2.ĘC .ù) v + Pi based on Simulink/MatLab has been performed, two
Ус
^ 1 2 = 2.ĘC Ус Pi + < (30) parallel inverters system are considered (i.e. n=2). In this
simulation, the parameters are identical to those used for
.^13 = Pyc- < the experimental validations given in Section V. The
system parameters and the control gains associated with
^ 2 1 = 2.ĘZ. Щ, the energy and current error trajectories are given in table
(31)
\k? I. The schematic diagram of the proposed system is given
in Fig. 2, by which the two inverters can regulate the
The operating point of the proposed control method is output voltage for the capacitive bus and share the power
stable for the given gains; k11,k12,k13,k21,k22 > 0. The between the system for healthy and faulty operation
dynamics of the system will be fixed by the control modes for any inverter of the parallel system. Fig. 3 (a)
coefficients associated with the control laws, their values and (b) show respectively the behavior of the electrostatic
are given in Table I. It is possible to get the formulation energies yd and yq and the output voltages Vcd and Vcq
of the input vector и = [Vdi, Vqi,... Vok, Vdk, VqkY as a components of the output LC filter for a step of output
function of the candidate flat output components and their voltage from 110V to 135V, these components follow
derivatives, after the I/O linearization described by the perfectly their respective references with the proposed
control variable deduced from relations (18) to (28), then, control strategy and the given dynamics parameters and
the vector и can be rewritten as indicated by (32) and (33) the time constant (x lc ) listed in Table I for the energy
as a function of the flat output vectors yc rep yzk rep their reference trajectory filter. Fig. 4 shows the power sharing
derivatives and the given fictitious vectors yc and yzk, as behavior between the first and second inverter which are
proven that the system is flat under the following form: identical for a healthy system without no faults, as
indicated by the zone normal ZN, the load power PL is
equally divided to P/ and P2 at PCC of the output
capacitive bus between the two inverters for a given load
(Э
Vdi\ (rVdi {ycj-efjcj-eft Ycjzkj-ef- Yzk)
(32) of 2.5kW. If there is a fault was detected by example in
W \Wvqì[yc_ref.yc_ref' Yc.Yzkj-ef' Yzk)
the second inverter at t=ti, the master inverter ( in this
case, the first one) continues supplying the load power
YVak \yzk_refi Yzk) during the faulty zone; ZF1, at t=t2, the fault of the second
WvdK\}'c_ref'}'c_ref,Yc,yzk_ref-Yzk) (33) inverter was cleared, and restarted to reshare the load
'qk, power with the first inverter in ZN, this operation mode
\ФуаК\У c_ref У c_ref ycVzkjref 'Yzk) /
will be repeated for the first inverter during the faulty
mode in ZF2. As given by (9), the current partition
F. Reference-Trajectory Definition for Control
(consequently, the power sharing) is set to 50% for each
To planify the desired trajectory of the flat output inverter in the normal operation. The behavior of this
vector у = (yc,yZfe]c; consequently, their sub-respective configuration of operation is indicated by Fig. 5 which
components as given by (7) and (9), to their given shows the behavior of the current error corresponding to
respective references, a low-pass second-order filter is the power sharing between the two inverters during the
used which allows limiting the power during transient healthy and faulty mode, where the current error is zero
state due to variations of the voltage reference Vrms and
5550
for the healthy mode and equal the current of the
operating inverter during the faulty mode as given by (9).
Fig. 6 shows the behavior of electrostatic energies ■»
, Уа ,er
tL
Y q rcf
_
components yd and yq of the capacitive bus of output LC
filter during healthy and faulty mode of the system for the
given values of yrfr=500V, Vrms =110V and the load power
of 2.5kW. There are some perturbations about 13% of the
steady state value at the moment where the first or second 00 0.01 002 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
(a) time [s]
inverter was disconnected, when the fault was cleared and
140
reconnected to the common bus, the perturbation is about 12»
1.4%, elsewhere, the output energy follow their respective ~100
references. Fig. 7 shows the behavior of Vcd and Vcq and
three phase voltage components Vca, Vcb and Va of the
capacitive bus of output LC filter during healthy and
faulty mode of the system for the same given load О 20
conditions, elsewhere the perturbation of the output
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
voltages, the trajectories follow perfectly their respective (b) time [s]
planed references by the controller and the three phase Fig. 3. Behavior of electrostatic energies (a) yd and yq (b); Vc0, Vcd and
voltages are pure sine wave. The perturbations of the Vcq components of capacitive bus of output LC filter from start-up to a
output energies or the output voltages situate at the step of output voltage V,„ at f=.05s from 110V to 135V ( V ^ O O V ,
P,„«F2.5kW).
commutation time of the disconnected inverter and results
from the electromagnetic energy of the line inductances.

TABLE I
SYSTEM PARAMETERS

DC side line inductances L=400u_H, rL=0.02Q

Output AC filter inductances Li=L2= L3=3.4mH, r,=r2=0.1Q.
DC bus capacitance Cdc=1100fiF O.Ò4 0.O6
Output filter capacitance Cf =40fiF time [s]
AC output voltages 110V-60HZ Fig. 4. Load power sharing between parallel inverters for a load of
DC input voltages 500V 2.5kW during healthy and faulty operation mode for each inverter
Switching frequency fsw=15kHz (V*=500V. V„, =110V).
Energy trajectory dynamics Ęc = 0.7,ù)yc = SQ00rad/s,
py = 6000 rad/s ^ T I ZF2 ZN i ZFI
Current errors trajectory dynamics Ęz = 0.7, w vz = 7000rad/s,
Time constant of energy reference 1ms
trajectory filter, (т 1с )
Time constant of current error 10ms
reference trajectory filter, (r2/-)
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
(a) time [sj (b) time [s]
Fig. 5. Behavior of current error during healthy and faulty mode of the
system ( V ^ O O V , V^ =110V, Phad=2.5kW).

=
R=F

0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.OS 0.1 0.12
(a) time [s] (b) time [s]
Fig. 6. Behavior of electrostatic energies yd; (a) and yq (b); components
Case( yes): of capacitive bus of output LC filter during healthy and faulty mode of
i = 2, Zfc,a=0, Zif=in, Zql=iq2. the system (Vdc=500V, Vrms =110V, Phad=2.5kW).

Case( no): Voltage | V]

i=l, ZyfO, Ztn=i<ib Zqi=iqi- ~fc—' hr~
(H),(12)&
Control laws (26)
(13), (14)

' i: reference inverter,

0
f: faulty inverter number. O 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 901 ОС) -200 О ю 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
time fms] time [ms]
Fig. 7. Behavior of Vcd and Vcq\ (a) and three phases (b); voltage
components of capacitive bus of output LC filter during healthy and
Fig. 2. Operational diagram of proposed control method for n-parallel
faulty mode of the system (Vrfc=500V, V^ =110V, Р1оаа=2.5Ш).
inverters system with circulating current and balancing method.

5551
 V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS These figures show the efficiency of the proposed
control method which is based on flatness theory, the
To verify the validity of the proposed control method, balancing system is efficient and has to be used to balance
experiments are performed on a 5-kW work bench the currents and powers between the inverters, also, these
consists of two parallel inverters structure as shown in results show that the balancing system is efficient during
Fig. 1 with the parameters listed in Table I. Fig. 8 shows transient state.
the load voltages for a 3.2-kW balanced resistive load.
The reported voltage THD is equal to 1.8% for the FBC. ^** ydref
* * L
Fig. 9 shows the behavior of dq energies and voltages ^ " là
vd v dref
components of the output filter after a step variation of the -«-0 -4-0
voltage reference from 55 to 110 V with a load power set
^ yqref
to 3.2 kW in steady state (resistive load), the measured —-^Г7v q
values follow perfectly their respective references. Fig. _y>— v,« f
10. (a) shows the experimental results of the energies
output flat components; yd, yq, which perfectly follow
-«-0
(a)
200 mj/div
4 [ms]/div
r° 52V/div
(b)
their respective references during step variations of Vrms Fig.9. dq energies; (a) and voltages; (b) of the output filter for step of
from 120 to 80V and then again to 120V. Fig. 10. (b) RMS value of voltage reference from 55V to 110V with a 3.2kW
balanced resistive load.
shows the behavior of supplied power; Pj, P2, by every
inverter at PCC and the losses PIOSSJ and P[ms2 for a faulted
ydref

ц
system by adding 1.5Q per phase for the second inverter, kJd
this resistance artificially represents a fault for the second Vd
^P1
■—"*4fc
«-0 ^\P2 2000W/div'
inverter, the load power at the PCC is divided equally
between the two inverters by the current error controller. Yqref
- Ploss2
But the second inverter exhibits more losses than the first <
one a cause of fault. With the unbalancing conditions by
adding 1.5Q per phase for the second inverter, Fig. 11(a), Ь Уч
200 mj/div
40 [ms]7div
T^
-^-~*^
~^Pl„ss,
(b)
500W /div

(b) and (c) show the waveforms of the currents idl, ia2 Fig. 10. (a) Experimental results during step variations of output flat
and iql, iq2 and ial, ia2 and their respective difference, components after step variation of Vma from 120 to 80V and then again
which equals to zero under the current error control to 120V. (b) Corresponding behavior of supplied power by every
inverter at Point of Common Coupling; Pi, P2, losses Piossi and PiOSS2
method which emphasizes minimizing of the circulating
with 1.5П unbalancing resistance per phase of second inverter.
currents under resistive balanced load of 3.2 kW. These
figures show that the balancing system is efficient and has ' r
:
to be used to balance the currents and powers between the .^ idi
inverters, also, these results show that the balancing лг
-«-0 +-0 Ł-- v
system is efficient during transient state. If the current *S- Ìd2
-nri-ts^-f-1 "•
error controller is switched off, the currents between the -«-0
two inverters are unbalanced and the healthy inverter ON ^ 41*42 ON I VV
carries more current than the second one. So, there is a 5 A/div L „ ...........,...!... .5 A/div
circulating current between the system units as shown in (a) 4 [ms]/div (b)
Fig. 11(d). So, the output powers at PCC are not balanced
and the losses of each unit. The behavior of experimental
results of power Pj, P2 and the power sharing ratio; ah a2
between the two inverters are shown in Fig. 12 (a); when
the current error controller is switched off at t=tj, under
the fault mode by adding 1.5Q per phase for the second
inverter. The healthy inverter carries more power more
than the faulty on. The current error z d , zq are shown in 5 A/div
Fig. 12(b) when the second inverter is switched off and (c) 4[ms]/div (d)
the load power fully loaded upon the first inverter, the Fig. 11. Experimental results of; (a) idi, h, (b) iqi,iq2, (с) and (d) iai,ia2,
system can be alerted faults or disconnection of any unit and their respective differences for current error controller ON/OFF;
under resistive balanced load, 3.2 kW.
by the value z d , z q if they exceed a certain threshold value
given by the system characteristics.
Pi. HH»t*.y.Wv».»W.W««»l»<

-0 Ą v, 2000W /div
Switdl off

и щшь—цфещанящ
1/div
t=t,
5A /div
(a) time [400 ms] /div (b) time [200 ms] /div
Fig. 12. (a) Experimental results of power Pj and P2 under resistive
time 2 [ms]/div 50V/div balanced load of 3.2 kW when current error switched off, (b) Behavior
Fig.8. Load voltages for RMS reference voltage value equal to 110V of measured current error vector y# when second inverter is
with a 3.2kW balanced resistive load. disconnected.

5552
 VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a control strategy based on flatness
theory is proposed for a three-phase inverter with an
output LC filter. The flatness of the studied system is
demonstrated, the source limitations are taken into
account in the design of the reference trajectories and the
control parameter values. The requirements of a balancing
system are introduced to the parallel system which allows
controlling the circulating current between the inverters.
A nonlinear current error controller which ensures a
robust control of the current and the balance of output
powers has been proposed for the parallel system. To
validate the proposed control, experimental tests have
been realized and proved its efficiency.
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5553
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ibi iLb
1
between