Video and Webinar Series

Design and Test a Grid-Tied Solar Inverter Controller

Grid-tied inverters connect renewable energy sources to an electric utility grid. This video series will show you how to model, simulate, and implement a control system for a grid-tied solar inverter using Simulink® and Simscape Electrical™. The worked example will use a photovoltaic (PV) inverter to show you how to:

  • Build a model to simulate the PV panel, grid load, and grid-tied inverter
  • Tune the inverter controller to adjust the DC bus voltage for varying loads
  • Develop a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm to keep the PV system operating at the peak power point under changing solar irradiance, temperature, and load
  • Implement plant level control, such as fault-ride through, curtailment, and power factor correction
  • Generate C code from the controller model and implement it on a Texas Instruments C2000 microcontroller
  • Test the microcontroller code against a real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation of the PV system and inverter using a Speedgoat real-time system

Design Considerations Consider the overall objective of a control design project, and the steps in the workflow that will improve the overall design experience.

Control Design Workflow Learn how Model-Based Design is applied to the development of a grid-tied solar inverter control system.

Control Design Tasks Learn how to leverage a full system model to explore the design of different control modes for a grid-tied solar inverter.

Deploying a Control Algorithm Learn how to deploy and test a grid-tied inverter control algorithm.

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