Experimental Study of an Inverter Control for Reactive Power Compensation in a Grid-Connected Solar Photovoltaic System Using Sliding Mode Control

In photovoltaic (PV) systems, inverters have an essential role in providing an energy supply to meet the demand with power quality. Inverters inject energy into the grid considering that a renewable source is available; however, during intermittent periods or in the absence of power generation, the inverter remains inactive, which decreases the performance of the PV system. One way to increase the operation of inverters is to operate them as Volt-Amps Reactive (VAR) compensators to generate reactive power in the absence of renewable sources. The paper presents the development of a control scheme that allows the PV system's inverter to improve the power factor in the electrical system with or without PV power generation. The proposed control is based on using a sliding mode controller (SMC) current control loop and PI-based voltage control loop. The control scheme is developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK, and for real evaluation, a PV prototype is implemented. The control strategy efficiency is confirmed by the obtained results. The control scheme increases the practical utility of PV systems. Additionally, it improves the power factor in all cases during the injection of active power to the grid operating under intermittent conditions and/or in the absence of power generation.