Impedance identification is an important tool for the estimation of the equivalent impedance of the grid or of a grid-connected equipment allows monitoring the correct operation of a network [4]–[6], detecting grid reconfigurations [7], [8], and potentially adapting grid-connected converters during operation [9], [10].
The impedance estimation is based on the injection of controlled small-signal perturbations in the system, and on the analysis of the corresponding small-signal response. The perturbations should be small to avoid altering the steady-state operation of the system, while also possess adequate magnitude to be detectable by the sensing equipment [11].
These perturbations can be generated by ad-hoc perturbation injection converters (PICs) [12], [13], allowing precise shaping of the perturbation injected, of the desired injection time, magnitude and frequency content. However, installing dedicated hardware for perturbation injection purposes might be inconvenient or impractical, especially when cost or space constraints within the network are taken into account [14], [15].
Therefore, it would be convenient to use the same existing grid-connected converters as perturbation injection sources [3], [16]. In this case, by superimposing a small-signal perturbation on top of the steady-state operating waveforms of an existing converter, the impedance identification could be achieved without any additional hardware. Nevertheless, as of today, the majority of grid-connected converters are not inherently designed for perturbation injection purposes, which results in inherent limitations and challenges.
One of these challenges comes from the restricted bandwidth of grid-connected converters. This aspect, which has been thoughtfully addressed in [17], imposes an upper limit on the bandwidth of the injected perturbation signals, which is primarily determined by the switching frequency of the semiconductor devices and by the sampling frequency of the adopted controller platforms. Nevertheless, considering the ongoing advancements in the semiconductor devices technology (and particularly in wide-bandgap devices) and the increasing availability of faster control platforms (including DSP and FPGA boards), this limitation is expected to become progressively less restrictive in the upcoming years.
Another major challenge in using existing grid-connected converters for perturbation injection purposes comes from a limited voltage reserve, which refers to the difference between the maximum voltage that the converter is capable of applying and the voltage of its specific operating condition. Indeed, most existing grid-connected converters are designed to operate with a limited DC-bus voltage and at high modulation indexes