A grid‐connected inverter offers good operation and controllability; however, there is a risk of local instabilities due to particular control schemes. As long as the input admittance is positive at a particular resonance frequency, the risk of local instability can be suppressed. In this paper, an attempt to improve the input admittance of the grid‐connected inverter (GCI)[vnsn1] using a virtual resistor is proposed. The impact of the virtual resistor on the inverter's passivity is analyzed by observing the input admittance of the inverter. Numerical analysis shows that the employment of the virtual resistor gives better input admittance to the GCI, particularly in the low‐frequency regions. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.