A grid-connected photovoltaic power conversion system with single-phase multilevel inverter

This paper presents a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) power conversion system based on a single-phase multilevel inverter. The proposed system fundamentally consists of PV arrays and a single-phase multilevel inverter structure. First, configuration and structural parts of the PV assisted inverter system are introduced in detail. To produce reference output voltage waves, a simple switching strategy based on calculating switching angles is improved. By calculated switching angles, the reference signal is produced as a multilevel shaped output voltage wave. The control algorithm and operational principles of the proposed system are explained. Operating PV arrays in the same load condition is a considerable point; therefore a simulation study is performed to arrange the PV arrays. After determining the number and connection types of the PV arrays, the system is configured through the arrangement of the PV arrays. The validity of the proposed system is verified through simulations and experimental study. The results demonstrate that the system can achieve lower total harmonic distortion (THD) on the output voltage and load current, and it is capable of operating synchronous and transferring power values having different characteristic to the grid. Hence, it is suitable to use the proposed configuration as a PV power conversion system in various applications.     

Maximum power tracking for photovoltaic power system: Development and experimental comparison of two algorithms

This work presents an experimental comparison of two algorithms developed in order to maximize the output power from a photovoltaic (PV) system for the same given set of conditions. The maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods proposed in this study are two extended algorithms: Perturb and Observe and Incremental Conductance. The numerical modelling of the PV system shows the MPPT interest and then the extended MPPT algorithms are highlighted. In this paper, a PV system based on a boost converter as MPPT device is considered. A programmable DC electronic load is fed by two identical PV systems in which the MPPT control converter algorithms are different. This experimental platform operates under the same conditions such as changing solar radiation and cell temperature. The experimental results obtained with a dSPACE controller board show the MPPT energy efficiency of the proposed algorithms.     

Power quality improvement of solar photovoltaic transformer-less grid-connected system with maximum power point tracking control

This paper presents a transformer-less single-stage grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) system with active reactive power control. In the absence of active input power, grid-tied voltage source converter (VSC) is operated in the reactive power generation mode, which powers control circuitry and maintains regulated DC voltage. Control scheme has been implemented so that the grid-connected converter continuously serves local load. A data-based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) has been implemented at maximum power which performs power quality control by reducing total harmonic distortion (THD) in grid-injected current under varying environmental conditions. Standards (IEEE-519/1547) stipulates that current with THD greater than 5% cannot be injected into the grid by any distributed generation (DG) source. MPPT tracks actual variable DC link voltage while deriving maximum power from PV array and maintains DC link voltage constant by changing the converter modulation index. Simulation results with the PV model and MPPT technique validations demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed system.     

A comprehensive simulator for assessing the reliability of a photovoltaic panel peak power tracking system

When designing a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm, it is often difficult to correctly predict, before field testing, the behavior of this MPPT under varying solar irradiation on photovoltaic (PV) panels. A solution to this problem is to design a maximum power point trackers simulator of a PV system used to test MPPT algorithms. This simulator must have the same role as the MPPT card of the PV panel and thus will fully emulate the response of a real MPPT card of the PV panel. Therefore, it is a good substitute to help to test the peak power trackers of the PV system in the laboratory. This paper describes a simple peak power trackers simulator of the PV system which has a short response time thus, can be used to test MPPT algorithms under very rapid variation condition. The obtained results and the theoretical operation confirm the reliability and the superior performance of the proposed model.     

Enhancing the utilization of photovoltaic power generation bysuperconductive magnetic energy storage

The authors demonstrate that a superconductive magnetic energy storage (SMES) system can enhance large-scale utilization of photovoltaic (PV) generation. Results show that power output from a SMES system can be used to smooth out PV power fluctuations so that the combined PV/SMES output is dispatchable and free from fluctuations. Power generated from PV arrays is shown to be fully utilized under different weather conditions, and PV penetration is increased to significant levels without adversely affecting the power system. Coupled with PV generation, a SMES system is even more effective in performing diurnal load leveling. A coordinated PV/SMES operation scheme is proposed, and its demonstration under different weather conditions is discussed     

Modeling and analysis of current harmonic distortion from grid connected PV inverters under different operating conditions

Due to the fast growth of photovoltaic (PV) installations, concerns are rising about the harmonic distortion generated from PV inverters. High current total harmonic distortion (THD) occurs when PV inverters operate under light load conditions due to low solar insolation. A general model modified from the conventional control structure diagram is introduced to analyze the harmonic formation process. Causes of the current harmonics are summarized and its relationship with output power levels is analyzed. The field measurement for current harmonics is carried out at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) microgrid to validate the analysis results. In particular for two-stage inverter, unlike previous papers that assume the DC-link voltage is constant, the DC-link voltage ripple is identified as the source of a series of odd harmonics. A mew periodic time-varying model is proposed by including the DC-link voltage ripple into the conventional current control loop model. This model is able to simulate the characteristics of the harmonic components and show their dependence on the DC-link voltage ripple.     

Digital power factor control and reactive power regulation for grid-connected photovoltaic inverter

The overall efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems connected to the grid depends on the efficiency of direct current (DC) of the solar modules to alternate current (AC) inverter conversion. The requirements for inverter connection include: maximum power point, high efficiency, control power injected into the grid, high power factor and low total harmonic distortion of the currents injected into the grid. An approach to power factor control and reactive power regulation for PV systems connected to the grid using field programmable gate array (FPGA) is proposed. According to the grid demands; both the injected active and reactive powers are controlled.In this paper, a new digital control strategy for a single-phase inverter is carried out. This control strategy is based on the phase shift between the inverter output voltage and the grid voltage, and the digital sinusoidal pulse width modulation (DSPWM) patterns, in order to control the power factor for a wide range of the inverter output current and consequently the control and the regulation of the reactive power will be achieved. The advantage of the proposed control strategy is its implementation around simple digital circuits.In this work, a simulation study of this strategy has been realized using Matlab/Simulink and PSIM. In order to validate its performance, this control has been implemented in a FPGA. Experimental tests have been carried out demonstrating the viability of this control in order to control the power factor and the injected power into the grid.     

具有APF功能的光伏并网发电系统的研究

探讨了一种具有有源滤波器功能的光伏并网发电系统。该系统白天可有效地进行光伏并网发电,还可补偿或抑制本地非线性负载产生的无功和谐波,夜晚系统仍可作为APF继续工作。相对于单独的光伏并网系统,它不但提高了设备利用率,也改善了电网的供电质量。文章分析了系统的结构组成,还采用了具有较好鲁棒性和动态响应速度的、基于瞬时无功理论的闭环无功和谐波电流检测的方法,分析了并网电流的合成及其跟踪控制。最后,利用Matlab/Simulink对系统进行了仿真,验证了系统的可行性。     

A review of current anti-islanding methods for photovoltaic power system

Islanding phenomenon is undesirable because it leads to a safety hazard to utility service personnel and may cause damage to power generation and power supply facilities as a result of unsynchronized re-closure. Until now, various anti-islanding methods (AIMs) for detecting and preventing islanding of photovoltaic and other distributed generations (DGs) have been proposed. This paper presents an overview of recent anti-islanding method developments for grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) power generation, focusing on the concept and operating principle, mainly based on single phase system. For the performance comparison, the experimental results of the various AIMs with 3 kW PV inverter are provided based on the islanding detection capability and power quality. As a result, the active AIMs have better islanding detection capability rather than the passive one. However, the active AIMs have power quality degradation on harmonic distortion or displacement power factor based on the injected active signal type. In addition to the evaluation and comparison of the main anti-islanding methods, this paper also summarizes the related anti-islanding standards to evaluate anti-islanding capability for PV system. This paper can be used as a useful anti-islanding reference for future work in DG like PV, and wind turbine.     

Rapid transaction to load variations of active filter supplied by PV system

This paper deals with the analysis and control of a photovoltaic (PV) system connected to the main supply through a Boost converter and shunt active filter supplied by a PV system providing continuous supply of nonlinear load in variation. A robust control of a PV system connected to the grid while feeding a variable nonlinear load is developed and highlighted. This development is based on the control of the Boost converter to extract the maximum power from the PV system using the Perturb and Observe (P and O) algorithm in the presence of temperature and illumination. The proposed modeling and control strategy provide power to the variable nonlinear load and facilitates the transfer of power from solar panel to the grid while improving the quality of energy (harmonic currents compensation, power factor compensation and dc bus voltage regulation). Validation of the developed model and control strategy is conducted using power system simulator Sim-Power System Blockset Matlab/Simulink. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the shunt active filter to load changes, the method of instantaneous power (pq theory) is used to identify harmonic currents. The obtained results show an accurate extraction of harmonic currents and perfect compensation of both reactive power and harmonic currents with a lower THD and in accordance with the IEEE-519 standard.     

Artificial neural network-polar coordinated fuzzy controller based maximum power point tracking control under partially shaded conditions

The one of main causes of reducing energy yield of photovoltaic systems is partially shaded conditions. Although the conventional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control algorithms operate well under uniform insolation, they do not operate well in non-uniform insolation. The non-uniform conditions cause multiple local maximum power points on the power?voltage curve. The conventional MPPT methods cannot distinguish between the global and local peaks. Since the global maximum power point (MPP) may change within a large voltage window and also its position depends on shading patterns, it is very difficult to recognise the global operating point under partially shaded conditions. In this paper, a novel MPPT system is proposed for partially shaded PV array using artificial neural network (ANN) and fuzzy logic with polar information controller. The ANN with three layer feed-forward is trained once for several partially shaded conditions to determine the global MPP voltage. The fuzzy logic with polar information controller uses the global MPP voltage as a reference voltage to generate the required control signal for the power converter. Another objective of this study is to determine the estimated maximum power and energy generation of PV system through the same ANN structure. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated under the experimental real-time simulation technique based dSPACE real-time interface system for different interconnected PV arrays such as series-parallel, bridge link and total cross tied configurations.     

A fuzzy based method for leveling output power fluctuations of photovoltaic-diesel hybrid power system

A Photovoltaic system’s output power fluctuates as insolation varies with weather condition. Fluctuating PV power causes frequency deviations when large PV power is penetrated in the isolated utility. In this paper, a fuzzy based method for leveling the fluctuations of PV power in a PV-diesel hybrid power system is proposed. By means of the proposed method, output power control of PV system becomes possible considering power utility conditions and the conflicting objective of output power leveling and maximizing energy capture is achieved. Here, fuzzy control is used to generate the output leveling power command. The fuzzy control has three inputs of average insolation, variance of insolation, and absolute average of frequency deviation. First, the proposed method is compared with the method where captured maximum power is given to the utility without leveling. Second, the proposed method is compared with a conventional method where captured maximum power is leveled by using an energy storage system and is given to the isolated utility. Simulation results show that the proposed method is effective in leveling PV power fluctuations and is feasible to reduce the frequency deviations of the isolated power utility.     

High-accuracy maximum power point estimation for photovoltaic arrays

Quantitative information regarding the maximum power point (MPP) of photovoltaic (PV) arrays is crucial for determining and controlling their operation, yet it is difficult to obtain such information through direct measurements. PV arrays exhibit an extremely nonlinear current-voltage (I-V) characteristic that varies with many complex factors related to the individual cells, which makes it difficult to ensure an optimal use of the available solar energy and to achieve maximum power output in real time. Finding ways to obtain the maximum power output in real time under all possible system conditions are indispensable to the development of feasible PV generation systems. The conventional methods for tracking the MPP of PV arrays suffer from a serious problem that the MPP cannot be quickly acquired. Based on the p-n junction semiconductor theory, we develop a prediction method for directly estimating the MPP for power tracking in PV arrays. The proposed method is a new and simple approach with a low calculation burden that takes the resistance effect of the solar cells into consideration. The MPP of PV arrays can be directly determined from an irradiated I-V characteristic curve. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by examining the characteristics of the MPP of PV arrays depending on both the temperature and irradiation intensity, and the results are discussed in detail. Such performance is also tested using the field data. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method helps in the optimization of the MPP control model in PV arrays.     

Two-loop controller for maximizing performance of a grid-connectedphotovoltaic-fuel cell hybrid power plant

Maximizing performance of a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV)-fuel cell hybrid system by use of a two-loop controller is discussed. One loop is a neural network controller for maximum power point tracking, which extracts maximum available solar power from PV arrays under varying conditions of insolation, temperature, and system load. A real/reactive power controller (RRPC) is the other loop. The RRPC achieves the system's requirements for real and reactive powers by controlling incoming fuel to fuel cell stacks as well as switching control signals to a power conditioning subsystem. Results of time-domain simulations prove not only the effectiveness of the proposed computer models of the two-loop controller but also its applicability for use in stability analysis of the hybrid power plant     

Design and implementation of a hybrid regenerative power system combining grid-tie and uninterruptible power supply functions

A hybrid regenerative power system including photovoltaic (PV) and wind powers and combining the functions of the grid?tie system and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for critical load applications is presented. The proposed system employs six-arm converter topology with three arms for the rectifier? inverter, one arm for battery charging/discharging and two arms for power conversion of the PV module and wind turbine generator. The operation modes include the grid?tie mode and the UPS mode depending on the grid status. A power balance control scheme is presented, which can reduce the grid power and utilise the regenerative power in the most effective way for fulfilling the two requirements of a three-stage charging of the battery and no interruption of the load. Also, the PV and wind powers can be utilised with priority in order to provide the flexibility for adapting to local circumstances. A single-phase 1.2 kW/110 V system is designed and implemented, and the effectiveness of the proposed system and control methodology are verified with some experimental results.     

New maximum power point tracker for PV arrays using fuzzy controller in close cooperation with fuzzy cognitive networks

The studies on the photovoltaic (PV) generation are extensively increasing, since it is considered as an essentially inexhaustible and broadly available energy resource. However, the output power induced in the photovoltaic modules depends on solar radiation and temperature of the solar cells. Therefore, to maximize the efficiency of the renewable energy system, it is necessary to track the maximum power point of the PV array. In this paper, a maximum power point tracker using fuzzy set theory is presented to improve energy conversion efficiency. A new method is proposed, by using a fuzzy cognitive network, which is in close cooperation with the presented fuzzy controller. The new method gives a very good maximum power operation of any PV array under different conditions such as changing insolation and temperature. The simulation studies show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Accurate power sharing among multi-DG resources in a microgrid

In this paper, a sliding mode (SM)-based direct active and reactive power control for the distributed generations (DGs) in microgrid is presented. The grid-connected microgrid contains two three-phase DGs that are photovoltaic (PV) units, and three single-phase DGs consisting of fuel cell (FC), PV, and battery. In the proposed strategy, controlling of the active and reactive powers is carried out for the single-phase and three-phase DGs without any phase angle tracking of the network voltage or synchronization transformations. The proposed robust control strategy improves power sharing and regulates power components injected by the DGs, and it is tested under balanced and unbalanced loads.     

Fractional order extremum seeking approach for maximum power point tracking of photovoltaic panels

Due to the high interest in renewable energy and diversity of research regarding photovoltaic (PV) array, a great research effort is focusing nowadays on solar power generation and its performance improvement under various weather conditions. In this paper, an integrated framework was proposed, which achieved both maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and minimum ripple signals. The proposed control scheme was based on extremum-seeking (ES) combined with fractional order systems (FOS). This auto-tuning strategy was developed to maximize the PV panel output power through the regulation of the voltage input to the DC/DC converter in order to lead the PV system steady-state to a stable oscillation behavior around the maximum power point (MPP). It is shown that fractional order operators can improve the plant dynamics with respect to time response and disturbance rejection. The effectiveness of the proposed controller scheme is illustrated with simulations using measured solar radiation data.     

基于交替单相PWM控制的三相光伏并网系统

提出了可用于多支路型三相光伏并网逆变器的交替单相PWM控制方法。该控制方法在一个工频周期内,逆变器有6种开关模式,每种开关模式中只须对三相中的一相桥臂进行PWM控制,从而有效降低了功率管开关损耗,在多支路光伏并网结构提高能量转换效率的基础上,进一步提高系统效率。采用电流滞环PWM跟踪控制,能够简单实现逆变正弦电流输出,跟踪性能好,并网功率因数为1,系统稳定性好,电流总谐波畸变率(THD)较低,可满足并网要求。通过Matlab仿真验证了该控制方法的正确性和有效性。     

A fast and low cost analog maximum power point tracking method for low power photovoltaic systems

Low power photovoltaic (PV) systems are commonly used in stand-alone applications. For these systems, a simple and cost-effective maximum power point tracking (MPPT) solution is essential. In this paper, a fast and low cost analog MPPT method for low power PV systems is proposed. By using two voltage approximation lines (VALs) to approximate the maximum power point (MPP) locus, a low-complexity analog MPPT circuit can be developed. Theoretical derivation and detailed design procedure will be provided in this paper. The proposed method boasts the advantages such as simple structure, low cost, fast tracking speed and high tracking efficiency. To validate the correctness of the proposed method, simulation and experimental results of an 87 W PV system will also be provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.