2012 First International Conference on Renewable Energies and Vehicular Technology

PHOTOVOLTAIC-GRID INTEGRATED SYSTEM

Sameer Khader, Abdel-Karim Daud
Palestine Polytechnic University emails: Sameer@ppu.edu, daud@ppu.edu

ABSTRACT This paper proposed solution for directly energizing of ac load throughout Photovoltaic Solar Array during the daytime by applying so called variable voltage tracking system (VVT). The main function of VVT is to maintain the average output chopped voltage at fixed value irrespective of solar radiation rate, in turn the chopped voltage is converted into ac voltage suitable for grid-connected loads. This solution is realized by integrating both complementary buck-boost chopper and dc to ac converter. The ac-grid contributes to the load in two cases, first when there is a power shortage during the daytime due to weak irradiation rates, and second during the night time. The power estimator unit is used to determine the grid contribution intervals. This solution excludes the use of battery bank which is the main obstacle in massive use of solar energy due to their weight, short life time, maintenance and cost. Matlab/Simulink is used to simulate the proposed model, where the obtained simulation results confirm and justify the proposed approach for further study and looking for optimized solutions for cost reduction and energy savings. Index Terms-- Photovoltaic Systems, DC Choppers, Smart Grids, Soft Switching, Inverters, Buck-Boost Chopper. 1. INTRODUCTION Photovoltaic energy resources presents alternative and friendly to the environment sources. It presents unique solution for providing remote area with clean and sustainable energy during the daytime in heating, lighting, refrigeration and water pumps systems [1-3] without the need of battery system, while during the night time the accumulated energy can be fully or partially used to cover the energy domain. The output circuit connected to the photovoltaic system is usually dc-dc converters mainly boost choppers in order to boost the voltage to the predetermined levels. The DC/DC converters are widely used in regulated switch mode power supplies, where the input voltage to these converters varies in wide range especially in the case of photovoltaic (PV) supply source due to unpredictable and sudden change in the solar irradiation level as well as the cell operating temperature. Several connection topologies concerning the switching systems have been proposed [4-8] aiming
978-1-4673-1170-0/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE 60

at realizing the required voltage level during different periods of day for certain application type such as pumps, motors in general and power supplies. During the design process of PV array powered systems; a simulation must be performed for system analysis and parameter settings. Therefore an efficient user friendly simulation model of the PV array with various control strategies is always needed. The proposed model consists of several modules as shown in Figure1 with the following functions: - PV Photovoltaic Module (PV) that converts the solar irradiation into voltage Vpv and current Ipv. - Complementary Buck-Boost DC Chopper Module that boosts up the PV voltage to the predetermined levels. Conversely in case of high Vpv the output voltage is reduced.
Variable Voltage Tracking

Vg_Q
PV Array

Complementary Buck-Boost

Vref

Vout

Vg_sl
AC Grid

Grid Selector

Inverter

Vac

Grid Adapting System Load Grid-Drop Compensation

Iout

Pac Ppv

Power Status Estimator

Figure 1. PV-Grid system block diagram

- Variable Voltage Tracking Module that generates switching pulses according to the required output voltage level in order to maintain Vout at fixed value. - Grid Adapting Module that converts the ac grid voltage into dc voltage in case of grid connection. - Grid Drop Compensation Module that compensates the voltage drop according to the drawn load current and generates reference voltage. - Power-Status Estimator that detects the available Ppv power, the consumed load power and the value of power shortage that should be supplied from AC-grid.

The displyed in fig.1 parameters Ppv, Vac, Pac, Iout are PV power, AC-grid voltage and power, and load current respectively; Vgsl, Vref and Vgo are grid selector signal, reference voltage and complementary buckboost driving signals. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section (2) Modelling & simulation of PV array; Section (3) The behaviours of PV-Grid integrated system; Section (4) Discusses the simulation results and conclusion. 2. MODELING OF PV ARRAY 2.1 Characteristics of PV Array Basically, PV cell is a P-N semiconductor junction that directly converts light energy into electricity. It has the equivalent circuit shown in Figure 2 [8-10].

boosting up the output voltage to predetermined value it is necessary to illustrate the obtained PV voltage and current for boost chopper according to specifications given in table 1 at reference irradiation 1000W/m2. Table 1: Data specification for PV Array.
q 1.602e19 C NS 38 NSm 6 K Iph 1.38e4A 23J/K NP VO 4 0.6V NPm Vpv out 1 130V Id 0.2mA VOC 21.5 V Rload 44 RS 1m ISC 4A RP 10k VMPP 17.5V TC 25C IMPP 3.7A

The PV Array voltage can be obtained by multiplying the module voltage and current by Nsm and Npm that represents number of series and parallel connected modules respectively.

Continuous powergui
1 11 .2903 T_var G_var2
G T

G_T

+ - v
V2
Output

Figure 2. Equivalent circuit for PV cell

Where Iph represents the cell photocurrent; Rp and Rs are the intrinsic shunt and series resistance of the cell respectively; Id is the diode saturation current; Vo and Io are the cell output voltage and current respectively. The following are the simplified equations describing the cell output voltage and current:

6 Nsm 1 Npm

Ns

+Vpv

i + I

Lo

Np

+
GND

R-L Rf-Cf

V1

PV Array

Vo =

A.K.Tc Iph + Id Io ln R s.Io q Io

(1)
a) Proposed model for PV Array in simulink environment
I-V performance 5 4.5 1200W/m2

. Vo / Ns qA Io = N p ( Iph Id e . K .Tc 1
3 q . Eg 1 1 B . K Tr Tc

(2)

Tc I d = I or .e Tr

(3)
Ipv,A

1000W/m2 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 600W/m2 800W/m2

I ph = N p.{I sc . n + I t ( T c T r ) }

(4)

Where, K- Boltzman constant; Np and Ns are the number of parallel and series connected cells respectively; Eg is the band gap of the semiconductor; Tc and Tr are the cell and the reference temperature respectively in Kelvin, A and B are the diode ideality factors with values varies between 1 and 2; n is the normalized insulation; Isc is the short circuit current given at standard condition; It and Ior are constants given at standard conditions. 2.1.1. Photovoltaic I-V Performance In order to study the I-V performance of the PV circuit and to look for appropriate dc chopper for
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400W/m2 1 0.5 0

10 Vpv, V

15

20

25

b)

I-V Performance of PV module.

Figure 3. PV model with I-V performances.

Figure 3 illustrates the proposed PV array built in Matlab/ simulink [11] with R-L load, where the obtained results for different variation levels are presented. From these performances it is shown that the total output PV voltage and current varies according to irradiation level with approximated 65W maximum power at G=1000W/m2.

2.2 Double-chopper PV Array

2000

Solar irradiation

Regulating the output chopped voltage according to reference or grid voltage can be realized by modifying the conventional boost chopper into double chopper circuit with buck converter called "Complementary buck-boost converter" as shown in Figure 4. Power switched Q1 and Q2 operates in complementary mode boosting up the input PV voltage, while Q3 regulates this output voltage toward increase or decrease according to Vref.

G, W/m2, V

1500 1000 500

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Reference & actual chopped voltage 400 Vout 300 Vact, V 200 100 0 0 0.2 0.4 Vref 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

Laod current 8 Ich-out, A 6 4 2 0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 Time, S 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

Figure 4. Complementary-chopper circuit

Figure 6. Output chopped voltage and current at various irradiation rates.

The obtained output voltage according to these models [12] is illustrated in Figure 5 for different irradiation levels, and can be presented as follows: D = D Q1 = D Q 2 (5) D VO = V pv 1 D Where DQ1 and DQ2 are duty cycles of choppers Q1 and Q2 respectively.The actual average voltage Vact=Vout' of both choppers operation can be determined as follows:
V out ' =
t1 t2 1 (V pv + V Lb 2 )dt + (V pv + V Lb 1 )dt T ch 0 t1 di di Lb 1 Lb 2 V Lb 1 = L b 1 . ; V Lb 2 = L b 1 . dt dt t 1 = D .T ch ; t 2 = (1 D ) . T ch

3. PV-GRID INTEGRATED SYSTEM According to Figure 1, the generated PV voltage is adjusted by complementary buck-boost converter and being applied to the load via grid selector. The power status estimator generates switching pulses required to operate the grid selector. The ac-grid contribution can be described into two approaches: Fully inverted circuit; Partially inverted circuit. In case of fully inverted circuit, the ac-grid voltage is converted into dc throughout grid-adapting module, and then added to the output chopped dc voltage as shown in Figure 7. In partially inverted circuit, the PV voltage is converted into ac voltage, while the ac-grid voltage is directly connected to the load after being synchronized. In present paper first approach will be described hereinafter. The consumed by the load effective power and the power delivered by the PV and ac-grid are by assuming that the system operates at unity power factor:

(6) Where Lb1 and Lb2 are boost inductances for both branches respectively, and equals each other; Tch=1/fch is the chopping period. Introducing variable voltage tracking system VVT causes voltage regulation and adjustment of output voltage as shown in Figure 6 for various irradiation levels.
Reference & actual average voltage 350 300 250 Vref, V act, V 200 150 100 50 0 G=400W/m2 G=1200W/m2

P Rrms = V inv .Iload

where ,

P Rrms = (P pvo + P gac ). inv

(7)

Vref=220V

P pvo = V out .Io ; P gac = V acrms .Ig

0.05

0.1

0.15 0.2 Time, S

0.25

0.3

0.35

Figure 5. Output voltage of complementary chopper circuit.

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Figure 7. Principle PV-Grid connected fully inverted circuit.

Where Ppvo, Pgac are the effective power provided by the PV and the ac-grid respectively; Vinv, Io are output inverted voltage and current of fundamental harmonic respectively; inv is the inverter efficiency; Vout, Io are the effective output voltage and current of the complementary chopper which are proportional to PV maximum power respectively; and Vacrms, Ig are the effective grid voltage and current respectively.
Start Read Vinv, Iload, Vout, Igmax Io, Vacrms

grif power, and generates the requirred switching pulses for grid integration with the PV source.
G, W/m2 1200 400 fch, kHz 10 Table 2. Main parameters of PV-Grid circuit Lb1,2 Vpv, V Vout, V R, Cf, nF mH 145 1.42 16.1 110V 44...250 77 3.25 Lb, mH Rloss Lf~ Co inv 3.25 0.2 2mH 480uF 92%

4.2. Grid-drop compensation Grid-drop compensation module is required to calculate the voltage drop of the grid circuit with purpose generates accurat reference voltage according to eq.(8), and generates appropriate switching PWM pulses that drives buck chopper Q3. The simulink circuit for this module is illustrated in Figure 10.
.. 1 PL dp -KPpv 2 Scope6 Add 0 PG'=0 1 PGmax 3 Vcar-Vref2 PG'=1 DP<0 Repeating Sequence1 Gain1 Z-OH Sat >= Scope4

Calculate: Prms, Ppvo, Pgac

P= Ppvo- Prms
No Yes

P >0 Q4=ON1 Q4=OFF0

Scope3 Vcar-Vref3 Product

Variable Step Go

if Stateflow Ptot Io1 AND 1 Pulse_G

T -Cc F small step

|u| Abs DGmax Divide Vcar-Vref1

Chopper Q4/ Return

0

<= 1 Vref=1 Vdg Vdg, Vtr Pulse_Gr

Figure 8. Functional flowchart for power-status estimator.

Display

The reference voltage according to the consumed load current can be determined as follows:

Vdg1

2 Sum(P)

Vref = Vinv + V; V =
.

Figure 9. Simulink model of power-status estimator

(Rloss Iinv )2 + (Xf Iinv )2

.

(8)

4.3. Simulation results at various irradiations Figure 11 illustrates the main results when solar irradiation varies in wide range causing significant variation in the PV output voltage, while the output chopped voltage is kept constant according to the reference voltage. The obtained results shows the inverted voltage and current approximately have constant amplitude with negligible fluctuations due to transitions from one irradiation to another.
1 Vpv inputs Cuurent Sat 2 Iload_rms/Ipv -KEta sqrt(2) sqrt(2) du/dt SW 1 -KEta4 Irms_load Derivative 0.002 Lf Eta2 2 -KVac 2 Vgrid+DV 0.2 Rloss Ig Ig.sinwt Vinv 1 Output -1

Where Vinv, Rloss and Xf are inverter voltage, grid resistance and circuit reactance including the inductive filter Lf respectively. According to consumed power, the power status estimator module estimates wheather or not the ac-grid contribution. Functional flowchart illustrating the operation of this module is shown in Figure 8. The generated pulses required to drive Q4 are proportional to the rate of power difference, and gives the status of integrating the grid with the PV system. 4. SIMULATION RESULTS The proposed simulation model is built in matlab/simulink environment and consists of several sub-models. Taking into account main PV-grid data given in table 2, the sub-models are as follows: 4.1. Power- Status Estimator The simulink model for power status estimator is shown in Figure 9, where the model process the PV and

3 Vac_grid_rms

Product4

PI <= pi 4 Vout_boost 1

1 VG_ch

Pulse output

1 gain1 1 gain

Scope5

Figure 10. Simulink model of Grid-drop compensation

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PV output voltage V o u t-in v , V V re f & V c h -a v g , V V p v-o u t, V 300 200 100 200 100 0 200 0 -200 5 0 -5 0 0.5 1 1.5 Time, S 2 2.5 3 0 0.5 1 1.5 Inverted voltage 2 2.5 3 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 Ref.& out. average voltage 2.5 3

PV-Grid Contribution .... 2000 G , W /m 2 1000 0 P p v , P lo a d , W 300 200 Pload 100 0 0 200 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 Ppv

0.5

1.5

2.5

0.5

Io u t-in v ,A

dp, W

1.5 2 Out. inverted current

2.5

0 -200 0 1 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

P u l s e -Q 4

Figure 11. Solar irradiation profile and corresponds PV voltage.

0.5 0

Grid-on

Grid-off

0.5

4.4. Simulation results at various reference voltages When the reference voltage varies according to load requirements at constant irradiation the system regulates the output chopped voltage to be equal to the reference voltage as shown in Figure 12, where the actual output chopper voltage tracks the reference value with high degree of accuracy. 4.5. The power contribution profile According to eq.(7) changing the solar irradiation rate affects the extracted from the PV array power, therefore, in case of power shortages the grid will contribute with certain amount of watts as shown in fig.13 for three levels of solar irradiations (G=400 W/m2 , G=1700W/m2 & G=1000W/m2). From this figure it is shown that, the region where the grid is connected to the circuit throughout transistor switch Q4.
PV output voltage 600 Vpv-out, V 400 200 0 Vref & Vch-avg, V 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

1.5 Time, S

2.5

Figure 13. PV & Grid power contribution diagram for various solar irradiation intervals.

5. COMPLETE SIMULINK MODEL

Figure 14 shows the complete PV-Grid functional model built in Matlab/ simulink environment, where several modules are connected and integrated together resulting in complete simulation process of PV array behaviors according to different load requirements.

6. CONCLUSION In this work a simulation study for PV-Grid integrated model has been conducted, where the following conclusions can be drawn: - The proposed PV model consists of variable tracking module and voltage drop compensating module that can be used for either dc or ac loads with precise voltage tracking procedure. The added power-status estimator modules create new aspect to this model, where the power shortages can be measured and delivered from alternative sources or main ac-grid. - The proposed model can be used for simulating photovoltaic system individually or combined with battery charging unit. During the daytime there is no need of battery unit, resulting in efficiency enhancement, reliability of the system and long life time. Meanwhile, during the night time the load is directly energized from the grid, which in turn enhances the system reliability and reduces the total cost. - The use of battery bank as alternative power source during the nigh time can be applied when the ac grid plays the role of standby energy source that could be contribute only in case of energy shortages .

Ref.& out. average voltage 400 200 0

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4.5

Inverted voltage 500 Vout-inv, V 0 -500

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4.5

Out. inverted current 2 Iout-inv,A 0 -2

0.5

1.5

2 2.5 Time, S

3.5

4.5

Figure 12: Reference voltage profile and corresponds inverted voltage and current.
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- The proposed model can be scaled and used for large energy converted systems and energy saving with battery control unit. 7. REFERENCES
[1] Ho-sung Kim, Jong-Hyun Kim, Byung-Duk Min,

A highly efficient PV system using a series connection of DC-DC converter output with a photovoltaic panel", Renewable Energy 34(2009), pp2432-2436. [2] Tseng S.Y., Li Y.L., Wu J.Y," Buck Converter Associated with Active Clamp Flyback Converter for PV Power System", ICSET 2008, pp.916-921.
VVT
Vact Gate Vref

a high performance boost converter", Solar energy 80 (2006) pp.772-778. [7] Azab M.," Improved circuit model of photovoltaic array', PWASET, Vol.34, Oct.2008, pp.857-860. [8] Atlas H., Sharaf A.M.," A Photovoltaic array simulation model for Matlab-simulink GUI environment, IEEE, Trans., 2007, pp.341-345. [9] Chouder A., Silvester S., Malek A., " Simulation of photovoltaic grid connected inverter in case of gridfailure", Revue des energes Renouveables Vol. 9, No4, 2006, pp.285-296. [10] Buresch M.," Photovoltaic energy systems design and Installation", McGraw-Hill, New York, 1983.

C ontinuous powergui
1 Vref1 1 G_var T 20 T_var
Ipv G T

Vact_rms 220 Vref_var Sv Vgrid_rms

Vout_rms RMS discrete

Sg 821.1984
Ns

RMS (discrete) Iout_rms1 [Vg_p]

Io2
Vg DCO DCi

G_var1

PV

1 G 6 Ns 1 Npm

Np +Vpv

Lb2

D2

+ -

v g C

From

i + -

Output inverter Output chopper

Vout2
+ v

Ls
E

OCP

Grid

GND

Q3 Lb1 D1 D4 D3 Lb4 R-L

+ DC

PV Array

+
AC1

Vout

AC2

Vout3

Vg_Q1

Inverter

Io
i + -

Lf

Ppv_rms

Vpv_rms RMS discrete VGT NOT

Q1

+ -

Q2
Iout_rms RMS (discrete)

Vout-ac 1:1
E

Vpv VG_ch

[Vg_p] Goto

Ipv 110 Vac_grid_rms Irms_load

Iload_rms/Ipv Vac_grid_rms Vgrid+DV Vout_boost

RMS (discrete) Vrms+dv

E 110.1 PV-Grid Compensation

current P_status

Q4
Voltage Pulse_G

D5
g C
Ptot

20 Igrid-max1

Max current

i + -

Lb3

Grid_connector
Scope1

Io1

PV-Power

Power Status Estimater A +

D7 Lb7
B -

AC Grid Voltage

UB

Figure 14. Matlab/ simulink model for PVGrid integrated system. [3] Khaligh A., " A Multiple-input dc-dc positive buck[11] Matlab and Simulink, The Mathworks, Inc.,

boost converter topology", APEC2008, TwentyThird Annual IEEE, 24-28 Feb., 2008, pp.15221526. [4] Ahmed N.A.," Modeling and simulation of ac-dc buck-boost converter fed dc motor with uniform PWM technique", Electric Power systems Research 73 (2005), pp363-372. [5] Balkarishnan A.,Toliyat and Alexander W.C.," Soft switched ac link buck-boost converter", APEC 2008, Twenty-Third Annual IEEE, 24-28 Feb., 2008, pp.1334-1339. [6] Santos J.L, Antunes F, Chehab A., and Cruz C.," A maximum power point tracker for PV systems using

version R2008a, http://www.mathworks.com [12] Hart D.W, " Power Electronics", Valparaiso University, 2010, McGraw Hill, pp.196-230.

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