1

Smart Control System for Standalone and Grid Connected PV Systems

Haytham A. Mostafa, Student Member, IEEE, Ramadan El Shatshat, Member, IEEE, and Magdy M. A. Salama, Fellow, IEEE
A phase-angle controlled grid-connected PV system has been proposed in [4]. In this model, power flow is controlled through adjusting the phase angle of the PV inverter. In the meantime, the modulation index is kept constant; hence maximum power from the PV array is supplied. Keeping the modulation index, the PWM pattern is optimized only once and used for any phase angle value. As a result, computations are lesser. Another operation method of grid-connected photovoltaic system, taking into consideration the voltage regulation in the distribution system, has been presented in [5]. Real and reactive powers injected into the grid are adjusted in order to keep the system voltage and power quality within acceptable limits. Standalone PV systems are commonly used in some specific cases and areas. In [6], a standalone PV system with a Ni-Mh battery serving as the energy storage element is proposed. The proposed system has a boost converter that is used to track the maximum power point of the solar panel. There exists a bidirectional DC/DC converter to keep the DC-link voltage stable through controlling the battery. The inverter provides high quality AC voltage for the load. The three control schemes are optimally coordinated to provide maximum energy and control both DC and AC voltages. A space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) control scheme for a three-phase PWM inverter can be used in a stand-alone PV generation system[7]. Most of the researches in the literature propose either control schemes for grid connected PV or standalone PV systems. In this research, the PV system is operated in both modes of operation. During normal operation, the PV system is connected to the grid, While, during abnormal operation, the PV system is either accidentally or intentionally disconnected from the grid. And hence, the system will be operated in a standalone mode (islanding mode). In this paper, a smart control system that detects the occurrence of the islanding and controls the PV inverter during grid connection and standalone modes, is developed and modeled using PSCAD. Conventionally, when islanding takes place, the first action taken by conventional (or commercial) controllers is to disconnect the PV from the system. As a result, the proposed control system would be superior to conventional (or commercial) controllers because it makes the system capable of being functional during islanding. On other words, it takes advantage of the existence of the PV in order to provide continuity of supply for the local loads. In the grid connection mode, the solar cell is connected to a six pulse inverter. The inverter connection and synchronization with the grid is controlled using sinusoidal

Abstract Solar energy is one of the most widely used renewable sources of energy. Nowadays, much research is conducted in the area of implementing solar energy based electrical sources into electrical power systems. The solar energy based electrical sources are either connected to electrical grids or operated in a standalone mode of operation. This paper proposes a smart control system based on PWM technique to address both situations. This smart controller controls the solar cell operation while connected to the grid. If the system is intentionally islanded, the control system can automatically detect the islanding and changes the control system objectives based on the current mode of operation. Index TermsInverters, photovoltaic cells, power electronics, power quality, pulse width modulation, solar energy.

I. INTRODUCTION The success of renewable energy research becomes of great importance due to the rapid consumption and increasing prices of fossil fuels. One of the common and widely used renewable source of energy is the solar energy [1]. Solar energy based systems can be classified into grid connected or standalone. In grid connected systems, the generated electricity is injected to the utility grid, and hence there is no need for storage. In standalone systems, batteries and back-up systems should be used to ensure enough energy supply in case of sun unavailability. There are several photovoltaic (PV) systems power electronics interfacing topologies and control algorithms, such as multistage systems[2]. In a multistage system, the PV system consists of two stages to utilize the available solar power for feeding into the grid. PV array voltage boosting, and maximum power tracking are the main objectives of the first stage. While the second stage inverts the DC output of the cell into high quality, fully controlled AC power. A current multilevel (CML) inverter topology is presented and applied on single-phase grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems [3]. This structure injects a quasi-sinusoidal current into the grid at zero phase difference with the grid line voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC). The injected current allows a high power factor operation, and a low harmonic current waveform. The main purposes of using the CML technique are the balanced sharing of the current among semiconductor switches, the slope decrease of the current in the circuit devices, and consequent reduction of electromagnetic interference (EMI). The feasibility of this new topology on single-phase grid-connected PV systems is proved from the obtained results.

978-1-4673-2729-9/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

2 Pulse width modulation SPWM, with the objective of supplying fixed values of active and reactive powers to the grid. In the standalone mode, the solar cell is connected to a three phase load through the inverter. In this mode of operation, the inverter is controlled to provide constant voltage magnitude while trying to reduce the output total harmonic distortion (THD). In section II, the PV cell model used in this paper is introduced. The proposed study and control systems are explained in details in section III. While the experimental results under different case studies are presented in section IV. Finally, conclusions, and future works are discussed in section V. II. PV CELL MODEL In this research work the PV circuit based model developed by [8] is used. This model is based on the double exponential equation, which is derived from the physics of the p-n junction. This model is generally accepted to represent the behaviour of the PV cells. In this model, the PV cell output current and voltage are related by either as equation (1.1) or (1.2). These equations are highly nonlinear and implicit, which make it very difficult to reach an analytical solution.

I ph = K o E (1 + K1T )

(1.3) (1.4) (1.5) (1.6) (1.7) (1.8)

I s 1 = K 2T e

K5 3 T

I s 2 = K 4T e

3 K5 2 T

A = K 6 + K 7T K Rs = K 8 + 9 + K10T E ( K 12T ) R sh = K 11e

Where, T: the cell temperature in Kelvin E: the irradiance in W/m K : constants specific to a given cell.
0-12 2

The values of K0-12 used in this paper are for a polycrystalline cell [8]&[9]. The equivalent circuit developed is based on a single PV cell. In order to increase the voltage and current ratings, an array of series and parallel PV cells are used. In case of a PV array, equation (1.1) can be modified as shown in equation(1.9).
V I V I e e V + I R + Rs + R Ns Np Ns Np s Ns Np s (1.9) I = Np I ph Is1 e kT 1 Is2 e AkT 1 R sh

I = I ph ID1 ID2

V + IRs Rsh

e(V +IRs ) e(V +IRs ) V + IRs I = I ph Is1 e kT 1 Is2 e AkT 1 Rsh (1.1) e (V + IRs ) V + IRs I = I ph I s e AkT 1 (1.2) R sh
Where, eElectron charge, 1.6 x1019 C kBoltzman constant, 1.38 x10-23 JK-1 IsSaturation current. Using these equations, it is convenient to draw an equivalent circuit (Figure 1) which can be used to simulate the PV cell.
+ ID1 ID2 Rs

Where, Ns: number of series cells Np: number of parallel cells. III. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION The proposed system has two modes of operation, namely, normal mode and islanding mode. In normal operation, the study system is supplying a three phase load while connected to a 3 phase grid Figure 2. The PV array output is connected to a three-phase six pulse IGBT inverter whose output is connected to a passive low pass filter. In the islanding mode, the system is subjected to intentional/accidental islanding; as it will be disconnected from the grid and supplies the three phase load only. In other words, the system will be operated in a standalone mode of operation during islanding. In normal operating conditions, the control system is adjusted to provide constant active and reactive power to the grid, while, in the islanding mode, the control system must control the inverter to provide an output waveform of constant voltage and frequency with high power quality. During the different modes of operation, the control system should detect the operating conditions changes and consequently adjust the control objectives to cope with the new operating conditions.

I V

Iph

D1

D2 +

Figure 1 Equivalent Circuit Model of PV Cell The double exponential model variables can be related to the cell temperature and irradiance by the following equations:

Rsh

PV array

In order to achieve the e desired contr rol objectives, t the inverter is contro olled using SP PWM control. The active an nd reactive powers a are measured a at the point of c common coupl ling (PCC). The mea asured values of active and d reactive pow wer will be ired by the compare ed with the de esired referenc ce values requi grid. In t the meantime, a sine referenc ce signal is gen nerated and synchron nized with the e grid in order r to be compa ared with a triangula ar wave in or rder to genera ate the switch hing pulses required d for the IGBT Ts. The mism match error in t the reactive power is s used to contro ol the magnitud de of the refere ence signal. On the o other hand, the e mismatch err ror in the activ ve power is used to control the p phase angle of f the generated d reference signal. P Proportional/int tegral controlle ers are used to control the active an nd reactive po ower errors. T The parameters s of the PI controlle ers are selected d based on trial l and error. B. Stand dalone Mode of Operation (V V/f mode) When th the system is intentionally y/accidently di isconnected from the e grid, the con ntrol system m must automatic cally detect the islan nding in order r to change th he control obj bjectives. A passive inverter-resi ident method d islanding detection techniqu ue, which is b based on over rvoltage detect tion[10], is used in n this research h work. In P Passive inver rter-resident methods s, islanding is detected by d detecting any a abnormality in the v voltage at the PCC. If the a amplitude of t the voltage changes to be outside of predetermin ned limits, the over/under voltage detection will switch the inv verter control to the new mode o of operation t that is comp patible with t the system condition ns.

VFdc VFd 5

g5

2 g3 6 A g1 4 IND + + cap #2 #1 C B g4 g6 g2

QL

Psup, Qsup

Si ingle input co omparator

VPCC

S R C

PL

Q ctrl Q

BRK1

Dela ay T

Figure 2 Circuit C Diagra am of the Stud dy System A. Grid Connect ted Mode of Op peration (P/Q mode) In this mode, the e control objec ctive is to supp ply fixed amou unts of f active and rea active power to t the grid. Th he inverter outp put vo oltage angle an nd magnitude are controlle ed to control the t act tive and reacti ive powers sup pplied to the grid. g The reacti ive po ower can be co ontrolled by co ontrolling the magnitude of V2 (Figure.3.), whil le, the active power can be b controlled by co ontrolling the in nverter output angle a (2).

Grid

V1 1

Fig gure 3 Two bus s equivalent circ cuit of the study y system

G rid

Fig ure 4 Propose ed Automatic Islanding Det tection Technique e Fig. 4 s shows a block k diagram of f the islanding g detection techniqu ue used in this s paper. The v voltage magni itude at the PCC is s measured a and is provid ded to a sin ngle input compara ator. The comp parator compar res the voltage of the PCC with the voltage limits s which are ch hosen to be 10% % below or above th he systems no ominal voltage e. Accordingly y, once the voltage magnitude violates the pr redetermined limits, the compara ator will gener rate a signal. T The generated signal will be used t to change the o output of an S-R flip-flop. Th he S-R flipflop outp put will genera ate a control sig gnal to switch the inverter control s system to the st tandalone mod de control objectives. In this m mode, the objec ctive is to contr rol the voltage e magnitude and freq quency. The loa ad three-phase e voltage is me easured and compare ed with thre ee reference sinusoidal si ignal with frequenc cy of 60 Hz (Fi igure 5). Each of these refere ence signals has 120 0o from the other two sign nals. The diffe erence (i.e. mismatc ch error) betw ween the mea asured voltage es and the reference e signals is f fed to PI con ntrollers. And hence, the

Inverter output o

V2 2

4 co ontrollers outp puts will be use ed to generate pulses to cont trol the e inverter swi itches. On oth her words, po ositive error will w ge enerate positive pulse and consequently c will w increase the t loa ad voltage and d vice versa. In n this mode of operation, it will w be e assumed that the load dema and is lower tha an the PV system cap pacity in order r to justify the proposed p schem me.

P Vre ef(a) Va D + F I

gate(a a)

B Comparator 00 0.0

Fig gure 7 Reactive Power Supplied d to the Grid (k kVAR)

Figu ure 5 Voltage co ontrol during standalone mode e of operation

The sup pplied power l limits are main nly affected b by the solar cell irrad diance, cell tem mperature, we eather conditions, number of series s/parallel cells, the three phas se local load de emand, and the inver rter rating. B. Effec ct of Solar Cell l Irradiance The syst tem is normally operated at t nominal irrad diance. The desired a active power i is set to 80kW W, assuming the e irradiance is decrea ased (at t=11.8 8sec) to 60% o of the nominal irradiance. As show wn in Figure 8, the supplied a active power is s reduced to 25kW, a although the de esired power i is still 80kW. This is due to the re eduction of the e system power r limits. It is o obvious that the cont troller will op perate as desi ired when the e reference active po ower is set to any value belo ow 25kW. At t=13.5 sec, the refer rence active po ower is reduced d to 20kW, as expected in this case e, the supplied power will fol llow the refere ence power, as shown n in Figure 8.

IV. . EXPERIMEN NTAL RESUL LTS In this section, , the study system is inv vestigated und der dif fferent operat ting conditions in order to show the t eff fectiveness of the t proposed sm mart controller r. A. Grid Connect ted Mode of Op peration In this case, the system s is conn nected to a three phase electrical gri id. The system m has a 90kW, 50kVAr three phase local load. Th he PV array ha as a nominal power of 260kW W. As mention ned be efore, the active e and reactive powers p deliver red to the grid are a co ontrolled using SPWM. The active a power reference r value e is set t to 40kW, wh hile the reactive e reference is set to zero (un nity po ower factor). At t=11sec, the desired active power is suddenly increas sed to 80kW. At A t=20sec, the e active power r is inc creased again to t be 100kW. Figure F 6 show ws the variation n of the e output active e power, while Figure 7 show ws the variation n of the e output reactive power. As A shown in the figures, the t co ontroller can successfully s co ontrol the active and reacti ive po owers delivered d to the grid. On the other hand, when the t de esired active power p is incr reased to 100 0kW, the outp put rea active power is not zero any ymore. This is due to operati ing the e system closer r to its power capacity c limits. This means th hat the ere is no enoug gh reactive pow wer available in i the PV system to supply the lo oad and opera ate the system m at unity pow wer fac ctor.

Figu ure 8 Effect of f Solar Irradia ance on Active e Power Su upplied to the Grid C. Islan nding Mode of Operation In this c case study, the system was or riginally conne ected to the anding is assum med to take place and the grid. At t=4.02sec, isla system i is disconnected d from the grid d. The control system was originall ly operating a at constant ac ctive and reac ctive power mode. T Thus, once th he system is isolated from m the grid; overvolt tage takes pla ace at the load d terminals at t t=4.02sec (Figure 9). The pr roposed contr rol system d detects the nce of the over rvoltage and sw witches the con ntrol system occurren to the V/ /f control mod de (Figure 9); th he reference vo oltage is set to 110V V phase to gro ound. The ins stantaneous va ariations of phase a a load and refe ference voltage es are shown in n Figure 10.

Figure 6 Ac ctive Power Supplied to the e Grid (kW)

5 Figure 11 shows the instantaneous three phase load voltage during islanding mode. The THD during islanding mode of operation is around 6% (Figure 12); which is an acceptable range.
y
M ain : Graphs 180 170 160 150 140 y 130 120 110 100 90 80 3.980 4.000 4.020 4.040 4.060 4.080 4.100 4.120 4.140 4.160 4.180 Vref Vrms

Main : Graphs 40.0 35.0 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 11.0 12.0 13.0 14.0 voltage THD

Figure 12 Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) During Islanding Mode V. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK In this paper, a smart Control system was developed in order to control a solar system when connected/disconnected (islanding) to a three phase grid. The developed control system can automatically detect islanding, and hence change the control system from a P/Q control to a V/f control. The proposed control system was tested under different system conditions. In the grid connection mode, the control system provides an efficient active and reactive power control, which is limited by the load demand, solar irradiance, and switches power ratings. When the system is disconnected from the grid (i.e. islanding), the controller successfully detects the islanding and operates as a voltage regulator with high power quality objective. The proposed voltage regulation control technique shows excellent results in terms of voltage magnitudes and power quality. The output voltage is limited by the solar irradiance, and the weather conditions. The developed control system parameters were determined by trial and error.
It is important to stress that the proposed control system must be integrated with additional storage systems controls and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controls in order to overcome the inherent variability of the PV output power. This research focus was only on providing a technique for operating the system on grid and standalone modes. Integration and coordination with storage and MPPT control is the proposed future work for this research in order to provide a global smart control system.

Figure 9 Variation of Load Phase to Ground Voltage During Islanding Mode of Operation
Main,standalonecontrol : Graphs 0.60 0.50 0.40 0.30 0.20 0.10 0.00 -0.10 -0.20 -0.30 -0.40 -0.50 7.100 Ea Earef

7.120

7.140

7.160

7.180

7.200

7.220

Figure 10 Instantaneous Load and Reference Voltages

Main : Graphs 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20 0.00 y -0.20 -0.40 -0.60 -0.80 19.360 19.380 19.400 19.420 19.440 19.460 19.480 19.500 Ec Eb Ea

VI. REFERENCES [1] Earth Policy Institute (EPI),Report 2007. [2] P. M. S. B. K. Bose, and R. L. Steigerwald, "Microcontroller control of residential photovoltaic power conditioning system," IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 21, p. 10, 1985. [3] H. A. C. B. P. G. Barbosa, M. do Carmo Barbosa Rodrigues, and E. C. Teixeira, "Boost current multilevel inverter and its application on single-phase gridconnected photovoltaic systems," IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 21, p. 9, 2006. [4] M. Q. a. K. M. Rahman, "Development of a New PhaseAngle Controlled Grid-Connected PV System," presented at the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ICECE), 2010. [5] G. C. K. Pyo, H.W. ; Moon, S.I. , "A new operation method for grid-connected PV system considering

Figure 11 Three Phase Load Voltage During Islanding

6 voltage regu ulation in distr ribution system m " presented d at the IEEE Po ower and Ener rgy Society General G Meeting gConversion and Delivery of o Electrical Energy E in the 21st Century, 200 08. [6] ] X. L. P. W. P. C. Loh, "O Optimal coordin nation control for stand-alone PV system with w nonlinear load," in IPE EC, Conference Proceedings 2010, 2 pp. 104 - 109 [7] ] J. L. H. Wang, W "A nov vel stand-alone e PV generati ion system base ed on variabl le step size INC I MPPT and a SVPWM control " presented at the Powe er Electronics and a Motion Control Confere ence. IPEMC '09. IEEE 6th 6 International 2009. [8] ] C. D. M. JA AGow, "Develo opment of a photovoltaic arr ray model for use u in power-e electronics sim mulation studie es," IEEE Electr ric Power Appl lications, vol. 146, 1 pp. 193-20 00, 1999. [9] ] M. G. Sim mes, "Electric cal Model Development D and a Validation for f Distributed Resources", Citeseer, C 2007. [10 0] W. B. a. M. M Ropp, "Eva aluation of Isla anding Detecti ion Methods for r Utility-Intera active Inverters s in Photovolt taic Systems," Sandia Nat. Lab b., Albuquerque e, NM,2002. VII. BIO OGRAPHIES
Haytham A. Mostafa M was born n in Cairo, Egypt t, in 1979. He receiv ved the B.Sc. and the M.Sc. degrees in electrical engin neering from Ain n-Shams Univers sity, Cairo, Egypt, in n 2000 and 2006, respectively, and d is currently pursu uing the Ph.D. degree in electr rical engineering at the t University of Waterloo, Waterl loo, ON, Canada. rch interests include i distribut tion His resear automation, Sm mart Grids, Energy management, as well w as operation and d control of distrib buted generation.

Ramadan El l-Shatshat (S98 M01) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical e engineer ring versity of Garyoun nis, Benghazi, Lib bya, from the Univ in 1984 and 1992, respectively, and the Ph.D. deg gree m the University of in electrical engineering from aterloo, ON, Canad da, in 2001. Waterloo, Wa Currently, he is a Lecturer with the Departm ment of Electrical and a Computer Engineering, Univer rsity of Waterloo, Waterloo, W ON, Ca anada. He is pursu uing research on the t areas that con ntribute to renewa able ergy development. His research foc cuses on the opera ation and planning g of ene distributed generatio on (DG), conversion of power obta ained from renewa able ergy sources to grid-quality g ac pow wer, and the oper ration and control l of ene distribution power systems. He is a registered r Professi ional Engineer in the ovince of Ontario. Pro

Magdy M. A. Salama (F02 2) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees d in electric cal engineering fr rom Cairo Unive ersity, Cairo, Egyp pt, in 1971 and 19 973, respectively, , and the Ph.D. degree in electr rical engineering from the Univ versity of Waterl loo, Waterloo, ON N, Canada, in 197 77. Currently y, he is a Professor in the Departm ment of Electrical and Computer En ngineering, Univer rsity of Waterloo o. His research interests i include the ope eration and contro ol of distribution systems, s power-qu uality monitoring and mit tigation, asset man nagement, and elec ctromagnetics. He has consulted wid dely wit th government ag gencies and the electrical e industry y. He is a registe ered Pro ofessional Enginee er in the Province of o Ontario.