2012 Interational Conference on Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies [ICCEET]

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Jenier ./ Newlin Nishia.R
2
Rohini.G
3
Jamuna. V
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Jerusalem College of Engineering, Centre for
collaborative research with Anna University, Velachery main road, Pallikkaranai, Chennai-600 100, India.
Email: jeniinbox@gmail.com, newlinnishia@yahoo.co.in
Abstract: This paper presents the mathematical
model for a photovoltaic array. It has been
developed with the help of Matlab/Simulink
sofware package. Since the PV module has non
linear characteristics, it is necessary to model it
for the design and simulation of maximum power
point tracking (MPPT) for PV system
applications, and to study the dynamic analysis
of converters. This model of photovoltaic array is
user-friendly. The developed model is simulated
and analyzed in conjunction with power
electronics, for a maximum power point tracker.
The parameters of the photovoltaic array model
are obtained from the information available in
the datasheet. The same is also explained in this
paper.
0|WOI5photovoltaic array, equivalent model,
modeling , MAT LAB ISIMULINK
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, renewable sources such as solar,
wave and wind are being used for the generation of
electricity. Photovoltaic (PV) generation is getting
increasingly important as a renewable source due to
the advantages such as the absence of fuel cost, little
maintenance and no noise and wear due to the
absence of moving parts. With the development of
solar cell technology, the price of solar modules has
dropped dramatically. A recent worldwide survey
shows that in the last three years, the retail price of
solar modules has dropped by 16.95%. Solar cells
can convert the energy of sunlight directly into
electricity. The basic device of a photovoltaic system
is the photovoltaic cell. Cells may be grouped to form
panels or modules. Panels can be grouped to form
large photovoltaic arrays. The term array is usually
employed to describe a photovoltaic panel (with
several cells connected in series andlor parallel) or a
group of panels. Most of the time one are interested
in modeling photovoltaic panels, which are
978-1-4673-0210-4112/$31.00 2012 IEEE 436
commercial photovoltaic devices. This paper focuses
on modeling photovoltaic modules or panels
composed of several basic cells. The term array, used
henceforth, means any photovoltaic device composed
of several basic cells[1] -[2] . Figure 1 shows the
development of a PV panel from a cell. PV module
represents the fndamental power conversion unit of
a PV generator system. The output characteristics of
a PV module depend on the solar insolation
(incoming solar radiation), the cell temperature, and
the output voltage of the PV module. The main
contribution of this paper is the development of a PV
model using MA TLAB ISIMULINK. The developed
model is simulated and analyzed in conjunction with
power electronics for a maximum power point
tracker.
Figure 1 Photovoltaic cells, modules, panels, and array
II.PHOTOVOL TAlC MODELS
A solar cell or photovoltaic (PV) cell is a device that
converts solar energy into electricity by the
photovoltaic effect. A majority of the solar cells
produced, are composed of Silicon (Si) which exists
in sufcient quantities, and does not harm the
environment.
2012 Interational Conference on Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies [ICCEET]
The doping technique is used to obtain a surplus of
positi ve charge carriers (p-type) or negative cariers
(n-type). When two layers of different doping are in
contact, then a p-n junction is formed on the
boundary. An interal electric feld is built up, which
then causes the separation of the charge carriers
released by light. Light is composed of small packets
called photons. When these photons bombard, many
electrons are feed within the electric feld proximity,
which then pulls the electrons fom the p-side to n
side. Through metal contacts, an electric charge can
be taped. If the outer circuit is closed, then direct
current fows as illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Operation of a PV cell
Each of these cells produces around 0. 5V (for
Silicon). The voltage across a solar cell is primarily
dependent on the design and materials of the cell,
while the electrical current depends primarily on the
incident solar irradiance and the cell area.
A.Ideal photovoltaic cell
The use of equivalent electric circuits makes it
possible to model the characteristics of a PV cell. The
mathematical model for a photovoltaic cell can be
developed, using the MA TLAB package. The basic
equation fom the theory of semiconductors that
mathematically describes the I-V characteristic of the
ideal photovoltaic cell is
(1)
Where, Id=lo.cell[exp(qV/akt)-l] (2)
1=lpv,cell- 10.cell[exp(qV/akt)-1] (3)
Where, I
p
v.cell is the curent generated by the incident
light(it is directly proportional to the sun irradiation),
Id is the diode equation, 10,cell is the reverse saturation
or leakage current of the diode , q is the electron
charge [1. 60217646 10-19C], k is the Boltzmann
437
constant [1. 3806503 10-23J/K] , T is the
temperature of the )-H junction, and 'a' is the diode
ideality constant. Figure 3 shows the equivalent
circuit of ideal PV cell.
lUc3! N Cc
---....---..--.--....--
t
t
~

'|"

v
.
:
1-________________________
Figure J Ideal PV equivalent circuit
B. Modeling the photovoltaic array
The same technique is extended for developing the
mathematical model of a PV module. Practical arrays
are composed of several connected PV cells, and the
observation of the characteristics at the terminals of
the PV array, requires the inclusion of additional
parameters (as shown in fgure 4) to the basic
equation:
\|CC 1 = ._!lQ is the thermal voltage of the
array with ._ cells connected in series. Cells
connected in parallel increase the current and cells
connected in series provide greater output voltages.
V, I are the terminal voltage and current.
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I
c........................................................
Figure 4 Equivalent circuit of a practical photovoltaic
device including the series and parallel resistances
For a good solar cell, the series resistance, R" should
be very small and the shunt (parallel) resistance, R
p
,
should be very large. For commercial solar cells, R
p
is much greater than the forward resistance of a
diode. The I-V curve is shown in Figure 5. The curve
has three important points namely, open circuit
voltage (V oc), short circu it current (lsc) and maximum
power point. In this model single diode is considered.
The J-1characteristic of the photovoltaic device
shown in Figure 5 depends on the interal
2012 Interational Conference on Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies [ICCEET]
characteristics of the device and on exteral
infuences such as the irradiation level and
temperature.
(r)
8
lllum|natIon
Figure 5 I-V characteristics of a PV cell
V oIt)
This model offers simplicity and accuracy, with
the basic structure composed of a current source and
a parallel diode. The simplicity of the single-diode
model, with its fexibility of adjusting the parameters
and scope for improving makes this model perfect
for the simulation of photo voltaic devices with power
converters.
Manufacturers's data sheets, provide data like the
nominal open-circuit voltage c'n' the nominal short
circuit current I
SC
'n, the voltage at the maximum
power point Vp, the current at the maximum power
point Imp, the open-circuit voltage/temperature
coeffcient J _ , the short-circuit current/temperature
coefcient J , and the maximum experimental peak
output power ax[ Details like the light-generated
current, the series and shunt resistances, the diode
ideality constant, the diode reverse saturation curent,
and the bandgap energy of the semiconductor with
reference to the nominal or standard test conditions
(STC) of temperature and solar irradiation will not be
provided by the manufacturer in the datasheets.
The light generated current will be equal to Isc but in
this model it is determined by
(5)
Where I
p
v.n is the light-generated current at the
nominal condition (usually 25

C and
1000W/m\LT=T-Tn (being T and Tn the actual and
nominal temperatures [K]), G [W/m
2
] is the
irradiation on the device surface, and Gn is the
nominal irradiation.
The value of I
p
v is chosen fom
(6)
438
The diode saturation current can be determined by
(7)
VI,n being the thermal voltage of Ns series-connected
cells at the nominal temperature
Tn. The value of the diode constant 'a' may be
arbitrarily chosen. Usually 1 _ a _ 1.5 and the choice
depends on other parameters of the I-V model. The
values of R
p
and Rs are selected such that Rs is
chosen iteratively by starting fom zero, and R
p
by
III. SIMULATION OF THE PHOTO VOLTAIC
ARRAY
The simulations are carried out using
MA T ALB/SIMULINK package. The developed
mathematical model of the PV array is used for the
simulation studies. Various parameters of the PV
array are determined and chosen. For the simulation
work, we consider the solar panel model ND-1240Q2.
The specifcations of the panel ND-1240Q2 are given
in Table1.
Table ! Specifcations of solar panel ND-1240Q2
Open circuit voltage Voe 37.5V
Short circuit current Ise 8.61A
Maximwn output power 240W
Voltage at maximum power 30.2V
Current at maximum power 7.95A
A. Selection of Rs and R
p
Rs is iteratively chosen by incrementing the values
fom O. R
p
is chosen based on equation 8.Decreasing
R
p
too much will lead V oe to drop, and increasing Rs
too much will lead Ise to drop.
B. Calculation of Io
2012 Interational Conference on Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies [ICCEET]
10 depends strongly on the temperature hence, the
simulation circuit of 10 includes Kv and Ki which are
the voltage and current coeffcients
10=(lsc,n+kl T)/exp[(Voc,n+Ki T)/aVtl-l (9)
Based on equation 9 10 is calculated.
C. Calculation of I
p
v
The light generated by the incident light is simulated
according to equation 5 where in I
p
v,n is calculated
fom equation 7.
D. Equivalent model
The light generated by the PV is modeled as an
equivalent current source. The series and parallel
resistances are connected and simulated. The various
equations describing the PV array characteristics are
modeled using suitable mathematical blocks fom the
simulink library. The simulink model is shown in
Figure 6.This simulation is done for the standard test
condition (STC) i.e. temperature is 25C and
Irradiation is 1000 W/m
2

'npc.

mp!u

439
Figure O Photovoltaic circuit model built with
MA TLAB/SIMULINK
The PV array is modeled separately and put in a
MA TLAB subsystem, which contains all the
equations required for modeling a PV array. This
subsystem is integrated with the PV aray which
replaces the constant DC voltage source of the
chopper. Figure 7 shows the integrated PV array with
the boost converter.

Figure Integrated PV array - boost converter circuit

IV.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The I-V and P-V characteristic curves of the
simulated model for 800 W/m
2
and 25C are shown
in Figure 8a and 8b. The simulated I-V, P-V curves at
different insolation levels are shown in Figures 8, 9
and lO.The graph in Figure 8 represents the behavior
of a solar cell at particular intensities of solar
radiation. The point at which a curve intersects the
2012 Interational Conference on Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies [ICCEET]
vertical axis is known as the short circuit condition. It
defmes how the cell operates if a wire is connected
between its terminals, shorting it out. The current
fow here is known as Isc. Because there is no voltage,
the cell delivers no power.
~
1
>
L
+
46
J5

Z5
Z
5
6
J
Z5
Z
5

5
6

Z
Figure 8(a)
2
Figure 8(b)
J
V0
J 4
V0_0
Figure 8(a) P-Y curve 8(b) I-Y curve
4
5
The point at which a curve intersects the horizontal
axis, is where the cell operates if it is unconnected.
This is known as the open circuit condition, and the
voltage produced is denoted as N. Because the
current is zero, no power is delivered.
440
CurrnI VolICur
'
- `
`'
\
~-!+j:;.m
\
\
~:-wj:.m
~:-twj:.m
I I I I' J
Mtk\aKqe
Figure 9 P-Y curves at different insolation levels
For every point on the graph, the voltage and current
can be mUltiplied to calculate the power. If this
power output curve is plotted on the original graph
for fll sunlight, the power-voltage curves can be
obtained as shown in FigurelO.
P0w0t V0I0Lu|v0
6
I5 ~
100
l
150
i
-sj:1000w/;q.m
-sj:800w/sq.m
100 M
-sj:600w/sq.m
50 "

10 15 m 25 Y 35 W 45
ModuleVolat
Figure 10 P-Y curves at different insolation levels
The power is maximum at a single operating point.
This is known as the "Maximum Power Point", or
MPP. If one is to get the most out of the solar cells, it
is essential to operate around the MPP. The quality of
a PV cell is ofen rated with a characteristic, called its
"Fill Factor". This is defmed as the maximum power
produced (at MPP), divided by the product of Isc and
N. The fll factor will always be less than 1. The
boost converter output voltage at the STC is shown in
Figure 11.
2012 Interational Conference on Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies [ICCEET]
Figure 11 Boost converter output voltage at STC
V.CONCLUSION
This paper has dealt with the development of a
mathematical model for photovoltaic arrays, using
the MA TLAB package. The objective of the method
is to ft the mathematical J-1 equation to the
experimental remarkable points of the J- 1curve of
the practical array. This method is simple, and the
same model can be developed for Ns N
p
number of
cells. The developed model can be used for power
electronic applications.
VI.REFERENCES
[1] Muhammad H. Rashid, "Power Electronics
Handbook Circuits, Devices, And
Applications ,Second Edition.
[2] G. N. Tiwari and Swapnil Dubey, "Fundamentals
of Photovoltaic Modules and Their Applications"
RSC Energy Series No. 2.
[3]J.A. Gow and C.D. Manning "Development of a
model for photovoltaic arrays suitable for use in
simulation studies of solar energy conversion
systems'Power Electronics and Variable Speed
Drives, Conference Publication No. 429.
[4]www.sharusa.com/solar
[5] H. Patel and V. Agarwal. MA TLAB-based
modeling to study the effects of partial shading on
PV array characteristics.lEEE Transactions on
Energ Conversion, 23(1):302-310, 2008.
[6] Weidong Xiao, W. G. Dunford, and A. Capel. A
novel modeling method for photovoltaic cells. In
Proc. IEEE 35th Annual Power Electronics
Specialists Conference, PESC, v. 3, p. 1950-1956,
2004.
[7] Y. Yusof, S. H. Sayuti, M. Abdul Latif, and M. Z.
C.Wanik. Modeling and simulation of maximum
power point tracker for photo voltaic system. In Proc.
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National Power and Energ Conference, PECon, p.
88-93, 2004.
[8] D. Sera, R. Teodorescu, and P. Rodriguez. PV
panel model based on datasheet values. In Proc.
IEEE International Symposium on Industrial
Electronics, ISlE, p.2392-2396, 2007.
[9]A. Kajihara and A. T. Harakawa. Model of
photovoltaic cell circuits under partial shading. In
Proc. IEEE International Conference on Industrial
Technolog, ICIT, p. 866-870, 2005.
[10] N. D. Benavides and P. L. Chapman. Modeling
the effect of voltage ripple on the power output of
photovoltaic modules. IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Electronics, 55(7):2638-2643, 2008.
[11] W. De Soto, S. A. Klein, and W. A. Beckman.
Improvement and validation of a model for
photovoltaic array performance. Solar Energ,
80(1):78-88, January 2006.
[12]France Lasnier and Tony Gan Ang. Photovoltaic
engineering handbook. Adam Hilger, 1990.
[13] K. Khouzam, C. Khoon Ly, C.and Koh, and Poo
Yong Ng. Simulation and real-time modelling of
space photovoltaic systems. In IEEE 1st World
Conference on Photovoltaic Energ Conversion,
Conference Record of the 24th IEEE Photovoltaic
Specialists Conference, v. 2, p. 2038-2041, 1994.
[14] M. C. Glass. Improved solar array power point
model with SPICE realization. In Proc. 31st
Intersociet Energ Conversion Engineering
Conference, IECEC, v. 1, p. 286-291, August 1996
J0u01.1 is currently pursuing
her M.E(power electronics and
drives) in Jerusalem college of
engineering, Anna university,
Chennai. She has completed her
B. E in Electrical and Electronics
engineering in the year 2010 in
Tagore Engineering college,
Anna university Chennai.
Newlin Nishia.R is currently
pursuing her M.E(power
electronics and drives) in
Jerusalem college of engineering,
Anna university, Chennai. She has
completed her B. E in
Electricaland Electronics
engineering in the year 2010 in Tagore Engineering
college, Anna university , Chennai.
2012 Interational Conference on Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies [ICCEET]
G.Rohini is Assistant Professor
in Electrical and Electronics
Engineering
Department, Jerusalem College
of Engineering, Chennai, India.
She received her B.E. degree in
Electrical Electronics
Engineering fom IR TT Erode.
M.E. degree in Power Electronics and Drives fom
CEG Anna University, Chennai, and currently
pursuing her ph.D. She has more than 10 years of
teaching experience.
V.Jamuna is Associate
Professor in Electrical and
Electronics Engineering
Department, Jerusalem
College of Engineering,
Chennai, India. She received
her B.E. degree in Electrical
Electronics Engineering fom
St.Peter's Engineering
College, Madras University, Chennai, India in 1999,
M.E. degree in Power Electronics and Drives fom
Anna University, Chennai, India in 2005, Ph.D fom
Anna university in 2010. She has secured ffh
university rank in her P. G degree. She has 12 years of
teaching experience. She has published over 15
technical papers in national and interational
conferences proceedings / jourals. She is life
member of Indian Society for Technical Education.
She is a member of Institution of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers. Her research interests include
Induction Motor Drives and Neural Network
controller for drives.
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