IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 16, NO.

3, MAY 2001

293

Generation Control Circuit for Photovoltaic Modules

Toshihisa Shimizu, Member, IEEE, Masaki Hirakata, Tomoya Kamezawa, and Hisao Watanabe

AbstractPhotovoltaic modules must generally be connected

in series in order to produce the voltage required to efficiently
drive an inverter. However, if even a very small part of photovoltaic
module (PV module) is prevented from receiving light, the generation power of the PV module is decreased disproportionately. This
greater than expected decrease occurs because PV modules which
do not receive adequate light cannot operate on the normal operating point, but rather operate as loads. As a result, the total power
from the PV modules is decreased if even only a small part of the
PV modules are shaded. In the present paper, a novel circuit, referred to as the generation control circuit (GCC), which enables
maximum power to be obtained from all of the PV modules even if
some of the modules are prevented from receiving light. The proposed circuit enables the individual PV modules to operate effectively at the maximum power point tracking, irrespective of the series connected PV module system. In addition, the total generated
power is shown experimentally to increase for the experimental
set-up used in the present study.
Index TermsAC interactive inverter, multistage chopper, photovoltaic module.
Fig. 1. Series and parallel connection of photovoltaic modules. (a) Series
connection. (b) Parallel connection.

I. INTRODUCTION

ECENTLY, awareness of the importance of protecting the

global environment has been growing, leading to calls for
progress in the effective use of energy in various fields. As a
result, not only methods for saving energy, but also the development of the new energy sources has been investigated. PV
cells are currently considered to be a new energy source, and
a great deal of research has been conducted in this field over
the last few decades. As a result, the major disadvantages previously associated with the application of PV power generation, such as initial cost, generation efficiency, and reliability,
no longer present such a significant problem. PV generation is
a flexible power generation method which is applicable in both
small and large power generation plants, i.e., plants that generate anywhere from less than 3 kVA to over 100 kVA. In recent
years, interest in small PV power generation systems designed
to be installed and used in the house has grown. However, especially in urban areas, various problems limit the effectiveness
and economic feasibility of PV power generation. When a typical urban home is equipped with a PV power generation system,

Manuscript received November 15, 1999; revised February 3, 2001. Recommended by Associate Editor K. Smedley.
T. Shimizu is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo
Metropolitan University, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan (e-mail: shimizu@eei.
metro-u.ac.jp).
M. Hirakata is with the Fuji Electric Company, Ltd., Mie 513-0816, Japan
(e-mail: hirakata-masaki@fujielectric.co.jp).
T. Kamezawa is with the Hitachi Company, Ltd., Chiba 275-8611, Japan
(e-mail: kame@gm.narashino.hitachi.co.jp).
H. Watanabe is with the Toshiba Company, Ltd., Tokyo 183-0043, Japan
(e-mail: hisao@wta.att.ne.jp).
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8993(01)04043-1.

the PV modules are normally installed on the roof. Thus, in addition to shadows created by clouds, those created by neighboring homes, trees, utility and/or telephone poles, and power
line cables sometimes partially cover these PV modules. In conventional PV power systems, these shadows lower the overall
generation power to a larger degree than was initially expected.
Thus, the construction cost is increased, because the number of
PV modules installed on the roof must be increased, and as a
result, PV power generation will be less attractive. Therefore,
the present authors developed a new circuit, called the generation control circuit (GCC), which maintains generation power
even when some of the PV modules are shaded from light. In
this method, GCC controls individually the operation point of
each of the PV modules, including the shaded PV modules, so
as to generate the maximum power for each of the modules. As
a result, the decrease in the total generation power is minimized.
In the present paper, the characteristics and problems associated with parallel-connected and series-connected PV modules
are discussed. Next, the principle by which the generation control circuit operates is presented in relation to solving the above
mentioned problems. Two types of practical circuit configurations for GCC are proposed and the control schemes of these
configurations are described. In addition, the effectiveness of
the proposed circuit is confirmed experimentally [1][4].
II. CONNECTION METHODS OF PV MODULES
ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS

AND

A. Connection Methods
In the PV power generation system, multiple PV modules are
generally connected in series, as shown in Fig. 1(a), in order to

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Fig. 3. Generation characteristics for two parallel-connected PV modules.

(a) I V characteristics. (b) P V characteristics.

Fig. 2. Shadow effect on the PV modules. (a) Construction of PV module and

its internal connection. (b) Generation current on the partially shadowed PV
modules.

obtain sufficient dc voltage for realizing high conversion efficiency in the AC interactive inverters. Furthermore, the conventional PV module is constructed of several PV cells connected in
series, as shown in Fig. 2(a). Fig. 2(b) shows the measured generation current when some of the PV cells on a PV module are
covered partially by a shadow. It is clear that even the slightest
shadow falling on a PV module causes a significant drop in generation power. Consequently, the case in which the shaded PV
modules in the PV generation system do not operate under uniform generation conditions should be examined.
When the nonshaded PV modules and the shaded PV modules
are connected in parallel, the generation voltage is fixed for each
PV module and is uniform throughout the entire PV generation
system, and the current generated from each PV module flows
without restriction, as shown in Fig. 1(b). In other words, the
output voltage of the PV system becomes the voltage of a single

module, and the output current becomes the sum of the currents
in each module.
In contrast, when each PV module is connected in series, the
same current flows through each module and the output voltage
becomes the sum of the voltages across each of the modules.
However, the voltage of each module is decided according to
the generation current, which depends on the generation conditions. Therefore, the optimal generation voltages are not always
obtained for each PV module. In particular, when some of the
PV modules do not have sufficient generation current, as shown
in Fig. 2(a) and (b), the voltage of the PV modules is greatly
decreased and the resultant generation power is also greatly decreased.
The individual generation conditions for series-connected or
parallel-connected PV modules are clarified in the following
section through consideration of the operation point.
B. Operation in Parallel-Connected PV Modules
Fig. 3(a) shows the typical generation characteristics and
curve for two parallel-connected PV modules that have different
generation conditions. In this figure, PV and PV represent
shaded and nonshaded modules, respectively. In parallel connection, the generation voltage is the same for each PV module.
Thus, the operating point of each PV module is given by the
point of intersection of the operation line, which is parallel to

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295

the -axis (for example,

, and ), and the curve
of each PV module. When the output current of the PV system
is increased from zero to the maximum current, the operation
point of each PV module moves as indicated in Fig. 3(b),
for PV and
for PV . This operation characteristic reveals that not only the nonshaded modules,
but also the shaded module, can operate in the area where each
PV module can generate power. Hence, the total output power
characteristics of these PV modules, the curve, is obtained
, is
as shown in Fig. 3(b). Then, the total output power,
given by
(1)
: generation power on PV ,
: generation
where,
power on PV .
If each voltage is equivalent at the maximum power point,
, obtained at the maximum power
the output power,
point, in this case point , becomes
(2)
and
where,
PV , respectively.

are the maximum power on PV and

C. Operation in Series-Connected PV Modules

Fig. 4(a) shows the typical curve for PV modules connected in series for the same conditions shown in Fig. 3(a). In
series connection the generation current is the same for each PV
module. Therefore, the operating point of each PV module is
given by the point of intersection of the operation line, parallel
, and ), and the
to the -axis (for example,
curve of each PV module. When the output current of the PV
system is increased from zero to the maximum current, the operation point of each PV module moves as indicated in Fig. 4(a),
for PV and
for PV .
On operation line , the shaded PV module, PV , generates its maximum power, but the nonshaded module, PV , does
not generate its maximum power yet. When the operation line
moves to , the operation points of each module PV and PV
move to
and
, respectively, and the generation power
,
on PV increases. However, the operation point of PV ,
moves to the negative voltage region because the current generated from PV flows through the bypass diode connected in
anti-parallel with PV , and the resultant generation power on
PV becomes negative. This means that the shaded PV module
cannot generate any power and causes a power loss. On operation line , the nonshaded PV module, PV , generates the
, but the shaded module, PV , cause a
maximum power,
. Hence, the output power,
, on this system
power loss
is decreased to
(3)
The total output power characteristic of this PV system, the
curve, is obtained in the same manner and is shown in
Fig. 4(b). Two peaks in power exist, but the output powers at

Fig. 4. Generation characteristics for two series-connected PV modules.

(a) I V characteristics. (b) P V characteristics.

these peak points are much smaller than that of the parallel connected condition shown in Fig. 3(b).
Although only two-PV module connection is described in the
present paper, the mechanism by which power reduction occurs
for multiple PV modules that are connected in series is similar
to that for two-PV module connection.
III. GENERATION CONTROL CIRCUIT (GCC)
A. Operation Principles of the Generation Control Circuit
(GCC)
Fig. 5(a) and (b) show the operation principles of the proPV modules are
posed generation control circuit, in which
connected in series. The GCC has multiple voltage sources,
to
, and the sum of these voltage,
to
, is equivalent to
, on the system. Also, voltage sources
the output voltage,
through
are connected in parallel to PV modules PV
through PV , respectively. For the circuit shown in Fig. 5(a),
not only the output power of this system but also the power for
GCC are always supplied from the output terminal on the series connected PV module. However, for the circuit shown in
to
, on GCC generFig. 5(b), the voltage source, from
ates the positive or negative output power in two ways because
and
in Fig. 5(a), do not exist.
input terminals, such as
Therefore, while some of these voltage sources generate positive output power, the other sources generate negative output
power, and hence the sum of all of these powers should be zero.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 16, NO. 3, MAY 2001

Fig. 6. Circuit configuration of GCC based on a dc/dc converter.

Hence, the output current,

, and the output power,
, on
this system are calculated as equations (8) and (9), respectively
(8)
(9)

Fig. 5. Operating principle of the generation control circuit. (a) Type A.

(b) Type B.

In the system shown in Fig. 5(a),

largest current, i.e.,

is assumed to be the

(4)
and
is supplied by voltage
The difference between
, enabling PV to maintain generation voltage .
source
, and the input power,
,
Thus, the total output power,
on GCC are calculated as

Equation (9) demonstrates that each PV module generates its

own power on the desired generation voltage, even though the
respective generation currents dont coincide with each other.
Furthermore, the power obtained from the output terminal on the
system is the sum of the power generated by these PV modules.
in (6),
In the system shown in Fig. 5(b), the input power,
must be zero because there is no input terminal for the current
, as shown in Fig. 5(a). Hence, the output current
equals
. However, there is no restriction of the current direction on
to PV
the current to . Therefore, the power flows from
when the difference between
and ,
, is positive
when
is negative, and the sum
and from PV to
of all these powers is zero. Then (5) is revised to
(10)
and the output current

is calculated as

(5)
(11)

and
(6)
where, is the input current of GCC.
Assuming that the loss on GCC is negligible, the input power
of GCC is equal to the sum of the output power
(7)

Hence, the resultant output power,

be obtained by (9).

, on the system can also

B. Practical Circuit Configuration of Generation Control

Circuit
Figs. 6 and 8 show the practical circuit configurations of the
proposed GCC, which realizes the principles shown in Fig. 5(a)
and (b), respectively. Fig. 6 shows the circuit configuration of a

SHIMIZU et al.: GENERATION CONTROL CIRCUIT FOR PHOTVOLTAIC MODULES

297

Fig. 9.

Fig. 7.

Operation waveforms of the dc/dc converter for the GCC.

Gate signal of the multistage chopper for the GCC.

PV module, thereby, is decided depending both on the

curve and on the generation voltage,
(12)
where,
terval

: OFF time of switch

, and

: Switching In-

(13)

(14)
Thus

equals the OFF-duty ratio

(15)

By substituting (15) into (11), the output current is calculated as

(16)
Therefore, the output power,

, is expressed as
(17)

Fig. 8. Circuit configuration of GCC based on a multistage chopper.

dc/dc converter having multiple dc voltage output. Each output

when the
voltage of the dc/dc converter is controlled to
number of output voltage sources is . Since the output voltages
cannot be controlled individually, precise generation voltage
control on each PV module cannot be realized. However, severe
power reduction is prevented on the shaded PV modules. The
most advantageous feature of this topology is the simple and
easy control of the dc/dc converter circuit as shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 8 shows the circuit configuration of a multistage chopper
circuit, and Fig. 9 shows the gate signals for the switches,
. The averaged voltage, , in Fig. 8 on steady-state
condition is obtained from the state space averaging method.
, is defined
When the OFF-duty ratio, , on each switch,
as Eqs. (12) and (13), the generation control voltage, , for
each PV module, PV , is decided in proportion to the switching
OFF-duty ratio, , as in (14). The generation current on each

Thus, individual control of each of the generation voltages,

and precise generation control is realized.

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF GENERATION

CHARACTERISTICS
In this chapter, some of the typical generation characteristics obtained from the experimental set-up are explained. The
two-stage chopper circuit shown in Fig. 10 is used in order to
simplify the explanation. Switching frequency of the chopper
circuit is selected to 20 kHz.
is expressed as
As mentioned in (16), output current
(18)
Since,

and

are
(19)

and
(20)

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Fig. 10.

power

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 16, NO. 3, MAY 2001

Two-stage chopper circuit for the GCC.

and

flowing into

and

are
(21)

and
(22)
From (14), (21), and (22), it is clear that
(23)
This result means that the chopper circuit allows bidirectional energy flow between each PV module and the direction of energy
flow is dependent upon the generation current of PV modules.
Fig. 11(a) and (b) show the experimental results of the generation characteristics (the and curves) on the nonshaded and the shaded PV modules. In order to simulate a partially shaded PV module, part of the PV module is shaded artificially. The output voltage, the output current, and the output
, and , respectively, on the shaded
power are defined as
, and , respectively, on the
PV module, PV , and as
nonshaded PV modules, PV .
, on PV is obIn Fig. 11(b), the maximum power,
, and the maximum power,
, on PV is
tained at
. In this case,
is slightly lower than
obtained at
, and
is lower than
. Since
is 3.94
is 16.1 W, the potential power,
,
W and
is 20.04 W. Fig. 12 shows the generation characteristics (
curves) when these two PV modules are connected in series.
Curves (a) and (b) show the generated power for inactive and active condition of generation control circuits as shown in Fig. 10,
respectively. In this case, GCC is operated at the condition of
and
. The maximum power is limited
W on curve (a), but the maximum
to
W on curve (b). Thus,
power increases to
assisted by the generation control circuit, these two PV modules can operate along the vertical operation line OP shown
in Fig. 11(b), and as a result the resultant generation power
is still
increases. However, the generation power
because the operation voltage
smaller than
of each PV module does not coincide with the optimum value,
and
, in each PV module.
As mentioned previously, the generation voltage across each
PV module is determined using (14). So the voltage ratio can
be controlled using OFF-duty factor control. Fig. 13(a) shows
, is changed
the operation lines when the OFF-duty ratio,
on PV2.
while maintaining a constant operation voltage

Fig. 11. Experimental results of generation characteristics on a partially

shaded PV module and a nonshaded PV module. (a) I V characteristics.
(b) P V characteristics.

Fig. 12. Experimental results of generation characteristics on the two seriesconnected PV module. (a) GCC is inactive. (b) GCC is active.

Fig. 13(b) shows the generation power for the previous gener,
ation lines. The maximum power is obtained at
where the operation line crosses each of the maximum generaand
, and the resultant generation
tion voltages,
power is almost equal to the potential power of each of the PV

SHIMIZU et al.: GENERATION CONTROL CIRCUIT FOR PHOTVOLTAIC MODULES

Fig. 13. OFF-duty ratio control and output power. (a) Variation of the OFFduty ratio control and the resultant operation points. (b) Output power versus
the OFF-duty ratio.

modules. Thus, the OFF-duty control is effective in generating

the maximum power on each of the PV modules.
Fig. 14 shows the control system in which a multistage
chopper circuit is used for generation control. The output
, is controlled by the buck-chopper circuit so as to
current,
generate the maximum power at the given OFF-duty ratio of
GCC. On the OFF-duty factor control, only the output voltage
and the output current are measured, and each OFF-duty
is adjusted by a microcomputer. The control steps for this
multistage chopper are shown as follows.
Step 1) Initialize each OFF-duty as
.
Step 2) Set
Step 3) Keep the ratio of
except
constant, and adjust .
so as to generate the maximum power.
Step 4) Control
(change the target )
Step 5)
then
.
Step 6) If
Step 7) Repeat steps 36.
Fig. 15 shows the experimental result of OFF-duty control.
The generation power increases when the GCC control starts

299

Fig. 14.

Control system for GCC (multistage chopper).

Fig. 15.

Experimental result of the OFF-duty ratio control.

at t1. At t2, the generation power decreased because the artificially created shadows are increased on the PV1 modules,
but the power decrease is minimized. When the artificially created shadows are removed at t3, the generation power increases
again. This result demonstrates that the proposed OFF-duty control performs stable operation.
Fig. 16(a) and (b) show the experimental result of the field
test. Two systems, as shown in Fig. 16(a), were used in this
field test in order to compare the generation power. 12 PV modules are connected in series in each system and the output power
rating is 600 W. Generated power in each PV system are supplied to the utility line through the conventional ac interactive
inverters. In one system, roughly 4.5% of the surface of the
PV module was covered by the artificial shadow, as shown in
Fig. 16(a). In the other system, no shadow covered the surface
of the PV module. Fig. 16(b) shows the relationship between
the test results of the operation time and the generation power
on each system. Maximum generation power on the nonshaded
system reaches almost 480 W. On the shaded system, the generation control circuit was shut down at 9:15 AM and then reactivated at 12:20 AM. The generated power decreased considerably, to 300 W, when the generation control circuit was inactive.
When the generation control circuit was reactivated, the generated power increased to 360 W. These results verify the ability
of the generation control circuit to prevent large drops in generated power due to shadows on PV modules.

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REFERENCES
[1] M. Hirakata, T. Shimizu, and G. Kimura, Generation control circuit for
PV system, in Proc. ICEE96, vol. 2, Aug. 1996, pp. 992996.
[2] N. H. Kutkut, D. M. Divan, and D. W. Novotony, Charge equalization
for series connected battery strings, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 31,
pp. 562568, May/June 1995.
[3] H. Fujimoto, T. Kagotani, and H. Kidoguchi, Photovoltaic inverter with
a novel cycloconverter for interconnection to a utility line, in IEEE
Proc. IAS95, 1995, pp. 24612467.
[4] B. S. Borowy and Z. M. Salameh, Methodology for optimally sizing
the combination of a battery bank and PV array in a wind/PV hybrid
system, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. 11, pp. 367373, June
1996.

Toshihisa Shimizu (M80) was born in Tokyo,

Japan, in 1955. He received the B.E., M.E., and
Dr.Eng. degrees in electrical engineering from
Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan, in
1978, 1980, and 1991, respectively.
In 1998, he was a Visiting Professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, for four months. He joined
Fuji Electric Corporate Research and Development,
Ltd. in 1980. Since 1994, he joined the Department
of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, as an Associate Professor. His research interests include power converters, high frequency inverters, photovoltaic power generations, UPSs, EMI
problems, etc.
Dr. Shimizu has received the Transactions Paper Award from the Institute
of Electrical Engineers of Japan in 1999. He is a member of the Institute of
Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ) and the Japan Society of Power Electronics.

Fig. 16. Experimental result of the field test. (a) Block diagram of the
experimental setup. (b) Output power versus operation time.

V. CONCLUSIONS
The generation control circuit for PV modules is proposed,
and two practical circuit configurations, the dc/dc converter type
and the multistage chopper type, are presented. Despite the fact
that several of the PV modules are connected in series, the generation control circuit enables each of the individual PV modules to operate effectively at maximum power even when some
of the PV modules are covered by shadows. The dc/dc converter
type GCC yields simple and stable circuit operation, except for
the precise generation control on each PV module. The multichopper type GCC yields stable circuit operation and precise
generation control on each PV module. The OFF-duty control
method on the chopper type GCC is presented in order to optimize the generation voltage on each of the PV modules. Experimental and field tests demonstrated the effectiveness of the
proposed GCC. The number of stages on the multistage chopper
or the number of the secondary voltage circuits on the dc/dc converter should be determined by the number of PV modules that
are connected in series.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank G. Kimura for his help in
construction of a field experimentation model.

Masaki Hirakata was born in Gunma, Japan, in

1972. He received the B.E. degree in electrical
engineering from the Science University of Tokyo,
Japan, in 1995 and the M.E. degree in electrical
engineering from the Tokyo Metropolitan University
in 1997.
Since 1997, he has been with Fuji Electric
Company, Ltd., Tokyo, His research interests include
power converters, and ac drive systems.
Mr. Hirakata is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ).

Tomoya Kamezawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, in

1973. He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in electrical engineering from Tokyo Metropolitan University, in 1996 and 1998, respectively.
Since 1998, he has been with Hitachi Corporation,
Chiba, Japan. His research interests include power
converters and photovoltaic generation systems.

Hisao Watanabe was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1973.

He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in electrical
engineering from Tokyo Metropolitan University, in
1997 and 1999, respectively.
Since 1999, he has been with Toshiba Corporation, Tokyo. He has worked on the Development and
Design Section, Fuchu Works. His research interests
include power electronics for elevator and escalator
system.
Mr. Watanabe is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ).