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LabVIEW/MATLAB based simulator for grid

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives
LabVIEW/MATLAB Based Simulator for Grid
Connected PV System
Necmi ALTIN
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Faculty of Technology, Gazi University
Ankara, Turkey
naltin@gazi.edu.tr
Abstract In this study, LabVIEW and MATLAB/Simulink
programs has used together to develop a simulator of grid
connected photovoltaic system which has the maximum power
point tracking ability. System consists of a photovoltaic module
model, a DC/DC boost converter, a voltage source inverter, a
maximum power point tracking algorithm and current
controller. The photovoltaic panel and maximum power point
tracking algorithm are modeled in LabVIEW and a string with
ten serial connected modules is used as photovoltaic supply. The
two-stage converter composed of a DC / DC and a voltage source
inverter and inverter control structure have modeled in
MATLAB/Simulink. These components of the system have
communicated by using the simulation interface toolkit. PV panel
has set according to the datasheets and has been tested by using
maximum power point tracking algorithm for different
irradiation and temperature conditions. Maximum power point
and the instantaneous operating points have been stated on the
current-voltage and power-voltage graphs plotted during the
operation. This prepared simulator is sufficient for the pre-
assessment about the amount of energy to be produced for the
geographical planned to invest as well as it can be used for
educational purposes.
Keywords-PV simulator, MPPT, grid interactive inverter, boost
converter.
I. INTRODUCTION
Although the main energy sources are fossil fuels such as
coal, oil and natural gas, it is difficult for many countries to
meet the energy demand, because energy demand is increasing
day by day due to industrial development, increasing
population and demand for a better life quality. Also
environmental effects of these fossil sources are seen as a
problem. In order to solve these problems, clean and
inexhaustible alternative sources have been and as a result of
these studies, renewable energy sources such as solar, wind,
hydrogen, biomass has gained importance. The solar energy is
a clean, reliable and environmentally friendly source and it
seems as a major candidate to have significant share in energy
production in the future [1-5].
Solar energy is converted into DC electrical energy using
photovoltaic (PV) modules. Although PV modules have many
advantages; they have some disadvantages such as high cost
and low energy conversion efficiency. In the literature, there
are different studies on mitigating some of these disadvantages
and to provide the maximum benefit of the investment.
This work is supported by Gazi University Academic Research Projects
Units, under grant 07/2011-45 project number.
978-1-4673-6392-1/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE
POWERENG 2013
Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013
Tevfik YILDIRIMOGLU
Department of Electrical Education, Institute of Science and
Technology, Gazi University
Ankara, Turkey
t.yildirimoglu@hotmail.com
Different materials are used to increase the efficiency of PV
system, but limited improvement has been obtained yet.
Because the PV modules have maximum efficiency with a 90
angle to the sun light, sun tracking systems are designed which
follow the sun in two or single axis [6, 7, 8].
PV modules, even in conditions of constant temperature
and radiation, show a nonlinear current-voltage (I-V) and/or
power-voltage (P-V) characteristic. There is a unique point on
these curves that the PV modules generates maximum power
called maximum power point (MPP). Because the MPP of the
PV module varies with some parameters such as irradiation,
temperature and load level, the MPP of PV system has to be
tracked during the operation. Usually, maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) is carried out via static converters.
A simple PV system which includes a PV module, DC-DC
converter, inverter and loads is given in Fig.1. It is design to
provide maximum power transfer to the load/loads under any
circumstance. In this structure there are two power conversion
stages so it is called two-stage system. DC-DC converter tracks
the MPP and regulates the DC load voltage. In case of AC
power demand or grid connection, the power produced by the
PV module is converted into AC power by using DC/AC
inverters. On the other hand, both DC/AC conversion and
MPPT can be performed by using only one DC/AC inverter
which is known as single-stage systems [9-12].
In Fig. 1, DC/DC converter is desired to track the MPP of
the system. So, a special algorithm to determine the MPP of the
system and vary the operating point of the system to the MPP
all the time. This algorithm provides the MPPT. Different
MPPT algorithms and methods are proposed which can be
classified into two groups, called passive methods and active
methods [13, 14].
Fig. 1. Block diagram of solar energy conversion system.
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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives
Passive methods use some parameters such as the irradiation
level, panel temperature, short-circuit current, open-circuit
voltage and some other module parameters directly or by
utilizing mathematical equations. Firstly, the parameters for the
selected module are calculated and then the obtained data is
used for MPPT. Although these methods are simple, low cost
and removes the complex calculations, they cannot provide real
MPPT, because the module parameters change with pollution
or aging of the module [13, 15, 16].
The characteristics of the modules do not be taken into
consideration while applying the active methods, so module
independent MPPT is obtained. Such parameters like output
current, voltage or power of the module and / or the converter
circuit is to be monitored continuously to determine the
operation point and if it is MPP or not. Since the active
methods provide more actual results compared or passive
methods, they are widely used [14, 17]. In the literature,
different type of MPPT methods has been proposed. Perturb &
Observe (P&O) method, Incremental conductance (IC)
method, fuzzy logic control method, neural networks, parasitic
capacitance method and ripple correlation control method can
be given as example to these methods. Because of the
advantage of being easy to implement and the low costs, the
use of P&O and IC are more common among these methods
[18].
LabVIEW is a graphical programming language and it is
capable of many applications such as automation, data
acquisition, control, test and measurement. It is possible to
design easily without the need for writing code by using the
visualized design icons defined libraries of LabVIEW.
LabVIEW is composed of two worksheets. The first of these is
called as Front Panel which provides graphical user interface.
The other one is called as the Block Diagram and it carries
out the data flow to run the designed system. Besides of ability
to simulate of any system, real time monitoring and control
actions can be performed by using necessary equipment [19,
20].
In this study, a grid connected PV system simulator is
developed by using MATLAB/Simulink and LABVIEW
design programs. Proposed system is composed of three parts;
the PV module, the DC/DC converter and DC/AC inverter. The
inverter provides grid interactive operations while DC-Dc
converter provides MPPT. DC/DC converter and DC/AC
inverter and inverter controller are modeled with
MATLAB/Simulink environment. The other parts of the
system are designed with the LabVIEW. Data flow between
these programs is performed by using Simulation Interface
Toolkit (SIT). Simulator is designed to simulate different
panels by using some characteristic values which are obtained
from the datasheets. P&O method which runs in the LabVIEW
environment is used for MPPT. System has tested with serial
connected 10 modules with 200 W output power for each,
manufactured by KYOCERA. Results obtained by simulation
have showed that proposed system is able to perform tracking
the MPP for different irradiation, temperature and load
conditions, and grid interactive operation. The operating point
and MPP of the system, input-output current and voltage
waveforms of the DC/DC converter and inverter has been
POWERENG 2013
Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013
shown on the simulator, according to the change of irradiation
and temperature values depending on the selected panel.
II. PV CELL AND MATHEMATICAL MODEL
PV cells are manufactured using combination of p-n
semiconductor materials. Usually, germanium (Ge) and silicon
(Si) elements are used in production. However, there are PV
cells made of different semiconductor materials such as
Gallium arsenide (GaAs), cadmium telluride (CdTe), etc.
Furthermore single-crystalline and polycrystalline silicon cells
have been used currently in commercial modules. PV cells
convert solar energy into DC electricity directly. As the sun's
irradiance hit the surface of the pn junction of the PV cell, the
minority charge carriers (free electrons) is caused by the
breaking of one another. If the cell output is short-circuit or is
connected to a load, the current would flow. The equivalent
model of PV cells is given in Fig. 2 [20].
Fig. 2. The equivalent model of PV cells
If the PV cell in Fig.2 is assumed to be an ideal, the
relationship between the output current and voltage can be
written as Eq.1.
I = IPV I0 ( I ) (1)
where, IPV refers to the generated current by the effect of
irradiation, I0 refers to diode saturation current (or the holding
current in the opposite direction), q is amount of the unit
electron charge (1.60217646x10-19 C), k is the Boltzmann
constant (1.3806503 x10-23 J/K), T is the temperature of the
pn junction (K), indicates the diode ideality constant.
According to the characteristics of the semiconductor
material used in PV, some parameters change with time and if
they are not taken into consideration, variation of these
parameters may cause incorrect results in Eq. 1, In order to
create a real model, some parameters should be added to the
model as seen in Fig.2. In this case,, the equivalent of an ideal
relationship between the output current and voltage can be
written as in Eq.2.
I = IPV I0 ( 1 )
(2)
where, Rs is the equivalent series resistance. RP refers to the
equivalent parallel resistor of PV cell. In addition, solar cells
connected in parallel. In this case, Eq. 3 and Eq. 4 are used for
cell current and diode current.
Ipv = Ipv.Np (3)
I0 = I0 .Np (4)
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If Eq. 3 is used for the selected PV cell, non-linear current- dI L

L = Vg V0 (9)
voltage (I-V) and/or power-voltage (P-V) relation given in Fig. dt
3 occurs. In Fig.3, Voltage-Current (IV) and Power-Voltage
(PV) curves are given, where VOC is open-circuit voltage; ISC is dV0 V
C = IL 0 (10)
short-circuit current; PMPP is power at MPP; VMPP and IMPP are dt R
maximum power point voltage and current.
IV. DC/AC INVERTER
A single phase voltage source gird interactive inverter is
depicted in Fig. 1. As it is seen, the system consists of a DC
supply which is represented by VDC, a DC-AC voltage source
inverter (VSI) and a LCL output filter. The output filter is
employed to reduce the high frequency harmonic components
in current waveform due to PWM switching and to reduce the
output current THD. Since the resonant frequency of the LCL
filter is related with only values of L1, L2 and C, it is preferred
in grid interactive inverter applications. The state equations of
the system, depicted in Fig. 5 can be written in matrix form as
(a) (b)
Fig. 3. For PV module (a) Power-Voltage (P-V) graphics (b) Current-Voltage
given in Eq. 4 and Eq. 5 [21]:
(I-V) graphics
1
0 0 1
III. DC/DC CONVERTER I1 L1 I 0
1 L 1
 1 1
Equivalent model of the DC/DC boost converters is shown I inv = 0 0 I inv + 0 Vinv + Vgrid (11)
L2 L2
in Fig. 4, this circuit generates output voltage by increasing the VC VC 0


1 1
0 0
input voltage with certain rates. The boost converters are
C C
widely used in PV systems because of several advantages such
as simple implementation, cost-effective structure and drawing IL
current from supply in any case when compared with some y = [0 1 0] I inv
other DC/DC converters. VC (12)

Fig. 4. Equivalent model of boost controller

Depending on the equivalent circuit in Fig. 4, for DC/DC Fig.5. Grid interactive inverter
converter equations can be written as the following [20]. V. PERTURB & OBSERVE METHOD
dI Transferring maximum power to the load and/or grid from
L L = Vg (1 d )V0 (5)
dt PV modules at any time is possible when MPPT methods
which can continuously track output of modules are used.
dV0 V
C = (1 d )I L 0 (6) Many MPPT methods is developed and applied. P&O method
dt R is designed and one of the most commonly used MPPT
where, d is a control signal and its value is1 when switch methods. In this method, reference signal is changed and the
is on and 0 when switch is off. According to Eq. 5 and Eq. 6, effect of this variation on power is monitored, according the
Eq. 10 and Eq. 11 can be rewritten as follows: rate of change in power, new reference signal is generated. The
flowchart of P&O algorithm is shown in Fig. 6. In Fig. 3, I-V
Switch is on: and P-V graphics of a PV module are given. As it is seen from
figure, there is unique MPP for any condition, and this point
dI L
L = Vg (7) tracked by designed MPPT algorithm via changing power
dt drawn from PV panel by DC-DC converter. According to this
dV0 V graphics, change direction of the reference signal determines
C = 0 (8) the position of the operating point by MPP. In Table 1, relation
dt R
between instantaneous changes of the reference signal and
Switch is off: changes of output power is shown.

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

TABLE 1. Changes of output power depending on instantly changes of values by using obtained values. In Fig. 8, block diagrams of
reference signal
PV panel model and output I-V and P-V curves.
Reference Change in Power Direction of change Maximum power (PMPP), maximum power voltage (VMPP)
+ + + and maximum power current (IMPP) which calculated from PV
+ - - panel model, and results are shown in Maximum PV
- + - Parameters part of front panel. Operation point of PV system
- - + determined by using these calculated values and is marked as
a point on I-V and P-V curves of PV panel.
Although P&O is simple, non complex, low cost and a
measurement of a small number of parameters is sufficient
method, it has a disadvantage as to make oscillation around
MPP. Variable step size P&O methods are proposed to prevent
this oscillation [22].

Fig. 7.The front panel of the simulator PV

Fig. 6. Flowchart of P&O algorithm

VI. DESIGN OF PV SYSTEM SIMULATOR

In this study, a PV system simulator is design and co-
simulations are carried out by using LabVIEW and
MATLAB/Simulink. In this study, linear and nonlinear
dynamic systems is transferred from LabVIEW to
MATLAB/Simulink and input/output current and voltage
values of DC/DC converter and DC/AC inverter are
transferred from Simulink to LabVIEW. Communication
between these two programs is provided by the SIT which
operates in LabVIEW. Front panel of PV simulator is shown
in Fig. 7 [19].
PV panel is modeled by using parameters which are given
in datasheets for standard operating conditions such Voc, Isc,
number of cells in series (Ns) parameters in the field shown as
"PV Module Parameters" on PV simulator screen. Thereby,
designed system is allowed to be used different PV modules,
where A is an optimization coefficient used in module model.
Also, scroll buttons is used to change the atmospheric
conditions such as irradiation and temperature. Irradiation (G)
is defined within the range from 0 to 1000 W/m2, temperature
(T)is in the range of 0-100C. LabVIEW calculates current
and voltage of panel by using given parameters, designed
model by using Eq.2 and draws I-V and P-V curves with the
Fig. 8.Block diagram of PV panel model and the output curves
In this study, P&O method is designed in LabVIEW and
MPP of the PV modules is tracked continuously. The block
diagram of P&O algorithm is shown in Fig. 9. The designed
P&O algorithm generates control signal for PWM generator
which is designed in MATLAB/Simulink. The DC/DC
converter is controlled to obtain maximum power from PV
system. At the same time, operating point of system is shown
on V-I and P-V graphics on simulator screen. Thus, operation
point of the system visualized.
MATLAB/Simulink model of two-stage contverter, which
consists of DC/DC boost converter and DC/AC VSI is shown
in Figure 10. Reference current of grid interactive inverter is
generated by voltage controller and phase locked loop circuit.
A PI regulator is shaped the inverter output current. A line
frequency transformer (LFT) is used to step up the output

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

P&O algorithm calculates the reference signal and tracks

the MPP of the system. In Fig. 14, shown I-V and P-V curves
when PV panel operates at MPP is given. The output current
and output voltage waveforms of DC/DC converter and output
current and output voltage waveforms of VSI when system
operates at MPP are depicted in Fig. 15 and Fig. 16,
respectively. Operation point of the system is visualized, and it
can be easily defined if the system operates at MPP or at the
left side of MPP or at the right side of the MPP from simulator
screen.

Fig. 9. LabVIEW block diagram of P&O algorithm.

(a) (b)
Fig. 11. a) I-V curve of PV modules for 1665W, b) P-V curves of PV
modules for 1665W.

Fig. 10. MATLAB/Simulink model of DC/DC boots converter and DC/AC

VSI.

voltage level to the grid voltage. The LFT also provides the (a) (b)
galvanic isolation between the AC grid and PV modules and Fig. 12. a) DC/DC converter output voltage waveform for 1665W, b)
prevents DC current injection. Voltage and power values of DC/DC converter output current for 1665W.
DC/DC converter is shown on Simulator screen in Converter
Output Parameter part by placing out output commands on
Simulink model. Also output current, voltage and power values
of VSI inverter is shown on Simulator screen in Inverter
Output Parameter part. Both converter and inverter current
and voltage waveforms are shown in front panel of simulator.
In addition, implemented Simulink model can be controlled by
using Start, Stop and Pause buttons which are placed
Simulink Controls part on Simulator screen.
VII. SIMULATION RESULTS (a) (b)
Fig. 13. a) Grid voltage and inverter output current for 1665W, b) Reference
In this study, simulation studies are realized by using and inverter output currents for 1665W.
parameters of 200W PV panel which produced KYOCERA.
System operating and performance is tested for different
radiation and temperature levels. In Figure 11 is shown I-V and
P-V graphics for 1665W panel power. The operating point and
MPP of the PV system is indicated in these curves. As can be
seen operating point is far from MPP. In this case, P&O
algorithm generates reference signal to reach the MPP by
controlling DC/DC converter. DC/AC inverter is connected to
the output of DC/DC converter and to convert DC energy to
AC energy and transfer to the grid. The output current and
(a) (b)
output voltage waveforms of DC/DC converter and output
Fig. 14. a) I-V curve of PV modules at MPP a) b) P-V curves at MPP.
current and output voltage waveforms of VSI are shown in Fig.
12 and Fig. 13, respectively.

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives
(a) (b)
Fig. 15. a) Output voltage of DC/DC converter at MPP, b) Output current of
DC/DC converter at MPP.
(a) (b)
Fig. 16. a) Grid voltage and inverter output current at MPP, b) Reference and
inverter output currents at MPP.
VIII. CONCLUSIONS
In this study, a grid connected PV system simulator that is
capable of MPPT is designed by using both of
MATLAB/Simulink and LabVIEW programs. Data transfer
between programs is provided by using SIT which operated
LabVIEW. Different type of PV modules can be modeled by
using parameters given in datasheets. Designed PV simulator
is tested by using ten serial connected modules produced by
KYOCERA. A two-stage inverter system which consists of a
DC/DC converter which tracks maximum power point and
DC/AC grid interactive inverter is obtained. Proposed system
simplifies the operation principles and specifications of grid
interactive PV systems by visualizing system. Proposed
simulator can be used not only for educational purposes, but
also investigating of reliability any territory of energy
investment and in order to make a preliminary assessment of
properties.
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