Abstract
Power inverters for photovoltaic (PV) applications must be tested according to standards in order to be certified and commercialized. A common practice to test PV inverters is the utilization of solar array simulators (SAS). This paper presents a SAS topology based on a double-stage structure: The first stage is based on a three-phase PWM rectifier, and the second stage is based on a bidirectional buck converter. This structure is responsible to emulate the photovoltaic array behavior. A methodology to design the SAS components and control system parameters is presented. This methodology considers a range of operation points of the SAS. Additionally, it is verified that the dc-link capacitance of the inverter under test can affect the SAS dynamic behavior and its output current ripple. The results are divided into two parts: resistive loads and commercial inverters. Firstly, the SAS steady-state operation following the solar array I–V curve is demonstrated through simulation and experimental results, using resistive loads. In the second part, two commercial inverters with different nominal power and dc-link capacitance are considered. Using the proposed design methodology, the SAS topology operates correctly and the maximum power point tracker of the inverter under test is not affected if its input capacitance is within the design limits.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bhatnagar, P., & Nema, R. (2013). Maximum power point tracking control techniques: State-of-the-art in photovoltaic applications. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 23, 224–241.
Bun, L., Raison, B., Rostaing, G., Bacha, S., Rumeau, A., & Labonne, A. (2011). Development of a real time photovoltaic simulator in normal and abnormal operations. In IECON 2011—37th annual conference on IEEE industrial electronics society (pp. 867–872)
Camino-Villacorta, M., Egido-Aguilera, M. A., & Díaz, P. (2012). Test procedures for maximum power point tracking charge controllers characterization. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, 20(3), 310–320.
Chang, C. H., Chang, E. C., & Cheng, H. L. (2013). A high-efficiency solar array simulator implemented by an LLC resonant DC-DC converter. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 28(6), 3039–3046.
Chang, C. H., Cheng, C. A., & Cheng, H. L. (2014). Modeling and design of the LLC resonant converter used as a solar-array simulator. IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, 2(4), 833–841.
Cupertino, A.F., Santos, G.V., Cardoso, E.N., Pereira, H.A., & Mendes, V.F. (2015b) Modeling and design of a flexible solar array simulator topology. In IEEE 13th Brazilian power electronics conference and 1st southern power electronics conference (COBEP/SPEC), 2015 (pp. 1–6)
Cupertino, A.F., Santos, G.V., Pereira, H.A., Silva, S.R., Mendes, V.F. (2015a). Modeling and control of a flexible photovoltaic array simulator. In IEEE 24th international symposium on industrial electronics (ISIE), 2015 (pp. 318–324).
Di Piazza, M., Pucci, M., Ragusa, A., & Vitale, G. (2010). Analytical versus neural real-time simulation of a photovoltaic generator based on a DC-DC converter. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 46(6), 2501–2510.
Erickson, R. W., & Maksimovic, D. (2004). Fundamentals of Power Electronics. Berlin: Kluwer.
Gadelovits, S., Sitbon, M., & Kuperman, A. (2014). Rapid prototyping of a low-cost solar array simulator using an off-the-shelf DC power supply. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 29(10), 5278–5284.
Gonzalez, S., Kuszmaul, S., Deuel, D., Lucca, R. (2010). PV array simulator development and validation. In Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2010 35th IEEE (pp 2849–2852)
Hauke, B. (2015). Basic calculation of a buck converter’s power stage. Texas Instruments: Technical report.
IEC. (1999). Photovoltaic systems–Power conditioners–Procedure for measuring efficiency (1st ed.). International Electrotechnical Commission.
Jike, Z., Shengtie, W. (2012). Design and simulation of digital PV simulator based on push-pull forward converter. In Power and Energy Engineering Conference (APPEEC), 2012 Asia-Pacific (pp. 1–5)
Koran, A., Sano, K., Kim, R. Y., & Lai, J. S. (2010). Design of a photovoltaic simulator with a novel reference signal generator and two-stage LC output filter. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 25(5), 1331–1338.
Koran, A., LaBella, T., & Lai, J. S. (2014). High efficiency photovoltaic source simulator with fast response time for solar power conditioning systems evaluation. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 29(3), 1285–1297.
Liserre, M., Blaabjerg, F., & Hansen, S. (2005). Design and control of an LCL-filter-based three-phase active rectifier. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 41(5), 1281–1291.
Matsukawa, H., Koshiishi, K., Koizumi, H., Kurokawa, K., Hamadac, M., & Bo, L. (2003). Dynamic evaluation of maximum power point tracking operation with PV array simulator. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 75(3), 537–546.
Mohan, N., Robinson, W. P., & Undeland, T. M. (2002). Power Electronics: Converters, Applications, and Design. Hoboken: Wiley.
Mukerjee, A., & Dasgupta, N. (2007). DC power supply used as photovoltaic simulator for testing MPPT algorithms. Renewable Energy, 32(4), 587–592.
Nagayoshi, H. (2004). I-V curve simulation by multi-module simulator using I-V magnifier circuit. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 82(1–2), 159–167.
Ollila J (1995) A medium power pv-array simulator with a robust control strategy. In Proceedings of the 4th IEEE conference on control applications, 1995 (pp. 40–45).
Peña-Alzola, R., Liserre, M., Blaabjerg, F., Ordonez, M., & Yang, Y. (2014). Lcl-filter design for robust active damping in grid-connected converters. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 10(4), 2192–2203.
Piao, Z.G., Gong, S.J., An, Y.H., & Cho, G.B. (2013). A study on the pv simulator using equivalent circuit model and look-up table hybrid method. In: International conference on electrical machines and systems (ICEMS), 2013 (pp. 2128–2131)
Ponnaluri S, Krishnamurthy V, Kanetkar V (2000) Generalized system design and analysis of pwm based power electronic converters. In Industry applications conference, 2000. Conference record of the 2000 IEEE (Vol. 3, pp. 1972–1979).
Robert, W. E., & Maksimovic, D. (2004). Fundamentals of Power Electronics. Berlin: Kluwer.
Rodriguez, P., Pou, J., Bergas, J., Candela, J. I., Burgos, R. P., & Boroyevich, D. (2007). Decoupled double synchronous reference frame pll for power converters control. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 22(2), 584–592.
Sanchis, P., Lopez, J., Ursua, A., & Marroyo, L. (2005). Electronic controlled device for the analysis and design of photovoltaic systems. IEEE Power Electronics Letters, 3(2), 57–62.
Sanchis, P., López, J., Ursúa, A., Gubí, E., & Marroyo, L. (2007). On the testing, characterization, and evaluation of pv inverters and dynamic mppt performance under real varying operating conditions. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, 15(6), 541–556.
Suul, J.A., Molinas, M., Norum, L., Undeland, T. (2008). Tuning of control loops for grid connected voltage source converters. In: IEEE 2nd international power and energy conference, PECon 2008 (pp. 797–802)
Vijayakumari, A., Devarajan, A., & Devarajan, N. (2012). Design and development of a model-based hardware simulator for photovoltaic array. International Journal of Electrical Power e Energy Systems, 43(1), 40–46.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Brazilian agencies FAPEMIG, CAPES and CNPQ (Project 444922/2014-8).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cupertino, A.F., Pereira, H.A. & Mendes, V.F. Modeling, Design and Control of a Solar Array Simulator Based on Two-Stage Converters. J Control Autom Electr Syst 28, 585–596 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40313-017-0333-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40313-017-0333-z