A nearly accurate solar photovoltaic emulator using DC-DC buck converter is proposed. A mathematical model developed using MATLAB/SIMULINK (The MathWorks, Natick, Massachusetts, USA) serving as reference is built for emulating solar photovoltaic characteristics. Hardware implementation is done using a dSPACE ds1104 controller board (dSPACE GmbH, Paderborn, Germany), and a closed-loop control system is constructed using proportional integral (PI) controller. The proposed emulator has the following characteristics:(1) faster dynamic response with easy interfacing, (2) the advantage of real-time control, (3) a DC-DC buck converter with higher bandwidth, (4) highly stable output with lower response time, and (5) lower output voltage and current ripple. Experimentations are done under different operating conditions, and the results obtained are presented. Further, to demonstrate the capability of the proposed emulator, maximum power point tracking using the hill-climbing method is tested on a DC-DC boost converter interfaced to the solar photovoltaic emulator. © 2016, Copyright © Taylor &amp; Francis Group, LLC.

Rajasekar N

Department of Energy and Power Electronics

School of Electrical Engineering

Vellore Campus

Azharuddin M

Babu T.S

Bilakanti N

Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

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VIT University

A Nearly Accurate Solar Photovoltaic Emulator Using a dSPACE Controller for Real-time Control

Electric Power Components and Systems

Recent times have witnessed a significant positive trend in adoption of renewable energy sources and DC-based loads, which questions the efficiency and reliability of existing structure of electrical power system. DC microgrids are identified as potential solutions for addressing India's and other developing nations' rural electrification. This paper presents an energy management technique for isolated DC microgrids for academic readers, as well as provides an introduction to not-familiarized readers for understanding the common design challenges for implementing off-grid power systems. The principle of the proposed technique is based on law of energy conservation defined by the energy balance equation and is implemented by synthesizing the instantaneous current reference and hysteresis control with source priority, which was validated by rigors simulation studies in Matlab/Simulink. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate the modularity and scalability of the algorithm, it was tested on a prototype hardware test setup at the Solar Energy Research Centre, VIT University. © 2017, Copyright © Taylor &amp; Francis Group, LLC.

Priority-based Energy Management Technique for Integration of Solar PV, Battery, and Fuel Cell Systems in an Autonomous DC Microgrid

This paper presents a new technology based solar PV charge controller which contains series, shunt charge controller. The lead acid battery is been chosen for charging and discharging of series, shunt charge controller due to its features. Authors used MOSFET's for the switching purpose and it will reduce the switching losses. The proposed charge controller has been developed using MATLAB and the charging and discharging process of developed charge controller has been verified. Further, the developed charge controller has been maintained within the SOC limits by considering the efficiency of the battery maintained good, hence forth the life time of battery can be increased up to a larger extent. In addition, the analysis on various charge controller has been discussed and based on this it can be proved that; the performance of the proposed charge controller is improved and it requires less number of switches so the cost of the system also reduces. It is most suitable for optimize the energy crises in the rural areas to an affordable level. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Fulltext

Energy Procedia

Comparative study on charge controller techniques for solar PV system

The abundance and non-polluting nature of solar energy has aroused the interest of many researchers. This worldwide attention of photovoltaic panels has led to the need of generating accurate model for solar photovoltaic (PV) module before proceeding to the installation part. However, accurate modeling of solar PV characteristics is difficult; since the manufacturer's datasheet provides only four values such as Vmp, Imp, Voc, and Isc. Further, for accurate modeling precise estimation of model parameters at different environmental conditions are very essential. On the other hand, optimization technique is a very powerful tool to obtain solutions to complex non-linear problems. Hence, in this paper, Bacterial Foraging Algorithm is proposed to model the solar PV characteristics accurately. A new equation has been evolved to determine the values of Voc, Vmp accurately; since these values decides the closeness of the simulated characteristics. Model parameters are extracted for three different types of solar PV panels. A systematic evaluation and performance comparison of Bacterial Foraging Algorithm with other optimization techniques such as Genetic Algorithm and Artificial Immune System has been done and the best computational technique is derived based on performance criteria such as accuracy, consistency, speed of convergence and absolute error. Extensive computations are carried out for the proposed method, as well as for Genetic Algorithm and Artificial Immune System to substantiate the findings. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Solar Energy

Bacterial Foraging Algorithm based solar PV parameter estimation

Energy Conversion and Management

Characterization of PV panel and global optimization of its model parameters using genetic algorithm

International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems

Design and development of a model-based hardware simulator for photovoltaic array

A photovoltaic panel emulator using a buck-boost DC/DC converter and a low cost micro-controller

A comprehensive MATLAB Simulink PV system simulator with partial shading capability based on two-diode model

Journal	Electric Power Components and Systems
Publisher	Informa UK Limited
ISSN	1532-5008
Open Access	0