Hardware in the Loop Platform for Testing Photovoltaic System Control

Abstract

The hardware in the loop (HIL) technique allows you to reproduce the behavior of a dynamic system or part of it in real time. This quality makes HIL a useful tool in the controller validation process and is widely used in multiple areas including photovoltaic systems (PVSs). This study presents the development of an HIL system to emulate the behavior of a PVS that includes a photovoltaic panel (PVP) and a DC-DC boost converter connected in series. The emulator was embedded into an NI-myRIO development board that operates with an integration time of 10 µs and reproduces the behavior of the real system with a mean percent error of 2.0478%, compared to simulation results. The implemented emulator is proposed as a platform for the validation of control systems. With it, the experimental stage is carried out on two controllers connected to the PVS without having the real system and allowing to emulate different operating conditions. The first controller is based on the Hill Climbing algorithm for the maximum power point tracking (MPPT), the second is a proportional integral (PI) controller for voltage control. Both controllers generate settling times of less than 3 s; the MPPT controller generates variations in the output in steady state inherent to the algorithm used. For both cases, the comparison of the experimental results with those obtained through software simulation show that the platform fulfills its usefulness when evaluating control systems.