Experimental Implementation of a Flexible PV Power Control Mechanism in a DC Microgrid

Abstract

The intermittent and highly variable nature of photovoltaic (PV) sources is always the major obstacle to the growth of their deployment. Research work is increasingly demonstrating that PV generation should not only be maximized but also flexible based on the system requirements. This article presents a simple and flexible PV control mechanism, which can seamlessly switch between maximum power point tracking mode and power limiting mode. It can be integrated into a DC microgrid for efficient energy management. The proposed mechanism has two configurations that respectively converge to a lower and a higher PV panel voltage to perform PV shedding. The experimental validation carried out in this study shows that this control can effectively adjust the PV generation despite some physical constraints. The limitations of the control mechanism and the energy efficiency are also analyzed. It can be concluded that each configuration can be particularly useful depending on the different application scenarios.