Simulation of Photovoltaic Array-driven Electric Machines with Power Electronic Interfaces

Abstract

Power electronic interfaces between photovoltaic (PV) arrays and electric machines are necessary in order to match the drive characteristics with the characteristics of the array for efficient utilization of the resource. This paper proposes a model for the simulation of a complete solar PV power electronic conversion system in circuit simulation software, where a model of a PV array is not readily available in their libraries. The proposed circuit-based PV model is employed to simulate the waveforms of a direct current (DC) motor and induction motor drive system fed by a chopper and inverter, respectively. Close resemblance between experimental and simulated waveforms is established to validate the simulation. A quasi-stationary approach for simulating the dynamics of a PV-fed drive with temperature and irradiation variation has also been implemented in the simulation model. The details of the design of a fuzzy controller based on the simulation and its validation are also presented in this paper.