Centralized Solar PV Systems for Static Loads Using Constant Voltage Control Method

Abstract

The alternative energy resources, like solar, are always complementary due to environmental changes. Energy generation with the sources such as solar and wind is gaining importance and of that photovoltaic conversion is the main focus of researches due to its promising potential as the electrical source. This paper presents the constant voltage method of control where the output of the converter is maintained constant irrespective of the variations in the irradiance with the high step-up isolated efficient single switch DC-DC converter for the solar PV systems. Constant voltage method of control uses the array of photovoltaic systems as its energy source. The output of the Solar PV systems is nonlinear and has its dependency on temperature and irradiance by which the panel voltage and current varies with the variation in irradiance. Constant voltage control method always operates in such a way that the converter voltage is tried to be maintained constantly to the reference voltage which is set by the user. The system used here utilizes high step single switch isolated DC-DC converter and monitors the voltage continuously by varying the duty cycle to maintain the converter voltage always constant. As a way of improving the performance, both the open and closed loop analysis is done where the closed loop analysis uses the PI controller for its performance. The model is implemented in MATLAB and it accepts the irradiance as the input and outputs the constant voltage from the converter and the feasibility of the proposed converter topology is confirmed with experimental results of the prototype model.