Towards a Simple and Efficient Implementation of Solar Photovoltaic Emulator: An Explicit PV Model Based Approach

Abstract

A photovoltaic emulator (PVE) is a specialized device designed to mimic the static and dynamic properties of a solar panel. It serves as a crucial tool for testing and validating PV systems. Despite the unpredictable variations in real environmental conditions, the PVE offers a controlled environment, facilitating the smooth implementation and testing of PV subsystems. The PVE consists of two essential components: the reference PV model and the PVE power electronics controller. For simplicity, both these elements must be inherently straightforward. Numerous advanced methods have been proposed in the literature to efficiently integrate the PV model into the PVE system. However, these approaches often involve complex iterative computations of intricate equations related to solar panels, making them less practical. To address these limitations, this paper introduces a novel PVE that aims to simplify the implementation and integration of the PV model. The proposed system employs a simple and non-iterative approach to provide the reference to the PVE, using a straightforward explicit model of the solar panel. In comparison to existing works, the proposed PVE stands out for its high flexibility and simplicity as it does not require the complex iterative computations of implicit equations related to the solar panel model. The overall PVE system is implemented with a basic proportional-integral (PI) controller and a DC-DC buck power electronic converter. It is then validated using a 200 W solar panel through a series of experiments, including the EN 50530 Test. The results of these experiments demonstrate that the proposed PVE efficiently reproduces the static and dynamic characteristics of a solar panel.

Keywords

• photovoltaic
• photovoltaic emulator
• explicit PV model
• proportional-integral (PI) controller