Power Conversion Interface for a Small-Capacity Photovoltaic Power Generation System

Abstract

A power conversion interface for a small-capacity photovoltaic power generation system (PPGS) is proposed in this paper. The proposed power conversion interface is composed of a DC–DC converter (DDC), a battery pack and a buck–boost inverter (BBI). The battery pack is integrated to the power conversion interface to store or release energy for smoothing the power fluctuation of the small-capacity PPGS. The battery pack is only activated when a large power change occurs in the photovoltaic array (PV array). The DC power, no matter whether is from the PV array or the battery pack, needs to be converted into AC power only by the BBI in the proposed power conversion interface. Moreover, the PV array charges the battery pack only through the DDC, which simplifies the power circuit and improves the power conversion efficiency. To verify the feasibility of the proposed power conversion interface, a hardware prototype is established for practical experiments.

Keywords

• buck–boost inverter
• photovoltaic power generation system
• battery energy storage system