A Design and Validation of 400 W PV Emulator Using Simple Equivalent Circuit for PV Power System Test

Seungho Choi, Sangyoung Park, Junhee Hong and Jehyuk Won ()
Additional contact information
Seungho Choi: College of IT Convergence Engineering, Gachon University, Seongnam 13120, Republic of Korea
Sangyoung Park: College of IT Convergence Engineering, Gachon University, Seongnam 13120, Republic of Korea
Junhee Hong: College of IT Convergence Engineering, Gachon University, Seongnam 13120, Republic of Korea
Jehyuk Won: College of IT Convergence Engineering, Gachon University, Seongnam 13120, Republic of Korea

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-23

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a photovoltaic emulator (PVE) composed of a series of connected power diodes with a single constant current source, rather than a power converter-based PVE. Accordingly, this enables readily verifying the operation because a the simple hardware structure and lack of a complex control algorithm. The proposed PVE can be intuitively implemented using the proposed selection criteria for the power diode and equivalent resistances. Since there is no feedback control based on complex analog/digital controls and sensors, the control response can be very fast. In addition, the proposed PVE can be easily integrated with a PV power system such as a power optimizer, to allow testing in a simple and flexible manner. Spice simulation was performed based on the electrical characteristics provided by the solar panel manufacturer, and this was utilized to validate the applied emulator circuit model, the Norton Equivalent Circuit. During the design process, the simulation helped to manufacture the PVE within error ranges satisfying the desired I–V and P–V curves, as well as the maximum power point (MPP). Partial shading could be easily implemented through use of the multiple series connection of individual PVEs, demonstrating local MPP and global MPP. A 400 W class PVE was built through appropriate power diode selection, with a thermal design to increase the output power. Moreover, its performance and feasibility were verified through intensive experiments. The measured efficiency, transient response time, and maximum transient error of the partial shading tests were 91%, 22 μs, and 5.8%, respectively.

Keywords: PV emulator; PV equivalent circuit; PV multiple series connections; Global MPP; local MPP; partial shading (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/1561/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/1561/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:4:p:1561-:d:1057697

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().