APPLICATION OF MODEL BASED SYSTEM ENGINEERING APPROACH IN

THE MODELLING OF INDEPENDENT POWER PRODUCER PHOTOVOLTAIC

SYSTEMS
D. Luta, W. Fritz, A.K. Raji
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa
ABSTRACT
Model Based System Engineering refers to a formalised
practise of systems development through the application of
modelling principles, methods, languages and tools to the
entire lifecycle of a system. This paper presents the modelling
of Independent Power Producer (IPP) photovoltaic systems
using SysML (System Modelling Language) which is a
modelling language that supports Model Based Systems
Engineering (MBSE) practices. Broadly speaking, the
modelling of a power system is performed using software such
as Matlab, DigSilent, and PowerWorld. These software types
allow modelling of a system considering only a specific point
of view depending on the objective that is to be assessed.
SysML offers the advantages of modelling a system
considering different aspects such as specifications and
requirements, structure and behaviours. This study focuses
more specifically on the structure and behaviour of
Independent Power Producer.
Keywords: Model Based System Engineering (MBSE), System
Modelling
Language
(SysML),
Renewable
Energy,
Photovoltaic Systems, Independent Power Producer (IPP)
1. INTRODUCTION
In order to address some of the problems that the world is
facing such as environmental destruction, climate change, the
increasing world electricity demand and the exhaustion of
some of the primary energy sources used for the electrical
energy generation, many countries around the world are now
focusing their attention on others naturals energy sources.
These sources known as renewable energy sources offer the
opportunity to cover the world energy demand sustainably
without a negative influence on health and nature. As time
advances, the electricity generated using renewable energy
sources is becoming more significant and seems to be
nowadays the type of electrical energy generation going in
parity with sustainable growth. Among these renewable energy
sources solar power is one of the most promising technologies.
Krauter [1] reports that according to the European Commission
Energy by 2050, the world could get a fourth of its electricity
from solar power.f its electricity from solar power.
In Africa in general and South Africa in particular, the level of
renewable energy potential especially in term of solar energy is
high, for instance most areas in South Africa present an
average more than 2 500 hours of sunshine per year, and
average solar-radiation levels ranging between 4.5 and
6.5kWh/m2 in one day can be observed [2].

Due to this high level of renewable energy potential, the South

African government is making lots of efforts aimed to develop
this sector and presently has in place a target of 10 000 GWh
of Renewable Energy. The Department of Energy has
determined that 3725 MW to be generated from Renewable
Energy sources is required to ensure the continued
uninterrupted supply of electricity. [3]
To reach that target and promote renewable energy sector, the
South African Government through the Department of Energy
has developed programs. One of them is the Independent
Power Producer (IPP) program. The IPP refers to no public
electric utility, which owns and or operates facilities to
generate electric power for sale to a utility, central government
buyer and end users. IPP's may also be privately-held facilities,
such as rural solar or wind energy producers, and non-energy
industrial concerns generating electric power for on-site use
and who may also be capable of feeding excess energy into the
distribution or transmission grid system [4]. Once connected to
the public electric utility, these IPPs based mostly on
renewable energy sources such as solar or wind bring new
challenges and increase the power systems level of complexity
due to the unpredictable nature of these renewable energy
sources. In order to regulate their operation as grid connected
to the public electric utility, these units have to comply with
some requirements set by the National Energy Regulator of
South Africa (NERSA).
In this paper, we present a modelling of the Independent Power
Producers (IPPs) photovoltaic systems based on the Model
Based System Engineering (MBSE) approach. Different
modelling languages and tools can be used in MBSE, the
modelling language adopted in this paper is OMG SysML
(Organisation Management Group System Modelling
Language). The accent in the modelling will be turned mostly
on the structure and the behaviour of these Independent Power
Producers (IPPs) photovoltaic systems.
2. MODEL BASED SYSTEM ENGINEERING
Model based System Engineering is an approach of System
Engineering defined as a formalised practise of systems
development through the application of modelling principles,
methods, languages and tools to the entire lifecycle of a
system. In Model Based System Engineering, models are taken
as the heart of System Engineering activities and also many
artefacts [5].
Many years ago, the design of systems was based on System
Engineering process workflows using textual documents and
engineering data, lots of efforts needed to be made in order to
ensure that the information consistency between the system
stakeholders is maintained. Such approach called Document
Based System Engineering increases risk of inconsistency and
incompleteness in the design specification and process

workflows compromising the verification and validation

process workflows. Model Based System Engineering aims to
facilitate System Engineering activities by improving
communications, system specification, design precision,
system design integration and reuse of system artefacts [6].
3. SYSTEM MODELLING LANGUAGE (SysML)
SysML represents one of the modelling languages used to
support Model Based System Engineering approaches.
Currently, there are a wide range of modelling languages,
techniques and tools used in System Engineering, SysML is
intended to unify all these languages, techniques and tools and
serves as a standard modelling language for systems
engineering application.
According to [7], SysML is a general purpose graphical
modelling language for specifying, analysing, designing and
verifying complex systems which may include hardware,
software, information, personnel, procedures, and facilities.

Figure 1 SysML and UML Relationship [8]

SysML extends the characteristics of UML and replaces the

classes and objects by modeling blocks of System
Engineering. The Venn diagram in figure 1 shows the
relationship between SysML and UML. The intersection of the
two circles indicates the UML diagrams that SysML reuses
whereas the rest part of SysML circle (SysMLs extensions to
UML) indicates the new modelling diagrams defined for
SysML [8].

Figure 2 Four pillars of SysML [9]

4. MODELLING METHODOLOGY
The modeling methodology adopted in this research is based
on the key diagram types of SysML known as the four pillars
of SysML (Figure 2). Our Embedded System Roadmap is built
around producing a SysML model that is organized into four
sections. These parts of the overall system model
(Requirements, Structure, Behavior, and Parametric) are
sometimes referred to as Requirement
Requirements are generally categorized as Functional
Requirements, which represent capabilities of a system, and
Non-Functional Requirements, which cover such areas as
Performance and Reliability. You can organize Requirements
into hierarchies on requirement diagrams.
Structure
Blocks can be used to represent hardware, software, or just
about anything else. Block definition diagrams represent
system structure. Internal block diagrams describe the internals
of a block such as parts, ports, and connectors.
Behaviour
SysML provides four main constructs to represent different
aspects of system behavior; use cases, activity diagrams,
sequence diagrams, and state machines.
Parametric
Parametric allow us to define detailed characteristics, physical
laws, and constraints on system blocks that allow us to
simulate how a system will behave, then make engineering
tradeoffs, and re-simulate until our design meets the specified
requirements.
5. CASE STUDY
As case study, we have considered a system consisting of a
small scale Independent Power Producer (IPP) photovoltaic
system, a battery bank both connected to the utility grid though
the secondary of an electrical distribution network. Besides the
IPP photovoltaic and the battery bank mentioned above, the
architecture of the system as shown in figure 3 includes two
individual DC/DC converters for each power source, a triphase
inverter and a bi directional meter.

Figure 3 IPP Photovoltaic configuration

The operation of this IPP photovoltaic system is controlled by

a supervisory and control system unit. Four different operating
mode have been selected for this study

Principal Author: Doudou. N. Luta holds a BEng degree in

Electrical Engineering from the Higher
Institute of Applied Techniques (ISTA) in
the DR Congo. At present he is a Master
student in Electrical Engineering at the Cape
Peninsula University of Technology.
Co Author: Dr Atanda K. Raji holds a
DTech
degree
in
Electrical Engineering
from the Cape Peninsula
University
of
Technology. At present
he is a Senior Lecturer,
BTech coordinator and
Power Electronics stream leader at the Cape
Peninsula University of Technology.
Co-Author: Dr Wilfred Fritz is a senior lecturer at the
Department of Electrical Engineering at
CPUT,
holds
BEng
(Stellenbosch
University), MTech and DTech (CPUT)
degrees. He is a registered Certified
Measurement and Verification Professional
(CMVP) and also a professional engineer
(Pr Eng) affiliated to the Association of
Energy Engineers (AEE) and ECSA respectively.