2004 IEEWPES Transmission & Distribution Conference 8 Exposition: Latin America

OPTMIZATION OF A PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM CONNECTED TO ELECTRIC POWER GRID

F.L. Albuquerque, A. J. Moraes, G . C.Guimarks, S.M. R. Sanhueza, A. R.Vaz
Abstmet- An important aspect related to the photovoltaic system connected to the electric grid is that it can exercise the double function of active power generator and reactive power compensatot. Since it is a type of random generation, dependent on environmental conditions, it can supply reactive power to the electrical grid when there is little or no solar radiation. These are important during demand peak hours, when the main grid needs higher amount o f reactive power. Although the photovoltaic system does not generate active power in such period of time, it can supply reactive power up to its maximum. Thus, within this context, this work aims to analyze a control proposed to adjust the power supplied by a photovoltaic system to the electric grid a t any sunstroke condition. The results show that, when the system is idle, usually at peak hours, without generating active power, a capacitor-like operation can be performed.
Index Term--Distributed Generation, Photovoltaic Solar Energy,

radiation the system can supply reactive power to the grid, maintaining the apparent power always constant on its rated value. Such characteristic is a distinguished aspect to be used in peak hours ( r m6:OOpm to 900pm,mostly at night) when fo the system photovoltaic scarcely generates active power. During those hours, there is normally an increase in the reactive power needs to attend the low voltage electric grid, mainly due to residential and commercial consumers. In t h i s situation, the photovoltaic system can supply reactive power up to its rated value, playing an important role of a reactive compensator device. This local reactive power supply helps to decrease voltage drops and losses along the distribution grid, and also avoids unnecessary overcharges in cables and transformers.
11.

Active Power, Reactive Power, PWM Inverter.

THEPHOTOVOLTAIC MODULE

I. INTRODUCTION

OWADAYS a new energy generation configuration has appeared, denominated Distributed Generation, which the generators are located close of the consumers, offering the electrical utilities a mean to increase the availability of energy locally. The distributed generation offers some advantages such as: possibility to produce reactive p w r improving voltage stability, power factor and oe power quality, loss reduction, better service capacity, possibility of locally isolated load operation, smoothing the system load curve, reduction of grid expansion costs and postponement of new investments for construction of large plants. Another important advantage is the production of small blocks of energy through renewable sources, such as small hydroelectric plants, w n power, fuel cells and photovoltaic id cells. Most of the distributed generation now works with unit power factor, just supplying active power, exploring the capacity of the generators employed. Due this fact, the reactive power consumed by the nearby loads will continue to be supplied by the central generation and the capacitors installed in the primary side of the distribution grid. The photovoltaic system is a type of random generation, that is, dependent of the environmental conditions [ 1,2,3], and when it is connected to the elecbic grid, it can exercise the double function of active power generator and reactive power compensator. This is because when there is little or no solar
The authors are with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Uberlbdia, Uberlandia-MG,Brazil, CEP: 38400-902, Tel+55 34-32394166, Emails: Fabio_irlbuquerqu~ho~mail.corn,ajmoraes@ufi.br,

The photovoltaic solar cell is the most important device for the direct conversion of s o h energy in electricity. When this cell, connected to an external load, is illuminated, as indicated in figure 1, a potential difference in the load will be produced. This will cause a current circulation h m the positive cell terminal to the external circuit and back to the negative terminal [4].

Back contactf ' Fig. 1. Structures of a conventional cell of silicon

To obtain an operation voltage, the cells should be connected in series to form a module until the desired module operation voltage is reached. As photovoltaic systems are commonly operated with multiple values of 12 V, each module is usually projected to get the best efficiency in this voltage, so that the output power of the module can be kept very close to its maximum. As the cells of monocristalino silicon have open circuit voltage varying from 0.5 to 0.6 V, each module should consist from 33 to 36 cells connected in series. Figure 2 shows how the cells are configured in the module, and how the modules are linked to form a system [4].

gcaixeta@ufu.br

0-7803-8775-91041$20.0002004 IEEE

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voltage magnitude (Vd and angle (6).

rv. CONTROL TECHNIQUE k f I 3 POWER CIRCUIT

The control technique used was developed with the objective of adjusting the inverter active and reactive power supplied to the electric grid, according to what can be produced by the photovoltaic system, in order to maintain the dc side inverter voltage regulated for the best possible performance. Therefore, with the variation of the solar incidence, the photovoltaic system power will change and the control should act on the inverter active power supply to keep Fig. 2. Cell, module and photovoltaic anays the dc voltage on the dc side unchanged. In this sense, a Figure 3(a) shows a circuit of a solar cell represented by a closed loop voltage control is used to act on the load angle current source I,, in parallel witb an ideal p-n diode wt variation, and, consequently, on the dc/ac power adjustment. ih saturation current ID. Some others effects of a real solar cell, This control also modifies the inverter amplitude voltage to which modify its external behavior, can be considered by a supply reactive power to the grid when there is little or no series resistance and a shunt resistance, as shown in figure solar radiation. In this way, it will function as a generator andforas a capacitor, according to the system need. 3(b) PI. I The Control circuit block diagram and the power circuit r proposed for this appIication are presented in figures 5 and 6.

(4

(b)

Fig. 3. Equivalent circuits of a solar cell

111. OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES

This work proposes the use of a PWM inverter (VS1 type) to promote the interface of a photovoltaic system with the ac
system The idea is to make this system to operate as a controllable voltage source connected in parallel with the power grid. By controlling the inverter output voltage phase angle and amplitude in relation to the grid voltage, it is possible to have the photovoltaic system supplying active and reactive power, independently of the sunstroke level. The active and reactive power flows in the system are not uncoupled. In fact, the active power (P) depends predominantly on the phase angle or load angle (6) between the inverter (Vi) and system (V,) voltages, and the reactive power (Q) is a function of the magnitudes of these voltages, as shown in figure 4 and equations (1) and (2), w e e LC is the hr coupling inductance andfis the system fkquency.

F
..
1

DISTRIBBUTION

PULSE
:ONTROL

I :I

PULSES 5.

Figure 6 . Power Circuit

Fig. 4. Voltage phasor dugram

According to figure 4 and equations (1) and (2), the power f o adjustment of the inverter unit, connected in parallel with lw the main grid, can be performed by controlling the inverter

As shown in figure 5, the control cucuit is divided in two blocks: block 2 extracts the signal fiom the current generated by the photovoltaic modules (Ip) and compares it with a reference signal (Iwf), generating an error (e2). This error is multiplied by the grid voltage signal ( ) and the result is V , added to this voltage (VG), originating a modified value (y2). Block 1 extracts the signal f o the dc-side capacitor voltage rm (Vc) and compares it with a reference signal (V&, originating an error (el). This error pass through an integral proportional circuit and it is multiplied by the grid voltage signal WO), which has a 90" phase shift in advance. This new signal

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originated (yl) is added to the modified value (y2) from block 2, resulting the PWM reference signai (VI).Therefore, block 2 adjusts the voltage amplitude, and block 1 adjusts the load angle. Tbe power circuit is composed by a full-bridge inverter, a dc-side capacitor (Ck), a low-pass filter (Lf and G), and ac side coupIing inductors (LR)S 6 . [,]

O%Generation

v. SMULATIONRESULTS
PSpice and MATLAB software packages were used i all n simulations accomplished here which show the results obtained for voltage and current waveforms, active, reactive and apparent powers on the ac side supplied to the grid. The inverter model has being used to supply active power fiom a dc source to an electric grid in case of lack of energy or as an additional power in peak hour. For this application, the inverter was associated to photovoltaic solar modules which act as dc source, As mentioned, some modifications were made on its control unit so that the whole system works in a stable way and with efficient use of the energy generated by the solar system. The computer simulation studies, with the new control implemented, have as main objectives to analyze, under several generation conditions, the inverter voltage and current profiles as well as the active, reactive and apparent power. Additionally, for the development of this work, the modeling of a photovoltaic system was used, whch consisted of 15 modules in series. The ratings of each module is 60 W, 16.8 V and 3.57 A, for maxi" power condition, having 1000 W/m2 sunstroke index and 2C temperature. For full 5 ' load system operation, the dc side voltage was fixed on 250V, independently of the sunstroke level. Therefore, for such conditions, the maximum system power is 900 W. This system is connected to the secondary of a 127 V single-phase distribution grid, which is feeding a 1600 W resistive load. The power circuit parameters used in the simulations are shown in table 1.
I
j

,
a5 855 tlme(cycle6)

,
8.6

I
8.7 10'

835

a4

e45

865

Fig. 7. Inverter voltage wt 0%of photovoltaic system power ih

50% Geneation

fs

v,
0
250

Cc a

Lf
(W
1

Cr

L,

(kW 10.02

(PW
1600

(CIF)
20

(W
2
J
I I I I

8.45

8.5

8.55

8.6 lime(cyck4

865

e7
10'

The results obtained for steady-state operation are shown in figures 8 to 15, which are the voltage and current profiles for four generation conditions or sunstroke indexes: 0%, 25%, 50% and 80%.
A

Fig. 9. Inverter voltage with 50%of photovoltaic s s e power ytm

80% Generation

Analysis o Inverter Voltage Results f

The graphs of figures 7 to 10 show the inverter voltage behavior of the photovoltaic system connected to the distriiution grid, regarding different sunstroke indexes.

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Figures 7 to 10 show that the voltages waveforms are very close to sinusoids for the several generation conditions analyzed. The small oscillations of high fkquency characterize harmonics of high orders, however with small amplitudes when compared to the fundameutal.
B A n ~ I y s i s Inverter Current Results of
Figures 11 to 14 show the inverter current to the distribution grid, regarding different sunstroke indexes.
0% Genentlon
8.35 8.4

80% Gemratbn

8.45

85 . time [cycles)

8.55

8.6
x 10'

Fig. 14. Inverter current with 80%of photovoltaic system power

As can be seen the current behaviors, shown in figures 11 to 14, are very close to sinusoidal waves for the several generation conditions. Again, the high frequency oscillations characterizes high order harmonics which have very small amplitudeswhen compared to the fundamental.

time (cycles)

x105

Analysis of Generated Active and Reactive Powers

Fig. 11. Inverter current with 0%of photovoltaic s s e power ytm

25% Generatbn

Figures 15 to 18 show the active and reactive powers supplied by the inverter to the grid. They are divided in four generation conditions which consider step variations in the sunstroke index or in the current associated to the photovoltaic system: Case 1, for a transient sunstroke index from 0% to 100% to 0%; Case 2, for a transient sunstroke index ffom 25% to 100% to 25%; Case 3, for a transient sunstroke index from 50% to 100% to 50%; and Case 4, for a transient sunstroke index from 80% to 100% to SOYO.

time (cycles)

x IO5

Fig. 12. Inverter current with 25%of photovoltaic system power

50% Generatbn

Fig. 15. Active and reactive powers supplied by the inverter with 0%- 100% - 0%of photovoltaic system generation changes

5.5

6.5 7 bme (cycles)

7~5

10'

Fig. 13. Inverter current with 50%ofphotovoltaic system power

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12OOr

-4

20

40

6b

io
MlV2(CFkS)

Id0

1L

140

,bo

Fig. 16. Active and reactive powen supplied by the inverter with 25% - 1W/' - 25% of photovoltaic system generationchanges

result, since it made the system supply an amount of reactive power according to the variation of the active power, As observed i figures 16 to 19, when the active n power was reduced, the control was adjusted to increase the reactive power supplied; Moreover, it was observed an interaction between the active and reactive powers supplied to the system. This caused the system not to stay idle, taking advantage of the moments of little active power generation to accomplish the compensation of reactivepower. With power variation supplied by the solar modules, it can be verified that the active power generation prevails i a periods when the sunstroke index is high. On the other hand, the reactive power generation prevails w e the hn solar radiation is small or zero,

Analysis o System Apparent Powers Generafed f

The graphs of figures 19 to 22 show the apparent power supplied by the inverter to the grid. They are s l t in the same pi four generation conditions stated before.

20

40

60

ao
hme(CpleS)

100

120

MO

160

Fig. 17. Active and reactive powers supplied by the inverier with 50% - 100% 50% ofphotovoltaicsystem generation changes

1400

;
I

I
I

I I

I I

I
I

! I

5 I

-200

20

40

I I
I

\ I I

60

60

100

120

1 I
I

140

160

time (cycles)

80% - 100% - 80% of photovoltaic system generation changes

Fig. 18. Active and reactive powers supplied by the inverterwith

With the results shown, some conclusions can be drawn for the active and reactive power generated under the several simulated conditions: The active power supplied by the photovoltaic system to the grid, shown in figures 25 t 18, presented a satisfactory o performance in relation to the control response, because, when there is sunstroke variation in the surface of modules, the system adjusted to a new value with very small osciIlations;
As to the reactive power, the control also exhibited a good

lime (qdes)

Fig. 20. Apparent power supplied by the inverter witb 25% - lW%- 25% of photovoltaic systemgeneration changes

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Grid-Connected PV Systems Solat Energy, vol. 70, no 6 pp 479-487, 2001. VAGLIASINDI, U.; Integrution of [2] CONTI, S.; RAITI, S.; A. 0.; M l i l PV Units in Urban Power Distribution Systems Solar Energy utpe 75 (2003) 87-94. [3] WU, T. F.; CHANG, C. H ; CHEN, Y . K; A Multi-Function . Photovoltaic Power Supply System with Grid-Connection and Power Factor Correction Features. IEEE 2000, 1185-1 190. pp. [4] MessengerR, Ventre J.; Photovoltaic Systems Engineering CRC Press. [ 5 ] Mohan, N.; Undeland, T M.;Robbins, W. P , Power Electronics: . . Converters, Applications undDesign. New York: John Wiley & Sons,

[11 Erge, T., H o f f , V. V., Kiefer K; The German Experience With

1989.

[6]

Sashida, T. N., Ogasawara, Y. K , and YamasakI, Y . , Parallel . Processing Inverter System, IEEE Trans. Power Electron.,vol. 6, np3, pp. 442450, July 1991.

Vm. BIOGRAPHIES Fabio Lima de Albuquerque was born in Muanda, Brazil, in 1974. He graduated i 1999, the U S. n degree in 2001, and he IS working in bis doctorate degree all in eIectncal engbeenng room the Federal University of Uberlhdia, Brazil. His research interests are in the areas of Electric Power System, Distributed Deneration, Renewable Energy and Photovoltam Solar Energy.

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The apparent power supplied m i t i s practically constant, anan avoiding overcharges in transformers and cables. This results in a stable operation, improving the overall electric system performance, with voltage support through locally reactive energy supply, loss reduction, power factor improvement.
VT. CONCLUSION

Addlio Jose de Moraes was bom i Uberlandia, n Brad, i 1955. H e graduated from the Federal n University of Uberlandn, Brazll in 1978. He received the M.Sc. degree f o the Federal School of rm Engineering of Itajuba, B a i i 1984, and the rzl n Doctorate ram PUC-RIO Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. de He is presently a lecturer in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Hs research interest are in the areas of i Power System Dynamics, Load Modeling, Ihstributed Generabon and Renewable Energy.

The simulation results revealed that the control developed to adjust the load angle and the voltage amplitude and, consequently, to control the active and reactive power supplied to the grid, presented a vy satisfactory performance for the photovoltaic system analyzed. The use of the arrangement proposed for the interface of photovoltaic systems with the electric grid allows to obtain a better cost-benefit ratio in the implementation of this type of altemative energy. This is because it becomes possible to operate the photovoltaic system in any condition, independently of the sunstroke level, supplying both active and reactive powers according to the availability of solar dation.

Ceraldo Caixeta Guimarles was born i Patos de n Minas, Brazil, in 1954. He graduated from the Federal University of Uberlandia, Brazil in 1977. He received the M.Sc. degree from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil in 1984, and the FkD. from University of Aberdeen, Scotland, i n 1990. He is presently a lecturer in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. His r e s m h interest are in the areas of Power System DMamics, Distributed Generation and Applied Electromagnetism

VII. REFERENCES

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