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Abstract—This paper presents an approach to design and so as to simulate the external current-voltage characteristics
implement a power electronic circuit based photovoltaic (PV) (I-V curves) of photovoltaic modules.
simulator which emulates the output characteristics of PV
modules. The characteristics are obtained based on the look-
Consequently, seeing from the photovoltaic power converter
up tables corresponding to an array of ten SunPower SPR-X20- and load, the simulator behaves similar to the photovoltaic
250-BLK photovoltaic modules connected in series. Based on that modules so long as their characteristics are off-line pro-
data, a power factor corrected buck converter circuit is presented grammed in the controller. Therefore, the photovoltaic simula-
here which is able to mimic the panel behaviour at different tor can be used in replacement of actual photovoltaic modules
temperature and irradiance conditions. The designed circuit has
been modeled and simulated in Simulink/MATLAB environment.
to provide a controllable environment for R&D purposes.
The simulation results show that the output characteristics of the
proposed circuit coincide with those of actual PV modules and II. P RINCIPLE OF THE SIMULATOR
hence are promising. Thus, the proposed circuit can be used
in laboratory environments for research purposes when actual
modules are not available or if the environmental conditions are
A. Deriving single exponential model
not conducive. Sera et al [1] used the datasheet values of a BP-MSX120
Index Terms—photovoltaic, buck converter, emulator, power
electronics, rectifier
module to derive the parameters used in design of the single
exponential model of the photovoltaic module. The current-
voltage characteristics based on this single exponential model
I. I NTRODUCTION are:
Photovoltaic systems are becoming widely known for their v+iRs v + iRs
environmental benefits everyday, and have found a pivotal i = Iph − Io (e ns Vt − 1) − (1)
Rsh
position in power supplies across the globe. Consequently,
substantial research is going on to understand and improve the where Iph is the current because of the incident light (hence
functionality of currently used photovoltaic modules. However, is proportional to the insolation of the sun), Io is the reverse
such modules and the corresponding power electronic systems saturation current of the diode, Rs is the series resistance of
are costly and demand a high capital investment. Further, the panel while Rsh is the shunt resistance and A is the diode
the actual solar insolation and temperature are continuously ideality factor. Apart from that, the other constants are q, which
varying, making it difficult for research to be done with actual is the electronic charge, Vt , which is the thermal voltage of the
photovoltaic systems. junction and is defined as AkT q and finally ns is the number of
This paper puts forward a method to solve the abovemen- photovoltaic cells connected in series. The 5 panel parameters
tioned problems by developing a photovoltaic simulator using (Iph , Io , Rs , Rsh and A) are then calculated from the datasheet
a power factor corrected buck converter that emulates the information of the panel. Numerical methods are adopted to
output characteristics of photovoltaic modules so that it can derive them as not all of them can be expressed in terms of
fulfil the purpose of actual photovoltaic modules in R&D. independent equations.
In the emulator developed, the input to the buck converter Based on the parameters of the model the simulations are
is a regulated DC voltage rectified by a PWM converter done in MATLAB to arrive at satisfactory characteristics.
connected to a three-phase ac voltage source. The output of the Similarly, Grandi et al [2] in their work derive the param-
buck converter is adjusted in real time by the control system eters of the single exponential model of a photovoltaic array
978-1-5386-1138-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE and use that to emulate required characteristics .
B. Deriving double exponential model
Gow et al [3] worked with a double exponential model
of the photovoltaic array and used the datasheet values to
come up with the values of the model parameters. The double
exponential model is shown in the figure 1. The corresponding
equation is given as equation 2.
Fig. 4. Intersection of I-V characteristics and load lines for different loads