• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.444-457
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• 2014

This paper presents the design and realization of a digital PV simulator with a Push-Pull Forward (PPF) circuit based on the principle of modular hardware and configurable software. A PPF circuit is chosen as the main circuit to restrain the magnetic biasing of the core for a DC-DC converter and to reduce the spike of the turn-off voltage across every switch. Control and I/O interface based on a personal computer (PC) and multifunction data acquisition card, can conveniently achieve the data acquisition and configuration of the control algorithm and interface due to the abundant software resources of computers. In addition, the control program developed in Matlab/Simulink can conveniently construct and adjust both the models and parameters. It can also run in real-time under the external mode of Simulink by loading the modules of the Real-Time Windows Target. The mathematic models of the Push-Pull Forward circuit and the digital PV simulator are established in this paper by the state-space averaging method. The pole-zero cancellation technique is employed and then its controller parameters are systematically designed based on the performance analysis of the root loci of the closed current loop with $k_i$ and $R_L$ as variables. A fuzzy PI controller based on the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model is applied to regulate the controller parameters self-adaptively according to the change of $R_L$ and the operating point of the PV simulator to match the controller parameters with $R_L$. The stationary and dynamic performances of the PV simulator are tested by experiments, and the experimental results show that the PV simulator has the merits of a wide effective working range, high steady-state accuracy and good dynamic performances.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1018-1025
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• 2015

This paper proposes a methodological scheme for the photovoltaic (PV) simulator design. With the advantages of a digital controller system, linear interpolation is proposed for precise fitting with higher computational efficiency. A novel control strategy that directly tackles two different duty cycles is proposed and implemented to achieve a full-range operation including short circuit (SC) and open circuit (OC) conditions. Systematic design procedures for both hardware and algorithm are explained, and a prototype is built. Experimental results confirm an accurate steady state performance under different load conditions, including SC and OC. This low power apparatus can be adopted for PV education and research with a limited budget.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.325-333
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• 2007

A PV system inverter test module using RTDS was developed and performance test of a commercial PV inverter was carried out. The developed module consists of one RTDS hardware rack, RTDS software models representing PV array and simple distribution system, and two power amplifiers that was specifically designed for generating power corresponding to signals from RTDS. Performance test results verified effectiveness and reliability of the test module. It is expected that the developed test module may help PV inverter manufacturers improve ana test their systems in the developing stage.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.409-413
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• 2006

This paper deals with the design and testing of a simulator system for microgrids with distributed generations. This system is composed of a Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) and a power amplifier. The RTDS parts are operated for real time simulation for the microgrid model and the distributed generation source model. The power amplifiers are operated fur amplification of the RTDS's simulated output signal, which is a node voltage of the microgrid and distributed generation source. In this paper, we represent an RTDS system design, specification and test results of a power amplifier and simulation results of a PV (Photovoltaic) system and wind turbine system. The proposed system is applicable for development and performance testing of a PCS (Power Conversion System) for renewable energy sources.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.190-193
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• 2001

In order to verify the efficiency or availability and stability of photovoltaic(PV) generation systems, huge system apparatuses are needed, in general, in which an actual size of solar panel, a type of converter system and some amount of load facilities should be installed in a particular location. It is also hardly possible to compare a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) control scheme with others under the same weather and load conditions in an actual PV generation system. The only and a possible way to bring above-mentioned problem to be solved is to realize a transient simulation scheme for PV generation systems using real weather conditions such as insolation and surface temperature of solar cell. The authors, in this paper, introduces a novel simulation method, which is based on a real-time digital simulator (RTDS), for PV generation systems under the real weather conditions. Firstly, VI characteristic equation of a solar cell is developed as an empirical formula and reconstructed in the RTDS system, then the real data of weather conditions are interfaced to the analogue inputs of the RTDS. The outcomes of the simulation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed simulation scheme in this paper. The results shows that the cost effective verifying for the efficiency or availability and stability of PV generation systems and the comparison research of various control schemes like MPPT under the same real weather conditions are possible.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.118-123
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• 2015

According to the recent report, solar street lamp connected to a non Maximum Power Point Tracking(MPPT) charger, can lead to a system-wide decline in power output with as much as 30%. This paper proposes the charge controller with direct duty ration control for 250W solar street lamp in order to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic from these output power reduction. This paper covers the Pulse Width Modulation(PWM) controller and power conversion topology and analyze the MPPT method for charge controller. The power conversion part consists of push pull converter based on PWM controller using 8bit MCU in order to have lower manufacturing cost. The PWM controller with direct duty ratio control algorithm is constantly tracking the maximum power point of photovoltaic module and increases energy output power. The test results shows 97.1~97.4% MPPT efficiency and the experimental hardware is implemented based on the solar simulator condition for 241W. Thus, the implemented charge controller shows its feasibility for the real application, especially under solar street lamp.