• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.1308-1316
• /
• 2017

The distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) concept is widely adopted in photovoltaic systems to avoid mismatch loss. However, the high cost and complexity of DMPPT hinder its further promotion in practice. Based on the concept of DMPPT, this paper presents an integrated submodule level half-bridge stack structure along with an optimal current point tracking (OCPT) control algorithm. In this full power processing integrated solution, the number of power switches and passive components is greatly reduced. On the other hand, only one current sensor and its related AD unit are needed to perform the ideal maximum power generation for all of the PV submodules in any irradiance case. The proposal can totally eliminate different small-scaled mismatch effects in real-word condition and the true maximum power point of each PV submodule can be achieved. As a result, the ideal maximum power output of the whole PV system can be achieved. Compared with current solutions, the proposal further develops the integration level of submodule DMPPT solutions with a lower cost and a smaller size. Moreover, the individual MPPT tracking for all of the submodules are guaranteed.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.826-840
• /
• 2018

This paper presents a distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) algorithm based on the reference voltage perturbation (RVP) method for the PV modules of a series PV string. The proposed RVP-DMPPT algorithm is developed to accurately track the maximum power point (MPP) for each PV module operating under all atmospheric conditions with a reduced hardware overhead. To study the influence of parameters such as the controller reference voltage ($V_{ref}$) and PV current ($I_{pv}$) on the PV string voltage, a small signal model of a unidirectional differential power processing (DPP) based PV-Bus architecture is developed. The steady state and dynamic performances of the proposed RVP DMPPT algorithm and small signal model of the unidirectional DPP based PV-Bus architecture are demonstrated with simulations and experimental results. The accuracy of the RVP DMPPT algorithm is demonstrated by obtaining a tracking efficiency of 99.4% from the experiment.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.25-30
• /
• 2014

This paper describes the design of gate driver circuits in distributed maximum power point tracking(DMPPT) controller for photovoltaic system. For the effective DMPPT control in the existence of shadowed modules, high voltage gate driver is applied to drive the DC-DC converter in each module. Some analog blocks such as 12-b ADC, PLL, and gate driver are integrated in the SoC for DMPPT. To reduce the power consumption and to avoid the high voltage damage, a short pulse generator is added in the high side level shifter. The circuit was implemented with BCDMOS 0.35um technology and can support the maximum current of 2A and the maximum voltage of 50V.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.57-68
• /
• 2016

In this study, we present the modern hybrid system based power generation for electric vehicle applications. We describe the hybrid structure of modified current source based DC - DC converters used to extract the maximum power from Photovoltaic (PV) and Fuel Cell system. Due to reduced dc-link capacitor requirement and higher reliability, the current source inverters (CSI) better compared to the voltage source based inverter. The novel control strategy includes Distributed Maximum Power Point Tracking (DMPPT) for photovoltaic (PV) and fuel cell power generation system. The proposed DC - DC converters have been analyzed in both buck and boost mode of operation under duty cycle 0.5>d, 0.5<d<1 and 0.5<d for capable electric vehicle applications. The proposed topology benefits include one common DC-AC inverter that interposes the generated power to supply the charge for the sharing of load in a system of hybrid supply with photovoltaic panels and fuel cell PEM. An improved control of Direct Torque and Flux Control (DTFC) based induction motor fed by current source converters for electric vehicle.In order to achieve better performance in terms of speed, power and miles per gallon for the expert, to accepting high regenerative braking current as well as persistent high dynamics driving performance is required. A simulation model for the hybrid power generation system based electric vehicle has been developed by using MATLAB/Simulink. The Direct Torque and Flux Control (DTFC) is planned using Xilinx ISE software tool in addition to a Modelsim 6.3 software tool that is used for simulation purposes. The FPGA based pulse generation is used to control the induction motor for electric vehicle applications. FPGA has been implemented, in order to verify the minimal error between the simulation results of MATLAB/Simulink and experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.1327-1337
• /
• 2017

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are influenced by disproportionate impacts on energy production caused by frequent mismatch cases. The occurrence of multiple maximum power points (MPPs) adds complexity to the tracking process in various PV systems. However, current maximum-power point tracking (MPPT) techniques exhibit limited performance. This paper introduces an enhanced simulated annealing (ESA)-based GMPPT technique against multiple MPP issues in P-V curve with different PV system structures. The proposed technique not only distinguishes global and local MPPs but also performs rapid convergence speed and high tracking accuracy of irradiance changing and restart capability detection. Moreover, the proposed global maximum power tracking algorithm can be applied in the central converter of DMPPT and hybrid PV system to meet various application scenarios. Its effectiveness is verified by simulation and test results.

• Advances in Energy Research
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.97-106
• /
• 2013

This study designs and tests a photovoltaic system with distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) methodology using a field programmable gate array (FPGA) controller. Each solar panel in the distributed PV system is equipped with a newly designed DC/DC converter and the panel's voltage output is regulated by a FPGA controller using PI control. Power from each solar panel on the system is optimized by another controller where the quadratic maximization MPPT algorithm is used to ensure the panel's output power is always maximized. Experiments are carried out at atmospheric insolation with partial shading conditions using 4 amorphous silicon thin film solar panels of 2 different grades fabricated by Chi-Mei Energy. It is found that distributed MPPT requires only 100ms to find the maximum power point of the system. Compared with the traditional centralized PV (CPV) system, the distributed PV (DPV) system harvests more than 4% of solar energy in atmospheric weather condition, and 22% in average under 19% partial shading of one solar panel in the system. Test results for a 1.84 kW rated system composed by 8 poly-Si PV panels using another DC/DC converter design also confirm that the proposed system can be easily implemented into a larger PV power system. Additionally, the use of NI sbRIO-9642 FPGA-based controller is capable of controlling over 16 sets of PV modules, and a number of controllers can cooperate via the network if needed.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.189-193
• /
• 2015

This paper provides the design techniques of a successive approximation register (SAR) type 12b analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) control in a photovoltaic system. Both a top-plate sampling technique and a $V_{CM}$-based switching technique are applied to the 12b capacitor digital-to-analog converter (CDAC). With these techniques, we can implement a 12b SAR ADC with a 10b capacitor array digital-to-analog converter (DAC). To enhance the accuracy of the ADC, a single-to-differential converted DAC is exploited with the dual sampling technique during top-plate sampling. Simulation results show that the proposed ADC can achieve a signal-to-noise plus distortion ratio (SNDR) of 70.8dB, a spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) of 83.3dB and an effective number of bits (ENOB) of 11.5b with bipolar CMOS LDMOD (BCDMOS) $0.35{\mu}m$ technology. Total power consumption is 115uW under a supply voltage of 3.3V at a sampling frequency of 1.25MHz. And the figure of merit (FoM) is 32.68fJ/conversion-step.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.1037-1047
• /
• 2017

The Differential Power Processing (DPP) converter is a promising multi-module photovoltaic inverter architecture recently proposed for photovoltaic systems. In this paper, a DPP converter architecture, in which each PV-panel has its own DPP converter in shunt, performs distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) control. It maintains a high energy conversion efficiency, even under partial shading conditions. The system architecture only deals with the power differences among the PV panels, which reduces the power capacity of the converters. Therefore, the DPP systems can easily overcome the conventional disadvantages of PCS such as centralized, string, and module integrated converter (MIC) topologies. Among the various types of the DPP systems, the feed-forward method has been selected for both its voltage balancing and power transfer to a modified H-bridge inverter that needs charge balancing of the input capacitors. The modified H-bridge multi-level inverter had some advantages such as a low part count and cost competitiveness when compared to conventional multi-level inverters. Therefore, it is frequently used in photovoltaic (PV) power conditioning system (PCS). However, its simplified switching network draws input current asymmetrically. Therefore, input capacitors in series suffer from a problem due to a charge imbalance. This paper validates the operating principle and feasibility of the proposed topology through the simulation and experimental results. They show that the input-capacitor voltages maintain the voltage balance with the PV MPPT control operating with a 140-W hardware prototype.