Adaptive voltage control of the DC/DC boost stage in PV converters with small input capacitor

In the case of photovoltaic (PV) systems, an adequate PV voltage regulation is fundamental in order to both maximize and limit the power. For this purpose, a large input capacitor has traditionally been used. However, when reducing that capacitor size, the nonlinearities of the PV array make the per...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Urtasun Erburu, Andoni, Sanchis Gúrpide, Pablo, Marroyo Palomo, Luis
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:España
Institución:Universidad Pública de Navarra
Repositorio:Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarra
OAI Identifier:oai:academica-e.unavarra.es:2454/31349
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2454/31349
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Adaptive control
Photovoltaic converters
Photovoltaic power systems
Small-signal modeling
Voltage control
Descripción
Sumario:In the case of photovoltaic (PV) systems, an adequate PV voltage regulation is fundamental in order to both maximize and limit the power. For this purpose, a large input capacitor has traditionally been used. However, when reducing that capacitor size, the nonlinearities of the PV array make the performance of the voltage regulation become highly dependent on the operating point. This paper analyzes the nonlinear characteristics of the PV generator and clearly states their effect on the control of the DC/DC boost stage of commercial converters by means of a linearization around the operating point. Then, it proposes an adaptive control, which enables the use of a small input capacitor preserving at the same time the performance of the original system with a large capacitor. Experimental results are carried out for a commercial converter with a 40 μF input capacitor, and a 4 kW PV array. The results corroborate the theoretical analysis; they evidence the problems of the traditional control, and they validate the proposed control with such a small capacitor.