Design and Implementation of a Simple and Efficient Control Strategy for PVEs

Photovoltaic Emulators (PVEs) has become more a fundamental tool in the study of PV systems. Besides their many operating principles, the design and the implementation of a PVE are still in progress. In this paper, we propose a simple and efficient PVE based on the dsPIC30F4011, which is equipped with a DSP engine dedicated to high-performance control applications. The control algorithm consists of an adaptive PI controller and a Perturb and Observe (P&O) algorithm for reference generation. This innovative and straightforward combination gives an efficient algorithm easy to be loaded and programmed on low-cost digital platforms, such as microcontrollers. The implementation under the dsPIC device makes the prototype inexpensive compared with the existing commercial PVEs, but not at the expense of simplicity and accuracy. The prototype is well optimized and described to be reproducible in laboratories. The effectiveness of the proposed method was validated using a platform that consists of a dsPIC30F4011, a current-controlled buck converter, a current sensor, and voltage one. The results show that the designed emulator prototype accurately behaves as the studied PV panel under different load and weather conditions.