Energy storage system for global maximum power point tracking on central inverter PV plants

Muller, Nicolas; Kouro, Samir; Renaudineau, Hugues; Wheeler, Patrick

Abstract

Central inverters are the most common configuration for large-scale photovoltaic systems. Under partial shading or any non¬uniform conditions on the photovoltaic plant, several power maxima may arise. Conventional perturb and observe and other classical maximum power point tracking algorithms are capable of tracking a local maximum, but can not guarantee to operate at the global maximum. A solution to such limitation is to perform a scan of the photovoltaic characteristic periodically in order to ensure operation at the global maximum. However, such a scan generates high output power variations that may not comply with grid codes. In order to overcome this drawback and allow a global scan for maximum power point tracking purposes, this paper proposes a hybrid photovoltaic system with an ultra-capacitor based energy storage system. Simulations are provide to validated the proposed configuration. Results show that the photovoltaic scan allows operation at the global maximum power point, while the ultra-capacitor manage the power transient so that the output fluctuation are kept within reasonable limits.

Citation

Muller, N., Kouro, S., Renaudineau, H., & Wheeler, P. Energy storage system for global maximum power point tracking on central inverter PV plants. Presented at IEEE Annual Southern Power Electronics Conference (SPEC 16)

• Conference Name: IEEE Annual Southern Power Electronics Conference (SPEC 16)
• End Date: Dec 8, 2016
• Acceptance Date: Jul 31, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Feb 9, 2017
• Publication Date: Dec 5, 2016
• Deposit Date: May 10, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: May 10, 2017
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Inverters, Voltage control, Maximum power point trackers, Energy storage, Photovoltaic systems, Inductance
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/836474
• Publisher URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7846164/
• Additional Information: doi:10.1109/SPEC.2016.7846164. © 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
• Contract Date: May 10, 2017