Design and Implementation of a Remote Controlled Emulator for Standalone PV Systems

Immeasurable efforts have been put into strengthening energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by meeting growing energy demand. With declining costs and increasing performance, the deployment of PV systems is growing faster. The focus is on standalone solar photovoltaic systems in rural areas or where grid extension is not feasible. Meteorological conditions impact the standalone PV system's behavior. To avoid critical situations during the PV system operation, it is necessary to implement preventive measures. A PV emulator helps to understand better the behavior of the standalone PV system in critical conditions. This paper presents an intelligent and low-cost PV emulator, with focus on behavior of Li-ion battery, which can be remotely monitored and controlled. The proposed PV emulator consists of: a power supply which has the same behavior as the PV panels, battery storage, consumers which are represented by a electronic load (eload) and remote control functions by using mobile applications. The PV emulator was tested and the behavior of battery was analyzed during the charging and discharging processes. It was determined the capacity of battery is influenced by the values of charging and discharging currents. The ambient temperature influences the internal temperature of Li-ion battery and the PV emulator was stopped when the temperature of Li-ion battery was greater than 53o C.