Development of triple-diode based generalized model of photovoltaic module

• A novel, scalable triple-diode equivalent circuit based photovoltaic cell model is proposed and developed using MATLAB/Simulink. • This model has been generalized to add the flexibility for inclusive representation of double and single-diode models of different materials by including nine or lesser parameters resulting in modeling errors ranging from 0.2 to 7.31% during validation, for the entire range of nine models. • Its application has been verified under hot climatic conditions of Jodhpur (Rajasthan) by scaling it to simulate a 100kW photovoltaic array, while considering varying ambient temperature. The average output power from the model is found to reduce by 13.26% when ambient temperature touches 50°C, which closely matches with practical results. • Thus the model is found to be generalized, scalable, while maintaining its accuracy across different models and suitable for simulating the effect of change of inputs. The growing large-scale penetration of solar power plants into electric grids mandates accurate modeling of the photovoltaic modules with consideration of varying environmental conditions, resulting in the development of a large variety of models at photovoltaic cell, module and array levels. A novel, scalable triple-diode based equivalent circuit model has been proposed in this paper and implemented on MATLAB/Simulink. This generalized model has the flexibility of representing double and single-diode models, with nine or lesser design parameters, by considering (or neglecting) recombination and diffusion losses, and representing different martials by corresponding values of band gap energy through a customized dialog box. Thus, this generalized model facilitates the implementation of nine different models and has the scalability for representing different photovoltaic plant ratings and flexibility of selecting different photovoltaic materials. In order to validate the proposed model, a well-known, commercial photovoltaic module has been simulated and validated by comparison with the results reported in the published literature by the most widely referred practical models. The results obtained from all nine variants of the proposed model are at least in close agreement or better than other referred models, when compared at remarkable points with the manufacturer data sheets under standard test conditions, with modeling errors ranging from 0.2 to 7.31% The scalability of the proposed generalized model is depicted by modeling a 100kW photovoltaic array and validated through practical application of the single diode model to analyze the effect of rise of ambient temperature up to 50°C, representing hot climatic condition of the site of experimentation, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The simulation results show that rise in temperature causes significant drop in output voltage in comparison with rise of current of photovoltaic array. Hence, the average output power reduces by 13.26% at maximum temperature. Thus, it is concluded that the proposed model is accurate, scalable and capable of correctly simulating the effect of rise of temperature on the performance of photovoltaic array.