A Comprehensive Design and Analysis of Solar Pv Emulator

The paper attempts the development of modeling and simulation of a solar PV Emulator (PVE). This emulator is a non-linear power source with similar current-voltage (I-V) and power-voltage (P-V) characteristics of PV panels. It generates the identical electrical behavior of solar PV cells based on the single-diode mathematical model. The proposed system supports the real-time generation of PV panel characteristics under different environmental conditions. The developed PVE comprises the PV model system, a buck converter, and a control scheme designed to generate the I-V and P-V characteristics. The output of this system is taken as the reference input to the controller, and the output of the buck converter gives the other input. These two inputs are controlled appropriately using the PI controller. The operating point of the emulator is set by the control strategy based on the PV panel characteristics. This emulator system developed in this research integrates all the data based on the commercially available PV arrays. This approach provides a low-cost, portable PVE for the renewable energy sector. The successful operation of the proposed system has been confirmed with detailed simulation results for various operating conditions. The system is modeled and simulated using MATLAB/Simulink.