2013 International Conference on Power, Energy and Control (ICPEC)

978-1-4673-6030-2/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

260

Modeling and Experimental validation of Solar PV
system for Cascade H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter
A. Chitra
Assistant Professor (Senior),
School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University
Vellore, India. chitra.a@vit.ac.in
S.Himavathi
Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Pondicherry Engineering College
Pudhucherry, India himavathi@pec.edu


AbstractThis work envisages modeling solar photovoltaic (PV)
systems as it is one of the most promising renewable energy
source. A mathematical model of the PV system assumes
importance as it enables the study of its performance under
varying environmental and load conditions so as to assess its
suitability for real time applications. To serve this purpose a
mathematical model of the PV system has been developed in
Matlab. The simulator is modeled to support a large array PV
system, so that it can be interfaced with power electronic
converters. Also the PV model has been connected with the
cascade multilevel inverter (MLI) and the results are presented.
The simulation results illustrate that this inverter topology is a
right choice for PV applications.
Keywords-; Modelingof PV systems; Cascade H-Bridge MLI;
Matlab; Solar simulator;THD
I. INTRODUCTION
The raising energy demand has been provoked as a major
dispute in developing countries like India. The fossil fuels
which are the conventional sources of power generation have
resulted in foremost environmental problem which is the
Green House Effect or Global warming. To solve these
issues the renewable energy sources serve as the powerful
alternatives. Out of all the renewable energy sources, solar
energy has emerged as one of the promising source of energy
supplier. The solar energy is green and clean energy, as it is
environment friendly, inexhaustible, and renewable.
Throughout the world the fossil fuels are the major source of
power generation systems. This is due to their less cost and all
the existing power generation units are dependent on these
fossil fuels. Though not many solar plants are connected to the
grid, they are gaining more attention in the fast growing
countries like Germany, Japan, and Netherlands. There two
major possible utility in the solar systems, they are grid
connected systems and standalone systems.
The PV systems directly convert the sunlight incident on it
to direct current (DC) electricity. Normally a single PV cell
will be generating a very low voltage which cannot be used for
any consumer load. To achieve high voltages many such cells
are to be connected in series and to provide reasonable current
magnitude many series connected cells are to be connected in
parallel which results in PV panel. For all domestic and
industrial application the Alternating current (AC) electricity is
required. Hence to utilize the generated DC power from the PV
panel to the end utility, the power electronic converters are
essential[1]. Hence these power electronics converters become
an indispensable part for renewable energy systems (RES). One
method is to employ a boost converter with an inverter, where
the boost converter increases the generated DC from the PV
panel and the inverter converts the DC into an AC. Another
method is to use a Multilevel Inverter (MLI)[2].
Before stepping into the exact power electronics system, it
is necessary to think about the PV panel design. For an
assigned load, what will be the exact number of cells required
to be connected in series and parallel is to be predicted. Also to
see the performance of the PV panel along with the power
electronics system for various environmental conditions a
simulator for the PV system is essential. Once a simulator is
developed, it can be employed to test any Maximum Power
Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm or the Voltage-Current (VI)
or Power-Voltage (PV) characteristics of the PV panel for any
environmental conditions.
The power electronics interface used in this work is MLI,
since it eliminates the DC-DC boost converter stage[3-4].
There are three major types of Multilevel Inverter topologies,
they are Neutral point clamped inverters, Flying capacitor type
inverter which require single DC source and Cascade H-Bridge
Multilevel Inverter (CHBMLI) which employs many DC
sources. The later topology CHBMLI demanding many DC
sources becomes a limitation when a single DC source is
available, the same turns to be an advantage when utilized with
PV systems[5-6]. This results in increased efficiency and
reliability.
This paper mainly focuses on the modeling of the PV
system using Matlab / Simulink. The simulation results are
validated through experimental verification. Also the
performance of the PV panel is analyzed by interfacing it with
the power electronics converter. The response of the CHBMLI
fed from the PV panel has been presented for three level, five
level and seven level. The results show that the CHBMLI is
most suitable topology for interfacing with PV systems. The
results of CHBMLI show that it is quiet suitable for RES.
II. PV SYSTEM MODELING
The design of the PV panel for any real time application
can be easily made by predicting its VI characteristics under
different irradiation and temperature. The literature has
provided many mathematical models for PV panel[7]. The PV
cell front view is shown in Figure.1.
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The electrical equivalent circuit of a PV cell is given in Fig.
2. A PV cell is basically a large silicon PN junction, which
produces DC electric power, when it is exposed to sunlight.
Currently the cost of the PV panel is high compared with the
conventional energy sources such as, oil, coal, natural gas, etc.
But in near future, due to technological advancements and
mass production the cost can come down on par with the
conventional sources.

Figure.1 Front view of a single PV cell






Figure.2. Electrical equivalent circuit of a PV cell

I
sun
is the light controlled current source, which is directly
proportional to the amount of light incident on it and is linear
with respect to PV cell temperature. Cc, Dc represents the cell
capacitance and cell diode respectively. Rsh, Rs denotes the
shunt and series resistance. For steady state analysis the
capacitance can be neglected and assuming infinite shunt
resistance the circuit can be further simplified. Standard Test
Conditions (STC) are assumed as 25C and 1000 W/m
2
of
sunlight intensity. The equations used for mathematical
modeling are given as follows
, ,
,
[ ( )]*
sun
sun sun STC c c c STC
sun STC
P
I I K T T
P
= + (1)
[ ( ) 1]
d
d rs
c
qU
K T
I I Exp
A
= (2)
c sun d
I I I = (3)
c d S c
V U R I = (4)
*
c c c
P V I = (5)
Where
,
,
sun sun STC
I I are the short circuit current at working
point and STC.
,
, ,
c c c STC
K T T are temperature coefficient at
sun
I , actual and STC temperatures respectively.
,
,
sun sun STC
P P
are the actual and STC light intensities respectively. Equations
3,4 and 5 provide cell current, voltage and power.
Thus the PV panel mathematical model is developed in
Matlab and it has been employed to predict the current
generated by the light controlled current source under different
irradiations and temperature.
III. PV PANEL AND CASCADE H-BRIDGE MULTILEVEL
INVERTER INTERFACE
The PV panel and the CHBMLI interface is shown in Fig.3.
The interface involves energy buffer which is either battery or
super capacitor. The energy buffer will supply the load when
solar energy is not available for example during night hours or
cloudy days[8-9]. The structure of single H - bridge of the
CHBMLI configuration is shown in the Figure.4. The output
of this cell will have three levels namely +V, 0 and V. Using
one single H-bridge, a three level inverter can be realized. This
circuit requires about four switching devices. To realize higher
levels of output voltage, the H-bridge circuits are cascaded
.The circuit has many advantages like simple, modular,
improved waveform which results in reduced total harmonic
distortion.







Figure.3. PV panel and CHBMLI interface

Figure. 4. Circuit diagram of Single H-Bridge of cascaded inverter

Usually more number of level are preferred in the output
voltage to achieve near sinusoidal output. This reduces the
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and hence the lower order
harmonics are eliminated which in turn reduces the filter size
and cost. Though the number of switches increases, the rating
of the switches involved will be lesser when compared with
conventional inverter of same power level due its modular
structure. The modular structure also has an added advantage
of utilizing hybrid DC sources available such as PV panels,
Battery, etc.The number of levels in the output voltage is
2n+1, where n is the number H-Bridge units. The Figure. 5
shows the seven level CHBMLI which involves 3 H-Bridge
units.

2013 International Conference on Power, Energy and Control (ICPEC)
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IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The PV panel is modeled using one diode model and the
simulator is employed to study the VI and PV characteristics
for various irradiations and temperature. To validate the PV
cell model, experiment has been conducted with the solar
simulator shown in Fig.5. This solar simulator includes two
quartz halogen lamps as the light source and are located on top
of the compartment. It has two BEL make solar cells which are
located at the bottom of the chamber as shown in Figure.6. The
solar cell parameters used in the simulator are given as below
in Table. I
TABLE. I Solar cell parameters









Fig. 7 shows the voltage Vs current characteristics of the
PV cell for various operating temperature and fixed irradiance.
Fig. 8 provides the power Vs current curves of the PV cell for
various temperatures and irradiance. From the developed
matlab model for the PV cell, the PV panel has been made and
the characteristics of the panel is also analyzed. For the PV
panel also, as the temperature increases, the voltage output
decreases. Fig. 9 shows the VI characteristics of the PV panel
for various irradiance and temperature.
As the temperature increases, it is evident that the short
circuit current of the cell increases accompanied with a
significant reduction in the open circuit voltage. Thus the
efficiency of the solar cell decreases with increase in
temperature.
For one particular operating condition namely 1000W/ m
2

at 25C, the experimental data is plotted along with the
simulated curve in the Fig. 10. The red color curve represents
the data obtained from the solar simulator. It can be seen that
the model is validated from the data obtained through the
experiment. The PV curve of the PV cell can be obtained in the
same manner. For the STC the experimental data is plotted
along with the model. In the Fig. 11, the red color curve
represents the data obtained through the solar simulator. Both
the data and the model coincides which validates the simulated
model.
The PV connected CHBMLI is with different output levels.
As a sample the seven level CHBMLI results are shown. The
multi carrier based Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is
employed as the modulation technique. As the number level


Figure. 5 Solar simulator

Figure. 6. Solar cells inside the chamber
increases, the order of the dominant harmonic reduces and this
reduces the filter size and cost. The pulse generation using the
multi carrier technique is given in Fig. 13 and 14. The pulses
for the switches S
11
, S
21
and S
31
are shown in Fig.13 and these
pulses are inverted and given to the switches S
12
, S
22
and S
32
.
Similarly the switches S
13
, S
23
and S
33
are given with the pulses
as shown in Fig. 14 and inversion of these are given to the
switches S
14
, S
24
and S
34
. The output voltage of the seven level
CHBMLI is shown in Fig. 15.
The CHBMLI requires n number of DC sources which will
result in the output voltage with 2n+1 levels. In the usual
applications this stays as a drawback where multiple DC
sources are required. But here in the RES this becomes an
advantage as it makes feasible with the usage of hybrid sources
such as PV panels, batteries, DC sources, etc. This also has an
added advantage of having the PV panels with educed ratings
as tabulated in the Table. II. Also it is clear from the table that
the Total Harmonic distortion (THD) also reduces as the
number of levels increase which in turn improves the system
efficiency[10].




BEL make c-Si cell
Solar cell area 14cm
2

Test Conditions:
Irradiance=1000 W/ m
2

Temperatue= 25C
V
OC
= 0.674V, I
SC
= 5.8A

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TABLE. II Performance comparison of PV fed
CHBMLI


Figure. 7. VI curves of PV cell for various temperatures



Figure. 8. PV curves of PV cell for various temperatures and
irradiations


Figure. 9. VI curves of PV panel for various temperatures and irradiations

Figure. 10. VI curve of PV cell model and practical PV cell


Figure. 11. PV curve of PV cell model and practical PV cell

Also it can be noted that the DC voltage rating of each
bridge is reduced for higher number of levels, thus the switch
rating is brought down. This significantly reduces the
switching losses, thus increasing the efficacy of the system
[11].

Parameter
Inverter
No. of
PV
panels
required
Voltage
rating of
each PV
panel
THD of
output voltage
3 level
CHBMLI
1 42 32.2
5 level
CHBMLI
2 21 28.63
7 level
CHBMLI
3 14 16.75
2013 International Conference on Power, Energy and Control (ICPEC)
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From the Table II, it is observed that the seven level
Cascade H-bridge MLI requires three PV panels each with a
rating of 14V. The output voltage of the single PV panel is
shown in the Fig. 12. If only a single PV panel is available of
required rating, the remaining can be DC sources, battery, etc.
This leads to a topology of the hybrid CHBMLI. This
CHBMLI has found to be one of the best suitable inverter
topology for the RES applications. This has an added
advantage of modular construction, extendable as required,
and flexible to add the hybrid sources. Also this eliminates the
DC-DC boost converter stage in the conventional RES
interface.



Figure.12. PV panel output voltage



Figure.13. PWM pulses using multi carrier technique for positive swing

Figure. 14. PWM pulses using multi carrier technique for negative swing

Figure. 15. Output Voltage of PV fed 7 level CHBMLI

Figure. 16. Output Voltage of PV fed 7 level CHBMLI

2013 International Conference on Power, Energy and Control (ICPEC)
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Thus though the number levels increases the number of
switches required, it has the advantages of reduced switching
losses, lower ratings for the switches, reduction in THD and
reduced filter size and cost. Based the application and the
tolerable THD % will dictate the required number of levels.
Number of Switches Vs THD
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
0 5 10 15 20
Number of Switches
T
H
D

(
%
)

Figure. 17. Number of switches Vs THD
Fig. 17 gives a pictorial view of the number of switches Vs
THD for various levels of CHBMLI.
V. CONCLUSION
One of the promising the renewable energy source, the PV
system has been modeled in Matlab. The model developed is
validated through the experimental kit, the solar simulator. It is
evident from the results that the developed model works in a
similar manner to the real solar cell. From the cell the PV panel
is simulated and its characteristics is also explored.
As an utility application PV panel has been interfaced with
the more suitable power converter, the CHBMLI. The multi
carrier based PWM technique is employed for the CHBMLI.
The number levels increases the number of switches required, it
has the advantages of reduced switching losses, lower ratings
for the switches, reduction in THD and reduced filter size and
cost. Thus for high power applications this serves as a suitable
topology to be interfaced with the RES. The efficacy,
modularity and reliability of the topology is being proved from
the results.
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BIOGRAPHY
A.Chitra received Bachelor of Engineering in
EEE from Government College of Engineering,
Tirunelveli in the year 2001. She completed her
Master of Technology (Electric Drives and
Control) in Pondicherry Engg. College,
Puducherry, India. Her research areas include
vector controlled drives and neural networks.
Email: chitra.a@vit.ac.in. Mobile:
919894760447.

Dr. S.Himavathi completed her BE degree in
Electrical and Electronics Engineering from
College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai, India,
in the year 1984. She obtained her M.E. degree in
Instrumentation Technology in the year 1987
from Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai,
India. She completed her Ph.D degree in the area
of Fuzzy modeling in the year 2003 from Anna
University, Chennai, India. She is a Professor in
the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Pondicherry
Engineering College. Her research interests are Fuzzy systems, Neural
Networks, Hybrid systems and their applications to Electrical Engineering.
She has around 60 publications in peer reviewed journals/conferences.