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Design of A DC - DC Converter For A PV Array: Santosh Hariharan V Naveen Kumar (Student Member, IEEE)
Design of A DC - DC Converter For A PV Array: Santosh Hariharan V Naveen Kumar (Student Member, IEEE)
Abstract— In today’s world, as non-renewable sources of energy Since our system involved solar panels which provide a
deplete fast, there is an urgent need to switch onto alternate very low output voltage, the converter essentially needs to
sources of energy. Solar energy is a widely used, popular and have a large gain, while keeping the hardware as simple as
viable alternate source of energy. In off the grid sectors such as possible. Somewhat surprisingly, we observed that low-input
remote rural areas; solar energy can be used for irrigation power converters have not been widely discussed in such
pumps which require about 240V ac supply, but owing to its low
output power it is insufficient to drive high current loads such as design applications oriented industries. In [3], a 0.3 V
pumps, motors etc. Hence we provide circuitry to amplify a low thermoelectric generator was used for power scavenging. Its
input voltage of 17.2 V, obtained from a solar panel and boost it authors investigate a few different circuit topologies for power
to 325V dc by the use of multiple boost converters in cascade to coming from a single solar cell; however the startup problem
provide the required gain. Attempts are made to configure and was not handled in a practical method. Several issues which
maintain a steady DC output voltage in spite of variation of solar were encountered with their (high-power) system were
voltage or any load changes by the use of PI controller. The discussed in some detail. It is proven that the efficiency of the
circuit has been simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK and the basic power converter circuits such as buck, boost, etc. have
results are shown. The method used here scores owing to its been well established in the recent years and we will continue
simple construction, working and is efficient too. experimenting with the same.
Keywords- Boost converter, PI controller, Photo Voltaic array,
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). Existing ICs for the same purpose, like Texas Instruments’
TPS 61200, are provided for low input Dc- Dc conversions.
However they do not have a very high output voltage (as per
I. INTRODUCTION our requirement) nor do they function at a high frequency.
We have proposed a photovoltaic conversion system They also have efficiency problems at high frequencies.
suitable for AC or DC load. In rural areas which are off the Although the data sheet mentions applications including solar
grid and have a weak power network, the proposed system cell powered products, the maximum output voltage which it
(refer figure 1) can be used to supply either a passive load or can provide is a low 5.5 V, which is unsuitable for the
an active load such as air conditioning or single phase motors applications mentioned as our objective.
or irrigation pumps. The basic requirements for the conversion Our circuit here tries to address the above mentioned
system are defined below: problems in a simple and an effective manner, ensuring that
the use of hardware components are as minimal as possible,
• High efficiency owing to the high cost of solar arrays thus cutting the costs. A steady output voltage is ensured with
the help of a PI controller.
• A stable 325 V DC voltage output
II. OPEN LOOP CIRCUIT
• Simple, light and free-maintenance A. Design
The open loop circuit diagram is shown in figure 2.
ௗଵ ଵ
ௗ௧ ଵ
ଶ ଵ 1
ଵ ଵ
(2)
ௗଶ
ௗ௧ ଶ
ଶ
ଶ
ଵ
ଵ
2 (3)
Figure 3. A circuit working in Mode 1.
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2010 International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Control and Robotics
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introduced by shorting a 1 kΩ resistor (series with the load) at set-point. As our application may be prone to load changes
with the help of appropriate diode circuitry across the 1 kΩ a feedback circuitry is essential for maintaining a constant
resistor (shown in figure 9). The load current and load voltage load voltage.
waveforms are shown in figure 10.
III. CLOSED LOOP
Figure 10. Load voltage and Load currents after a step change in load.
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2010 International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Control and Robotics
B. Double switch control
We observe that the output goes below set point and were
uncontrollable. One important observation was that although
stage 1 was untouched its output voltage and output current
was also affected, which led us to the conclusion that there
was an inverse effect from boost 2 to boost 1. Hence a double
switch control is essential and a single switch control is not
enough.
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objectives mentioned and is verified through the simulation
results. The circuit has advantages such as simplicity and
efficiency; hence the hardware requirements are also simple.
Although actual outputs may differ from simulation results,
the basic design of the circuit remains the same. The PI
controller is simple and works fine within specific tolerance
limits. For better and accurate results, non linear controllers
like Fuzzy, Sliding mode control etc. can be preferred.
REFERENCES
[1] D. Diallo ' Senior Member, IEEE, F. Belkacem, Eric Berthelot “Design
and Control of a Low Power DC-DC Converter fed by a Photovoltaic
array”, 2007 IEEE.
[2] Juing-Huei Su, Member, IEEE, Jiann-Jong Chen, Member, IEEE, and
Dong-Shiuh Wu, Member, IEEE “Learning Feedback Controller Design
of Switching Converters Via MATLAB/SIMULINK”, IEEE
Transactions On Education, Vol. 45, No. 4, November 2002.
[3] J. W. Kimball, T. L. Flowers, P. L. Chapman, “Issues with Low-Input-
Voltage Boost Converter Design”.
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