A Single-Phase Single-Stage, High Power Factor

Grid-Connected PV System, with

Maximum Power Point Tracking
VINCIUS S. LACERDA, PEDRO G. BARBOSA E HENRIQUE A. C. BRAGA
NAEP, Ncleo de Automao e Eletrnica de Potncia, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brasil
Caixa Postal 422, 36001-970, Juiz de Fora, MG Brasil

Abstract- This paper proposes a single-phase, grid connected Besides ensuring an injected current with low harmonic
non-isolated, very compact photovoltaic (PV) processing system, distortion and in phase with the mains voltage, the power
which is able to inject a low-distortion current into the grid processing system must be able to track the maximum power
while tracks the maximum power point (MPPT) of the PV array.
The arrangement is based on a buck full-bridge inverter, whose point of the PV array, causing all the energy available to be
switches are gated to provide an almost sinusoidal current into used.
the grid keeping the PV panels voltage near constant, using what As photovoltaic cells have low efficiency (e. g. crystalline
is known as the simplest method of MPPT available to date. The silica: 24,7%), which is reduced to approximately 16% when
concept is validated by a comprehensive set of theoretical assembled in a module [4], it is important to get the most
equations and digital simulation results concerning a 720W PV energy possible. Any additional loss will further reduce the
power injected to a 127V, 60 Hz line grid. A solar radiation step
overall efficiency of the system.
response case is considered to prove the feasibility of the idea.
The small number of components of the complete system confers It is important to note that the majority of the solutions
to it a great efficiency and reliability. devised to accomplish the common PV system tasks (MPPT,
Power Factor Correction PFC and inverter functions)
employ two or more converter stages, what may imply in
I. INTRODUCTION expensive and low efficient solutions. So, the main
contribution of this paper is to show that all of these functions
Currently, with the increasing energy consumption of the
can be integrated into a single power processing stage.
nations and with the possibility of depletion of the fossil fuels
The structure proposed here can ensure the system
at the near future, there is a forthcoming interest by
operation at the maximum point of PV power for different
governments and businesses in the use and production of
values of solar radiation, and can also inject into the grid a
alternative energy sources.
low harmonic distortion current with close to unity power
The grid-connected photovoltaic systems are one solution
factor. The concept is illustrated by means of Fig. 1.
that has been adopted in various parts of the word, especially
This paper is organized according to the following. In
in industrialized countries.
section II, the adopted PV panel model is described. Section
These systems present as advantages: (i) low
III deals with the MPPT method employed by the system.
environmental impact; (ii) the possibility to be installed close
Section IV describes the intended system along with
to load centers, saving transmission lines; (iii) the absence of
theoretical equations (some of them useful to design the
moving parts in the generation system, which facilitates and
controller parameters, which is a system based on the average
simplifies maintenance, (iv) the modularity of the system,
current-mode control method). Section V includes a
which allows the expansion of installed capacity and (v) the
numerical simulation case, which stems on practical elements
non-emission of carbon dioxide or other harmful gases to the
and on commercial PV panels. Finally, Section VI provides a
environment.
brief discussion and concluding remarks.
However, in order to make the energy generated by
photovoltaic panels useful to the electrical power grid it is
Power Processing Single-Stage
necessary a system to process such energy, since the PV
panels, when exposed to light, generate DC voltages and
currents at its terminals. In order to condition the generated
power, static power converters must be used as an interface MPPT Low-frequency
dc-dc PFC
between the PV array and the grid. current inverter
Conditioner
In [1], [2] and [3] several possible configurations and
PV
topologies of static converters applied to PV exploitation are Array
presented, which can be used as the connection between PV
systems and the grid.
Fig. 1 Conceptual block diagram of the proposed system.

978-1-4244-5697-0/10/$25.00 2010 IEEE 871

 II. MODEL OF THE PV PANEL The I-V characteristic of the photovoltaic cell is
represented analytically by the solution of (1). However, this
PV arrays are made up of photovoltaic modules or panels,
equation cannot be solved algebraically, since the current iPV
where photovoltaic cells are responsible for converting light
cannot be isolated. Moreover, the mathematical model must
energy into electricity.
include radiation and temperature as input parameters.
In order to achieve the ideal parameters for a given
As presented by Cavalcanti et al. in [7], the values of ISC
application, it is necessary to combine photovoltaic panels in
and Ir can be determined by (2) and (3), respectively.
series or parallel to attain appropriate levels of voltage and
current. When combined in series, there will be an increment
Psun
of the voltage PV array. On the other hand, when associated I ph = [ I sc + (T Tr )] . (2)
in parallel there will be an increment in current generated by 1000
the PV array. 3 q EG 1 1
In order to study the behavior of PV systems connected to T k
Tr T
the grid it is necessary to develop a mathematical model that I r = I rr e . (3)
reflects the behavior of the PV array in a precise way, Tr
including responses to temperature and radiation. Where,
A model capable of synthesizing the electrical
characteristics of a PV panel was devised by Casaro and Isc: short-circuit current per cell;
Martins in [5]. The equivalent circuit of a photovoltaic cell is : temperature coefficient Isc;
shown in Fig. 2. The current source Iph is the current from the Tr: reference temperature, 298K;
excitation light, while the diode Dsh represents the p-n Psun: intensity of solar radiation, W/m2;
junction existing in the photovoltaic cell. Irr: reverse saturation reference current;
Seeking to achieve a greater accuracy, the resistances Rsh EG: silicon energy band-gap, 1,1eV.
and Rs are inserted. The resistance Rsh (also called shunt To determine the value Irr, it is necessary to make iPV = 0 in
resistance) represents the difficulty created for the current (1). The result is vPV = voc, where voc is the open circuit
flow due to crystal defects (impurities present in the voltage per cell. Substituting these values in (3) and taking
crystalline compound that forms the cell). The resistance Rs T = Tr the following equation is obtained:
represents the losses associated to the body p-n junction that
Voc
forms the cell and to the electrical contacts between the I sc
terminals and the semiconductor. Rsh
A detailed study of the effect of those resistances on the I rr = q Voc
. (4)
performance of PV systems is presented in [6]. k Tr
e 1
The current iPV can be determined by (1).
The substitution of (4) into (1) provides the determination
(
q v
PV
+i
PV
Rs ) ( k T ) of iPV by means of mathematical models, such as the
iPV = I ph I r e 1 + Newtons method.

(1) Adopting the procedures outlined by Casaro and Martins in
v +i R [5], it was determined the I-V curve of the BP SX-120 panel
PV PV s .
Rsh (which will be used in a practical example later in this paper),
Where, for different values of solar radiation. The results are shown
iPV, vPV: voltage and current at the output terminals of the in Fig. 3.
photovoltaic cell;
Iph: photocurrent;
Ir: reverse-biased saturation current of the cell;
q: Electron charge, 1,6x10-19 C;
: factor quality p-n junction;
Current, A

k: Boltzmann constant, 1,38x10-23 J/K;

T: ambient temperature, K.
2

2
2

Voltage, V
Fig. 3 Effect of variation of solar radiation on the
Fig. 2 Equivalent circuit of a photovoltaic cell. behavior of the BP Sx-120 PV panel.

872
 Looking at Fig. 3, one can observe an increment in the
current short-circuit that is proportional to the intensity of the
incident solar radiation. This occurs because the electric
current that accounts for the irradiance in the p-n junction is
linearly proportional to the intensity of it, as shown in (2).
Another factor that influences the I-V curve of a
photovoltaic panel is the temperature. Its variation implies in
slight deviations in the open circuit panel voltage (VOC).
III. MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING
The maximum power point tracking is an essential part of a
photovoltaic system. This is designed to automatically find
the point VMPP or IMPP in which the system operates at the
maximum power, depending on the condition of temperature
and solar radiation.
Due to its importance, several studies on the subject have
been published in recent years. In [8] and [9], comparisons
among different tracking techniques are presented.
The main methods used are: (i) perturb and observe, (ii)
incremental conductance, (iii) constant voltage, (iv) fuzzy
logic control, (v) neural network, (vi) ripple correlation
control, (viii) fractional open-circuit voltage, among other
factors. These methods vary in complexity, number of
required sensors, convergence speed, cost, deployment
platform, among other factors.
Due to its low cost and easier implementation, the method
of the constant voltage was chosen here. This tracking
technique keeps the PV array operating at maximum power
voltage depending on the temperature.
This method, though simple, produces satisfactory results,
being even more efficient for low intensities of solar radiation
than the perturb and observe and incremental
conductance methods [9].
Looking at Fig. 4, one can observe that solar radiation has
little influence on the maximum power voltage (VMPP). Thus,
a PV array operating in its VMPP for standard test conditions
will be very close to its maximum power point.
Fig. 4 - P-V curve for different values of solar irradiances.
873
IV. THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
The proposed system allows, with a single stage of
processing energy, to track the point of maximum power for
different conditions of solar radiation and to synthesize a
current with low harmonic distortion, in phase with the mains
voltage.
All the control logic of the proposed topology is based on
the average current-mode control, which could be
accomplished by means of inexpensive integrated circuits,
such as the UC3854. This technique has been mainly used as
an active PFC technique applied to ac-to-dc power supplies
[10]. In these systems, the input current needs to follow the
same waveform of the grid voltage, what ensures a low
harmonic distortion and, consequently, a high power factor
behavior. To ensure the correct function operation of the
system, the output voltage must remain nearly constant for
different load conditions.
Similarly, in the proposed photovoltaic system, the output
voltage of the PV array must be kept constant at VMPP so that
the system operates by transferring the maximum energy
available. Furthermore, the control system must act in order
to make the output current of the power processing stage
proportional to the grid voltage. The block diagram of the
proposed system is shown in Fig. 5, where k1 is a voltage
correction factor.
The inner control loop is responsible for synthesizing a
sinusoidal current to be injected into the grid, while the outer
loop controls the input voltage. There is still a feedforward
loop, which is related to the regulation of the output current
when there are variations across the grid voltage.
The current as sampled at the output stage of processing
power (Is) is compared with the reference current (Iref)
provided by the block output multiplier, that performs the
operation presented in (5).
A B
Mult = . (5)
C2
The signal A is responsible for the synchronization. From a
sample of the grid voltage the shape, the phase and the
frequency of the reference current can be defined.
The signal B, at the output of the voltage regulator block,
provides the voltage control at the terminals of the PV array
through the increase or decrease of Iref, according to the
variation of the solar radiance, and consequently, the
generated power.
Power
Processing
Stage
vpa
v
Fig. 5 Simplified block diagram of the proposed system.
 Signal C, in the feedforward loop, reports a dc amount
that is proportional to the rms value of the grid voltage.
The output of the current regulator, Reg (I), is compared
with a sawtooth wave. The result is used to trigger the power
semiconductors that form the stage of processing power.
A. First Approach and System Modeling
To determine the regulators of the control system, a
processing power stage was considered, which is initially
comprised by a buck converter cascaded to a full-bridge
inverter (Fig. 6), here represented by the rectified sinusoidal
voltage supply, vo.
In this topology, only the switch of the buck converter
(SBUCK) operates at high frequency. The switches that form
the inverter circuit operate at the grid frequency.
The first stage, buck converter, is responsible for tracking
the point of maximum power of the PV array and
synthesizing a rectified sinusoidal current. The inverter
circuit, second stage, performs the reverse polarity of the
current as synthesized in the previous stage, feeding the grid
with a sinusoidal current.
To design the controller loops of voltage and current, the
mathematical model of the buck converter must be
determined. So, the model of PWM switch, proposed by
Vorprian in [11], was adopted. This linearizes the effect of
the nonlinear switches, allowing obtaining the linearized
small-signal relationships.
ipa SBUCK
L s ( s + pc )
DPV iL
CPV DBUCK
vpa
PV vo=|Vp.sin(t)|
Array
Fig. 6 Two-stage PV system (buck converter cascaded with the full-bridge
inverter, here represented by the voltage supply, vo).
The relation between the inductor current and deviations on
switch duty cycle can be determined by the equation (6).
V pa d ( s )
D = L s I L ( s ).
D
Where Vpa is the PV panel steady-state terminal voltage.
Considering d$ (s) as the Laplace Transform of the
disturbance in the duty cycle, one can get:
I L ( s ) V pa
= .
d ( s ) s L
Looking at equation (7) one can verify that the plant has a
pole at zero and a gain equals to Vpa/L.
As the control system varies the duty cycle from around 1
to near zero, in order to maintain the PV array operating near
the point of maximum power while the inductor current
varies, it must be determined which is the most representative
operating point, before designing the regulators.
The static gain of the buck converter is given by:
vo ( t )
= d (t ) , (8)
V pa
where: vo = V p sin(t ) .
When the output voltage of the buck converter is maximal
(vo=Vp), the duty cycle d(t) must also be maximal in order to
maintain the voltage across the terminals of the PV array
constant at VMPP. So, with d(t) = D = Vp/Vpa the voltage and
current in the converter are highest. This condition points to a
situation of critical relevance for the stability of the controlled
system. Therefore, it will be used for the regulators design.
Since the objective of the current regulator is to ensure that
the inductor current has the same waveform of the grid
rectified voltage, it is desirable that the internal control loop
has a large bandwidth in order to ensure a low distorted
output current [10].
The current regulator assumed here is the filtered
proportional-integral type, whose transfer function is shown
in (9).
s + zc
Re g ( I ) ( s ) = kc (9)
To minimize the effect of the switching frequency in the
current loop, it is recommended to allocate the regulator zero
a decade below the switching frequency:
s
zc = . (10)
10
However, this frequency cannot be too low because the
lower the zero frequency (fzc) the worse the dynamic response
of the system [12].
In order to ensure a large bandwidth, the second pole of the
current regulator must be a decade above the frequency of the
zero:
pc = 10 z . (11)
The first pole is allocated in origin, i. e. 0 Hz.
The outer control loop is formed by an adder circuit
(6) cascaded to a low-pass filter. The output voltage of the adder
circuit is the weighted sum of the input signals:
VSI = k2 v k3 Vref . (12)
Where v is the MPPT voltage error and Vref is a dc level
that must be employed at this stage (offset voltage).
Considering k2=k3=1, it is possible to obtain:
(7) VSI = ( v + Vref ). (13)
874
 When Vpa is greater than VMPP, v is positive and VSI is In order to attain the balance of powers, the peak of the
greater than the reference voltage. As a result, there is an output current must be equal to the peak of the reference
increase in the signal B, which increases the amplitude of the current (inductor current).
reference current. To compensate this situation, the operating I sPICO = I ref PICO . (21)
point of PV array moves to MPP (Maximum Power Point).
Similarly, when Vpa is less than VMPP, v is negative and VSI
Substituting (16) and (20) into (21):
is less than Vref. Consequently there is a decrement in the
value of the signal that decreases the amplitude of the 2 Pout k V p B
reference current. This change in the amplitude of Iref causes = . (22)
( )
2
VsRMS VsRMS
the current generated by the PV array to decrease, shifting the
operating point to MPP.
When the system is operating at maximum power, v is Making some manipulations, the value of k as a function of
zero and VSI = Vref. In this situation, the reference current has the signal B and the output power can be determined as
the required amplitude for Ipa to be equal to IMPP. follows:
It is this logic of control that causes the PV array to Pout
operate at the maximum power point for different values of k= . (23)
solar radiation. B
For the 120Hz ripple present at the terminals of the PV As explained in the precedent paragraphs, when the system
array not to appear in the output of the voltage regulator, operates at maximum power point, the signal B is equal to the
causing distortion in the reference current and thus reducing reference voltage adopted in the adder circuit.
the power factor of the proposed topology, a low-pass filter is Considering Vref = 15V it is obtained:
inserted in series with the adder. k = 0,0667 Pout . (24)
The low-pass filter of the outer (voltage) control loop can
be given by: After determining the value of k, it remains to establish the
B( s) kv
value of the inductor of the buck converter.
= . (14) The ripple in the inductor current can be calculated by:
VSI ( s ) (1 + s pv )

After setting voltage and current regulators, Reg(V) and V pa V p sin

iL ( ) = tON . (25)
Reg(I), one must find out the value of k (Fig. 5). L
The block k has the function of ensuring the balance of where:
powers. As there is no storing energy elements in the
proposed system, all the PV generated energy must be V p sin
tON = Ts . (26)
injected into the grid. The output power of the proposed V pa
topology can be calculated by means of:
Substituting (26) into (25):
Pout = VsRMS I sRMS . (15)
Vp 2
Making some manipulations, it is obtained: V p sin( ) sin 2 ( )
V pa
iL ( ) = . (27)
2 Pout L fs
I sPICO = . (16)
VsRMS It can be seen from equation (27) that the ripple current in
The reference current (Iref) is determined by the output of the inductor is a function of . Therefore, the angle that
the multiplier block. causes the maximum ripple must be determined, given by
A B (28).
I ref = 2 . (17)
C V pa
Where: max = arcsin . (28)
2 V
p
A = k (V p sin ). (18)
The maximum ripple in the inductor current can be
C = VsRMS . (19) predicted by substituting the equation (28) into (27):
Substituting (18) and (19) into (17) the peak value of Vpa
reference current can be determined by: iLmax = . (29)
4 L fs
k Vp B
I ref PICO = . (20) Adopting a maximum ripple, the value of the buck
(V )
2
sRMS converter inductor can be calculated.

875
 Vpa
L= . (30)
4 f s iLmax ipa S1 S2
L
Finally, the configuration of the PV array must be DPV
determined. To ensure the correct operation of the buck is
vpa CPV
converter, the voltage in the PV array terminals must be
higher than the peak voltage grid, which is stated by (31).

PV S3 S4 Grid
V pa > V p . (31) Array

Fig. 7 Proposed topology.

B. Single-Stage Topology
Fig. 8 also shows that the PV system recovers from the step
Since the objective of the proposed topology is to employ a perturbation in solar radiation after a transient time of around
single power stage, able to track the maximum power point, 100 ms, which can be considered a reasonable mark (six
and to synthesize a current with low harmonic distortion and cycles of the mains voltage).
in phase with voltage grid, the inverter circuit is integrated
into the buck converter, according to the guidelines in [13]. VI. CONCLUSIONS
The compact system version is depicted in Fig. 7.
This paper introduced a simplified and very compact
alternative to inject a low distortion high power factor current
V. SIMULATION RESULTS into a single-phase electrical grid, as generated by a
In order to prove the feasibility of the concept as outlined photovoltaic array operating close to its maximum power
in the previous sections, a practical situation is simulated, point (constant voltage control).
considering a grid single-phase voltage of 127V (rms), 60 Hz. The concept was verified by means of a comprehensive set
According to (31), the PV array voltage must be greater than of theoretical equations and simplified controller design
the peak mains voltage (which is near 180V). So, the PV guidelines. These elements have been used to devise a
array adopted is composed of six photovoltaic panels BP SX- practical condition, which has been digitally simulated and
120 in series, what leads to a PV voltage of around 202V, at could be used to prove all the predicted parameters and
the maximum power point. Since each PV panel has a peak variables.
power of 120W, the total PV array power is of 720W, in The results presented here constitute a very important step
standard test condition. in the study of the processing energy in the field of grid-
According to the modeling and design equations of the connected photovoltaic systems, since they set strong
previous section, and assuming a switching frequency of evidences for the reliability of the proposed system.
70 kHz and a current ripple of 10%, the inductor value has
been calculated to be 0.9mH. A dc capacitor, CPV, of 1000F
has been also employed in the simulation.
The parameters of the control system are: zc = 43.98 x 103
rd/s, pc = 439.82 x 103 rd/s, kc = 857.65 x 103, kv = 1 and pv=
3.98x10-3 rd/s. Moreover, to make the simulation closer to
real parameters it was introduced a parasitic resistance in
series with the inductor (rL = 0.02). The ON resistance of
switches were also considered (RDS(on) = 0.55).
To check the behavior of the control system, the solar
radiation was changed from 1000W/m2 to 500W/m2. When
there is such a change in the radiation solar intensity, the
control system operates by decreasing the current injected
into the grid, in order to keep the voltage at the PV array
terminals in its maximum power point (VMPP = 202.2V).
This situation is illustrated in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9, where the
computational data have been obtained with the use of PSIM
tool. Fig. 10 shows the mains voltage and the injected current
waveform, which features a THD of 1.79% and a negligible
displacement power factor. Fig. 8 Solar radiation step: voltage at the PV array terminals
(upper trace) and generated power (lower trace).

876
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Fig. 10 Current injected into the grid (blue, 10X) and mains
voltage waveforms (red).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Authors would like to thank FAPEMIG and FCT/JF for the
financial support on the developing of this project. Authors
are also thankful to the Federal University of Juiz de Fora
(UFJF) for the support on research and for the previous works
developed inside the University.

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