A virtual bus parallel differential power processing configuration for photovoltaic applications

Afshin Nazer*, Patrizio Manganiello, Olindo Isabella

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are often exposed to mismatch caused by partial shading, different mounting angles, dust accumulation, cell degradation, and so on. This paper proposes a novel parallel differential power processing (P-DPP) configuration to minimize mismatch-related losses among PV strings. The proposed configuration, called PV to Virtual Bus P-DPP, uses a virtual bus as an input for all P-DPP converters. Since the virtual bus voltage can be selected lower than the DC Bus voltage, components’ voltage rating can be reduced. An essential feature of the proposed configuration is the ability of the converters to generate both positive and negative output voltage. Therefore, a bidirectional flyback converter connected to a bridgeless converter is proposed as the P-DPP converter. To find the MPP of each PV string, the Perturb and Observe (P&O) algorithm is implemented. Moreover, a proportional–integral feedback controller controls the virtual bus voltage through the central converter. The benefits of the proposed configuration are discussed, and the operation of the proposed structure is further verified through simulations with the software PLECS.

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages14
JournalMathematics and Computers in Simulation
DOIs
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2023

Keywords

  • Differential Power Processing
  • Distributed Maximum Power Point Tracking
  • Mismatch losses
  • Partial shading
  • Photovoltaic systems

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