Photovoltaic Energy Sources

This chapter covers simulation of both grid-connected and island operating photovoltaic (PV) systems. Both developed by the author and included in SimPowerSystems models of PV cells are used for building models of PV arrays. Power rise of the PV energy sources promotes employment of the multilevel voltage source inverters (VSI); thereupon, utilization of the cascaded H-Bridge multilevel inverters is very promising, and in this chapter their simulation is considered when the various variants of the system structure are used. At this, the methods to decrease interphase and per-phase unbalances are investigated. For islanding operation, the methods to identify this mode are simulated. Parallel operation of two PVs with isolated load under different environments for PVs is simulated; the droop characteristics are used to provide parallel work. The developed models can serve as a basis for the reader to develop his own models of PV plants.