International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)

ISSN: 2321-0869 (O) 2454-4698 (P), Volume-7, Issue-5, May 2017

Simulation of High Power Factor Single Phase

Inverter For PV Solar Array
Anam Aziz, Mr. Vaibhav Purwar

Abstract Photovoltaic (PV) systems are solar energy supply simulation of single-phase solar inverter by Pulse Width
systems, which either supply power directly to an electrical Modulation. A Pulse Width Modulation is a technique that
equipment or feed energy into the public electricity grid focuses use as a way to decrease total harmonic distortion in inverter
on the latest development of modelling and control of grid circuit. The model is implemented using MATLAB software
connected photovoltaic energy conversion system This paper
with the SIMPOWER SYSTEM block set based on computer
depicts information about DC-AC inverter used in solar
inverter. We will get DC power from solar panels and this
simulation. Computer simulation plays an important role in
converter inverts DC to AC. This design and modulation is the design, analysis, and evaluation of power electronic
based on MATLAB software. In circuit, for switching purpose converter and their controller. MATLAB is an effective tool
IGBT is used. There are many other devices also but IGBT has to analyze a PWM inverter. Advantages of using MATLAB
more advantages than others that are shown by comparison with are the following:
others. The main thing is that this conversion and switching of
IGBT is done using different types of PWM methods. Here we 1. Faster response
are using HCCPWM method for conversion of AC power. This 2. Availability of various simulation tools
method is very efficient than other methods and also it reduces
3. Various functional blocks, etc.
harmonics to very much extent in output. The Thesis objective
are, to design an inverter model by using MATLAB and making
analysis on the output voltage and to study the function of PWM
in single phase inverter. Its scopes are:
1. Modeling and simulation using MATLAB.
2. Using HCCPWM method for the switching operation.
Project application: This Project is based on solar inverter.
This inverter will be used in our college for lab applications.

Index Terms Simulation, Boost-Converter, Single Phase,

PV Inverter, Grid connected inverter MATLAB/Simulink

I. INTRODUCTION
Presently world is facing too much challenges one of them is Figure 1 General Diagram of Solar Inverter System
to generating the enough electrical power that will fulfill the
requirements of mankind. Today generation of electrical II. BLOCK DIAGRAM
power based on the conventional coal, gas and nuclear based. Block diagram of single phase solar inverter is shown in Fig 2.
World population is increasing day by day so the requirement Solar panel output is 24volt. Dc to dc boost converter
of them also increased and hence generation of electrical converts 24-volt dc voltage to 36-volt dc. This dc voltage is
power is also increased. Basically there are two types of converted to ac voltage using inverter. Inverter output is sine
power generation sources: coded PWM pulses. These sine-coded pulses are stepped up
1. Conventional using step up transformer. These sine coded PWM pulses are
2. Non-conventional. converted into sine wave using low-pass filter. This sine wave
Today most of generation of electrical power based on ac voltage is fed to the load. The ac output is 220volt 50Hz.
Conventional sources such as coal, gas and nuclear etc. For design the output power of solar inverter is taken 250VA.
Conventional sources are no more after some of the years and
which are not sufficient to fulfill the requirement of the
mankind. Nuclear energy is not much preferable because its
radiation effect. Therefore some part of energy should be
generated based on non-conventional sources. There are also
problems of increasing pollution and energy demands and
hence the exploitation of solar has received more and more
attentions. This project is also focus on modeling and

Anam Aziz, Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering,

M.Tech Scholar, Kanpur Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.
Mr. Vaibhav Purwar, Associate Professor, Department of Electronics &
Figure 2 Block diagram of single phase PV solar Array
Communication Engineering, Kanpur Institute of Technology, Kanpur,
India

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 Simulation of High Power Factor Single Phase Inverter For PV Solar Array

III. SOLAR ENERGY A: PN junction ideality factor, between 1 and 5

Solar energy is a non-conventional type of energy. Solar k: Boltzmann's constant, 1.380658e23 J/K
energy has been harnessed by humans since ancient times TC: Solar cell absolute operating temperature, K
using a variety of technologies. Solar radiation, along with RS: Cell intrinsic series resistance
secondary solar-powered resources such as wave and wind RP: Cell intrinsic shunt or parallel resistance
power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the The photocurrent IPh for any operating conditions of the
available non-conventional type of energy on earth. Only a PV array is assumed to be related to the photocurrent at
small fraction of the available solar energy is used. standard test conditions (STC) as given in equation (2).

Solar powered electrical generation relies on photovoltaic

system and heat engines. Solar energy's uses are limited only
by human creativity. To harvest the solar energy, the most
B. DC to DC Boost Converter
common way is to use photovoltaic panels which will receive
photon energy from sun and convert to electrical energy. DC to DC Converters are used for converting one level of DC
Solar technologies are broadly classified as either passive voltage (usually unregulated) to another level of DC voltage
solar or active solar depending on the way they detain, (regulated). This transformation is done with the help of a
convert and distribute solar energy. Active solar techniques network consisting of storage elements like inductor and
include the use of PV panels and solar thermal collectors to capacitor [1].
strap up the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting
a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable
thermal mass or light dispersing properties and design spaces
that naturally circulate air. Solar energy has a vast area of
application such as electricity generation for distribution,
heating water, lightening building, crop drying etc.

IV. SYSTEM COMPONENTS

A. Modelling Of Photovoltaic Module/Array Figure 4 Boost Converter

The photovoltaic module is the result of associating a group The key principle that drives the boost converter is the
of photovoltaic cells in series and parallel, with their tendency of an inductor to resist changes in current. In a boost
protection devices, and it represents the conversion unit in converter, the output voltage is always higher than the input
this generation system. The manufacturer supply PV cells in voltage. A schematic of a boost converter is shown in Fig. 4.
modules, consisting of NPM parallel branches, each with Here, IGBT is used as a switch. When the switch is
NSM solar cells in series shown in Figure 3 turned-ON, the current flows through the inductor and energy
is stored in it. When the switch is turned-OFF, the stored
energy in the inductor tends to collapse and its polarity
changes such that it adds to the input voltage. Thus, the
voltage across the inductor and the input voltage are in series
and together charge the output capacitor to a voltage higher
than the input voltage.

C. Control of DC to DC converter

The output voltage of DC to DC converter is controlled or

Figure 3 Equivalent circuit of a PV array. regulated by switching ON and OFF the switch, in a periodic
manner. The regulation is normally achieved by HCC Pulse
Width Modulation (PWM) technique at a fixed frequency.
Although the mathematical and simulation photovoltaic The constant switching frequency ft is given by [1],
modules development began time ago, improvements of these
models are analyzed and presented continually. One of the
objectives of this study is a review of those existing methods
and models. Where Tt is the time period of switching device and it is
nothing but the addition of ON and OFF time of a switching
device which is given by

Where: IA: PV array output current As the ratio Ton/Tt is duty ratio and as this duty ratio varies,
VA: PV array output voltage the output voltage also varies. This is called constant
IPh: Solar cell photocurrent frequency, variable duty ratio control [1].
IRS: Solar cell reverse saturation current (aka dark current)
q: Electron charge, 1.60217733e19 Cb

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 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869 (O) 2454-4698 (P), Volume-7, Issue-5, May 2017
is used to control the switches of inverter to control the power
supplied to the motor. By controlling the ON-OFF time of the
switches we can control the speed of the motor. When we
need more speed we increase the ON time of the switches
similarly when we need to slow down the motor we decreases
the OFF time of the switches. Higher switching frequency for
the switches so that the power losses is insignificant as
compare to the power supplied by the source.

Figure 5 Control circuit of boost converter A. Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation

This type of pulse-width modulation is almost similar to that
Control circuit of boost converter is shown in Fig.3. For
of multiple-pulse width. The width of the pulses in the former
regulation purpose, output voltage is continuously sensed Vo
one is constant but here in SPWM, the width of the pulses
(sensed) and compared with a reference voltage Vo
varies according to the amplitude of the reference (sinusoidal)
(reference). The resulting error signal is compared with a saw
signal.
tooth waveform having frequency ft. The output of a
comparator is fed to the switch or fed into the gate of a power In SPWM, the frequency of carrier is very high and this signal
IGBT [1]. Usually, frequency in kilohertz is selected so as to is compared with the sinusoidal reference signal of the desired
maximize the efficiency of a converter. frequency. The carrier signal and the reference signal are
compared together using a comparator. When the amplitude
D. Voltage Controller of the reference wave is higher than the carrier then only the
In general using electrolytic capacitors are less desirable for output of the comparator is high otherwise it remains low.
their short operational lifetime. Hence Long lifetime film
In a SPWM, we compare the sinusoidal control signals (Va,
capacitors serve as a substitute, however their high prices
Vb and Vc), which are 120 degree apart with each other with a
limit the size that can be used in PV inverters. This causes a
triangular voltage signal (VT ). Intersection of triangular
significant double line frequency ripple on the DC link
signal with each phase of the sinusoidal control signal
voltage which may further couple through the control loop.
produces switching signal for each phases of the inverter.
Therefore a band stop filter is placed on the dc voltage
An inverter has six switching devices S1 to S2 with output of
feedback loop to attenuate the ripple. Fig. 6 shows the block
each phase is connected to the centre of each inverter leg as
diagram of the outer voltage control loop. A simple PI
shown in figure 7. There are two switch in each leg of the
controller is used as a voltage controller G (s) v to regulate the
inverter and ON and OFF in a complementary fashion. That
dc link voltage.
is, only one switch will conduct at any instant of time in one
leg of inverter. The pole output voltage of the inverter varies
between Vdc/2 to Vdc/2 where Vdc be total DC voltage [4].
For modulating index less than one peak of triangular carrier
signal is always greater than the peak of sinusoidal control
signal. When the carrier signal is less than the sinusoidal
signal, the upper devices are conducting and the lower devices
are OFF. Similarly, when the triangular signal is less than the
sinusoidal signal, the upper devices is OFF and the lower
devices are conducting. The switches in each leg of the
Figure 6 Block diagram of outer voltage loop. inverter are controlled together and the control signal is:
S11 is ON when Va > VT
V. PULSE WIDTH MODULATION
S12 is ON when Va < VT
Pulse-width modulation is the internal control of converter.
S21 is ON when Vb > VT
By using this control technique the output voltage of the
converter can be controlled. Pulse-width modulation is the S22 is ON when Vb < VT
most efficient method among all the methods of controlling S31 is ON when Vc > VT
the output voltage of the inverter.
S32 is ON when Vc < VT
In this method of control, the ON and OFF periods of the
inverter component is adjusted and hence, a controlled AC Va, Vb and Vc are the amplitude of reference and VT is
output voltage is obtained by giving a constant DC voltage at amplitude of carrier.
the input PWM control are very useful in industrial
The inverter line-to-line is obtained from the pole voltages as:
applications. The amplitude of the pulses are constant but the
width of these pulses are varying according to the modulating Vab = Vao-Vbo
signal. The width is varied to reduce its harmonics component Vbc = Vbo- Vco
[2].
PWM have a wide field of applications such as motor speed Vca = Vco-Vao
control, converters, communication, etc. For example PWM

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 Simulation of High Power Factor Single Phase Inverter For PV Solar Array

Figure 7 SPWM Signal

B. Hysteresis current control Pulse Width Modulation
The Hysteresis current control PWM (HCC-PWM) is the
most widely used inverter switching mechanism for
Single-phase inverter. It achieves the voltage vector control
by adjusting the timing and duty ratio of the eight switching
states of the single-phase inverter. Assuming that stator coils Figure9 Simulink diagram of sinusoidal PWM Single phase
in the single phase are identical, each switching state of the inverter
single-phase inverter corresponds to a voltage vector in the
single-phase stator coil frame.
The result of comparator output signal is used to control
converter switches to make it ON/OFF. Thus the operation of
converter switches force input current to follow the desired
reference. Space vector pulse width modulation control
technique is simple, accurate, and robust and provides fast
dynamic response hence advantages. The HCCPWM can be
implemented by using wither sector selection algorithm or by
using a carrier based space vector algorithm. Other pulse
width modulation schemes suffer from the drawbacks of
random switching and excessively large switching frequency
under large load conditions. This technique has two excellent
features: its maximum output voltage is 15% greater and the
controller utilizes the zero vectors also along with the nonzero Figure 10 Simulation model of hysteresis current control
and this result in reducing the switching frequency and PWM based single-phase inverter
reduced harmonics distortions [4].
VII. RESULTS
VI. SIMULINK MODEL A photovoltaic array used for the production of power from
Figure 8 is a simulation of a photovoltaic array producing the solar energy consist of several photovoltaic cells arranged
power extracted from the solar energy. in combination of series and parallel. The I-V and P-V
characteristics of the photovoltaic array module is shown in
figure 11.

Figure 8 Simulation diagram of proposed converter

Figure 9 is a simulation diagram of sinusoidal PWM based

single phase inverter with boost dc dc converter used at the
start for a significant increase in the dc output of the PV array.
Simulink block is used here to get desirable output. Figure 11 I-V and P-V characteristics of PV module

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 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869 (O) 2454-4698 (P), Volume-7, Issue-5, May 2017
The output power and voltage produced from the photovoltaic HYSTERESIS CURRENT CONTROL PWM BASED
array with the above parameters are given below in figure 12. SINGLE PHASE INVERTER
The MPPT technique perturbs & observer has been used here
to generate the switching signal for maximum power tracking
that shown in figure

Figure 12 Output waveform of PV array Irradiance w/m2

Figure 13 shows the simulation of boost dc-dc converter

Figure 15 MPPT switching signal

The inverter output current and voltage are shown in fig 16 in

normal and zoom state. The time period = 0.02, then
calculated frequency = 50 Hz

Figure 13 Simulation model of boost dc-dc converter

Figure 14 shows the output waveform of boost dc-dc

converter shown in simulation.

Figure 14 Output waveform of boost dc-dc converter (a) Inverter output voltage & current in normal state

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 Simulation of High Power Factor Single Phase Inverter For PV Solar Array

(b) Inverter output voltage & current in zoom state (c) Gate signal for switch no 3

Figure 16 Inverter output voltage & current

The Gate signals for four switches are shown in figure 17.

(d) Gate signal for switch no 4

Figure 16 Gate signals for switches
The unity power factor is shown in figure 18 as below. It can
(a) Gate signal for switch no 1 been seen in the figure that the phase angle between two
waveforms is zero. Hence the power factor is unity.

(b) Gate signal for switch no 2

Figure 18 Unity power factor in normal state

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 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869 (O) 2454-4698 (P), Volume-7, Issue-5, May 2017
suitable for studies that require the detailed cell information
such as implementation of maximum power techniques and
analysis of the effect of change in irradiance and temperature
on the performance of the PV cell. On the other hand,
simplified models usually provide a direct estimate of the
maximum power generated from the PV cell at certain
operating conditions. This highlights HCC-PWM switching
scheme for the proposed multilevel inverter. It utilizes three
reference signals and a triangular carrier signal to generate
PWM switching signals. The behavior of the proposed
multilevel inverter was analyzed in detail. By controlling the
modulation index, the desired number of levels of the
inverters output voltage can be achieved.

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VIII. CONCLUSION Anam Aziz, Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering,

M.Tech Scholar, Kanpur Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.
Designing of single-phase grid connected solar PV system is Mr. Vaibhav Purwar, Associate Professor, Department of Electronics &
carried out in this work. System parameters are calculated and Communication Engineering, Kanpur Institute of Technology, Kanpur,
from these parameters model is formulated and simulation India
results are presented. Modeling of the PV cells is one of the
mature areas in the field. There are a variety of models
available in the literature and can be divided into two main
categories; detailed and simplified models. Detailed models
attempt to represent the physics of the PV cell and are usually

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