Control of Grid Connected PV Cell Distributed Generation Systems

Control of Grid Connected PV Cell Distributed Generation Systems Abstract: Energy is essential to everyone’s life no matter when and where they are. This is especially true in this new century, where people keep pursuing higher quality of life. Among different types of energy, electric energy is one of the most important that people need every day. At present the majority of the world electricity is generated by Fossil fuels (including coal, oil, and natural gas), Nuclear power and Hydro power. The problems/concerns in generating the electrical energy by using the above conventional energy technologies are:

• Conventional energy sources are not renewable
• Conventional generation technologies are not environmental friendly
• The cost of using Fossil and Nuclear fuels will go higher and higher
• Hydro power sources are not enough and the sites are normally away from load centers.
• Political and social concerns on safety are pushing nuclear power away

Due to the above problems/concerns regarding conventional energy technologies, the       renewable/alternative energy sources will play important role in electricity generation. The term “alternative energy” is referred to the energy produced in an environmentally friendly way. And, sooner or later, today’s alternative will become tomorrow’s main sources of electricity. Renewable energies are nearly unlimited energy sources. One of the renewable energy is solar energy, which can be the main alternative energy source in power generation. There are normally two ways to generate electricity from the sun light: through photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal systems. Based on the above problems this project aims at the following objectives

1. 1.      To develop a MATLAB/SIMULINK based model of Photovoltaic cells (PV Cells)
2. 2.      To study the characteristics of Voltage –Current characteristics and Voltage –Power characteristics of PV cells under different cell temperature and Irradiance.
3. 3.      To track the Maximum power point of the PV cells in all circumstances.
4. 4.      To develop a MATLAB/SIMULINK based model for DC-DC boost converter
5. 5.      To develop a SIMULINK based model for Inverters connected to the Grid.