Design, simulation and hardware implementation of

IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308
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Volume: 03 Special Issue: 07 | May-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 380
DESIGN, SIMULATION AND HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION OF
EFFICIENT SOLAR POWER CONVERTER WITH HIGH MPP
TRACKING ACCURACY FOR DC MICROGRID APPLICATIONS
Vineeth Kumar P. K1
, Asha C. A2
, Sreenivasan M. K3
1
M Tech Student, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kerala, India
2
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Amritapuri, Kerala, India
3
Instructor, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kerala, India
Abstract
This work includes a high step up voltage gain DC-DC converter for DC microgrid applications. The DC microgrid can be utilized for
rural electrification, UPS support, Electronic lighting systems and Electrical vehicles. The whole system consists of a Photovoltaic
panel (PV), High step up DC-DC converter with Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) and DC microgrid. The entire system is
optimized with both MPPT and converter separately. The MPP can be tracked by Incremental Conductance (IC) MPPT technique
modified with D-Sweep (Duty ratio Sweep). D-sweep technique reduces the problem of multiple local maxima. Converter optimization
includes a high step up DC-DC converter which comprises of both coupled inductor and switched capacitors. This increases the gain
up to twenty times with high efficiency. Both converter optimization and MPPT optimization increases overall system efficiency.
MATLAB/simulink model is implemented. Hardware of the system can be implemented by either voltage mode control or current mode
control.
Keywords: DC microgrid, D-sweep Technique, High step up voltage gain, Incremental Conductance Algorithm (IC),
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), multiple local maxima, Switching losses, tracking accuracy etc….
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1. INTRODUCTION
The continuous growth of for global energy demand and the
environmental concern about the global warming, fossil fuel
exhaustion and the need to reduce the carbon dioxide
emission has to lead the exploration of renewable energy
sources. As compared to other renewable energy sources
photovoltaic energy has great advantages like cleanliness, no
noise and very less maintenance.
PV systems have been extensively used for low power
electrical generation and have applications such as
electrification for domestic applications, water pumping and
air condition in rural and isolated areas. It is very difficult to
establish a new utility system in rural areas because of cost
and maintenance consideration. So DC microgrid can be
directly used for rural requirements and solar energy can be
utilized to generate power. The installed power can be
increased by adding panels, which is one of the most attractive
features of PV systems. The low conversion efficiency of PV
module and the variation of the output power due to changes
in atmospheric conditions such as solar irradiation and
temperature variation, requires specific control technique to
ensure maximum power point operation in order to harvest
maximum power from each module. Incremental
Conductance algorithm is used and the power reduction
caused by the shadow effect is overcome by adding D-sweep
technique in the MPPT control algorithm. A DC-DC converter
with high voltage gain is employed to step up the output DC
voltage from the PV module to a high voltage level without
losing the overall efficiency of the system.
The solar power converter [1] is used as a DC-DC converter
which harvest maximum energy from each individual PV
module. This converter with MPPT increases the PV panel
voltage to a higher voltage level as required by the DC
microgrid. Fig. 1 shows the basic representation of the
proposed system.
Fig 1 General block diagram of the system

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A 400V DC microgrid is used for DC microgrid applications.
The converter is basically a non inverted sepic. It is also
similar to the combination of conventional buck boost with
coupled inductor and switched capacitors. The overall system
efficiency is increased by the converter optimization as well as
MPPT optimization [2]. The converter optimization includes a
coupled inductor and switched capacitors which reduces
switching losses and increased overall system efficiency. The
switching losses are reduced by recycling leakage inductance
energy. The switched capacitors increases voltage gain up to
20 times with high efficiency. The MPP optimization includes
incremental conductance algorithm with D-sweep technique
[3] which helps to reduce the effect of partial shading. Thus
the overall efficiency of the PV system is increased.
Section 2 explains System Description, Section 3 describes
MPPT Control, Section 4 describes Voltage Mode Control,
Section 5 includes Design of Proposed System, Section 6
describes Simulation Results and Section 7 Concludes the
paper.
2. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
The overall system consists of PV panels, High Step up Solar
Power Converter, DC microgrid and Battery Bank. DC
microgrid provides various applications such as UPS Support,
Electronic Lighting etc. Each part is explained individually in
the system description.
2.1 Introduction to System Analysis
The whole system for DC microgrid applications is divided
into the following subsections such as PV panels, High Step
up Solar Power Converter, Incremental Conductance
algorithm with D-sweep technique, DC microgrid and its
control part. Explanation of each part is given below.
2.2 Solar PV Panels
Basically, solar cell is a semiconductor material. It consists of
both P and N junction which form a PN junction. The working
principle of solar cell is the principles of Photovoltaic effect.
Representation of PV cells is shown in the fig. 2.
Fig 2 Representation of working principle of PV cells
Material A consists of P type material and material B consists
of N type materials. P junction consists of holes and N
junction consists of electrons. In P junction holes are the
majority carriers and electrons are the minority carriers.
Similarly in N junction electrons are the majority carriers and
holes are the minority carriers. Combining two junctions
forms a PN junction diode.
2.3 High Gain Solar Power Converter
The converter used here is a high step up and high voltage
gain DC-DC converter. Basically the DC-DC converter
mentioned in this work is a non inverted Sepic converter. It
shows the similarity to the modified buck boost topology [6]-
[9]. The converter has both coupled inductor and switched
capacitors. By using a diode and a capacitor, the leakage
inductance energy from the coupled inductor is recycled. So
that switching loss is reduced up to a limit. Similarly the
switched capacitors helped to increase the voltage gain up to
20 times with 95% of system efficiency. Presence of switched
capacitors the voltages are adding serially to get DC grid
voltage requirements. The solar power converter is working
based on the combination of continuous, discontinuous and
boundary conduction modes. Each mode is divided into five
sub intervals. The importance of power converter is
represented in Fig. 3. It gives the idea about the solar power
converter in the overall system. The high step up solar power
converter circuit is represented in Fig. 4.
Fig 4 Power Converter Circuit diagram

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The switch Sw1 is a high side switch i.e., the source terminal
is not directly connected to the ground. The coupled inductor
N1 is similar to the input inductor of the conventional buck
boost converter. Both N1 and N2 represent the coupled
inductors. The Capacitors C2 and C3 are called switched
capacitors. Switched capacitors C2 and C3 are connected with
the diodes D2 and D3. The diode D4 is rectifying diode which
is connected to the output capacitor C0 and DC bus. Recycling
the leakage inductance energy from coupled inductor N1 to
capacitor C1 and diode D1 will reduce the voltage stress and
switching losses across the high side floating active switch.
Solar panel DC link with converter has decoupling capacitor
C0. Decoupling capacitor provides fast switching surges. The
modified MPPT algorithm works based on VPV and IPV. This
will determine either increase or decrease in the duty ratio.
The MPP can be obtained by comparing instantaneous
conductance and incremental conductance.
3. MPPT CONTROL
MPPT is a control algorithm which keeps the duty ratio in a
specific value and by the value power from the PV panel will
be extracted maximum. Power from the PV panel varies in
accordance with solar irradiation, ambient condition and
temperature. Similarly the electrical characteristics vary from
the each solar cell. Incremental Conductance algorithm, P&O
method, Hill climbing algorithm etc. are the important MPPT
technique. During fast changing irradiance conditions and
partial shading the incremental conductance algorithm is
optimized MPPT in the proposed system. A portion of solar
panel is shaded by any factors such as tree, building, clouds
etc. cause partial shading. As a result, a portion of PV panel is
separated by shadow and more current will flows through the
unshaded portion. Therefore electrical characteristics of PV
panel will be altered and causes damage to the PV panel. In
order to avoid the shadow effect up to a limit, Incremental
Conductance algorithm with D-sweep (Duty ratio-sweep) is
introduced [4].
Incremental conductance locates maximum power when the
incremental conductance equal to the negative of
instantaneous conductance. Mathematically the condition for
maximum power can be derived with the help of a PV curve
shown in the fig. 5. Let P be the power from the PV panel and
V be the PV panel voltage. Applying the principle of maxima-
minima i.e. the rate of change of power with respect to PV
panel voltage is equated to zero.
Fig 5 PV curve of a solar panel
We have dP/dV =0 and d(V*I)/dV =0. Solving the
mathematical conditions such as
dI/dV= -I/V (1)
Here dI/dV represent as incremental conductance and negative
(–I/V) represents instantaneous conductance. The equation (1)
represents the condition for maximum power. The Incremental
Conductance [7]-[8] uses a search technique that changes a
reference or duty ratio. So that Vpv changes searches for the
condition of the equation and in the condition the maximum
power point is found and searching will stop. The incremental
conductance algorithm continues to calculate dIpv until the
result is no longer to zero. At the time search started again.
Incremental conductance algorithm is best suited for the
rapidly varying irradiation conditions.
The left portion of the PV curve has a positive slope. Here the
Incremental conductance greater than instantaneous
conductance. If a point corresponding to power lies anywhere
in the left portion of PV curve, the voltage should increase to
reach maximum power point. Thus the duty ratio of the
converter is reduced and maximum power point is reached.
Similarly, if a point corresponding to power is located
anywhere on the right side of maximum power point, the
voltage must reduce and corresponding duty ratio increased to
reach maximum power point.
The local multiple maxima is one of the serious affect partial
shading. Therefore incremental conductance algorithm fails to
find the maximum power. It is difficult to find out the
maximum power point from the number of different multiple
local maxima. To solve this problem D-sweep technique is
suggested with incremental conductance algorithm. In D-
sweep method, finding different power at different duty ratios
and comparing those powers to get larger value and
corresponding duty ratio. Use some duty ratio as the starting
point of incremental conductance algorithm. The minimum
and maximum duty ratio for D-sweep is kept for the range of

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30 and 40V as per the PV panel test. The maximum and
minimum duty ratio is chosen as that which can avoid
unnecessary power losses and heating of the devices.
The sweep is varied from Dmin to Dmax during initial step.
After the sweep, the incremental conductance MPPT works
effectively. The suggested flow chart of D-sweep technique is
shown in Fig. 6. The first step is to increment the duty ratio.
The next step is to measure present power. Compare the
present power with the last power. Store the larger power. Thus
D-sweep can reduce the problem of multiple local maxima
during partial shading condition.
Fig 6 D-sweep technique
4. VOLTAGE MODE CONTROL
The requirement of DC grid voltage is 400V the output of the
converter is fed to the DC microgrid. The electrical energy can
directly take from the DC microgrid. Battery tank stores the
excess energy available from the Solar PV panel.
Fig 7 Voltage mode control
It shouldn’t be more or less than 400V. Voltage mode control
maintains the DC grid voltage at 400V. In order to maintain
stability, the DC microgrid voltage [5] should be 400V. The
fig.7. represents the general block diagram of voltage mode
control.
The reference voltage is set to 400V. The output of error
amplifier is applied to comparator. The output of comparator is
PWM having the system frequency, which is fed to the gate of
MOSFET shown in the fig. 7.
5. DESIGN OF PROPOSED SYSTEM
The proposed system supports DC microgrid applications
directly. The PV panel capacity of the proposed system is
250W. DC grid voltage requirement is 400V. The input
voltage available from the PV panel varies from 30-40V. The
system parameters are given below in the table 1.
Table -1: System Parameters
Full PV output power available 250W
Available input voltage minimum 30V
Output voltage 400V
Switching frequency 50kHz
The system parameters specified here are suitable for both
simulation and hardware implementation. The
MATLAB/Simulink tool is used for simulation analysis. The
design of converter parameters are included in the Table 2.
Table -2: Converter Parameters
Best choice of selection of turns ratio is 4. It is obtained by
trial and error method. Found out the duty ratio corresponding
to each turns ratio. Finally selected the turns ratio as four.
Calculated the value of magnetization inductance based on the
equation shown in the Table 2. The Table 3 gives the
calculation of leakage inductance in the coupled inductor. The
calculation of switched capacitors based on the set of
equations shown in the Table 3. The switched capacitors have
a vital role in increasing the voltage gain up to 20 times.

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Table -3: Calculation of Leakage Inductance
The design of switched capacitor is crucial in the case of high
step up solar power converter. C2 and C3 are the switched
capacitors. The design of capacitors is explained in Table 4.
Table -4: Design of Capacitors
The first step of hardware implementation is the selection of
components. Based on the requirements of the system the
components are selected. IRFP250N is the selected switch. It
is an N channel MOSFET. The diodes D1, D2, D3 and D4 are
selected based on the voltage and power ratings. MUR 1560 is
suitable for the proposed system. The components selection is
listed in the Table 5 and Table 6.
Table -5: Components Selection for Hardware
The MUR1560 is selected based on both voltage and power
dissipation factors. The heat sink selection is very important
in hardware implementation. After calculating the core area,
E55 core is selected for the coupled inductor.
Table -6: Selection of Diode Based on Power Dissipation
Depending upon the current carrying capacity 22 SWG cable
is selected for winding coupled inductor. Enameled copper
wire is used for the winding. There will be large difference in
voltage between the primary as well as secondary of the
coupled inductor. The large difference in voltage may result in
arcing. The Mylar sheet provides proper isolation between
primary and secondary. It will prevent the arcing phenomenon
between primary and the secondary of the coupled inductor.
LCR meter is used for measuring the inductance of coupled
inductor. The calculated primary inductance of coupled
inductor is 27.6uH and the secondary inductance is 441uH.
The real value of primary inductance from the LCR meter is
28.6807uH and the secondary inductance is 485.641uH.
Hence the coupled inductor design is verified. The
experimental set up of coupled inductor design is shown in the
fig. 8.
Fig 8 Coupled Inductor winding and Design verification
Heat sink for the system is selected. Heat sink selection is
based on the device dissipating heat into the surrounding air.
The maximum surface area should contact with the
surrounding for the proposed power circuit. Selected a plane

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board for assembling power circuit and control circuits. Heat
sink is fixed on the main board as shown in the fig. 9.
Fig 9 Heat sink selection and assembly of the components
A microcontroller is used for generating the PWM pulses
having a frequency of 50 kHz. AVR Atmega 8 is selected for
basic PWM generation having 50 kHz switching frequency.
AVR programming is used for generating PWM for the
requirement of the system. WinAVR is installed in the
computer, coding is completed and verified the burning
procedure. The circuit arrangement for the PWM generation is
shown in the fig. 10.
Fig 10 Microcontroller Circuit for PWM Generation
Fig 11 Experimental set up for PWM Generation
Fig 12 PWM Output using DSO
6. SIMULATION RESULTS
MATLAB/Simulink environment is used for the simulation of
the proposed system. Modeled and analyzed the PV panel by
using the MATLAB simulation. Mainly converter part is
concentrated for the whole system. Incremental conductance
MPPT is verified in the whole system and the tracking has
verified. The simulink model is shown in the fig. 13.
Fig 13 Simulink Model of Solar Power Converter
Fig 14 Output Voltage of Solar Power Converter

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The output voltage of the solar power converter obtained is
400V which is shown in the fig. 14. The input voltage is
varied from 20V to 40V. Input current ranges from 6A to 7A.
Output current ranges from 0.5A to 0.8A. The output of the
Solar Power Converter is fed to the DC grid. DC grid voltage
is maintained to 400V by using Voltage mode control [9]. So
that output voltage keeps 400V, whatever the input voltage.
Thus maintains the stability of the system.
The fig. 15 shows efficiency versus time plot of the system.
The efficiency obtained in the solar power system is 95%.
Thus output of solar power converter is fed to DC microgrid
with high efficiency. Voltage gain obtained is 11.
Fig 15 Efficiency of the Solar Power Converter
The proposed converter can boost the voltage to a high voltage
level without losing the overall efficiency. The main reason for
increasing the overall efficiency is optimization [10]. Due to
optimization both the switching losses and voltage stress is
reduced up to a limit. Definitely, the DC microgrid can be
utilized for various applications such as UPS support,
electronic lighting etc.
7. CONCLUSIONS
The solar power converter used for the DC microgrid
application shows the overall efficiency of 95% with high
voltage gain of 11. The output of solar power converter fed to
DC microgrid can be utilized for various applications such as
UPS support, Electronic lighting and Electrical vehicle
systems. Converter optimization and MPP optimization
increased overall efficiency of the system. The output voltage
obtained is 400V with high efficiency. The voltage mode
control is applied to control the DC grid voltage of the value
of 400V. Simulation result of the system is verified. As of now,
initial steps for hardware implementation are started. The
whole system can be utilized for the DC microgrid application
and it will be one of the sustainable developments in the
energy field.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A special thanks to Dr. Manjula G Nair, Professor,
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Amrita
Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Amritapuri Campus,
Kollam, Kerala, India. Her valuable suggestions and
comments helped us to complete this work.
REFERENCES
[1]. Shih-Ming(Orion), Chen,Tsorng-Juu(Peter), Liang, and
Ke RenHu, “Design, Analysis, and Implementation of Solar
Power Optimizer for DC Distribution System”, IEEE
transactions on power electronics, vol. 28, No. 4, pp1764-
1772, April 2013
[2]. S. Jain, V. Agarwal. "A New Algorithm for Rapid
Tracking Of Approximate Maximum Power Point in
PhotovoltaicSystems",IEEEPower Electronics Letters, vol.2,
no.3, pp. 16-19, 2004.
[3]. M. Sokolov and D. Shmilovitz, “A modified MPPT
scheme for accelerated convergence,” IEEE Trans. Energy
Convers., vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 1105–1107, Dec. 2008.
[4]. Vineeth Kumar P. K., Asha C. A., “An Efficient Solar
Power Converter with High MPP Tracking Accuracy for Rural
Electrification”, submitted for publication.
[5]. Bo Yang, Wuhua Li, Yi Zhao, Xiangning He, "Design and
analysis of a grid-connected photovoltaic power system,"
Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on , vol.25, no.4,
pp.992-1000, April 2010.
[6]. G.R. Walker and P.C. Sernia, “Cascaded DC-DC
converter connection of photovoltaic modules,” IEEE Trans.
Power Electron., vol. 19, no. 4,pp. 1130-1139, July 2004.
[7]. J. H. R. Enslin, M. S. Wolf, D. B. Snyman, and W.
Swiegers, "Integrated Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point
Tracking Converter," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Electronics, vol. 44, 1997, pp. 769 - 773.L. Hubert and P.
Arabie, “Com ping Partitions,” J. Classification, vol. 2, no. 4,
pp. 193-218, Apr. 1985
[8]. Geun Kim, “Maximum Power Point Tracking Controller
Connecting PV System to Grid”, Journal of Power
Electronics, Vol. 6, No. 3, July 2006, pp. 226 234.
[9]. J. Gow and C.Manning, “Photovoltaic converter system
suitable for use in small scale stand-alone or grid-connected
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[10]. The Solar Design Company. PV∗ SOL (2012). [Online].
Available: http://www.solardesign.co.uk/pv.php/
BIOGRAPHIES
Vineeth Kumar P. K. was born in kannur,
kerala. He received his B.Tech degree in
Electrical and Electronics Engineering from
Vimal Jyothi Engineering College,
Chemperi, Kannur University, India in 2011
and Currently he is doing M.Tech in Power
and Energy Engineering at Amrita Vishwa vidyapeetham

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University, Amritapuri campus, Kollam, Kerala, India. His
areas of interests are renewable energy sources, power
converters, DC machines and power systems.
Asha C. A. currently working as
Assistant professor in the department of
Electrical And Electronics Engineering,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham university,
Amritapuri Campus, Kollam, Kerala,
India. She graduated in Electrical and
Electronics Engineering from Lourdes Matha College of
Science and Technology, Kuttichal, Thiruvananthapuram and
post graduated in Electrical Machines from College of
Engineering Trivandrum, Kerala, India in the year 2009 and
2012 respectively. Her areas of interests are electrical
machines, power systems and renewable energy sources.
Sreenivasan M. K currently working as
Instructor at Robotic Lab in the Department
of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri
Campus, Kollam, Kerala, India He has
seven years of experience at Amrita
Vishwa Vidyapeetham University and handled several
projects in the areas of Power Electronics and Robotics. His
areas of interests are power electronics, Robotics and
Embedded systems.

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