Application of an Active Power Filter on Photovoltaic Power Generation System

Abstract

This paper deals with the Photovoltaic (PV) power generation system (PVGS), it is a promising source of energy with great interest in clean and renewable energy sources and an electromechanical active power filter (APF). The rising number of power electronics-based equipment has posed a problem on the quality of electric power supply. Both high power industrial loads and domestic loads cause harmonics in the utility. Power quality problems may arise in the system or may be caused by the consumer itself. The proposed PVGS with APF is able not only to track the maximum power point of the photovoltaic energy but also to dampen harmonic currents from the grid line. To attain these purposes, for the first time in order to increase the output voltage of PV generator this paper presents the design, simulation and implementation of a simple power electronic interface connected PV array using boost converter. The controller extracts maximum power from the solar array. A closed loop scheme employing a PI controller has been modeled to regulate the DC-bus voltage feed the converter, in the second time the paper provides a study to a PV system combined with the function of the active power filter system which permits the cancellation of the most noteworthy harmonics from the utility current. To demonstrate the performance of abovementioned PVGS with APF, a Matlab/Simulink model was established and simulated. Results seem to be very promising.

Keywords

• Photovoltaic power generation system PVGS; photovoltaic cells; maximum power point tracker MPPT; boost chopper; harmonic disturbance; nonlinear load; active power filtering APF;