| Summary: | In most large scale grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) plants, central inverter configurations are used, mainly due to higher efficiency and lower cost per kW. However, compared to other configurations its Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) efficiency is the lowest since it is the less distributed configuration. Under non-uniform conditions, as partial shading, several local maxima may arise in the PV curve, hence requiring additional actions to maximize the output power of the PV plant. Moreover the growth of renewable sources in electric markets has tightened grid codes; requiring for PV systems to limit power fluctuations to a certain maximum.
This paper presents an alternative to perform Global MPPT (GMPPT) while complying with new grid code limitations for electric markets with high penetration of renewables.
The proposed alternative consists on adding an Energy Storage System (ESS) at inverter level. The proposed system consists in an ultracapacitor (UC) bank connected to the DC-link of the central inverter through interleaved DC-DC power converters. The proposed configuration is validated through simulations and tested through extreme conditions. The performance of the system is analyzed and compared to other existing solutions.
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