Prototype development of an intelligent power conditioning unit for PV generation system

This paper presents a novel power conditioning unit (PCU) for grid connected photovoltaic (PV) system. The PCU comprises of a high performance boost converter in the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller and a three phase inverter. The MPPT controller is based on fuzzy logic and the inverter also uses a fuzzy logic controller to generate pulse-width modulation signals for the switching devices in the inverter. The MPPT and inverter control algorithms were implemented using the dSPACE DS1104 controller board. The prototype PCU has been tested by using the Agilent Solar Array Simulator anda 3 kW PV panel.Experimental results showed that the PCU with MPPT is capable of tracking power about 2.05 times highercompared tonon-MPPT controller. The inverter control using the fuzzy logic controller is capable of generating the 50 Hz sinusoidal ac output current with total harmonic distortion of 3.5 % which is below its harmonic limit of 5 %.