IPEC Journal of Science & Technology Vol. 01 (02), Oct.

2022
ISSN: 2583-3286(Online)

Analysis of Photovoltaic Generator Using

MATLAB-Simulink
Shilpa Gupta, Sadaf Naqvi
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Inderprastha Engineering College, Ghaziabad, India
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to publication division, IPEC Journal of Science & Technology, 2022
Abstract: A nonlinear controller-based MPPT scheme is proposed here to minimize the error amongst the intended array
voltage under changing temperature and radiation by changeable duty cycle of the switching converter. The dynamic
behaviour of the test scheme is evaluated using the describing function method, which linearizes a nonlinear element
using harmonic approximation. In the MATLAB-Simulink environment, a generic model of photovoltaic array is
designed according to empirical equation of the photovoltaic (PV) cell taking solar insolation and cell temperature into
account. PV systems have non-linear output response. The suggested model helps developers achieve accuracy and speed
in PV system simulation.
Keywords — Describing function, Generalized model, MATLAB- Simulink, Photovoltaic array, Robust control, Renewable
energy.

I. INTRODUCTION Even though PV systems have nonlinear characteristics, it is

critical to model them for maximum power point tracking
In current times, the average rate of world primary power
(MPPT) design and simulation in Photovoltaic systems
utilization has augmented to about 78.47 Btu (AEO 2012).
implementation areas. Throughout the last quarter century,
Additionally, the ecological effects on usage of the conventional
numerical PV designs for modeling have been developed [2-5].
sources have been disintegrative with the environmental concerns
Almost all well-developed Photovoltaic designs define the V-I
like pollution, global warming, excessive greenhouse effect etc.
and P-V attributes, which are primarily affected by solar
Because of these problems and our declining supply of
irradiance, cell temperature, and load voltage. A numerous
petroleum, finding sustainable alternatives is becoming foremost
comprehensive subsystem electronics modeling software
urgent. Perhaps, the greatest challenge is in devising a
packages are now widely used in the configuration and
sustainable future, which relies on convergence and regulation of
advancement of power electronics application domains.
sources of renewable power in grid distributed generation.
Moreover, the MATLAB-Simulink program contains wind farm
Generation of power regionally at distribution voltage level by
frameworks but still no Photovoltaic model for incorporation
using non-conventional energy sources like, solar photo-voltaic
with existing electronics simulation tools. As a result, it is hard to
cells, wind power, biogas, and fuel cell is known as distributed
model and investigate the standardized simulations of a
generation (DG).
Photovoltaic array. So, a generalized simulation model for
Among renewable energy solar power is a vast and ultimate
Photovoltaic cell, module and array in MATLAB-Simulink
source of energy. If used in appropriate way, it has a capacity to
environment is developed. This suggested basic prototype that
achieve numerous energies demand of the world. The power
will plot P-V as well as V-I contours for almost any specimen
from the sun captured by earth is approximately
and various diode ideality factor. As a result, the said prototype is
3,850,000 exajoules (EJ)[1]. This data, which is thousands of
known as a generalized model for projecting contours for
times greater than the current usage, enables ever more studies in
photovoltaic systems.
the areas of solar energy allowing the world's current and future
electricity requirements to be met. As a result, despite the greater II. PHOTOVOLATICSYSTEM MODELLING
investment fabrication price and reduced transfer effectiveness of
the PV system, the rapidly higher oil prices make solar energy an A. Basics of PV Module
inevitably sustainable power supply with possibly long benefits. PV cell is a semiconductor device whose junction is subjected
A photovoltaic module is the basic energy transformation to light. To reduce costs and maximize efficiency, the
component of a PV generating system. The main variables upon photovoltaic cell's P-N junction is manufactured from several
which performance characteristics of a PV module depend are types of semiconductor materials using various manufacturing
solar irradiance, heat flux, and output voltage. techniques. The solar cell comprises of a Boron doped P type
substrate to which Phosphorous atoms are added using high
Date of Submission: 01 June 2022, Accepted on 30 September 2022 temperature diffusion method in direction to form the P-N
Corresponding Author: Shilpa Gupta Junction Figure 1.For various application domains, the industry
(Email: [email protected]) offers a variety of Photo voltaic materials, including single
crystal, poly - crystalline, and amorphous silicon, as well as
compound thin film materials. Thin film solar cells are
manufactured from CuInSe2, CdS, CdTe, Cu2S, InP. Among
these the CuInSe2 solar cells have excellent stability. A potential
barrier is formed at the junction to prevent charge carriers, such
as electrons and holes, from moving. The incidence of light on

39
 IPEC Journal of Science & Technology Vol. 01 (02), Oct. 2022
ISSN: 2583-3286(Online)
the cell produces electron-hole pairs in the depletion layer.
Charges are produced whenever the incident photon's energy is
adequate to disassociate the semiconductor's covalent electrons—
this effect is dependent on the semiconductor material and the Hence,
wavelength of the sun's radiation. Because of the electrostatic
potential at the interface, electrons and holes are detached in
different directions. Such free charged particles are accumulated
at the terminals of the photovoltaic array. When a cell's terminal
is connected to an external load, electrons flow through it,
where, is cell saturation current
causing current to flow in the circuit. A solar cell is a current
source for an external circuit that is connected to it. I is cell current (A).
q is charge of electron = 1.6x10-19 (coil).
K is Boltzmann constant (J/K) (i.e., 1.38x10 -23J/K)
T is cell temperature (K).
IL is light generated current (A).
Io is diode saturation current.
RS, RSh are cell series and shunt resistance (ohms).
V is cell output voltage (V).
A is an ideal factor depend on PV technology (2.5)
Because a typical PV cell generates less than 2W at 0.6 V, the
cells must be linked in series-parallel on a panel to generate
significant energy. A Photovoltaic array is a collection of
Photovoltaic modules that are linked up in series and parallel
Figure 1. : Physical Structure of Solar Cell
circuits to produce the desired current and voltage. Figure 3
B. Mathematical model of PV module depicts the schematic diagram for the solar module, which is
According to physical model and output characteristic of Solar configured in NP parallel and NS series. The array's terminal
cell, mathematical model. Solar cell is actually a PN junction, equation for current and voltage is as follows [6-9].
which characteristic is similar to diodes characteristic. The Equation (3) can be written as
several parameters of the solar cell are modeled as in Figure 2.
When solar cell is illuminated, electron-holes movement results
electric fields and photocurrent (IL). The current source generates
the photocurrent IL, which is proportional to the solar irradiation. NP
N S
R S
N
This current (IL) continues to flow without externally applied P

voltage. And this current is termed as short circuit current (Isc).

I
RS
NS
NSIL
ID
IL I
RSh
Figure 3. :A generalized model of solar cell module.

In fact, the PV efficiency is sensitive to small change in RS but

Figure 2.: Equivalent Circuit of PV Module insensitive to variation in RSh. For a Photovoltaic module, the
series resistance appears to be significant, while the shunt down
The equations that describe I-V characteristics of the solar resistance approaches infinity, implying that the module is open.
cell based on simple equivalent circuit in figure. 2 are given In order to obtain an adequate working voltage, most commercial
below- PV products connect PV cells in series to form a PV module.
Photovoltaic cells are then connected in a series-parallel

40
 IPEC Journal of Science & Technology Vol. 01 (02), Oct. 2022
ISSN: 2583-3286(Online)
configuration to achieve the optimal energy output. It can be
shown that NS =1 and NP = 1 for a PV cell, NP and NS: series
number of cells for a PV module, and N S and NP: series-parallel
number for a PV array [10-12]. The mathematical equation of
generalized model can be described as IV. GENERALIZED PV MODEL BUILDING AND
SIMULATION
A general model of solar cell built in MATLAB SIMULINK
environment according to equations (3), (4) and (6)-(9) is shown
in Figure 4.
The most simplified model [6] of generalized PV module is The subsystem of masked PV module is shown in Figure 5.
shown in Figure 3 and described by the equation (5). This subsystem block contains functional block for (8) and (9).
III. EFFECT OF VARYING SOLAR IRRADIATION AND CELL These functional blocks are connected to build the final model of
TEMPERATURE Photovoltaic system. These equations represent the effects of the
temperature and solar irradiation as two variables.
The photocurrent IL depends on the solar irradiation and the
cell’s working temperature which is expressed as
T T
Vout
temp
Here, Isc is short circuit current
Ki is cell’s short circuit current temperature coefficient (i.e., solar_irradiance( Kw/m^2) S V-I curve

0.0017 A/°C) Iradiance

β is solar radiation (W/m2) 5 Np Iout
The most important parameters widely used for describing the
Parallel_cell
cell electrical performance is the open-circuit voltage Voc and the
short- circuit current Isc. The aforementioned equations are 72 Ns
P-V curve
implicit and nonlinear; therefore, it is difficult to arrive at an Series_cell
analytical solution for a set of model parameters at a specific Pout
Vpv
temperature and irradiance [13-15]. Since generally IL>>I0 and Scope
ignoring the small diode and ground leakage current under short
Subsystem
circuit terminal. So, the short circuit current Isc is approximately
equal to the solar current I L, i.e.
Figure 4. : Masked Simulink model of PV panel
The cell saturation current I0 varies with the cell current which
can be relate by equation given below It can be seen that the short circuit current as well as the
The voltage V is considered varying from 0 to open circuit power increases with the increase in insolation level, while very
voltage Voc corresponding to the variation in current from short little change in the open-circuit voltage. The V-I and P-V
circuit current Isc to 0 A. Figure 8 shows the V-I & P-V curve for characteristics of photovoltaic array with effect of different
the values provided by manufacturer and with the variation in values of solar irradiation and cell temperature is shown in Fig 6-
solar insolation level at a constant cell temperature of 25 degrees 8. These curves of proposed generic model show the dynamic
respectively. behavior of solar module.

where,
Irs is cells reverse saturation current at a 25°C
EG is band gap energy of the semiconductor
On the other hand, the VOC parameter is obtained by assuming
the output current is zero. Given the PV open-circuit voltage VOC
at reference temperature and ignoring the shunt-leakage current,
the reverse saturation current at the reference temperature can be
approximately obtain as

41
 IPEC Journal of Science & Technology Vol. 01 (02), Oct. 2022
ISSN: 2583-3286(Online)
1
T

273
Divide1 1
temp
-C- Vout
Product
k
-C- Product3
2.15
q
A
4
Ns
3
Np 3

f(u) Pout

Irs Divide2 Product4

Product1

ln

Math
f(u) Function
2
1
S Iph Product2
Constant4
5 2
Vpv Iout
Figure 7.: Source Voltage, source current and tracking
Figure 5. :Subsystem of PV Module current

For example, the BP Solar SX l90 module is taken from the Array type: BP Solar SX3190; 3 series modules; 55 parallel strings
NREL System Advisor Model. The manufacturer specified data 2
500 1 kW/m
of BP Solar SX 190 modules are given in Table 1. Here NOCT
denotes the nominal operating cell temperature at irradiance of 400 0.75 kW/m2

Current (A)
1000 W/m2with an AM 1.5 spectrum at 25 0C. 300
0.5 kW/m2
TABLE I 200
PARAMETERS OF BP SOLAR SX3190 MODULE 100

Parameter Values 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Voltage (V)
Short circuit current (Isc) 8.51A 4
x 10
Open circuit Voltage (Voc) 30.6 V
3 1 kW/m2
Maxim power(Pmax) 190 W
Power (W)

0.75 kW/m2
NOCT 42±2% 0C 2
0.5 kW/m2
I0 1.06e-6 A 1

NS 3 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Np 55 Voltage (V)

Figure 8.: I-V & P-V curve of PV Array

V. CONCLUSION
The dynamic characteristics of the Photovoltaic cell, Module
and Array are obtained at MATLAB Simulink platform for
different values of insolation as well as different values of cell
temperature. The results show the dynamic characteristics and
effectiveness of the solar system in consideration of change of
weather conditions as well as change in temperature and aging of
the PV cell. It is found that output characteristics of Simulink
model are matching with the theoretical characteristics.This
model is simple and user-friendly for study a Photovoltaic
Figure 6.: PV cell characteristics of for different weather generator in the framework of the SimPowerSystems
MATLAB/Simulink toolbox in the area of solar power
conditions
conversion systems. The developed method and simulation

42
 IPEC Journal of Science & Technology Vol. 01 (02), Oct. 2022
ISSN: 2583-3286(Online)
models for parameter extraction of photovoltaic module is useful [13] Pathak, P. K., Yadav, A. K., and Alvi, P. A., 2019, ―Maximum
for power electronic designer to design an accurate and fast Power Operation of Solar Photo-Voltaic System Using Advanced
simulation model of solar photovoltaic system emphasis to grid Fuzzy Logic Based Control Strategy,‖ Proceedings of ICPS-2019,
and of standalone systems. It will helpful for parameter Jaipur, India, Dec. 20–22, pp. 1–6.
extraction of photovoltaic module is useful as some of [14] Amir, A., Amir, A., Jeyraj, S., Selvaraj, J., Rahim, N. A., and
parameters may get change due to use in field because of change Abusorrah, A. M., 2017, ―Conventional and Modified MPPT
Technique with Direct Control and Dual Scaled Adaptive Step
of weather conditions as well as change dust, humidity,
Size,‖ Sol. Energy, 157, pp. 1017–1031.
temperature and aging.
[15]Podder, A. K., Roy, N. K., and Pota, H. R., 2019, ―MPPT methods
REFERENCES
for Solar PV Systems: A Critical Review Based on Tracking
[1] R. Messenger and J. Ventre , Photovoltaic Systems Engineering, Nature,‖ IET Renew. Power Gener., vol. 13, issue 10, pp. 1615–
CRC Press, 2000, pp.41-51. 1632.
[2] Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, F. A. Khan and Isarar Ahamad
―Performance enhancement of Multilevel in PV system with new
topology‖ International Journal of Advanced Engineering and
Research Development, (ISSN: 2248 – 4070) Volume 2, Issue 1,
pp.: 301-307, January 2015.
[3] O. Wasynczuk, ―Dynamic behavior of a class of photovoltaic
power systems, ‖ IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and
Systems, vol.PAS-102, no. 9, 1983, pp. 3031-3037.
[4] C. C. Hua and C. M. Shen , ―Study of maximum power tracking
techniques and control of dc-dc converters for photovoltaic power
system, ‖ Proceedings of 29th annual IEEE Power Electronics
Specialists Conference, vol. 1, 1998, pp. 86-93.
[5] K. H. Hussein, I. Muta , T. Hoshino, and M. Osakada , ―Maximum
photovoltaic power tracking: an algorithm for rapidly changing
atmospheric conditions, ‖ IEEE Proceedings of Generation,
Transmission and Distribution, vol. 142, no. 1, 2005, pp. 953-959.
[6] O. Wasynczuk, ―Modeling and dynamic performance of a
linecommutated photovoltaic inverter system, ‖ IEEE Transactions
on Energy Conversion, vol. 4, no. 3, 1989, pp. 337-343.
[7] M. Chael, E. Ropp, and Sigifredo Gonzalez, ―Development of a
MATLAB/simulink model of a single phase grid connected
photovoltaic system, ‖ IEEE Transaction on Energy Conversion,
vol 3, pp. 344-349, 2009.
[8] Uzma Aslam, Faizan Arif Khan, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar and Abu
soban ―Comparative Study on Various Custom Devices‖
International Journal of Innovative Research In Electrical,
Electronics, Instrumentation and Control Engineering, ISSN
(Online) 2321–2004, Volume 4, Issue 2, Feb 2016.
[9] Selvaraj, J., Nasrudin, A. R., Multilevel Inverter for Grid-
Connected PV System Employing Digital PI Controller, IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 56(2009) no. 1, 149-158.
[10] A. Poullikkas, ―Implementation of distributed generation
technologies in isolated power,‖ Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews, vol. 11, 2007,pp. 30-56.
[11] S. Cole, J. Beerten, and R. Belmans, ―Generalized dynamic VSC
MTDC model for power system stability studies,‖ IEEE Trans.
Power Syst., vol. 23, no. 3, Aug. 2010.pp. 1655–1662.
[12] Israr Ahmad, Mohd. Asim, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar and Faizan Arif
Khan ―Comparison of Conventional PFC Boost Converter and
Bridgeless PFC Boost Converter‖ International Journal of
Innovative Research In Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation and
Control Engineering, ISSN (Online) 2321–2004, Volume 4, Issue
5, May 2016.

43