A Unified PV-based Control Strategy for Voltage Regulation

Abstract

This paper proposes a unified PV-based voltage control strategy by combining two separate control techniques: MPPT and Voltage Source Control. It dynamically shifts the PV operating point along the right-side region of the P vs.V curve with respect to the MPP - predicted by a trained Artificial Neural Network (ANN) controller. A DC-DC buck converter, governed by the suggested controller, ensures the regulation of the DC bus voltage. The proposed PV-based control strategy is capable of powering the loads in a microgrid mode during grid-outages as long as PV-power is available to meet the load-demand contingent upon prevailing weather conditions. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified in MATLAB/Simulink and a real-time simulator-based hardware platform.