Photovoltaic system emulator

The PV system design and its performance evaluation test before installation could be more costly and time consuming. This could be performed with accuracy in the laboratory without having PV array by using the emulator. This paper presents the PV emulator using real-time algorithm execution of the PV array mathematical model and generating the scaled output power from the AC-DC power supply. The generic PV model is simulated in LabVIEW and interfaced to the real world through a data-acquisition system. The GUI interfaced template allows the commercial PV arrays details to be configured. The actual field conditions i.e. varying temperature and irradiations are emulated by the corresponding sensor equivalent voltages. This laboratory prototype is tested with real-time execution of PV model for the steady state and dynamic operating conditions. The performance of MPPT based Golden Section Search algorithm is evaluated using the proposed emulator.