The real-time simulation of a power grid integrating solar energies using a novel power conditioner

This paper presents a real-time simulation model for photovoltaic (PV) generators and a novel power conditioner for connecting solar energies into the electric grid. The power conditioner is composed of a zigzag-connected chopper (ZCC) converter and a series active power filter, which is controlled by PWM signals with a very high frequency of 20 kHz. A new set of converter models with interpolation and natural rectifying capabilities are therefore developed to ensure adequate fidelity of the simulation at a relatively larger time step, such as 10 microseconds. The real-time simulation results are validated by comparing with the results produced by off-line simulation at a time-step of 1 microsecond using the SimPowerSystem toolbox. The performance of the real-time simulation model is also tested on a hardware-in-loop (HIL) simulator.