The modeling of a two-diode photovoltaic module for power system simulations

The integration of photovoltaic (PV) arrays to the power grid has continued to increase globally. Large PV array installations in the order of 100s of megawatt have already been installed. One of such large PV array installations is the Topaz PV array with an installed capacity of 500MW. With the increasing penetration of PV arrays, it is important to develop an accurate model for PV arrays. Such model will aid in performing state estimation, condition monitoring, load flow analysis, and other analytical studies. Several models for the PV module have been proposed in various publications. However, these models are written in a form that is effective for analyzing the PV module as an individual device. To analyze the PV array in an integrated power system, the form of the PV array model needs to be modified. This modification enables the establishment of connectivity between power system devices, and the definition of the admittance between the buses of the power system network. Consequently, computations such as load flow analysis and state estimation can be performed seamlessly. In this paper, a novel method for modeling a two-diode PV module is proposed. This model applies a scaling factor to the Taylor series expansion of the PV array model exponential terms. Next, the higher order terms of series expansion is reduced to at most second order terms using quadratization technique. This modeling method can also be applied to other PV array models, such as the one-diode and three-diode models. The form of the proposed PV array model enables seamless simulation of the PV array system in an integrated power system network.