Modeling, simulation and performance analysis of a grid-tied voltage source inverter based photovoltaic system under balanced and non-linear load conditions

Subsisting as one of the most promising energy resources, the exploitation of the solar energy in the favor of mankind is proliferated. The photovoltaic (PV) generation is a kind of dc current source, a dc electrical energy, which is connected to the utility-grid through power-electronics-interfacing devices such as DC-DC converter and inverter. The controlling technique is advantageously applied owing to control the voltage source inverter without actually employing the current source inverter. The presented grid connected PV system (100 kW) is simulated in the MATLAB/SIMULINK^R environment and analyzed for changing environmental conditions. For maximum utilization of the studied PV system (under different illuminations and panel temperatures), maximum power point tracking based on perturb & observe algorithm has been adopted in the present work. The system is tested under normal, heavy and non-linear loading conditions and the simulation results have proven the integrity of the controller to maintain the unity power-factor of the grid. The use of L-C-L third order filter plays the key role to reduce the total harmonic distortion to the value of 1.74%.