Investigation of photovoltaic array simulators based on different kinds of PWM rectifiers

It is urgent to develop the photovoltaic (PV) array simulator for designing and research the photovoltaic power generation system to save cost and space. Therefore, two kinds of photovoltaic array simulators based on voltage source PWM rectifier and current source PWM rectifier are presented. They can be adopted for different applications. By the way of PV cells mathematical model, the output characteristics of PV array simulators are corresponded to the output characteristics of PV array. By establishing the simulation model of entire system, the output characteristics of PV array simulators and the stability of the entire system combined with PV power generator are analyzed and compared. The results of simulation show their characteristics of these two kinds of PV array simulators, and prove that they can match the output characteristic of PV array and test the performance of PV power generators well. So it will benefit the photovoltaic manufactures significantly.